Renomitsu

London, England – First-generation netminder Jesse Teno – an American playing for London United – has won awards in multiple different seasons – including a Playoff MVP and the cup in Season 88, as well as both the Aidan Shaw and Greg Clegane trophies in Season 91. And don’t get me wrong: his stats were stellar in those seasons, including a remarkable 93.7 Save % and a GAA of 2.02, which would be good for top three goaltending ability in virtually any season. The former number is even more impressive given Teno successfully saved 2,068 shots across the season. This season, however, is a different story entirely. Although London have won only 5 of their 9 games thus far, Teno has averaged a staggering 94.8 Save%, good for first in the league and one of the better marks all-time… if it can be sustained. He’s allowed just 1.88 goals on average per game, and it’s not hard to imagine him being the frontrunner for Regular Season MVP, even with Larry Abass’ 18 points through just 10 games or Kronchy Kardashian’s 16 points in the same time as a defenseman. Even with the understanding that London’s slated to be a top team this season, Teno’s remarkable netminding efficiency is a sight to behold.

Woo! Time to answer a very old press conference that has time-agnostic questions! 1. Who is the person you like the most on your team? and why? Lots of my teammates are great! I really appreciate @samx, @Frank, and @Tetricide for keeping the locker room active and fun 2. Who will win the Cup in the NHL this year? Uhh, I have no idea. When I google the standings, it says the Canucks have one of the better records, so let's go with them. 3. Why did you choose that name for your player? McWolf and I decided on having moths moth-like players, and we chose some really pretty appearing moths as our names. 4. Where would you like the next expansion team to be? Vegas, Boston, or Philly for the VHL, otherwise it doesn't particularly matter. 5. What is you favorite logo in the VHLM? why? Mexico City Kings. The Dia De Los Muertos aesthetic is cool. 6. What is you favorite logo in the VHL? why? I like Davos, DC, and Prague. The latter two are a bit more eSports-y but really cool; Davos just has a nice logo. I don't know what a Dynamo is, but the mountains are cool and the design is sleek.

Prague, Czechia - Under longtime general manager Acyd Burn, Spanish Moon Moth makes the transition from the European league's Stockholm Vikings to the intercontinental big-boy league in the VHL. The Moth made a splash -- sort of, anyways -- as a member of the Vikings, competing fiercely for the scoring title in the league, but ultimately falling short of the mark and an MVP. He emerged rapidly from his VHLM cocoon and a mediocre E debut season, scoring 92 points as a sophomore but still not achieving a positive plus-minus for the season despite the sweltering point total. What, then, do the rookie forward's prospects hold when brought to the big leagues? In the grand scheme of things, Spanish Moon totals out at a fringe second line player who'd push through to the first line on a likely rebuilding team like Vancouver or Davos, but among competitive teams will likely get buried for playing time. The Moth will sit as an outside competitor for rookie of the year -- probably somewhere in the third to tenth range -- unlikely to get the focus required to earn the nod. Given the Moth's response to mediocre seasons thus far in his career, that might be a positive thing!

OKOK, maybe the first time didn't work, but I'm going to try a second time (otherwise I can't really earn the press conference points eh). 1) What's your favorite place -- in your country or internationally -- to visit in the offseason? 2) What is one skill you've been working on during the off-season? Or alternatively, what's one real-life skill you've been practicing (e.g. learning or working on an instrument, carpentry, memeing, getting to the gym at least once a week)? 3) @samx is an avid fan of Parkitect, which is like a modernized version of Rollercoaster Tycoon. What's an amusement park ride or show that is a core memory for you? 4) Have you played GeoGuessr before? What's your understanding of the website? 5) How'd you find the VHL? Have you been in sim leagues before this one? 6) There are some shiny new features in the portal from the last few years, like automated trivia, a "1st Gen" tag, and integration of the "new" attribute system (even if it doesn't feel that new anymore). What's your favorite new feature?

Prague, Czech Republic – After just one season in the Seattle Bears’ farm system, Spanish Moon Moth finds himself traded to a new team. He had just been through a week or two of the offseason when the team’s intentions came from the top, and within minutes it’d been leaked to the press at large. Seattle receives: Steve Lattimer S92 PRG 1st S92 PRG 2nd S92 VAN 4th Prague receives: Spanish Moon Moth S93 DAV 2nd After being selected with a high first round pick, Spanish Moon found himself traded for a first – and some change, assuming Davos’ and Prague’s S92 picks remain roughly in the same place. The Moth hadn’t had a chance to play for the Bears before the trade, and unfortunately the Phantoms lost another asset in winger Steve Lattimer – a 50-70 point forward who had just finished his first two seasons in the league and is expected to contribute meaningfully to a contender in the near future. “This did come as something of a surprise to all parties,” a representative for Spanish Moon mentioned in a recent presser, “but Moth is obviously going to continue doing his best to represent any team he’s contracted to and is expected to remain loyal to whichever team he’s on at the end of his expiring contract. No hard feelings to anyone involved in the process.”

