KC15

Review: I'm ok with numbers IRL, but wading through lots of stats in an article is tough. However, the clear writing makes the reader's job much easier. The cogent logic also helps. Very interesting and clear article showing both the very real drop in scoring per player and the dominance of Campbell. 9/10 (Not sure what would be a 10/10, but want to reserve that for something that just absolutely slays me. lol)

Definitely easy to read on the technical side. Grammar, spelling, etc. all there, which is greatly appreciated. Flows from one idea to the next well too. And I appreciate the reflection on your experience as a user as well. This kind of thing moves the league forward too as a reminder how crucial LR experience is and not just the wins and losses. 8.5/10

Not Adieu, but Fare Thee Well Huh. Has it really been 8 seasons? Guy Leseiur, RW from just outside Paris, France burst onto the VHL scene as an S68 draftee of the Mexico City Kings. Guy went in the 3rd round, which as an almost entirely unknown quantity in the VHL at the time, I thought was a little high. I think I had one or two solid users from the PBE speaking on my behalf. Guy spent just one season in the junior circuit, split between Mexico City and Las Vegas having been traded near the deadline to help the Aces make a push for the playoffs. Drafted 37th overall in that initial VHLM, Guy’s stock had risen by the time of the VHL entry draft as he was taken 6th overall by the Riga Reign, only to be traded to the D.C. Dragons immediately after being selected. This was a thrilling moment for Lesiur – both for having gone so high in the draft and for having been traded to the one team he wanted to play for more than anything. Guy had a yearning to go to this expansion team and help to grow the franchise at the same time that he himself grew as a player. A big thank you to Riga management as I think they knew Guy longed to play in D.C. and they made it work to both team’s benefit (I hope). Guy then spent almost the entirety of his career in D.C. under the excellent GMing of @enorama, @mcwolf, and @fonzi. The only exception was the 32 games he played for London after having been drafted in their own expansion draft. And in reality, @mcwolf was GM in London and it felt like Guy never really left the Dragons extended family. I would have to say that my first tour of duty in the VHL was a booming success. Met lots of wonderful folks, enjoyed some success with D.C. in the latter years (albeit never capturing that illusive Cup), and had multiple 40+ goal seasons. I’ve been a part of 7 different sim leagues across 4 different sports for a number of seasons now and I believe this is the only player I’ve been able to fully live into the vision I had for him from the start. Most other leagues I’ve had a fairly major shift in position and at the very least a significant shift in role at that position. I have to say that makes the VHL a special place for me. So now I say goodbye to Guy after his mandatory 8th season retirement. It’s bittersweet to be sure. I enjoyed him and the LRs he was part of, but I’m also excited about this new start. Where will he go in the juniors? Which VHL team will draft him? Who will I meet anew through him? I would have no problem going back to any of Guy’s teams to play with any of the users of his former teammates, but I’m also wide open to a completely different experience. Funny, I had figured on taking a break from the league once Guy retired, but that lasted all of about 3 days. I think all of the above is the reason why. 537 words, submitted for Week Ending March 14

Merci!

1. What's your favorite hobby? Tough one. So many. Online OOTP baseball leagues maybe. Sim leagues obviously, reading, watching movies, video games, reading .... 2. Does your player have another job at all? Was a waiter through his earlier junior days (age 16-18), but he's going all in to try to make a VHLM team now. 3. Who do you think will win the Founder's Cup? Mexico City Kings or Houston Bulls Mexico City. lol, actually I'm answering after the fact. 4. If old enough to drink, what is your favorite beer/wine/spirit? I'll answer in each category: really hoppy ale, pinot noir, gin and tonic. 5. How fast does your skater skate? Fast and getting faster. 6. If you could pick one other language to speak fluently, what would it be and why? Welsh - beautiful with deep roots and I have some Welsh ancestry.

