Renomitsu

1. Who has been the best offensive player on the team this season? I think you could argue our offense runs through our centers, but in that case I certainly defer to our captain and 1C, Dakota Lamb. He's done a fantastic job against the league's best and has been our flagship player as long as I've been in the league, more or less. 2. Who has been the best defensive player on the team this season? I don't think I really could name a single one. We have excellent defensive depth and our change at goalie gave us a huge boost - but I'm not sure that would have been possible without an excellent defense complementing him. 3. Does anyone on Warsaw deserve any individual awards this season? I don't know. I think Chris (Hylands) deserves some mention in the conversation, but offensive defenseman probably belongs to Letang this season. 4. How do you feel about the team's performance this season so far? (Warsaw is 2nd in the league after 57 games played). I think we ended on a pretty sour note, but I can't complain really after seeing how we improved following the first 20-30 games. 5. How has your player been doing this season? Okay. There are still definitely some games where I feel I (Aloe Dear) disappear, but I don't think there are any truly game-breaking players in the league -- just consistently excellent ones. 6. How has life been treating you? Anything new going on? Work/school has been okay? Heh, I work in a hospital and the U.S. is going through a crazy COVID surge. Let me get back to you on that one.

Claim 4 of 4 for Week Ending 8/29/21 (8/28/21 in EFL)

Through today's sims, teams generally range from 59-61 games played (with Moscow as an exception, as they've completed 63 games so far this season). And as we glance through the points, goals, and assists totals, it's clear: Los Angeles, Malmo, and Warsaw dominate the tops of most lists. As a matter of fact, Malmo has two players (#1 and #2) in points and Los Angeles has another three entries (#3, #4, and #6); Warsaw has two of the remaining five (#5, #10), with single entries for New York (Red Lite), Vancouver (Jivere Zolnek) and Chicago (Julian Nousiainen) rounding out the top ten in points. Malmo's duo in particular have a pretty solid lead on the others, as they're also the league's goal leaders (Odinsson has 51, Telker 49). And while that's great for establishing candidates for most outstanding player and a goal lead -- as #3 is a solid 4 goals from Telker -- that doesn't help us determine who's most valuable to their team. Were the season to end today, would Odinsson's and Telker's successes throughout the season damage their respective claims to MVP? Similarly, would Letang, Merrick, and Stamen get in each others' ways -- and would the same apply to Dear and Lamb? Would our shortlist include Lite, Zolnek, and Nousiainen, who are each over a dozen points away from Odinsson's 112-point tally but without another top ten point player to share the spotlight? Or alternatively, would Letang as the lone defenseman in the top ten, #3 overall, and #1 among his scoring-happy team take the lead for a possible MVP? Is there a two-way player you'd take over the lot discussed here? Does maybe Zamboni Driver's 0.924 SV% (#1 among goalies with 40+ games) and 2.67 goals against per game (#1 among goalies with 40+ games) take the cake instead? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

1. As others have said, I think a tweak to the update scale could make the league a little more interesting. Everyone rushes 99 defense and 99 scoring, then usually hits 90+ puck handling before branching out to checking, passing, etc. This may be difficult to implement, but some build diversity would be nice. Heck, you could even make scoring twice as expensive as the other attributes and still have plenty of people rush it to 99. 2. I wrote an article about an idea (that still needs plenty of refining) to help bring a spotlight to different point tasks. There's probably a better way to implement it, but I'd love to see more eyes on the hard work that users put in, be it graphics, podcasts, or media spots. 3. I'd love to see some kind of change to the salary cap and/or store options to make free agency as a money-making endeavor worthwhile. Players currently only tend to change teams if they hate their GM or have a horrible timeline mismatch (and even then, you can still win awards collecting garbage-time stats on bad teams). Make it harder to fight regression at the highest level and have a (small) separate salary cap dedicated to attracting free agents, I dunno. I just hate to see maybe one big free agent, if that, per season and a bunch of 500 TPE inactives taking up the FA pool.

