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Grape

VHLM GM
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Posts posted by Grape

    Avoiding Banishment

    in Media Spots

    Posted

    Since I will be doing a VHLM playoff breakdown later next week, I felt it redundant to write my usual deadline rankings. At the same time, I kinda need to do a media spot to ensure Spartan does not banish me to Warsaw for not max earning, so I suppose I will do a bit of a casual around the league sort of thing. Since I pretty much exclusively focus on the M, it’ll be a nice change of pace to look at the other leagues as well.

     

    The VHL

    Taking a glance at the VHL, it appears to be a tale of two conferences. The NA conference has pretty much been Toronto’s conference all season long, and while Seattle has turned in somewhat recently and pushed, Toronto is still somewhat comfortable in first. Their goal differential is pretty insane compared to the rest of the conference, looking like a true offensive juggernaut. There is one playoff spot still up for grabs. Chicago is occupying that spot for now, but Calgary or Vancouver have a chance to take it from them. The EU conference has been shifting around like crazy throughout the season. Seeding has been completely up in the air. Moscow was riding high for a fair while, then fell off, especially at the deadline. A couple Moscow players have cooled off after their hot start, and the team now is kind of mid, despite what their roster looks like on paper. All playoff spots are locked off, with Moscow edging Helsinki out for that final spot, although nothing is set in stone. Point difference between 1st and 5th is 9. It’s pretty much anyone’s conference.

     

    The VHLE

    The worst league is showing some parity this season, which is somewhat typical. Feel like in such a small league, it’s hard for teams to separate from one another. There is a pretty clear divide as to who is good and who sucks. Oslo, Cologne (shocker) and Vasteras all relatively close together and all pretty good, whereas Stockholm, Rome, and Bratislava are all pretty bad. Bratislava is the first team to be eliminated from contention, and it is down to Rome and Stockholm for who gets that last spot. Stockholm is marginally better and should take it, and have a chance to do so next sim.

     

    The VHLM

    Feels nice being first. Ottawa has gone back to what won them the Cup a handful of seasons ago, with strong defense and a balanced offense, and has maintained top play past the trade deadline while, as per usual, not getting any waivers. Halifax has been battling for that top spot honors all season long, but there has been a little bit of separation as of late. Vegas has fallen off after looking like they were going to hold down the top spot in the Western Conference, but Saskatoon has surged upwards and looks like the best team on paper. Most playoff spots have been secured, with only one spot remaining. It will be a battle between Mexico City and Miami, as San Diego is officially eliminated from contention. There’s a pretty big breakdown in the league. Top teams are Ottawa, Halifax, Saskatoon, and Houston. Mid teams are Vegas, Philly, and Mississauga. Mexico City, Miami, and San Diego make up the bad teams.

    (550 words)

    2023 Holiday Celebration!

    in Announcements

    Posted

    On 4/6/2024 at 2:53 PM, Beketov said:

    4 months is a reasonable timeframe for this right?

     

    That's right everyone, I did not forget about you! Life has just been a bit hectic so I haven't had time to sit down and do this BUT I am finally gonna have a nice solid amount of time next week so it is my pleasure to announce that the third (at this point annual) Beketov Zoo Tycoon 2 stream will take place next Friday, April 12th, at 6:30pm EDT. Hopefully I'll have time to get the bugs worked out in advance and we can spend a few hours having fun and creating some VHL member based animals as we have the last two years.

     

    As always the stream will be on my twitch channel which you can find HERE and I'll be aiming to upload the VOD to the league YouTube channel after for those who can't make it but hopefully a lot of people can since it's way more fun when people are hanging in the chat with me.

     

    I'll see you all then!

    I guess I should probably do my fnaf stream at some point...

