solas

more great sims for Chicago, gotta keep this run going

Didn’t he have a forward or something? Xander Finn?

HE RETURNS!

BIG SIM

I was hoping to see some creative graphics stuff with this theme week, and as expected you delivered. The "Toronto Social Club" stuff is really funny to me and of course this graphic builds on it really well. This reminds me a lot of the old ads you used to make for the VHL Mag back when that was a thing, which of course gets a nostalgia bonus from me. Good stuff! 10/10

Jean-Pierre Camus goes home for vacation There aren’t many opportunities for a VHL player to get rest during the season. The 72-game campaign is a grueling affair that tests even the very best. So it was a surprise to hear that Chicago Phoenix goaltender Jean-Pierre Camus went on a brief vacation recently, in the middle of the season. Camus is notorious for his work ethic and single-minded focus on winning, and the Phoenix are currently battling for first place in the North American Conference. So why now? This seems like it would be one of the worst, and most unlikely, times to go on vacation. The answer is simple: he wanted to go back home. To Quebec. “I spoke very openly with the management and my coaches here,” Camus said in an interview with VHL.com. “They understood why I left, and I really appreciate that. I just had to go home. I’ve been working so hard on improving as a player and helping this team win that I haven’t been back home in over a year. I didn’t go anywhere during the offseason, I just stayed in Chicago and worked out. Through the last month or so, I’ve been starting to feel homesick because of that. And I figured it’d be a good idea to go home now, give Klox [Chicago backup goaltender Kloxified] some starts, rather than have my mind be in the wrong place when we’re going into the playoffs.” Camus was born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, to a multilingual household. Like many others in the province, his first language (and the language most spoken in his family) was French. That’s something fairly unique in the VHL - none of his teammates speak French, and the league’s only other notable Francophones are Dragons forward Guy Lesieur and Wranglers goaltender Jacques Lafontaine. In fact, English isn’t even Camus’ second language - it’s his third. His father, currently a philosophy professor at Université Laval in Quebec City, emigrated from Algeria in his twenties, and as a result Arabic was more common than English in the household. (As one might be able to tell, however, “JPC” is now fluent in English - he learned it in school and from teammates, but credits much of his development to watching English-language broadcasts of Quebec City Meute games.) Language, of course, isn’t the reason for Camus’ trip home. But it’s a good demonstration of why he did. Going into the league at such a young age (he first played in the VHLM at 19) is difficult, and that culture shock can have a big effect on you. Even after five years in the VHL system, things can still be difficult. So a trip home, to Quebec City, was just what the doctor ordered. “I got to see my parents for the first time in a long time. My sister, too. It was fantastic,” he said with a smile. “I even got to meet up with a couple of my old friends and teammates. We didn’t even talk about hockey, just life. It was fantastic, just what I needed.” Camus pauses for a moment, then his smile fades back into a look of steely determination. “But now it’s time to get back to work.” 530 words - good for one week

This is really cool and creative. I don't often see many articles like this which is why I'm such a big fan. I wasn't aware of Hornet's backstory, which I really liked, and I enjoyed the twist you put on it. Honestly, I don't see many people actually building characters for their players very often (maybe I'm just not looking close enough), which is why I really like this article. The formatting is really well done here too and adds to the tone of the article. Great job. 10/10

You love to see it.

jeff in #game-results

1. We're poised to top the North American standings if we can stay hot, do you think we'll be able to end the season as the 1 seed? I hope so but I refuse to jinx it! I will say that I think our team has improved and will be strong going into the playoffs, especially with the addition of Winter. But Vancouver are looking really good with Hornet added at the deadline. 2. How much of a trivia buff are you? Do you think you could hold your own on Jeopardy!? I think I could hold my own, sure. I'm pretty good at Jeopardy. But I've also taken the quiz to try out for the show and...let's just say I did not do well enough. The people who actually get on are very smart across a lot of categories, so I don't know if I could keep up with them. 3. Word has spread that a new VHL newspaper might be in production, what do you hope they cover in some of their articles? I'm looking forward to seeing it. I'd be intrigued to see some of the old articles from the original VHL Magazine coming back (maybe except for Robbie's op-ed, though). I liked the weekly poll that Toast used to run so it'd be cool to see that come back! 4. Gotta ask the tough question- who's your FAVORITE teammate and why? First off, I want you to know that I skipped this question and answered every other one before this because I didn't know what to say here and it stressed me out just a little bit. I like all of you and honestly I could probably put anyone here but I enjoy overthinking things. So I'm going to say fishy because I enjoy talking to them, I think they're a great presence in the locker room, and we got drafted in the same season so it's been fun to be there from the very beginning of the team. 5. Going with this weeks theme of vacations, what would you consider your dream vacation? Do you plan on going through with those ideas? Man...there are a bunch of places I'd like to go, but at the same time I am also absolutely a homebody. I've always wanted to see one of the national parks - Yosemite is usually the first to come to mind, but Glacier and the Grand Canyon are up there too. There are a lot of European places that come to mind too, almost too many to name. But I think I'd say Japan would be my dream vacation - a lot of beautiful scenery and interesting history, plus a lot of nerdy shit I could do too. The language and culture barrier would be difficult to overcome but I think it'd be really cool. 6. What's one thing about yourself that most people don't know? I like this question. Tough to pick a factoid about myself, though. I used to play piano up until a couple of years ago. I've thought about picking it back up because I still have my keyboard but unfortunately I haven't been able to find the space to set it up.