1. Warsaw is 3rd in the league! How are you feeling?!?!?! Okay. I don't feel strongly about 3rd, 2nd, or what have you unless we're able to win a championship; I get the most enjoyment out of actually being in the playoffs. 2. Can we bring home the Victory Cup? (Best Regular Season Record) We've done it twice before, so I think we can do it again -- but as stated previously, I strongly prefer the playoff success over strict regular season dominance (it'd be nice to have both, too!). We have a good amount of ground to make up to Malmo though. 3. What has been the key success to our winning stretch? New goalie, probably some line matchups that work well. Lamb continues to do work. 4. The NHL does not start for another two weeks, have you been watching any other sports while you wait? Sure! I keep track of football in my spare time and am pleased with how the Ravens look in the preseason; I actually don't follow hockey whatsoever crazily enough. 5. Out of all of the individual VHL awards there are, which one would you love for your player to win? I would choose the Daisuke Kanou Trophy for Playoffs MVP. Playoffs MVP would be cool for someone on our team - that'd mean that we've won the Finals, so I'm not picky as to who on the team gets the award. 6. Anything interesting going on in your life right now? Anything exciting? Uhh... I work in a hospital and COVID is exploding. That's exciting, though not necessarily in a positive way.

Thanks for the feedback, friends! This was an article I felt very strongly about writing now with a huge shift in priorities in my life, but it's still incredibly important to me to be a part of this community. Claim 3 of 4 for Week Ending 8/22/21 (8/21/21 in EFL) [Note my article from this week is just being used for the Theme Week bonus; I'll claim it as a point task later]

With the recent report of decreased forum activity, I felt I could combine this theme week with the S79 Deadline Suggestion Drive idea and devise some new awards specifically related to bringing attention to entries on the site. Any attempt to describe all of the factors leading to a decline in forum activity is impossible at worst and exceptionally tedious at best. Based solely on post count, it's unlikely that recognizing many Into the Stands or Create a Player threads (as examples) would generate more forum engagement without a significant overhaul – and that would likely lead me away from talking about awards. Instead, we'll look at the majority of user-generated content – media spots, graphics, and podcasts. I think it'd be pretty straightforward to create an award for the best of each of these over the course of a season, though it'd likely have to be done through a committee of some sort to limit bias, or possibly be split in two awards (one for popularity that's put to a vote and one for critical acclaim that's evaluated by a committee). There's currently no true incentive for producing quality media spots – not even so much as a nod outside of reviewing TPE if someone forgets to do trivia in a given week. Even I'm rarely reading more than a few entries in the Media Spot forum per season, for example, and those that I do read are typically from users I already know. Some of that is from extenuating circumstances (I have little free time), but there's also been a general decline in quality of media spots and I'm not terribly interested in reading more than a couple per season as a result. I'll also regularly listen to 3PPAO, but that's particularly because it's a combination of users I'm familiar with and interesting content; were either of those aspects no longer holding true I might not listen to podcasts posted on VHL at all. So, how do we make media spots, podcasts, and graphics more engaging without making it seem stilted or artificial? Recognize a user with a great entry once per week per medium over the course of a season. Heck, you could even take an 'expert' or two from each type of point task and make each division a job. Users like @enigmatic for graphics and @fromtheinside for media come to mind almost immediately, for example. It'd be their duty to review entries on a weekly basis and pick one or two to nominate for weekly (and end-of-the-season) recognition, with no user selected able to have more than one entry entered into the end-of-season poll (or critic's award eligibility, or what have you). Does it have to be a weekly award? No – I think it'd be far more important to let a user know they're being recognized for their hard work. EFL used to have a "point task of the week" highlighting a quality graphic or article on a scrolling header – and if that could be implemented here, it'd give the community a good 'focus' on a quality point task. Give the top 1-3 media spots, graphics, and podcasts each season an award and start giving TPE for a job well-done. "What about TPE inflation?," you might ask. And that's a fair point. If the same user is winning a media, graphic, or podcast award every season, that'd be a few extra TPE to their player. Better yet, if they're talented enough to win a seasonal award in multiple point tasks domains each season that'd be up to 30 TPE per career (though I'd expect multiple award wins for this in any season to have vanishingly small probability). Limit these award wins to once per 2-3 seasons, which is easy enough to keep track of with a spreadsheet. That lets plenty of users rotate in for recognition, it's still worth striving for even if the reward is small, and maybe users start paying attention to those that produce quality content as guides for how to improve.

