A letter from the Commissioner

Hello Legends!

My name is RidiculousHat, and for those who don't know me, I've been a member of our organization for 7 seasons (Pod People represent!), a board member for 5 of those, and a Hall of Fame inductee - though don't think for a second that's because of my playskill. Rather, it's due to my love for the organization and the contributions that I was fortunate enough to be able to make in the past. 

I'm writing to you now because THL has gone through quite a bit of change this season, and the board has found itself needing to reorient from prior structures - simply put, there were too many layers of structure and too much internal dissonance for the experience as either a player or a contributor to be positive. The nature of THL is built on simple principles - play Hearthstone with friends in a team environment that fits our busy lives and find a way to do that easily from an administrative perspective. 

With this in mind, a small group of community members have come together with the blessing of the league founder and leaders of the prior board to rethink what we do and how we do it - playing together should be fun, fast, and without hassle or negativity from anywhere in the gaming environment. We came up with the vision and goals that you will find here as well as the new board structure that we're hoping works for us and for you.

Currently, here's who we have serving for the defined positions:

Commissioner - myself
Systems Administrator - myself
Rules Manager - markshire
Teams Manager - iCon
Branding Liaison - Donde 

We're lucky enough to have some volunteers currently, including Aeo and Altenberg on our systems team, and we're always looking for more if anyone is interested and willing. In addition, Khell has served as our manager of external partnerships and he will continue to keep a positive relationship with HSReplay as well as provide perspective on previous organizational decisions.

We have a few priorities right now - in particular, we'd like to refactor the rules into something much more streamlined and simple that can be interacted with via common sense solutions and flowcharts without the need for active board member interaction. We've also recognized the need for an official THL discord, though we'll continue to rely on the help email for issues and disputes in need of administrative oversight. 

There will be opportunities as well for town hall meetings, though be aware that the intention going forward is definitely to get involved when needed but not to rule with a heavy hand - we want to create an infrastructure that enables good games of Hearthstone and good bonds between players and then step out of the way. Improvements will always be a priority for player quality of life, but our small group of leaders will not be focusing on growth as a major priority until we can figure out stable operations and a consistent culture that's easy for all to understand. 

We're always looking for your feedback, so feel free to write to us if you have anything you'd like to share or suggest at [email protected]. Thank you and we look forward to a bright future for THL together with you.