studentized

It's been a longer term goal of mine to figure out what makes a line perform well. This is a pretty broad topic and one that I will probably have to do many write ups on to get a satisfactory answer, but to start I have to understand how lines are used in the VHL. 
 
Most teams have 2 lines worth of non-bot players. A few teams run with 3 lines like New York (who now are back to running 2 lines the past couple of games). Despite this, the STHS sim runs with 4 "normal" lineups and 2 lineups of each special teams type. This means some players will inevitably play on many lines and the VHL compensates for this by giving every player a 99 endurance rating. Or so I thought.
 
In my scrounging through STHS docs trying to figure out what all the little bells and whistles do in the sim, the first thing I needed to do was to understand the different versions of the simulation engine. There are four versions: 1.1, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.1. The gist of it is that 1.1 came first and is the O.G sim. 2.0 came next with a whole bunch of new features but the output was so random and gross that no one could use it. Then came 1.5 which took a few of the nice 2.0 features and added them to the 1.1 engine. 2.1 is essentially a bug fixed 2.0. As you can read here (and confirm here), one of the things added to 1.5 that is NOT present in 1.1 is the ability to control line strategies/time on ice. This is a feature that GM’s appear to be able to control and configure already due to the STHS client we use (check out our index) BUT in fact does not even impact the sim because we sim on the 1.1 engine (thank you to devise for confirming). If you continue reading that STHS forum post, some player stat categories from the 2.0 engine were added to 1.5 but not to 1.1, most notably EN (but also PS, which confirms the generally accepted idea around the forums that PS was a useless stat). All this being said, I’m not trying to say that it’s a bad thing to use the 1.1 engine. What it does mean is that we are at the mercy of STHS when it comes to how often each line gets used and when players become fatigued.
 

 
This begged the question: how are lines actually used in the VHL? The chart above shows the amount of "shifts" for each line across all teams in S69 so far (as of game 155). Here I've counted a "shift" as a line change parsed from the full play by play of the game logs where some event occurred in between. For example something like:
 
Normal Lineup #1 is on the ice for home team. Normal Lineup #1 is on the ice for away team. Player A shoots the puck. ... Normal Lineup #4 is on the ice for home team. Player B shoots the puck. Normal Lineup #2 is on the ice for away team. ... would be counted as one shift for home line #1 vs away line #1, one shift for home line #4 vs away line #1, and one shift for home line #4 vs away line #2. In particular, there is no time component being measured here (the first shift is almost certainly longer than the second shift in my example) which is a limitation, but my hope was that this type of thing would even-out in the long run.
 
As for the chart, the biggest thing that stands out is the higher amount of shifts for normal line 3 vs normal line 2. At first I thought there were bugs in my code, then I thought that this was one of those discrepancies between shifts and time played, but then I looked at SHTS which tracks minutes played for each player and separates out speciality teams minutes played (PP + PK). from even strength minutes. So I went to look for differences in even strength TOI between 3rd line players AND 2nd line players. This was not as easy as it sounds because almost every team has mixed their lines a bunch to this point. Fortunately for me, Toronto hasn’t. Legion LW Koda Adok has played all 26 games on the 3rd line and racked up 293 even strength minutes. Legion RW Matthew Kai has played all 26 games on the 2nd line and racked up 298 EV minutes. This might seem a bit cherry picked and anecdotal I guess, but the general pattern is pervasive; 3rd line players play pretty much the same amount of minutes as 2nd line players.
 
So the third line matters. I’d even go as far to say as it matters as much as the second line. Traditionally in hockey, this isn’t that unusual. But given the VHL’s limited amount of skilled players to put on lines I ask myself: “is it better to re-use your top guys on the third line or to play different, less skilled guys?”. I won’t attempt to answer that in this media spot because I don’t think I have the supporting data to answer it just yet. But it is something to keep in mind and would be curious if anyone else has any thoughts on the matter.
 
Ok, we now have a better idea about which lines are used and how often they are used on aggregate. What about their matchups? If you were trying to build the perfect “first line”, would you only have to worry about beating the other teams first line? Or would you have to account for matchups all over. The answer is that all lines eventually will play against all opposing lines, but some are much more frequent than others. Take a look at the charts below, the first showing even strength matchups and the second special teams matchups.
 

 
Some quick observations from these: 2nd lines do not regularly match up against other 2nd lines. I have no idea why this is, and perhaps most of these “off-line” matchups are short-shift ones but it still shows that a team will get many chances against your second line with their 1st and 3rd lines in a game, and it’s something worth accounting when building these lines. Even more interesting is how the third lines are used; just under two thirds of the time they are facing a higher line. If you're not going to stack the third line with your top guys, you better make sure they can at least defend well against them.
 
Looking at special teams matchups, the matchup differences become more subtle. Each #1 line plays a pretty fair share of time against the opposing #1 or #2 lines. One little insight I gained from this is that your 4v4 lines become your 4 on 3 power play lines when that situation arises (~7% of the time they play). Not sure if that warrants trying to make those lines a little more offensive or not.
 
I’ve well surpassed 1000 words now. Time to stop writing.
 
 
will claim for 12/1 and 12/8

It's been a longer term goal of mine to figure out what makes a line perform well. This is a pretty broad topic and one that I will probably have to do many write ups on to get a satisfactory answer, but to start I have to understand how lines are used in the VHL. 
 
Most teams have 2 lines worth of non-bot players. A few teams run with 3 lines like New York (who now are back to running 2 lines the past couple of games). Despite this, the STHS sim runs with 4 "normal" lineups and 2 lineups of each special teams type. This means some players will inevitably play on many lines and the VHL compensates for this by giving every player a 99 endurance rating. Or so I thought.
 
In my scrounging through STHS docs trying to figure out what all the little bells and whistles do in the sim, the first thing I needed to do was to understand the different versions of the simulation engine. There are four versions: 1.1, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.1. The gist of it is that 1.1 came first and is the O.G sim. 2.0 came next with a whole bunch of new features but the output was so random and gross that no one could use it. Then came 1.5 which took a few of the nice 2.0 features and added them to the 1.1 engine. 2.1 is essentially a bug fixed 2.0. As you can read here (and confirm here), one of the things added to 1.5 that is NOT present in 1.1 is the ability to control line strategies/time on ice. This is a feature that GM’s appear to be able to control and configure already due to the STHS client we use (check out our index) BUT in fact does not even impact the sim because we sim on the 1.1 engine (thank you to devise for confirming). If you continue reading that STHS forum post, some player stat categories from the 2.0 engine were added to 1.5 but not to 1.1, most notably EN (but also PS, which confirms the generally accepted idea around the forums that PS was a useless stat). All this being said, I’m not trying to say that it’s a bad thing to use the 1.1 engine. What it does mean is that we are at the mercy of STHS when it comes to how often each line gets used and when players become fatigued.
 

