Matt_O

damage control szn continues.
 
It's unfortunate that the roster never clicked properly, but at least Zod has a legit chance for a championship now. Good luck in Seattle @Matt_O!
 
Also, welcome to Riga @Dtayl @Jurell Yurki!

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.

It’s November 19th, 2016. The greatest finals in VHL history all comes down to a winner take all Game 7 between the Riga Reign and Toronto Legion. Sandro Clegane and Greg Clegane, who are brothers playing netminder for their respective teams, have both had spectacular series but they saved the best for tonight. But how did we get here? What happened in the other six games? What happened to make this series even happen? This moment needs a deep rewind.
 
The brothers Greg Clegane and Sandro Clegane both created in the S45 draft year as goaltenders. Both were top five picks, with Greg Clegane heading to Helsinki with the number two selection while Sandro Clegane was taken fourth overall by Cologne. So how did they both get onto Riga and Toronto? 
 
Greg Clegane should have been heading to Toronto right from the start of his career. During S43 the Legion traded their S45 first-rounder to Helsinki for the veteran Tyson Stokes. The Legion would flop two seasons later, and end up gifting the second overall pick and one of the best netminders of all time to Helsinki. Greg would later be traded to Vancouver during the S49 offseason for a couple of draft picks. Vancouver would also acquire Aleksi Koponen, another Hall of Famer. Greg Clegane would end up signing in Toronto when he became a free agent.
 

Aleksi Koponen during his time with the Wranglers
 
Sandro Clegane was the darling of all GM’s when it came to being traded; as he was dealt four different times throughout his career. It started before he ever even belonged to a VHL franchise, as Cologne traded up in Riga’s place to draft Sandro Clegane fourth overall. He would be traded to Seattle after a couple of seasons in Cologne but was traded the very next season to Davos for Jakob Holik, another elite goaltender, and a couple of other pieces. Two seasons after that Sandro would be dealt to the team that traded away the pick that he was taken with, as the Riga Reign would put together a blockbuster deal with Davos to get Sandro.
 
Now we know how both goaltenders got it, but how did this series go to game seven? To put it lightly, the Legion were never even supposed to be here.
 
The Calgary Wranglers were by far the best team and it wasn’t even close. We all know the time they went 69-3 in S1 and lost to Vasteras in the finals. This year they were hoping things would be different, as they had a 64-4-4 record that was 19 points more than the second-placed Riga Reign. When the Legion just scraped by the Bears in the wild card round, most people expected the Wranglers to put on a clinic. After all, the Wranglers offence scored 283 goals during the regular season, by far the most that season. They managed to score 5 goals over the course of 5 games. To say Greg Clegane was amazing that series is an understatement, as the Legion breezed by a Calgary team that was trying to be considered one of the greatest teams ever.
 
Riga, on the other hand, was the top seed in the European Conference. A battle between them and the Cologne Express was a given, considering how third-placed HC Davos had a mere 54 points that year. It was a tremendous battle, but the Reign found themselves down 3-1 after four games. They didn’t let that get to their head, as they rattled off three straight wins in order to clinch a finals appearance against the Toronto Legion.
 
With two of the greatest goaltenders in league history finally going head to head in a finals series, you would expect it to be a defensive series, especially since Riga and Toronto were both one of the leagues, top defensive teams. There was only one game in the finals where one of the goalies had a save percentage below .900, and that was Greg Clegane in game three. Sandro Clegane held the Legion to only two goals in the first two games of the series to take a 2-0 series lead early, and in-game three, this series looked like it was over.
 
Heading into the third period, the score was tied 1-1. Sandro Clegane was having a decent game, but Greg Clegane was in the middle of one of the greatest finals performances the league has ever seen. He had stopped 35 of 36 shots heading into the third period, while Sandro had only faced 12 shots up to that point. Even with three third period powerplays, the Reign simply couldn’t put the puck in the net and the game headed into overtime.
 

 
It took double overtime to decide this one. The Reign had poured on 61 shots throughout the game, but only scored once courtesy of Shawn Muller in the second period. The Legion had 35 shots on net, but it didn’t matter. LeAndre St. Pierre of Toronto scored in double overtime to win the game and swing the momentum into the Legions favour, and they would promptly win game four and game five. In-game six it looked over for the Reign, as they let up two first period goals and fell down 2-0, but Pietro Maximoff’s hat trick heroics saved the series for Riga. This was before Maximoff’s legendary S52 season, where he had the most points and goals in the VHL. Now, we headed to game seven.
 
As I said before, this game seven has been nothing short of incredible. It was a heavily contested matchup that had tight defence all over it. The Reign found themselves with a slim edge in the shots total after two periods but it wouldn’t matter, because the score was still tied at zero. It was fitting that the series most well known for the goalies was going to end on this note, a true defensive grind out of a game. This was until one of the weirdest and probably most infuriating mistakes ever made in VHL history comes into play.
 
No, I am not exaggerating when I say that. In-game 7 of a continental cup finals, you don’t have your computer players playing, especially when it’s a tie game with less than two minutes left. Somehow, someway, TOR C2 found himself on the ice and promptly took a hooking penalty with 1:08 left in the third period. That brings us back to where we started, with a loose puck in front of Greg Clegane, as Richard Hamilton attempts to get control of the puck. He does so and fires home the game-winner with 24 seconds left in game 7.
 
Riga would ultimately follow up the S51 Continental Cup win with a finals appearance the next year, but they lost to New York in five games. The Toronto Legion would not return to the finals until their shocking back to back cup wins in S64 and S65. Both Sandro Clegane and Greg Clegane would be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and this series would live on in infamy.
 
Sandro Clegane: @JardyB10
Greg Clegane: @Victor
Aleksi Koponen graphic courtesy of @Mr.Baller
Greg Clegane graphic courtesy of @solas
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RIGA REIGN PRESS CONFERENCE
Week Ending 04/11
 
1. We passed Malmo and Moscow and are now one point out of Davos' playoff spot. CAN WE DO IT?
2. Warsaw currently holds the league lead. Who do you see winning the cup?
3. Is there anyone else thinking that @RedSus might break the all time TPE record?
4. If I eat myself will I become twice as big or just disappear?(hedge asked for a science question, well here it is)
5. Do babies poop in the womb?
6. Would you rather own a horse the size of a cat or a cat the size of a mouse?
 