Fantastic read! Really gives me an insight into my potential new GM - just meaning I'm in the upcoming draft. Seems like the same attitude I had when a minors GM in the PBE.

Luc Tessier, Rising to the Challenge Luc Tessier was born and raised in Valbonne, a small village about 30 minutes north of Nice in the southeast of France. Normal childhood really – three seasons of playing football (soccer) with the other kids and one winter each year hiding from the howling winds of the mistral. In spite of lying so close to the resort town of Nice on the coast, Valbonne was and is a fairly sleepy little hamlet. All through his early childhood, Luc was completely obsessed with football and loved flying down the wing either pelting a ball through the net for a goal or making a cross to a striker teammate to make a header toward goal. But when he reached the age of 12, the Sochi Olympics of 2014 changed all that. That is when Luc discovered ice hockey – all to do with the double gold won by both the men’s and women’s teams from Canada. Luc had tuned in to a random hockey game early in the competition since he had a cousin, Etienne, living in Trois-Rivières, Québec who always talked hockey whenever he was on a call or the extended family spent time together on holiday. He liked what he saw immediately and got swept up in the coverage as his cousin’s national team climbed the ladder all the way to gold. From there Luc had to learn to skate, which he took to as if he had been born in the frozen north of Canada. From there, Luc began playing in the local hockey scene. Mostly pickup games on a nearby frozen pond with other kids he had basically forced into learning to skate and play. Sure, it was 2 on 2 or 2 on 3 with no goalie in net, but he learned to love the game. His parents were uncommonly supportive of Luc’s new love and found him a peewee league that played about 1 ½ away from their little village of Valbonne. The league drew from a very wide radius to get enough to field 4 – sometimes 6 – teams to play against one another. From there, by the age of 16, Luc was playing in some fairly high level junior hockey on a team fielded in Nice. The national competition brought with it long hours of travel, but also better competition and better coaching. Luc thrived on both, but also outpaced his peers and pretty badly. For a year and a half he dominated this level of hockey. With familial support – both immediate and extended – he moved to Canada to live with his cousin Étienne’s family so that he could pursue hockey at a higher level. He began playing some junior hockey on a lesser circuit, but his dream is to make an actual VHLM squad with higher hopes still of begin drafted by a VHL team. But here is where Luc’s confidence is beginning to waiver. This hockey he is found in Québec is at such a higher level than he’s used to. He is no longer the far-and-away standout star. In fact, he can clearly see that he is a few steps behind his teammates, but is rising to the challenge by working twice as hard as ever and still holds out hope that he will be drafted by some VHLM team – in some later round. Luc doesn’t really mind though – just to get a seat at the far end of the bench will be enough to start. He is happy to climb from there.

Thanks @thadthrasher! Looking forward to another run.

Player Information Username: KC15 Player Name: Luc Tessier Recruited From: Returning Age: 18 Position: LW Height: 75 in. Weight: 200 lbs. Birthplace: France Player Page @VHLM GM

Guy’s final games in the VHL before he retires. Let’s storm to the top!

Looks like we'll be facing Vancouver, are we ready to do the double on them? Is there is a job in the VHL you'd like to take on and why? Who is your favourite member within the community? Do you have any suggestions for the management team here in DC? Who has the funkiest fashion choices on the team and why? Are you prepared to go all the way? Do you think we can? 1. Absolutely! Doing it once proves it can be done! 2. Wanted to be an updater for quite a while, but now that I'm going on pause after this season and Lesieur's retirement, no. 3. Too many to choose from. 4. Just keep doing what you're doing. It's obviously working. 5. Can't say I even notice. Fashion isn't my thing. I like food, wine, and hockey and not in that order. 6. Yes. Yes. I'm not so arrogant as to say, "we've got this", but I know we can win if we play to our potential. Now it's just up to us to put it all out there on the ice.