 
This begged the question: how are lines actually used in the VHL? The chart above shows the amount of "shifts" for each line across all teams in S69 so far (as of game 155). Here I've counted a "shift" as a line change parsed from the full play by play of the game logs where some event occurred in between. For example something like:
 
Normal Lineup #1 is on the ice for home team. Normal Lineup #1 is on the ice for away team. Player A shoots the puck. ... Normal Lineup #4 is on the ice for home team. Player B shoots the puck. Normal Lineup #2 is on the ice for away team. ... would be counted as one shift for home line #1 vs away line #1, one shift for home line #4 vs away line #1, and one shift for home line #4 vs away line #2. In particular, there is no time component being measured here (the first shift is almost certainly longer than the second shift in my example) which is a limitation, but my hope was that this type of thing would even-out in the long run.
 
As for the chart, the biggest thing that stands out is the higher amount of shifts for normal line 3 vs normal line 2. At first I thought there were bugs in my code, then I thought that this was one of those discrepancies between shifts and time played, but then I looked at SHTS which tracks minutes played for each player and separates out speciality teams minutes played (PP + PK). from even strength minutes. So I went to look for differences in even strength TOI between 3rd line players AND 2nd line players. This was not as easy as it sounds because almost every team has mixed their lines a bunch to this point. Fortunately for me, Toronto hasn’t. Legion LW Koda Adok has played all 26 games on the 3rd line and racked up 293 even strength minutes. Legion RW Matthew Kai has played all 26 games on the 2nd line and racked up 298 EV minutes. This might seem a bit cherry picked and anecdotal I guess, but the general pattern is pervasive; 3rd line players play pretty much the same amount of minutes as 2nd line players.
 
So the third line matters. I’d even go as far to say as it matters as much as the second line. Traditionally in hockey, this isn’t that unusual. But given the VHL’s limited amount of skilled players to put on lines I ask myself: “is it better to re-use your top guys on the third line or to play different, less skilled guys?”. I won’t attempt to answer that in this media spot because I don’t think I have the supporting data to answer it just yet. But it is something to keep in mind and would be curious if anyone else has any thoughts on the matter.
 
Ok, we now have a better idea about which lines are used and how often they are used on aggregate. What about their matchups? If you were trying to build the perfect “first line”, would you only have to worry about beating the other teams first line? Or would you have to account for matchups all over. The answer is that all lines eventually will play against all opposing lines, but some are much more frequent than others. Take a look at the charts below, the first showing even strength matchups and the second special teams matchups.
 

 
Some quick observations from these: 2nd lines do not regularly match up against other 2nd lines. I have no idea why this is, and perhaps most of these “off-line” matchups are short-shift ones but it still shows that a team will get many chances against your second line with their 1st and 3rd lines in a game, and it’s something worth accounting when building these lines. Even more interesting is how the third lines are used; just under two thirds of the time they are facing a higher line. If you're not going to stack the third line with your top guys, you better make sure they can at least defend well against them.
 
Looking at special teams matchups, the matchup differences become more subtle. Each #1 line plays a pretty fair share of time against the opposing #1 or #2 lines. One little insight I gained from this is that your 4v4 lines become your 4 on 3 power play lines when that situation arises (~7% of the time they play). Not sure if that warrants trying to make those lines a little more offensive or not.
 
I’ve well surpassed 1000 words now. Time to stop writing.
 
 
will claim for 12/1 and 12/8

It's been a longer term goal of mine to figure out what makes a line perform well. This is a pretty broad topic and one that I will probably have to do many write ups on to get a satisfactory answer, but to start I have to understand how lines are used in the VHL. 
 
Most teams have 2 lines worth of non-bot players. A few teams run with 3 lines like New York (who now are back to running 2 lines the past couple of games). Despite this, the STHS sim runs with 4 "normal" lineups and 2 lineups of each special teams type. This means some players will inevitably play on many lines and the VHL compensates for this by giving every player a 99 endurance rating. Or so I thought.
 
In my scrounging through STHS docs trying to figure out what all the little bells and whistles do in the sim, the first thing I needed to do was to understand the different versions of the simulation engine. There are four versions: 1.1, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.1. The gist of it is that 1.1 came first and is the O.G sim. 2.0 came next with a whole bunch of new features but the output was so random and gross that no one could use it. Then came 1.5 which took a few of the nice 2.0 features and added them to the 1.1 engine. 2.1 is essentially a bug fixed 2.0. As you can read here (and confirm here), one of the things added to 1.5 that is NOT present in 1.1 is the ability to control line strategies/time on ice. This is a feature that GM’s appear to be able to control and configure already due to the STHS client we use (check out our index) BUT in fact does not even impact the sim because we sim on the 1.1 engine (thank you to devise for confirming). If you continue reading that STHS forum post, some player stat categories from the 2.0 engine were added to 1.5 but not to 1.1, most notably EN (but also PS, which confirms the generally accepted idea around the forums that PS was a useless stat). All this being said, I’m not trying to say that it’s a bad thing to use the 1.1 engine. What it does mean is that we are at the mercy of STHS when it comes to how often each line gets used and when players become fatigued.
 

 
This begged the question: how are lines actually used in the VHL? The chart above shows the amount of "shifts" for each line across all teams in S69 so far (as of game 155). Here I've counted a "shift" as a line change parsed from the full play by play of the game logs where some event occurred in between. For example something like:
 
Normal Lineup #1 is on the ice for home team. Normal Lineup #1 is on the ice for away team. Player A shoots the puck. ... Normal Lineup #4 is on the ice for home team. Player B shoots the puck. Normal Lineup #2 is on the ice for away team. ... would be counted as one shift for home line #1 vs away line #1, one shift for home line #4 vs away line #1, and one shift for home line #4 vs away line #2. In particular, there is no time component being measured here (the first shift is almost certainly longer than the second shift in my example) which is a limitation, but my hope was that this type of thing would even-out in the long run.
 
As for the chart, the biggest thing that stands out is the higher amount of shifts for normal line 3 vs normal line 2. At first I thought there were bugs in my code, then I thought that this was one of those discrepancies between shifts and time played, but then I looked at SHTS which tracks minutes played for each player and separates out speciality teams minutes played (PP + PK). from even strength minutes. So I went to look for differences in even strength TOI between 3rd line players AND 2nd line players. This was not as easy as it sounds because almost every team has mixed their lines a bunch to this point. Fortunately for me, Toronto hasn’t. Legion LW Koda Adok has played all 26 games on the 3rd line and racked up 293 even strength minutes. Legion RW Matthew Kai has played all 26 games on the 2nd line and racked up 298 EV minutes. This might seem a bit cherry picked and anecdotal I guess, but the general pattern is pervasive; 3rd line players play pretty much the same amount of minutes as 2nd line players.
 
So the third line matters. I’d even go as far to say as it matters as much as the second line. Traditionally in hockey, this isn’t that unusual. But given the VHL’s limited amount of skilled players to put on lines I ask myself: “is it better to re-use your top guys on the third line or to play different, less skilled guys?”. I won’t attempt to answer that in this media spot because I don’t think I have the supporting data to answer it just yet. But it is something to keep in mind and would be curious if anyone else has any thoughts on the matter.
 
Ok, we now have a better idea about which lines are used and how often they are used on aggregate. What about their matchups? If you were trying to build the perfect “first line”, would you only have to worry about beating the other teams first line? Or would you have to account for matchups all over. The answer is that all lines eventually will play against all opposing lines, but some are much more frequent than others. Take a look at the charts below, the first showing even strength matchups and the second special teams matchups.
 

