Spade18

Where do you want to end up? Have you been contacted by any teams so far?

Ho-ly tits. Can you guys feel it? CAN YOU GUYS FEEL THE INTENSITY!?!??! It's finals time. And I for one, am jacked. This year we get to watch the two heavy hitters duel it out for The Founder's Cup. This is a true best on best series. The Ottawa Lynx ran the show for the better part of the year. Dominating the top spot in the league, as well as the most TPE of any other VHLM team. During this time, The Las Vegas Aces were going through some struggles with an inactive GM. The Aces usually held strong in 2nd place, but dipped down to third here and there. As the season progressed, Ottawa's fire began to diminish, and The Aces, revitalized by the efforts of @Gooningitup taking the reins of the franchise, powered into first place. Both teams gained a bye at seasons end, finishing 1 and 2. The Aces dispatched The Rush in 5 games, The Lynx needed only one more to extinguish the Wild. Now here we stand. Two titans of competition, laden with talent from what will go down as one of the deepest drafts in VHL history, battling with everything they have to claim the S56 Founder's Cup. The Ace's took a 1-0 lead over The Lynx last night. But the margin was narrow. A lone overtime goal separated the two teams. I'm sure I can speak for you when I say HOLY SHIT AM I PUMPED UP TO SEE HOW THIS SERIES PLAYS OUT. Good Luck to both teams. Let's put on a good show for these people. Best, Spade

You want to talk clutch? 3 apples and a +4? how is that only good for 3rd star.

give me a week and i'm sure i can come up with a bunch. these were just off the top of my head

Of course, the first time I post an article that gets lots of discussion, I dont get home until 10 XD The ideas that I was milling around were things that personally connect us to hockey or the VHL. Things like "post a picture of your favorite piece of hockey paraphernalia that you own" or "Tell us about a time you met an NHLer" Things that we cant just copy and paste from the index, but things that get us telling stories and connecting on a human level. as we dont get to practice together or physically play on a line, we need something that bonds us as teammates, and giving a litle glimps into our lives is the best way to do that.

For those of you who participated in @Banackock's "Let us talk" piece, I'm sure you know where I'm going with this. I touched on a few of the points I am about to discuss with my comment here. How ever, I think that the topic should be more openly discussed rather than just a side piece to another article. I believe that the VHLM could benefit from a few changes. One of the biggest issues facing the league is the retention of new members. As a recent member myself, I believe I can provide some valuable insight, and invite other recent active members @haffiedq @Sullvino @Exlaxchronicles @Heracles @jvd @DeathOnReddit @Confusion @Beaviss to chip in as well. (please tag anyone else I may have missed, I only went back a page or two and looked at content numbers) This may sound a bit like a ramble, but all of my ideas kind of touch on each other, so I think it would be better to just spell everything out. Plain and simple, this is a hard league to break into. The VHLM is a great idea. One that I do not think we utilize properly. Unfortunately, as of now, it is mostly populated by members with previous players, rather than first timers. I believe this has lead many to view the VHLM in the same light as the AHL, rather than the CHL. If we are going to get the most out of the VHLM I think there needs to be a shift to focus on development. To be perfectly honest, by the third week of having Colton Rayne, I was on the fence as to whether I wanted to commit to the league or not. Ironically enough, it was @Taggers enthusiasm (before he went radio silent) which really kept me interested in the league. But it took until late in the season AND a donation bonus until I was really hooked on my player, and thereby the league. Now, I'm gonna be straight with you. I am fucking hockey mad. Some people are christians, some people are jewish, I follow hockey. That above all else is what kept me going. But I am probably in the 3% of people where that will be enough for them. If we want to attract new members and KEEP THEM, I think we need to make the VHLM a little more accessible to first timers. I think it's great that members creating their second/third/fourth players get to keep some of their TPE coming into the VHLM, but it creates a system of haves and have nots. When you are trying to get your footing in the league, having your player get dominated by long time members sucks. It doesn't exactly create a feeling of being welcomed into the community. I AM NOT trying to say the we should let everybody in with like 7504382TPE, but what I am saying is we need to give new comers more of an opportunity to compete. That leads me into my next train of thought which is development pace. I think the current development pace is great. For the VHL. THE MOST exciting thing for me in my first year was seeing my player begin to produce. I'm not going to lie, it took 3-4 weeks in, and I had GREAT teammates. If we're trying to get people to stay, a month is a little too long to ask them to wait for something to happen. I think we need to increase development rate for JUST the VHLM. Yes this will, over time cause a touch of inflation to the league TPE, but I'm not talking about 15 new players every year finishing their first VHLM season with 300 TPE. I would propose three concepts to help increase development which I think will increase interest in the league. Increasing the VHLM weekly cap to 10 or 12- This will make it feel as though your updates are worth something. Because honestly, half the time it felt like it wasn't even worth my time to update unless a rookie profile, bio, or donation was included. Pre draft lottery - I think a great way to hook new members would be to have a pre draft lottery where before the VHLM draft is held, all new members are put into a lottery, 3 players are chosen at random and awarded an addition 5-10 TPE for their player. GM tasks - As I mentioned in my post on the "Let us talk" piece here (again), I believe that we should give a small modicum of power to GMs and allow them to set tasks which could be worth 1-2 TPE per week. This will build better bonds as teammates and keep people more active in the community, while also helping to develop their player. Let me end on this. Do not take this as a bashing thread for the league. I love the community we have here and am excited to see how my player develops in the league, as well as what my future holds for the league. Also, this is straight up fun. I hope that anyone who comes here and is against these points, is open to discussion rather than just shooting ideas down. These may not be the ideas that help the league, but ideas arrived upon from this discussion could be the next big thing for the VHL. Best, Spade

