*Choose Honolulu

**Beck**

Free Agency recruitment is officially under way for the offseason. This season has been a special one for me as a player for the Honolulu Hahalua and I wanted to put something out there for prospective free agents to know what they are getting if they are considering Riding the Wave and joining us in Honolulu. I think the most games my player has won has been like 4 in a season prior to this year. Quick disclaimer – I am sure every team is great lol this is in no way to say every other team does not have great things about them too.

Honolulu is a team on the rise! Long an after thought among league circles, now we are in the Conference Finals staring down our first (I think) Ultimus bid! If you are considering a change of teams this off season or in the future here are some highlights that I would love to share with you about Honolulu.

Leadership
Honolulu is ran by two general Managers. Sid and the one they call Flex. They are great people who have tons of experience in other sim leagues and have made great impacts here in the ISFL. Sid has been around for a while and although I do not know tons of his or our back story as a team, I know he played a key role in us rising from the ashes into a team that hopefully will be a playoff contender moving forward in the near future.

Flex is newer on the team and was promoted to general manager last off season. His energy and passion for leading helps take us to the next level as a team. He is from my draft class and blows me out of the water with his production.

Special shout out to Atto also for all he does and has done to get us to where we are today. <3

Locker Room:
I am not even going to attempt to name everyone because I would hate to forget someone but our locker room is super active now and have some amazing users. I detail them a little more below.

Sim Legend:
82 is the name and simming is his game. No one talks about how important Strategies are to the success of a team, but 82 is a master mind/ evil good genius when it comes to testing strategies.

Official Hype Guy:
Good bad or in between, we officially employ a hype guy. He is the absolute best in the business. Hex is the official hype guy and gets the team going when times are good, bad, happy, or sad.

Free Agent Check List
Every free agent needs a good check list to help them prioritize what is important to them when searching for a new team. I have scoured the internet in search of the perfect free agent check list and through my research I have came up with the following (no particular order):

1) Production: Everything is more fun whenever your player is producing. Even if you do not watch the streams, it is fun to look at the index and see that your player did well. This also adds to the fun in the locker room. There is nothing like getting cheerful messages from team mates about a successful game. If you are like me and have a rivalry with a team mate or even other users across the league, it is always fun to be able to dunk on your rival with your good stats compared to theirs. I have had the good fortune of being able to be a day 1 starter for Honolulu. We have a team that is all about winning and improving and have even had some players shuffle their positions to ensure this is happening. Honolulu can give you a clear vision of how we see your role being.

2) Locker Room/Culture: Honolulu is the only team that I have been on in the ISFL, but we have a great locker room that has a really good mix of experienced and new users. There is a little bit of everything for you in there. We have a player that transforms into a shark during games. An Ice bear that seems to be everywhere and I am always trying to undercut, Cobra Kai’s instructor, a raven, a mountain on defense and a real life football player who shares highlights of himself dominating his fellow high school players. Jokingly being thrown on the trade block or demanding a trade are the results of some of the funny arguments that take place. We also have numbers who is awesome. His name is numbers and then everyone else’s name in the locker room is an actual number. Eventually you get used to it and its hilariously confusing sometimes lol. No matter what you are into, there is something for you as that last sentence is just scratching the surface.

3) Long Term Fit: Everyone is different when it comes to changing teams. Some people want to test the waters on multiple teams and may never settle, others want to find somewhere they love and call it home for their career. Honolulu will be a place that is hard to leave. I know this has not been the prevailing theme over the last ______ seasons but I am guessing that it will be from now on. As we enter this building stage for the team and more users continue to join, it will be a hard place to not plant some football roots and call home. Rumor has it that there are no snakes in Honolulu and that stress levels in Honolulu are lower than any other place in the galaxy. Fun fact: According to Google, Honolulu means Sheltered Harbor. And that is exactly what it can be for you for the long term.

4) Competitive Team: Who would have ever thought the tide would turn here for Honolulu. Long looked at like the ISFL version of the Detroit Lions (sorry Flex), Honolulu has actually over achieved in terms of expectations these last two seasons. Whether our season ends in the conference finals or we go onto winning the Ultimus, I truly believe the foundation is in place for a successful run for the near future. I have absolutely no clue how regression works or any of that type stuff but the foundation is here for sustained success moving forward and beyond.

5) A Team that plays on an Island in the Pacific Ocean: So this was an interesting find in my research and probably the most important of the 5 items on this consensus free agent check list. Surprisingly it is always better when your team plays games on an island in the Pacific Ocean. Ironically enough, Honolulu is the only team that fits this description. If that is not enough proof for you then I am not sure what else is.

Thanks for reading a long to this. I haven’t done a media piece since last off season so wanted to have some fun with this one. I wrote this today between multiple meetings at work today so hopefully It flows well when reading and I did not forget any one or thing. Good luck to wherever you play or wherever you choose (especially if it happens to be Honolulu) Big Grin