Grape

I apply (with rizz)

I apply (with rizz)

Obligatory @McLovin nomination. Has deserved one for a while. Went into the draft as sellers, with low expectations, and was still able to put together a really good team.

I apply (with rizz)

I apply (with rizz)

I apply (with rizz)

I apply (with rizz)

I apply (with rizz)

I apply (with rizz)

I apply (with rizz)

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)

Welcome back!

Ottawa receives:
Marek Nowaczyk

Miami receives:
Dom Chic
S95 OTT 2nd


This trade has been accepted by all parties and is pending league approval.

Between Switzerland and Austria... so you are the one resident they have, I assume? Which means you must be Fürst Hans-Adam II. (oh shit I accidentally doxxed Grape)

Helsinki receives:
Celise Pereira
S94 DCD 1st

Moscow receives:
Kronchy Kardashian


This trade has been accepted by all parties and is pending league approval.

Can someone describe this in SBA terms?

Welcome!

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)

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)

Imagine being from Boston. Your city is big, important, and historically relevant. You're in a crowd of some of the most passionate sports fans around. You love a good bowl of clam chowder and you find it a little bit charming that you can sometimes tell who's your neighbor by listening to the way that they talk. It's a much better existence than that dump over in New York, where the people sound funny, the Giants fans won't stop reminding you of what Eli Manning did to the Pats, and don't even get you started on their idea of pizza!
 
But what's to stop them from feeling the same sort of pride in themselves and the same sort of derision towards you? After all, you sound funny to them, the helmet catch was pretty sweet, and maybe living in a heavily Italian area has given some people a pretty good idea of how to make a pie. It's obvious to most on either side who take the time to think about it that all these things are silly, but that doesn't even stop lots of people who think it's silly to think that way from doing so regardless. I've seen this come up in the VHL time and time again over the years, which will make this a perfect intro to at least one other article I have lined up, but here it shall fit as I'm doing my best to put things in chronological order.
 
My first experience with VHL tribalism came not long after I signed up. I distinctly remember one of my very first questions in the Bulls server being related to team rivalries and who I should write articles about--which led to me writing some of the anti-Halifax pieces I alluded to in my last article--but something a little more serious than friendly rivalry between @Rin and @McWolf was more serious conflict that arose between the VHLM's two expansion franchises that season, boiled over into personal issues between members, and had effects that persisted for seasons longer than they should have.
 
Anyone who was around at the time is probably aware that I'm talking about Houston and Philadelphia and the conflict between Sonnet and inaugural Reapers GM @BladeMaiden. I'm going to stay out of anything personal related to this because I feel that isn't quite my story to tell, but I think there was a lot to sort out from the perspective of the players themselves.
 
The expansion teams in S65 had quite a bit in common that would naturally lead to competition. They were led by very active first-time GMs with one or two seasons of VHL experience, they started with similar assets, and they both featured team servers that were among the most active the league has ever had to offer. VHLM expansion then was symbolic of a whole lot more than just having more teams--the league had just started to boom, its then-largest-ever draft class had just opened the floodgates, and everyone was out to prove that they were important in this whole sea of newness. And where most teams were active and built their identities on positively representing themselves to the wider community, Houston and Philly were really active and got there by hating each other. In my almost-30 seasons in the VHL, I've never seen anything like it and I've really never seen anything close. Both teams were full of first-gens (hello to fellow S65 Bull @Grape!) and the bad thing about that, if someone chooses to manipulate it, is that first-gens are super impressionable.
 
I'm unfamiliar with how things got started in the way they did. All I know is that not long after I'd joined the team, I'd read through some really nasty exchanges on the forums, been snapped at a few times myself with not much reason, and heard a lot secondhand. Beyond just whatever GM conflict there may have been, the players were heavily involved. In Houston, we were never mobilized to join in arguments, nor were we ever told what to think (something that I don't think could have been said the same both ways. @FrostBeard has a great thread covering the Reapers' side of things that also happens to explain a lot about some of the interactions I remember having with people I'd have no reason to dislike normally). That said, we certainly had enough exposure to the situation that we knew what to think anyway and were often fueled by the need to do what we thought was necessary to defend our team. I remember being part of some Discord arguments. I remember being angry at some forum topics that should have had nothing to do with me. And you know what? It probably helped keep me active. I had people in Houston that I considered my friends and I wanted to see them treated right. I wasn't about to walk away from that situation.
 
