Gustav

DAVID

81! I considered sticking around for 82, but I think it's fair that I don't run the team into the ground to try to give myself one more shot.

You're (I believe) the only person left active who was on that first Houston team, so fun fact that I'm just now realizing myself: I guess I've known you longer than anyone else here! I loved having you on Davos, and likewise I hope we end up in the same place at the same time somewhere.

I'll never forget you within your first week or so joining our server and saying something like "hey what's up, I'm mostly just a lurker, don't mind me". How the turn tables

Being the recipient of a Gustav YEET will soon become an urban legend. "I was yeeted by Gustav." "You liar." "Yeah, the team kinda sucked and he wanted some picks." At least now I know how it feels to be yeeted.

I'm sure you guys would love to have VHLM Gustav back! I'm not (currently) feeling much like VHLM Gustav, otherwise I'd never make this post... ...but if I ever want a job, I'll let you know

Hello, VHL... With the conclusion of the regular season upon us, I think now is the right time to talk about the conclusion of something different. That being... ...that this will be my last season as Davos' GM. I was (controversially) originally brought on in January of 2020, meaning that at the end of the playoffs, I will have served the league (somewhat) faithfully for just about exactly 2 years. This will also be my first time not being a GM of some sort since April of 2019, when I became the first GM of the Mississauga Hounds. I know that this will come as a surprise to some of you, but I have given this a great deal of thought on my own time and think it's the best decision to make for myself and for the league. Bear with me, because I'm going to try to address whatever I can about it in this post. FAQ: Why? This is an interesting question, and it has a few answers. Davos will be hit hard with retirement, and I don't have the heart to deal with it. We've had some not-fun times with me here, including S70-71 when we set the record for most consecutive seasons in last place (which wasn't really my fault) and S74-79 (I think?) when we underperformed and rebuilt (which kinda was my fault). While we're a playoff team now, I don't have the same enthusiasm for turning things around that I did then. It might be possible to make it work, but I've asked myself whether I see myself working to do that and I really don't. Hopefully we get someone who will! I haven't lived up to the hype. This by itself isn't a reason to step down--the reason is mostly represented in the first point--but I was meant to be the savior of the franchise and things didn't work out that way. I will always think it's more important that everyone had fun, but with one failed attempt to compete gone and another probably gone unless some playoff magic comes out of nowhere, I also think it's unfair to the league that a consistently underperforming team has the same GM for eternity. The league and I are moving in different philosophical directions. This actually isn't about the VHLE. Everyone's also aware of the whole meta thing, and it's more about that. I'm not here to criticize anyone for going along with it, but it's another "do I see myself doing this" situation where the answer is no. I am NOT saying that I want any replacement to try to make Davos a meta team--in fact, I very much do not want that--but I find the idea of running a team less fun when "this is what I want to do" is very different from "this is what I should be doing if I want to win a championship". Like the second point, this is a very minor issue for me in relation to the first, so please don't make me "that guy who left over the meta" or anything. Just something I find worth mentioning. I don't like that I'm saying any of the above, but I've had this on my mind for weeks and I think it's the most fair explanation of my thoughts. Are you going inactive? No. In fact, I hope I stay as active as always in the future. Do you want to GM again? I hope I do at some point, and at that point I hope I'm hired! Right now, I just need a break. Are you leaving the BoG? No, you can't get rid of me that easily. I like arguing too much. A few (alright, quite a few) shoutouts to people who have made my time as GM fun: @Berocka: I cannot possibly make a list without putting you on top. I don't like to speak in absolutes, but you are my best friend in this league. Thank you for putting up with all of my bullshit, and thank you for always being there to talk. It's been great working with you almost from Day 1 and I hope we'll do some other cool stuff in the future. @Ahma: It's no secret that you LOVE Davos, and I'm amazed by your ability to stand by this team through thick and thin. Thank you for your loyalty, and also for reminding me to care when I start to lose it. @WranglersSuck, @Banackock, @Darth Kaprizov, @Tyler, @KC15, and @JardyB10: to the rest of the active members of the current roster, hi! I know this comes on short notice, but thank you so much for getting Davos where it is today and making it a wonderful place to be. Best of luck! @Brrbisbrr, @McWolf , @Laine, @FrostBeard, @Grape, @Snussu, @samx, and probably a whole lot of others I'm missing: you were the people who made the past 12 (yes, 12!) seasons fun as players. I hope you're doing well, whatever you're up to. @Doomsday, @Renomitsu, @Esso2264 , @DoktorFunk, @diamond_ace , and especially @GlowyGoat (if you ever see this): you never played for me, but you still showed up to our server because you wanted to. I appreciate this endlessly and consider you my friends. To the @VHL GM crew: some of you have given me advice, some of you have given me some respectful negotiations, some of you I've never really interacted with on a GM level. But none of you have ever made me feel unwelcome, even when I wasn't making the smartest moves, and I think that's great. @Commissioner: I haven't talked to you about this, so I'd like to apologize again for the zero-notice thing. But here's the announcement. Thanks for keeping things running for all of us! If you'd like to talk to me about the next GM, feel free to do so; if you'd rather make the decision on your own, I respect that as well. To anyone else I missed, and to many others I'd like to tag here but won't because the reasons don't really connect to my time as a GM: thank you for being you. This isn't an easy post to make, but I've been hesitating to make it for a while now and it's time to push the button. But before I do... DAVID

