Matt_O

1. Lowkey excited to see how my player performs and trying to build up some draft stock for my player. 2. 4-2 W lock 3. I sit in my locker, turtling inside my jersey 4. Playing on an empty stomach and one C4 energy drink gives me peak performance. 5. Believe or it not, Full Player Name wants to legally change his name to literally anything else. 6. Yes but it falls under a different category compared to a traditional sandwich since it's long.

1. I'm pretty excited to play for the Marlins, I feel like we have a pretty decent team. 2. Like I said before, I'm excited. I've pretty much exclusively played for Las Vegas with my previous players so it's cool to get a fresh team. 3. Definitely planning on pumping up on my poke checking abilities as well as my skating 4. I can't really answer either since I'm returning but wasn't around last season lol. But I will say I really like the new TPE system compared to the old one. 5. Niklas Kronwall. Big hits, solid D, and can put up a decent amount of points. 6. I like pepperoni but I also like myself a buffalo slice every once in a while.

I wish I could change my players name because this is just so dumb. What was I thinking? I thought I would be smart enough to not do something dumb like this by now. Anyways, I was just drafted by the Marlins, and I'm hoping I can be a solid defenseman for them. My goal with this player is to be similar to my last player, which was a hard hitting defenseman that can also get points. Just from looking at the Marlins, we look like we have a solid team. We aren't going to blow anyone away but we are put together well, and we will only improve as the season goes on. I'm hoping my consistent TPE earning will be enough to solidify me as the third dman on the team. As of now I'm fourth in terms of TPE, but the grind starts now. I hate writing articles like this because I feel like such an NPC but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do for the TPE.

1. I think I have in the past with one of my previous players, but I'm not entirely sure to be honest. I was in the WJC and World Cup but I think those may have been in season tournaments. (I know WJC was midseason) 2. I was signed as an FA and not drafted, but the decision to join the pickles was an easy one. The name is beautiful, and I felt like I could earn the most minutes here compared to other teams. 3. I want to be a big body defenseman, so hopefully I throw some hits in the showcase. 4. Cbat by Hudson Mohawke 5. I do like pickles, but for whatever reason the pickles that come with cole slaw at diners is not it. 6. The Philadelphia Cheesesteaks

#SlicedToWin Thanks for the offers, but playing on a team called the Pickles is too hard to pass up

Player Information Username: Matt_O Player Name: Full Player Name Recruited From: Returning Age: 18 Position: D Height: 73 in. Weight: 200 lbs. Birthplace: United States of America Player Page @VHLM GM

@Laine THe discord link expired btw

#JoinTheBattle Joe Mama is proud to be a warrior

Player Information Username: Matt_O Player Name: Joe Mama Recruited From: Returning Age: 18 Position: LW Height: 75 in. Weight: 220 lbs. Birthplace: Gabon Player Page @VHLM GM

So apparently today is my 1000th day on the VHL. I only knew this because I must have put it in my phones calendar back in 2019 because I got a calendar notification that said 1000 and was confused for a while until I eventually figured it out. Even though I don't really come on here anymore I still think of this place very fondly and it was really great when I was very active. I have a few really great memories from this site, one of them really sticks out but I don't know if I'm allowed to say it. If you know you know. Anyways, it makes me feel old that it's been 1000 days since my cousin first told me about this site, and I stumbled onto Saskatoon and had no idea what was going on. I relied on the discord to tell me the scores because I didn't know where to find them on the site. I also had the how to earn TPE guide from Will bookmarked and I would check it a lot to make sure I was doing everything I could. I just started my freshman year of high school when I joined this site and now I start my senior year in just a couple weeks. Being a part of VSN for nearly all of 2019 is what I am most proud of, and it's transformation into what it is today is awesome to see. Being a part of it again in 2020 was pretty great too. It even got me to start liking sports writing even more than I already did and now I just started writing for the New Era Hockey Network, which you probably have never heard of but it's pretty cool. I just wrote my first article where I basically just shat on the Canucks for being horrible with their cap space. That's a bit of an exaggeration but I did write about the Canucks and how Benning is weird. This site also made me not like the Canucks because everyone here was a Canucks fan and I liked to see everyone get sad when they lost. The day they lost to Vegas in 7 was a joyous day for me to just watch the discord, but the day they beat Minnesota was horrible. It was flooded with messages and everyone was acting like they just won the cup, even though they just beat a team who's best player was a 100 year old Eric Staal. Lots of great memories from this place. Being on Malmo in their early years was an incredible experience with the team and the locker room we had, and our cup run in S68 was awesome even though it ended quite disappointingly. The amount of times I would write that the Bears only were good because they were in a weak eastern conference and that in Europe they would barely be in 4th (which by points I think was true) and then they came in and swept us, that was pretty sad for me. Being in Calgary was great too, but again losing to the Bears sucked. I believe it was the conference finals of S73 when we blew a 3-1 lead. When I got drafted to Calgary I was pissed and was set on leaving after three seasons but it ended up being great there, the team was great and Jubis turned that team around. Thanks to the VHL for all the good times, I hope I will be back eventually.

