Tagger

Yeah I've been monitoring that thread, my apologies for not following up further with a comment regarding it, but I have read every post and have appreciated the comments/thoughts there. I will say that it is my intention to record a video showing both the slider settings we've always used,  as well as explaining how morale works and has worked in our league best as I've always understood it from the STHS research I've done. It would also allow me to show/explain a couple of things regarding STHS anyways.
 
However without going into to much detail here the most I've been able to ascertain is that team morale goes up based on wins and down based on losses. How badly it spikes up and down, and how high your overall team morale stat is to start the season is based on a mix of the default starting team morale and some of your players morale. All players start with the same default morale as well when inputted in the sim. Players who invest in leadership give a small boost to their teams starting morale and have a higher chance of keeping their team morale up during win streaks and making it go down less during losing streaks. The affect that morale itself has on the sim only gets applied at the beginning of games and it's the teams overall morale, giving players a small performance boost on each side based on team morale. Although we do not have morale disabled in the settings, morale has always been set pretty low in STHS at a slider of 25 on the usual 0-99 scale for each team. 
 
 

Hoping For More Transparency
 
An article recently posted by Bushito on the forums brought into question the potential effect of the morale attribute in the VHL and how much of a part it played in wins/losses. While I have some questions about some of the points he raised, it does bring up a problem that I’ve had with the league in the past and that’s the lack of transparency in the simming process. It’s very surprising to me that we’ve been running now for over 12 years, yet there hasn’t been (at least since I joined this league six years ago) any written documentation to show what sim settings we use for our games. The nearest I think I’ve ever seen was in the Season 52 Index, where a few select sliders were posted on the front page, but even that is surprisingly little information to receive given the amount of settings that feature in this sim engine that we simply do not know if they are or are not implemented. Hopefully at some point, a thread will be created which will provide the screenshots of all of the different setting screens so that we are no longer in the dark about what is and isn’t set to have an effect in the sim so we all have an easily accessible way of seeing what does work rather than having to rely on second-hand information that may or may not be true.  
 
A Potential First For Tagger
 
As you may well be aware, my current player is called Edwin THE Encarnacion and he is the fifth player I’ve created in the VHL to use a variation of the surname. The THE was set to signify that this is the ultimate Encarnacion, which would be no mean feat given that two of the Encarnacion’s hold all-time records and a third is in the Hall of Fame. Things have gotten off to a good start though as Edwin THE Encarnacion has presented me with arguably my best opportunity to date to win the Founders Cup with one of my players. Despite Edwin THE Encarnacion being my sixth player to enter the VHLM (I made a player called Aackckqz Ky as well who had his every action determined by a random generator), I’ve only ever made it to one VHLM Founders Cup Final with a player, a Season 42 trip with Edwin Reencarnacion that ended up a 4-2 loss. However with the Saskatoon Wild, I’ve found myself on arguably the best team in the VHLM at the moment with several players more than capable of hitting the new 250 TPE cap for the VHLM prior to the start of the playoffs and we currently sit atop the standings. It won’t be a breeze, there are several other good VHLM teams who would like nothing more than to stop the current leaders on their way to their own Founders Cup victory, but I have a lot of faith in the current setup and hopefully I’ll be able to mark the end of the season with my first ever Founders Cup and, as a result, a first chance at a Triple Gold down the line.
 
Prep For Hottest Mess 2019 Podcast
 
At the end of 2016 and 2018 (2018’s can be found here), I produced end of year podcasts where I debated what moments in the given year were the Hottest Mess. What defines a Hot Mess? Well basically anything that you can look at that happened in the VHL this year and say “Boy, that’s a Mess!” It can be a specific draft class (2016’s winner was the Season 51 Draft Class which produced only two VHL players), a specific team or conference (the horrid European Conference of 2016 got a special mention), member actions/bans (2018’s joint-winners were member based) or just new additions to the league that did not work. While my 2018 one was recorded on a drive back from work, I’m planning on doing a sit-down one presented similarly to the one I recorded with Enorama, with different podcasts for each mess.  I’ve got a few topics that I know could fit into the bracket of Hottest Mess, but I’m interested in hearing what other’s think and maybe there’s been an instance that I’ve not picked up on myself that would qualify for the list. If you are interested, I’ve got a form that you can fill in HERE where you can either check one of the shortlisted options as a Hottest Mess or provide your own.

Hoping For More Transparency
 
An article recently posted by Bushito on the forums brought into question the potential effect of the morale attribute in the VHL and how much of a part it played in wins/losses. While I have some questions about some of the points he raised, it does bring up a problem that I’ve had with the league in the past and that’s the lack of transparency in the simming process. It’s very surprising to me that we’ve been running now for over 12 years, yet there hasn’t been (at least since I joined this league six years ago) any written documentation to show what sim settings we use for our games. The nearest I think I’ve ever seen was in the Season 52 Index, where a few select sliders were posted on the front page, but even that is surprisingly little information to receive given the amount of settings that feature in this sim engine that we simply do not know if they are or are not implemented. Hopefully at some point, a thread will be created which will provide the screenshots of all of the different setting screens so that we are no longer in the dark about what is and isn’t set to have an effect in the sim so we all have an easily accessible way of seeing what does work rather than having to rely on second-hand information that may or may not be true.  
 