I don't like that breaking 1500 is no longer special. Not that that matters in any way at all, of course. I just loved when I did it once and had the top score overall and now I do it and I'm third in my group.

So Quebec has YouTube Rewind. Got it.

Something occurred to me tonight while I was sitting on someone's couch, somewhere. Here on the East Coast of America, just about everyone watches the ball drop live from Times Square in New York. It's (I think) national TV, with hours of hype leading up to it, lots of live music, and this year...the new mayor of NYC being sworn in right after midnight on the broadcast for some reason. For those of you in other places in the world, what do you watch? I know there's a big thing that's similar in Sydney and another in London. But what if you're not in one of these time zones? If you live in California, is there an LA ball drop everyone watches? What about if you're Canadian? What if you're living in CST or MST or something? Is there a middle-of-nowhere-Kansas event that everyone tunes into? Or do you just watch the New York one like us normal people in the East? Or do you just not watch anything at all and count down on your own? Happy 2022 to all!

This is my opinion. At some point in the future we could see someone do the exact same thing for a more malicious/selfish reason, and in that case the person should be fired without the encouraging words that were given in this case. Having the same punishment given objectively for the same offense is fair, and I think the door is certainly open for all to accept it and move on. Definitely rooting for AJ to make a comeback, and I hope this will best be described as a learning experience.

...is something I've been guilty of myself. I think all of us who try to get involved in serious discussion have been as well. See what I did there? I did the thing I don't like people doing. Said thing is this: I see one or a few isolated incidents of something happening and state that it's something that everyone is doing, because doing so helps me push my point and having others believe that everyone is doing that thing will create a (fake) unified mindset against that thing that I might get some positive recognition for. In a way, me writing this article is an example of that, because it depends on the assumption that it happens enough that it's worth talking about. Let me give you an example: I'm sure most who are active enough to care about this article caught wind of a certain argument surrounding multis and the punishments given for them. Particularly, some level of exception was taken to that, in the way that a member believed that punishments should have been more severe, and perhaps that argument could have been constructed in a more civil manner. Though it was certainly true that the community talked about the multi punishments, and opinions varied, this was the only time that I thought a response was unreasonable (whether or not I agreed with any others). Following this, I saw multiple instances where one person or another claimed that the community, in general, wanted super harsh punishment and was being mean/aggressive/confrontational/whatever about it. And I asked, twice, because I was legitimately curious--was there any time outside of this one incident when this happened? And I received no response both times. Which leads me to believe that, in certain cases (not all, because that would be me generalizing myself), an isolated incident led to the community as a whole being judged unfairly to push the opinion that the punishments were fair (which I agree with!) or too strict. This is a dangerous way of doing things because it's just plain misleading--posts or comments of this variety received agreement, even though (per my own perception) they weren't based on the best logic. Other examples I can think of (some of which I've done and some of which I agree with) include: Arguing that recreates should go straight to the VHLE because all instances of a recreate being in the VHLM are bad; Believing the VHLE shouldn't exist because you don't like it; Agreeing with everything or nothing the mod team does because of your opinions of what the mod team has done in the past, regardless of anything in the present; Attempting to categorically place all GMs/BoG/new members/recreates/commissioners/mods in one category and stating that all think and act the same way, because a few happen to and speaking out against the entire group, all the time, is more attention-getting than speaking out against a few things; Holding any opinion at all because someone else says so, without being familiar with or able to make any legitimate supporting arguments And no, I'm not trying to say that everyone does this, all the time--again, that would be on the list if I did. It's just that I've noticed this happening before, and discussion surrounding recent events provides a convenient example. I have generalized the mod team, I have made statements about the VHLE dependent upon my own perceptions of how new members and recreates think and act, and at times (though I'd like to clarify, not many times) I have supported or gone against policies behind the scenes because I was too lazy to actually think about them. So please, as a general reminder to everyone including myself, before you make a statement, consider whether what you are saying is an accurate, well-informed representation of the truth. Being controversial is great, and I'm certainly no stranger to it! It's just that a few people doing things you don't like doesn't mean everyone is doing those things.