When I entered the VHL back on September 9, 2019, I don’t think I could foresee this day coming or the adventure that my first career in the VHL would be. And the day I am talking about is the end of Guy Lesieur’s career culminating with another playoff run. Sure would like to see us go deep again, but this time take home the Cup in a final hurrah! But this day is here and I just want to publicly thank all my GMs and teammates for a wonderful ride. I was privileged to be drafted by Mexico City (higher than I deserved) and learned the ropes of the VHL there. A mid to late season trade to Los Vegas had me finishing off with a playoff push with the Aces. After that one year in the juniors I was off to the DC Dragons where I hoped I would be a one-team, full career player. Almost made it too, but was left unexposed in the expansion draft and spent a brief, but delightful few games, in London as the veteran presence. But it was back to DC after those few weeks where I found a true home. Thank you @enorama and all the cos and teammates I played with this past nearly decade of in-game playing time!

In the PBE, we live stream every single sim on Twitch and we sim on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays - all at about the same time each of those days. We have a whole team of simmers - enough people willing to spend that amount of time and it is the crowning jewel of the league. Now, OOTP is a far, far, far superior engine compared to Simon and a pleasure to watch as there is an actual 3-D action component, but not much to be done about that in the hockey world. Not sure why "it's too much work, just trust me" is really acceptable. It would not be in the PBE. There would be a revolt if someone suggested we just sim behind the scenes with one person and no one looking on and then publish it. Like many others here, I'm not accusing anyone of foul play. Doing the sim out in the open protects the simmer as much as all the other players in the league.

1. What did you guys do for Valentine’s Day? Nice dinner, exchanged nice gifts and just enjoyed one another. 2. What limitations did you put out so you were prepared to play the next day? None. Not necessary. 3. Who is your greatest inspiration in the VHL? Got to go back to Mikko Aaltonen. Was the vet that took this young winger under his care and got me started right. 4. How do you think we’ve been doing this season? Tad disappointing tbh, but as long as we make playoffs, anything is possible. 5. What could we be doing better? Scoring more and stopping them from scoring as much. lol 6. How are you doing in the middle of the COVID-19 era? Getting really tired of it all, but seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

1. What is your favourite colour? Vert. 2. What are you training currently? Back to 99 DF this morning. Then on to PH and SK for the rest of the season. 3. How do you think we're performing this season so far? Not too bad. Should be a bit better, but as long as we gel for the playoffs... 4. Who's the most fashionable in the group? Funny enough, for coming from a country known for its fashion, Guy doesn't notice that much. 5. What is your favourite pasta? Fettuccine 6. How much can you bench press? 250 on a good day

1. Who is your favourite teammate on the team? Taking the same copout as my teammates above. Just too hard to single one guy out. 2. Has anyone surprised you so far this season with their play? Not really. We are playing well and I expected us to play well. 3. Who would win at a shootout contest? My take is Wolski. How can I disagree. If you mean in most saves and not most goals scored. lol 4. Who is your favourite athlete of all time? Too hard. Going to reduce it to just favorite hockey player. Ken Daneyko. Others were much better and in the Hall of Fame, but I love that guy! 5. What is your favourite drink - alcoholic or nonalcoholic? Gin and tonic - or coffee. 6. What is something none of us know about you? My first car ever was a 1964 MG Midget that was a complete rust bucket and could not go over 40 mph. My brother overhauled the engine and I got it up to 75 once. 75 feels like 120 in any other car. lol

Tough ones for me this week. 1. Who do you think is going to break out this season? Ove Drydahl. Had a great rookie season and can only see that rocketing forward this season. 2. How do you think our offseason went? Boffo! We are loaded for another run. 3. Are we going to win it all this season? It's never a sure thing. The VHL is super competitive. But I feel it in my bones - YES! 4. If so, are you prepared to outwork every other team? We have always outworked every other team. That is how we have finally made it to the top. 5. What does DC need next in order to continue being a strong roster? Going to have to find that natural scorer to replace Guy. lol 6. Do you have any suggestions for management? Keep on keeping on. Best management anywhere.