750 elo, lets goooo

4 TPE, uncapped package 1/5

The General is on his fourth team in just a couple months. He was on Calgary last off-season before signing in Riga, which went south quickly. He was then traded to Seattle, won a cup, and then was promptly shipped off to London. Zod has two goals for his final season of his VHL career: win the cup, and don't pick up a British accent while he's in London. It's tough to get traded from a contender, but London is looking pretty good this upcoming season with stud goalie Jacob Tonn, as well as a solid group of forwards and defense. General Zod and Micah Adrienne will headline the London defense, forming a pretty formidable one two punch. Zod is coming off a career season with 69 points (nice), while Adrienne had 78 points last season which was also a career high for him. As long as the offense can stay strong, I don't see any reason why London can't make a nice run in the playoffs. 167 words

1. I've been a bit inconsistent with my TPE earning and keeping up, but I'm doing enough to keep my place and know what's going on. I see no reason why we can't go on a deep run. 2. It sucks, but you got the General to replace him. We will be just fine. 3. I already spent it on a TPE package, this will be my last season so I figured I might as well spend the rest of my money on whatever I can. 4. I've only been on the team for a few hours so I don't think I can really make an educated comment on this. But I'm sure whoever is picked will be worthy of the C. 5. Probably some kind of big cat, like a jaguar or a cheetah. 6. I don't know who would be exciting but my dog would be the most boring. She just sits around all day and if she was a human I imagine she would be a basic white girl obsessed with tiktok and starbucks.

General Zod- Defense

What an incredible week this has been for Zod. General Zod is a CHAMPION BABY. It took me 15 seasons and two different players to win one, but we finally got it done. It was a career season for Zod capped off by hoisting the continental cup for the first time in his career. My previous player was on Malmo and we had a couple really good runs, but were thwarted by Seattle in S68 and had a little rivalry with them. It's ironic that now my first championship comes with Seattle now, even though I would always root against them in the playoffs no matter what. After winning it all, it was an easy decision to re-sign with Seattle for Zod's last ever season. I'm excited for my next player, but also kind of sad that Zod's career is over. Zod was actually a really solid defenseman all these years. He wasn't the top guy in the league, but every season he would get lots of hits and blocked shots, and dish out 50-60 assists. Besides my rookie year, the lowest point total Zod ever had was 55. If I compare Zod to my last player I have a feeling Zod is very close, if not ahead of him with point totals. My last player was a forward too, which is kind of sad. But, by the time Zod's career is over I will be able to look at it positively. He was a really strong player during his time in the league and was a champion. Another milestone I will hit this week is 1000 TPE, which I will get with this media spot. I never reached 1000 TPE with my first player, I went inactive around 800-900. It truly is a special achievement to reach this mark, and I'm hoping it's my first of many future players that reach this milestone. I think I'm the 10th or so player to reach 1000 TPE from my draft class, which isn't bad. I was drafted 6th, so technically I should be a little higher but I'm not too worried about it. You could have all the TPE in the world but if your player can't put up points, it doesn't matter. I think my next player will be a forward again, probably a winger so I don't have to put any TPE into faceoffs. I want to make a goalie, but there seems to be a surplus. At the same time, half of those goalies are below 250 TPE so as long as I stay active and earn my TPE I should surpass them fairly easily. I'm still deciding what I want to do, but I did enjoy being a defenseman. I will also have to think of a name for my next player, which should be fun. I have some ideas rolling around my head but I feel like they are just a bit cringe so I'm leaning away from using them. I have at least a month to consider it, since I'm retiring Zod at the deadline to make my next player. I hope depreciation doesn't hit Zod extremely hard, since I bought two different depreciation fighters and have some banked TPE. I hope by the time I retire him, I will have gotten Zod's attributes back to the level they are at now. 557 words