Shoutouts: Everyone who said tiktok is officially a human, and special shoutout to @Matt_O's cool/weird spaghetti story
 

1. We are pretty close to fifth place in the European Conference right now, it's about time we started playing good.
2. I know nothing about LA, but judging from the way this question is asked I'll say it's a complete fluke. They won't even make the playoffs.
3. Anyone but Zod. The General is notorious for playing like garbage the last 20 games of the season, every single year I am point per game or better until the final 20 games, when I get like 7 points. It happens every year, so I'm not getting my hopes up this year. I think Calvin Harvey will have a strong second half.
4. What perfect timing, since I just wrote a media spot about things in the VHL that make me mad. I hate when people act like hypocrites but play it off like they are just doing what the 'other side' does, as if that makes it suddenly okay now. This mainly happens in politics and I just hate when people do that.
5. Sidney Crosby, Brandon Dubinsky, and an MMA referee. 
6. I've whiffed some pretty killer farts before, but the weirdest smell I can think of was when my mom left me a bowl of spaghetti for dinner on my desk in my room, since I was quarantined with covid at that time. I didn't realize, and I thought the smell was my body odor and I was like god damn that stinks. It was just the spaghetti, which smelt kind of weird for whatever reason.

690 Elo I think

So, this week I ran out of multi-week medias to claim so unfortunately here I am. There are plenty of reasons to like the VHL; if there wasn't, I would have left a long time ago. However, there are some aspects that I don't really love. Some of these things aren't the actual leagues fault, and by complaining about these things I'm not trying to lobby for change. I just need some stuff to write about and this seemed like a good idea, so here we go. I got the idea for this article because of the expansion post, which I fell for until I read the replies. I was moments away from angrily going into the Riga discord about it until I realized it was a joke. 
 
One thing I don't like are the people that complain. This is pretty self explanatory, but some of these people really make me angry. My personal least favorites are the people who complain about Simon. They cry that the sim engine is broken because there team that finished in second place lost to the team that finished fourth. In case you haven't noticed, in the real life NHL the "best team" doesn't win the cup all the time. In the last ten years, the presidents trophy winning team has been eliminated in the first round just as many times as they have reached the conference finals (3 times each). The most winning team in decades got swept in the first round. A 16th overall seed won a Stanley Cup. Just because your team finished in first doesn't guarantee you a championship, or even a playoff series win. In college basketball, a 16 seed upset the top overall seed a couple years ago. Keep in mind that upsets in basketball are much harder to pull off then in hockey because of the way the game is played. 
 
Another thing I hate about people complaining is when they complain about not getting jobs. Perhaps even worse is when they complain about other people not getting jobs (I think we know who I am referring too). If you feel like you deserved a job, then apply for the next one and hope you get it. Complaining will just make the commissioners dislike you and hurt your chances at getting the next job. Another thing about jobs I hated were people that would advocate for certain people to get jobs. When I was newer, I would apply for a lot of different jobs. A lot of times I would go into the thread and their would be only be one other application but like seven different people quoting them saying "This guy is amazing!!! They are the greatest person to ever roam this site and they deserve this job more than anyone else on the site!!!!!!!". That just really bothered me. I'm glad that now you aren't allowed to do that because it just made me very angry.
 
I really don't like the new career tasks. I don't know if it's just me, but I just forget about them until it's too late to do them. The only ones I did for Zod were the ones I could do immediately after I created him. The rest of them I forgot about until it was too late. I wish we just went back to the biography and rookie profile for 18 TPE. Not that I really like those, but it just was much easier to do, at least in my opinion.
 
Perhaps one of my least favorite thing about the league is the fact that the top guys somehow seem to get more TPE than everyone else. I'm not saying that these people don't deserve the TPE, because they do. I just don't understand how they get so much. I wrote an article about this a while ago, comparing my old player to HHH. I started with at least 100 more TPE than HHH, but within two seasons he had a 100 TPE lead on me. I capped out nearly every single week, and took advantage of as many uncapped opportunites as I could. I just could not wrap my head around how he gained 200 extra TPE on me in a short period of time, it made absolutely no sense. How did Eno get to 2000 TPE? What did he even do to get that much TPE, how is it possible? This isn't really a league problem, since this is probably just me being angry that I'm not as good as the top members. But it still makes me angry enough to be in this article.
 
I hate the awards. Well, specifically the Scott Boulet. How do you use hits to determine who the top two way forward is? That doesn't even make any sense. I've already written an article about this so I won't go too into detail. But this award just makes me so angry. I think it was designed as an easy way to pad players resumes to get into the hall of fame. A player with no awards doesn't look great, even if they scored tons of points. Throw in a couple Boulets? It helps beef up their trophy case to make a better hall of fame case, but I think the award is bogus. Being a good two way forward is something that can't be reduced down to just hits. A lot of it is the eye test, which is something we don't have.
 
This (hopefully) doesn't apply anymore today, but it used to happen a lot. This was mentioned in gorlabs very famous thunderdome post. If I spent time writing a media spot, only for it to be graded as a 4/6 and be told that it sucks, I would go ballistic. I wasn't around for this era, but I wouldn't be surprised if harsh grading was a reason for people not staying on the site (that could be wrong). People that would be a strict grader remind me of hall monitors from elementary school. I would hate this if it was still around.
 
There might be more things I hate but this is all I got right now. The VHL overall has a lot of good things so these things I'm not really a fan off aren't a huge deal, and a few of them aren't even the leagues fault. 
 
1030 words or something like that
 

Oh shut up

🤔🤔🤔

Haha nah for real this is good stuff. You’ve clearly thought about this and have been around long enough to have solid ideas based on a lot of experience. I’m going to go read up on your other linked rants because I’m also very curious how HHH doubled you in a season. 
 
