Hybrid1486

So here I am, writing a media spot because I picked the only number on the Christmas giveaway that required any work to get the TPE bonus. At first, I wasn't sure what to write about, but then I remembered that I'm possibly going to become a free agent for the first time this offseason.
 
When I say "first time," I don't just mean that it's Vesto Slipher's first chance to become a free agent; I have never had a player hit free agency during all my time as an active member of the VHL. It's just never been my thing. I've either liked the team that I've been on, had myself guilted into re-signing, or just plain retired and started over. That's not to say that I don't like being on Helsinki...even though we're not having a great season right now we are in a playoff spot and I'm getting an adequate amount of ice time. I also go way back with @Quik to my early days with Alex Stoyanovich on these very same Helsinki Titans.
 
No, if I hit free agency it's going to be because I actively decide to become a free agent. I've hear that it's something every member should try at least once, and now seems as good a time as any. That said, I don't know what the market would look like for an active-yet-consistently-underperforming winger who has yet to top 33 goals or 59 points in a season. I know active players (especially those who are set to hit the top 20 in TPE next season) will always garner interest, but I'm also not sure who's going to have cap space, or is even aware that I may be in play this offseason.
 
I'm definitely not committing to the market just yet. I've talked to Quik earlier in the season and I'm feeling like it would be a very amenable situation if I were to stick around and put this off for one more season. On that note, I guess I should re-phrase: I'm not committing to hitting the market *this offseason*, but I'll definitely reach free agency before Slipher's time is up. I'm not sure how many seasons I have left in the VHL, so I have to make sure I get this in sooner rather than later.
 
I'm not going to do any sort of "what team do I want to sign with" ranking, because I have no idea who'd be interested or who has the cap space to even consider it. I will say that I wouldn't rule out signing with Helsinki even if I don't accept the contract offer that's been sitting in my inbox all season, because I know what the situation would be and I'd be happy with that. There aren't any teams I'm dead-set against playing for, so basically it'd be dependent on the communication and situation I saw during the offseason.
 
I'm also not sure about what any other pending free agents are planning aside from Sebastian Ironside, who I believe is required to leave Toronto due to the GM transfer. Some other notables who look set to hit free agency according to the team finance sections on the portal are Matt Thompson, Jasper Canmore, and Joseph Bassolino. If any of those guys have plans to re-sign or hit free agency, I'm not aware of them. Fortunately, I'm not looking to be a marquee name on the free agent block...I'd just like the chance to pick my own team for once. We'll see how that goes in a few weeks.

I apologise for Odinsson holding you back. I know, the dude sucks! 

On the bright side, it actually gets done on time now.

Might as well go out big 
 
F Vesto Slipher

It's not just the tournament though. You have some players getting a ton of contract money for multiple years...to basically do nothing except play in a tournament every three years, and maybe write a themed media spot once a year. The contract money aspect of it, especially at the top end, has never made sense.

Eliminate brands.

Can we trade? I see people upset about money, but a double week doesn't do me much good...

Continuing my quest to answer questions that were asked two months ago...
 
 
1) It was fun while it lasted. Palo and I came into the league at the same time with back-to-back picks, and we've established ourselves as two of the better players from the Season 62 draft. I'm going to miss playing alongside him, but I understand the economics of the league. I hope he'll continue to rock out to Hall and Oates for the rest of his career.
 
2) I was moderately happy with the way the season started, but pretty disappointed with how it finished. I expected to take a big leap forward in Season 63, both personally and as part of a Meute championship run. Obviously the second part didn't work out, and from a personal standpoint the jump was pretty modest. Hopefully both aspects turn around this season in Helsinki (no offense).
 
3) Plane rides suck. I don't know who came up with the schedule, but the travel is a killer. The food is crap and neck pillows are useless. Maybe I could have started out a bit better if I didn't have to deal with so much neck pain from those stupid flights.
 
4) I always hated going up against Colton Rayne in practice, and now I'm going to be playing against him for real. I can't imagine that's going to be pleasant. I know his career is winding down, but he can still bring the heat and he'll be a pain to play against in his final season.
 
5) It's finny...they always think I look like someone else. I could walk through the stores without being mobbed, but whenever kids asked for my autograph they called me Mr. Sakic. I might look like him a little bit, but come on...we don't even play the same style of hockey.
 
