Devise

I'm live simming here right now, net is holding steady for a day so why not take @Advantage! (YOU LOVE THAT PUN CHRIS AND YOU LOVE ME! :P)

Here ye here ye, it is the VHL's biggest season in ages. A new league, 6 "sorta new" teams and a roster cull. I feel like I was just talking about how the season was just starting and it was fun to be entering new territory as a league here. Then a plethora of life things happened, and the usual hustle and bustle of the season took hold and before you knew it, here we are. Sitting not that far away in the final week if I got my math right of the end of the regular season for S80. I haven't honestly paid that much attention to the E, not as much as I'd hope I would. It's not the fault of the league or me not even having a player there, life created a situation where I'm only really tracking my own player this season minus a few check ins to the E a few times this season. I know for me personally given I always thought they were a stellar logo it's nice to see Stockholm light it up this year. But in general the parity (as expected given the league size) would be a bit higher in the E and realistically 5 of the 6 teams have all been competitive, which is good to see. For now though we'll just have to keep rolling with it. There doesn't seem to be any "breaking at the seams" with a third league as a certain someone might of had you believe, and I think we'll be able to start looking at and using some data for how it's affecting career paths and overall league flow after 3 seasons of it being in operation. Obviously we know stuff now, but the first season of a shift like this is always a settling in process, and as things get into full swing we can then really start to gauge the effect this has had on roster sizes, player stats, and the player experience. Onward, forward, progress, you know that sort of thing.

1. The standings are tight in Europe, what order do you think the teams will finish in? 1. Moscow 2. Malmo 3. Davos 4. Prague 5. Riga 2. Tyler Reinhart is leading the goals race, but Groovy Dood has 2 games in hand, can the Dood score the most goals? It'll be a close race to the finish but I think Reinhart could wind up hanging on. Games in hand are always useful but for all we know Dood goes on a cold stretch those games. 3. What golf course are you most looking forward to hitting up after your team's season is concluded? None. Golf is...look it's a thing people do and I sort of get it but the couple of times I've done it, it seems like the hardest thing in the world to do haha. Questions 1. With S81 just around the corner, what VHL franchise makes the biggest splash this off-season? 2. How do you think the inaugural season of VHLE has been? Good, bad, other? Elaborate. 3. Your tasked with making a team purely out of VHL members (they build players after) which members do you choose for your roster of 11 (6-4-1) and why?

The old era creeping back in just a little?

News coming out of the London United circle is that despite a good healthy working relationship with management Sven Reikkinen and his agent have decided relatively early in the news cycle to declare that they will in fact be testing free agency. After remaining silent for much of the season, Sven had a prepared statement read aloud from his agent at a quick media briefing being held to cover the breaking story. "I am here today to say that when the season is up and my contract has run dry I will be using my option to test free agency. I do not want London management or fans to think that this means that I will in fact be leaving the United. We have a very passionate team that is working hard to build a good core going forward, and I've always stated I had no problem being apart of that. For me, personally this is about wanting the ability to look at how other teams would value me, where they would use me, and what that could mean for the rest of my career going forward. I respectfully wish to say nothing else on this matter, and therefore consider this to be a closed subject. I look forward to trying to push to the playoffs this season with my London teammates and we'll see what happens heading into Season 81." It will be interesting to see what kind of market forms around the budding defender, who despite team struggles has been having a career year with the United. However in a league with a lot of full slots, especially on D will any team be able to sacrifice the salary to utilize Sven, or even want to when some of them have more capable/noteworthy stars already in. One thing is for certain, declaring THIS early that you will be a free agent target means GM's have more time to start thinking about the possibility that Sven could be in their off-season plans.

Answers: 1. As a Capitals fan I'm obviously going to say, the Caps. However in general from the start of the season I think a couple of other teams have looked pretty solid, I know everyone is in love with Colorado and they seem to have the ability to turn it on for even minutes in a game and score multiple goals. That can be scary. I'll say regardless of team, goalies are probably not liking the look so far, holy goal scoring. 2. Sure why not. He's having an alright season, career season it will be I imagine and from a Devise player perspective he's not doing that bad really. I just hate that I took 0 PIMs with 70 discipline in my first season without ever adding to checking and then randomly was a PIM machine last season while boosting it to 80 and again this season while it's toned down I still got several. The logic behind it? I digress, I'm scoring, London is fighting for the fringe so it's SORT of as expected for Sven. 3. Us. Lead into that I guess but I kinda thought we'd sneak or steal a few more wins from big times and not get blown out so much. I feel like with the way VHL team morale works those blow outs and losing streaks can push a team further and make it harder to climb back out of the fringe. We probably could of stolen some points and been more realistically in the playoffs because of it, but our compete window isn't suffered so it's tough to be too bummed. Questions: 1. Barring any drastic injury, do you realistically think that Alex Ovechkin breaks Wayne's NHL goal scoring record? 2. The VHL has to have a team that outdoes @Molholt's Toronto run and competes the 4peat. You get to choose which franchise it has to be, which of the 16 current VHL teams deserves the honor and why? (Remember there are no wrong answers....but if you say Seattle I'll hire Liam Neeson to find you....) 3. What major shake up, with no conditions whatsoever applied (go ham) would you make to change the VHL for the better (or hell, for the worse it's your answer.)