Edit: lmao “No I can't look through [the update log], I don't want answers, I just want to believe in my head that he's cheating”  You crack me up

Having now gone a full career with them: I kinda agree. It was an idea we took because the league wanted an experience that lasted longer than just two articles written immediately and the idea itself may have held weight in theory but in practice I don’t find it works. They are too easily forgettable and make it feel somehow even more like a chore (probably because there’s like 5 instead of 2). I think, like you, I did the first two and forgot the rest. Hell I’m part of the first class to now be able to write the bio (S70) and there’s only 3 of us left active that haven’t retired. It’s super limiting potential content. Might re-evaluate it.
 
Others have basically covered it. Old recruitment rules, HoF articles, and league desperation. We were in full fledged “throw anything at it to survive” mode when Eno joined and he took full advantage of that. We were throwing huge piles of TPE at everything because we were honestly close to dead. Since then most of the avenues to inflate TPE that much have been changed or closed so I wouldn’t use him as much of a metric of what’s possible.
 
Most graders weren’t really that harsh and it was how sims leagues operated at the time, it’s not like we were different in some way, so you just kinda accepted it. It wasn’t really fun to lose points but anything under 5 was almost never seen and even 5’s were relatively rare. Did it drive a few people away? We’ll never know for sure but I’d wager not many.
 
I would say 5’s were more common than @Doomsday implies but even then if the next grader came in and gave it a 6 it would round up. Is old fucks like to exaggerate and it did happen that you’d get less than 6 but it definitely wasn’t for simply missing a single comma. I didn’t do MS’ so I’m not completely sure how strict they were but I know with GFX 5’s were relatively common, 4’s and lower were super unlikely.

"Something something back in the good old days if we missed a comma Jardy would mail us a warning Kaczynski-style" is how us VHL zoomers tend to have it explained to us, so there's a good reason why this misconception exists.

So, this week I ran out of multi-week medias to claim so unfortunately here I am. There are plenty of reasons to like the VHL; if there wasn't, I would have left a long time ago. However, there are some aspects that I don't really love. Some of these things aren't the actual leagues fault, and by complaining about these things I'm not trying to lobby for change. I just need some stuff to write about and this seemed like a good idea, so here we go. I got the idea for this article because of the expansion post, which I fell for until I read the replies. I was moments away from angrily going into the Riga discord about it until I realized it was a joke. 
 
One thing I don't like are the people that complain. This is pretty self explanatory, but some of these people really make me angry. My personal least favorites are the people who complain about Simon. They cry that the sim engine is broken because there team that finished in second place lost to the team that finished fourth. In case you haven't noticed, in the real life NHL the "best team" doesn't win the cup all the time. In the last ten years, the presidents trophy winning team has been eliminated in the first round just as many times as they have reached the conference finals (3 times each). The most winning team in decades got swept in the first round. A 16th overall seed won a Stanley Cup. Just because your team finished in first doesn't guarantee you a championship, or even a playoff series win. In college basketball, a 16 seed upset the top overall seed a couple years ago. Keep in mind that upsets in basketball are much harder to pull off then in hockey because of the way the game is played. 
 
Another thing I hate about people complaining is when they complain about not getting jobs. Perhaps even worse is when they complain about other people not getting jobs (I think we know who I am referring too). If you feel like you deserved a job, then apply for the next one and hope you get it. Complaining will just make the commissioners dislike you and hurt your chances at getting the next job. Another thing about jobs I hated were people that would advocate for certain people to get jobs. When I was newer, I would apply for a lot of different jobs. A lot of times I would go into the thread and their would be only be one other application but like seven different people quoting them saying "This guy is amazing!!! They are the greatest person to ever roam this site and they deserve this job more than anyone else on the site!!!!!!!". That just really bothered me. I'm glad that now you aren't allowed to do that because it just made me very angry.
 
I really don't like the new career tasks. I don't know if it's just me, but I just forget about them until it's too late to do them. The only ones I did for Zod were the ones I could do immediately after I created him. The rest of them I forgot about until it was too late. I wish we just went back to the biography and rookie profile for 18 TPE. Not that I really like those, but it just was much easier to do, at least in my opinion.
 
Perhaps one of my least favorite thing about the league is the fact that the top guys somehow seem to get more TPE than everyone else. I'm not saying that these people don't deserve the TPE, because they do. I just don't understand how they get so much. I wrote an article about this a while ago, comparing my old player to HHH. I started with at least 100 more TPE than HHH, but within two seasons he had a 100 TPE lead on me. I capped out nearly every single week, and took advantage of as many uncapped opportunites as I could. I just could not wrap my head around how he gained 200 extra TPE on me in a short period of time, it made absolutely no sense. How did Eno get to 2000 TPE? What did he even do to get that much TPE, how is it possible? This isn't really a league problem, since this is probably just me being angry that I'm not as good as the top members. But it still makes me angry enough to be in this article.
 
I hate the awards. Well, specifically the Scott Boulet. How do you use hits to determine who the top two way forward is? That doesn't even make any sense. I've already written an article about this so I won't go too into detail. But this award just makes me so angry. I think it was designed as an easy way to pad players resumes to get into the hall of fame. A player with no awards doesn't look great, even if they scored tons of points. Throw in a couple Boulets? It helps beef up their trophy case to make a better hall of fame case, but I think the award is bogus. Being a good two way forward is something that can't be reduced down to just hits. A lot of it is the eye test, which is something we don't have.
 
This (hopefully) doesn't apply anymore today, but it used to happen a lot. This was mentioned in gorlabs very famous thunderdome post. If I spent time writing a media spot, only for it to be graded as a 4/6 and be told that it sucks, I would go ballistic. I wasn't around for this era, but I wouldn't be surprised if harsh grading was a reason for people not staying on the site (that could be wrong). People that would be a strict grader remind me of hall monitors from elementary school. I would hate this if it was still around.
 
There might be more things I hate but this is all I got right now. The VHL overall has a lot of good things so these things I'm not really a fan off aren't a huge deal, and a few of them aren't even the leagues fault. 
 
1030 words or something like that
 

So, this week I ran out of multi-week medias to claim so unfortunately here I am. There are plenty of reasons to like the VHL; if there wasn't, I would have left a long time ago. However, there are some aspects that I don't really love. Some of these things aren't the actual leagues fault, and by complaining about these things I'm not trying to lobby for change. I just need some stuff to write about and this seemed like a good idea, so here we go. I got the idea for this article because of the expansion post, which I fell for until I read the replies. I was moments away from angrily going into the Riga discord about it until I realized it was a joke. 
 