I thought so too but he's a UFA after this season EDIT: wait he isn't, what

Malmo in S76

I like this. I think the choice of color and main stock works well here. I like the size of the sig, and I like the placement and layout of the text. I think there could’ve been a bit more done with the lighting, especially in a way that works with the background. And while I like the placement/layout of the text, I think the font could be better and I’m not a fan of the effects used. Good work though! 8.5/10

This is awesome. Colors are great, text is great, blending is great, stock work is great. I think maybe the only thing I’d pick out is the lighting, maybe it could be a bit brighter on the player’s face and/or the lighting could be worked in better with the rest of the sig (in particular the background, considering the style of sig the dark parts of the face are slightly jarring when next to the bright red background). But that’s me searching for something to give feedback on, fantastic work. 9.5/10

A shutout?

I mean at this point I would say the Boulet trophy is a power forward trophy rather than a two-way forward trophy. I will note that I'm not particularly knowledgeable about hockey but maybe that gives it some value. I would love to actually have a two-way forward trophy but STHS doesn't really provide us the opportunity. And just to play devil's advocate - without the Boulet, would anyone even add to checking? At that point pretty much every forward build in the league will be the same.

What a sim

Camus had a good game! How about that

G U S T A V U S T A V

Welcome

Mingle is awake

1. At a bar on a Friday night, what's the first drink you ask the bartender to make for you? I don't drink very often, honestly. Or go to bars. So I don't know too much about drinks. I guess I'd just go with a beer though, beer's good. Maybe champagne depending on the occasion. 2. What made you choose the username you currently use? I used to have a different username (actually, multiple different usernames). I didn't like them, though, so I just started randomly putting words into google translate until I got something I liked, which became Solas. Which I started using in some other sim leagues first before I changed my name to Solas here in like ~2014. If I could start over I'd probably try to come up with a better name but this one is short, easy to remember, and I like it enough to keep it. 3. How often do you exercise or try to stay active in a week? Ummmmm...not at all this week. Unfortunately I have not yet found a consistent exercise regimen. I'm a pretty skinny guy, so usually my efforts towards working out are mostly unsuccessful attempts to build up muscle, which I haven't gotten back to in a couple months. I do usually try to keep fairly active though. I stretch just about every day before I go to bed, and I try to go out for a ~30 minute walk a couple times a week if not every day. Just over a week ago I hurt my knee (I don't know how it happened? I think I twisted it at work or something?) so that stopped me from doing too much, and unfortunately the recent snow/cold in my area hasn't helped either. 4. You have a chance to create an ad about whip cream. What would you do to make this whip cream sell? I would pay off a bunch of influencers to just have containers of the whipped cream hidden in the background of their Instagram photos, or TikToks, or YouTube videos, or whatever. Not in an obvious way, but in a way where it looks like it's supposed to be there. Then I would gradually make it more and more prominent, but in different sets of influencers' content in multiple different phases, until I have basically completed a psyop where everyone thinks this brand only exists as some kind of influencer marketing scheme because I have purposefully kept as much about this company hidden so it looks as fake as possible. At this point, the whipped cream cannot be bought in ANY stores. Finally, I release an "official launch" series of ads on television where a famous celebrity acts as the spokesperson, introducing the brand to the general public with an already built-in interest from the 18-24 demographic. 5. How do you unwind and relax after a long day of work or classes? Some variation of checking Discord, watching youtube videos/streaming TV shows, browsing Twitter, or checking the VHL. (I'm sure there are healthier things to do, haha.) Or I play video games. If I'm really feeling worn out I'll listen to music or a podcast and just lay down in bed. 6. if you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be? Margherita pizza is a good call. I hate to just copy Eso's answer but I think I'd just go with that, actually.

@DollarAndADream