Gustav

As far as I'm aware most of us from S66 were from Reddit...at least I was. I've seen YouTube drives work and I've seen them go horribly wrong. Honestly it just depends on circumstances.

I think there are things that work with a wider audience and things that don't. Everyone experiences the league in different ways, and you've always been more into the roleplay aspect of the league than most members. I do think it's fair that that sort of approach isn't going to resonate with everyone that walks into the door, but what was important about Houston was that you applied your personality to giving the people on your team a better experience. The VHLM (and the VHL in general) isn't meant to be a business. We're people, and players are best viewed as people. I don't think I ever cared about team branding or image or player storylines to as great an extent as you did, but I ran my teams in ways that fit my personality and so did you. I think if we tried to switch styles, neither one would be as successful. So I don't think it's necessarily the things that you do as a GM, but it's the things that you do as a GM that matter. If you're running a team so you can have fun pushing buttons and look cool in front of other people, you're doing it wrong. And honestly I feel like the league is lacking in that regard now. We've got a lot of teams that I sort of just see as...existing...and that I don't really associate with any one thing or another. We've got to do better in making our teams communities within the community, not just stops along the way to the next place.

For the record anyone has access to my file and instructions for working with it are listed in that original article. If recruitment wants it they can have it. It does take a couple hours to make it entirely accurate, but I feel like that once a season is justified if you’re getting paid for it. Honestly, you could get mostly the same job done a lot faster by just looking at total roster numbers—though this gives you more detail and lets you come up with E-hating arguments.