Winner: Number of games: 5 Total goals scored: 31 Who gets the Cup winning goal?: Komarov Series leader in points: Jones Series leader in goals: Komarov Series leader in assists: Jones

Disagree, that'll just cause derision, and we'll end up with two half leagues and all will have been for naught

two things. One, @Beaviss was kind enough to take me on as a Co-gm of the lynx, and I would definitely be interested in throwing my hat in the ring for a VHLM GM. position One reason I think The VHLM has fallen a little flat, is that you have to be interested in developing players rather than building a team. Honestly, when playing EHM, I almost exclusively play the OHL because I love seeing where my players end up 10 years down the road and knowing I had a part in that. I know the league is hesitant to hire "noobs" but I hope my activity level these past months has been a testament to my drive for this league, and reflects well on me when you guys decide to choose new GMs. My second point is two fold. I think The league should give a small portion of power to the GM's in the way that GM's can offer their team additional opportunities to earn TPE. And I think the TPE cap should be RAISED for the VHLM. Hear me out. We're all about building a community and building teams. but what team building activities do we have besides locker rooms? If we gave GM's the ability to offer their teams certain tasks, or even just something like an activity check for an additional 1 or 2 tpe a week, I think you will see a significant increase in active players, even if its just for this small bump. In regards to the VHLM TPE cap, I think that if the VHLM is to be used as a developmental league, It should offer increased opportunities for development. as of now, the only advantage to playing in the VHLM is play time, while that is enough for some, I will admit, it still took a decent while through the season before my player actually became interesting to me. And that took doing the maximum TPE every single week plus a donation. If you think that is gonna draw a majority of people, i'm sorry you're just lying to yourself. We need to make the league easier to break into. I can tell you even I still feel like an outsider to a point as most of the members i see here, are long time members. The most exciting thing is seeing your player advance and get better noticeably, so why not make that a focal point for the first two years? Rapid development will hook users and increase the amount of people who stick around. What is the average of people who bail early on players? something like 36TPE? Yes, this will increase the TPE players have when they enter the league and records will eventually fall and all that. But don't be so afraid of losing the past that you lose the future. Records are made to be broken, and records being broken is Exciting as fuck. Name me one historically significant thing that happened this season? I'll wait. I can elaborate on this more but I've pretty much written a Media spot here.

im still bitter

It's officially time to start OVER HYPINGGGGGGGGGG

this is tight dude

holdin on for that 3-1!

Personally, I like LRs at the top. It's nice that first and foremost I can check in with my team when I log on before I go about my business on the site

excuse me

Being mentioned will fling my ego TO IMMEASURABLE HEIGHTS! AWWWWWAAAAAAAYYYYYY!

So long storm. We hardly knew ye

I honestly couldnt tell you dude. It's been so long. But if there was a league poping up like '06-'10 you can be sure I was in it. Probably under the name Kevo18. I ran the KHL. My big thing was going to be that I made custom players for the first round of the '09 draft before it happened. Aaaand that didnt go so hot. The league fell apart pretty quickly lol

facts

It landed on edge. That means Rayne

This week has wrapped up my first ever full regular season in the VHL. I've recently seen a lot of talk about the league getting stale, and "this being the end" and doom and gloom and all that. Being as I'm a new comer here, I just wanted to throw my perspective into the ring on the league. First and foremost I want you guys to know. I love this. This is cool as hell. I love me some slow paced world building video games, and text based simulators, and this is just like, the perfect combination of the two. I get a little rush of excitement every time I open a game summary to see how my player did and how the team fared. I'm not a complete newb to forum simulation games. Back when I was in high school (about 10 years ago now.... that hurt to say) I was always in GM sim leagues and actually remember the VHL taking off. My involvement in the sim leagues ranged from casual participation, to holding positions, to actually running one myself for 2 seasons. Having that experience let me say this. I don't think we full appreciate the great hand we're in here in the VHL. I remember leagues folding and falling apart, and while there may be a bit of a lul in recent history? THE VHL IS NO WHERE EVEN CLOSE TO OVER. Yes, apparently some long time members have left. Well that happens in real life. What sets the VHL apart from any other league I've ever been in is that there are a plethora of users here who are willing to step up into these roles that need to be filled. I can tell you personally from having a league fall apart under me, there was not even 1/90th of the support that I see here. The fact that we have so many members passionately arguing about how to better the league is a tribute to the strength of the league. Apathy is what destroys a league, not caring. The only real draw back I have seen in the league is sometimes egos seem to run a muck. It's great that you have been chosen to hold a higher position among your peers, or you've been around for years longer than your peers, but if we all take a deep breath, step back, and work together, I think the VHL can become an even greater thing than we've know it to be. Selfishly, I hope we figure out the direction we're going because I would hate to just be getting in as everything falls apart. So here's to the last 10 years of history I have a lot of catching up on to do, and here's to the next 10 that I hope to have a hand in. Best, Spade

I flipped a coin and decided that im pulling for A STORM COME BACK GO STOOOOORRRRRRMMMMMMMMM