Steve

I am not sure I have any new thoughts this week. It's the off-season and things are moving at the speed of smell. My main objective is to get through a season in the E and have a viable build to move up to the big team. I have very low expectations about what Axle will do in the E. It seems like a repeat of the M but without playing a single game, that isn't a fair assessment, it just “feels” like a repeat. I am not sure about how the league works anymore. I always thought each minor league was a stepping stone, a development league to help get you into the VHL. To my surprise, both the M and E seem to promote that level of play and pursue players willing to stick around and not progress. It's all fine with me, just not what I was thinking it would be. Every member has a choice on how they want to build and play their player. I think that makes our league a special place. Even if I like or dislike how things are going, ultimately, it's my job to make sure my player advances and takes advantage of any opportunity to earn more and become better. Having a good VHL career, winning awards, and of course winning the cup are on my list of things to do. I hope everyone follows their own path and finds some fun no matter what path was taken. Word count: 248

1. Work hard, earn consistently and always wear a condom. 2. Good luck in DC. 3. Spartan used to have podcasts that were fun to listen to. kelvi makes interesting sigs. Some guy named BOOM seems to be a very popular creator. I am kind of a fanboy of that guy. 4. I have no idea who is in that draft. Are they still going to have drafts in two seasons? 5. Should be a good building season with sporadic runs of good and bad luck. 6. I think Manjo flavored chips would be his go to chip flavor.

Review: This is an interesting graphic. I think the design is workable. You have all the basic elements required to have a solid graphic. Background is unique and stay in the color range of the render more or less. The render is well defined and is the main focal point, I think. The text is kind of plain but it works. The angle of the text seems to help with balance. I am not a huge fan of the white outer glow as it doesn't compliment the render or the flow of the design, in my opinion. Overall you did a good job and should get better with time. 8/10

Review: I like your style. They are always colorful and you use color overlays that always seems to work. I really like this as you have really good detail in the render and it's a closeup shot. The background works with your render and while the text might be a bit hard to read, it stays true to your design and follows your legacy of this style of graphics. To nit pick, removing the reflection in the visor would have been better but that's subjective. Good job, I like your work. 9/10

Oh boy, it's draft day. I am writing this article the day before the draft so I have no idea who is going to pick me though I know what team I would like to be on. I think I made that clear when I was being scouted by the teams in contention. I am sure it will all work out and Axle will be where he wants to be. The main thing is to focus on what E team decides to pick me. I will work hard and take advantage of the season in the E to develop a build worthy of the big league. One thing I can do is earn. I have not missed a week in four years. Max earning is my personal goal as a member of this league. Anyway, I really hope everything goes smooth with the draft. I am looking forward to a new challenge and I haven't been this excited about the draft in a long time. Good luck to all the members being drafted. I will see you on the ice at some point.

Review: You made a very unique graphic that I find pleasing to look at. I like the background and the layers you used to create the look it has. Really makes for an interesting element that doesn't take away from the render. The text looks fine and as always, very subjective when it comes to the font choice. I like the boarder text but I think your vignette is a bit strong and overwhelming the boarder text. Nice detail with the render having shadows at his feet. The small things you do all add up. Great job. 9/10

Review: Looks like really had a fun time with this render. I like to try different styles and blowing out images has a certain fun feeling. I like all the blend modes you used. Also you did a great job with blurring the right parts so the focus stays with the render's face. I think the text got a bit too blurry but most likely that is by design. I think overall you did a fine job with this. I think my only little nitpick would be the formatting looks off. If the text was lowered a bit it would fall into the formats I am used to using. Great job 9/10

Is that "Dirty Harry"?

I need a raise. I have kids to feed. Heartless Spartan and whoever this BOG guy is.

Review: I really like this design. You really did a fine job with the placement and the combination of all the background effects really stand out. You did a good job of removing the NHL branding. Nothing ruins a good design faster than leaving the NHL logo on the render. It looks like you have team logo swapping down pat. Often overlooked, it is a technical process that takes time to pull off. You did well on this one. The overall feel of this graphic really fits the team. Your render effects are just right. Adds some blur/movement to the render and looks great. Very nice graphic even without text. 9/10

Review: You made a great looking, large-scale graphic that has all the elements needed and they all work together well. It's always hard to find a good balance with choosing the right color palette. You did a good job with removing the NHL branding and that goes a long way in my book. I would say that with a little more blending on the background logo and a few adjustments to the render, you would have nailed it. You did great but a couple of things stand out. The background logo is much brighter and sharper than the render. You want to try to have your player the focal point but this isn't the case. I bit of levels adjustments and maybe even making the render a hair larger would help. Overall, you did a fine job. Keep them coming. 9/10

