Tagger

1. Another great week for the Calgary Wranglers. Posting a (7-2-1) record since our last press conference and (40-14-6) on the season. My question is this: with 12 games remaining, how many points will the Wranglers pick up out of the possible 24 pts ? Is it bad that I don't know the answer to this even with the games having been played? 2. With the playoffs creeping up, which potential opponent could give you the most trouble throughout a playoff run ? Seattle seems like the obvious choice, but New York would also be an equally tough matchup. 3. Which Calgary Wrangler players have a legitimate chance to win a personal award? I think Lafontaine will win all his awards, Lahtinen might make for an interesting most improved player option as well, but that might more likely be Dawson. 4. Everything is up in the air next season due to expansion. That being said, do you think the Calgary Wranglers can contend for a cup next season ? Depends on re-signings and salary cap situation (myself and Lafontaine are getting large wage hikes, plus Lahtinen if he resigns) 5. Who would you like to see Calgary draft with their 1st pick in the upcoming S73 draft ? Remember it will be a late 1st I think Dakota Lamb would be a good pick. He's been earning TPE at a very solid rate 6. Would you like to see Calgary change up its logo ? I've never had a problem with the logo tbh, not sure why so many people take issues with it.

Basically I searched for instances where the word "regret" was used by a player in regards to saying someone else messed up by not acquiring them (e.g. "You'll regret this") and see whether the parties that they said would regret their choice do or do not actually regret it in retrospect. Christophe Klose While Klose was one of the more successful players to come out of the for-it's-time immensely talented Season 40 Draft, I'd say there's only probably two GMs who picked before Klose's eventual selection that truly would regret missing out on him. The main one is Seattle, who wound up drafting Lloyd Light who, despite having a good career himself, didn't want to play for Seattle and was traded along with a second for Rift Pajodcast, a forward who never added any TPE to passing or scoring. The other would be Davos, who used their picks on two defenseman who, to their credit, were solid, but given neither exceeded 500 TPE while Klose recorded over 800, it's difficult to believe they wouldn't pick Klose over Joshua Rubin in a re-draft situation. Damon Tyrael This was a post from Bushito in response to a Corco article detailing his Vasteras Iron Eagles trading down from their fourth pick, to acquire the 7th, 11th and 13th picks in that draft along with an inactive Damien Sandow, with Corco citing a drop-off in talent after the first two picks and believing drafting two slightly worse players would be better than getting one slightly better player. While there's some reasonable logic to that last point, it becomes somewhat moot when only one of the three picks they acquired was over 200 TPE, and even he (Sami Kravinen) only finished his career on 353 TPE. On the other hand, the players taken with the 4th pick and the following pick both doubled Kravinen's TPE output. So in hindsight, they probably do regret that trade. Although the most interesting point of that would be what if that trade never happened and Vasteras did take Bushito fourth overall? Given he eventually became a GM (he was traded to the SEA for the specific reason that he wanted to GM) around the same time Boubabi took over from Corco, do we maybe not even get the Stockholm Vikings relocation? Final point just cause I've noticed that there's two reports here and both feature slight negatives against Corco, Chad Magnum is a physical specimen who could have a very good shout at the Two Way forward award next season.

Talking about the positives I took from the recent suggestions/complaints topics. I don't really talk about my views on the suggestions in particular, but I was definitely a fan of the ongoing GM list idea when I saw it.

2. What do you think is your biggest selling point to VHL teams? Anyone who is able to acquire my services gets a two-for-one deal since I can play two sports expertly 5. Out of all the players in the VHL, who do you model your game after? Conner Low, and I fail miserably at doing that unfortunately 6. What do you want your legacy to be in the VHL? I mean I'd like to be regarded as a top defenseman but that's been a struggle so far

