Spartan

I traveled for business stuff a bit the past couple days, for about 3.5-4.5 hours each way. Naturally I found myself with a lot of time to listen to music during that time, so I got to listen to a bunch of songs and albums, and added a few to my playlists. The one that really stood out and ended up on repeat for a bit though was Slaughterhouse by Motionless in White. They've dropped a few solid songs recently since I think they have an album coming out soon:tm: but it's a solid song. Check it out if you like metalcore. For actual VHL stuff, it seems like Moscow continued to do fine during my brief absence. They picked up points in every game while Riga seems to have caught up in games played, but still sits 8 points behind first place in the EU. We're in the final stretch now, and this week will have the point where Moscow can clinch home ice through the EU, and potentially home ice through the playoffs depending on how well they finish out the season along with how Seattle does in the NA. Will be an interesting week to follow to see how all the seeding plays out. Helsinki is right on the heels of Prague for the final wild card spot, having caught up in games played and just short by 2 points. I am very hopeful that Helsinki can complete the season comeback and creep into the playoffs, as we've really surged since after the dismal first third of the season. If we took out the initial week of the season, Helsinki would definitely be a playoff team now. Lastly, just thought it was interesting that very, very few Moscow players lead individual stats. It's a testament to the depth on this team, that everyone from top to bottom is putting up a contribution to the team to the extent that no one or two players have to go above and beyond to carry the team. While I'm sure Duncan Idaho would love to be front and center when it comes to award votes, as a GM, I am just happy to see a deep team on the ice and not have to worry too much about a top scorer going cold. When everyone pitches in, it's a good indication for success, and it's been the recipe followed this season.

Welcome to the VHL!

Get good.

Sorry, we already have the original.

Good job @jRuutu, you brought a bro back!

How can we expect this goalie to make saves when his eyes don't work, smh.

Quote this post and say "Prague sucks" and we'll send you 3 mil under the table

Join Moscow

Hey that's the name I suggested!!!

Idaho #1

1. I think we've found our game offensively, and Boobs has really held the fort in net. We're just playing well together and it shows on the ice. 2. I think so, we're going to show up to every game with the intention of winning and making it to the playoffs. 3. I don't really worry about that stuff, if we know that we have to be fifth or better in a conference of eight, we need to make sure we get there. Our fate is in our own hands, not the league being "fair." 4. I'm just focusing on the playoff push here, that's the biggest motivator and hype generator as well. This season means nothing without the playoffs. Plus it's a contract year so my performance is under the microscope. 5. Fuck that, Pens lost so I'm done watching. I don't care about it anymore. 6. A sandwich I absolutely adore is called the Dean Martin, with breaded chicken cutlets, fresh arugula and mozzarella with salt and pepper and an amazing pesto mayo sauce.

As someone with some strong opinions on this topic, I'll chime in. Here are reasons why I think the payout amounts are issues: 1. They're not proportionately reflective of time spent on the task. As other have pointed out, the other uncapped opportunities take up much more time, whether that's drafting for VHFL, writing a HOF article, or even researching trivia questions to submit for the question bank. Fantasy Zone has taken the amount some users used to get in a full season from the game, and now pays it out weekly. 2. Success rate is astronomically high. Uncapped TPE isn't supposed to be something you expect to receive every week, but it seems to be the case now. I can whip out the numbers if anyone wants to contest it, but Lose said about a week ago that 3 out of like 80+ didn't get TPE in a week. 3. In my opinion, I don't think bonus Fantasy Zone TPE is really necessary in the hybrid attribute system we have now. We added a 9th season on and regression got lighter, those two factors alone give users a full extra season of earning and then also lightens the TPE hit on regression. Combine that with the expectation of weekly uncapped TPE, and I think this has turned into an unrealistic expectation of what uncapped TPE is -> going from "wow I got TPE" to "wow, I didn't get ENOUGH TPE." This feels like we still want to be speedrushing our builds to hit peak during our ELC's and then bank/spend excess TPE on luxury attribute increases.