A Potential First For Tagger
 
As you may well be aware, my current player is called Edwin THE Encarnacion and he is the fifth player I’ve created in the VHL to use a variation of the surname. The THE was set to signify that this is the ultimate Encarnacion, which would be no mean feat given that two of the Encarnacion’s hold all-time records and a third is in the Hall of Fame. Things have gotten off to a good start though as Edwin THE Encarnacion has presented me with arguably my best opportunity to date to win the Founders Cup with one of my players. Despite Edwin THE Encarnacion being my sixth player to enter the VHLM (I made a player called Aackckqz Ky as well who had his every action determined by a random generator), I’ve only ever made it to one VHLM Founders Cup Final with a player, a Season 42 trip with Edwin Reencarnacion that ended up a 4-2 loss. However with the Saskatoon Wild, I’ve found myself on arguably the best team in the VHLM at the moment with several players more than capable of hitting the new 250 TPE cap for the VHLM prior to the start of the playoffs and we currently sit atop the standings. It won’t be a breeze, there are several other good VHLM teams who would like nothing more than to stop the current leaders on their way to their own Founders Cup victory, but I have a lot of faith in the current setup and hopefully I’ll be able to mark the end of the season with my first ever Founders Cup and, as a result, a first chance at a Triple Gold down the line.
 
Prep For Hottest Mess 2019 Podcast
 
At the end of 2016 and 2018 (2018’s can be found here), I produced end of year podcasts where I debated what moments in the given year were the Hottest Mess. What defines a Hot Mess? Well basically anything that you can look at that happened in the VHL this year and say “Boy, that’s a Mess!” It can be a specific draft class (2016’s winner was the Season 51 Draft Class which produced only two VHL players), a specific team or conference (the horrid European Conference of 2016 got a special mention), member actions/bans (2018’s joint-winners were member based) or just new additions to the league that did not work. While my 2018 one was recorded on a drive back from work, I’m planning on doing a sit-down one presented similarly to the one I recorded with Enorama, with different podcasts for each mess.  I’ve got a few topics that I know could fit into the bracket of Hottest Mess, but I’m interested in hearing what other’s think and maybe there’s been an instance that I’ve not picked up on myself that would qualify for the list. If you are interested, I’ve got a form that you can fill in HERE where you can either check one of the shortlisted options as a Hottest Mess or provide your own.

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. 

Nah I can listen to Rasputin, then Dance Monkey, then Rasputin again.

Not sure if I ever mentioned it specifically, but, up until a few days before creating my player, I was actually planning on naming my current guy "Russia's Greatest Love Machine" because of this song. Absolute banger. 

GM: Jason Glasser (936/477/400/59/1,013)
Former GM(s): Jardy Bunclewirth (504/172/307/25/369)
Record (after S20): 1,440 GP | 649 W | 707 L | 84 OTL | 1,382 P | 4,177 GF | 4,937 GA
Playoff Record (after S20): 101 GP | 51 W | 37 L | 13 OTL | 3-1 vs TOR, 1-1 vs HEL, 1-1 vs QUE, 1-0 vs DAV, 1-2 SEA, 1-3 vs NYA
 
Season 39 VHL Entry Draft
Round 1, Pick 2: Koji Yamazaki @Samurai7
Round 1, Pick 9: Lukas Nykvist @Motzaburger
Round 2, Pick 12: Hudson Backenbauer @Seventy-Four
Round 2, Pick 14: Mike McGratton @Flames1848
Round 3, Pick 24: Dan Cooper @Nick
 
Trades (Regular Season):
To 
S41 NYA 2nd (LW Matej Nemecek)

To 
(S39) LW - Hudson Backenbauer

Calgary Wranglers GM: Jason Glasser @diamond_ace
Cologne Express GM: Alexander Schneider @RomanesEuntDomus
 
The Calgary Wranglers decided to cut bait with the 12th overall pick from the S39 Draft in return for a Season 41 New York 2nd Round Pick. The player who was used with that pick didn't amount to much while Hudson had a decent career in the VHL.
 
To 
(S32) RW - Jamie Shetler
(S33) C - GIYGAS
(S35) D - Edwin Encarnacion
S40 NYA 2nd (D Wesley Matthews)

To 
(S32) D - Mattis Trumbauer
S41 CGY 1st (RW Kyle Kingma)

Calgary Wranglers GM: Jason Glasser
Cologne Express GM: Alexander Schneider
 
Not much after the Backenbauer trade, GM Jason Glasser and GM Alexander Schneider came together once more but this time it was a much bigger trade. I'm not sure I follow what made Cologne make this trade. Perhaps, the older players like Shetler and GIYGAS were retiring by why throw in EE and a NYA S40 2nd? The three players for Calgary did well leading them to the playoffs for the first time in a few seasons. Trumbauer, I think didn't very much in Cologne while the Season 41 Calgary 1st didn't turn into much. Nice trade by Jason.
 