One thing I don't like are the people that complain. This is pretty self explanatory, but some of these people really make me angry. My personal least favorites are the people who complain about Simon. They cry that the sim engine is broken because there team that finished in second place lost to the team that finished fourth. In case you haven't noticed, in the real life NHL the "best team" doesn't win the cup all the time. In the last ten years, the presidents trophy winning team has been eliminated in the first round just as many times as they have reached the conference finals (3 times each). The most winning team in decades got swept in the first round. A 16th overall seed won a Stanley Cup. Just because your team finished in first doesn't guarantee you a championship, or even a playoff series win. In college basketball, a 16 seed upset the top overall seed a couple years ago. Keep in mind that upsets in basketball are much harder to pull off then in hockey because of the way the game is played. 
 
Another thing I hate about people complaining is when they complain about not getting jobs. Perhaps even worse is when they complain about other people not getting jobs (I think we know who I am referring too). If you feel like you deserved a job, then apply for the next one and hope you get it. Complaining will just make the commissioners dislike you and hurt your chances at getting the next job. Another thing about jobs I hated were people that would advocate for certain people to get jobs. When I was newer, I would apply for a lot of different jobs. A lot of times I would go into the thread and their would be only be one other application but like seven different people quoting them saying "This guy is amazing!!! They are the greatest person to ever roam this site and they deserve this job more than anyone else on the site!!!!!!!". That just really bothered me. I'm glad that now you aren't allowed to do that because it just made me very angry.
 
I really don't like the new career tasks. I don't know if it's just me, but I just forget about them until it's too late to do them. The only ones I did for Zod were the ones I could do immediately after I created him. The rest of them I forgot about until it was too late. I wish we just went back to the biography and rookie profile for 18 TPE. Not that I really like those, but it just was much easier to do, at least in my opinion.
 
Perhaps one of my least favorite thing about the league is the fact that the top guys somehow seem to get more TPE than everyone else. I'm not saying that these people don't deserve the TPE, because they do. I just don't understand how they get so much. I wrote an article about this a while ago, comparing my old player to HHH. I started with at least 100 more TPE than HHH, but within two seasons he had a 100 TPE lead on me. I capped out nearly every single week, and took advantage of as many uncapped opportunites as I could. I just could not wrap my head around how he gained 200 extra TPE on me in a short period of time, it made absolutely no sense. How did Eno get to 2000 TPE? What did he even do to get that much TPE, how is it possible? This isn't really a league problem, since this is probably just me being angry that I'm not as good as the top members. But it still makes me angry enough to be in this article.
 
I hate the awards. Well, specifically the Scott Boulet. How do you use hits to determine who the top two way forward is? That doesn't even make any sense. I've already written an article about this so I won't go too into detail. But this award just makes me so angry. I think it was designed as an easy way to pad players resumes to get into the hall of fame. A player with no awards doesn't look great, even if they scored tons of points. Throw in a couple Boulets? It helps beef up their trophy case to make a better hall of fame case, but I think the award is bogus. Being a good two way forward is something that can't be reduced down to just hits. A lot of it is the eye test, which is something we don't have.
 
This (hopefully) doesn't apply anymore today, but it used to happen a lot. This was mentioned in gorlabs very famous thunderdome post. If I spent time writing a media spot, only for it to be graded as a 4/6 and be told that it sucks, I would go ballistic. I wasn't around for this era, but I wouldn't be surprised if harsh grading was a reason for people not staying on the site (that could be wrong). People that would be a strict grader remind me of hall monitors from elementary school. I would hate this if it was still around.
 
There might be more things I hate but this is all I got right now. The VHL overall has a lot of good things so these things I'm not really a fan off aren't a huge deal, and a few of them aren't even the leagues fault. 
 
1030 words or something like that
 

No I can't look through there, I don't want answers, I just want to believe in my head that he's cheating

So, this week I ran out of multi-week medias to claim so unfortunately here I am. There are plenty of reasons to like the VHL; if there wasn't, I would have left a long time ago. However, there are some aspects that I don't really love. Some of these things aren't the actual leagues fault, and by complaining about these things I'm not trying to lobby for change. I just need some stuff to write about and this seemed like a good idea, so here we go. I got the idea for this article because of the expansion post, which I fell for until I read the replies. I was moments away from angrily going into the Riga discord about it until I realized it was a joke. 
 
One thing I don't like are the people that complain. This is pretty self explanatory, but some of these people really make me angry. My personal least favorites are the people who complain about Simon. They cry that the sim engine is broken because there team that finished in second place lost to the team that finished fourth. In case you haven't noticed, in the real life NHL the "best team" doesn't win the cup all the time. In the last ten years, the presidents trophy winning team has been eliminated in the first round just as many times as they have reached the conference finals (3 times each). The most winning team in decades got swept in the first round. A 16th overall seed won a Stanley Cup. Just because your team finished in first doesn't guarantee you a championship, or even a playoff series win. In college basketball, a 16 seed upset the top overall seed a couple years ago. Keep in mind that upsets in basketball are much harder to pull off then in hockey because of the way the game is played. 
 
Another thing I hate about people complaining is when they complain about not getting jobs. Perhaps even worse is when they complain about other people not getting jobs (I think we know who I am referring too). If you feel like you deserved a job, then apply for the next one and hope you get it. Complaining will just make the commissioners dislike you and hurt your chances at getting the next job. Another thing about jobs I hated were people that would advocate for certain people to get jobs. When I was newer, I would apply for a lot of different jobs. A lot of times I would go into the thread and their would be only be one other application but like seven different people quoting them saying "This guy is amazing!!! They are the greatest person to ever roam this site and they deserve this job more than anyone else on the site!!!!!!!". That just really bothered me. I'm glad that now you aren't allowed to do that because it just made me very angry.
 
I really don't like the new career tasks. I don't know if it's just me, but I just forget about them until it's too late to do them. The only ones I did for Zod were the ones I could do immediately after I created him. The rest of them I forgot about until it was too late. I wish we just went back to the biography and rookie profile for 18 TPE. Not that I really like those, but it just was much easier to do, at least in my opinion.
 