I was so quik to see this thread

Zod had a career best season this year, finishing with 63 assists and 69 points (nice). I was hoping for 70, but setting a career high in points and assists is something I am more than happy about. Normally he is on point per game pace for half the season and then falls off a cliff, which didn't happen this year. He has so consistent, rarely having big games but rarely having games without a point. I was wondering if his 63 assist campaign put him on the leaderboards for either defensemen points or assists, but my hopes weren't too high. Normally the leaders are way up there, so I wasn't expecting much. Sure enough, Zod isn't up there. He just barely missed out on 10 for defensemen points, only trailing him by 2 points. However, the assist leaderboards makes no sense! 63 assists would put Zod in 7th place, but he is no where to be found. After a bit of sleuthing I discovered that on the leaderboards, Zod is split into two different stat lines; one for his time in Riga, and the other for his time in Seattle. This is outrageous, it's unfair. Upon writing this article, I also found out that Zod only played 71 games. He could have got 70 points, he was so close. The General isn't going to be happy about this. He will come with a vengeance this playoff.

This was initially what I wanted to write about when I read about the theme week, but I just didn't know enough to write a full media spot about it so I figured I would do a vhl.com. A lot of people on the site may not know about this whole story, so I'll just try to sum it up. @Beketov correct me if I'm wrong, since I'm just going off of what I remember. Beketov joined the site in the first ever draft as a goalie, Robert Sharpe. He was even selected first overall in the inaugural draft. However, there was a scandal. Apparently he had been re-using graphics that he used in other leagues to get easy TPE, and was suspended from earning TPE for an entire year. The punishment was a bit absurd, but it was just the VHL making an example out of him, to show that you wouldn't be able to mess around with the league. Bek was considering leaving the league entirely, but Scotty, the commissioner back in those days, convinced him to stick around. What would of happened if Bek never came back? There is just way too much that would have changed to seriously talk about this, especially since I wasn't even around for the first 63 seasons of the leagues existence. But, this is very clearly the biggest what if in league history. Yeah, you can talk about what if this team won game 7 or what if this team made this trade or whatever, but if Bek leaves the league after the inaugural season, what state is the league in right now? Is there even a league? 277 words

49. Tis a shame, Phil is a great member but we gotta do what we gotta do to win a chip. 50. I have absolutely no plans except maybe I'll play golf one day if it's nice. 51. There hasn't really been any trades since I got dealt, so that means either nothing will happen or a ton will happen. I'm pretty sure a lot of teams are slammed up onto the salary cap, but I could be wrong. 53. I have to go with Kendrick, only because he has one extra point. 54. I have no idea, but it won't be Zod that's for sure. This man's defensive stats have fallen off a cliff this year. A little disappointing, especially since I was on pace to shatter my career high for hits through the first 15-20 games. 55. I'd like to imagine he put all of his retirement savings into crypto currency, made a ton of money at first and got excited and then lost everything. Then, he pulled out his money to get a little bit back and then the price goes way back up again.

Some major sports leagues, such as the MLB and NFL, give the top draft picks to the worst teams. Other leagues, like the NHL and NBA, use a draft lottery to determine the top picks in the hopes of discouraging tanking. The VHL has a similar system, but what if we simply gave the top picks to the worst teams? I'm specifically going to look at Davos in the mid S60s, since they got shafted twice by the lottery. In S63, Davos was the laughing stock of the league. They had just finished off a period of competitiveness, featuring a cup run in S61. In S63, they had 15 wins and a putrid -157 goal differential. They had the best odds to land the first overall pick in the S64 draft, which featured defenseman Ryan Sullivan Jr. as the top prospect. In the lottery, the Americans were the team that came out on top, and Davos fell down to second. Davos ending up selecting Elias Dahlberg, certainly a strong selection even though they didn't get the first overall pick. At that point they needed anyone they could get, so moving down to the 2nd pick was pretty negligible. The next year, Davos was just as awful as the year before. With only 16 wins, they finished well in last place for the second straight year. Unfortunately they lost the lottery to none other than the Americans once again, who selected first gen Carles Puigdemont with the first pick. Davos picked up Smitty Werbenjagermanjenson with the second pick. If Davos had the first pick, would they have selected Puigdemont instead? From what I remember during that time, Puigdemont was a pretty consensus top pick even though he was a first gen. This stroke of bad luck from the lottery actually worked out in Davos' favor, since Werbenjagermanjenson is a hall of famer and one of the best defensemen of this era. He only spent half of his career with Davos, but it still was a great pick. However, if Davos got the first pick there is good reason to believe that Puigdemont would have been the pick, who flamed out after a couple of seasons. Puigdemont was a center when he got selected, meaning that the Rylan Peace trade to Davos likely never would of happened. They never drafted Dahlberg either, since they got Ryan Sullivan Jr. They would have Puigdemont and Svoboda manning the top line, and essentially the same defense core except Sullivan Jr. replaced Smitty. Their offense looks pretty weak from that, so perhaps instead of Rylan Peace, Davos trades Randoms to Riga for a young winger instead, such as Ryuu Crimson. Now you have a very young top line of Crimson-Puigdemont-Svoboda. The biggest problem is Puigdemont, who ended up leaving the league a couple seasons into his career. That leaves Davos with a problem in the S66 draft where they desperately need a center. They have the sixth overall pick, Davos originally selected defenseman Charlie Paddywagon, but now they need a center rather than a defenseman. I think they would end up selecting Jet Jaguar at 6. As we know, Jaguar was a tremendous player in the VHL. Now with the 13th pick, Davos could go for defense to pair alongside Ryan Sullivan Jr., so they select Apollo Hackett. Am I just picking the best players that went after their draft slot? Maybe, since they very easily could have taken Rusty Shackleford instead. However, those players fit what they would have needed. Without the draft lottery, it's fair to say Davos would have actually gotten worse. However, selecting first overall in those drafts would have effected their future decisions, which I think would have benefited them. They could have Ryuu Crimson, Jet Jaguar, Pat Svoboda, Ryan Sullivan Jr., Apollo Hacket, and Finn Davidson in net. Even though their future core looked really solid in S66, this core might just be a little bit better. Is this what would have actually happened? Maybe, maybe not. However, all this should tell you is that losing the draft lottery isn't really the end of the world. 686 words