So for this season’s theme week, the idea I had was to do a 15 minute video stream where I go through players where I have seen the members actively post on the board, but didn’t actually know their player’s name and break down how well either their player has been doing or how well the members been earning. Then I remembered my hard drive with my video capture software crapped out a month or two ago and my SSD has decided to only let Modern Warfare on it because it’s far too large at this point (although I should probably uninstall it cause I only play it on PS4 atm anyway), so I’ll just have to type it out. Also just as a note, hopefully no-one mentions here takes it as offense/is dissappointed that I didn’t know their players name beforehand. I have not had enough time to keep up with the VHLM and the draft classes recently and know that the reason you’re getting featured is actually a positive in that I’ve seen you on the forum and been impressed with your activity. Da_Berr – Andrew Su First off is someone who has put in a lot of work recently as he’s been responsible for the creation of two of the VHL’s newest franchises set to enter the VHL next season. He’s been in the league for 16 PT weeks now and he’s hit the TPE cap in all but one of them (although one should have been 10 but given 12 with an updater error), which signals a very impressive start to a career. Despite being taken in the second round of the draft, he currently sits eighth in TPE, having overtaken fellow Vancouver Wolves draftee Jungkok in TPE following the draft. While his stats are fairly low at the minute, Proto leaving the league, the regression of Dalton Wilcox and the retirement of Gritty will open up opportunities for Su in Season 73 should he continue his strong activity to this point. With an expected upturn in performances for the next season, we could expect Su to be a potential contender for the Most Improved Player award in Season 73. Rory – Jeffrey Pines A member who has recently been hired as the Mississauga Hounds Assistant General Manager, Rory has made a strong start to his VHL career and currently sits in fifth place in TPE out of the prospects in the Season 73 draft class and has hit the TPE cap in three of the last four weeks. He’s a member who predominantly uses graphics for his 6 TPE point task and goes the extra mile by making sure he does a logo change on the players jerseys, which is always a welcome touch. He’s been on a solid scoring pace for a player entering the VHL Draft, he’s currently on 66 points through 46 games, which is enough to have him as the third highest scorer on the Mexico City Kings, although he’s not far behind either of them and both Hylands and Dayne are a season older than Pines, so it’s impressive that he’s caught up to them in production that quickly.

Ah true, I thought about them yesterday when I was deciding whether to do a media or a podcast but forgot to mention them here.