Another season, another theme week...wait, it's a good one? I'm not used to that. I feel like it's been a while since we had forum drama. I think it's actually a little fun to log in and watch people screaming at each other over one thing or another--it's a nice little guilty pleasure that gives me reading material and the chance to say something about the situation that basically just amounts to common sense but in far too many words. It's also no secret that this week's forum drama has surrounded recruitment, from unfounded accusations to people being told to shut up to threads turning into long discussions on proper forum etiquette, it's been an interesting read. And now the blues, in their ever-broadening quest for ULTIMATE CONTROL, ask us to bury actual relevant, interesting, and entirely juicy content with endless threads about how "recruitment is good and we should do more of it." No kidding. We're going to have the whole host of recycled opinions this week. We'll have "let's use Reddit again," we'll have "recruitment doesn't actually do anything," and we'll have everyone's favorite, "it would be nice if we had [exactly what the VHLM GMs do already]." And maybe this week will be valuable. I can see, somewhere in here, the opportunity to uncover some new frontier for the recruitment team. But why list ideas? Everyone's going to do that already and I'm not really part of any spaces myself where the league could reasonably be advertised. I don't, however, want the league to lose sight of realism. Just because we've had a forum thread or two that's created a perceived need for more recruitment--and, believe me, it's worked--we don't need to rush right into it yet. Which brings me to the main point of my article: if you look at the numbers, the VHL has neither a declining-numbers issue nor a need to grow its user base. I wrote this lovely article two seasons back and I'm still annoyed that barely anyone took the time to read it through and understand it. There's some awesome stuff in there if you agree with my vision for the league--namely, that we should get rid of the VHLE and move back to the way things used to work, when there were only two leagues to deal with and it wasn't normal to have players taking six seasons after the draft to move up. I'm not going to harp on that point too much (although I'd still like to make it), so I'll move on to explaining why I'm bringing it up. It's an article that also serves as a lovely time capsule for the league because it has lots of data on roster sizes as they were in S89. There's a massive spreadsheet in that article that shows you exactly what I mean and that I've updated for S91 (go check it out! It's in the article. You'll have to get around to reading my damn article to find it--see what I did there?). I'll extract a few meaningful numbers from said spreadsheet, and said article, for your viewing enjoyment: Average VHL roster size in S89: 6.1 F | 3.6 D | 1.6 G Average VHL roster size in S91: 6.3 F | 3.8 D | 1.3 G My hypothetical "delete the E and use 8-season careers with a VHLM cap of 250" situation in S89: 6.8 F | 4.1 D | 1.8 G The same situation in S91: 7.6 F | 3.9 D | 1.5 G (Cap is fine in this situation in either season. Currently, the average VHL team has 1.6 inactive players on its roster, which would mean an almost perfect 10-12 actives per team if this were implemented in S91. Delete the E please.) I also appreciated the chance to look at this sheet again because it's occurred to me (sadly after the fact) that I can copy-paste that summary sheet into a separate tab and have a snapshot of how the league looked this season for future reference. It took me a couple hours to bring the sheet up to date, and I don't have it backed up from the original case, but it's in order now for any comparison to S91 that I might eventually need. Maybe you'll see it again in the future! You know what this tells us? The VHL has not shrunk even a little bit over the last couple seasons. It also tells us something even nicer. The VHL has not experienced a dramatic (and dangerous) growth rate over the last couple seasons either. That's awesome. In fact, VHL rosters are marginally larger than they used to be, and it appears that there are a few more VHL-ready prospects now than there used to be. That is 100% fine and doesn't indicate a poor job done on the part of recruitment. I think this fits an opinion that I've stated multiple times before just fine--that the current league size should be sustained and that we should work to keep our community the size that we want it to be with recruitment serving mostly to guide it to that level. And that's what is happening. The VHL public can mostly chill out over this issue. We aren't crashing and burning and we aren't going to lose the league just because we're not experiencing the type of recruitment blowup that most of us came into the league in the middle of. "But Gustav," you say, "there hasn't been much recruitment lately! I haven't actually bothered to find out, but I'll hop on the latest trend if it makes me look cool! If I had my way, I'd have all of you shot!" My first answer is all of the above. Complete with a "perhaps we could even shrink the league a tiny little bit so I could have more support for an eventual E nuking. If I had my way, you know what I'd do with it!" My second answer, though, is that you're right--recruitment hasn't been great. And that's something worth keeping an eye on, and that's something that does deserve its own theme week with people bringing up ideas and with the team taking them in for consideration. It's also very true that the VHLM is suffering a bit--our numbers on that sheet are considerably lower than they were in S89, and that's something that could indeed lead to smaller VHL numbers in the future if it persists. Currently, that's something we can deal with. It's even something that I appreciate seeing for my own reasons. And I'm not at all opposed to recruitment for the sake of giving us some first-gens to develop. We could try what we can on Reddit. We could make greater efforts to connect with people right from player creation. We could even--who would ever think?--stop advertising on gaming channels and try to connect with people who actually talk about hockey, or make graphics, or do their own amateur sort of broadcasting that this league isn't all that far off from, instead of making our target audience 12-year-old kids who think we're a gaming community and immediately leave. Wouldn't one or two of those things, or even a certain one in particular, be nice? I like to think it would be great for the league and that recruitment has a wonderful opportunity to grow with this week. It could be a wonderful sort of wake-up call. I'd just rather not see us go the way of overcompensating and end up flooding the league again just because we got yelled at a lot over theme week. Going forward, I think the team could use somewhat of a numbers-oriented approach. We could use someone who tracks league sizes and retention numbers and draft class sizes and figures out when would be smart to recruit and to what extent. A guided approach as to what to do, instead of doing things based on instinct, would be great. It's been alluded to that there's been some inaction on the back end in recent times--and that's absolutely true--but maybe there just isn't that sort of guided approach present. Even keeping track of simple numbers like these would be nice. I believe that with enough tracking of numbers over time, we could reach a very good understanding of how large recruitment needs to make the M for the purposes of growth, shrinkage, or sustainability on the big stage. That's my suggestion for recruitment--get someone to dig into the numbers for you, or start doing it yourself. I suppose it's also my suggestion for the community. The next time you see "RECRUITMENT IS TERRIBLE", think critically about it. Maybe it is! Maybe it isn't, and maybe it's a matter of opinion. Maybe you can look at it as convenient for your own little twisted vision of putting GMs out of work. In any case, I hope this is a valuable contribution to theme week and that what I have to say is taken well. 1,503 words | 3 weeks | you'll never AI-detector me because my writing style is too stupid for that

You wouldn't know her, she goes to a different school.