It's probably no secret that I have had less time to follow the VHL. But every once in a long while I'll scan through some teams' rosters and... when the heck did Riga start looking like a behemoth? Sure, the European Conference is decently competitive at the top and the standings are wont to change on a dime, and we could debate the top-heaviness vs. depth of each conference til we're blue in the face. That's not what I'm talking about, though - four of Riga's six forwards are 700+ TPE, with their lowest just under 500. Not only that, they've got four defensemen over 600 TPE (led by none other than Jolly Greene Giant @DoktorFunk), and on top of that are finishing up Zamboni Driver's career (the guy's a career 0.919 sv%!). When did they get all of these high earners, and how did I not catch on to this earlier? Needless to day, I've been thoroughly impressed with my old boss @hedgehog337's ability to throw together yet another talented team - and I'm looking forward to seeing how they finish out the season and playoffs. With plenty of contributions from the Season 75 class it looks like they'll also be a roster that'll rapidly transition over the next 2-3 seasons, but I'm positive it'll be handled well.

1. This past week we added a new goaltender, what are your thoughts on Vsevolod Askarov? I think the change in our record speaks for itself. Needless to say, I'm quite happy. 2. Moscow and London are less than 8 points away from knocking us out of a wild card spot, how can we keep our playoff spot secured? Whatever we've been doing over the last 4-5 days' worth of sims. I don't know exactly what that is, but yeah. Whatever voodoo magic we've done over the last 10 games or so. 3. Has your player been performing well this past week compared to the rest of the season? I think I've been performing pretty similarly, with the exception of the plus-minus. Our production as a second line has been pretty consistent. 4. We are 5-1-1 with our new goaltender Askarov, have they been the difference when it comes to winning? Kinda, yeah. I think even a tiny improvement in goaltender play is a world of difference: rebounds are better placed, defenders can position more aggressively, and obviously fewer shots make it into the net. 5. How have you been lately, anything new in your life? Busy as heck. Wish I could elaborate more, but work is a huge time sink for me. 6. If you could anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Nowhere right now. COVID is rearing its ugly head and I'm not about to go anywhere with how few people around here use masks. :[

Review Player's Tribune-style articles are some of my favorite in the league; they're always helpful in demonstrating how invested some players are in a situation where there's no real obligation to be truly engaged in a story. At times, the informal nature of sim league LRs and posting of box scores without the emotions of winning or losing a game in real-time can make pieces like this more difficult to compose, so I applaud you for writing in a heartfelt and genuine manner. This makes me want to believe you were thoughtful and deliberate in your choice to leave Toronto, which is hard to communicate in a league run via text! On the more nitpicky side of things, there are a couple of random double spaces that CIA has already mentioned and a missing t (unfortunately); it's otherwise a lovely read.

Review Y'know, if you wanted to be really spicy you could grade the GMs based on how much you expect them to succeed. Just kidding, that'd be a nightmare for just about everyone involved, I think. This is a nice little primer on some of the users selected as GMs. There are a number of familiar names (including two former Malmo GMs!) and I think you've done a good job describing your interactions with them. The only edits I might make is in your fifth-to-last sentence, where you could probably afford to put a period in place of the first comma, and two sentences later ("Kaleeb I have never really heard of the name Kaleeb to be honest...") for the sake of flow. Thanks for the read!

This vhl.com article is essentially stream-of-consciousness, as I haven't planned terribly far ahead. Sorry. One question I've been trying to answer over the last several weeks – how much longer am I going to stick with sim leagues? I released an article a couple of weeks ago where I put some thoughts on paper regarding how to stay active in sim leagues with overall minimal free time. I've tried to avoid acknowledging it, but re-creating, even with carryover, is a bit of a task in and of itself. Aloe Dear is in her sixth season, and my players over in EFL (CMC and Renata Gonçalves) are in their seventh and fifth seasons, respectively – each either starting or heading towards regression. My intention in EFL is to give CMC and Renata long careers – 10 seasons for my offensive player and probably 11 or 12 for my defensive one, all max-earning (I try to avoid anything below that). But Dear's career is a bit more harshly defined, capped at eight seasons before guaranteed requirement. And it's unlikely she'll end her career with Warsaw, as I made a promise to a few different users to at least try free agency before it's all said and done (I've never been active and made the choice to change teams as a player at the same time, to be clear). My job is very taxing on my time currently. I wish I had a good answer to this question; as time goes on, it's seeming more and more likely I'll have to make some tough choices in the coming months.

