Johnny's Appreciation Letter.

‘sigh’ please dont leave

Excel… i orrr

Good playing with you johnny, will miss you greatly :(

Still going to play ETQW or are you moving on completely ?

good luck with tW johnny they are a good bunch of guys

It would have been nice to hear your real reasons for leaving in your resignation post, not only when challenged by Shad.

Remember, we waited patiently while you were unavailable studying, and overseas not contributing. We kicked several other players for lack of contribution in that time, but were patient with you because you said you were coming back, and seemed genuinely excited about contributing again. Seems like we didn’t get much for our patience – not another game before leaving for tW.

Good luck in your future endeavors Johnny.

please read the below, without a tone of anger, just with a plain mono tone

You are not… you dont do shit like this if your “sorry”
if your “sorry” your admitting youve done something wrong… Are you?

Anyway, I seriously dont mind people leaving the team, but normally its best to discuss your issues with the team BEFORE making a move. I also think its best to give your notice to the people it effects directly before you tell every random whom is googling for an alternative to TCP/IP!

I also find it strange that people cant admit to either poaching/being poached (let the denials begin). What makes me say that? All due respect to TW but Johnny could do alot better and there is a market of “1st tier teams” recruiting at the moment. So that plainly tells me that there was “discussion” regarding the move prior to it occuring. Much to the contrary to every denial to follow.

My last thought on this matter, as I will NEVER review this thread again, is one for the game and the ladder.
Moves such as this and poaching etc does nothing for the game, nor does it assist the ladder.
There is a difference between opening the arms of the team to a player from another team as they “dont get a game” compared to taking one of the better players in a team!
There is also a difference between, making sure that players have properly dealt with the resignation situation prior to discussing terms/evaluation of applications and just accepting a player without checking or simply seeing a short “im gone” post!
Does TW need Johnny? Does Johnny need TW?
TW is one of the 1st teams to talk up competition amongst teams, closing the gaps between the top tier teams and those at the bottom of the ladder.
What has this actually accomplished? TW already has a fairly competitive line up and a body of “committed” players who take the game seriously and attend games regularly! where does Johnny fit in? He goes from being a “almost always played player” in IPX to potentially someone who might struggle to get a game against “more committed” “founding members of TW” and “Team captains”. We all hope this isnt the case.
Where does this leave IPX? Short probably one of our best shooters, amongst a team which, although has a large roster, already struggles to field a competitive team of 6 on a weekly basis! The action has potentially left IPX in a position where it is unable to enter the next season… if there is one! Which will more then likely mean IPX will lose even more players! – Thanks TW
Given this, and the waning participation and interest of new players in both the Game and the Ladder. I struggle to see HOW this move is in the interests of the Game, the Ladder, IPX and Johhny!? Winner – Probably TW with their new “over qualified” bench warmer!

/me holds the mirror up to TW and hopes that someone within TW/Johnny who knows what really went on reads the above and makes those involved read it too! I hope they think about what they want for their Game/ladder

I already have a pretty good idea as to what has probably gone on, one day we will probably find out the truth. Balls to be honest and apologies go along way.

No Matter IPX… Stay Postitive, stay true.
We are long stayers, there is more important things to IPX then QW or any one person. IPX is about the friendships & good times which are formed while being part of the IPX team!

Shad

did you actually READ my post?

Sorry to hear you are so upset Sha8dow, but I do understand and accept that you are a passionate IPXer.
But as I said to Fuzz, I didnt accept any application from Johnny until I came here and read that he had already resigned.
Had I not seen a thread I would have asked what the story was.
I did apologise to Fuzz for not coming in and speaking of this move before it happened and there will always be some mistakes that are made.
I didnt see any reason in the thread to suggest that Johnny was leaving with any problems so to us it was just a case of an unattached player wanting a job.

Now I have read your points and tW does not have too many bench warmers.
The end of season 4 has seen the numbers wilt down to 5 and so we did suggest that we would recruit a player or 2 to keep a team in the ladder.
When Johnny applied it was a simple case of accepting a player that already had skill and was ladder savvy.
Nothing more than that, nothing less.

