Nykonax

Hello everyone,
 
Not gonna bother with a members tag on this, if you see it then great, you will be rewarded for that. If you don’t then…. Well why am I writing this because if you don’t see it how can you read this part?
 
Anyway, today marks 5717 days (that’s 15 years, 7 months, and 26 days if you’re curious) since the VHL opened its doors. What a random number you might say, why does that matter? Well if I do the math, and I have, I was born 5717 days before the start of the VHL. Given that I joined on day one and have been here ever since that means today marks the official day that I have been in the VHL just as long as I was outside of it. Is that a stupid thing to celebrate? Probably but that won’t stop me; so please let me indulge in a bit of sentimentality for a moment.
 
When the VHL started I had not yet completed high school, I had never had a girlfriend, hell I had never kissed a girl. I was a lonely nerd turning to the internet to find something to do; and I found it. The VHL was not my first sim league, wasn’t even the first one I joined ran by the people who ran it, but it was the first that felt different and felt like it had a good chance of surviving which so few at that point had done. I found a community here. I cannot honestly say that everything went perfectly or that my start in the VHL was without fault; I very nearly left for good within 2 months, but I stayed. I have now not only finished high school but university and going on 10 years working post-schooling. I have now not only had a steady relationship but a wife and two children, a life. All the while the VHL has been there, constantly evolving with the times sure but present. Over 5 years ago I took up the mantel of commissioner. I did it not because I thought I was necessarily the best person for the job but because I thought the league needed something, it was in trouble and I didn’t want to see it fail. I like to think that in these 5 years of growth I have at least stalled that failure.
 
5717 days likely means nothing to any of you, just as that paragraph likely means nothing to any of you, but it means something to me. This league, this place, this community has been a standard in my life for longer than most anything else. I’m not going anywhere right now, that’s not what this is, but I did want to mark the occasion because this league does mean a lot to me.
 
So if you’ve made it this far feel free to take 5 uncapped TPE for your troubles, on me. I’m not sure the insane total I’ve had over the years (probably over 10k by now) so 5 for everyone that I bored with this story should suffice as a thank you for being my weird extended internet family.

time for the winningest gm ever to step up i suppose

1. Starting off with a Superbowl question just as a bit of a warm-up; Who did you want to win and why?
Neither team tbh. I'm not a big NFL fan. If I had to chose probably the Eagles since the Chiefs have won more recently? 
 
 
2. This week is Theme week and we are talking rivals so Who do you think is Vancouver Wolves all-time rivals? Why?
When the Wolves were the Quebec City Meute, our most heated rivalry was against Helsinki as we lost in two straight finals to them. Now it would be Moscow but that was before I took over from @Nykonax. Now I would say Prague or Calgary as we have beaten both recently.
 
 
3. Who do you think is our teams main rival this season? Why?
This season I would say Calgary or LA as it's a tight race for #1 in NA. I think whoever we play it the post season will determine who our biggest rival is going forward. 
 
 
4. As a player do you have a rival? And is it friendly or competitive rival?
When Moreau was still active I think his rival would have been any player on Vancouver. The animosity was high since I had built a passing player and Vancouver at the time was taking advantage of all scoring. Vancouver was the most guilty but Moscow definitely followed suit later on. It was too late for Moreau to alter his build though I believe at one point he had 95 passing and 99 scoring. 
 
 
5. In light of the near miss involving a Helicopter this week of one of our players; Have you ever flown in a helicopter and if not would you ever?
I was happy to find out everyone was alright as management fly's in a private jet and clearly the players have to take a helicopter? Maybe @dogwoodmaple can confirm. After his article I will never fly in a helicopter. 
 
 
6. And once again most got close to the riddle last week but missed it by a bit as the answer was: Hattricks – Both do Hattricks!! LOL!! So let’s try a new one this week:
 
Riddle: I have the power to fool or instruct. To convince or distract. To give or retract. You may use me but never know my impact. What am I?
I'm not going to cheat this time and actually make a blind guess. I'm going to say money. But I'm likely way off. 