1. Warsaw is at an even record (9-9-2). What does the team need to do to start winning more games? The addition of our new goalie was a good start. I don't know what would be needed beyond that to win more games without uprooting the roster in its entirety. 2. Are there any surprises in the league this season? Teams that are doing well that shouldn't be? Teams that aren't doing well that should be doing better? My agent doesn't seem to be particularly upset that Davos and Riga are doing well this season. It's still early, so I will not make any judgments on the league as a whole because I'm not inclined to buy into the standings as they are in the first half of the season. 3. Who is Warsaw's biggest threat this season if we have one? I think there are quite a few big threats because we're not as dominant as we were last season. Anyone above us in the standings is a substantial threat and we can't afford to dismiss the others. 4. What upgrades are you planning towards your player's attributes? If you bank for depreciation, which attribute do you wish could be maxed (99 overall) at all times if you could pick one? I'm going to sit tight where I am right now since I've started regression. My intention is just to ensure I can be a top player going forward. 5. What are your hobbies besides the VHL? I'm a physician in real life, so I don't have much time for hobbies. But I mainly try to solve puzzles and play some music (piano, uke, cello, guitar) when I'm not trying to explore the city I live in; I'm a recent transplant. 6. Choose one: Filming a comedy movie with Adam Sandler, Playing 1v1 basketball with Barrack Obama, or Weightlifting with Dwayne Johnson. (I'm a 20 year old dude so these are the coolest things I could think of). Hmm, I think it'd be best to play 1v1 basketball with Barack. I'd get crushed as I'm not athletic by any means and probably am 6-8 inches shorter than the former President, but I'd love to hear some insight from him after the game on some social and political issues of the last decade.

Claim 2 of 4 for Week Ending 8/8/21 (8/7/21 in EFL)

Review I have to be honest, any time I see a "list of phrases/words that can theoretically be very short" I get a little nervous as a reviewer, because sometimes these articles can be low-effort. But I was pleasantly surprised by the level of research you put into scouring the lists of each recent draft class. I'm not sure how I feel about Poopy Peepants being the best name of the last three seasons, but it's definitely an eye-catcher (no, I don't mean the poo. Or the pee, for that matter.). Despite all of the weird names, this article was relatively free of spelling errors. Some of the entries could benefit from varying the first word(s) of each sentence (e.g. That Dude's entry), but I don't have any big complaints.

Review Hi Dil! I always enjoy reading articles that can put a critical eye to the league, as that's one of the many ways the community can contribute to making the league better. I agree that the All-Star game was fun to watch, though it can be frustrating to go through a transition period when fewer people overall are watching. Some recommendations might include making sure there's a specific scheduled time for the ASG so people can plan to view it (I know that's occasionally a frustration with daily sims, too). Your player store idea is interesting, too, but may be difficult to implement in the confines of the engine since there are attributes valued a dozen times more than others (plus if the buys were cosmetic, no player would realistically spend it on those things sadly). The contract negotiation process is the one I feel most strongly about as an area of improvement. I don't know if there's a great solution that can be taken under without drastically changing the experience for new players - but we might need just that. Free agency nowadays is either 1) a player returning to a franchise they're loyal to, 2) someone joining a stacked contender, or 3) random individuals changing teams for some variety, but no specific reason. It'd be cool to have more incentives to move around the league. In terms of editing, there are a couple of random typos (e.g. "somI don't have write...") that I know aren't intentional but are always spots for improvement and review.

Warsaw, Poland - Looks like the Warsaw Predators are still in a bit of a championship hangover. Through twenty games - over a quarter of the season - our Polish skaters and netminders have yet to go more than a few games without a loss, and their once-vaunted offensive output has sputtered to right around the league average without a compensatory improvement in defense. Indeed, the Predators sit at just a +2 total goal differential, good for sixth-overall in the league. And while that's not the sole determinant in a team's season-long trajectory, it's sounded alarm amongst Warsaw fans who hoped to see a similar track to their dominant prior two regular seasons. "Warsaw's letting my fantasy team down! Aloe Dear suuuuuucks!" One Redditor commented on a recent post-game thread. "Why does the league have to change so much every season? I bet my life savings on the Predators winning it all again and an unknown number keeps calling me every day with some weird laughing, then hanging up," FairWeatherFan14584 replied. It's unclear what exactly is causing the Predators' woes this season, as they kept the majority of their championship-winning cast from last season on board. While some have pointed fingers at netminder Ajay Krishna, a single player is unlikely to be solely responsible for Warsaw's early season woes.