Perhaps one of my least favorite thing about the league is the fact that the top guys somehow seem to get more TPE than everyone else. I'm not saying that these people don't deserve the TPE, because they do. I just don't understand how they get so much. I wrote an article about this a while ago, comparing my old player to HHH. I started with at least 100 more TPE than HHH, but within two seasons he had a 100 TPE lead on me. I capped out nearly every single week, and took advantage of as many uncapped opportunites as I could. I just could not wrap my head around how he gained 200 extra TPE on me in a short period of time, it made absolutely no sense. How did Eno get to 2000 TPE? What did he even do to get that much TPE, how is it possible? This isn't really a league problem, since this is probably just me being angry that I'm not as good as the top members. But it still makes me angry enough to be in this article.
 
I hate the awards. Well, specifically the Scott Boulet. How do you use hits to determine who the top two way forward is? That doesn't even make any sense. I've already written an article about this so I won't go too into detail. But this award just makes me so angry. I think it was designed as an easy way to pad players resumes to get into the hall of fame. A player with no awards doesn't look great, even if they scored tons of points. Throw in a couple Boulets? It helps beef up their trophy case to make a better hall of fame case, but I think the award is bogus. Being a good two way forward is something that can't be reduced down to just hits. A lot of it is the eye test, which is something we don't have.
 
This (hopefully) doesn't apply anymore today, but it used to happen a lot. This was mentioned in gorlabs very famous thunderdome post. If I spent time writing a media spot, only for it to be graded as a 4/6 and be told that it sucks, I would go ballistic. I wasn't around for this era, but I wouldn't be surprised if harsh grading was a reason for people not staying on the site (that could be wrong). People that would be a strict grader remind me of hall monitors from elementary school. I would hate this if it was still around.
 
There might be more things I hate but this is all I got right now. The VHL overall has a lot of good things so these things I'm not really a fan off aren't a huge deal, and a few of them aren't even the leagues fault. 
 
1030 words or something like that
 

So, this week I ran out of multi-week medias to claim so unfortunately here I am. There are plenty of reasons to like the VHL; if there wasn't, I would have left a long time ago. However, there are some aspects that I don't really love. Some of these things aren't the actual leagues fault, and by complaining about these things I'm not trying to lobby for change. I just need some stuff to write about and this seemed like a good idea, so here we go. I got the idea for this article because of the expansion post, which I fell for until I read the replies. I was moments away from angrily going into the Riga discord about it until I realized it was a joke. 
 
One thing I don't like are the people that complain. This is pretty self explanatory, but some of these people really make me angry. My personal least favorites are the people who complain about Simon. They cry that the sim engine is broken because there team that finished in second place lost to the team that finished fourth. In case you haven't noticed, in the real life NHL the "best team" doesn't win the cup all the time. In the last ten years, the presidents trophy winning team has been eliminated in the first round just as many times as they have reached the conference finals (3 times each). The most winning team in decades got swept in the first round. A 16th overall seed won a Stanley Cup. Just because your team finished in first doesn't guarantee you a championship, or even a playoff series win. In college basketball, a 16 seed upset the top overall seed a couple years ago. Keep in mind that upsets in basketball are much harder to pull off then in hockey because of the way the game is played. 
 
Another thing I hate about people complaining is when they complain about not getting jobs. Perhaps even worse is when they complain about other people not getting jobs (I think we know who I am referring too). If you feel like you deserved a job, then apply for the next one and hope you get it. Complaining will just make the commissioners dislike you and hurt your chances at getting the next job. Another thing about jobs I hated were people that would advocate for certain people to get jobs. When I was newer, I would apply for a lot of different jobs. A lot of times I would go into the thread and their would be only be one other application but like seven different people quoting them saying "This guy is amazing!!! They are the greatest person to ever roam this site and they deserve this job more than anyone else on the site!!!!!!!". That just really bothered me. I'm glad that now you aren't allowed to do that because it just made me very angry.
 
I really don't like the new career tasks. I don't know if it's just me, but I just forget about them until it's too late to do them. The only ones I did for Zod were the ones I could do immediately after I created him. The rest of them I forgot about until it was too late. I wish we just went back to the biography and rookie profile for 18 TPE. Not that I really like those, but it just was much easier to do, at least in my opinion.
 
Perhaps one of my least favorite thing about the league is the fact that the top guys somehow seem to get more TPE than everyone else. I'm not saying that these people don't deserve the TPE, because they do. I just don't understand how they get so much. I wrote an article about this a while ago, comparing my old player to HHH. I started with at least 100 more TPE than HHH, but within two seasons he had a 100 TPE lead on me. I capped out nearly every single week, and took advantage of as many uncapped opportunites as I could. I just could not wrap my head around how he gained 200 extra TPE on me in a short period of time, it made absolutely no sense. How did Eno get to 2000 TPE? What did he even do to get that much TPE, how is it possible? This isn't really a league problem, since this is probably just me being angry that I'm not as good as the top members. But it still makes me angry enough to be in this article.
 
I hate the awards. Well, specifically the Scott Boulet. How do you use hits to determine who the top two way forward is? That doesn't even make any sense. I've already written an article about this so I won't go too into detail. But this award just makes me so angry. I think it was designed as an easy way to pad players resumes to get into the hall of fame. A player with no awards doesn't look great, even if they scored tons of points. Throw in a couple Boulets? It helps beef up their trophy case to make a better hall of fame case, but I think the award is bogus. Being a good two way forward is something that can't be reduced down to just hits. A lot of it is the eye test, which is something we don't have.
 
This (hopefully) doesn't apply anymore today, but it used to happen a lot. This was mentioned in gorlabs very famous thunderdome post. If I spent time writing a media spot, only for it to be graded as a 4/6 and be told that it sucks, I would go ballistic. I wasn't around for this era, but I wouldn't be surprised if harsh grading was a reason for people not staying on the site (that could be wrong). People that would be a strict grader remind me of hall monitors from elementary school. I would hate this if it was still around.
 
There might be more things I hate but this is all I got right now. The VHL overall has a lot of good things so these things I'm not really a fan off aren't a huge deal, and a few of them aren't even the leagues fault. 
 