 
Some quick observations from these: 2nd lines do not regularly match up against other 2nd lines. I have no idea why this is, and perhaps most of these “off-line” matchups are short-shift ones but it still shows that a team will get many chances against your second line with their 1st and 3rd lines in a game, and it’s something worth accounting when building these lines. Even more interesting is how the third lines are used; just under two thirds of the time they are facing a higher line. If you're not going to stack the third line with your top guys, you better make sure they can at least defend well against them.
 
Looking at special teams matchups, the matchup differences become more subtle. Each #1 line plays a pretty fair share of time against the opposing #1 or #2 lines. One little insight I gained from this is that your 4v4 lines become your 4 on 3 power play lines when that situation arises (~7% of the time they play). Not sure if that warrants trying to make those lines a little more offensive or not.
 
I’ve well surpassed 1000 words now. Time to stop writing.
 
 
will claim for 12/1 and 12/8

It's been a longer term goal of mine to figure out what makes a line perform well. This is a pretty broad topic and one that I will probably have to do many write ups on to get a satisfactory answer, but to start I have to understand how lines are used in the VHL. 
 
Most teams have 2 lines worth of non-bot players. A few teams run with 3 lines like New York (who now are back to running 2 lines the past couple of games). Despite this, the STHS sim runs with 4 "normal" lineups and 2 lineups of each special teams type. This means some players will inevitably play on many lines and the VHL compensates for this by giving every player a 99 endurance rating. Or so I thought.
 
In my scrounging through STHS docs trying to figure out what all the little bells and whistles do in the sim, the first thing I needed to do was to understand the different versions of the simulation engine. There are four versions: 1.1, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.1. The gist of it is that 1.1 came first and is the O.G sim. 2.0 came next with a whole bunch of new features but the output was so random and gross that no one could use it. Then came 1.5 which took a few of the nice 2.0 features and added them to the 1.1 engine. 2.1 is essentially a bug fixed 2.0. As you can read here (and confirm here), one of the things added to 1.5 that is NOT present in 1.1 is the ability to control line strategies/time on ice. This is a feature that GM’s appear to be able to control and configure already due to the STHS client we use (check out our index) BUT in fact does not even impact the sim because we sim on the 1.1 engine (thank you to devise for confirming). If you continue reading that STHS forum post, some player stat categories from the 2.0 engine were added to 1.5 but not to 1.1, most notably EN (but also PS, which confirms the generally accepted idea around the forums that PS was a useless stat). All this being said, I’m not trying to say that it’s a bad thing to use the 1.1 engine. What it does mean is that we are at the mercy of STHS when it comes to how often each line gets used and when players become fatigued.
 

 
This begged the question: how are lines actually used in the VHL? The chart above shows the amount of "shifts" for each line across all teams in S69 so far (as of game 155). Here I've counted a "shift" as a line change parsed from the full play by play of the game logs where some event occurred in between. For example something like:
 
Normal Lineup #1 is on the ice for home team. Normal Lineup #1 is on the ice for away team. Player A shoots the puck. ... Normal Lineup #4 is on the ice for home team. Player B shoots the puck. Normal Lineup #2 is on the ice for away team. ... would be counted as one shift for home line #1 vs away line #1, one shift for home line #4 vs away line #1, and one shift for home line #4 vs away line #2. In particular, there is no time component being measured here (the first shift is almost certainly longer than the second shift in my example) which is a limitation, but my hope was that this type of thing would even-out in the long run.
 
As for the chart, the biggest thing that stands out is the higher amount of shifts for normal line 3 vs normal line 2. At first I thought there were bugs in my code, then I thought that this was one of those discrepancies between shifts and time played, but then I looked at SHTS which tracks minutes played for each player and separates out speciality teams minutes played (PP + PK). from even strength minutes. So I went to look for differences in even strength TOI between 3rd line players AND 2nd line players. This was not as easy as it sounds because almost every team has mixed their lines a bunch to this point. Fortunately for me, Toronto hasn’t. Legion LW Koda Adok has played all 26 games on the 3rd line and racked up 293 even strength minutes. Legion RW Matthew Kai has played all 26 games on the 2nd line and racked up 298 EV minutes. This might seem a bit cherry picked and anecdotal I guess, but the general pattern is pervasive; 3rd line players play pretty much the same amount of minutes as 2nd line players.
 
So the third line matters. I’d even go as far to say as it matters as much as the second line. Traditionally in hockey, this isn’t that unusual. But given the VHL’s limited amount of skilled players to put on lines I ask myself: “is it better to re-use your top guys on the third line or to play different, less skilled guys?”. I won’t attempt to answer that in this media spot because I don’t think I have the supporting data to answer it just yet. But it is something to keep in mind and would be curious if anyone else has any thoughts on the matter.
 
Ok, we now have a better idea about which lines are used and how often they are used on aggregate. What about their matchups? If you were trying to build the perfect “first line”, would you only have to worry about beating the other teams first line? Or would you have to account for matchups all over. The answer is that all lines eventually will play against all opposing lines, but some are much more frequent than others. Take a look at the charts below, the first showing even strength matchups and the second special teams matchups.
 

 
Some quick observations from these: 2nd lines do not regularly match up against other 2nd lines. I have no idea why this is, and perhaps most of these “off-line” matchups are short-shift ones but it still shows that a team will get many chances against your second line with their 1st and 3rd lines in a game, and it’s something worth accounting when building these lines. Even more interesting is how the third lines are used; just under two thirds of the time they are facing a higher line. If you're not going to stack the third line with your top guys, you better make sure they can at least defend well against them.
 
Looking at special teams matchups, the matchup differences become more subtle. Each #1 line plays a pretty fair share of time against the opposing #1 or #2 lines. One little insight I gained from this is that your 4v4 lines become your 4 on 3 power play lines when that situation arises (~7% of the time they play). Not sure if that warrants trying to make those lines a little more offensive or not.
 
I’ve well surpassed 1000 words now. Time to stop writing.
 
 
will claim for 12/1 and 12/8

Julius Freeman prides himself on his ability to work hard no matter what the world throws at him. He has been a player who trains to the best of his ability week in and week out. He started his career later than some of his draft mates but that did not stop him when he set his mind to the task to be one of the best in his entire draft. There were few people who gave him the time of day when he first started but some people laughed and some people were unsure about his player. His own teammates thought he was crazy and that he would burn out. But he didn't, he worked hard and did everything to the best of his ability. He helped lead his team with a 100 point season in his VHLM season. He helped lead his team to the finals of the VHLM cup and just came up short. He did everything in his power to be a good teammate and a good leader. When it was draft time more people knew him and some people thought that he would be a good player and be worthy of a high pick. Things got interesting when the wolves moved up in the draft to select him 2nd overall. He was instantly compared to everyone who would be drafted after him and a lot of pundits thought that he was not worthy of such a high pick and would burn out eventually. 
 