I feel like there's even a way to be fired up and speak aggressively that isn't necessarily insulting. Case in point, a lot of my previous writing (at least, I like to think so). You can probably say whatever you want about the state of recruitment and it won't be taken too poorly. It's just that the second it's made about people and not situations is the second it becomes justifiably offensive to those people. "WE HAVE NO NEW RECRUITS, THIS IS A MAJOR ISSUE, AND I CAN'T BELIEVE THE LEAGUE HAS GOTTEN TO THIS POINT WHILE SO MANY PEOPLE" (speaking generally) "CLAIM THEY'RE DOING EVERYTHING THEY CAN TO HELP" will piss off no one because people who are trying will agree with it and people who aren't either won't notice, won't care, or don't think they're part of the issue. Meanwhile, the things listed here target the people on recruitment team specifically and in some cases puts down the work that recruitment team has done. And also, as a general rule, it's always best to suggest an alternative to a situation if you don't like a situation. Otherwise it's just ragebait. That's why I really like this response. I have the same access to the recruitment team server, and yeah, I'll be honest--there have been a lot of times when there hasn't been a level of activity there that's lined up with a perceived need to stop league size from declining (though given my E opinions I've been OK with that for the time being so long as it's fixed eventually). This points that out, but it goes a lot farther than that by providing potential reasons as to why, offering informed criticism of what's gone wrong, and pointing out where specifically there's room for improvement. Even though it's very clear about the fact that recruitment hasn't been very effective in recent seasons, it's hurtful to no one because what it speaks negatively about is more fact than opinion and it leaves spaces for a fair response. I was in a situation myself recently where I was assigned to lead a team on a project but wasn't given much direction. I (and other team leads) ended up facing criticism over things that we sometimes didn't even know we had to do. And it sucks for everyone when one side isn't given the tools for success and the other side tears them down for not succeeding. I guess I've been the "recruitment team" in that case. I'd like to know that recruitment is trying what they can and it's completely fair that they be held to that standard by the community. There are also just good ways and bad ways to do that.

@Spartan eat butts

G - ART VANDELAY @STZ

D - Deron Nesbitt @wcats

D - Liv Slater @STZ

F - Yaroslav Bogatyrev @wcats

F - Randy Bobandy @STZ @Syzygy DQ'd because of 2 skips (@Spartan )

1. @Jubis F - Jason F - Daryl Dixon F - Landon Wolanin D - Jacob Stone D - Phil Strasmore G - Fuukka Rask 2. @STZ F - John Jameson F - Larry Abass Jr F - Sadie St-Louis D - Pierre Emile Bouchard D - Malum Maellard G - Lachlan Summers 3. @Gustav (GM) F - Leandro Goncalves F - Randy Bobandy F - Yaroslav Bogatyrev D - Liv Slater D - Deron Nesbitt G - Art Vandelay 4. @wcats F - Mac Atlas F - Leonard Triller F - Wann Kerr D - Skor McFleury D - James Marino G - Joel Castle 5. @Zetterburg (filler) F - Todd Cooke F - Tomas Sogaard F - Jimi Jaks D - Jake Thunder D - Mark Calaway G - Jesse Teno 6. @Beketov F - Vincent Laroche-Gagnier F - AK92 Wit da Hoodie F - The Frenchman D - Ryuji Sakamoto D - Brian Kowalski G - Matt Murdock

@Syzygy skipped (1/2); @Beketov on the clock.

Way up in the mountains, in the most populous city in North America... (did you know both of those things were the case? Far too many don't.) ...we're hiring a new GM for the Kings. We thought we finally had an offseason with no movement in management, but I suppose some things are just not meant to be. But anyway, it's no secret that this team needs an active leader--so let's welcome @hylands back to the Mexico City GM role! It's time for Round 2. @VHLM Commissioner

So this might make some people feel old...but I learned that this existed recently. A lot of his stuff doesn't really resonate with me but this is fantastic. Cool chord progression and an amazing vocal performance with feeling.