To 
(S39) D - Koji Yamazaki

To 
(S38) RW - MF Percy Miller
S40 RIG 1st (D Vladamir Komarov)
S41 SEA 2nd (D Borje Samuelsson)
S40 QUE 3rd (LW Superbman)

Quebec City Meute GM: Frank Chadwick @Frank
Calgary Wranglers GM: Jason Glasser
 
Another interesting trade, maybe Koji wanted out of Calgary despite being drafted 2nd overall by the team. Jason was able to find a dance partner in Frank sending the former 2nd overall pick for MF Percy Miller (he was a character for sure), a S40 RIG 1st which turned into a good player and member and a S41 SEA 2nd and S40 QUE 3rd, those picks didn't turn into much though. Basically it was a big package deal in which just 1 player turned out for a quality VHL player despite the high draft status.
 
Maybe if we are lucky, in the comments, Jason can tell us what he thought about these trades and why he made them, if we are really lucky Frank Chadwick and Alexander Schneider will too.
 
 
Season 39 Regular Season - 72 GP | 37 W | 34 L | 1 OTL | 75 P | 190 GF | 211 GA
The Wranglers continued to try to accelerate the rebuild by adding Edwin Encarnacion, GIYGAS and Jamie Shetler while shipping out younger players like Koji Yamazaki and Hudson Backenbauer. he result? A playoff berth for the first time in a few seasons. The team won 37 games and had 75 points. Travis Boychuk continued his ascension to super stardom by putting up 38 goals and 91 points. Simon Tremblay proved to be a nice pick up with a 43 goal, 80 point season of his own. GIYGAS and Edwin were point per game players after being acquired in said trade. Martin Brookside was solid in net with a 0.912 save percentage and a G.A.A under 3 for the first time in his career. Things looked to be on the up in Alberta.
 
Season 39 Playoffs - 6 GP | 2 W | 2 L | 2 OTL
The Calgary Wranglers made the playoffs but in the playoffs had to play the 2nd ranked Seattle Bears in the quarterfinal. Many people counted the Wranglers out because of the point difference which was 12. The Wranglers won the first game in OT with GIYGAS picking up the tying goal and an assist on the GWG from Edwin Encarnacion. Brookside was near perfect with 40 saves on 41 shots. Game 2 in Seattle wasn't nearly as exciting as DA BEARS won 6-2. The next two games went to a combined 9 minutes of OT which wasn't much but the Wranglers probably felt they were out of it after 1 OT win and 2 OT losses and were now down 3-1. Encarnacion was kicked from Game 4 after beating up Karsten Olsen in OT leading to DA BEARS scoring the GWG PP goal. Rumor has it to this day, @Tagger would do it again. Going back to Seattle, the Wranglers showed signs of life making it a 3-2 series on the backs of Boychuk who had 3 assists this game and GIYGAS who had 2 goals. Game 6 back in Seattle proved to be too much though and the Wranglers fell 4-2 in Game 6 and 4-2 in the series.
 
Trades (off-season):
To 
S40 RIG 1st (D Vladamir Komarov)
S42 CGY 1st (C Joseph Roy III)

To 
(S33) RW - Thomas Landry @Doomsday
(S36) D - Godavari Yumalatopinto @8Ovechkin8

HC Davos Dynamo GM: Jack Reilly @CoachReilly
Calgary Wranglers GM: Jason Glasser
 
GM Jason comes into the offseason looking to improve his team once more taking the Devise strategy and trading picks. The previously acquired RIG 1st in the trade involving Quebec and Koji, the Wranglers trade that pick and a Season 42 CGY 1st for Thomas Landry entering his final season and Godavari to revamp the backend in Calgary. Yuma and EE on the backend looks pretty good on paper, wonder what the GM' have to think now after this trade was made almost 30 seasons in the making.
 
To 
(S36) D - Sami Kravinen @Wasty
S41 VAS 3rd (D Zach Voss)

To 
S40 NYA 2nd (D Wesley Matthews)

Calgary Wranglers GM: Jason Glasser
Vasteras Iron Eagles GM: Benoit Prévost @boubabi
 
Calgary looked to continue making the defense a strong suit on the team acquiring Sami Kravinen from Vasteras for the 2nd they got in the Koji trade. Sami was a solid depth piece for most of his VHL career and I think it was a pretty even trade and you can probably say Calgary won considering that Vasty also threw in a S41 VAS 3rd.
 