This is far from what happened though. He was instantly put on the first line and had a great rookie season helping his team with whatever they needed. They worked hard and they made it to the playoffs where they would go far even to the finals. They ended up losing in the finals but that doesn't stop the accomplishment of reaching the finals in his first two seasons. This would be what he thought would be the essence of his career where he would do great things but always end up coming short. The next season Julius didn't just worry about improving himself but took on more of a role in the team and ended up helping others with their training in order to be the best team they could be. This helped out and caused them to make it to the finals and win it all. The first time in his career Julius felt like a winner.
 
The next season looked like a great opportunity to continue the legacy of winning and change the perceived nature to the pundits and again they went to the playoffs but that didn't change the outcome when they had an early-round defeat due to some goaltending issues. Julius felt like he let his teammates down and wanted to come back stronger than ever but some of the things he was so good at he felt like he was lacking now. The more responsibility he took the harder it was to maintain moral in his own heart.
 
Sorry everyone things are about to get real.
 
This is where things off the ice too were about to be the hardest things he has had to deal with. First, his wife whom Julius relays on so much for moral support and just general life came to him crying one day worrying about her mother. Things were looking bleak before she could even get the words out because so many times She could tell him anything but this time it was hard. Julius's mother in law went to the doctor and they found a lump. At first, the doctor told them not to worry that they would run tests but that things should be good. A week goes by and the doctor keeps on pushing back the day that they would give the results because they just wanted to make sure that the results were correct. Turns out that is never a good thing. The initial report from the doctor is that it is stage 2 cancer. Julius for the first time in his hockey career had a hard time thinking about hockey. Life was just hard to deal with and what was his escape turning into a job and something that was hard to deal with when he felt horrible any time he was not helping his wife or his mother-in-law. 
 
After a short amount of time trying to deal with the news of his mother-in-law, Julius got more hard new that hit even closer to home. His older brother by a few years was in the hospital. Julius loves his brother and went very quickly when he heard the news. Apparently his brother had a blood clot. Which Julius thought was very strange since he is in his early 30's. They shouldn't have these kinds of issues this early. The doctor told them not to worry but they went and did a quick surgery to put a stent in his veins to clear the blood clot. This worked and what was the issue turned out to be a quick fix or so they thought. A week later when trying to make sure everything was good to go and nothing was popping back they had to do another surgery. They ended up removing part of his ribs and some muscles around the area of the blood clot. The doctor said everything should be better but they wanted to keep him under observation to make sure.
 
During this time Julius spent every moment outside of hockey with his brother in the hospital and it helped. The issue came the second day of his observation where his brother had a hard time breathing and the doctors came in took some x-rays and saw that there was a large amount of blood in his chest cavity. So much so that it was causing organs to move. They moved him to the ICU and put a chest tube in him and he quickly released 2 liters of blood. Julius was at hockey practice when he heard the news and his coach told him to go be with his family. He went was there for his brother and stayed as long as he could until his wife called him with another update about her mother. Turns out that the doctor did another biopsy in his mother-in-law's lymph nodes and there were cancer cells there as well. Once he knew his brother was doing better he went home to be with his wife.
Julius Freeman went back and forth being with his brother, his wife, and his team. All the while trying to do his best in each but always being lost in his thoughts trying to do his best. Each day he felt like he was drifting and just getting by. Each day felt like an endless slog that he had to get through for those who were depending on him.
 
It's been a few days since his brother had those issues and he should hopefully be leaving the hospital tomorrow.
 
1,169 words
 
Note from the write: Sorry everyone for not getting more done with some of the draft lists. Life has been tough these last few weeks but I will get them going again soon. 

The New York Americans have floundered to a 5-9-4 start and recently ended a 10 game losing streak. The team wasn't expected to be a playoff team this season, but they were still figured to be better than the second worst team in the league this year.

To be fair, they haven't played any games yet against Davos yet. Nor have they played Prague, who is only in their second season in the league. The concessions end there, though, as the Americans took a loss in their only game against the DC Dragons, the other most recent expansion team, and has lost four straight against a team many figured to be on the outside looking in this season in Calgary.

The biggest issue for New York has been converting their shots. They rank fourth in the VHL with 689 shots taken but their abysmal 6.11% goal-scoring rate is worst in the league and nearly 2% worse than the next worst team, Malmo at 7.84%. This suggests New York is either in line for an historically bad season, or more likely, they've gotten unlucky and things will straighten out.

The second year winger out of New York has a much bigger role this year than last, but it doesn’t seem to be helping New York. The team endured a depressing 9 game losing streak early this season where Nolan didn’t do much on the scoresheet. “I came in with two main goals this year: fight more and score more. I haven’t really done either'' Nolan said. While his pace of play is better this year than last, projecting to score 33 points and 22 goals by the end of season after racking up just 16 points and 10 goals in S68, he has only scored points in 5 out of his team’s 20 games. “I feel like I’m either on my game or completely invisible. It’s pretty disappointing". 
 
Still there is a little room for hope for New York. Scoring should increase as they remain they worst team in the VHL in shooting percentage. “I think we have a better feel for who works best with who at this point” he went on to say. “As much as it pains me to admit it, I’m still at a point in my career where I need to be sheltered away from the tougher opponents a bit”. All but 2 points of Nolan’s have been scored when he was on the second line.
 

I’ll apply, I’ve been running as an AGM under Esso in the VHL for a month or so and would love to continue on this path.

Davos would be a suitable punishment.

Here we are, almost finished another week and I’m two TPE short of max earning once again. I’ve written a ton this week again for VSN and yet being short 2 TPE I guess I’ll write one more piece yet. Fittingly, since it’s been my new VHL life working, living, and breathing VSN, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on the early parts of its revival.
 
The VSN, thanks to some hardwork by Bana and Frost has really come together quickly. We have a crew that’s so involved, and willing to help each other and this is what has been most important and impressive so far in my opinion. 
 
From the crew of talented writers to our graphics machine, Motza to our leaders, this team has become so much fun to be a part of. The future of the VSN in the VHL is once again real. 
 
What else makes it so much improved? It’s organized. We have a schedule for releases, we have templates to follow for consistency, we have an editor who’s unbelievable at being punctual in getting to reviewing our articles.
 
All in all, the VSN is back alive and doing well. Such an incredible team there right now and I think the quality and consistency is only beginning. I can’t wait to see how far we can develop.
 
Thats all for me now. We’ll see you more in the VSN channel with some excellent content and great responses from you - the community. 
 
Til next time!

I usually do things like this as a media spot, but I really don't feel like writing 500 words along with it. Hope this is good 'nuff as a graphic (Edit: it doesn't look like it will get approved. It's a media spot now)
 
To measure "good", I used Corsi For Percentage (CF%) and to measure "lucky" I used PDO. When calculating both of these stats, all strengths were used (not just 5v5). This is not really the way they're normally presented (and not the way I wanted) but you can only do so much with sim league stats sometimes. RIP New York
 
 

 
 
Ok so this doesn't look like it's going to be accepted as a graphic, so I'm going to write some more words and claim as a media spot instead.
 
Things we can read off of this chart:
 
1) The season should get better for New York. Possession numbers are average but they are by far the worst team at translating possession into more goals for/fewer goals against. They should bounce back some, but its going to be hard to overcome the hole they're in.
 