I have no idea what to write, but I think rehashing some old VHL memories from 2019 is a good idea for a quick and easy 150 words. There were a couple things I did that made no sense at all. One of those things was when I applied for the Saskatoon AGM job, even though I became the Malmo AGM like maybe a week before hand. I think I would have gotten it too, since I was in the final two, but I got hired as the Aces GM before anything happened. I still have no idea why I did that. Another thing I remember was around S65 I think, right as playoff began. I got a message from ADV, asking how I would feel about being selected in expansion. I wrote back that it would be cool, and I said, "I highly doubt I would be left available." Wouldn't you know it, two weeks later I was selected. For a solid 10 minutes after that happened I wasn't happy, honestly. But after I got over myself I realized that this is a tremendous thing, to play for an expansion team. I had some decent success with them as well, and was an all star one year plus an assistant captain. The S66-S68 Malmo team was so great, I don't think any team will ever top them in terms of how much I enjoyed being on the team. One last thing I remember is when I did the Hub recruitment drives, and someone came onto the site and actually said that's where they found the vhl from. I was so hyped at that time, what a legendary moment. He never logged on again after creating his player, but that still was incredible.

1. Of course we can baby, we are cooking right now 2. Any answer other than Riga is wrong. We will come on strong and win it all. 3. Sorry, but the 2000 TPE mark is unbreakable. The changes to TPE earning make it much harder to reach those crazy numbers, and I think recruiting TPE is smaller now which is how Eno got so much TPE, at least I think that's what happened. 4. As Sir Antoine Lavoiser once said, "For any system closed to all transfers of matter and energy, the mass of the system must remain constant over time, as the system's mass cannot change, so quantity can neither be added nor be removed." You would stay exactly the same size. 5. I have no idea, but I would like to imagine that they do and that it all piles up and comes out at once during birth. 6. A horse the size of a cat, easily. I'm not sure why but I just think that is much better than a mouse sized cat.

Week 2 claim

The second half of the season is about to begin, and Zod is currently sitting top 5 in defenseman points and assists. This is perhaps the best start to a season he has ever had, but I don't have my hopes up. Every year, I feel like it's the same story. Zod is on the leaderboard for defenseman points, maybe even assists too. He always is sitting at or slightly above a point per game status, with a couple goals and a whole lot of assists. Then, inexplicably, Zod plays absolutely terrible. He will go on a 20 game stretch with 5 points. It happens every season. Last year it happened, I was at 40 points in about 40 games and then over the next 20 games I had maybe 10 points, but probably less. This year Zod is playing really well, but I have a feeling he is going to fall off, just like he does every season. I should have added this to the things I hate about the VHL, the fact that it's rigged against my players. They see that Zod is doing well, and then all of these fake points start coming in for other defenseman and Zod can't keep up. It is truly a shame. So far, Zod has continued to excel. Will it continue into the second half of the season? It's only happened once so far, so I doubt it. With Riga right on the playoff bubble, a poor end of season performance by Zod could be very costly. 256 words