To 
(S34) LW - Simon Tremblay

To 
S41 TOR 4th (Forfeited)

Toronto Legion GM: Tyler Edgar @Edgar
Calgary Wranglers GM: Jason Glasser 
 
I can't quite remember which member Simon Tremblay was, I wanna say @Megster and Tremblay actually was coming off a decent season with Calgary scoring 43 goals. However, was moved to Toronto for a Season 41 TOR 4th which was later forfeited. I wonder why?
 
To 
S41 SEA 2nd (D Borje Samuelsson)
S41 CGY 3rd (LW Valentin Taneyev)

To 
(S39) LW - Andrew Erikson

Helsinki Titans GM: Vince Wong @STZ
Calgary Wranglers GM: Jason Glasser
 
I don't think eQ ended up coming to this site but Andrew Erikson was his player and GM Jason moved Simon Tremblay to acquire Erikson, so this tells me he was pretty highly thought of back in Season 39 almost Season 40. The price wasn't that much a Season 41 SEA 2nd and a Season 41 CGY 3rd. Borje Samuelsson in my memory was a VHLM legend while Valentin Taneyev didn't amount to much. Another win for Jason and his team building on paper.
 
Awards:
N/A
 
Overall:
Simon Tremblay breaks into the 14 in team scoring through 19 seasons which is quite the accomplishment. He also becomes the 16th player to break 200 points. Travis Boychuk @DollarAndADream is doing well in his two season with 194 points which places him 17th on the list. GIYGAS @.sniffuM comes back after his hiatus from the team and sits right behind Boychuk in 18th with 192 points. Tony Stark is more than a point per game with 75 points (don't remember the member for Stark), EE sits around 50th with 54 points in 51 games. Martin Brookside climbs to 3rd in wins with 60 while his losses are 2nd behind one pedophile.
 
GIYGAS moves to 6th in playoff scoring with 35 points in 40 games, Tremblay is tied for 13th with 15 points in 20 games. The rest are near the bottom of the lists after playing their first playoff games with the team as well as Brookside who is last in wins after his first playoff series with the team.
 
Calgary Wrangler Player Stats

Saskatoon Wild Yearly Review and Team Awards
 

 
While Season 68 was a bitter disappointment for the rebuilding Saskatoon Wild, it was to be expecting after much wheeling and dealing the last few seasons to obtain blue-chip prospects and high draft picks. While the scoresheet most nights didn’t convey their competitiveness, the Wild actually filled the net on a regular basis resulting in the 5th-highest Goals For total in the league with 226. Their demise, which saw them allow a dismal 299 goals, the second-most in the league to only the Ottawa Lynx, rested solely on the shoulders of poor team defense and porous goaltending, both of which are high on GM @Peace’s list to rectify for the upcoming season. It is no secret that he wants his team to make the playoffs next year and he will use every trick up his trading sleeves to see his goal accomplished. To be fair, it will be a tall order to go from a 21-win season to playoff hopefuls. There is a lot to be excited about, though, on this Wild team and its stars were celebrated during the off-season in a lavish ceremony in an undisclosed location far from the frigid temperatures of Saskatoon.
 
Here are the Saskatoon Wild S68 Team Awards winners:
 
Most Valuable Player: LW Ondrej Ohradka (Slovakia) @animal74
 

 
What a year it was for the slick Slovak, also known as “OO7”. He has more tricks in his arsenal than the more famous British spy with the same nickname and they were all on display every night during a spectacular season for the 2nd year left winger which saw him hit 50 goals and 104 points to lead the Wild and sit 5th in league scoring. After showing glimpses of his talent in S67 after he was traded from Minnesota, Ohradka became only the 11th player in Wild history to reach 50 goals and his 104 points were the highest single season total by a Saskatoon player since Bryce Zhields and Josh Stronk scored 149 and 111 respectively in S60. Assuming he doesn’t get called up by his VHL club, the Calgary Wranglers, it’s possible Ohradka could become the first Wild player to reach two 50-goal seasons.
 
How valuable was Ohradka? He led the next leading scorer on the Wild, Julian Blackthorn, @LattimoreIsland by a whopping 33 points - the largest margin in the league between team’s top two scorers. He also led the team in game-winning goals with 5, power play goals (15, T-4th in the league), shots (356, 5th in the league), was second in plus/minus and hits, and led Wild forwards with 37 blocked shots.
 
Best Defenseman: D David O’Quinn (Canada) @JohnOQuinn
 

 
After a slow start, skilled defenseman David O’Quinn earned the respect of his coaches and teammates in S68 with a solid performance that showcased his deft passing ability and ever-present truculence. His combination of size, skill, and toughness is rare and he protects the front of his net and sticks up for his teammates with the same ferociousness as when he quarterbacks the power play.
 
O’Quinn led the Wild with 63 assists which was also 5th among VHLM defensemen and 9th in the league. He also led Saskatoon in blocked shots (123, T-4th in the league), penalty minutes (130, T-3rd in the league), and hits (167). While his defense game continues to develop, O’Quinn has proved that he is a blueliner on the rise and the VHLM won’t be able to hold him for long. Saskatoon fans can expect another dominant season from David O’Quinn in S69.
 