I hope you can accept those reasons and explanations of the situation.
It was never done to poke a stick at IPX, neither was it done to poach anyone.
We have never done that and we never would.

tW is not a top tier team and never aspired to be one.

There is not much else I can say about it, it was not contrived, it was not poaching.
Johnny asked to join and I immediately checked here and found a resignation post dated the day before the application was made.
My assumption was that he left you and was free to join whom he wanted.
We needed a player or 2 and here was a seasoned and unattached player to fill a role.
Nothing more than that.

Sorry it has caused some angst.

Cheers
Pinge

Hi All
Those who know me know that i am a Robag of few words.
Shad i can see your side of this. you are passionate about TEAM – IPX as am I.
Fuzz Sorry for dragging this on, but i have a few more words to say about this before, it sits well with me.
Pinge, you are a top bloke in my books, thx for all the hard work at GA to keep ETQW afloat.
Kazashi thank you for being a straight shooter, i don’t enjoy listening to bs either.

Johnny, the thing that got me the most was that, your choice to leave came out of nowhere, that is the bit that really gets me.
a quick pm or a “hay can i talk to you in mumble” would of been good, if not with me, a founder at least.
i for one was awaiting your return, but this is to no avail.
i am sad that we have lost an IPX’er, but I am getting better at accepting change.

Johnny I wish you the best of luck with TW
and i hope to C U in the pubs

ta
Robag

Deja vu…
Im sure there are several people on this site who would rather poke themselves in the eye than listen to my opinion on anything, especially this. However, there are members of IPX who I really like, and despite some ‘issues’ with certain members I do still like IPX as a clan. Obviously as most of you know this situation is almost exactlyt the same as mine was. I think IPX needs to be more forthright about how they want existing members to go about leaving the clan, you need to be honest with members about ‘exactly’ what you expect when people leave and what you do and dont find acceptable. Speaking for myself, when I left IPX I had no idea of the hornets nest I was about to stir up and was honestly taken aback by what followed. I had always thought of IPX as a great group of people who played the game I was interested in, in a competition. I had never met any members in real life and my only commitment to the clan as far as I was aware was simply gaming, when I started to realize that I was taking the game much more seriously than the majority of members I started to think my goals had fallen out of line with that of other members and that I should be playing on a team which was more suited to my ambitions.
Although I have a lot of sympathy for this idea of it being a team and not a clan the plain fact is you do not make this anywhere near clear enough, you openly recruit players both in game and through forums and in this regard you are clearly targeting etqw players to play comp in a clan. You cannot then turn around and get annoyed when these same members leave to play the same game with different people for a different goal. It is very unfair to a player (like im assuming Johnny is) who wants to play at a higher level of comp to imply that he is ‘slack’ for wanting to achieve more than your team is capable of delivering.
My suggestion would be either make it abundantly clear what you expect of members and how you expect them to go about leaving (like how much notice, and with first notice to founding members) or just accept that every now and again a member is going to simply improve to a level which is above and beyond the rest of the clan and will likely then move on.

It would also IMHO be nice if you would acknowledge the hard work which players like myself and Johnny put in prior to leaving, the obvious fact is that Johnny was an excellent player and did his best for you, yet all of this is forgotten instantly because he leaves for another team.

While it is sad to see Johnny depart and with it this set of disappointing circumstances; I can’t help but feel that this is something that we need to take in our stride and be more attuned and prepared for in the future. Many things have been said in this thread of which I too can echo the feelings of but I think there is a small reality check required here and those not so close to home have tried to offer some of this insight for us. I am sure it is easy to dismiss this feedback because it is ‘biased’ or of no value, however if we are going to be truly open to how we feel then we must be prepared to accept the feelings of others, not to accept them as our own but to accept that they feel the way they do.

Personally after reading this I don’t know how any one could leave TeamIPX on amicable terms? Is that really what we want? This doesn’t really affect me personally in the slightest because I’ve never seen myself as anything but part of this team. But I’m sure it will effect others, so let this be for those in our team who will not speak, for fear of retribution. I’m don’t claim to be an expert but from my limited understanding I’m sure Hockey players move between teams between seasons, is the difference here that they get traded rather than a personal decision? If that’s the way it’s felt that this should be handled, then I personally don’t see anything wrong with stating that up front before some one joins the team. “This is a team, it’s not a clan. We play games on ladders against other clans but for us the team is more important. Please be aware that we will take it personally if you decide to depart and seek to play for another team.” – If that’s the reality then might as well make it known up front.

