RunnerBert11

I created this graphic a few days ago to claim the week of 5/13 - 5/19, can I submit this one? It was created 1-2 days ago? @Motzaburger

@Bushito updated it here for you if you want to copy and paste to update on the top of the thread

Joseph McWolf - D Dan Wilinski - RW Return to sender, @Phil!

Seattle 4-2

50 Moscow Menace @ New York Americans 51 Seattle Bears @ Malmo Nighthawks 52 Moscow Menace @ Helsinki Titans 53 Vancouver Wolves @ Seattle Bears

EASTERN CONFERENCE (A2) Boston Bruins vs. (WC1) Carolina Hurricanes Winner: Carolina Hurricanes # of Games: 7 WESTERN CONFERENCE (C3) St. Louis Blues vs. (P2) San Jose Sharks Winner: San Jose Sharks # of Games: 7

Bert Meyers starting to find his groove and make some noise up there with the big boys!! 2G 1A and 4 shots blocked, good enough for a 2nd star and my first big night in the VHL!

It's the stache! It cannot be contained and is coming out in the form of punishing play and PIMs!

Rylan Peace Beau Louth Right back at ya @Phil!

That reply is nearly as perfect as the gif sig! Both top notch! ....it's a baby ya shee! (puff puff)

1. You're coming off a huge victory over Halifax, who was favored mid-season for the cup. Does this change your expectations for the VHL? I wouldn't say so. I had quite a bit of confidence in MN from early on and knew once we found our groove we'd be hard to stop, it was just lucky we caught fire when we did! I know I may not have a large impact on the team my 1st season or 2, but I expect to keep improving at the rate I am and believe that a work ethic like that will produce championships in due time. 2. How do you feel about the "I'LL BE YOUR ERNIE" signs that appeared after your first playoff series win? Any interesting experiences with those fans? Haha, at first I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but after I kept seeing more and more of them down the playoff stretch the more they grew on me and were a source of energy on the ice for me. I've had a few curious invitation from a few of those fans, but you gotta keep your nose to the grindstone and stay focused. 3. Your agent was picked up pretty quickly for an Assistant GM job. What's your secret? If you cast a bunch of lines you're bound to catch a fish 4. How do you feel about all of the new-blood GMs and teams in VHLM? Any one in particular you're excited for? I love it, the fact that the league is expanding as well as newer active members getting a chance to shine. I'm excited to see what @GustavMattias can do with the Mississauga Hounds in his maiden voyage as GM of a new team, it's an exciting time to be a fan of VHLM hockey! 5. In your opinion, what needs to be done to a) continue recruiting large numbers of new members, and b) retain the ones we've gotten this season? I think the league is doing a good job currently in their efforts to retain newer members and the current field as well. Through things like polls and actively asking for peoples input and opinions keeps the league evolving with the direction of the player base, you'll never make everyone happy, but you're doing a terrific job of keeping the masses happy. As for recruiting I think it goes along with me landing the AGM role, many lines will eventually catch a fish. 6. Let's suppose it's season 70: you've just finished off a contract and are heading into free agency. What's most important in deciding where you'll go? I think a lot of that depends on how these first couple season go, if I find myself on a cup winning team, I certainly would like to find myself at a rebuilding organization and see if I can help jump start the rebirth. If I come close to a cup or maybe get kept outta the playoffs or exit early, I'll probably want to find myself on a contending team so I can have a shot at a Continental/Founder Cup career! Thanks for the questions @Renomitsu

Yessir! Sign this kid up!

Shots fired and guns holstered Take er easy @DollarAndADream

I'll be the first to admit when I responded to this post I was a little perturbed as I actually did put a fair deal of effort into this sig, at the same time I can see where you are coming from as far as the pixelated look and overall quality, as they do look poor. I will also admit that I am very green to photo-editing and I am using GIMP which I recently found out about and downloaded when I joined this league. In that respects I will admit it takes me a fair deal of time to put together some components that may take a skilled photo-editor a few minutes to accomplish. I also see that my guys name is only one single font opposed to the two different fonts with a team name or position sometimes used, but I thought that the theme and idea of the retro throwback kid picture looked better with just a plain "kiddie tag" (lil' bertie) opposed to the full name, team and position. I will say that your graphics are far better quality, but at the same time I don't think that my graphics are lacking time or effort and I believe the amount of layers and effects I attempt to add are suffience and inline with what I am seeing as a norm across the league. @DollarAndADream On that note I would like to say I am sorry for dragging your graphics into this and I do appreciate the fact that you take your role seriously and actually look into and question some of the time, effort and quality of the PT's that are submitted. I would like to formally apologize for this little exchange and hope we can put this behind us. Being recently drafted into the VHL I hope to stay around the league for quite some time to come, and don't wish to make any enemies or get on the bad side of anyone, especially someone who has the reputation and long standing history within the league like you do. Have a great weekend, sorry again and good luck to you and your team in the upcoming season. Cheer!

