COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT: Skylar & Hiesenburg
Meet Skylar:
Hi everyone! My name is Alli, also known as Skylar in Discord and in game. I’m 29 and live with my husband, Hiesen, and kids in Maryland. We have two children with medical needs. Right out of high school I started going to college to get a degree in early childhood education to be a preschool teacher. I ended up taking a break but did get two certificates to work in the classroom with young children. Some hobbies of mine are playing WoW, reading books, and playing other PC games with my husband. We also like to go to the beach as a family, or take the kids out to enjoy family time together. Hiesen and I met in Oregon, on the west coast, where I grew up. We ended up moving back to his family home in Maryland after our son was born and needed medical care only a hospital on the east coast could provide.
I am happy to say that I found my place with VALOR Phoenix because I love running mythic dungeons.
I am pretty new to video games. Although it happens to be one of my biggest hobbies now, I didn’t play them a lot as a kid or even when I got older. I started playing WoW when I met my husband. I was always more into reading books whenever I got the chance to. Now I’m a healer main in WoW and I’m team lead and healer for VALOR Phoenix. I mainly play on my resto shaman but have almost every healer in the game. We first got involved in the VALOR community because we were both looking for a new guild and tend to always go to the same guild because we enjoy playing WoW together. We already had a friend over in VALOR, and we were interested in the community because of mythic plus and raiding. I am happy to say that I found my place with VALOR Phoenix because I love running mythic dungeons.
Competing in the Dungeon Dojo Invitational is something that means a lot to us not only because of running mythic plus dungeons and competing, but because both of our children have medical needs, needed long hospital stays and we know how Make a Wish supports children and their families. Supporting the Make a Wish charity is important to us because our 5-year-old son was granted his wish about two years ago, to go to Disney World for a week, and to stay at the Give Kids the World Resort, just for Make a Wish for children and their families. Not only do they make sure the Make a Wish child has everything they need, but they do the same for their siblings and parents. Our 8-year-old daughter was so excited to go on this trip with her brother. It meant so much to us that they got to spend this time together somewhere where they could have fun. A little background information on our son is that he was born with a genetic condition called DiGeorge Syndrome. He is missing 40 genes in his 22nd chromosome. He spent 528 days from birth in the hospital until his first discharge. He has various medical conditions that we manage daily. Our daughter was born 13 weeks early and was a tiny baby. She only spent three months in the hospital and isn’t as complex as her brother. They both benefited so much from the Make a Wish trip.
Supporting the Make a Wish charity is important to us because our 5-year-old son was granted his wish about two years ago, to go to Disney World for a week
I absolutely enjoy running mythic plus, pushing high end mythic keys, and learning more about how to play my class effectively. This would be my hopes and goals for being in the VALOR community ongoing. Just continuing and learn, play with guildies and fellow community members, and continue pushing myself in mythic plus dungeons.
Meet Hiesenburg:
Hello, everyone my name is Hiesenburg (yes, my first name is Walter, but sorry last name is not White lol). I am 40 years old, and I am from Baltimore, MD. I am a Ret Pally main and dabble with Prot Pally. I am a member of the VALOR Phoenix M+ Team and also VALOR Silver Raid Team. I started playing World of Warcraft near the end of vanilla WoW and played on and off since then.
VALOR Phoenix is going to be a part of the Dungeon Dojo Invitational and they are supporting Make a Wish which holds a special place with us because we are a “Wish Family” and anything we can do to support and highlight a wonderful foundation just means a lot to my family and I look very forward to it!
A bit about me; I currently work for myself doing landscaping, I have been working for myself due to my son’s disabilities that make it hard to have a 9 to 5 due to his health concerns. He has come such a long way in his short 5 years that started with 528 days straight from birth to first discharge. I am also the other half of skylarwhite she is such an amazing woman and couldn’t be more lucky to have her in my corner in life (and in game ;)).
I have been playing video games since I was 4 years old, started off with the Sega master’s system and have had just about every console that’s come out since. I mainly play simulators and sports games. I even streamed at one time during covid playing Magic the Gathering Arena but when we moved from Oregon to Baltimore, I had to sell all of my equipment. My highlight from that was being raided by MTGGoldfish twice which went from 9 viewers to 900 when he raided me was really cool. (One day I will get back to streaming I miss it lol)
I have played many characters in WoW over my time with the game but since the Pally Ret rework it plays to my playstyle so well and when the rework came out I haven’t looked back since. This expansion has been the first to where I did end game content because I was nervous about playing with others. I was introduced to VALOR by a good friend of mine Focusd who joined months before I did who told me about this awesome community and I am really glad I made the jump it has been nothing short of amazing being a part of this community.
My goals for being in VALOR is to continue to grow into a better player and help people achieve their goals and to help people like myself that was nervous to take the first step forward because if you don’t take that step, you will never know until you try!
“From the first time I met Sky and Hiesen, I knew they were special. They are not just good gamers who know how to have fun, they show others respect and kindness whenever they can. They stay true to who they are and don’t let life’s obstacles hold them back.
– Focusd
Our friendship has helped me grow as a player but more importantly as a person. I’m thankful our paths crossed and I hope anyone who gets the chance to game with them will take the opportunity to get to know them.”