1. How do you feel Warsaw performed in our opening weekend? I think we underperformed a little bit, but it may be more indicative of a larger problem. I suspect it'll take time for us to gel a bit, as we're working with multiple new players. The first 15 games or so are ones I never put much stock in. 2. How has your player performed so far? Aloe has similarly underperformed a bit. It can be a bit frustrating at times to work with brand new teammates, but I think it'll work better with some time and adjustments. 3. Does our record (2-2-1, 4th in EU Conference) after the opening weekend predict the future for the rest of S79? Or is 5 games not enough to tell? As stated above, nope. I think we'll end in the upper half of the EU Conference, but where within that we finish is totally up for grabs. I suspect we won't be first, but everyone loves a good underdog story... right? 4. What are your thoughts on Seattle's Expansion draft and the NHL draft that took place this past week? I'll be honest, I don't really follow the NHL. I'm always excited for real-life expansion of real life sports leagues, as they're comparatively rare to the faster-paced sim league world. 5. Have you been following the Summer Olympics? If so, what events are you keeping track of? I unfortunately have only captured glimpses of the Summer Olympics, as I'm working quiiiiite a lot. I occasionally check the gymnastics and swimming results, but otherwise have been totally disconnected from them. 6. How has you 2021 summer been going? Very, very, very busy. The hospital's kept me occupied for a minimum of 70 hrs/week over the last month.

D - DeFenz Mann @Alex_J32

G - Zamboni Driver @a_Ferk

F - Pistil Stamen @Alex_J32

Warsaw, Poland - A narrow win over the Moscow Menace was followed by a crushing 8-4 loss immediately thereafter. It was a miserable performance all around, featuring a second line that went -4. "Here's your seasonal reminder: do not pay too much attention to the first ten or fifteen games. They're always misleading," veteran and assistant captain Aloe Dear stated, beaming, "and remember Toronto from last season or Malmo from several seasons ago - a handful of early wins don't make you a world-beater." "We've been very bad and championship material on separate occasions over the last several seasons," she continued, "I'm under no illusion that the first 20% of the season somehow projects on to the rest perfectly. A 10-1 start can just as easily finish with fifty-plus losses. A forward sitting on top of the leaderboard fifteen games in can end up with 40 points in the end." "All that being said, you won't see me staring at stats this season. I just want our family here in Warsaw to get wins. I'm looking forward to facing someone other than Moscow, that's for sure - as cold as it gets in Poland, it's nothing like Russia. No thanks!"

1. The S79 VHL draft finished up earlier tonight, we added a solid goaltender in @Donno100 . What are your thoughts on the draft for Warsaw? I'd say the draft went well. From a user perspective, I'm definitely a fan of Donno and am optimistic about the future of Warsaw. 2. What are your player's goals for this upcoming season? Wins. I've had my day in the limelight; if it turns out Chris or Dakota want to go all-out this season and win some individual awards, it's important to share the love! If not, I want another championship. 3. Do we have another shot at the Continental Cup this season? I think it'll be a challenge, and we know where our weaknesses as a team lie as time goes on. We will not have it as easy as last season - and it's not like we walked into the finals and won it. 4. If you were the GM for Warsaw what are some changes you would make to the team if any? As much as I love Hoop, I think we need to understand when his time is up. We would need an upgrade at goalie; anything else is a little unrealistic provided what we'd likely have to give up. 5. Was your offseason good? How was your player's development? I think it was fine. Took it a little easy this offseason because I wanted to bask a little in the championship glow. Don't worry, though, I'm just as good as I was last season. 6. As the new AGM I'm super excited for this team and pumped to work with the goat himself Mr. Lamb... If there is any advice you could give me or anything I can do to help the team out what would it be? No idea. I just want that same leadership you've had as our captain the last few seasons at GM, too.

turns out working 80 hours in the first 5 days of a week makes it hard to do fantasy F - Isau DaMoose D - L @a_Ferk

F - Groovy Dood @a_Ferk