It's been about six months since we last had questions in here so now it's time to revive this thread! 1) Why didn't Prague make the playoffs last season? What steps does the team need to make to be relevant sooner rather than later? 2) @samx is in every server apparently in the VHL. Why does she do this and what is she plotting? 3) What's your newest pre-game pump up song? What's your all-time favorite? 4) Over-under for the number of times Sam will ping me this week: 6.5. What's your pick? 5) I'm someone who has only watched about 3 games of hockey in my life. What hockey team (NHL, AHL, or otherwise) is your favorite, and what's your pitch to sell me on joining their fan base? 6) STHS has been around since the start of hockey sim leagues' existence. What have you found you actually like about the simulator, and what could use a little improvement?

It's time

Hihi

It me Hi

“I guess it could have been worse.” A dejected set of Stockholm Vikings sat rinkside after a painful sixth game against the Vasteras Iron Eagles – their fourth, now-eliminating loss. It was an incredibly close series, with no game decided by more than a couple of goals including the last, a 5-3 loss in the Vikings’ home arena. It was an especially frustrating loss after an absolute banger in the Iron Eagles’ arena, a 3-4 loss that took overtime to finally hammer out to break a 2-2 series standstill despite Vasteras having an 11-point lead over Stockholm in the regular season. Their strength of victory – represented as a +59 vs +12 goal differential for the regular season – didn’t accurately represent just how crazy close the series was. Indeed, it was the thinnest of margins possible over the course of the series without having a blowout win or loss. But where does this leave the Vikings? Grimgor and Spanish Moon are going to leave at the end of this season as currently capped 400 TPE VHLE players and Oloer Syko, the team’s starting goalie, has to leave. Outside of that, the team will largely stay intact and try for another run at the VHLE title.

Transaction ID: 7TB17789JL404504T $1M Player Store Cash 5 TPE Uncapped Doubles Week

It's pretty dang good. Fifteen new attributes. As a returning user who spent the last decade or so primarily in VHL – which has been STHS dependent as long as I’ve known the league, it was weird to return to a system that 1) changed how the attributes we add to improve our players and 2) still have them connected to the inherent attributes of STHS. It was a natural response to the rapidly-developing meta of “hey, let’s max scoring, leave out passing, and leave the rest to RNG because this is clearly the best possible build,” leaving virtually no room for secondary attributes. My initial impression? It’s not a perfect system, but it does allow players to develop attributes in a manner that doesn’t match “turn brain off after maxing scoring and defense,” and finally brings to prominence some important attributes like strength and puck handling. It’s had to accomplish that by tying any competence in scoring to either very poor returns or to less desirable attributes – which is fair, as I imagine very few hockey players can make it to relevance without supporting attributes in real life. There’s certainly still a meta to producing excellent players, but it doesn’t seen quite as uniform as in prior seasons. Scoring is still obtained at an absolute premium, but other attributes are seeing some love largely because scoring is hideously expensive. You either have to 1) tie it to your passing if you want anything resembling a decent attribute to begin with, or 2) raise it at an absolute pittance (0.12 points/attribute increase) which becomes highway robbery as you scale up wrist/slapshots. One could argue it makes the attribute feel “less rewarding” or “unfun” to increase scoring. I’d lean towards the former, as the league was quickly heading in a strictly unfun direction with all teams moving as close to 99 scoring/40 passing as possible. Points leaders at the end of each season – despite the league being close to its peak in COVID-19 membership – were getting rapidly out of control in a league that should have been in its theoretical apex of parity. Any pass-first player was discarded as inefficient and teams like the Vancouver Wolves rapidly became the scorn of the league. I’d know – I was on the team for Aloe Dear’s last season or two and it was a somewhat common occurrence to be told that my team was ruining the league. It’s exciting to see non-1,300 TPE players make differences in decisions when building their players. There are still some that use the checking-type builds, and checking/fighting builds are still obviously in the minority. But lots of players have excellent strength scores – especially centers with their multifaceted faceoff attribute – and virtually nobody has a gap between passing and scoring greater than 20. There are differences between strength, skating, and puck handling for most teams, with centers having greater strength than their winger and defensive counterparts. Oddly even on the high-tier teams, defensive players don’t have exorbitant strength scores. Some have opted for very high passing attributes. There’s excellent diversity in player builds, long story short, and I hope that’s here to stay. And heck, even a top team like Helsinki has a dude with 56 fighting. That’s awesome.

For Children's Miracle Network! For accounting purposes, this is US$100 ($134 CAD).

