Enorama

Man it's been months (a year maybe?) since I've actually written a media spot. I figured this would be as good a time as any to drag myself out of retirement and throw together what I deem to be the most enigmatic team in VHL history. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you team Simulation Hockey Association. Oh Sens - Dakota Lamb - Bogdan Trunov Germano Henchoz - Kristof Welch β-SHA G1 For those of you who don't know, the Simulation Hockey Association (SHA) is an online EHM league. I've long been recruiting from this part of the internet, but the SHA had such a long chain of recruitment that you could honestly build a second team with guys that were across both leagues (I checked, you absolutely could). For the purposes of this exercise, I specifically chose people who were in the SHA first and joined the VHL because either myself or someone down my chain referred them. This disqualifies people like myself, TukTuk, and ferk, who spent at least some time as a GM in the SHA, but were VHL members first. At first glance, this is actually a pretty damn good first line in their respective peaks. Just ignore the fact that we've got no goalie. Might have to toss my old friend Askarov in net tbh. Before I go down the list of those who made the cut, here's a brief list of honourable mentions, guys who fit my criteria but weren't good enough to cut the starting 5 based entirely on criteria that even I don't know: Ramarod Ramirez @Ominous - yeah, not too surprised this didn't last long Florent Vericel @dart - if he ever gets his head screwed on straight and stops living in fear of gorlab, this guy's got real potential chris foley @Firekiss - the epitome of consistency. I only learned last night that he updated through an entire full career. Kjell Nilsson @glass - "wah I want to stay in the VHLM and not play for the Dragons" Theodore Hoffman @snackhero - better than glass because he actually played a season in D.C. Liam Flaten @flatl99 - actually put in some good time in D.C., much appreciated Now, onto the actual roster. LW - Oh Sens @osens Sens ended up retiring just above 700 TPE, and with Aberg well above 500 already, I think he'll be one of the first EHM-VHL transfers to qualify for pension. I know there's myself and Dakota, but is there anyone else? Without looking, I think Philliefan came short. Anyways, this player followed a pretty straightforward path through the VHL, peaking with three straight PPG+ seasons in Toronto, bookended by short stints in Helsinki and Riga. No awards to speak of, not even cups, so Mr. Sens is likely going to waddle off into the abyss without much fanfare. C - Dakota Lamb @dlamb Yeah he doesn't need his back patted anymore. He did some stuff, lied a bit about free agency, no big deal. RW - Bogdan Trunov @qripll Trunov slides out of his natural centre position to the right wing to overload our first line with talent. This guy seems to be a Warsaw lifer barring that one trade request, and has already far outearned what my personal expectations were for him. I'm personally really hoping he breaks the 1000 TPE barrier, that'd be great to see. D - Kristof Welch @Juice I think you guys all know who Juice is. He started out wanting to only play on one team in his career, and at first he was really interested in VHL/M management as well. Where is he now? Traded twice and signed to a new team in FA once + stepped down from VHLM GMing within a season or two of starting. What a career Greatest Veigar player on the planet. D - Germano Henchoz @RicoTheTrapGod Another Dragons legend, currently firing away in the VHLE's Rome Gladiators. Stopped earning at a really unfortunate time, in my opinion, and only gets the nod over Flaten because he created more recently and is still kicking around the league. Fun fact, I actually traded for him at one point, meaning both of these defensemen ended up on D.C.'s roster, but only via trade. Not that interesting I guess. Any way, that's the story of the greatest roster to ever grace the VHL. If you think I'm wrong, fuck you. Thanks. 736 words.

I've talked about Kiva in the Discord before, but I basically just now realized that we should put together a team on the site in case people are either interested in joining, or already participating and wanting to connect. For those who don't know about Kiva, here's the very shortest description from their site: Loans for entrepreneurs doing amazing things. The longer explanation is that Kiva coordinates loans for entrepreneurs (mostly in developing countries) via something called micro-lending. Basically, instead of 1 person lending someone $900 to buy a cow (or whatever), 36 people lend that person $25 each, thereby spreading the risk and allowing everyone to participate should they so choose. It isn't a donation, it is specifically a loan. I personally deposited $25 in 2016 and another $25 a year later and have made 15 total loans to 13 different countries, 14 of which have been fully repaid (the last one is delinquent but slowly paying back). Anyways, if you're interested, I urge you to check it out. When you get the chance, join the lending team I created for the VHL at the link below. Join the VHL Kiva Team

Hate Mr. Simon Tremblay himself for not selling us an editable license.

I have been baited by the title

Other way around bud We acquired Steele and a pick for Hadrian yesterday. Steele scored a hatty against his former team today.

@Wheaties

Just interjecting momentarily to point out that that isn't actually why. The CHL-NHL agreement requires that the NHL send sub-20 year olds back to major junior for the CHL's benefit, i.e.; to get more butts in the seats to watch these skilled kids. As we saw when some of the CHL leagues paused competition due to the pandemic, these players are more than able to terrorize the AHL as well. In the VHL context, it's just about constantly making sure that players are moving upwards so that new players have a clear path to a top 6-ish placement. As Josh pointed out to you already, you are never forced up mid-season, so if you cap out, you're just helping the team that you're a part of.

The Block has been Busted.

Like if they hit the cap mid-season? Absolutely, they have always been able to continue earning, they just get forced up the following season.

PSD just breezes over the render effects smh. Topaz?

Just remove job pay entirely, makes this all a lot simpler

Did someone say Xtreme???

Yeah I planned my competitive cycle around winning when my team has an actual shot and losing when we don't. Flipping the league to a relegation league would lead to more teams just being middling so-so teams for a long time and just a few popular FA locations thriving each year, which isn't exactly exciting. As I have said plenty of times, it's absolutely an issue if a VHL GM isn't communicating with their players that they're going up. The VHL GM reaching out to the VHLE GM is good as a courtesy, but not negligent imo. Now imagine if they didn't even tell their players ahead of time that they were being traded too The league's last actual apathetic GM left when we fired Bush. Just because some of them aren't active in genchat doesn't mean they don't care deeply about their teams.

That's a GM issue, not a league structure issue. Name and shame 'em.

@Spartan draft done

G - Em Em Flex @tinafrombobsburgers pick your G @Daniel Janser you can also go whenever because you just need a F

1. Captains are as follows: C - Ove Dyrdahl A - Miles Johnson A - Ryan Vidot 2. My AGM is @fishy, in case you haven't noticed. They helped me this off-season but I figured I should slap it somewhere to make it official. 3. Inaugural jersey retirement ceremony! I started typing out a bit of a speech for each of them, but I realized about thirty seconds in that my typing days are unfortunately behind me. So, without much fanfare, here goes. I only hope Al is here to see this at some point. @GRZ - Mikko Aaltonen @STZ - Benny Graves @bigAL - Groovy Dood

D - Ryan Vidot for myself. @Johnny_HX you still have that one pick to make up whenever @Webberj on the clock

He is also retired

Hard Markinson is picked already, try again please

D - Chicken Wing @tinafrombobsburgers

Mingle is retired, please replace him with a new pick.

F - Justin Lose @Webberj

@Webberj skipped, come back and make your pick whenever. I take F - That Dude @tinafrombobsburgers on the clock