 
6) Hmm...see, despite playing for Quebec for two seasons I don't know a ton about Justin Trudeau aside from the fact that he seems like he should be a total douchebag but isn't. Trump, on the other hand, I know far too much about.
 
I'll say that Trudeau's weapon of choice is gun control and the GST, and Trump's is a steadfast belief that he's already won despite not throwing a punch and showing up an hour late because he went to the wrong location. The fight will be decided early on, when Melania gives her husband a bottle of water from Flint and he keels over vomiting before suffering an acute case of lead poisoning. Trudeau doesn't even have to do anything, and he's got a hot new side bitch now.

I made this because apparently the finals for the Brands tournament is going on, and I haven't cared or even bothered to check the entire time. The VHL off season should be exciting enough between trades and drafts, and I don't think we need any tournaments other then the world cup, which is at least mildly interesting. I honestly don't care a lick about brands, and will join whichever brand gives me the most tpe, and never once check a game.
 
I understand that we want to create opportunities for wanna be GMs, which is great because that means people actually want to GM now, and it's not like before when I had to beg someone to take over for me as Calgary GM. However, I don't think brands is the right place for it, as I don't believe the effort put into running it is worth the reward. So prove me right or wrong by voting in my poll, and letting
the VHL know whether you think brands are worth the effort or not.
 
@Members
 

I've got a thread in league discussion with best goalie performances in the playoffs - he's up there so fair play.

Didn’t have time to say welcome when the trade went down, but super excited to add you! Was even gonna mention being the first GM to draft you all those moons ago, welcome home bb ❤️

Um, excqueeze me, but I'm a $3m rookie, thank you very much
 
Also, @Quik is my GM again...in Helsinki again...my VHL life has come full circle

After a fantastic 7-season as General Manager of the HC Davos Dynamo, @Tyler has decided to step down from his post as GM. In two stints as a VHL GM, Tyler has ended Cup droughts in excess of 20 seasons, first with Stockholm, temporarily ending the "Vasteras Curse," and then in S61, winning the title after overseeing a rebuild of the Dynamo roster that saw them become one of the top teams in the league.
 
Replacing him will be a fairly new member, who, in his short time here, has shown himself to be more than capable of managing. We feel he will do great in his new role as General Manager of Davos, and return them to greatness among the league's elite. Please welcome @ShawnGlade as the league's newest  @VHL GM!

I just caught the notice at the top of the forum about old indexes being relocated to the portal, so I decided to take a peek and found that the indexes go all the way back to Season 20. That made me smile.
 
I've come and gone over the years, so I've missed quite a bit around here, but Season 20 is far and away my favorite season in VHL history. That season saw an unusual spike in offense from what I remember, kind of like we had last season (though not quite on that scale). At the forefront of it all was the Riga Reign, the team I had been traded to the season prior. Just look at these numbers:
 

 
I've only really been active with a defenseman and a goalie since then prior to Slipher, so I guess it's not hard to believe that I still haven't topped the 37 goals or 113 points that Stoyanovich put up with any of my subsequent players. I'm sure Slipher will top the goals mark eventually, at least.
 
I'm trying to put some usernames to the player names here...I'm about 95% sure Virkkunen was @Quik, and I know Saeijs was @frescoelmo because we go back to the old, old, old football league days. I'm also pretty sure Percy Jackson was @TheLastOlympian07's first VHL player, too. Even the guys that are long gone I remember fondly...I forget Kronenburg's username, but I remember he'd put out absurdly long and well-written media spots every single week for a few years. Scarlett's username also escapes me, but I remember trading for him during my failed run as Toronto's GM in the mid-20's. I also remember @Zero (Stormwall) killing himself with that wonderful 20 for 20 series.
 
This also takes me back to a very important time for me, personally. This season was simmed during the first few months of 2011, when I was 24 and preparing to move about 700 miles away from the only home I ever knew. 7 1/2 years later, I've found a very good career and I'm about 1 year into my mortgage on my first house. Life has changed a lot since then...
 
I could probably have stretched this into a MS, but I've already claimed welfare and I'm getting 3 points for this anyway, so cool.
 
Also, tagging @Victor because this is VHL history-related.

I just caught the notice at the top of the forum about old indexes being relocated to the portal, so I decided to take a peek and found that the indexes go all the way back to Season 20. That made me smile.
 