1) Hump day check-in, how is your week going? It's going just fine. Looking forward to the weekend. 2) Thoughts on Vegas winning the cup last night? I follow that team and was happy to have them win. 3) What was your favorite move of the NYA offseason? Not sure about a favorite move but Max liked it here. 4) Do we have a playoff push in us this year? Yes, we will go far in the playoffs. 5) Any big summer plans? All my plans are day to day so nothing going on at this moment. 6) Favorite logo in the VHL? I like NY's logo the best. I like the American flag.

Transaction ID: 64720673CX113152E Doubles Week 1M Player Store 5 Uncapped TPE

I have an idea. It most certainly won't be a popular one, but I think it's a fair suggestion. Since the league has rewarded members that have qualifying players to claim 5 tpe welfare, 1 shy of actually working an hour on a graphic or whatever your task of choice is, I feel the ones that have qualifying players should be given the option to claim 7 tpe for doing a task. I think this promotes the premise of being an active player can also be rewarded and dull the sting a bit for the slap in the face of those that do earn each week. I'm not saying anything about raising the max to earn, just a reward for having several players over 1000 tpe or whatever the qualifiers are. That would show that the league appreciates the active members as much as the ones that log in once a week. Raising welfare does not promote a healthy growth. I understand that there are some who actually need to use this option but not everyone should use it as a path forward. With the amount of players on welfare I am amazed that the league went down this path and not the other way around. Promoting earning has been the bedrock of the league when I first joined over 4 years ago. That has been replaced with a league full of players that stay in the M too long and even the E has players that have multi season careers. It doesn't matter what the reason is for using the welfare system. It has it's purpose and is a good thing if you are in a pinch and can't pump out a task. Encouraging it to be used as a main source of income just breeds a different group of players. Players that most likely will not have a career in the VHL. So, this is a real head scratcher for me. So, my idea is simple, offer the bonus in a productive way that promotes earning the way the league was a few years ago. It made for active locker rooms in the M. I was amazed while in Philly that the amount of players never said a word. I looked at the roster and they were there for many seasons. So why chat in the locker room if you are just active once a week to push a couple of buttons and get a bonus for doing so. I will continue to max earn but the thought of having 1 less review to do each week would feel good. In the spirit of retention of active players, I feel this would be a step forward. word count: 448

GG SDM. Good series.

It's getting really close to my favorite time of the year, the off season. Axle can cut the ties with the M and move on with is career, hopefully with a functional E team that strives to win. I am sure there will be some good times in the E as I have heard nothing bad about any of the people running the teams. I am rather excited to give that league a run and see how well I can do there. Axle will cap out early and start the banking routine. Hopefully he will have enough banked to make a viable build for whatever team in the VHL drafts him. Axle will continue to make a build that is meant to move up to the next level. Non of this two skill bull shit that seems to be the thing for players wanting to stay in a league longer than intended. I see the E as the perfect place to build up tpe. One thing I always hated was for the most part, your rookie season in the VHL was going to be sub par due to no real skills at such a low level of tpe. I hope to take full advantage of the time in the E and win some games, score some goals, then move up after the season is finished. I think that is how it was all intended to work. At least in the beginning it was meant to be a stepping stone and help players do better in there rookie season. Only time will tell. Word count: 262

Review: Well, you certainly made a colorful graphic. Not sure I like the color palette you used but that's all subjective anyway. The splattered background looks fitting, and the render and text is wall placed. I am not sure what method you used to blacken the jersey but you really crushed the black. The render's face looks a bit greenish so I would guess you used some color correction filter like HSL. Overall, you did a good job and you always make graphics worth looking at. Keep up the fine work. 9/10

Review: I really like this design. Definitely not an easy format to pull off and have it look balanced. You did a fairly good job though with only a few issues that can be straightened out with more time making graphics. The black and white background looks good with the added texture. I think the two main renders are arraigned fairly well. I think, in my opinion, the main renders could have been a bit larger and it's hard to decide which one is the focal point. I would make one a bit faded in the background and make one render the focus. The text could be larger and everything could be a bit spread out instead of all in the center. The NHL branding should always be removed and try to replace it with the leagues logos. Overall I think you did a great job with one of the harder designs to make. Keep up the good work. 9/10