So expansion has been announced for Season 73 and with that comes an opportunity to write a somewhat unique article about an element of said extension and that’s the personal thoughts of a user who is based in the country which a VHL team has located to for the first time. So for anyone who knows me, has seen the sidebar under my username or has even listened to one of my podcasts for longer than five seconds, you’ll be aware that I am English. I am not from London though, I reside in Manchester which is the opposite side of the country (London is located in the south-east, Manchester in the north-west), but I do have relatives that live over there and likely would have been down there a couple of weeks ago had it not been for the current pandemic that affects us all. So what do I think of the VHL’s inclusion of the United Kingdom? Well, I’ll break it down into three parts: What I think of the VHL creating a franchise in the United Kingdom What I think of the choice of team name What I think of the logo But before I go into those, I want to kick off with a couple of points regarding what I’ll be saying in this article. Regardless of any positives or negative opinions regarding the following matters, a VHL franchise being based in the United Kingdom and choices made with its team name or logo will not affect any decision making when it would come to whether I want to play for them or not. When it comes to selecting a team, I’ve always favoured analysing team’s personnel (both players and staff) and how the current roster would help me achieve my goals over everything else. In the past, I had favoured a move to teams I hadn’t played for before just to “round out the set” (since at one point, I only had to play for Helsinki to have played for every VHL team), but consistent expansions have rendered this goal something that would take at least two, if not three, players to achieve and I don’t like the idea of switching teams frequently just to fulfil that goal. Whatever role that they may fill, I am appreciative to anyone who takes time out of their lives to assist the VHL. However, there will be times where I may disagree with an approach that has been taken or a decision that has been made. I don’t do this to belittle anyone or make them feel bad, I do this because I feel like the input that I can provide can potentially improve upon a current setup or potentially highlight an issue that may have been overlooked. I feel like the work that Da_Berr has put in to the logos for both the United and the Stars (a logo which I am a fan of) demonstrate that he is a very capable artist and while I disagree with some of the design choices (some of which relate to issues that would not be under his control anyway), I hope that I can convey my thoughts on those choices in this article in the way which I intend which is constructively. What I think of the VHL creating a franchise in the United Kingdom If you were to come to me and ask “which European country would you like to see an expansion franchise located in?”, my answer would not actually have been one of the two that wound up being selected as I would have gone with Germany. Oddly enough, a team name that was used in this expansion would have been absolutely perfect for a German franchise in the Phoenix, as the new German team could rise from the ashes of the now defunct Cologne Express. That naming convention would also have matched what happened with what was then my local hockey team, the Manchester Phoenix, who were named as such after they joined the league following the folding of the Manchester Storm (although oddly enough, the Phoenix are now defunct and the Storm have returned to the league). However, it appears the league preferred locating franchises in countries that had yet to be represented, and if that was the case then the two countries that were selected are two of the better ones they could have picked (since I presume they didn’t want two in Western Europe). What I think of the choice of team name For those who are not familiar with the English soccer scene, the teams do not follow the same naming system as American/Canadian sports teams. Instead of a town or city name being followed with a unique team name (often represented with a mascot), the soccer teams in England follow more traditional roots and put a fairly standard name after their town/city name (common ones include Town, City and Rovers) or base their name on the areas they were formed from (E.g. Aston Villa was named as such because they played in Aston and their founders played for Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel cricket team, Crystal Palace was named after the building the founders owned, etc.). One of the more common names used is United, which is currently being used by 13 of the 72 teams in the English Football League system. It is from this that I’m pretty sure the London United name came from. Funnily enough though, as you may have picked up from the previous section, our hockey teams follow the same naming system as NHL teams would, so it is a little weird to see our UK team go away from that given that we already follow that system in the real world. The good thing about the United name is that it does have some versatility to it in that the meaning of the word can allow it to be used as a Team Name, but at the same time it is difficult to represent the term United graphically. I don’t know which idea came first (out of the name United or the football badge design), but once one was decided, the other had to be done with it. Typically, I prefer it when teams have a matter of consistency to them, so I wouldn’t say I’m the biggest fan of going with a naming style which is predominantly used in the UK (even with the attachment I have to the United name considering my favourite soccer team is Manchester United) while other countries forgo their usual naming system to match with the VHL norm (E.g. Prague Phantoms and Riga Reign). What I think of the logo So I made an article about this a while ago, but I’m not the biggest fan of the VHL adopting soccer-style logos. As much as I like them ordinarily in their own environment, I prefer logos to be somewhat consistent in style, so I did not like seeing New York go in that direction with their logo. However, the fact that there are logos of that same ilk currently in the league means I am not as against the addition of the London United’s soccer-style logo in comparison to had it been the first of it’s kind in the VHL. As for the logo itself, I’ll go over the features I’m a fan of first. I like the choice of the city-appropriate text, as it is the same style as the London Underground. I am also a big fan of the colour choice, blue has been quite a common choice for VHL teams (Helsinki and Toronto feature it mainly, but there also elements in Prague, Riga and New York) but I’m a big fan of Royal Blue and obviously fits with the choice of team location. Finally, with their decision to go with the soccer crest aesthetic, I like the decision to go with the blades and the castled outline around the badge. Now to move on to the elements I am not so much a fan of. Firstly, I do not think that the Tower Bridge is the best choice of features to put in the middle of the flag. I can understand it’s inclusion given it’s importance and relevance to the city that the badge represents, but I feel like, given the outline of the badge, there were other options that would have been more fitting, like a mythical being or a lion (England’s national soccer team logo is a Lion). I think having two different types of architecture from two different eras (castles from the medieval times and Tower Bridge from the very late 1800’s) within the same graphic confuses things a little. I think my biggest criticism would be the decision to redesign the Union Jack. I don’t know if there’s a hidden design feature that I’m missing, but the Union Jack, one of, if not the most recognisable flags in the world, is missing two of it’s stripes (diagonally heading from the centre to each top corner). This is odd considering that there seems to be enough room to move the horizontal line down and include the missing stripes accordingly. In addition, the fact that it is included in itself acknowledges how well-known the UK flag is by itself, so to include it for those reasons and then change it upon including it is a design decision I don’t really understand. In conclusion, it isn’t my favourite logo, but definitely not my least favourite. There are elements and design choices that I like but also some core elements I would have definitely changed. 1,500+ words, 3 Weeks of use.