My heart goes out to her family and all the members that were close to her that are the most affected by this. I wish I had the chance to know her better, but I echo the sentiments that she was a fiery, kind personality with whomever she interacted with. Even in passing I learned that much. RIP Emi

The Boonie Net (as a will call it from this point forward) is a very particular breed of beast. What that means, in non Devise coded message is that the internet where I am at currently is a little too spotty/finnicky for me to be able to maintain a consistent livesim schedule. From this point forward, I'll just be posting an update on the Discord for when the games are live, I don't need to post in this thread as you can just see it. I'll likely be at a spot to be able to live sim again before the year is out so don't worry it won't be a permanent change. I appreciate your consideration at this time. I should note, that I was able to barely pull of a couple of live sims the last few days but it's more an issue of general consistently with the net, as even the game uploads to the portal themselves (which are all very small) have taken a decent chunk of time. TLDR; Devise says: LIVESIMS ON HOLD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE FOR THE VHLM ONLY. THANK YOU!

1. Seeing how the team is performing now, and how we are transitioning to a younger roster, when would you say our contending window opens? Realistically it's looking like that won't be till at least S82 or later. We'll see though. 2. That Dude is on a pace to break the franchise season points record. Does he do it, and how many points does he finish the season with? Sure, I say he does it and to hell with it he finishes the season with 110 points. 3. Which team are you rooting for this season? Us? I don't really know otherwise haha. 4. Who is your favourite to win MVP this season? The player the one that has the points but is on a team that isn't that good but is alright but makes the playoffs, y'know that one? (runs and hides) 5. Who do you sit with when we are on the road? A rock, not to be confused with Phil The Rock Johnson (who isn't even on our team) and Dwayne The Rock Johnson who is obviously too big to ever VHL. 6. You can have whatever pet you want. Do you go typical or do you showoff and go for an exotic animal? A dog. That's a pet. a dog. Pick a dog. I don't really care that people have exotic pets except I think some get them and don't realize that they are trying to like, you know condition animals that aren't as used to it, even in the modern time where a lot more of them have become pets regularly. Yes dogs occasionally have issues, but the level of domestication has created a situation where they are basically extended family. Anyway, dog. GET A DOG!

We have past the halfway point of the VHL season and with it, another one where London finds itself on the outside looking in to the playoff picture. While that was mostly expected, again, this season it is still worth nothing that there is still enough games left for anything to happen. The team is also not ENTIRELY out of the playoff race at this time, but looking at how things have gone it would take a serious turn of events for the team to go on a stretch that would land them in a playoff position. One thing that is worth watching as the season comes to a close though, is the contract situation of London defender Sven Reikkinen. Reiks rookie contract is up at the end of Season 80 and at the moment there have been no confirmation of talks or reports about where Sven could land. All talks out of the player agent and the team have been that Sven has remained quiet and focused entirely on his game. Despite the struggles the United have had this season, Sven is beginning to take the steps to evolve into the player that many United fans thought they were getting when they drafted the Swede at 5th overall 3 seasons ago. Will Sven stay in London? If he did test the open market who would even be interested in a player of his caliber? It's way too early to tell what happens on this front, and when Sven was drafted he did say he wanted to commit more longer term to the team that took the opportunity to draft him. However you never know what an off-season brings, especially in the VHL, so we'll see what happens.

Late night sim for a late night Devise feel the vibe or something. I'm a few beers in tbh.

Devise is back with the magic attack otherwise known as Double Sims with a new lappy or something like that. https://youtu.be/wykpN4wQdEM

The question is simple, it's in the title even. The answer? Well it may not be that shocking to hear that it's a rather complicated one. Devise players are notorious for not only their mediocrity but also their relatively decent to good TPE. I rarely ever full on gave up earning on a player even if my hopes of the player not falling to the narrative were long since dead. Sven however represents a slight shift in that I recreated at the optimal time and have kept up earning enough to actually be top player in my draft class. So will my decision to actually try with Sven lead to me making more joke players post his career? Yes, most likely indefinitely. I may see how Sven fairs before committing to a when because I may need to do another goalie with actual TPE since historically been the only position I've fared well at. But otherwise? Bring on the weird experimental player builds, a career E player and whatever other nonsense that seems like it could be worth a laugh. Anyway the answer to the titled question is a "no, but nearly will be."

1. We are 4-7-1 after the first week and a bit! How are you feeling about our start thus far? We are clearly a team in transition and thus are on the weaker end of the spectrum. Wins will be tough but stats have been okay. Start is pretty much expected though. 2. Do you have any rivals in the VHL? Team or players! I'll always be a rival of the anime protagonist. Seriously though Hard Markinson is same draft class and position as me, so probably him although he's crushing it. 3. Aside from the player store, what else would you like to see the ability to spend your salary on? I've never been big on more salary options unless they give us more utilities to make our meta fresher. 4. Which brand of gear does your player sport? CCM? Sure. 5. What does your player do during plane rides to away games to kill time? Since he can't sleep in moving vehicles, audio book life. 6. It's your turn to treat the team to a meal, where are you taking us? Sushi sounds like it would be alright.