Customers Testimonial

Hello,

I'd like to tell you story of my STHS league - ProfiNHL. It was established in 2009 and our GMs are from the Czech republic and Slovakia (we were the one country in the past and even when we splitted in the 1993, we still consider each others as brothers, language is very similar too). People love ice hockey here, many hockey legends come from the middle Europe.

We have a core of 15-18 GMs, who meet regulary. At the beginning, we held a Draft Party Nights every year in the Prague or Brno and many unforgettable memories happened there. We usually got a few beers, played some bowling or billiard, made a bets and then watched a draft whole night until the 5 AM (because of time difference +6 hours). About 7 years ago, we started to held a meetings in wine cellars and it was the best thing that could happened to us. I'm not sure, how well it's known in North America, however it's really common in wine regions in the Czech republic that people rent a wine cellar and winemaker talk about the wine for a few hours (and there is a plenty of tasting of course). Many interesesting trades happened after a few glasses of great czech wine undeground.

One moment to remember was, when in the 2018, we went to party after we drank all the wine in the cellar, and to our surprise, many Czech and Slovak NHL players were there in the club (they had charity soccer match in that area). We partied with Pastrnak, Pavelec (We have photo!), Voracek, Sekac, Smolenak and many others that night until dawn.

Besides these fun stories, many strong friendships came from our STHS league. When our ex-commish had a wedding, many GMs were invited and one of us was even his Best man. STHS league is really important part of our lives, but friendships that come from that are as much important. We are one huge family who love to spend time together and we can talk for hours not only about hockey, but about life and other personal matters too.

You're really doing something special for all of us and I thank you so much for all your work!

I wanted to take a moment to tell you how much the DCHL and the sim means to me and the league.

DCHL was created by Dave Charron, a man who lives in Vancouver BC about 2.5 hours from me in Seattle. Over the years, Dave grew tired of the responsibilities of running the league and one day he came to me and said he wanted to quit, and I was the only one he thought was capable of keeping the league going. Dave has become a very good friend of mine and drives down from Vancouver several times during the fall to attend Seattle Seahawks games with me.

The league has become a labor of love for me. I’ve spent countless hours analyzing league data, tweaking rules, and attempting (poorly) to learn SQL and website skills that I never had before, just to keep the league running.

The last four years have been incredibly difficult for me personally… but through it all… I was determined to keep the league going. The number of hours I have put into keeping the league going is beyond my comprehension.

We have GMs from all over North America and we used to have a GM or two in Europe as well. We have GMs who sit by their computers waiting for me to upload results to the website.

And none of that is possible… without STHS.

I’m sure at this point you know this as a fact… but STHS has had a great impact on a great number of people.

My first league was probably one of the first to migrate from FHLSim to STHS. We had a few GM meetings in Sweden, where the age ranged from 14 to 40. GMs were spread out in Sweden from way up north to way down south, but in some occasions guys lived close enough to each other to do some league related activities together. Some of them started to hang out. For example on sundays, where I used to play the todays games "live" in a group chat, posting line by line from the play by play. But the general format of that league wasn't good enough (I had to put in between 4-5 hours per day), so I replaced that league with a new and better one in 2008 or 2009. A lot of the GMs joined the new league.

The new league was a success, but changed family situation forced me to hand over the league to one of the GMs in 2014 or 2015. I moved abroad, but kept in touch with a few of the GMs. This summer I were asked to re-join "my own" league, and with changed family situation again I did! First thing I discovered was that half of the GMs are still the same as when I left! It's amazing!

So I could write a novel on this - but I'll try to keep it short-ish. And I prefer to do this publicly because, despite it being an up and down road, I've been doing this over 21 years now and just when you think you're out (lol), it pulls you back in - that's a testament to the people and the real communities these leagues can become.

September 2002: I'm an 18-year old snot-nosed kid. First time out of the house and at college. I find an online league and then get invited to a then-FHL league called the PFHL. It was an obsession. Nearly every waking hour was dedicated to it. So much so that I flunked out of college. Seriously. I didn't even know it existed, but since I was around 10 or so, I'd always wanted to do something like that, so I was ALL in. (EDIT: I believe we switched to STHS pretty early on, but honestly, I don't remember when - maybe 2003?)

Summer 2008: Was out of the game for a few years and got up the idea to revive the PFHL, which had gone defunct a couple of years prior. With the blessing of the former commish, we had 3-4 more seasons of fun.

Even when things were testy, as is inevitable when you're in a sim hockey league, it was a real joy to be able to be online with people from all over the place. Being in the US where STHS isn't really big makes it a bit hard to see people in person. But it was a true community and the fun we had was insane.

From 2012-2017: I had a cup of coffee in a league or two during this time, but nothing really that I latched onto like the P back in the day.

July 2017: I saw an ad for another league. The way the league was presented reminded me a lot of the old PFHL. And it became just as addicting for me. I got right back into it, and it was really the GM's and commissioner that made it that way. Very dedicated and consistent group there.

Spring/Summer 2020: With Covid running wild and with no job (but unemployment helping), myself and Mr. Bacon, who had semi-seriously talked about starting our own league for years, finally decided to do it given the timing. We started out as sim-based, trying to go a bit old school, and it was fun for the most part. But again, as does happen at times, things got a bit sideways and we ended up switching to NHL rerate in 2022. Since then, it's been a lot less stressful and we've managed to stem a lot of the turnover that young leagues can face. We're growing into a fun and cohesive group, and I'm optimistic that a lot of our GMs will be around for years to come.

So overall, despite a handful of dips in fun (and several unforced self-errors), STHS has and continues to remain a big part of my life. As I near 40 years old (and admittedly still growing lol), it's become very evident that the fun isn't so much in the actual trades or roster moves, or even winning. It's the interactions and the people you engage with - most of the time on a daily basis; so moreso than many in real life! - that becomes the majorative reason to keep on.

I've been in other leagues but the ones above are the highlights - and, I'm happy to report they are all still in operation to this day. That speaks to the impressive way the people keep them going day in and day out...GMs and commissioners alike. :)