People who played for the Reapers probably felt the same way, and though my perspective is probably biased, it seemed absolutely insane how deep that ran. I remember multiple occasions when I saw one person fighting with someone else--and within a few minutes, that amped itself up into three or four. I don't believe any of the worst offenders there are still in the league, and I also can't say I'm disappointed by that. What I am disappointed by is some of the negative fallout that caused for some. I talked to a handful of people at the time who felt that they were treated very unfairly, and I remember a particularly unpleasant experience had by one of our active first-gens that he later cited as a major reason why he left the league altogether. Were this only a GM problem, it would be one thing. But players came to believe that being part of the problem equated to being part of things in general, and some who wanted to be important got sucked too far into that.
 
It was also a shame that it led me to think negatively of some people who played for the Reapers (Frost is one example, but I can think of others) who weren't even part of the problem. I'm sure that some people also associated me negatively with the Bulls. And there was no reason why that should have been the case--former S65 Reapers like @McLovin and fellow Buffalo expat @DMaximus  are people I genuinely like and people who I've never seen trying to fight anyone. But that sort of thing was hard to see in the moment when I saw others who I won't name coming after my GM and teammates simply for existing. It's something that I never hope to see again in the VHL and it's a problem that I'm glad to say our current group of GMs never has. It also happened to be something that was on my mind quite a bit in my first VHL season, enough so that there has to be some way that it shaped my course as a member. I think it made me realize early on that GMs are only human and that not every person I met online is worth my time and effort in stressing about. But do you know what else I learned? I had enough fun anyway that I learned that that's OK.
 
 
 
Read my other articles for the full Gustav experience:
#1: Lightning Glory Gonna Be My Name

The Fire Rages on and the King of EU
 

 
Chicago Phoenix continue to surprise
 
The Chicago Phoenix are currently sitting in the final wildcard spot in NA, with a record of 17-14-7. They currently have a 7 point gap over 6th in NA, that being Vancouver, with a 15-19-4 record. Chicago coming into the season was projected to finish around the bottom of NA, as their team on paper wasn't as good as other teams, like the Calgary Wranglers and the Vancouver Wolves. However, as we've seen time and time again, Chicago continues to perform when they aren't expected to. They find way to win games and collect points, despite being on paper worse than a lot of teams. The spirits are high in Chicago where they might find themselves back into the post-season as they're ending the tail end of the rebuild, ready to start competing. Leading the way for Chicago is veteran Yaroslav Trunov @qripll, who has 55 points in 38 games played, with 30 goals and 25 assists. Trunov is currently on pace to break his career high that was set last season, where he's been on fire ever since he's joined Chicago, picking up a bigger role in the process. This team has some solid depth, but no real superstar player, as they rely on the sum of their parts to be a good team. Compared to the top teams, Chicago is a way off, but just making it to the post-season are baby steps to what the final goal is, to lift the trophy at the end of the day.
 
George Richmond impresses and Menace on top
 
The Moscow Menace have been the Kings of EU this season, finding themselves in first place in the conference, with a 26-9-3 record. Axle Gunner @Steve and Jeff Lewis @nerji have been the focal points on this team so far, both amassing over 50 points and bringing to life the offence. Richmond a rookie in the VHL currently finds himself at a point-per-game pace, with 38 points in 38 games played, 18 of those being goals. Currently, Richmond finds himself second in the rookie race, where he has a good shot to take home ROTY if he can continue to perform. We caught up with George Richmond and asked him about the pace of the VHL compared to the E, and how he's been able to adapt, to which he replied, "It's a lot faster for sure. You go from playing with players who are either veterans on their last leg, or young players trying to develop, to playing superstars and the best the world has to offer. It's for sure been a difficult process to adapt, but I felt like I've done my best in adapting. I'm still learning game by game on how to be a better player and read situations better, as Obuz Schneider Canet du Bocage @Grape has been helping me out, so shoutout to him. He's been like a brother to me and we hope to continue our dynamic duo on the ice." Moscow looks geared up for a playoff run, as they have been at the top of EU for a while now. While many players on Moscow have hopes for a championship, Richmond is just taking it all in and learning from the experience game after game.

