Gustav

My left eye vigorously twitches whenever someone writes "player store"

Hell yeah Edit: for those wondering, this makes purchases other than just "buy depreciation fighters because they're easily the best" viable. Since the fighters are based on a percentage of TPE, they remain the best purchases for higher earners, but these prices are adjusted so that the cost per TPE is about the same as a depreciation fighter for those in the mid-to-low-earning category. An added bonus is that first-gens just buying whatever in the player store at the start of their career won't negatively impact their finances as much.

A couple things: -I agree that the simmers should be more accountable. I do trust them and I'm not going to advocate for live sims because I think there's cheating going on...because I don't. I see the merits of doing it live and certainly wouldn't be against it (as in, would be willing to support it in a BoG thread) if that's what's supported by the community as a whole. -We also don't know what's going on in other people's lives and I think it's incredibly selfish to demand that simmers go out of their way in their own personal lives to do things differently...but I will concede that if the ways to stream that have been listed here are viable, that shouldn't be too much of an issue. So this point doesn't really matter, I guess it just applies to how this started out and how it's gone in the past with people outright demanding sims at exact times every day and such. -There's no reason this thread, and genchat, can't have this conversation in a civil manner. I'm not going to point fingers but some people should be ashamed of themselves for how they've chosen to go about their arguments--personal attacks, from anyone, to anyone, are never OK and will never lead to a productive conversation. Everyone can see this thread and everyone can read genchat. Do you think a newer member is going to click into VHL general tonight and see the league as a kind and welcoming place? Clean up your act.

Here to make the obligatory @fishy joke before somebody else does

No, let's change that.

Draft hype

VOTE BEROCKA

I guess we're kind of still in the ballpark for this

INDEED Own a musket for home defense, just as the founding fathers intended.

The grapeshot is loaded.

Week 4 and we are out of this thread

@Nykonax

Can't say I saw this one coming--thank you for your time as part of the GM community! Calgary needed a kick in the pants and you were able to give it to them, turning it from somewhere I never wanted to end up to what I saw from the outside as one of the league's cooler teams. That alone means you did a good job in your role, and it doesn't hurt that Calgary has been a decent team for a while on top of that. I really respect both you and Frost for knowing when to step aside rather than just kind of semi-actively keeping the team going--the league deserves 110% from its GMs and your head is in the right place if you recognize that to the extent that you're willing to hand things over if life is getting in the way. Good luck to whoever is hired as the next GM of the Wranglers!

DAVOS 2-0 This is why I'm convinced STHS hates me; I couldn't make that happen when we were good on paper.

Hi

This is probably the hardest to pronounce since Aackckqz Ky if you're not counting this one that got yeeted for being too long.

I think this is a double-edged sword. Sure, you might be able to go and work out issues with players, and I like to think I and most other GMs would as well. But it does open up the opportunity for some drama to erupt--GM A doesn't like Player B's responses, Player B gets called out...or Player B is the problem and gives GM A a nasty review that they'll have to explain because Player B's attitude is blowing up the team environment. Though general trends in GM evaluations should come up, it's also important to note that outside of obvious cases one way or another there's going to be disagreement among different players and we'll see different responses. I know people who think I do a good job as GM and I can name a few others who (probably) think I'm awful and should be removed. I won't go into that, but I guess the point is that for any GM who doesn't have a good locker room and a good team, we'll see mixed reviews that will make it hard to evaluate whether or not they're actually an issue. Even Bush being completely offline for a couple months drew its share of protest when he was removed, as did the whole situation that led to me being hired (though in both cases the league was right to do what they did ultimately). Those were the obvious ones, so imagine how it might go over if someone who's actually active gets removed because they don't meet the standards of the blues or BoG (which themselves are going to be super hard to define so people are absolutely going to come out screaming about inconsistencies and "why didn't you fire x person instead" and such). With that being said, though, I think the league should be more active in evaluating GMs. The league deserves GMs who are active contributors to the league as a whole and are able to run a team competently. In this day and age just one of those things doesn't exactly cut it with demand being as high as it is (yes, I know I'm saying that at my own risk). But any removal of a GM who isn't either straight-up inactive or not even trying to make their team good is going to be controversial, and that just raises the question of whether the league is willing to make a controversial move like that--and, in doing so, effectively change its policies by setting a new precedent.

Who is your favorite VHL member and why is it Gustav?

There's been some talk about mental health and everything around the forums lately (notably from people like @PatrikLaine and @thadthrasher) and I'd like to put something out there. I didn't exactly use Tuesday all that productively. I fell behind on work in the worst way possible--barely starting something and then sitting there until way too late at night doing literally nothing because I couldn't convince myself to go do things for some reason. Then yesterday hit and I decided to take the initiative to do things--not only catching up on what I didn't do Tuesday but working ahead a bit and getting more time to myself today. This might not seem very significant, but I'm an awful procrastinator and I have, many times, fallen into the trap of having way too much to do pile up simply because I've been too lazy to do anything until the last minute. Just working ahead a bit yesterday probably saved me from at least two days of stress, and when that kind of thing piles up it can be awful for someone. I'm very familiar with that last bit as I've probably been in my worst-ever mental state near the end of a few semesters. So my point here is this: get ready for a challenge. Go out there today and do something that serves you well. Whether it's eating healthy or exercising, taking care of something that's been on your to-do list for a while, confronting a difficult situation...just do it today rather than waiting on it forever. And once you've done that, post what you've done here and be proud of it. The point isn't necessarily just to do something pleasant or fun--though it certainly can be!--but rather to do something that improves your life. Helping yourself isn't selfish. In fact, it puts you in a place where you're more ready and able to contribute to the world, therefore helping others as well if you're so inclined. So go do it!

No goals for Dil party

For the week ending 2/21: 1. The trade deadline just came around! Which members who have recreated would you like to see at some point in your career? 2. With that, all recreates will be S78 players. What are your first impressions of the S77 draft class, now that it's complete? 3. With 11 games left in the season, what's your realistic estimate of how many of those we'll win? 4. What keeps you coming back to the VHL? 5. With Davos likely finishing near the bottom of the league next season as well as this one, what are you most excited about next season? 6. What's your favorite color? @Jer_Lefebvre @Big Dee @Lefty_S @Ahma @Advantage @Grape @PadStack @Berocka