HenrikZoiderberg

Holy hell an actual thoughtful article with time and research put in. This is (fire emoji)

27. What team is surprising you the most so far? I'm kind of surprised The Wolves aren't in dead last, given how they're perrenial playoff losers. You'd think they'd just give up already. 28. Which team do you predict to finish the season with most points? Dabears of course. How we don't go 72-0-0 every season confuses me. We've got the most talent in the league. 29. Which team will finish last? There's no way The Wolves don't come in last. They've got a ray of hope in MGS and not much else. 30. How is Calgary surpassing all odds. I can see it now in the LR, "I planned this exactly" with more farts coming out of his mouth. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. They'll normalize/regress back to where they belong. 31. Who is the best d-man this year? It's gotta be my man Thunder @Berocka 32. Who will score the most goals this season in the VHL? MGS is certainly on pace to make a push for it. He gets my vote.

Maybe I got into this at the wrong time. Maybe I fell in with the wrong crowd. Maybe i'm just not suited for this anymore. When I joined up, I was welcomed with open arms to my team, was given an eye into leadership, was even encouraged to join and participate in the VHLPA. I've never been the core of the community, but I wasn't at the outskirts either. I was close enough to see the path inward, and to catch the complaints of those in the orbit of leadership. There's a lot of good ones in this league, DA, TFong, and others who I'm not going to name. But at the same time there's people who think they're hot shit just because they're not Doug. There's individuals in the higher echelons who are repeatedly caught cheating, who don't follow the basic rules of player deployment, who give the old guard a much easier path to the top. Who give preferential treatment throughout the league and continue to perpetuate this cyclical favoritism. Those who call out this behaviour are often ostracised, or at the very least compartmentalized. It's become a game of politics, and it's not all that fun anymore, even being one of the people with a foot in the door. The VHL can be such a good time and outlet for creativity when you first approach it. There's some amazing people here and I'm so glad to have met most of you, but at the same time the model this entire system is built on isn't sustainable or conducive to growth. Recruitment seems to be way down since I first started, the same users get their players recruited to the same teams by the same GM's season in and season out, and those who care abotu the league seem unwilling to make the difficult changes. When those changes are made, they're often ill-thought-out or implemented without warning and defended with a self-righteous zealotry that turns members off from bothering to interact and engage. The Bears have been an amazing family to me, and I have to thank each of them for their support and love. Like Mexico before them, they've been their own little welcoming community. I'm grateful to Bana for all he's done, for treating his players with an enormous measure of respect and gratitude, and for always trying to speak the truth, even when the truth is hard to do. I'm not leaving, I'll continue to update and earn, and hopefully start maxing again sooner than later, but I find the more I distance myself from the league as a whole, the less I look to it as an obligation, the happier I am. This isn't something I have the emotional energy to care about and still be fulfilled. It's fun at times, but it's so toxic at others, and that's not a feeling I can tolerate right now. ' I hope I've articulated this all in a way that isn't accusatory or short-sighted. There's growth to be had here, and a power dynamic that needs to shift before that growth can happen. For all of our sakes, I hope it does. With love for you all, HZ 532 Words TPE for week ending February 16, 2020

Ride into the boards Skate the play along With Zoider of Bergia Along came this song From when the Squid faced played A silver-tongued Cornholio His army of Wolves At his skates did they revelio They came after me With rule-changing deceit Broke down my stick And they kicked in my teeth While cornholio's blades Ended Trivia sweet And so cried the Zoider "This shit's not so neat!" Toss TPE to your Zoider Share Trivia answers Share Trivia answers, oh Toss TPE to your Zoider Share Trivia answers! His edgework is pristine His writing obsolete He bashes and breaks you His scoring elite He thrusts every night Loves with all his might High up on mount Washington Then takes a bad fight He's a scorer and a pest On a team among the best He kills all the penalties And never shall rest Back to back entailed The champions prevailed Defeated the Reign Then swam with a whale Toss TPE to your Zoider Share Trivia answers Share Trivia answers, oh Seriously i'm glad we rolled back the changes to Trivia, but the ability to earn there on a regular basis has basically been throttled. We need a change of leadership if there's goign to be any retention, it's time to move a good chunk of the old guard oldboys out and bring in rule changes that influence new blood, not reward older members for being old members. I'm going to take flak for saying the above, but screw it. This has stopped being fun, and something's going to have to change if we want to grow this community. -HZ 268 Words TPE for week ending Feb 16, 2020

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19. What were your thoughts on this seasons VHL Charity Drive etc? Honestly one of the coolest things thats been done in any community I've been a part of. Big ups to all of those who donated. 20. What did you get for X-mas? A steamer for making dumplings! Call me little Bao wow! 21. Did you have a New Years Resolution? No? You don't do that dumb shit? Oh. Well, if you had to. What would it be? I resolved to listen to the song New Years Resolutions by The Flatliners at least once. Gotta get that Canadian content in. 22. Who do you predict to be next seasons MVP and why? Rayz Funk. He's the league's best player obviously. 23. How do you think the Bears are going to do next season? Number one, with a bullet. 24. Think they can three-peat? Is it even possible? If we don't three-peat I'll retire my player.