For the week ending 1/2: 1. Davos is IN THE PLAYOFFS! Whether we face Moscow, Warsaw, or Prague, it's happening! Which of those three would you like us to go up against? 2. You've got a good idea of how you did this season--how do you feel about it? 3. If your (or any other) player had a nickname, what would it be? 4. If you celebrate Christmas, what was your favorite part of it this year? If you don't, what's something nice you've done in the past week? 5. With a multitude of multis being found over the past week, who in the league do you think is secretly someone else's second account? 6. What's the last thing you watched on YouTube? @Berocka@Ricer13@efiug @KC15 @TheCHEESE @Ahma @JardyB10 @tcookie @Banackock @Darth Kaprizov @Tyler

One time I asked Bek when sims were going to be and he showed up at my house and ripped out my toenails.

I knew I forgot something smh I'll just make it a surprise this time

List of players, for my convenience (I almost forgot!) 1. Advantage 2. BarzalGoat 3. Berocka 4. Devise 5. Doomsday 6. Goliathus 7. Jericho 8. jhatty8 9. MMFLEX 10. N0HBDY 11. Nothing but goals 12. NSG 13. omgitshim 14. Ptyrell 15. Ricer13 16. scoop 17. Spartan 18. Squidward 19. Zack

It's been a minute since some good old-fashioned... *Gustav noises* In fact, it's been an entire semester of my time! I did a lot, I learned a lot, and I did better than I've ever done since freshman year. But, I never hosted a game! It was summer when Game 22 happened, which brings me to my next point... ...yeah, I'm going to have to act like that game never existed for the sake of trivia. I remember being unmotivated at the time and only recording who visited who, and not what happened or when it happened. So, the sheet that I do have only has a collection of names on it, with no clear connection or order between them. Anything I could possibly try to piece together from it would be wildly inaccurate. So, the stat sheets aren't going to include that game, and hopefully all of you will forget that as quickly as I forgot to write things down clearly. Anyway, let's get to the copy-paste! As usual, if you're using light mode: Rules are here The wiki is here CLICK THIS LINK IF YOU'RE NOT IN THE DISCORD SERVER JOINING THE SERVER IS REQUIRED FOR ALL PLAYERS! Non-players are welcome as well. Remember that ALL game-related notifications will be given on Discord! Make sure you join the server, and check it BEFORE speaking in the game thread each day. Also, do your best to be there at the start of each night phase! If you're new to the game, read up on some roles on the wiki and go through some old game threads in this subforum. TRIVIA TIME: HERE IS THE LINK TO TRIVIA! -If you won the last game, you have an automatic 30% chance to receive a role of your choosing, if you'd like to request one. The winners of last game are listed below: @16z @N0HBDY @Squidward @rory @Advantage -If you didn't win the last game, you can still request a role! Play trivia, and for each correct answer, you'll earn a cumulative 5% chance toward a role of your choosing, for a maximum chance of 20%. -If you won the last game, you can still play! This possible 20% chance will be added to your 30% chance for a maximum of 50%. -No, you do not need to do this if you don't want to. -If you'd like to play without requesting a role, simply write "Random" in the role request box. Vote for your preferred format up top and sign up down below, as always. Target start date: Sunday (or maybe even Monday) night! I know this is a bit late, but my work schedule this weekend will make it inconvenient to start anything before then.

It's not at all that picks don't matter in the higher leagues--believe me, as a GM, I know they do. I think Nurx seems to neglect a few things about the importance of picks in the VHLM (my question is mostly "why say that it doesn't matter for the M? I think it does"), though I acknowledge that my response may have neglected a few things about the E/VHL. To clarify: I support lower-round compensatory picks being given for teams in any league, VHLM/VHLE/VHL, where applicable. Tangentially, I do think, however, that something like this... Player with 150 TPE is found to be a multi and is banned VHL team is awarded a pick for a welfare player 200+ TPE away from making it up ...is a bit much, so some guidelines as to who gets a pick and in which cases should be established.