Unsung Hero: LW RJ Jubis (Canada) @R Jubis
 

 
For much of his early career, hulking winger RJ Jubis showed flashes of elite talent but still managed to fly under the radar as he worked his way up the ranks of minor hockey in Nova Scotia. Never one afraid of hard work, Jubis continued to work at his craft and slowly that hard work started to pay off in spite of periods of inconsistency. Everything started to come together during his first VHLM season with the Saskatoon Wild. He also started slowly as he was put in some unfamiliar positions in the lineup and got adjusted to the speed of the VHLM. That adjustment period didn’t last long as Jubis soon started showing the skills and work ethic that brought him this far. 
 
He ended his first campaign with 29 goals - good for 3rd on the team - and finished 4th in Wild scoring with a solid 62 points. He was also one of four Wild players with a plus rating and contributed 5 power play goals and 4 game-winners while developing a burgeoning two-way game that became more relied upon as the season wore on. VHLM goalies learned to fear his shot and he will continue to wreak havoc on the league’s netminders as his stock is only going up.
 
Wild Man Award: LW RJ Jubis (Canada) @R Jubis
 
It definitely shows why the Saskatoon Wild are so optimistic about the future when four different players were voted by their teammates for the inaugural Wild Man award. This award is given to the Wild player that displays leadership, sportsmanship, excellent work ethic, and is respected by teammates. And although many were mentioned on the ballot, the first ever Wild Man award goes to none other than this year’s Unsung Hero, RJ Jubis. 
 
It’s a known fact that Jubis brings 110% to the rink, every game and every practice - a sign of a great leader. He is a positive influence on the ice and in the locker room and is well-liked by teammates, management, and fans. Jubis has shown a penchant for giving back to the community and has never missed a team event in Saskatoon. He endeared himself further to Wild fans by starting “Jubby’s Jents”, a weekly content that awards pairs of Wild tickets to young local athletes who show tremendous character and help the community. He has also given back to his hometown, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, by starting his own hockey camp in the summer and donating new equipment to many area schools to help promote active living and the game of hockey. Truly, RJ Jubis exemplifies what it means to be a “Wild Man”. 
 
Congratulations to all the winners!
 
@Elmebeck @Parani @ducks @Hubs_Gaming @LattimoreIsland @Sade @Ren @Tagger @Viperxhawks19 @TiBry17 @SJT29
 
(Over 1000 words)

Got around to this finally. I must say you had a big hand in my staying around with Low. It was a great deal of fun and made me invested in what is my only HOF player. Cheers @Tagger

Always nice to hear about stuff I wasn't around for. 

Talking about getting drafted in the VHL with Encarnacion and the DDOS attack that moved us onto our current forum. 
 

Talking about getting drafted in the VHL with Encarnacion and the DDOS attack that moved us onto our current forum. 
 

VHL Code of Conduct Policy
 
@Members
 
Recent events within the league have made it clear that the VHL, both historically and currently, has been running far too much of a "Laissez faire" approach in regards to policing the use of insensitive slurs and other language. Not everyone in the league will obviously agree with how these events went down but the point remains that our approach has simply been too relaxed and things have gone too far without the administration necessarily realizing it. This is not simply in relation to the board, or the discord, or any members in particular but is a wide spread problem across multiple areas of the site and it's due time something is done about it.
 
Ultimately the VHL was founded in an interesting time for the internet, 2007. It was a different place back then, a rather toxic place if we are being honest. However it is not 2007 anymore. The kind of words we have seen weren't acceptable (but perhaps more tolerated) back then and they certainly aren't now. To give a few examples, though they should hardly be necessary, using words like gay or retarded as synonyms of stupid is ridiculous and long past its expiration point. This isn't about censoring your posts, being Social justice warriors, or arguing about meaning of words changing over time but rather about the league being inclusive to all its members and potential members.
 
With that in mind, moving forward, the league shall be more proactive in avoiding these types of slurs. Staff using them will be treated more severely for obviously reasons but from the top down we expect to see uses reduced and will be punishing those who do not wish to comply or clearly skirt the rules when looked at in context. Punishment will be determined by the blue team on a case by case basis but can include:
 
• Warnings
• Removal of job positions on the site
• Temporary or permanent suspensions from discord, the forum, or both
• PT Bans, both full and partial
 
Punishment will depend on how severe and how frequent the offences occur and will be made more severe for repeat offenders. It is not a matter of wanting to ban members for this sort of thing but we will if we have to. Quite frankly it's an easy thing to avoid and isn't something that should be a problem in 2019. We will be leaning on our mod team as well as the BOG and general member base to make sure that people who are using insensitive language towards others or groups; whether intentionally targeted or otherwise, are punished accordingly for it. In addition we will be subdividing the Discord better to hopefully spread discussion from general and make it easier to watch for things. In this vein we will also be doing a search at the end of the week of discord and the forums for key words and phrases to keep an eye on things.
 