38. The VHL playoffs have started and round 1, or the wildcard round, has been complete. Who are your rooting for to go all the way? Why did you pick them? I think I picked the Toronto Legion to go all the way in my predictions, so I guess them. I like TPE and I can't root for Seattle in the playoffs fruitfully this season. 39. Who do you feel is the most underrated team in the playoffs and why? Helsinki. They had a mediocre regular-season record and are definitely going underappreciated, but they've somehow made it through 15 playoff games so far! 40. Who do you feel are this seasons underdogs? Us, duh! I mean, I guess we're bears and not dogs, but everyone's writing us off. You know what that means for the Bears in upcoming seasons. 41. Who do you think will be the playoff MVP? Probably Mac Atlas. Highest-scoring player on the team most likely to go all the way - but he might be skipped over in favor of their netminder Joel Castle. 42. What is your player doing, if playing for Seattle, and not taking part in the playoffs? I don't play for Seattle right now. Soon (tm) though!! 43. How have you been doing overall in life? What's been going on lately? It's going well. I'm moonlighting my weekends away to earn some extra cash and pay off my student loans faster than the vast majority of docs do. I've matched to my dream program for pediatric nephrology (kidney medicine) and couldn't be happier.

Have to leave a lot of information out because it includes 1) a hospital I have previously worked at and 2) all of my personal information. This one is for the Children's Miracle Network and is in USD ($134 CAD equivalent, so 67 entries). I'd like to use 33 for my entries and 34 for @Jeffie43, no particular numbers required. Happy to confirm by sending full screenshot to admins if needed!

$20, but only because I fresco. It's still Golden Monkey.

Hi, happy birthday @Josh

Stockholm, Sweden – There’s a lot of debate as to whether the Bratislava Watchmen or Stockholm Vikings will make it into the playoffs as the 4 seed. 66 (or for some, 67) games into the regular season, the two teams are equal in games played and just a single point apart, though the Vikings hold a substantial goals for (191-174) lead without much of a deficit in goals against (189-186). It’s been clear for the last couple of weeks that the Vasteras Iron Eagles will be a top two seed, sitting a pretty 9 points ahead of the second-place Rome Gladiators and, barring a catastrophic collapse in the last few games of the season should be #1. Some players have commented that it’s nice to “have the buffer” of the Oslo Storm, who currently sit in the doldrums with just 42 points earned – though 19 wins is not a horrid mark for a team in the thick of a rebuild, with several mid-range players above 250 TPE but not quite hitting 400. On the other hand, in a league supposed to be devoted to competition, it’s a bit frustrating for some to see they’re not even attempting to compete.

1. We're entering the home stretch now, with the Vikings winning three of four games against the Bratislava Watchmen to pull four points ahead of their threat to a playoff spot. What's your confidence level heading into this week's match-ups? 10/10. If you don't have confidence in yourself, what are you doing playing pro hockey, right? 2. Who has the team MVP been to this point? Lots of candidates, but I think Pereira deserves it at this point. Hard to pass on a player that is sacrificing as much of himself as he has. 3. What is your secret to success on and off the ice? I'm totally not a moth Nothing specific. 4. Thanksgiving has come and gone in the United States, is your tree up yet? Nope, I don't plan on having a tree this year; I tend to keep totally to myself at home and help decorate communal trees (like one in our workroom). 5. I encountered snowfall on the way to work this morning, have you had to deal with snow yet this season? Sadly no. I really like snow and where I live there's only maybe one snow a year. 6. Rumors swirling out of Chicago are that Corey Perry, who the Blackhawks brought in to be a father-type of mentor for Connor Bedard, has allegedly engaged in extramarital affairs with Connor's mother. On a scale of 0 to 10, how much did Perry understand the assignment? Uh... I have no idea. 6.9?

Stockholm, Sweden – What started off as a miserable VHLE debut last season has turned into a success story for Spanish Moon Moth. The underperforming winged giant barely made it past the 25 point mark for the Bratislava Watchmen in S90, but two-thirds of the way through this VHLE season has managed a startling 62 points. There’s something left to be desired in the team results department, of course – he’s managing a mere -3 in plus-minus to a scarcely-positive stat last season and the Vikings are now fifth in VHLE playoff contention – but his individual success is on display for all to see. “There’s something to be said about offense, certainly,” a representative for the Moth said at a recent press conference, “but the point of the game is to score more goals than your opponent, and Spanish Moon understands that they are at least as culpable on the defensive end of the ice as he is responsible for goals and assists on the other side. It’s a frustrating process for everyone involved and they want to see it through to the end.” Some players are gearing up for what’s sure to be an eventful VHL draft in a handful of weeks; Spanish Moon, on the other hand, is struggling to make sure his team’s season is a long as it can be.