The first sentence isn't entirely correct, Bushito taking over Stockholm was a known thing but the other two were responses to having/attempting to fire the previous GMs for inactivity following the off-season. That being said, this was during an era where no-one wanted to GM (only believe there was a max of 2 candidate per job), so the BOG discussions would have been a lot quicker. I wasn't using that statement to make any judgement on the way the league handled this particular situation, just answering Victor's question based on my own experience.

From the time I remember in the BOG, a sizable percentage of GM changes in which the previous GM did not name a successor (which wasn't many, but is the most relatable to this subject as both those and expansion GMs are instances where there were vacancies that the league had to decide a candidate for) were discussed in the BOG. Ones that come to mind are when Bushito was leaving the Bears (both times, when it was originally going to be myself and then when it went to Mike a season two seasons later), Ahma taking charge of Davos and Bushito taking charge of Stockholm.

Yes that’s still the case, I was referring to how the amount of reviews you had to do per TPE had gone down from 4 reviews to one

Sorry, all I remembered while I was writing was that it was leading up to a draft that would have had S70 SBA'ers, but forgot it was the VHLM not the VHL

I thought something looked off when I came on the site but my name has gone back to the default member group after being red for just over a year. Obviously makes a lot of sense since it sounds like they plan on having actual paid moderators whereas we were more just general admin (e.g. moving threads to correct places) and "act if you saw something very wrong on the board", which in fairness there hasn't been too many instances of in the public forums (I only acted on one instance where someone thought it was appropriate to post Rule 34 shit on the forum, the only other big instance that immediately comes to mind is the VHLM S68 Finals thread which I couldn't deal with since I was at a friends house) and was very vague at a time where we had no code of conduct to follow or refer to regarding decisions. But yes, I was surprised to see I still had the colours after taking a six month break from the league, so it doesn't bother me. I'd say the only thing that sucks is that I no longer have access to the Updaters Lounge, where I felt I gave good and prompt advice to updaters whenever they had questions. Also, I'm still on recruitment crew on the discord, which is real weird.

The point was that "Free Doubles Week" used to describe "A Free Week and a Doubles Week" (so straight up 12 TPE), but now when someone says "Free Doubles Week" now, they just mean they're offering a regular doubles week.