F- Leandro Goncalves @wcats

Another offseason, another hiring. Let's get this party started. Recently, the @VHLM Commissioner team lost contact with @Otis Boudreaux Jr. While we're unsure of the details, we'll ask that Otis' privacy be respected as we recognize the time he was able to spend serving the Kings and the VHLM. We take pride in all of our hirings, and Otis has been no exception to that. This, of course, also means that Mexico City will need a new GM for S91--the draft is over, and there are players waiting to be helped out! So, we'll probably want this to be a quick hiring. Please apply below if you'd like the job. Perks include 4 TPE in job pay, your very own VHLM franchise, and Gustav.

My very first recruitment graphic and one of the very first graphics I ever made. I remember being really into putting color gradients over pictures of cities at the time, and I also remember that the text looks the way it does because I pressed random things until it got that way. I then proceeded to ask what I did, so I could hopefully do it again, and learned that this isn't the greatest graphic in the world and that no one else had any idea either. Way back in S66, the VHLM expanded--again. I was part of the league's (at the time) historic S66 draft class, which was already given a good amount of room to work with by the addition of Houston and Philadelphia in S65. Heck, I was even part of the very first Houston team, even though that's not something I'll get into here. In S66, the league brought in Mississauga, Mexico City, and San Diego. And it was here that I would get hired, after just one season in the league, to my very first GM job...the very first GM of the Mississauga Hounds. For the next 4-plus seasons, the team would be mine. I grabbed an old Houston teammate of mine in @Radcow as my first AGM, and off we went--the S66 Hounds team alone would feature names like @DoktorFunk, @Rayzor_7, @Hogan, and of course, current Wild GM (and longtime AGM of mine) @Berocka as first-gens. And that's not even mentioning Scottish legend (and VHLM points leader) Callum MacElroy and eventual AGM-of-a-couple-teams Cody Smith. From the very first season, the Hounds were a very special place. Other first-gens who originally called Mississauga home in my time and built one or more solid careers upon it include @Telkster, @Cxsquared, @Patrik Tallinder, and 4th-round pick @Ricer13 (whose draft slot I initially traded into targeting someone else I didn't realize had been picked. Although, good riddance--I don't even remember who that was because they went IA immediately, and we got Ricer!). And, of course, I have to give an honorary mention to @DarkSpyro, whose career began as a waiver signing in Ottawa but whose activity we watched explode with the Hounds. We'd all come together to create something that was beyond a team and was even almost a community in itself. Our locker room was talked about around the entire league, and that isn't just my own GM bias. Do you know how hard that is to achieve, especially when you're just a VHLM team and no one is supposed to care about you? We did that. Together, we would build up a team that made the playoffs in its very first season, took a step back, and made two very serious runs at the championship in S68 and S69. In fact, we'd make the finals in S69, but lose to a borderline unstoppable Saskatoon team. In a season where I'd banked more mid-late picks than anyone else (a range where I'd typically excelled in drafts previous because I'd scout the absolute heck out of them), it was just our luck that there wasn't a single active to be found outside the first round and a half. Sometimes I wonder what may have changed with a draft class that looked more like the ones before it, but at the end of the day...I can be proud that we made the very first finals appearance in franchise history. But anyway, hello everyone. Perhaps you're wondering why I'm pinging you--this certainly isn't the very first time I've reflected on my time as GM, and it's been almost four real-life years since I ran the Hounds. But since there's a general lack of VHLM awareness, I thought I'd let you (and maybe a lot of others) know... ...that for the very first time in franchise history, the Mississauga Hounds are Founder's Cup Champions. You got that right. It took over 4 years to get there, it took a long list of GM changes, and it took a whole lot of hard work through countless rule changes and VHLM stuff, but at long last, the GM who can claim the title is none other than @vincentlg2007, in his very first team management gig. The team is still fighting through it all, wins are still being chased, and in what I can tell you is nothing short of an administrative miracle, the exact same server that I created as a college freshman is still up and running. And isn't it nice to look over the list of Hounds past and imagine what the future might hold for the franchise? Heck, this team just did what I couldn't, even with the names I had. And while I'm generally obligated to be impartial and spent most of the season neither knowing nor caring how the Hounds were doing, seeing the outcome of the Cup still gave me a sense of pride. It's not my team anymore, but it was my very first as a GM and I'll never forget the time I spent there, much like I hope you won't forget the best of your early-VHL experiences. Until next week!