1. Thanksgiving is somehow almost here in the United States, while Canada had theirs all the way back on October 9th. What's your favorite part of the big meal on Thanksgiving? I don't know - admittedly I've worked so many holidays that I haven't had a great chance to celebrate those holidays recently. I loved getting together and just being with family, as is the case for most of my holidays. I don't have a creepy aunt or uncle that's really awkward to be around, so it's all positive vibes for me. 2. The Vikings are on a roll! They've climbed into a playoff spot and with a trade for another defenseman, Swinsola, Stockholm seems to be putting it all together at the right time. How far up the standings can they go? #1! C'mon, sky's the limit. 3. There are some Vikings, such as Spanish Moon Moth, Grimgor Ironhide, and Olober Syko that are performing amongst the best at their positions this season. Do you think any of them could win any awards this season? I hope Ironhide wins best two-way player. I don't particularly care if my own player wins awards, just so long as we can eke into the playoffs and make some noise. 4. What's your favorite Thanksgiving tradition? Going into a food coma after tons of food eheheh 5. What nation really needs more representation in the VHL? Isle of Man! That's what Sunset Moth and I are trying to figure out. 6. What historical figure do you think unfairly gets a bad rap? Probably a whole bunch of figures that we don't know very well because they get dismissed as "horrible foreigners" by the "winning team."

10. Did you do anything special for Halloween? I was working in the children's hospital on Halloween; dressed up as the Cowardly Lion as part of a group costume! 11. Black Friday is approaching. Have any plans to buy anything? IF YOU could, what would you buy? Nope, I'm also going to be working Black Friday and have absolutely zero plans of waking up even earlier haha 12. Thoughts on how your player is doing this season? I wish that my player's performance led to more team success personally. It's hard to watch any kind of good performance on a team that isn't doing well, because that means I'm not performing well in the right way. 15. @Otaznik leads the way for the Bears right now. They've really turned it up a notch to help Seattle. What's their secret? Pure, unadulterated skill. Nothing more, nothing less. 16. @DMaximus currently needs some help to improve their play. Shit happens! Any secret tips that can give them an edge??? No big concerns from me. It'll come with time. 17. @youloser1337 after a rough start of something like 0 points in 5gp, they're now a PPG. What song do they listen to each night before bed for good luck???? There's a recent floorball series from JomBoy media and one of their teams (We Got Ice) made a custom song for scoring goals. I like to imagine youloser's player listens to that.

1. We're sitting at 7-12-3 as of the time of writing. What do you think we can do to improve our record? 2. Grimgor Ironhide is top 10 in points and #1 in hits. How has he managed that? 3. Who's the unsung hero of this season so far? 4. Four of our players are in the top ten for shots taken. Why are we having difficulty winning games? 5. What do you think the future of the VHLE is given the recent contraction? 6. If you could go back and play for the VHLM (sorry, you almost certainly can't now), which GM or team would you want to play for most and why?

1. Season 91 is just around the corner, what are your expectations for yourself entering the new season? I want to be a top scorer and show I'm ready for the transition to the VHL! 2. What does Stockholm need to do to end their current playoff drought? Oof, we unfortunately might need more than this season to scoot our way into a reasonable playoff contention spot. Probably another season or two of smart building. 3. Who has the biggest breakout potential on this team? We're a strong all-round team, which means any of us can break out on any given night. But as far as season-long dominance, I think that's hard to say. 4. What do you believe is the ideal job to have in the VHL? Long-time BOG member with tenure kekW 5. Does fighting still have a place in hockey? It should, but the sim doesn't really use morale in a way that allows enforcing/fighting to be useful for VHL in particular. 6. Where do you fall on the alignment chart? Ooh, definitely Lawful Good. I'm very boring, 100% a goody two-shoes.

10. Halloween is around the corner. Do you have any plans? I'll be working. I'm going to be a flying monkey from The Wizard of Oz! 11. The VHL is throwing a Halloween party. What does your player dress up as? A... uh... a moth. Probably. 12. Looking back, what are some of the best things YOU dressed up as for Halloween? Honestly I remember dressing up as Robin for Halloween and having a lot of fun with it. 13. Do you have any memories of Halloween that stood out for you? I mean, the house that always gave out king-size candy bars and FunDip is a core memory for me. That and a few houses on my street that would absolutely go all-out for Halloween that scared the heck outta me. Those were always a ton of fun! 14. What are some of your favorite treats to get on Halloween? See the above. FunDip is literally just sugar and it was fun to get. 17. Seattle seems to have transitioned nicely into a retool. What are your thoughts on the future of the team? Very bright. No particular reason. 18. How is life for you right now? Absurdly busy, which is why I'm getting all of my point tasks done at 8:30 PM on a Sunday night. I've either been at a wedding or working (mostly working) all of the last 9 weekends with no weekdays off while interviewing, so that's a thing.