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.

Some come to laugh their past away
Some come to make it just one more day
Whichever way your pleasure tends
If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind
-from the Grateful Dead's "Franklin's Tower"
 
 
As of next season, I will have spent 30 seasons in the VHL. I've always been a big fan of the VHL's 30 in 30 series for telling me lots of stories about the league from before my time. These brought up things that I wouldn't necessarily have gotten from reading through old indexes and checking out records, and that's lived experience--people giving perspectives on the things that happened, instead of just lists of those things that happened. Thanks to those articles, I learned why lots of the things I'd heard about were significant, and the views offered in them also served as a valuable time capsule for me as I learned how important some things are to the league despite never being talked about anymore.
 
So, because I hate myself, I'm doing one of my own. This isn't intended to be a comprehensive picture of league history over the past 30 seasons, nor is it a VHL 30 in 30 in its own right. I'm writing a Gustav 30 in 30, recounting not the league's history but my own and going through what's been most important to me across hopefully the next season and a half and probably a bit longer than that. And what's a better place to start than at the very beginning? It's a very good place to start, after all. Installment number one of 30, here we go
 
It was 2019, and then-18-year-old me was on the floor of my bedroom lost on Reddit. I remember fairly clearly having been "in the middle of some homework," which to me meant that the second I came across anything I couldn't do off the top of my head, I'd pick up my phone and scroll through it for an hour like the degenerate I am. Seriously, my degree probably would have come pretty easily if I could make myself stop doing that.
 
I also remember getting the sort of foggy head feeling that one gets after staring at a screen for hours on end. I'm not sure if this was from whatever I was doing, or my phone, or both, but you'd think that one little promotional post on r/sabres wouldn't tip the scales in favor of (let's be honest) a whole lot more staring at screens in that moment. I'm sure you know where this is going, because you're seeing the product of where it's gone. I joined the forum, made a few "please help me" posts, did my first press conference, and actually closed the VHL window and figured I'd seen about enough. The reason why I came back was that I was dumb enough to still sign up for things with an email address that I actually check, and later that day I got a scouting message from @Thranduil (then a long-time AGM in Halifax) in my inbox. So...yeah, whatever, maybe I'll see what happens after this "draft" people are talking about. After all, I read through the very short-lived and now entirely-nonexistent-on-the-forum VHLM newsletter (recruitment, take note!) and enjoyed it.
 
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, kicking off what would be a formative first season for me (and one that you'll see talked about across the first few installments of this series). I'd been invited to join the team server and was initially really hesitant--I'd never talked to random people online before and wasn't sure I wanted to--but jumped in late at night (in the middle of some other assignment that I wasn't really doing) and had a good conversation right away about player builds and stuff. I think that sort of thing was a bit intoxicating for an 18-year-old kid whose friends were suddenly all busy moving away and having responsibilities. I suddenly had a group to hang out with whenever I wanted it again, and that really built a sort of bond with this place that I don't think I'd have if I joined today.
 
I'm not sure what I thought the VHL was when I joined. I don't remember being particularly surprised (I was never someone who thought we were a gaming community) but I also remember being mildly taken aback when I heard that our sim output was entirely text-based. I spent a few sims reading through the full play-by-play (because new people stuff; why not?) and thought it was cool anyway. In a way, I miss skimming through that and being excited to see that my player intercepted a pass or whatnot.
 
As far as earning and being part of the community went, it took me a minute. I wasn't always the word-dumper I am today. Instead, my first mark on the league was made in team-specific shitpost articles with very long titles. This extended anywhere from my teammates being detained at airports for "looking too Nordic" to Halifax secretly being a satanic cult to me running player quotes through a colloquial Scottish English translator for some aggressively Groundskeeper Willie-type energy. I was well-entrenched in writing media spots by this point, but my first serious article didn't even come out until halfway through that first season.
 
I won't give away the rest, but S65 was a great time. I learned a lot, got to know lots of people, and grew to appreciate the culture of the VHL. And if you're interested in hearing more of a deep dive into my history--stick around. It's coming just as soon as I can make it.

Time to embezzle funds to recoup the financial losses

Can you add me to the ping list so I know whenever you get around to it?