    A Rebrand of the VHLE

    in Media Spots

    Posted

    The VHLE gets a lot of hate, and most is rather deserved. Majority of experiences appear to be negative, with the stopgap to the majors being overly draining to both engagement and enjoyment. First gens go here to die, and recreates simply plug their ears and chug along to get through this brief stint. The work of the GMs is iffy, with scouting being rather poor and drafted players in some cases sitting around with no communication from their new bench boss for multiple weeks. While the TPE range it covers is typically where people fizzle out naturally, the league does not do the best job attempting to remedy that. With the vast amount of inactives sitting between 200-400 TPE, why not do something with that. With more consistent recruitment and the VHLM continuing to have life injected into it, a minor expansion (bring back Yukon) and shifting of the TPE caps to cover the empty space provided with the removal of the VHLE from active player usage and to take in everyone who’s still kicking would fix it on that end. It’s been shown that it’s possible, and that the VHLE is overall redundant. But I am not someone who likes to waste resources. We have all these assets for now defunct teams, so why not do something with them?

     

    Introducing the VHLI, or the Inactive League. Using the now defunct team logos, we can assemble a league focused purely on GM development. People coming into the league wanting to learn how to become a GM or just want to do some team playtesting can become a GM of one of the inactive teams. These teams will be granted access to the pool of inactives ticking all the way up to whatever the VHL minimum cap would have become. Throwing on all the bells and whistles, like a draft, free agency, and a trade deadline, it will have the same feel of regular leagues, except the locker rooms are dead, although not much of a change for the VHLE and some M teams. It would provide a more casual experience, meant for learning and not necessarily pure competition, and is there to build proficiency in STHS and team building, as well as test out and learn possible new strategies that can be implemented in other leagues. An addition that could possibly be made is a player editor as well, in which GMs can be given access to their players’ and tinker with them, although that might be a step too far. The league will be made up of eight teams, with the six current VHLE teams making up the main bulk of it. Adding onto it, we will see a return of a long defunct team in the Madrid Thunder, with a logo of a charging bull with it’s back half morphing into a sort of lightning bolt. Two completely new teams will be birthed from this as well, with a team in France, either in Paris or Bordeaux, filling a long standing hole in the European sector of the VHL, as well as a team in the Netherlands, likely Amsterdam, dotting up Western Europe which has been somewhat lacking in league representation.

    (534 words)

    A Gustav 30 in 30, #1: Lightning Glory Gonna Be My Name

    in Media Spots

    Posted

    12 hours ago, Gustav said:

    VHLM Gustav lasted until the 5th round and was taken 36th overall. I'd been scouted two or three times at the time, having joined two or three days before the draft and not earned much yet. But it's pretty safe to say that first-ever Bulls GM @Rin hit on a pick

    I can't believe how little I actually remeber from way back then. I knew we were in the same draft, I just never knew where and when you were drafted. Based on what you've become, I would have never penciled you in as going so late (especially not 10 picks after me). I always pictured you as more like a 3rd round pick, definitely not a 5th. I also don't ever remember you being on the Bulls, although that's probably because I was moved halfway through the season. At this point, S65 feels like a distant memory, and I guess five years later it kind of is. I look forward reading each installment. Our paths have crossed a fair few times, enough that there'll be plenty of shared memories within each article that I'll be happy to remember and reminisce.

    A Fortunate Announcement

    in Off-Topic Discussion

    Posted

    15 hours ago, N0HBDY said:

    So hello everyone, I like to keep my topics here usually VHL related but I need to break character for a moment to announce something that’s happened very recently to me.

     

    All small handful of members knew what I’ve been going through the past 2 weeks. That is, I’ve been running for my American university’s student government vice president position (as a freshman). The pain staking 2 weeks of campaigning, repeating each presentation time after time to different groups, $600 in expenses, and countless nights of rough sleep…paid off. 
     

    I’m beyond thrilled to announce that I will be my university’s next student government vice president. There were about 900 votes cast, and my ticket won by 8 votes. Now these results are unofficial but I as of now do not suspect that the outcome will change .

