It was on a saturday, many years ago, that a young man found a message in his mailbox, stating that Raistlinn had invited him to join a private league on a football management site called 'Xpert Eleven'. While the young man wasn't really interested in football or managing a team, he decided to take a look as he had known Raistlinn for a while and he seemed like a good fellow.
"You see, a few years earlier I met that crazy Australian on an online game called Utopia, which was a browser based strategy game that now could be named as one of the ancestors of Tribal Wars, Travian and the likes. While I enjoyed playing Utopia, after a few years our group disbanded and we only had sporadic contact over messengers... ICQ, MSN messenger, Those were the days."
As many left the game Utopia behind, it was Raistlinn who tried to get the group together again in a league to play football against eachother, instead of trying to manage a kingdom and fight other kingdoms together. He invited many, but only a couple joined. It was enough to create one division though and among them were Moriwenne, Toby (who foolishly took the name of Ipswich_Rock), and me, with the glorious name of Hyena. There might've been a few others from that group but I forgot their name and they're no longer active on this site.
Raistlinn himself was the first to leave the game, after about 3-4 years. Moriwenne is still on this site but no longer has any teams and hasn't logged in for at least three months.
"Ipswich_Rock and I myself are the only ones remaining active from that group, for as far as I know. The orignal league was lost long ago, but we both joined the Dream League during season 1 and neither of us left. Now this league feels like home to me and I'm proud to be able to say I've been around for over 10 years, while my team never amounted to much. Even our best achievement, losing the play off match in division 1 will soon no longer show on the graph in my team history as they only the last 30 seasons. How time flies by."
The team, the league and the site have had their ups and downs through the years. Back when Hyena started to play this game most of the managers were Swedes, there were two official leagues especially for them and there were only 2 or 3 languages that the site has been translated into next ot Swedish and English. Now it's possible to view the site in over 18 different languages (it's actually 19, but over 18 sounds much more dramatic). The Dutch translation was started by a Flemish guy who is no longer on the site, but Hyena did most of the translating work.
"While I haven't achieved anything really noteworthy as a manager (my trophy cabinet is empty), I have never lost all interest in this game as I'm enjoying it most of the time. Only once or twice I've considered leaving the site but since I've stuck with this team I would always regret it leaving this side and therefor haven't left the site.
My greatest achievements aren't measured in trophies, but rather in translating the site, making it available to more people, helping the site develop by being an eventwriter and tester, keeping a close eye on trouble makers through being a support member, moderator and league assistant in many leagues but of course most importantly the Dream League."
While many complain about the site losing active managers, having less banter and the game engine and many other things that they think is amiss with the site, Hyena feels like adding another 10 years to this first 10. The first ten were about the site, but he'll try to make the second set of ten about himself as a manager, gathering trophies and fame. There is not much more to say, even though 10 years have gone by and a lot has happened in that period, Hyena likes to sit back and think about mostly the positive things that stood the test of time.
Thank you Xpert Eleven.
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