I've come and gone over the years, so I've missed quite a bit around here, but Season 20 is far and away my favorite season in VHL history. That season saw an unusual spike in offense from what I remember, kind of like we had last season (though not quite on that scale). At the forefront of it all was the Riga Reign, the team I had been traded to the season prior. Just look at these numbers:
 

 
I've only really been active with a defenseman and a goalie since then prior to Slipher, so I guess it's not hard to believe that I still haven't topped the 37 goals or 113 points that Stoyanovich put up with any of my subsequent players. I'm sure Slipher will top the goals mark eventually, at least.
 
I'm trying to put some usernames to the player names here...I'm about 95% sure Virkkunen was @Quik, and I know Saeijs was @frescoelmo because we go back to the old, old, old football league days. I'm also pretty sure Percy Jackson was @TheLastOlympian07's first VHL player, too. Even the guys that are long gone I remember fondly...I forget Kronenburg's username, but I remember he'd put out absurdly long and well-written media spots every single week for a few years. Scarlett's username also escapes me, but I remember trading for him during my failed run as Toronto's GM in the mid-20's. I also remember @Zero (Stormwall) killing himself with that wonderful 20 for 20 series.
 
This also takes me back to a very important time for me, personally. This season was simmed during the first few months of 2011, when I was 24 and preparing to move about 700 miles away from the only home I ever knew. 7 1/2 years later, I've found a very good career and I'm about 1 year into my mortgage on my first house. Life has changed a lot since then...
 
I could probably have stretched this into a MS, but I've already claimed welfare and I'm getting 3 points for this anyway, so cool.
 
Also, tagging @Victor because this is VHL history-related.

I just caught the notice at the top of the forum about old indexes being relocated to the portal, so I decided to take a peek and found that the indexes go all the way back to Season 20. That made me smile.
 
I've come and gone over the years, so I've missed quite a bit around here, but Season 20 is far and away my favorite season in VHL history. That season saw an unusual spike in offense from what I remember, kind of like we had last season (though not quite on that scale). At the forefront of it all was the Riga Reign, the team I had been traded to the season prior. Just look at these numbers:
 

 
I've only really been active with a defenseman and a goalie since then prior to Slipher, so I guess it's not hard to believe that I still haven't topped the 37 goals or 113 points that Stoyanovich put up with any of my subsequent players. I'm sure Slipher will top the goals mark eventually, at least.
 
I'm trying to put some usernames to the player names here...I'm about 95% sure Virkkunen was @Quik, and I know Saeijs was @frescoelmo because we go back to the old, old, old football league days. I'm also pretty sure Percy Jackson was @TheLastOlympian07's first VHL player, too. Even the guys that are long gone I remember fondly...I forget Kronenburg's username, but I remember he'd put out absurdly long and well-written media spots every single week for a few years. Scarlett's username also escapes me, but I remember trading for him during my failed run as Toronto's GM in the mid-20's. I also remember @Zero (Stormwall) killing himself with that wonderful 20 for 20 series.
 
This also takes me back to a very important time for me, personally. This season was simmed during the first few months of 2011, when I was 24 and preparing to move about 700 miles away from the only home I ever knew. 7 1/2 years later, I've found a very good career and I'm about 1 year into my mortgage on my first house. Life has changed a lot since then...
 
I could probably have stretched this into a MS, but I've already claimed welfare and I'm getting 3 points for this anyway, so cool.
 
Also, tagging @Victor because this is VHL history-related.

Earlier this week, I was contemplating writing an article about why I dislike the concept of VHL brands, but I didn't want to seem like a huge debbie downer since  the idea of a theme week is to generally be positive about the topic at hand. Then I saw that @Hybrid1486 started off the discussion on why he doesn't enjoy the VHL brands, so I decided I was going to chime in as well. There are two main reasons I dislike the VHL brands idea - it's relative similarity to the now defunct VHL Super Cup, and the obscene amount of extra contract money generated for the top players.
 