2) Davos sucks. They suck so bad that the scale on the chart is so extreme that it really fails to emphasize how good Vancouver and Moscow are visually. Looking at NHL stats last year, a 53% CF% or higher would place you top 5 in the league. Vancouver and Moscow are both in that range. I'm not sure if there has ever been a possession team as bad as Davos, but it is still early and things can change (but hopefully not so we can see this tire fire continue)
 
3) Expansion teams are competitive. Yes DC is getting some luck and may fall off a bit, but they are holding their own for the most part. Prague is actually doing well in terms of possession (in part due to playing Davos a bunch) but is on the end of some minor bad luck. I still maintain that neither expansion team will make the playoffs this year, but it seems like significant progress was made vs S68.
 
4) Malmo is hurting without Thompson. Many pinged the signing of Jake Davis to mitigate the loss by a lot and for Malmo to have another season atop the EU. I didn't follow their off season too much outside of this, so there might be another explanation, but it looks like Thompson was the difference between average and finals bound, at least it looks that way now, at this early part of the season.
 
Next steps:
 
I really want to look at even strength numbers vs all strengths. I don't think this will be too hard, but it requires parsing what lineup is on the ice (power play, penalty kill, normal, etc.) with every shot attempt/goal scored. A bonus to this is it means I can get Corsi and PDO at the player level, something I've wanted to do for a while.
 
Spent a good hunk of time making it so this kind of thing should be easy to generate in the future, so I will probably keep posting them occasionally (for no TPE) at other points throughout the season.
 
 

I usually do things like this as a media spot, but I really don't feel like writing 500 words along with it. Hope this is good 'nuff as a graphic (Edit: it doesn't look like it will get approved. It's a media spot now)
 
To measure "good", I used Corsi For Percentage (CF%) and to measure "lucky" I used PDO. When calculating both of these stats, all strengths were used (not just 5v5). This is not really the way they're normally presented (and not the way I wanted) but you can only do so much with sim league stats sometimes. RIP New York
 
 

 
 
Ok so this doesn't look like it's going to be accepted as a graphic, so I'm going to write some more words and claim as a media spot instead.
 
Things we can read off of this chart:
 
1) The season should get better for New York. Possession numbers are average but they are by far the worst team at translating possession into more goals for/fewer goals against. They should bounce back some, but its going to be hard to overcome the hole they're in.
 
2) Davos sucks. They suck so bad that the scale on the chart is so extreme that it really fails to emphasize how good Vancouver and Moscow are visually. Looking at NHL stats last year, a 53% CF% or higher would place you top 5 in the league. Vancouver and Moscow are both in that range. I'm not sure if there has ever been a possession team as bad as Davos, but it is still early and things can change (but hopefully not so we can see this tire fire continue)
 
3) Expansion teams are competitive. Yes DC is getting some luck and may fall off a bit, but they are holding their own for the most part. Prague is actually doing well in terms of possession (in part due to playing Davos a bunch) but is on the end of some minor bad luck. I still maintain that neither expansion team will make the playoffs this year, but it seems like significant progress was made vs S68.
 
4) Malmo is hurting without Thompson. Many pinged the signing of Jake Davis to mitigate the loss by a lot and for Malmo to have another season atop the EU. I didn't follow their off season too much outside of this, so there might be another explanation, but it looks like Thompson was the difference between average and finals bound, at least it looks that way now, at this early part of the season.
 
Next steps:
 
I really want to look at even strength numbers vs all strengths. I don't think this will be too hard, but it requires parsing what lineup is on the ice (power play, penalty kill, normal, etc.) with every shot attempt/goal scored. A bonus to this is it means I can get Corsi and PDO at the player level, something I've wanted to do for a while.
 
Spent a good hunk of time making it so this kind of thing should be easy to generate in the future, so I will probably keep posting them occasionally (for no TPE) at other points throughout the season.
 
 

I usually do things like this as a media spot, but I really don't feel like writing 500 words along with it. Hope this is good 'nuff as a graphic (Edit: it doesn't look like it will get approved. It's a media spot now)
 
To measure "good", I used Corsi For Percentage (CF%) and to measure "lucky" I used PDO. When calculating both of these stats, all strengths were used (not just 5v5). This is not really the way they're normally presented (and not the way I wanted) but you can only do so much with sim league stats sometimes. RIP New York
 
 

 
 
Ok so this doesn't look like it's going to be accepted as a graphic, so I'm going to write some more words and claim as a media spot instead.
 
Things we can read off of this chart:
 
1) The season should get better for New York. Possession numbers are average but they are by far the worst team at translating possession into more goals for/fewer goals against. They should bounce back some, but its going to be hard to overcome the hole they're in.
 
2) Davos sucks. They suck so bad that the scale on the chart is so extreme that it really fails to emphasize how good Vancouver and Moscow are visually. Looking at NHL stats last year, a 53% CF% or higher would place you top 5 in the league. Vancouver and Moscow are both in that range. I'm not sure if there has ever been a possession team as bad as Davos, but it is still early and things can change (but hopefully not so we can see this tire fire continue)
 
3) Expansion teams are competitive. Yes DC is getting some luck and may fall off a bit, but they are holding their own for the most part. Prague is actually doing well in terms of possession (in part due to playing Davos a bunch) but is on the end of some minor bad luck. I still maintain that neither expansion team will make the playoffs this year, but it seems like significant progress was made vs S68.
 
4) Malmo is hurting without Thompson. Many pinged the signing of Jake Davis to mitigate the loss by a lot and for Malmo to have another season atop the EU. I didn't follow their off season too much outside of this, so there might be another explanation, but it looks like Thompson was the difference between average and finals bound, at least it looks that way now, at this early part of the season.
 
Next steps:
 
I really want to look at even strength numbers vs all strengths. I don't think this will be too hard, but it requires parsing what lineup is on the ice (power play, penalty kill, normal, etc.) with every shot attempt/goal scored. A bonus to this is it means I can get Corsi and PDO at the player level, something I've wanted to do for a while.
 
Spent a good hunk of time making it so this kind of thing should be easy to generate in the future, so I will probably keep posting them occasionally (for no TPE) at other points throughout the season.
 
 

I usually do things like this as a media spot, but I really don't feel like writing 500 words along with it. Hope this is good 'nuff as a graphic (Edit: it doesn't look like it will get approved. It's a media spot now)
 
To measure "good", I used Corsi For Percentage (CF%) and to measure "lucky" I used PDO. When calculating both of these stats, all strengths were used (not just 5v5). This is not really the way they're normally presented (and not the way I wanted) but you can only do so much with sim league stats sometimes. RIP New York
 
 

 
 
Ok so this doesn't look like it's going to be accepted as a graphic, so I'm going to write some more words and claim as a media spot instead.
 
Things we can read off of this chart:
 
1) The season should get better for New York. Possession numbers are average but they are by far the worst team at translating possession into more goals for/fewer goals against. They should bounce back some, but its going to be hard to overcome the hole they're in.
 