In general things will fall under the guise of our already in place rules regarding Drama, Fighting, and trolling but with special attention paid to people making claims in general instead of specifically targeted. Our aim, as I said, is not to censor but to make the VHL a welcoming place for everyone.
 
Obviously this did all stem from an event as I alluded to and there are certain members who shall be receiving punishments for their involvement in that event. The league recognizes that, while these rules were not in place at the time, members were warned to not provoke any further action and to stand down. Instead of doing so several members took matters in their own hands and made an already complex situation far worse for themselves and for the league. For their part in all this the following members shall receive the following punishments:
 
@Josh: 1 week PT ban (as in max cap is 6/12)
@Banackock: 1 week Update ban
@DilIsPickle: 1 week Update ban
@Nykonax: 1 week Update ban
@jRuutu: 1 week PT ban (as in max cap is 6/12)
@Matt_O: 1 week PT ban (as in max cap is 6/12)
 
I know you guys likely won’t be happy about these but it’s what we deem fair given the situation that was either caused or exacerbated by your behaviour. It is our hope that these punishments are the only ones we require in the subject. Given that it’s Thursday and the cap has already likely been hit for you guys the punishments will be served next week.
 
It is our sincere hope that the VHL can move on past our old behaviour and into a brighter, more welcoming era. We hope you can all understand that this is not an attack on your rights as members but simply a policy to make sure that your right to speech does not infringe upon the rights over others to enjoy the league.
 
 
Re: SBA Affiliation
 
In addition to the above code of conduct the league would like to make a mention of the SBA affiliation which was recently dropped because of the above mentioned issues. The league has been in talks with the BoD of the SBA but is not making this code of conduct simply to appease them or to get back the affiliation. If things improve and those discussions do continue on the right path it may happen some day but that is not our main goal and is out of our hands.
 
However we do recognize that stopping SBA affiliation claims on our end, which was done while we sorted things out, is unnecessary and does negatively impact some of our players. For this reason, regardless of our affiliation coming back or not, and to alleviate the concerns of 90% of the population about how their dual membership of the VHL and SBA will be affected, we will continue recognizing SBA PTs as valid VHL PTs in line with previous affiliation agreements. Our updaters were told to put a hold on, not deny, any claims made while the affiliation welfare was down and they have also been instructed to approve back claimed ones for this past week if the PT week was missed by dual membership members.
 
Sincerely,
@Commissioner
@BOG

Review Part 4:
VSN talk - I remember the VHL magazine when Raymond Funk ran it. The amount of work and effort in those editions were astounding!  I think the amount of blame on the situation you can give to Shawn depends on how much he tried to do anything about it. Because like you said, at the end of the day the writers' "job" isn't an actual job haha I still don't understand how Rayzor has SUCH A LEAD in TPE on the rest of our Draft Class. I've hit the cap at minimum and donated every season... so how he's  OVER 100 TPE over what I am in 3 seasons.. is absolutely fucked.. and now he's not doing the work? That makes me mad. That awkward pause when @Enorama lost feed was hilarious. Getting rid of the VSN was I think the right move, and definitely not letting Bana take over was the right move. Good discussions, good rants. I had mine in here too haha   Nice episode Enorama & @Tagger  

In agreement with Jubis that the curremt system needs to be way clearer. The problem actually stems further than S69 rookies as some have stated though as I've had players from the S70 class try to claim some of the tasks that are only available to S69 and earlier players and would not surprised if that continued to be the case down the line with the way it's currently formatted. I think @R Jubis is correct in that the guidelines need more info, but I personally don't think there's anything wrong with laying the career point task forum out like this as well to make it 100% clear off the bat which ones each class can/can't do:
 

Just to save some time, the two things I talk about are:
 
That you can submit up to 2 items in the VHL.com section (Articles/Player Card/Radio). One thing I forgot to make clear was that you can't do two of the same (e.g. you can't do two VHL.com articles, but you can do a VHL.com Article and a player card in the same week)
 
Some of the features when you submit lines as a GM don't work in our sim. 
 
 

Talking about re-joining the league with Edwin Encarnacion and his VHLM experience, with a shoutout to @Smarch, my lone active teammate on the Wild in S34!
 

ISSUE WITH CAREER POINT TASKS
 
Ok so my issue is with the "Junior review" and "Prospect Scouting Report" career tasks. A month ago I read through the guidelines for the junior review. Completed it and tried to claim the task but it was rejected. I was told it was for s70 players and newer. I am a 1st gen s69 player. I was frustrated but figured I could save some of my work for my biography someday. 
 
Fastforward to this week and I am now fully addicted to earning TPE. I am always trying to find more ways to gain. So I decided to do the Prospect Scouting Report career task. I read the guidelines which stated: " to be completed during your VHL draft season or the season following that". I think great this fits my players timeline perfectly. Nowhere does it say the task is only for s70 players or newer. So of course again my claim is rejected. I put a lot of effort into it with each and every Pro and Con had a relatable picture attached. Luckily this time I was persuaded to use it for my media spot this week. I would like to do the Rookie Experience  task when the time comes but I am afraid the guidelines are unclear. It would somehow  end up being for s70 and newer players once again. 
 