1030 words or something like that
 

So, this week I ran out of multi-week medias to claim so unfortunately here I am. There are plenty of reasons to like the VHL; if there wasn't, I would have left a long time ago. However, there are some aspects that I don't really love. Some of these things aren't the actual leagues fault, and by complaining about these things I'm not trying to lobby for change. I just need some stuff to write about and this seemed like a good idea, so here we go. I got the idea for this article because of the expansion post, which I fell for until I read the replies. I was moments away from angrily going into the Riga discord about it until I realized it was a joke. 
 
One thing I don't like are the people that complain. This is pretty self explanatory, but some of these people really make me angry. My personal least favorites are the people who complain about Simon. They cry that the sim engine is broken because there team that finished in second place lost to the team that finished fourth. In case you haven't noticed, in the real life NHL the "best team" doesn't win the cup all the time. In the last ten years, the presidents trophy winning team has been eliminated in the first round just as many times as they have reached the conference finals (3 times each). The most winning team in decades got swept in the first round. A 16th overall seed won a Stanley Cup. Just because your team finished in first doesn't guarantee you a championship, or even a playoff series win. In college basketball, a 16 seed upset the top overall seed a couple years ago. Keep in mind that upsets in basketball are much harder to pull off then in hockey because of the way the game is played. 
 
Another thing I hate about people complaining is when they complain about not getting jobs. Perhaps even worse is when they complain about other people not getting jobs (I think we know who I am referring too). If you feel like you deserved a job, then apply for the next one and hope you get it. Complaining will just make the commissioners dislike you and hurt your chances at getting the next job. Another thing about jobs I hated were people that would advocate for certain people to get jobs. When I was newer, I would apply for a lot of different jobs. A lot of times I would go into the thread and their would be only be one other application but like seven different people quoting them saying "This guy is amazing!!! They are the greatest person to ever roam this site and they deserve this job more than anyone else on the site!!!!!!!". That just really bothered me. I'm glad that now you aren't allowed to do that because it just made me very angry.
 
I really don't like the new career tasks. I don't know if it's just me, but I just forget about them until it's too late to do them. The only ones I did for Zod were the ones I could do immediately after I created him. The rest of them I forgot about until it was too late. I wish we just went back to the biography and rookie profile for 18 TPE. Not that I really like those, but it just was much easier to do, at least in my opinion.
 
Perhaps one of my least favorite thing about the league is the fact that the top guys somehow seem to get more TPE than everyone else. I'm not saying that these people don't deserve the TPE, because they do. I just don't understand how they get so much. I wrote an article about this a while ago, comparing my old player to HHH. I started with at least 100 more TPE than HHH, but within two seasons he had a 100 TPE lead on me. I capped out nearly every single week, and took advantage of as many uncapped opportunites as I could. I just could not wrap my head around how he gained 200 extra TPE on me in a short period of time, it made absolutely no sense. How did Eno get to 2000 TPE? What did he even do to get that much TPE, how is it possible? This isn't really a league problem, since this is probably just me being angry that I'm not as good as the top members. But it still makes me angry enough to be in this article.
 
I hate the awards. Well, specifically the Scott Boulet. How do you use hits to determine who the top two way forward is? That doesn't even make any sense. I've already written an article about this so I won't go too into detail. But this award just makes me so angry. I think it was designed as an easy way to pad players resumes to get into the hall of fame. A player with no awards doesn't look great, even if they scored tons of points. Throw in a couple Boulets? It helps beef up their trophy case to make a better hall of fame case, but I think the award is bogus. Being a good two way forward is something that can't be reduced down to just hits. A lot of it is the eye test, which is something we don't have.
 
This (hopefully) doesn't apply anymore today, but it used to happen a lot. This was mentioned in gorlabs very famous thunderdome post. If I spent time writing a media spot, only for it to be graded as a 4/6 and be told that it sucks, I would go ballistic. I wasn't around for this era, but I wouldn't be surprised if harsh grading was a reason for people not staying on the site (that could be wrong). People that would be a strict grader remind me of hall monitors from elementary school. I would hate this if it was still around.
 
There might be more things I hate but this is all I got right now. The VHL overall has a lot of good things so these things I'm not really a fan off aren't a huge deal, and a few of them aren't even the leagues fault. 
 
1030 words or something like that
 

Reading this thread reminds me of the days after school where I would go on discord and have 700+ messages to read from the vhlm gm discord channel

Reading this thread reminds me of the days after school where I would go on discord and have 700+ messages to read from the vhlm gm discord channel

As a GM at the time of both of these incidents I will call you on this utter bullshit

AMONG US
 
1. I wish I had more points and blocked shots, especially blocked shots. I had 0 after the first four games. Zod is hitting like a maniac though, 7th in the league right now. Unfortunately though, we just suck. We will right the ship I'm sure.
2. I predicted London I think, so maybe them. 
3. What????? Damn Zod only has five assists, maybe I shouldn't have complained. I highly doubt Zod still leads the team by the end of the year, in the last twenty games of the year I'll get maybe like 5 points after being point per game the entire year before that point. Happens every year.
4. I like mine (obviously). It never got updated for Zod but for my next player I will probably change it. I really like the sig that was made for my old player with the Seattle thunderbirds Barzal, since I played for Malmo at that time. I don't remember who made it but they did a super job.
5. I use a spoon, but I drink it out of the spoon. If people drink soup with a straw I don't even know what to say to them.
6. The egg, since egg re-production isn't exclusive to chickens.
 