I mean I hope you realize that I'd consider this a much better outcome than adding an extra player store option We already don't *need* it anymore, so if we're avoiding making changes to account for it disappearing, then why not just make it disappear?

Art VandeLAy

I think these are fair statements and you can choose to play in the E for any reason you want. I just also think that any argument that skipping it will get you more career success was already really lacking in credibility and keeps losing what it had as one looks into the details. Neither of you is doing this but I would say it’s completely baseless to argue that a top draft pick isn’t raising their ceiling by staying down, and that this isn’t really appealing to lots of top draft picks. In theory, it should be fine, shouldn’t it? I’d love a world where going up doesn’t effectively forfeit two seasons of hard work. I think the logistics of working this out on a broader scale are a separate discussion, but I hope a “make your last depreciation not as bad” purchase isn’t seen as a bad idea.

tHe SyStEm dOeSn'T eNcOuRaGe YoU tO sTaY dOWn iT's a TrAdE-oFf AnD yOu'Re GeTtiNg ExTrA sTaTs iF yOu Go Up pEoPLe dOn'T sTaY dOwN tO aVoiD dEpReCiAtiOn It's been a minute or two since I've aired out the laundry on this, but my strong opinions about the way depreciation works have not changed. I've always thought that it's absolutely ridiculous that top earners get to sit around in the E and "give up a season of numbers" (at a time when anyone who's been around for longer than 5 seconds knows that those numbers' contribution to a career will be fairly minimal in most cases) to completely avoid depreciating in their last season. To very quickly recap a manifesto that's been posted quite a few times: Point: the E was created to be played in and skipping it shouldn't be a regular thing. Counterpoint: the E was created to address VHL roster overflow. A top earner in the draft should be in high demand on a VHL roster, especially during a time when a top earner can be around 500 TPE by the time the playoffs come up. It's outrageous to suggest that such a player belongs outside of the big league. Point: the E is a necessary evil and we'd be dealing with massive roster issues otherwise. Counterpoint Point: there's nothing wrong with the current depreciation system, it doesn't provide any reward for staying in the E, and if you choose to go up and get hit with the huge one in your last season, a) that doesn't really matter and it was great that you did it, but, b) that's also what you get and you shouldn't have done that. Sure. I've done basically all of my complaining about the above with the belief that the system works a certain way. And, in fact, I can fairly say that there should have been no reason for me to believe otherwise, because this was something I know we've talked about behind the scenes and that I thought we agreed on. Why isn't there a depreciation fighter for the 9th season? If this league wants to pretend even a little bit that players who skip the E aren't human pieces of garbage who deserve to be depreciated into irrelevance, then maybe it shouldn't make that third hit entirely unfightable. I've always thought that there was an option for this and still hated the way it worked--so learning that there isn't and that it's even worse makes my opinion quite a bit stronger. Seriously, we're starting to run out of arguments for "guys, it's actually a fair choice you can make between two pretty cool options," especially when every blue hasn't missed TPE in who knows how long and not one of them skipped the E. You're seriously avoiding an otherwise completely unavoidable 300-some TPE hit at the end of your career by changing nothing about your earning and probably not sacrificing a whole lot of rookie season numbers. I can tell you firsthand that "has 44 more points and one more full season played" isn't really a good thing in HoF voting, and even that assumes that all the other numbers would be exactly the same when you give yourself 300 more TPE to work with. I'll let you think about that for a bit. I'd like to hear one person who legitimately wants to play up under current circumstances for reasons other than not wanting to be in the E. Meanwhile, the reasons for staying down are all over the place, and for those active enough that they shouldn't need to, all of those reasons are performance-incentivized. It's absolutely laughable that I'll inevitably get people telling me here that there's nothing wrong with that, or even that the scenario I'm describing doesn't exist in the first place. Constructive feedback? If you're going to make those of us who want to do what the development leagues are supposed to do in the first place pay a penalty, at least give us an option to mitigate it. I'll admit that a lot of this article is ragebait, but there's something in here I'm advocating for that I seriously think could help the league out.

Art Vandelay - RT