Calgary Wranglers defenseman Edwin THE Encarnacion has signed a two year extension with the team. Encarnacion had a rough rookie season and recorded minimal playing time, but became a solid contributor to the Wranglers last season and was the team’s joint-leader in assists. This season has been slightly worse for the Dominican, with his point tallies falling largely because of inaccurate shooting, but he still remains a solid asset for the team that currently stands second in the VHL standings. According to sources, Encarnacion already had an agreement in place with the Calgary Wranglers General Manager upon signing his rookie deal that he would sign a two season extension providing the team was heading in the right direction, although the discussions for said extension took place with the team’s Assistant General Manager. There were rumours that Encarnacion intended to enter Free Agency after he rejected the Wranglers initial extension offer, however that was not the case and the deal was rejected so that a No-Trade Clause could be added to the deal across both seasons. We believe that the addition of this clause is less to do with an unwavering loyalty to always play in a Wranglers jersey and more to do with Encarnacion wanting a measure of control over any future destination should the team feel like trading Encarnacion was in their best interests. It’s also rumoured that, should he decide to enter Free Agency at the end of his fifth season, Encarnacion will use this No-Trade Clause to reject any attempt of a trade for his free agency rights as he doesn’t like the concept. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One term that came up this week that gave me a flashback to a different era of the VHL was the use of the term “free doubles week”. It was used by Quik to offer a doubles week out to everyone after we reached our league goal for our charity drive (well done everyone for this by the way), but the term has been used before in the VHL to describe a different kind of reward. Often given around the Christmas Holiday period, the league would offer members of the VHL a “free doubles week”, however this wasn’t used to describe “a doubles week which is free”, but instead a “free week and a double week combined”. This notably led to some confusion back in 2016 when the then-commissioner Will offered a free doubles week only for people to be confused as to whether he was offering a “free doubles week” or a “free week and a double week combined”. To be fair and in retrospect, it was pretty dumb to ever call a “free week and a double week combined” a free doubles week, because that’s just poorly written. It would have made a lot more sense to refer to a “free week and a double week combined” as a “doubled free week”, but luckily with free weeks no longer being usable with double weeks, we’ve pretty much written the old definition for the term out of the VHL, although it wouldn’t surprise me if older returning VHL members will have occasionally tried to claim a “free week and a double week combined” when the term was used.

1. You have a record of (8-4-2 ) since our last press conference. With Seattle hot on your trail, how important is it to you to be the top team ? Top team in regular season is just an added bonus, main thing is getting done in playoffs. 2. How do you feel about the Wranglers most recent contract extensions ? A 2 year deal to @TaggerEdwin The Encarnacion and A 3 year deal to Willie Dredge @Speed . Dredge is a very good winger for us, so an excellent resigning. Encarnacion is a baseball player so he isn't. 3. The VHL has theme week this week. Which theme would you like to see the league do, if you could choose ? I'd love one where we just talk about ourselves cause that's all I can come up with for point tasks atm. 4. Mikko Lahtinen @Beketov is currently on an 8 game goal scoring streak and an 11 game point streak. No one is hotter right now! Can you explain his explosive breakout this season ? I've analyzed the stats for a solid 2 minutes, and no I can't explain it. 5. Latrell Mitchell @dasboot and General Zod @Matt_O are in the top 10 in +/- in the entire league. They also lead all rookies and deserve a little recognition. They have been great in their roles this season. Do you have any pointers to keep them going in right direction? Don't play on a line with me, cause I'll bring that +/- right down! 6. Looking further at the Wranglers team scoring. If things continue to click, its not unrealistic to see the team have 7x 70+ point players. How far back do we have to look to see a team accomplish this feat ? I'll guess somepoint around the early S60's, maybe S64.

While the Calgary Wranglers as a team have been having a lot of success in front of goal (they current lead the league in goals scored), the rest of the teams scoring luck clearly hasn't been passed on to their Dominican defenseman Edwin THE Encarnacion. Encarnacion, who received votes for the Most Improved Player last season, scored two goals in his opening nine games but is currently on a horrible 27 game scoring slump and has a woeful 2.86% shooting percentage, which is the fifth lowest shooting percentage of all those who have scored a goal in the VHL this season. While those below him either lean towards a passing game (Valentino, Zyrok12, Dean Clarke) or have fallen victim to regression (Dissanayake), Encarnacion is a shoot-first player with 97 scoring. Hopefully, Encarnacion's shooting will see a vast improvement in the second half of the season to justify his recent contract extension.

Transaction ID: 0N548045UN1092440 Thanks to the VHL for organizing this. Confirmed. -sterling