I recommend as a solution just simply update the guidelines. Any career tasks that are just for S70 players or newer just say so in the guidelines. This would save the next schmuck like me from doing tasks they can not claim. 
 

Honored to be back in the GM game (for the time being), and with a team having such a rich history in the VHL.
GM's, feel free to contact me by PM or over on Discord.

I'm not here to rehash specifically what happened yesterday and the decision by the SBA to remove themselves from the affiliate program. That's been talked about enough already.
 
What I am going to talk about is the point brought up in the discussion yesterday regarding the overall language used in the league. Last night, I was arguing that yesterday was an isolated incident that doesn't reflect the overall community of the VHL. Searching through the site and going through Discord...I still believe that is the case, but it's not as isolated as I thought it was, and I'm ashamed of that. Using "gay", "retarded", and other similar language just isn't acceptable. I thought that got weeded out of the vocabulary of everyone over the age of like 14 back in 2011 or so, but apparently not.
 
This isn't about "safe spaces", "SJWs" or anything like that. It's really just...why? Why would you continue to use that language? There are so many other words you could use to communicate the same point that I have no clue why you would keep those words in phrases in your every day life.
 
I've always been proud of the fact that the VHL is very laissez-faire when it comes to official bans and punishments. A good public shaming of the individuals in question is usually enough. In general, I'm not a fan of "zero-tolerance, black and white" rules about language like this, but I'm having trouble seeing a future where we as a league aren't more strict on some of the language used by our members. This is especially true as we continue to advertise outside of the traditional sim leagues and through other mediums.
 
I'm at 150 words so I'm done for now...but I'm hoping some of you can change.

- Great to see @Beaviss ascend to the position of Commissioner. As his first VHLM GM in the league during an era where the VHL was noticeably struggling, I could tell that the VHL was getting a special member as he was extremely eager to learn and very keen to put himself forward for new jobs. It's funny to think back that I was concerned he might lose interest over the then abysmal updates that the VHLM used to have (He and several others did not get updated during their first month in the league) but he's only gone on to do greater things and I hope to see him do well in his new role. 
 
- The SBA situation that happened is an unfortunate one but I do hope that it is one that triggers a kick-start into becoming a better, more inclusive league. I don't think that the move to immediately go straight to cancelling our affiliation was the best course of action on their side (especially given that this had been made before any significant talks had been held between the leading parties on either side) but I don't believe the points they bring up about the response to language used on the forums and discord are invalid. 
 
- One thing that I'd be interested to see with any renegotiation with SBA is if my issues with the 12 TPE Affiliate Welfare that I bought up in my last podcast with Enorama will be addressed. One of my big complaints with the system in the first place was how there were so few people involved in the discussion of implementing it across the three leagues and that most, if not all, were set to benefit from said rule, so now they've had some feedback from someone not in the 12 TPE welfare club (And Bek agreed I had valid points in the thread of the podcast) whether they'll continue with that or reduce it to a more reasonable 9/10 TPE Affiliate Welfare.

- Great to see @Beaviss ascend to the position of Commissioner. As his first VHLM GM in the league during an era where the VHL was noticeably struggling, I could tell that the VHL was getting a special member as he was extremely eager to learn and very keen to put himself forward for new jobs. It's funny to think back that I was concerned he might lose interest over the then abysmal updates that the VHLM used to have (He and several others did not get updated during their first month in the league) but he's only gone on to do greater things and I hope to see him do well in his new role. 
 
- The SBA situation that happened is an unfortunate one but I do hope that it is one that triggers a kick-start into becoming a better, more inclusive league. I don't think that the move to immediately go straight to cancelling our affiliation was the best course of action on their side (especially given that this had been made before any significant talks had been held between the leading parties on either side) but I don't believe the points they bring up about the response to language used on the forums and discord are invalid. 
 
- One thing that I'd be interested to see with any renegotiation with SBA is if my issues with the 12 TPE Affiliate Welfare that I bought up in my last podcast with Enorama will be addressed. One of my big complaints with the system in the first place was how there were so few people involved in the discussion of implementing it across the three leagues and that most, if not all, were set to benefit from said rule, so now they've had some feedback from someone not in the 12 TPE welfare club (And Bek agreed I had valid points in the thread of the podcast) whether they'll continue with that or reduce it to a more reasonable 9/10 TPE Affiliate Welfare.

Hello  @Members
 
As some of you have likely noticed by now @Quik went on vacation and has simply fallen off the face of the earth, or at least the face of the VHL. In light of this the former blues and I have convened and decided that's likely time to add a new member to the Blue team to help lighten the load, especially going into the off-season. Quik will remain on board in the event of his return (at least for now) but in order to help keep the site running smoothly we would like to officially announce that @Beaviss is joining the blue team!
 