 

1. The worst part is the fact that there is no trivia. I lose out on two easy TPE per week because I refuse to do reviewing. The best part is training camp though, nice and easy 10 TPE.
2. With the time off, Zod likes to return to Krypton and visit his family. Well, at least the remains
3. Riga of course, we are winning it all this year with our new additions.
4. Any word that has to use Y as a vowel is automatically on my bad side. Imagine being such a garbage word you resort to calling Y a vowel.
5. I would ask Jesus if he supports DN. When he says, 'whats DN?', we've got him right where we want him.
6. I say yes, but it doesn't really make a difference because that's when I would do the presser anyways

During the off-season I played a little with my sheets, looking at every teams and getting different informations which probably is useless unless I wanted to do a long article. Let’s be honest, a power ranking is most of the time full of flaws and it is most likely gonna be wrong but it’s a good topic for debates and also a good topic to write about. So here is my power ranking based on TPA datas and not on my personal thoughts
 
 
Here is the maths:
 
 
The forwards total TPA is only based on the top 6 which means the 2 first lines. The reason behind that is because the 3rd line and the forth line is most likely gonna spend less time on the ice and having multiple rookies on a team could lead a team to be at the top of the ranking
 
 
The defense total TPA is based on the top 4 which means the 2 first lines as well for the same reason
 
 
Then the Goalie total TPA is only the starter goalie because having an high TPA starter goalie is better than having an average duo so I only took the datas on the starter goalies.
 
 
For the team ranking, the score is based on the forward top 6 + the defense top 4 and the starter goalie total TPA.
 
 
*All these datas has been taken Monday the 15th so there might have been some change since then. I personally notified one change in London on the defense since then but didn’t want to start over.*
 
 
16. New York:

Forwards: 15th
 
Defense: 16th
 
Goalie: 12th
 
 
 
At the 16th position, we have a team that is filled with young talent. It is no surprise that New York come last when the power ranking is based on total TPA but with players such as the rising star, Red Lite @Tate who just won the Christian Stolzschweiger Trophy (it’s a nightmare to spell that trophy by the way!), Zeedayno Chara @Jubis who is their freshly acquired 1st round pick and could be a potential rookie of the year contender, and their young and feisty goalie Thadius Sales @thadthrasher, should make New York confident for their future! Hopefully, New York’s GM @Esso2264 can break the curse soon enough but they will probably need to wait one more season.
 
 
 
 
15. Davos:

Forwards: 16th
 
Defense: 9th
 
Goalie: 15th
 
Davos is an other team that is filled with young players. In fact, that team should be the home of 9 rookies this season. This is an impressive number that include some potential rising stars such as the second pick overall in the last draft; Reylynn Reinhart @Ricer13. This is also combined with a young Taro Tsujimoto @GustavMattias, who is leading the S75 draft class in term of earned TPE. Add over that, a S73 defenseman, Tyler Walker @Advantage on the last season of his prime, who should be leading the young Davos squad. In front of the net, they will put their trust into their young goalie; Kuniburi Unguri @Berocka. Like New York, this team should not be a contender for this season but they are building a team that will be competitive soon!
 
 
 
 
14. Moscow:

Forwards: 12th
 
Defense: 14th
 
Goalie: 13th
 
In 14th position, we have a team that made a lot of moves in the off-season to aim at a better future. With their core getting old, Moscow pulled the trigger and started the rebuild. That allowed them to get their hands on the first pick overall; Paul Astreides @Mr_Hatter and the third pick overall; Duncan Idaho @OrbitingDeath . This is some interesting additions that will give them a bright future at the price of a season at the bottom of the standings. It should be interesting to see what will be their plan at the trade deadline.
13. Malmo:

Forwards: 14th
 
Defense: 8th
 
Goalie: 15th
 
Coming at the 13th position, it’s a team that decided to rebuild after winning the cup in S75. Expect their veteran forward Chris Hyland @Hylands to lead that squad and probably be one of the best forwards in the league this season. They also still have the defenseman Marshall James Frostbeard @FrostBeard who should be their biggest piece at the defense. Combining with those veterans, they have 2 freshly drafted first rounders in Brendan Telker @Telkster and Druss Deathwalker @animal74. Like Moscow, it will be interesting to see what Malmo will do at the trade deadline.
 
 
12. Calgary:

Forwards: 13th
 
Defense: 10th
 
Goalie: 11th
 
 
 
Calgary will probably be one of the teams in the race for a playoff spot. It is still early to know which team will be making it but I do think that they will be in the race. With Luke Thornton @Jtv123 getting in his prime and Kosmo Kramerev @Mongoose87 as their top defenseman, they will be an aggressive team filled with players that will soon hit their prime. I do think they will finish higher than 12th .
 
 
 
11. Toronto:

Forwards: 11th
 
Defense: 7th
 
Goalie: 6th
 
At the 11th position, we have a team that has a solid young core all on the edge of reaching their prime. That team has a ton of rising stars in Scotty Kaberle @fromtheinside, Kristof Welch @Juice, Jolly Greene Giant @DoktorFunk, Frank Funk Jr. @Rayzor_7, Asher Reinhart @rjfryman, Sirkants Klamasteris @hedgehog337 and it does on. This is a massive core for the seasons to come. For the coming season, expect them to be on the race too.
10. Vancouver:

 
Forwards: 4th
 
Defense: 15th
 
Goalie: 16th
 
At the 10th position, we have the Vancouver Wolves, This is a team that has a lot of offensive potential but a is weak on the other side of the ice. Expect their games to be high in goals for both team. Also expect Micah Adrienne @Poptart to get a lot of ice time as the top defenseman in the team. The offensive is composed of SS Hornet @McWolf, Andrew Su @Da_Berr and Onde Sandstrom @fonziGG. Let’s hope for them that a good offense can cover their weakness but it is hard to predict where they will be in the leaderboard.
9. Prague:

Forwards: 7th
 
Defense: 13th
 
Goalie: 8th
 
Coming at 9th, we have the Prague Pahntoms. This is a team that has performed better than the expections last season and has improved again for the coming season. Some will say I am biased about this one but I do think that this team will do better than 9th . With an experienced goalie, Grekkark Gyrfalcon @Sharkstrong who proved to step up his game when the playoffs come and an offensive squad leaded by Thomas Landry II @Doomsday who has set a new team record last season with 105 points, that team should be fun to watch! Let’s not forget the two newcomers who got aquired during free agency, I name Brian Strong Jr. @Wheaties and Xavier Leflamant @BarzalGoat. This team should count on their depth to succeed this season.
 
 
 
 
8. D.C. :

 
Forwards: 10th
 
Defense: 5th
 
Goalie: 2nd
 
D.C. is a team that will need to rely on their starter goalie Stone Wolski @DollarAndADream who is currently the second best goalie in the league in term of TPA and a solid defense that just brought in a former Moscow Menace player in Alex Letang @Spartan. While the offense is ranked 10th in TPA, they still have one of the top players in the league with Groovy Dood @bigAL. This is a team that lost a few key players due to retirement but still has what it takes to succeed.
 