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I'm like Malkin. I cruise along until I feel like dunking on a team.

13. If you had to tape a good-bye message to @FrostBeard, what would you say? Dearest Frost-boy. You were the best of us for a long time, and made such a huge impact in your short time in Seattle. You lead us to our first cup, and your beard was magificent from day one. I hope you're happy, wherever you go. 14. Who excites you as potential FA's this season and why? I hear that MGS guy is pretty good, he could break his contract, right? 15. How do you feel Seattle has handled the cap situation etc this season? Banaman made some very difficult moves. I wasn't necessarily a fan of letting Frosty go, but dynasties are a difficult thing to build. I hope it's for the best. 16. Which teams made the biggest trade this off-season? What was the deal - who won it? Arguably our move of @oilmandan could go either way, but we couldn't afford his contract. I think it was a rare win-win. 17. Who goes first overall in the draft? Uhhh...(checks notes)... Lafreniere? 18. Should @pennypenny recreate? If he has, fuck yes. Welcome back! I'm a fan of the one-character start to finish approach, but to each their own.

85 Prague Phantoms @ Helsinki Titans 86 Calgary Wranglers @ HC Davos Dynamo 87 Riga Reign @ New York Americans 88 Malmo Nighthawks @ D.C. Dragons

Prague 3-2

Hey Bears, And anyone else that cares to read this, Some of you have pointed out that I haven't been as active lately, and I figure it's time to give some updates as to what's going on and how I've been dealing (or not dealing) with it recently. I'm not sure if this is eligible for media spot consideration, but it's a bit of a long-winded explanation, so I figure the least I can do is try. First things first is family. IRL my parents are super-athletes. Despite both being in their sixties, they both routinely run marathons and have several Ironman triathalons a piece under their belts. It's part of their entire identity as people. That's what made it hard when in 2019 my mother was diagnosed with an irregular pulse that was going to require monitoring. After several months of monitoring and testing, the Cardiology team determined that she was going to need some sort of medical intervention. Fortunately, mapping of her heart determined that she was eligible for a ventricular fribulation - a relatively non-invasive procedure where a surgeon runs a node up through your femoral artery into your heart to fry the piece of your heart that is missfiring with an electrode. I spent a full day in the hospital with my father while mom underwent the procedure, and what was supposed to be a three hour routine outpatient procedure turned into a six hour surgery and a mostly-overnight stay. There were complications, but she was released the next morning. The following day my parents decided to drive back to their hometown, but barely made it an hour out of the city before the pain my mom was in was too much for her to handle, and they were forced to stop at a suburb's hospital. Mom was admitted, and a fresh ECG showed she had significant fluid buildup in the cavity between her heart and lungs, causing her unexpected pain. They dealt with it there, but me and the siblings still left work that day and made the drive to be with her until she was released that night. Thankfully, that was the end of the complications, but it's been a long road to recovery for the old girl. This is a part one of my absence, it's been mostly stress related in relation to my family, and trying to spend less of my free time in front of a computer screen. I care about you all dearly, and hope you'll understand that what I've run into lately is stress overflow into other parts of my life. Please don't think I haven't been around because I don't want to be, I just reach a point sometimes when I need to decide which balls I can let fall to make sure the others don't share that fate. This time, it's been the VHL and unfortunately that has meant my relationships with some of you and my player's progress. I can't ask for your forgiveness in this, only your understanding. Over the next week I'm going to make an effort to continue my writing, but if it doesn't come easily, please know that it's not because of any of you or my relationship with the league. I'm in a period of recovery myself right now after a very rough few weeks, but I will soldier on as best I can. Thank you all, with love, HZ 569 Words TPE for week ending January 26 @Banackock @diamond_ace @Berocka @Acydburn @DoktorFunk

7. Who do you think will be playoffs MVP? Next year? Gotta be my man Michael Gary Scott. He's put up with too much over the years. 8. Who would win playoff MVP that ISNT a Bear? Next year? Watch it be @oilmandan and watch the world burn. 9. What went wrong for Riga? They decided to step to the Bears. 10. What went right for Seattle? Bana put together a talented young team. That's all it takes. That and excessive trolling. 11. What are your thoughts on the Bears trading Yvonne? @Esso2264 Real sad to see someone with such strong ties to the league leave, but he'll be forever a Bear if we're being honest. 12. What are your thoughts on @oilmandan to Malmo? That one stung, he was arguably our playoff MVP as detailed in my superlatives article. You hate to see it.