At the current moment Beav will continue to oversee the  @Recruitment Crew while he trains up a new head for it in addition to taking on his new commish role.

A couple weeks back I made a fairly simple post tracking giveaways and takeaways in the VHL (see here). I cherry picked some of the leaders in some categories I thought were interesting, but that didn't really tell the whole picture. So to start off this media spot, I thought I'd include a full individual leaderboard below. I've haven't been successful getting this html to embed in one of these forum posts so I've ended up just adding it as an attachment. Let me know if its broken for anyone, but it should be viewable in just about any browser.
 
takeaways-leaderboard.html
 
A couple of good points were brought up to me regarding that past article. The one that stuck with me the most is the whole "Why should we care?" aspect. Are giveaways and takeaways even worth tracking in the VHL? Do more takeaways make a better player? More giveaways a worse one? More importantly, how do they affect wins at a team level? To start answering this last question, let's just look at the team rankings below combined with their place in the standings.
 
Team GP W L OTL P Takeaways Giveaways Diff Malmo 72 46 20 6 98 9803 9541 262 Riga 72 46 22 4 96 9701 9679 22 Helsinki 72 45 22 5 95 9797 9851 -54 Seattle 72 43 24 5 91 10051 10036 15 HC Davos 72 40 22 10 90 9852 9732 120 Moscow 72 40 30 2 82 9701 9782 -81 Vancouver 72 35 28 9 79 10030 9974 56 Calgary 72 35 32 5 75 9658 9602 56 Toronto 72 29 29 14 72 9930 9930 0 New York 72 30 35 7 67 10048 10135 -87 Prague 72 23 40 9 55 10058 10083 -25 D.C. 72 20 49 3 43 9349 9633 -284 From looking at the above you can argue that some relationship probably does exist, but it's not clear how strong or how important that relationship is. The top and the bottom of the standings happen to be the best and the worst in turnover differential, but the middle is not as nice. So how should we look at his? One thing we could try is to compare the accuracy that turnover differential has on predicting wins to the accuracy of another, more common stat. It's widely believed that the team that shoots the puck more, scores more (and so wins more), so shot differential can serve as a nice comparison stat. In S68, the team that won the shots differential won the game 66.1% of the time. I wanted to compare this same metric to teams that won the turnover differential. Turns out that teams that won the turnover differential won only 52.1% of the games. At first glance, this feels low but the more you think about, the more it makes sense. Keep in mind that the more a team possesses a puck, the more chances for giveaways (and less chances for takeaways) they have. Considering the extreme case where one team possesses the puck for close to the entireity of the game, said team would almost certainly win but also lose the turnover battle. So a better metric would measure "takeaways per some unit of possession allowed". The closest metric measuring puck possession that I can use is shots. With this new metric of "takeaways per shot allowed", we get that teams winning this differential end up winning the game 65.5% of the time.
 
One thing lost in both these stats is how badly a team won/lost the turnover differential. A single more takeaway than giveaway might not sway a game much, but 20 more might. This is represented in the data above; when looking at all the games where the team won the turnover battle (as defined by my new stat) but still ended up losing the game, we find that the average turnover difference is 20% smaller than normal. This supports the notion that games that are closer in turnover differential, often end up going either way in terms of the final result. One good way to actually model this would be with a linear logistic regression which would try to model how the magnitude of turnover difference affects the probability of winning. I might end up doing this another week, but for now I'm out of words to write.
 
608 words

Review Part 2 of Part 2 & Part 3:
Hell, I'm on a roll, let's keep doing this @Tagger & @Enorama 550 more shots than us? It'd be interesting to see what the scoring differences is between the two teams - that's probably more indicative of that difference. Actually, our passing isn't really that high - minus RSJ, who we acquired in the off-season too, but we did adjust our updates to become more passing oriented to accommodate Thompson! Get all the awards, Tagger. I'll root for you. No one like Moscow, so that's for the best, right @Victor ?   TBH we need to get away from conferences and just have a league table - top 8 make the playoffs, the rest aren't. Have every team play all teams an equal amount of times.  Thompson's shooting percentage was awesome this season. The Paulo trade was the most interesting we've seen this season.  Altonnen had a great year. Wow. I didn't even notice. Smitty Jagerbomb PS - I'm muting the Liverpool game and watching it while listening to this, haha Yeah some amazing Point Tasks have been done here!  I Definitely picked a couple of DC players on my VFHL because I knew that they'd have good stat lines #NotBraggingJustCongratulating #DefinitelyBragging Yea we are very far into the future in the VHL.  Davison had a phenomenal year - but I think Thompson's offensive obliteration, plus his hits, has it in the back.  Funk's only got two seasons but he's the goalie of the future for sure. But Keep an eye on Eagles (@Greg_Di). He's going to turn some heads. Over an hour and loving it!!  Looking forward to hearing Part 4 & 5. I'll write to IMDB and see if we can get you in there.