Technically I joined in 2018 😎

So as some of you know, I've been dealing with some family stuff. Well I guess now is as good as a time as ever to fill the league in on what's been going on. So November of 2021 my father had a massive stroke and ended up passing away. This was the same time that I was made the GM of Prague. So while I was implementing my plan for the future of the franchise I was spending most of my days in the hospital seeing if he was going to recover or if he was going to pass. He ended up passing 6 days later. It was definitely a tough time for me but I had something to look forward to. Fast forward almost a year, my Mom was diagnosed with Leukemia she spent about 6 weeks in the hospital receiving chemo treatment. I was there everyday dealing with that as I'm her only caregiver. As this was going on I was made a Blue in the league (sensing a theme?). She's still undergoing treatment and we're
currently in her second round of chemo. So that's what I've been dealing with for the past 3 months just to give you guys some insight into my life and why I've really only been active with the other Blues and within the Prague discord. She's doing well and we're about to head to the city to meet with some Cancer specialists for the next steps and to hopefully find a "cure" instead of her having to be on a form of Chemo in a pill for the rest of her life. So with all of this negativity I had to do something positive. Well on Saturday I decided to propose to my girlfriend of almost 6 years. I had the ring for almost a month and just decided it was now or never. So with all of the negative things that have happened I have something positive to look forward to. Well, this concludes my update and just to give some folks a bit of insight into what's been going on recently. 
 
 

Gangplank is ARRRRguably struggling at all levels

I can add a whole bunch of themed puns if you'd like to really hone in on it! Though really it's just my PR writing style lol

Alright, I'll chime in. This could have been a constructive post, but it isn't. Good thing it started in the Thunderdome.
 
It was meant to be pointed toward our ability to get people involved with the VHL, but instead somewhere along the way that got lost, and instead we've had the pleasure to shit on the VHLE and, discreetly, the Cologne Express.
 
But alright, mea culpa. Throughout the various times I chatted with Budnik it was not implied that he was unaware of how the VHL worked earning-wise.
 
 
First of all, I don't appreciate this message. Not only is it implying that we do things in a certain way in Cologne, but that we are purposefully trying to hurt someone's time in the VHL. Not saying I expect an apology because I don't, but I would appreciate it if you could not mention me or my team in that regard ever again.
 
In my view, and it is not going to change, my job as a GM is to create the best environment for the member that chooses to be in Cologne. I don't care if they are Max Earners, Top Earners, Welfare Plus earners, or Welfare earners. They will be treated in the exact same way. Not only that, my messages won't ever be "hey, you should try to do the Press Conference this week." or "hey, you should try doing trivia". That's reserved for the appropriate channels we have on our Discord, where the whole team gets pinged. My job won't ever be to increase someone's production, instead, I will accept the time people are willing to give out of their day while giving the most tools I'm able to create, so if there's any possibility or interest that someone wants to increase their involvement they will find the help they need.
 
 
As stated before, these tools are all integrated into the Express Locker Room. You have a Trivia channel, where everyone gets pinged, where I share my questions and my know-how on working the forum and/or portal to find those answers. You have a category developed to show every earning opportunity around the VHL (which is actually in need of an update, since the career tasks changed). You have a built helping channel where everyone can share their experience and their goals. Every tool is made to help a player get involved with the VHL - at their own pace. And yes, Budnik, was one of the players who took advantage of this and re-rolled before S85. And his production increased, by quite a lot! For me, that's the best way to retention for a first-get player. You don't come into the VHL looking to be a role-player, and he stopped being one.
 
 
Continuing on the last paragraph. No, the retention efforts should not stop, but what does retention look like at the VHLE level? What does retention look like at the VHL level? As it has been discussed, Budnik's career started in rough waters, with GM turnover, and such, but still... would an active user not find help? Alright, let's say he didn't find help during two seasons in the M. Even so, he was drafted at the beginning of his second season into a VHLE and a VHL team. From the point he was drafted, he spent one season in the M, where technically he would have access to three Locker Rooms/General Managers (VHL/E/M). He then graduates and would have access to two different LRs/GMs for the next two seasons. We're now into S85, it's been 4 seasons since he joined and nobody caught the fact that a player doesn't know how to earn? I highly doubt that. It's my turn in Cologne. I speak directly with every player that's returning from the previous season, Budnik included and we have the first of many chats - no red flags about earning are raised. Then I come back and he chat about renewing his contract since he was entering his 4th season in the E and as we go on, no flags are raised. We chat about turning Budnik McDangle into a better player since his build wasn't very good... we chat about other things about the VHL and hockey in general, and NO FLAGS ARE RAISED. To this point... what is the end goal? Asking a member about their earnings and trying to pump them up about it? Every single one of us in this forum has a real life, with real problems, and this for many provides an escape, which I will not be trying to ruin by spitting out tasks for people to do. Curiosity will do its part and it may not be as a first-gen.
 