2) Davos sucks. They suck so bad that the scale on the chart is so extreme that it really fails to emphasize how good Vancouver and Moscow are visually. Looking at NHL stats last year, a 53% CF% or higher would place you top 5 in the league. Vancouver and Moscow are both in that range. I'm not sure if there has ever been a possession team as bad as Davos, but it is still early and things can change (but hopefully not so we can see this tire fire continue)
 
3) Expansion teams are competitive. Yes DC is getting some luck and may fall off a bit, but they are holding their own for the most part. Prague is actually doing well in terms of possession (in part due to playing Davos a bunch) but is on the end of some minor bad luck. I still maintain that neither expansion team will make the playoffs this year, but it seems like significant progress was made vs S68.
 
4) Malmo is hurting without Thompson. Many pinged the signing of Jake Davis to mitigate the loss by a lot and for Malmo to have another season atop the EU. I didn't follow their off season too much outside of this, so there might be another explanation, but it looks like Thompson was the difference between average and finals bound, at least it looks that way now, at this early part of the season.
 
Next steps:
 
I really want to look at even strength numbers vs all strengths. I don't think this will be too hard, but it requires parsing what lineup is on the ice (power play, penalty kill, normal, etc.) with every shot attempt/goal scored. A bonus to this is it means I can get Corsi and PDO at the player level, something I've wanted to do for a while.
 
Spent a good hunk of time making it so this kind of thing should be easy to generate in the future, so I will probably keep posting them occasionally (for no TPE) at other points throughout the season.
 
 

I usually do things like this as a media spot, but I really don't feel like writing 500 words along with it. Hope this is good 'nuff as a graphic (Edit: it doesn't look like it will get approved. It's a media spot now)
 
To measure "good", I used Corsi For Percentage (CF%) and to measure "lucky" I used PDO. When calculating both of these stats, all strengths were used (not just 5v5). This is not really the way they're normally presented (and not the way I wanted) but you can only do so much with sim league stats sometimes. RIP New York
 
 

 
 
Ok so this doesn't look like it's going to be accepted as a graphic, so I'm going to write some more words and claim as a media spot instead.
 
Things we can read off of this chart:
 
1) The season should get better for New York. Possession numbers are average but they are by far the worst team at translating possession into more goals for/fewer goals against. They should bounce back some, but its going to be hard to overcome the hole they're in.
 
2) Davos sucks. They suck so bad that the scale on the chart is so extreme that it really fails to emphasize how good Vancouver and Moscow are visually. Looking at NHL stats last year, a 53% CF% or higher would place you top 5 in the league. Vancouver and Moscow are both in that range. I'm not sure if there has ever been a possession team as bad as Davos, but it is still early and things can change (but hopefully not so we can see this tire fire continue)
 
3) Expansion teams are competitive. Yes DC is getting some luck and may fall off a bit, but they are holding their own for the most part. Prague is actually doing well in terms of possession (in part due to playing Davos a bunch) but is on the end of some minor bad luck. I still maintain that neither expansion team will make the playoffs this year, but it seems like significant progress was made vs S68.
 
4) Malmo is hurting without Thompson. Many pinged the signing of Jake Davis to mitigate the loss by a lot and for Malmo to have another season atop the EU. I didn't follow their off season too much outside of this, so there might be another explanation, but it looks like Thompson was the difference between average and finals bound, at least it looks that way now, at this early part of the season.
 
Next steps:
 
I really want to look at even strength numbers vs all strengths. I don't think this will be too hard, but it requires parsing what lineup is on the ice (power play, penalty kill, normal, etc.) with every shot attempt/goal scored. A bonus to this is it means I can get Corsi and PDO at the player level, something I've wanted to do for a while.
 
Spent a good hunk of time making it so this kind of thing should be easy to generate in the future, so I will probably keep posting them occasionally (for no TPE) at other points throughout the season.
 
 

I usually do things like this as a media spot, but I really don't feel like writing 500 words along with it. Hope this is good 'nuff as a graphic (Edit: it doesn't look like it will get approved. It's a media spot now)
 
To measure "good", I used Corsi For Percentage (CF%) and to measure "lucky" I used PDO. When calculating both of these stats, all strengths were used (not just 5v5). This is not really the way they're normally presented (and not the way I wanted) but you can only do so much with sim league stats sometimes. RIP New York
 
 

 
 
Ok so this doesn't look like it's going to be accepted as a graphic, so I'm going to write some more words and claim as a media spot instead.
 
Things we can read off of this chart:
 
1) The season should get better for New York. Possession numbers are average but they are by far the worst team at translating possession into more goals for/fewer goals against. They should bounce back some, but its going to be hard to overcome the hole they're in.
 
2) Davos sucks. They suck so bad that the scale on the chart is so extreme that it really fails to emphasize how good Vancouver and Moscow are visually. Looking at NHL stats last year, a 53% CF% or higher would place you top 5 in the league. Vancouver and Moscow are both in that range. I'm not sure if there has ever been a possession team as bad as Davos, but it is still early and things can change (but hopefully not so we can see this tire fire continue)
 
3) Expansion teams are competitive. Yes DC is getting some luck and may fall off a bit, but they are holding their own for the most part. Prague is actually doing well in terms of possession (in part due to playing Davos a bunch) but is on the end of some minor bad luck. I still maintain that neither expansion team will make the playoffs this year, but it seems like significant progress was made vs S68.
 
4) Malmo is hurting without Thompson. Many pinged the signing of Jake Davis to mitigate the loss by a lot and for Malmo to have another season atop the EU. I didn't follow their off season too much outside of this, so there might be another explanation, but it looks like Thompson was the difference between average and finals bound, at least it looks that way now, at this early part of the season.
 
Next steps:
 
I really want to look at even strength numbers vs all strengths. I don't think this will be too hard, but it requires parsing what lineup is on the ice (power play, penalty kill, normal, etc.) with every shot attempt/goal scored. A bonus to this is it means I can get Corsi and PDO at the player level, something I've wanted to do for a while.
 
Spent a good hunk of time making it so this kind of thing should be easy to generate in the future, so I will probably keep posting them occasionally (for no TPE) at other points throughout the season.
 
 

I don't know if I'm missing something here, but the Morale figures I'm seeing on the index and the Morale Figures I'm seeing in this article don't match. Going through Calgary's team, every human player has a morale of 42 and the individual average it gives at the bottom (the thing I'm presuming you said was Player Morale AVG) is 41. The only other teams that have human players with more Morale (and that's 43) are Toronto and Vancouver. 
 
 
Also, I'm personally not the biggest fan of using Team OVR as a gauge for how good or bad a team is, cause it focuses a bit too much on the increase that any depth player has on the CPU players, which given the amount of minutes those CPU's play, isn't necessarily a good judge of a team. 
 
It would be nice if our league was a little more transparent with our sim settings though just so we're all clear where we stand, something I've been saying for a while. 

To be fair I don't even know if we have morale turned on in this league. I can't imagine how I have never asked this question before. I do know that morale does severely affect player performance if it is turned on. Now there are 2 types of morale in this league, there is team morale and player morale. I have had chats on how severely morale does affect the game back when I ran a GM league back in the day and from the responses I received I decided for that league it was best to turn it off. In discussions I've found a lot of people saying things like this.
 