I took a player render of Steve Yzerman as a child, cut that out, put it over a smoke like background. I then took the photo that was wildly old of 12 year old Steve and blended the edges with the background so that it looked natural and not like a shitty cutout pasted over a high def background. I also played with the hues and saturation to give it the color effect that you are looking at. I also added the blur/smudge effect not only on the player render outline, but to his jersey as well to keep the entire thing looking consistent. I also thought I did a reasonable job making it look like an older/retro photo of a current player. Idk took me probably as long as it would've taken me to write a 500 word article, but you be the judge. It wasn't simply a photo taken from Google... @DollarAndADream I guess I'm failing to see how this is different than most other graphics and even your last two graphic posts of Bails and Davis...which are player renders, cutout over a background with a player name and a few effects and some lighting....

@K1NG LINUS Hope you like 'er!

(Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin) We had a chance to catch up to Bert Meyers the other day outside his local hockey rink when we asked him his thoughts on the upcoming VHL draft and where he thought his hockey future might continue. With no hesitation he had the following to say, "A guy could really forget how to skate in the off-season here in the VHL waiting on draft day and trying to find his new hockey home. Aside from the practice time I'm able to get in on my own with a few of my fellow friends, it's rough trying to stay sharp on the ice with an off-season that seems to run damn near as long as the season itself. Aside from the delay in the draft I am stoked for that night to finally roll around and find out exactly what sweater I am going to be wearing here for the foreseeable future here in the VHL. As far as teams I'd prefer to play on I can honestly say that I have no preference whatsoever and just look forward to the opportunity to show the league what Bert Meyers is made out of and hopefully help carry my new team and family to a future CUP! As for now I'm going to go lace up the skates and see if I remember how to skate! Peace!!! 221 Words

1. You're one of the league's most highly-rated new members from this past season. Who would you say helped you out the most on your way to success? It's actually hard to narrow down to just a single individual, it was actually just a combination of different people in and outside of the locker room willing to help out and lend advice when needed. 2. You more or less played center all season due to the lack of centers in Minnesota. You switched position, however, a bit late in the season, really only in time for the playoffs. Did you see Meyers moving to center as a move to be made for the long-term future? Yea exactly, I played center the entire season to fill a void on Minnesota, which agruably was the tipping point in our road to the cup, but ultimately made this move so that the future VHL team I land on knows that my intentions going forward are to be a center and a force on the dot! 3. We've seen a lot of new guys getting hired as GMs lately. Why not you, the new guy with AGM experience? I have actually not tried to apply for any GM positions as I was wanting to get a little more experience with the league and STHS before I try to branch off and take the reigns. 4. At what point do you see yourself getting drafted, and by which team? I'm not entirely sure which team, but I would say I am going to be falling either late 1st round or early 2nd round. 5. Let's say you were currently sitting around 180 TPE, and could go up to the VHL or sacrifice a very small amount of TPE to stay down. Which would you choose given that you'd still be in Minnesota? If that were the situation I don't see any reason to hustle off to the big show, I certainly would've stuck around for another season in the VHLM, but as far as Minny goes, I was a free agent so I would've been draft eligible and would've most likely changed the 1st round of this years draft. 6. You were passed over by Team USA during World Juniors, and you'll likely pass the 350-TPE cap for Juniors when they roll around next season. How soon before you finally break into the World Cup? That's a good question and I was a little shocked by the Team USA decision, not so much as to who got the chance ahead of me, but that fact that so many older players were still available to play in the World Juniors, I hope it doesn't take but another season or two for me to get a chance to represent my nation in the World Cup! @GustavMattias Thanks for the ?'s brother!

Not sure how I didn't see that before. Looking good my friend!

[Review] Nice job, I like the background you chose and the idea of a graphic to your achievements thus far in your career. My only complaint would be the cutting out of your player render around his skates, a little more time could really clean that up and make it look sharp. I also think if you would cut out a small chunk between the player's arms and body to let some of the background poke through would really elevate this graphic to a whole new level. Aside from that great graphic!