 
This one could have been a particularly good one because I agree. Partially, but I agree. What I mean by this is that the members should know about earning opportunities, and if that is true I have also failed, but to a player that's active enough, our Locker Room in Cologne is more than able to fulfill that goal. We have a popular saying in Portugal that goes something like this, "worse than the blind are those who don't want to see".
 
And I'll correct the following: The VHLM has failed this player. The VHL has failed this player. And the VHLE has clearly failed this player.
 
 
I have a player in Cologne, Keon Jeannot, whose member's birthday is today. He's a "clicker" by your account. I've chatted with him and wished him a happy birthday, but I'll let you go show him the link to our Press Conference.

That could work, i think just slowing a bit of short term flexibility could go a long way.
 
Yes, however the only 2 players being paid above their salary bracket is Skor McFleury (Riga - 1 mil) and Mac Atlas (Toronto - 1 mil)

@Kylrad would you like to hear about our lord and saviour: point tasks?

@Kylrad would you like to hear about our lord and saviour: point tasks?

This assumes a GM cares. Far too many would prefer to ignore a lower-TPE active player so they can keep their IA (or just never go looking for a FA in the first place if the IA is decent enough). In a perfect world, people would go for this...but I don't see it happening in general.
 
Releasing a player already takes away half the cap hit for the duration of the contract, so I don't see the point in making it the full hit. If we decided to keep it at half cap hit in general and added an exemption for signings (provided that the signings are at a lower hit so teams aren't signing high-TPE guys and getting rewarded for it), it does fall into the "why not" category for me, but I question the effectiveness.

sorry, grumpy old inactive boomers only.

sorry, grumpy old inactive boomers only.

Arcanum finally made it to 100 career VHL points, so that's hype.
 

-$250 pog

True but also gives free wins unless he's on fiora

Expansion is not on the table as far as I’m concerned. I would argue even 16 teams is barely sustainable as is. This isn’t the covid era that needed expansion every 2 seasons; recruitment has slowed (logically, we knew it would) and some teams are already barely icing a full team as is.
 
Cap discussion is cap discussion. We’ll look at it but it’s tough because GM’s will always want more, why wouldn’t they? They put a strong team together and they want to keep it that way but teams age and age is expensive. It’s not the league’s job to make sure your dynasty is safe. Hell one of the last times I saw this argument half the teams making it and spent around 1/4 of their cap on bonuses. I’m probably remembering the exact figures wrong but you get my point; let alone the fact that rebuilding teams remain empty with loads of cap space (or they fill up on bonuses and then complain themselves).
 
So yeah, we’ll look at it. I expect I’ll have my annual chat with @Spartan about how the league cap looks (As I have with the financiers that came before him) but expansion is not the solution. Contraction is hell, I’ve been there and don’t intend to be there again, so expansion isn’t gonna be on the table until it’s clear that it can be stable.

VHL Change: Temporary Stat Boosts
 
Oh hey it's me the media spot guy. Yeah, why bother doing graphics any more. Anyways, I have been playing a lot of NHL23 and have been considering this concept for a while. I know logistically it might not be the easiest thing to implement, so take this more as a thought experiment, rather than a formal pitch. I have tried to make a lot of these ideas easy to implement, as I could go a little more outlandish - but in all honesty there's no expectation for this idea to take off. Back to where I left off; NHL23. Most people who have played the series in the past couple of years know that they have implemented different boosts to special players. They have skills and abilities if they are deemed good enough to be considered an X-Factor. Well, that is the foundation of my idea.
 
I think this could be fun to entertain, so here's the concept:
 
Players can earn different rewards by completing milestones. The rewards will act as a temporary buff to either one stat or multiple stats. Most of the durations are within a span of games that might be able to be coded into the portal. At the very least we could have "Boost Updater" who would have the job of approving these boosts and they would be claimed very similarly to Experience Points in a 1/1 ratio, however, would expire after the determined duration.
 
So let's get into some of the boost idea. These are just off the top of my head, but let's see if it can be built upon.
 
Captain Clutch
Milestone: Playoff MVP
Boost: 99 to any stat
Duration: Only applied in game 6 and game 7 in the following playoffs
 
Concept: The idea is that the one player from playoffs will get a pretty substantial stat boost in the elimination game in the following post-season. I think there's some real life examples of how playoff players are clutch from year to year, so this plays into that. It also means that Playoff MVP is a pretty important award to win. It's also nice because it doesn't kick in if their team gets swept, or is just in the Wild Card round.
 