"I've maintained for a long time that Morale is the ugly duckling of the STHS experience. I believe it to be a potentially great feature, but as Foo alluded to in my experience it can have too much of an impact on the game-play even at low settings. And I think that is partly why many leagues choose not to activate it at all. To me that is a shame because I'm a firm believer in the potential of Morale being a tremendous aspect of the STHS experience as players and teams going through ups and downs over the course of a season adds another dimension for the managers to handle.

Another aspect of Morale that I'm not entirely happy with, and one I've expressed before, is the fact that it remains the only rating we're not able to control through external sources. The "Update Ratings" function where we can easily load a new set of ratings into the Sim from a csv-file doesn't cover the Morale rating. This means there's no flexibility at all with this rating. There are only two options when it comes to Morale; either not run it at all or run it the way the Sim runs it (which many people find too intrusive or powerful)."
 
Now lets take a look at morale as it sits right now in this league. 
 
Standings                                        Team OVR                               Team Morale                                        Player Morale AVG
1.  7-1-0                                  1.   66                               1.   48                                            1.   44
2. 5-1-2                                   2.  66                                2.   43                                            2.   44
3.  5-2-1                                 3.  66                                3.   43                                            3.   43
4.  4-3-1                                  4.  65                                4.  41                                             4.   41
5.  4-3-1                                  5.   65                               5.  41                                             5.  40
6.  4-3-1                                  6.  65                                6.  40                                            6.  40
7.  4-3-1                                  7.  64                                7.  40                                             7.  40
8.  4-4-0                                  8.  63                                8.  39                                             8.  40
9.  3-3-2                                  9.  63                                9.  38                                             9.  39
10.  3-5-0                               10.  61                              10.37                                            10.  38
11.  3-5-0                               11.  60                               11. 37                                           11.  38
12.  2-5-1                               12.  56                               12. 35                                           12.  38
 
If you can't tell from this list, morale matters more than team overall. It is a small sample size though so I will need to revisit this at the end of the season. Prague doesn't make much sense to me but I predict they will fall in the standings as the season goes on. On the other hand Calgary which is my team has one of the better overall team averages but the Morale rating is keeping us from competing which is unfortunate. What do you think? Should the league turn off the morale setting and let the teams play on an equal field or should we leave it random so some teams get handicapped and create more randomness in the sim.

Why each EU team lost in the playoffs
After an amazing regular season by each EU team, each team fell apart, as the entire conference failed to win the cup. So what exactly went wrong?
 

Davos
Goaltending
It's weird that the team with the top goalie in the league, had goaltending as it's downfall. This being said, it's not entirely on Finn Davison here. Coming into the postseason, Davos had the league’s best defence as well as goaltending. They finished top of the league in all defensive categories, which is surprising considering their defensive woes in previous seasons. They came into the playoffs on a red hot streak, winning around 80% of their last 25 games. They found themselves in a first-round matchup with a familiar foe in Malmo. Surprisingly, the Davos offence looked strong against Malmo. Throughout the season, Finn Davison put up monster numbers, including a 0.927 save% and a 2.2 GAA. Amazingly, he put up 10 shutouts and got 37 wins. Over 25% of his wins this season were without allowing a goal. So what went differently in the playoffs? Malmo had an explosive offence that torched Davison and the Davos defence repeatedly. While it's not all on Davison to stop goals, it's hard to win with a 0.887 save%, and that's even with Davos forcing a Game 7 and losing by one goal. He also had a GAA of 2.71, with 1 shutout, meaning in games in the other 6 games of the series, he was letting in above 3 goals average, which is hard to win most of the time. Ultimately I don't think anyone on Davos blames their goalie, as he outperformed everyone during the season, but just couldn't find his stride in the postseason.

Helsinki Titans
Offence
It's hard to win a series when only 1 line is producing. In the regular season, Helsinki appeared to be one of the more well-rounded rosters. They obviously had the top-line talent, but their defence and goaltending were stellar as well. The story of the regular season, however, was their second line struggling to pick up the pace, which seemed to be the case in the playoffs as well. Their top player, Kronos Bailey had 7 points in 6 games, which isn't bad, but he should be the one carrying the dead weight. His two linemates each had 6 points, so overall their top line averaged a PPG, except the 2nd line had 7 points COMBINED all series, and that's terrible. On top of this, their scoring wasn't consistent either, in the final 3 games of the series, they scored 3 total goals, which contributed to 3 wins for Riga, which finished them off. It's not like they played bad defence either, but in the latter of the series, they averaged 1 goal per game, which doesn't win you anything unless you goalie stands on his head, which Alexander Pepper actually did, but the players in front of him couldn't get it done.

Riga Reign
Penalties
Another team with a solid regular season, Riga managed to sneak by the entire EU en route to a top seed finish. They came into the playoffs on fire like Davos, and it’s easy to tell why. They have a stacked offence with superstars and a defence core that outplays any of team on any given night. After beating out Helsinki in round one, they find themselves against Malmo. While again their offence wasn't spectacular, I'd argue that their PIMs is what lost them this series, specifically, Riga's top defensive pair. While McWolf and Hackett are good players, they did no favours for the Reign. They did an alright job playing defence itself, but the Reign were constantly on the PK, with McWolf racking up 22 PIMs, and Hackett with 34 PIMs of his own. That's an average of over 3 PIMs per game in the playoffs for Hackett, which doesn't do any favours for them, especially when 6 total Riga players combined for an average of a penalty per game. Doing the math, Riga averaged 12.63 PIMs per game, which is a little over 1/6th of the game. In just 11 games, the Reign had 139 PIMs. That's not good at all when trying to take down a top team such as Malmo, with their deadly powerplay. You can't win many games when you rely on your PK that much.

Malmo Nighthawks
Collapsed
Maybe not the answer you wanted, but Malmo just forgot that they had to play another series. They had a spectacular regular-season run, and a great, deep playoff run. The roster is littered with high-end talent, thanks in part to key FA signings and great trades by their GM. Everything pointed to Malmo making a deep run, as they sat as the 1 seed for a majority of the season, but maybe had a more difficult path to the finals when they faced division rival Davos in round one, and the Riga juggernaut in round two. The truth is, no one thing went wrong because EVERYTHING did. Swept in 4 games by the champion, Seattle Bears, Malmo's offence did alright, scoring 10 goals in 4 games, however, this was the league's best offence by a longshot, and was outscored by a team that wasn't even projected to make it out of the first round. Their defence shit the bed and couldn't stop allowing late goals, and well as their goalie turning into a pumpkin for 4 straight games. It seems like Malmo just flat out got outplayed by a team that's worse on paper. It sucks that Malmo did this well to get stomped in the finals, but Seattle earned this win after Malmo celebrated their victory a round too early.
VSN writer ShawnGlade

So maybe not my typical post, maybe you expecting a Davos article? Anyways, I wanted to give my reasons for leaving VSN after about 7 months of managing it, and give my side of the story in the shitstorm that I created.
 