We added in a new system a bit ago where we allowed new members to start with more TPE based on how many weeks after the trade deadline they created their player. I think this is a good move, it allows us to be more flexible with our recruiting strategies while also finding a good balance between letting players come in without the TPE disadvantage just because they heard/remembered around the league at the wrong point of the season but also having them far enough ahead of the players who will have capped every week from the deadline to not make them question their efforts. There was a poll for a championship banner to be implemented on the forum. All of the entries were good and would fit on the forum perfectly well (and somewhat agree with Motza that these should just be rotated rather than letting the vote dictate the only one we see). For me and my caveman eyeballs, it was a tough choice between 2 and 3 (I did like the clean look of 1, but something about the logos on the jerseys just didn’t seem right to me). Ultimately, I went with number 3 and I will let you decide if the deciding factor in my selection was putting a banner on the front page with the word “Dickbutt”. (Note: It wasn’t, I probably read the lists after voting). I made an article about two weeks ago questioning the choice of the retiring Brick Wahl winning Most Improved having already led the league in save percentage previously in his career. Most Improved player is definitely going to be an interesting one this year should rosters stay as they are. Adrienne will be similar in some respects to Wahl in that he has already earned some notoriety in the VHL (winning the Jake Wylde trophy in Season 70), but he is set for what I would argue to be a far greater leap over his career best in points than what Wahl had in career best at save percentage. But there is very strong competition from Mikko Lahtinen and Lewis Dawson, two players would have already equalled (or pretty much in the case of Dawson) their previous bests in just 22 games and have made a huge jump in regards to their standing within the league. Goalies are also looking set to provide strong challenges with Jaxx Hextall and Jacques Lafontaine having the edge over Eagles in terms of most improved. Another change that happened to the league in the not-too-distant past was the change to reviewing, which allows users to give one solid length review of a point task for 1 TPE. And to be honest, the change made me consider actually doing reviewing for the first time in forever (maybe ever, not sure if I’ve ever actually been a grader over in the VHL). I’m not, because I’m just going to wait for trivia answers to be given and use those points for this week, but it does offer a much more even comparison to the rest of the mini-PTS.

1. You are the number 1 team in the league at (14-5-1). You have the most goals for, least goals against. Can you still continue to climb from here? I'm more impressed by the fact that I've evolved from a player into a team. 2. How important is it to you, that the Wranglers get contract extensions signed for upcoming UFA's Edwin The Encarnacion, Willie Dredge and Mikko Lahtinnen ? I am kinda surprised no-ones offered me anything yet. 3. Can you explain why Calgary would be a great team to sign an extension with ? I mean we're top of the league and young. Seems like two good reasons right there. 4. What current or past VHL player's career, would you wish your player could replicate ? I mean my aim was Conner Low, but I'm looking more like a bad Ryan Kastelic atm 5. Who is your favorite player that is not a Calgary Wrangler ? Condor Adrienne cause he's helping my fantasy team atm. 7. If you had to choose one. What would your dream VHL job be ? Like a job where I can pick X number of players per week and check to see whether their previously approved updates are all legit or not (like an auditor per se), because I'm very good at picking up on errors.

*This is actually the first of the PTs I'm doing for the week so the title might not even be accurate if I fall short. Another week, another last minute scramble to get that TPE to make sure my player doesn’t fall off too early. This week, like the week my hard drive failed, I do at least have a somewhat decent excuse for this lateness in that I’ve actually been moving back in with my parents after a brief stint elsewhere, which might not have been as big a thing as it would have normally been had it not been for this gigantic virus. But I am starting to wonder why it is that I feel so apathetic towards TPE earning right now. It could be down to my player, who isn’t doing terrible but also not really doing anything noticeable either. That middle-ground of average does make it pretty difficult to write about my own players achievements, cause at least if he was shit, I could make a joke article about it.

Sorry no. I got lucky with the S59 one cause that was the period where we switched from hosting on one url to another, so just reverted the link to the older layout and it worked. Not sure what these would be, although there were old VHL links that used to be broken before Will reuploaded the indexes so that seems more likely to be the case.

Correct VHLM Link

Good article, but just on this point, Ace hadn’t really been around for the five years prior to this draft. He did make an account five years ago but that was just to make one post about the SHL/VHL, his second post was 5 years later making Eller. Pretty similar to Peace actually who made an account in like 2013 but didn’t make a player or a post till Rylan Peace in 2018

Keven foreskin @GustavMattias