 
7. Seattle:

 
Forwards: 5th
 
Defense: 6th
 
Goalie: 10th
 
Here we have a team in the middle of a transition period. This team is a mix between young talent and experienced players. Expect their first line composed of Timothy Brown @a_Ferk, Jim Bob @jRuutu and Isabella Campbell @Banackock to be an impressive scoring machine. This is also the season where you should see Lucifer Olivier Leveque @InstantRockstar claim the title of Seattle’s first dman by the end of the season. Without forgetting their fresh goalie Rara Rasputin @Victor who is set to become one of the best in the league soon enough.
 
 
6. Helsinki:

 
Forwards: 1st
 
Defense: 12th
 
Goalie: 4th
 
Let’s be honest, that offense is scary. Helsinki is surely gonna be one of the teams that score the most if not the team that score the most. With a newly acquired Venus Thightrap @BladeMaiden who will add even more scoring ability to that team that already had Ola Vinkingstad @Dil , they should be very good. Let’s hope their top goalie Zamboni Driver @Tape-to-Tape can handle the fact that their defensive will an ordinary one.
 
 
 
 
5. London:

 
Forwards: 3rd
 
Defense: 11th
 
Goalie: 1st
 
London… Where to start? Here we have the team that improved the most during the off-season. They went all-in this season by acquiring the both the hottest goalie in the league Jacob Tonn @MexicanCow123 and the hottest player in the league Mikko Lahtinen @Beketov. We all know these two names, they belong to the elite of the league and maybe are future Hall of Famer. That Power ranking has been done before they get a 4th defenseman which is why that team is ranked 5 but I’m confident that it will go in the top 3 before the season start. Big things are expected from London this season and they are ready to get their first appearance in the playoffs of their history.
 
 
4. Riga:

 
Forwards: 9th
 
Defense: 3rd
 
Goalie: 3rd
 
Here we have a young but impressive team. We all remember Riga selling all their top players for picks before the S75 draft. Well, now it pays off, that team can now rely on many young players like Cabe McJake @RedSus, Addison McLaren @tcookie, Linus Zetterstorm @Ledge_and_Dairy and many more. Add over that young squad a few veterans acquired with trades in General Zod @Matt_O, James Rose @MattyIce and Ray Shield @Zetterberg. That team now has an impressive good mix of youth and experience that should be helped by an elite goalie Calvin Harvey @Mrpenguin30.
3. L.A. :

 
Forwards: 8th
 
Defense: 1st
 
Goalie: 8th
 
Not Gonna lie, seeing Los Angeles as the 3rd team in that power ranking was really not something I expected. When you take a closer look at their team though, it all make sense when the datas is taken on the top lines. What L.A. has to offer this season is a brutal force on their top lines composed of Jeffrey Pines @rory, John Merrick @Steve, Jiggly Gumballs @JigglyGumballs and Roque Davis @Josh. Their weakness though, it should be their depth. While this team is impressive on the first lines, the depth is an other story. I do think this team will be in the playoffs but probably not third in the league.
 
 
2. Warsaw:

Forwards: 6th
 
Defense: 4th
 
Goalie: 7th
 
There we have an other team that has a full trio of elite players on their first line. I’d expect the line of Dakota Lamb @dlamb, Uthred @leafsman and Aloe Dear @Renomitsu to be among the best lines in the league. Combined with the top defensive line Latrell Mitchell @dasboot and Victor Grachev @KaleebtheMighty, this team should have an impressive power play that will make you think twice before giving a cheap shot to your opponent. Warsaw had one of the most shocking run at the playoffs last season by doing a reverse swipe and making it to the finals. Can they finally win it all this season? I’m sure that is the plan in Warsaw!
 
1.   Chicago:

Forwards: 2nd
 
Defense: 2nd
 
Goalie: 5th
 
The S76 Champions are still a strong contender this coming season. There is no slowing down in Chicago, they are thirsty for a second cup in a row. Last season, we have seen Christin Mingle @Quik stepping up his game to claim a spot on the leaderboard and bringing home a few trophies. Not only this team still has their core but they even added new players to complete their roster with Jungkok @tfong and Spencer Elsby @Spence King. While the new arrival of an elite defenseman at the side of Matty Socks @fishy should reduce the icetime of the younger desensemen, I’m sure this is no problem if they can touch the cup for a second time. In front of the net, we have last season’s Kanou winner Jean-Pierre Camus @solas who is still in his prime and should be even better this season. I think Chicago is in the beginning of a new dynasty and they are not done being at the top, its only beginning.
 
 
 
This is all for my S77 power ranking, please consider that these teams are not ranked on a personal ranking but on specific datas. My personal ranking would probably have London in the top 3 and Los Angeles more in the middle of the ranking. Let’s get ready for a wonderful season everyone, its starting tomorrow!
 
Let us know your top 3 teams for this season in the comments!
 

2172 words
claiming on weeks ending on:
3/28
4/04
4/11
4/18
 

It just came to my attention that next week is the last week I can claim my four week media spots I posted in December and January, I posted three 2000 word ones in the span of a few weeks and haven't had to write anything in over two months. Now, I will have to write something again and it couldn't have come at a better time. I just tested positive for COVID on friday so what better to do than write an absolutely killer media spot with my free time? I have to think of an idea and then I can get very into it, I have practically unlimited time now and I don't really have to worry about interruptions at all. 
 
I think in the spirit of March Madness, I am going to do a comprehensive look into STHS. How does this relate to march madness? Well, it doesn't really, but upsets in March Madness serve as inspiration. A lot of people like to complain about STHS every time their team loses, specifically when they are the favored team. I'm going to go back to season 64, when activity began to increase after the dead era in the S50s and go until now, seeing how many higher seeded teams lost in the playoffs. I will then compare this to the NHL through percentages of how often the higher seed won, and see what happens. Is STHS actually just random, or do people get too angry at it? My opinion is that people just get angry when they lose so they blame it on the sim, but that's just me. We will see the results later this week or next week when I do my research.