Guy Lesieur - Protect Scoring

This is a love letter to the whole DC Dragons franchise – the only team I, Guy Lesieur, have played with apart from a very small part of one season when I was drafted by London in expansion (shout out to that fine organization). I came into the league wanting: 1. to be a one-franchise player 2. to go to an expansion franchise and help it build from lowly newbies to Cup winners. London treated me well while I was there, but it wasn’t enough of the season for me to feel like I have not accomplished the first goal. And now we are on the cusp of completing the second goal. Defeating the reigning champs, the Vancouver Wolves, in the prior round was a real high. This showed we could definitely compete with the best. Now being up 3-1 on Chicago and being just 1 W away from the promised land is simply incredible! Look, we all know there is a lot of hockey to be played, we may somehow blow this lead and not make it to the finals. We may make it to the finals and get swept. And either of those would hurt. Bad. But win, lose, or draw, I have loved every minute of being part of this fabulous franchise. @Enorama has been everything you hope a GM will be and I’ve had so many outstanding teammates that I could not name them all. I am in my penultimate season in the VHL. I have this season and next to attain that extremely tough ultimate prize – a championship ring. I am grateful I am here in this position with my family – the D.C. Dragons! 278 words

1. One more win is needed against Chicago. Can we wrap this up today? Of course we can! Now, will we? lol 2. Who has been the most influential player on the roster through playoffs? Seems like I keep seeing Graves and Flowers in the score sheet (just off the top of my head), but Wolski has been key as well. 3. Beating out Vancouver and going up on Chicago... What has been your highlight this season? Gotta be sitting at 1 W away from the Final for the first time in Dragons history. 4. What is your pregame meal during the playoffs? Chateaubriand and a nice Côtes du Rhône. 5. What are your strange playoff rituals? I'm a fairly boring traditionalist - playoff beard is the main thing. Of course, I always put my left skate on first, but that's all season long. 6. How are you doing throughout this pandemic? Like everyone - just really sick and tired of it, but encouraging everyone to stay strong to the end. Vaccine is here, but going to take a while to get it out to enough folks and there could be a lot of suffering in the meantime.

Thanks for the shout out! Guy is in his pentultimate season, so let's get him award quickly. lol Did score the most goals in the league this season, so maybe there's that.

1. Playing as a team and everyone contributing what their particular skills bring to the whole. 2. I don't celebrate until the Cup win. I did have a nice burgundy that evening, but I usually have a decent win with dinner anyway. 3. 4-1 Dragons 4. Pin them in their own end and pummel the net. Wolski to stand on his head when needed. 5. No one scares me. I am only concerned about playing my best. 6. Yes, great time had by all. Son home from college so that's a real blessing.

So hard to remember to come in here to post every day.

1. I just learned the concept of someone's "main", and it made me really curious: what's your main sim league? PBE - It was my first sim league, I'm primarily a baseball guy first, I've been co-GM, GM, updater, head updater, and banker over there. 2. Is your main league the same as your first league? If no, why'd you switch? Yep, same as first. But I love hockey too, so joined the VHL and SHL and also ISFL for football. 3. Do you find it easy or hard to keep up with one or more sim leagues in your life? Not really very hard. I have a checklist for each league and I'm off on Mondays and just bang out 90% of the week's work then. 4. Someone on the playground tells you they heard Benny Graves got traded. You run back home to check the VHL news and you go to.... a) the forum, b) the discord, c) tune the TV to VSN I go to discord to yell at my GMs in the LR. 5. Are you here on a mobile, a laptop on the couch, a desktop computer or something else? How do you physically interact with the league? Literally a laptop on the couch right now - and 99% of the time. 6. Fill in the blank: I'm really hoping I get a _______ for VHL Christmas! Playoff clinch.

Happy Holidays! Boy do we need a little extra cheer this year!