     

    i don’t know how it will impact my involvement here, I still hold the VHL very close a dear to my heart as it’s been a crutch the past 3.5 years for me. Thank you everyone for just reading this little rant but I’m beyond ecstatic right now.

    Time to embezzle funds to recoup the financial losses

    VSN Presents: S93 Weekly Predictions (Apr 1 - Apr 7)

    in VSN - Victory Sports News

    Posted

    8 hours ago, Gaikoku-hito said:

     

    🟰     1.      8gziSIs.png

    Moscow proved me wrong but also shows why I didn`t know what to make of their tough schedule last week as Moscow aced the week with two losses and two overtime losses; in what I would rather view as near perfect week. Moscow put fear into the European conference last week and that should continue for most of the season now. Jarmo Ruutu @jRuutu(14-29-43pts) is all set to have a career season and leads the Moscow attack. While Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage @Grape(14-23-37pts) is turning into a star on the back-end. Moscow is showing why they are Men with Aces in the pockets!! Ugh!!

    @Spartan  I think I'm worth a conditional 4th now : )

    Staying Engaged - In Defense of the Gifs

    in Media Spots

    Posted

    I joined the VHL five years ago. So much has changed within that time that looking back, it feels like it was longer. It was a packed half decade, covering the latter half of my high school years and taking me pretty much completely through university. During that time, I’ve had varying degrees of activity. I was pretty much a pure clicker with my first player, skipping weeks here and there because I really didn’t like the manual claiming on the forum. While the forum changed to be a little more streamlined, my activity increased, becoming a consistent clicker to actually becoming active and contributing, and now with this player, doing my damndest to max earn each and every week, to some success. With the amount of time spent, either working on tasks and just being here in general, burnout does start to take place. Motivation begins to dwindle. The grind for high TPE players is especially grueling and demotivating. I mean hell, my player is in their 4th season and each week of work equates to two ratings boosts. It’s tough to stay dedicated to the grind without something there to keep things entertaining, without something to keep me coming back week after week, day after day, to not just pop in and do my tasks but to actually be a part of this community. I will say, @Spartan has done a damn good job of making the Moscow discord entertaining and engaging. I haven’t been as active in a discord like that one since probably the S60s Houston and Ottawa LRs, back in the beginning. The ability to jump in there and shitpost every now and again while also, at least attempting to, contribute to the team as an advisor and also just a player who cares about their build for once. Even still, I needed something just a bit more, one little cherry on top to keep me chugging along through the late claim slog.


    Image


    What started as a passing comment during an “argument” by @twists soon became something so much more. Now, contrary to popular belief, I am not a weeb. I have not watched much anime and don’t know many shows. I simply find some things funny and attach myself to the few shows I’ve watched, and even some that I haven’t (like my forum pfp). That doesn’t mean that I’m a weeb, just that I’m probably autistic, although the test says I’m not but who knows these days. Nevertheless, that comment spiraled into something more, and Moscow for a moment was blessed with custom gifs relating to current happenings and discussions like the one below:
    Image
    It fizzled out somewhat for a bit and it seemed like it was going to pass, with the only one being made and updated is the one above to remain accurate with the TPE gain. That changed pretty quickly when @badcolethetitan jumped on the trend and made some of his own, reigniting the gif spark within me, leading to new gifs to be created, and now they have leached from the Moscow LR into the VHL discord, blessing the sometimes stagnant channels with much-needed activity. Are they stupid? Yes. Repetitive? Also yes. Is it fun though? Definitely. Sure it can be annoying at times, however, it creates both entertainment and interaction within the channel. The most important thing it has done though, is get me involved. Going through the triple slog of late stage TPE claiming, searching and interviewing for jobs, and senior year classes would lead to the burnout of most hobbies, and I’ve dropped a couple due to real life stress, but I enjoy the VHL, and don’t want to just up and leave it, and so long as I can have this fun thing going on for me, I feel as if I can stick with it until my workload decreases, and I can contribute more.

    (651 words)

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