For the first time since S76, the last season Moscow was run by Victor, the Menace are in pole position for the Victory Cup - awarded to the team with the most regular season points. During my time on the Menace as a player, the team won two Victory Cups, which was a slight consolation prize to not winning the Continental Cup at the time. It'd be the first Victory Cup win for Moscow under my tenure if this performance continues, but credit has to go to a bunch of underrated folks who deserve some shoutouts: 1. Jan Hlozek - @Bojovnik 17G | 44A | 61P | +33 | 76 Hits | 89 SB | 4 GWG Hollywood Hlozek as he used to be called during his run-up to the S77 VHL Draft has really turned on the jets this season, already on track for a career season at a 1.3 PPG pace. Hlozek came to Moscow in a FA rights trade from LA before FA opened, as Moscow wanted to take a flier on a veteran defender who had just come off three seasons in a row of 72 points or higher. With the changes to the meta and attributes, I didn't expect Hlozek to explode as he has this season, but he's 2nd on Moscow in points and 5th in the entire league in defenseman scoring. 2. Sergey Preobrazhensky - @Bulduray_1 24G | 36A | 60P | +40 | 15 Hits | 15 SB | 8 GWG Sergey has taken a massive step forward as a sophomore, completely avoiding the expected sophomore slump that many players experience. Instead in more than 25 fewer games, Sergey has already exceeded his point total from his rookie season, and has career highs in both goals and assists. Moving from wing to center hasn't impeded him at all, and he's really embraced his role as a second line center. I've always liked to run two solid centers, and Sergey has really stepped up as a leader on the second unit alongside Henri le Massif and Kyosti Karjalainen, a fellow sophomore. An anchor on the second line, it clearly won't be long until he makes the jump to first line center, or even better - anchor for the entire team! 3. Leroy Johnson - @Vkobe-v 7 starts | 7 wins | 0 losses | 0.925 SV% | 1.91 GAA Many times when teams play their backup goalies, they figure they'll drop a couple games simply because most backup goalies are bots. Leroy is the reason why teams should really carry a human backup goalie, as he already has 7 wins this season and has a career record of 22-4-0 thus far with a 0.920 SV% and a 2.65 GAA. It is difficult to maintain an active user backup goalie, as you'd expect them to become too expensive to carry, or that they'd need to become a starter. Kobe has been the most selfless player on Moscow since I became the GM, as he's declined opportunities to start for other teams and cut off his earning at 400 TPE to ensure that he'd fall under the $2 million backup goalie cap hit removal rule. Thank you for everything Kobe, and we're very fortunate to have you .

source: just trust me bro

1. It's been a bit underwhelming for sure, but there have been flashes of improvement throughout. Just need to get more consistent. 2. It was mother's day on Sunday, so just spent time with my mom and went out for lunch. Just a nice quiet weekend. 3. I would probably like to go to London tbh, I last went when I was really young, but I'd like to go again and remember it this time. 4. I'm appreciative of the Europe players for sure, and rooted for Booberry of course. We root against those players and teams for the rest of the season, I think we can spare some appreciation and support for them for one day in a season that's for fun. 5. I think it's down to Moscow and Riga, I think both teams have handled the top NA teams as well as the others in their conferences. Moscow is down in the series split to Riga, but if Moscow can play disciplined, I think they take a series against Riga for sure. 6. I will just be happy to be the grill master for summer barbecues again!

Do centers or left wings next!

I feel you here man, there have been times where I feel like we've gone in circles or points are just tossed into the void. I've had plenty of days where I've wondered if my time and effort was worth it, especially when considering responses to things I said or how topics were engaged with. I feel like rolling out the meta fix was a big reason for this though, plus add on that most existing BoG members (not me) also had to implement the E. It's some large changes that def contributed to burnout or generally exhaustion with the BoG, especially if someone's ideas weren't given the time or thought they deserved. I don't know how we recover from that, but maybe baby steps are what we need to take. Maybe some lower priority issue that doesn't need massive portal changes, or maybe even something tasked to us by commissioners. It'd be nice to feel like we're being leveraged for our experience and viewpoints instead of just being a think tank with no guarantees of being listened to. I think @Beketov is pretty aware of that and I think we'll see some steps in the right direction this week and next.

Feel like Moscow is a p nice defense location with an IA and a couple retirees coming over the next couple seasons, would line up with AK decently. We have a couple prospects, but will still need a real 1D and still unsure if one will prove themselves to the level of Markinson or Moreau. But yeah the picks will be low so let's see.

P sure you can still wrangle up an old MS for last week if you have one pending, just lmk and we can work it out. If not, all good!

claim 2

Glad you're hanging in there, we should game together sometime. New season of Apex on Tuesday, think it's be a great time to get some VHL Apex parties going!

Mom look, I made a Ben verse

Moose was Kevin King, that's who we had on the podcast a couple times. Original podcasts are on Soundcloud, but then we ran out of upload space so we switched to spotify. MOOSE_ was wrong tag, player is Matti Takala, IA Moscow prospect. Eynhallow was Isau Damoose, so also someone completely different. Cowboy was actually Prout, whose player was Cowboy Prout. Viper/Hatter are pretty clear, Matt Sovick was a former LVA goalie and hopped on a podcast to get some TPE and do a task.

bruh this was really just listing off random members and tagging them....i'm taking my react back