But first, a little bit of backstory
So back when I took over VSN, I was a highschool senior with lots of free time and the league was booming at the time. The recruitment team did a fantastic job bringing in new guys, and VSN at the time was in a bit of a downfall. The previous management team had let VSN go down, and so I was put in charge of the operations and had full control over VSN. I implemented new rules, brought in new guys, talked to Beaviss about new ideas, everything was great. There were rough patches in the months leading up to this story, but they were more or less handled and were all good. Over the summer, I made a typical teen move and met this girl, fell in love, blah blah you get the rest. Basically, my time on the site wasn't as high, but I still was an active GM and VSN manager. VSN took a bit of a free fall however when I had college coming up and needed to get my shit in order for that, as well as working full time. I wasn't the most active in the weeks leading up to me heading off to school, but at least i gave a heads up beforehand.
 
And now the juicy stuff
So in the past month or two, people were calling for my head when VSN was in limbo, not producing really any content. There was a dumbass poll or whatever set up by Dill (I think?) to replace me, but I refused to let go of VSN because i still wanted to make it something great. Along in my DMs, Banackock comes and gives me all these wonderful ideas of VSN, which I admit were really good ideas. I decide "Hey, people obviously think I'm literally Hitler because I've been dormant with VSN for a bit, why not bring Bana in so people will shut their fuckin traps?" So bana hops aboard the VSN train, toot toot. And immediately VSN takes off in the right direction again, and I'm thinking "finally, maybe bana was what i needed...." Yeah, so fuck that.
 
I don't wanna make this a rant on bana post, because I could probably write a ~2k word article on that, but I'm "inactive" so I don't have time for that. However, I can't ignore Bana's role in this, as it's my main reason in leaving. Anyways, firstly he brings in a whole new crew overnight without telling me. I was sorta indifferent about it, and I had a word with him about it, but ultimately decided to not fight that battle because it seemed like a good crew of guys. The next Bana move was making an entirely separate VSN discord server. I knew about this and was also indifferent about it, I left it up to the people to decide and they agreed, so we made it........well Bana made it. I wasn't really upset about it, he made the server fully functional and cool in like an hour, maybe less. My gripe about it was again, he did it without talking to me at all, not asking for ideas or anything, after all we were co-running this thing. After this is when I start having my real beef with Bana. Sometime in between VSN battles, Seattle wins a cup, with my player on it.......with Bana as the GM. For a brief period of time, I was at an all time high with Bana, and I was ready to start working side by side with him to make VSN great again, except that's not how it happened. A bit after Seattle's cup win, we butt heads again, this time about me being "inactive." I will be the first to admit that my activity maybe wasn't ideal, but I will die on this hill: I was FAR from inactive. Tell me how someone claiming 12 TPE a week plus running a team is inactive, because I'd love to hear the logic. Anyways, we had a huge fight and we even fought in the thread of a trade I made (that's funny, calling me inactive in the thread of a trade I made literally half an hour before?) The thread is locked but I'm sure you all have seen it. Basically the guy was being an asshole and calling me all these things and making accusations that I won't go into for now because I don't wanna give him undeserved attention because that's all he wants. (Sidenote, today he literally called himself one the top 3 greatest GMs of all time in this league, lmao) But he decided to go in too deep on me, and say I was inactive for missing the S69 draft. (My reasoning? It was just scheduled during a time i couldn't make it, and I didn't want the draft time to change just for me, so i just had to miss it.) Regardless, I can assure you I'm pretty fucking active, don't listen to what bana might tell you, or what he might tell your FAs to try and persuade them to leave Davos, by basically calling me a huge asshole and saying I'm not active. Point of the story: Bana nearly single handedly killed my interest in VSN
 
But he's not entirely the reason, I can't forget about some of the process and the way things went in this "New Look VSN." For starters, I got shit on for collecting pay, wtf? I only claimed pay in weeks that I put out an article, which is how it's always been done. Apparently nobody else got the memo that there's this new thing called TPE that you claim for doing your work  what a concept. Anyways the entire crew shit on me for claiming for whatever reason, so that annoyed me a lot, because now I'm sitting here with this new player that I am now way behind my draft class with because other people can't figure their shit out. The whole reason behind it was because I guess Bana and Frostbeard (notice how I was again not kept in the loop) were deciding on what pay should be for everyone so they can present it to the Blues. Tell me why it took almost 3 weeks to tell the blues "yeah so we're gonna change the pay except everyone is literally getting paid the same amount they were before." This was almost the final straw for me. However the real final straw was already mentioned, how Bana was a complete dickhead towards me and acted like he was the fucking man all along. Either way, I was not a fan of how things had gone over the past few weeks. As far as activity goes, again I'll admit I maybe wasn't the most active, but real life got in the way. My apartment building lost power for a few days, I left for a hockey trip, came back and found out a friend of mine had committed suicide in his dorm, and then went on another hockey trip, all of this going down while Bana was being a real asshole. (For clarification, I play hockey for my college)
 
But to wrap this up, this is the end of my VSN reign. It was fun while it lasted, but I have fill faith in the crew to make VSN a great media outlet again. I just don't want to be involved in all the drama and bullshit anymore and get back to having fun on the site. i just hope Bana doesn't run it into the ground.
 
 
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1,316 words, claiming for weeks ending 11/24 and 12/1

Hi All,
 
Since I recently became a blue my time is unfortunately split between blue things and recruitment things. That being said I have hired @fonziGG to join the @Recruitment Crew and help me with growing the site and bringing members in.
 
He will eventually replace me but for now he will be learning the ropes and inputting his own ideas.
 
Congratulations and welcome to the team!

While very few of you actually know who I am or that I even existed. I'd like to apologize to those that I have possibly let down, especially the Philadelphia Reapers team that ever so slightly missed out on the playoffs. For the New York Americans, who decided to draft me 53rd overall, I'm glad you didn't waste an earlier pick. What most of you don't know is that Zepheter is my brother, and he tried his hardest to keep me active here. We both took a break to start playing hockey around the beginning of summer. While he came back, a very close friend of mine passed away, which made it difficult for me to return. I'd rather not go into the specifics, as it is very personal to me. This is a shitty position because of all that happened throughout the duration of my inactivity. I missed out on a lot of major tasks such as theme week and other offseason point tasks that would've potentially helped boost my rating quite a bit. I'm looking forward to playing my last season with the Reapers and if I can muster the motivation to stay active, continue my career with New York. Hope to see many of you in the future.

The S69 Toronto Legion will compete...again. That shouldn't be much of a shocker to people who know the approach GM Ryan Power has towards his teams. For those living under Dwayne Johnson, trading draft picks and chasing cups seems to be the montra for most Power run teams. While there has been the occasional re-tool, a full on rebuild has never been something that Power has really had to endure. Either leaving a team just before one is due, or joining a team just as one is ending. 
 
However Toronto's run with Power this tenure has probably been more competitive for a longer term than some people expected. A large part of that has been due to the quality of players and members in the league. Teams on the fence can lean re-tool for a season, regroup, and come in stronger for another window or two. That is exactly what the Legion did last season, getting a bit younger while keeping some of their top core of players, only to improve across the line up this past off-season to combine the core with some new faces to make yet another solid competitive group. GM Ryan Power was asked about competing again, in his final season as Toronto GM, and if he'd ever be open to GMing in the league again.