Truculence
Milestone: Win 3 Fights in a Season
Boost: +5 Fighting +5 Checking
Duration: Remainder of season
 
Concept: Finally some actual reward to being an enforcer in the VHL. The reward is not, but you get a bump in fighting, and you also get a bump in Checking (a useful stat). In this example a player would be allowed to refuse the boost, if they are not building towards a checker build. However, I like the idea of, "if the sim wants you to be tough - be tough".
 
Lead By Example
 
Milestone: Team Captain
Boost: +10 Leadership +10 Experience +10 Discipline
Duration: Season and Playoffs named captain (Only one captain per team)
 
Concept: Three rather meaningless stats for a title that should be more than meaningless. I know this isn't a big boost, but I think something is always better than nothing. Experience bump is valuable as well as DI. I think the idea being these three stats is that while they aren't meta stats, they are three qualities that you would find in a captain.
 
All Star Gains
Milestone: First Team All-Star
Boost: 99 to any stat
Duration: 10 Games following Trade Deadline (of following season)
 
Concept: So this one might be one of the bigger boosts, and it very well should be. The players deemed to be on the first All-Star Team get a pretty big boost. Since we have our All-Star Games in the offseason, we would apply to the following season, and have it after Trade Deadline as it is an easy marker to remember and it's around the time that the All-Star Games happen in real life. I know there are many players that might be making their All-Star team in their retirement year, but even if all players are returning, this is a boost for only 6 players in the entire league.
 
International Fame
Milestone: World Cup Gold Medal
Boost: +5 Stat Boost for 3 Different attributes
Duration: First 10 Games of the season
 
Concept: Same concept as the All-Star game. However, I lowered it from 5 different stats to 3 as there would be about double the amount of players that get this reward. This would give some reward to the World Cup - in addition to that, we might see players actually choose their country of origin more logically, than just a meme pick. It might start to look like we have a more realistic and balances player representations in different hockey countries.
 
Goalie Redeemer
Milestone: Goalie Drops below .900 Save Percentage or above 3.00 GAA (after 10 GP)
Boost: +5 to one stat
Duration: 10 Starts
 
Concept: I'm not sure how common this one would be, or if ever claimed.. However, this is kind of a failsafe in case an active goalie is getting lit up and feeling down on the dumps. Take a +5 boost to a stat, and try and rally for your team and turn your misfortunes around. Not overly strong reward, but I think it would make for an interesting storyline.
 
Anti-Clicker
 
Milestone: Complete five PT's in a season
Boost: +5 to two stats
Duration: First round of playoffs
 
Concept: Well, here it is. The reward for not being a complete bot. I think we have made it very easy to earn TPE. A big complaint I have had in the past and have heard others share, is that there's not a big reward to max TPE Earners. While this is a far shot from being a big reward, it is something. I think most max earners would love to see a +10 stat boost in the first round of playoffs. Also, considering it is only the first round, it is unlikely to change the shape of who wins the Continental Cup - but it does give teams an advantage for having an active roster, and I think that's valuable.
 
Sophomore Bump
Milestone: Rookie of the Year
Boost: +5 stat boost to one stat
Duration: First 20 games of the next season
 
Concept: Let's give the Stolzy winner a little bread to eat here. I think this one is a cool idea because yes it's only +5, but this is to a lower TPE player that might actually find this useful. It is for 20 games, so realistically what you are doing is loaning them the TPE for the first 20 games until they can earn and apply the permanent improvement. I almost think this could be buffed even more as this is only being rewarded to one player per season.
 
High Roller
 
Milestone: Signing 3M above min. contract
Boost: +5 stats to three stats
Duration: All Playoffs except Finals
 
Concept: We've been waiting for Salary to actually mean something. To me this one actually would be interesting to see. I'd actually like to see it if it was buffed even higher, and if teams went out and had a bidding war. That would not likely ever happen, but it would be fascinating to see a shake-up in some of our free agent periods. The idea behind this is that you spend more of your cap and get a benefit from it. This also gives the Free Agent an extra incentive to play in different places, and also give GM's a bargaining chip they might not usually have. The reason the duration is playoffs, you want these top end players going to contending teams and keeping the reward for playoffs keeps the reward in line with the intention of the concept.
 
===============================================
 
1289 words.
Claim two weeks:
W/E Jan 8
W/E Jan 15

Winning. Care more about the success of players on the Wolves than my own player's success. 

This is one of those things I don’t care about enough to have an opinion of it. I’m asking myself “why” and “why not” at the same time. 
 
I think “why not” wins, but I really just support it in that I’m not opposed to it.