I’m not looking for an answer just provoking some thought but there was one other thing that striked me, we have at least two players who joined us and were previously members of clans; I wasn’t involved in the recruitment process of either but I am left wondering how much of an effort we went to, to follow our own suggested guidelines in this thread,

Med vennlig hilsen

~HarassmentPanda

said what I wanted to say… nicer. But exactly the points!

Panda, you can be somewhat excused as you didn’t have to go though the process, IE didn’t need the forms due to your “real life involvement” – however… don’t post stuff like that – miss informed and inaccurate – It doesn’t help the situation.
in the words of a wise man – its not a popularity contest. People should think about and make sure they are informed about the whole situation before posting comments.
No offence personally Panda

Fuzz,
I understand what your saying about players consulting the captains about leaving, this was clearly the mistake I made and tbh its one which I do have regrets about. At the time I wasnt really aware of the problems my leaving would cause and thought that my waiting till the end of season was enough. However, clearly it would have been both polite and respectfull to have taken this step prior to leaving.
I think that what im driving at is that your team seems to be functioning on two levels, on one hand you have a core group of people who are good friends and who have been not only gaming together but also doing other activities for a long period of time. On the other hand you have several players who (unless im mistaken) just play ETQW with you, it is more these players who I am refering to when I say that of occasion some will leave to join other teams. The very fact you refer to many of these players as ‘honorary members’ seems to imply that they are only a member of one aspect of your team, and I think in the case of these particular members some consideration has to be taken for them wanting to switch teams if they feel it will benifit them. You also should take into account that when this happens a lot of the time its likely that these players feel very bad about what they are doing, its never easy to turn around to a bunch of people who you really like and who have treated you well and say ‘sorry but im going to switch teams’. It is likely the case that rather than it being a deliberate attempt to keep people in the dark it is more a case of these players wanting to be sure about what they are doing before they make a move.

Either way, my only real reason for even posting in this thread is that I feel for both parties involved, I understand Johnnys point of view because I went through something similar. I understand IPX’s gripe because I made similar mistakes and caused a similar reaction. My real hope is that you guys can all work things out and that Johnny doesnt get told to “Get cancer and die” in the middle of a ladder game like I was.

GL next season IPX and hope everything gets worked out.

Appreciate you coming back and reading my latest comments, and replying. And despite what some may think, we’re probably on the same page here.

Yep you’re right there are multiple levels, for arguments sake we’ll say two (there’s a few others but that’s not relevent to this discussion). The honoraries don’t just play QW though however. Some may, if only initially. All are encouraged to participate in many different activities, generally for the honoraries they consist only of online activities, eg other games. I understand some won’t have the IPX for life perspective that the other level would have (although some do, and have since been promoted to members for their effort above and beyond). That may or may not come in time with these guys, but all I ask is if they are looking at moving on is just follow what we asked of them when they signed up by notifying founders/BoD privately first so resolutions can be sought. If none can be made, no-ones going to be standing in their way to leave. It’s just in both these cases, by the time anyone has read anything, not only have they already left, there’s 0 chance of a resolution as they’re already signed up to another team.

I just hope no-ones getting the misconception that IPX will have a problem with someone leaving no matter how / when / why they do it, as that’s definitely not what this is about. Enough people imply it, it sticks, no matter how many times I explain why it’s not.

Anyway, good to hear from you Luckless. I hope this situation can come to a positive conclusion too. Last thing I want is for any of this to end up in petty insults like the one you mentioned above directed at you, which should never have happened.

Well said.

Birds of the feather stick together, eagles fly alone.

Except of course the IPX eagle, which flies as part of a team. Phew that was a close one :)

Willow… I think i lurv you!
SERIOUSLY BRO!
Made me smile!

that’s it exactly!

thank you all for your comments

Willow great words

ladies can we call this one closed pls.

Johnny g00d luck on your adventures

nuff said :)

ta
Robag