Week 2

Yes and no. If the point is purely being made to say "oh no, now I'm not going to win", then sure--it's not about the GM. It's about the player who shouldn't have existed in the first place. But taking that a little bit further... Let's say you're a GM and you use your first-round pick on a player. They play a position you need, they earn, and you want them to stay active and earning. It's a point of pride for you and your players that this player is on your team and contributing to your team's success. And then it turns out that player is someone's multi. I think it's unfair to say that being upset by the hit to your team caused by this is selfish. You may have just lost an active voice in the locker room. Your players just lost a teammate who might have been tearing it up. Your team's reputation may have gone down, and probably unfairly so. Your team's chances at winning just went way down, and that's something that negatively impacts every player on the team. One place where the whole "retention over winning" thing (which I support) loses me is when some (not necessarily you) start to believe that nobody in the VHLM--players and GMs alike--should ever be allowed to care about succeeding and try to say things that completely ignore that the players, as players, want to put up numbers and see their team win. A potentially high-profile player, and even sometimes a low-profile player, being thrown out because they shouldn't exist is not (in most cases) the fault of the GM or any of the team's players. It hurts much more than the GM, and a GM who (with some degree of civility and reason) is upset that their pick has gone to waste is perfectly within the realm of okay-ness in being that way. I'd support picks being given in cases where it's clear that the team/GM had nothing to do with the multi and were screwed over by someone else's rule-breaking. They shouldn't be first-rounders or anything, but if a team gets an extra 3rd or something similar I think that would be fair. My opinion on which league matters more for this is kind of the opposite of yours--in the VHLM, inactive players must be cut, meaning that a player owned by a banned member must be removed immediately. Not only is this not the case in higher leagues, but most of the multis we've seen have been in the VHLM. Thus, the VHLM is most affected by these things and the challenges faced by teams there should certainly be addressed. Which ones? I'm sincerely asking because outside of one incident I haven't seen much I'd call unreasonable, nor have I seen anything I'd call motivated by bias. I also haven't seen much (outside of said incident) with people advocating for longer bans for everyone. In fact, I've seen more of people saying that everyone is doing this than I've seen people doing this. I do sincerely ask which arguments you mean, because perhaps I'm missing something. But the fact that I've asked elsewhere already and nobody answered leads me to believe that this may be a generalized narrative that was based on one thing and snowballed into "the entire community is doing this". Ironically, I believe the punishments have been fair, so I agree with your main point. I'm just looking for some clarification on your reasoning.

Has this happened at all outside of the Kachur ban? I honestly haven't seen much I'd call name-calling or hanging on to things for days on end apart from that (maybe some in AJ's thread, but that was one thing that happened yesterday and there hasn't been anything posted there for a while). IMO it's natural for the community to not just...shrug off and move on from the Kachur thing at the very least because that was cowardly, manipulative, and mindblowing and it's easily the biggest news of the last couple weeks or so. And it's also natural to talk about the fact that we've had a lot of multi-based punishments lately. In fact, it's perfectly natural (and perfectly fine) for the community to react to any punishment at all, especially those of the unexpected sort we've seen lately. We shouldn't be expected to just see someone get yeeted and have nothing at all to say about it. I don't think this is exactly what you're saying, but at times in the past we've crossed a little bit into "you shouldn't talk about bans" territory, an idea which it's no secret that I don't like. IF it is true that the people who have been punished lately have been harassed for it, I agree that that isn't cool. Has it happened on a level that we can say it's a problem for the community in general, outside of and beyond one or two people making a passive-aggressive post once or twice? I ask that genuinely, because I know I might be missing something. I'm unaware of anything I'd call a community problem (meaning, I'm unaware of the not-banned-but-punished members being treated like parasites by most people), which is why I kind of interpreted this as an unwarranted callout. So sure, in short, if the community in general is being mean to people, it's fair to call out the community for it. But is that happening, or do we just have a "not every single person is behaving perfectly" situation?

I remember back in the late S60s a member who shall go unnamed asked another member who shall go unnamed to earn TPE for them for a bit. Member B openly admitted to it and nothing happened (apart from their GM being shredded for it in VHLM GM chat, which is the only reason why I ever knew it happened). Similar situations have been rumored, though never proven, to happen as well. Goes to show that standards have certainly changed recently. Do I think that this is as serious as things like the harassment bans? No. But shouldn't it be common sense that a GM doesn't do that? Uh, yeah. Imagine if it were OK--every GM in the league would be spamming their inactive players for their login info, and quite a few would get it. It's for that reason that I disagree with the notion that this is less serious than other multi-centric punishments, because the effects of a GM doing it are potentially more far-reaching (even if it wasn't in this specific case). In short, while I appreciate the honesty and it's always good to get the full story, it was wrong and I don't see a reason to act like it was nothing. Like anything, I hope this can be resolved peacefully.

Any draft class is going to shrink with time. People retiring or going inactive before they make it up is nothing new--even among first round picks (look at NY in the early-mid 70s for an insane streak of bad luck). I initially put together the sheet about a month ago, so of course things have changed. I doubt anything between then and now threw things off much, because I did take into account the probability that players wouldn't make it up (i.e. a player at a certain TPE level who has a 70% chance is only counted as 0.7 players). I vaguely remember someone saying this a couple years ago. I managed to keep it hidden for a while, but we'll see what happens with all the recent punishments...

Behind the scenes, it was more or less agreed upon that we didn't want to expand, or at least that we didn't want to keep expanding in the future. The VHLE was initially brought up as an alternative to that. So, if we want to talk about making the league bigger, and advocate for that, it works pretty much in opposition to why the VHLE exists in the first place. but so do a lot of other things we're trying to do with it so I guess that doesn't really matter