For those that don't know, the VHL Super Cup was an off-season tournament held every 3 off-seasons somewhere around S30-S45. Rosters were drafted in the same off-season as the tournament. This sometimes led to longer than usual off-seasons due to delays in getting the draft and sim completed. Now that I think about it, we may have started to hold the draft towards the end of the playoffs, but either way, the off-season was sometimes extended due to the tournament. The first couple tournaments were a success. A majority of the league was highly engaged, as it was a new thing. However, as time passed by, fewer and fewer people cared about the tournament, until it was ultimately scrapped. I see brands being no different, with the only exception being the money given to the players. How often have we actually seen a player, member, or whatever actually rep the brand they have, outside of a theme PT or fan590? The reality is no one actually cares that they play for the brand they do. This isn't meant to be an attack on the brand reps so I hope it's not construed that way, but no one cares about "representing" Haterade, True North, etc... the way a player does for Calgary, Seattle, New York, etc. When hall of fame players are discussed, no one mentioned the number of Super Cups a player won (at least I don't think they did), and no one will mention how many Brand Tournament Championship things they won either. 
 
Regarding the player store money - this point will mostly be about the players at the very top end of the brand contract scale. It will still apply to those on the lower end of the spectrum, but obviously not as much. Player brands will be giving out a lot of extra money to the top players in the league. The player store is currently balanced around the money that is earned through a player's contract throughout their career. However, there are now going to be a handful of players that earn an extra $3 million per year for the majority, if not entirety, of their career. That is a lot of extra money, to the point that what used to be a decision a member had to make (do I spend this money on large purchases fighting regression at the end of my career vs. buying additional TPE generating options throughout my career) is no longer a decision at all. They will be able to do some combination of both. Now, could we look at the player store purchases and change the price on them with the new influx of money? Sure, and I'm sure we will, but all this money is doing is creating a problem that was not there previously. Now we're going to have to figure out a way to tone down the quality and quantity of purchases the top players can do while making sure not to "nerf" them too hard for the remaining 75% of the league.

I'm pretty sure I bought the article upgrade this season, but I've been on donation free weeks for the last two weeks so IDK.
 
Anyways, how about that RIG G? The dude is tearing up the league when he plays, but his team is meh when he's in there. He's appeared in four games so far, yet he only has a record of 0-0-2. At the same time, he has a save percentage of 0.977 (!) and a goals against average of 0.61. Dude has only allowed one goal on 43 shots. Meanwhile, the Reign are still breaking in rookie Kallis Kriketers, who is assured the long-term job and has a strong career outlook but isn't quite on top of the world just yet. He has a strong record of 20-5-2, but his 0.908 save percentage leaves a lot to be desired. He does have three shutouts so far, for what that's worth.
 
But dude, go RIG G.

I'm pretty sure I bought the article upgrade this season, but I've been on donation free weeks for the last two weeks so IDK.
 
Anyways, how about that RIG G? The dude is tearing up the league when he plays, but his team is meh when he's in there. He's appeared in four games so far, yet he only has a record of 0-0-2. At the same time, he has a save percentage of 0.977 (!) and a goals against average of 0.61. Dude has only allowed one goal on 43 shots. Meanwhile, the Reign are still breaking in rookie Kallis Kriketers, who is assured the long-term job and has a strong career outlook but isn't quite on top of the world just yet. He has a strong record of 20-5-2, but his 0.908 save percentage leaves a lot to be desired. He does have three shutouts so far, for what that's worth.
 
But dude, go RIG G.

We're on an absurd tear right now

We're on an absurd tear right now

I'm going to be in a VHLM Dispersal Draft in short order, which got me thinking to my experience with the event over my time in the VHL.
 
My first one was the second VHLM Draft in league history, way back in Season 6. I remember next to nothing about it, and I didn't stay active in the slightest, but I do vaguely remember being picked fourth in the Season 15 VHLM Draft, right after the last time I returned to the league after a multiple-year hiatus.
 
My strongest memory, though, was being a VHLM general manager for Kolari when the highly-touted Season 17 Draft rolled around. That was back in the day when VHLM teams were still tied to the VHL rosters, and @Quik was nice enough to let me run the VHLM squad (mostly because we had about zero actives on that team outside of the two of us). Looking back on the draft, the only player I can positively identify who I selected was @frescoelmo's Tarik Saeijs. Apologies to David Vidal, Jordan de Fabio, and Gordon Shore. I also passed in the third round ahead of the perpetually FISTED ANALLY BY A CIRCUS MONKEY Joey Clarence.
 
Aside from that, there was the time I was picked first overall in the Season 38 draft by Yukon with Brock Waldron, a player whom I don't believe I ever did a single proper point task with yet who still turned out to be my highest-ever TPE player.
 
Will this time be another memorable draft, or will it go down with the likes of those players I had that I can't even properly remember? Only time will tell...