Spartan

Hello all! In case you haven't seen it yet, I will be writing an article covering contract money/the salary cap in the VHL, as well as any overarching pain points the community has identified with anything contract-money related. If you haven't already already filled it out but would like to, take a few minutes to do so here. In the meantime, I have 25 responses from a wide array of members on the site, including VHL GM's, VHLE GM's, VHLM GM's, BOG members, AGM's, and regular veteran members along with new first gens with no league experience. I'm actually quite pleased about the breadth of diverse experience levels the survey was able to reach. Below are the graphs of responses of of the major questions I asked, which will be providing a bit of an insight as to what my article(s) will cover, and to what extent and depth. This question received the most overwhelming "I understand everything about this" responses out of the five questions I posed. 20 out of 25 people feel confident in their ability to understand the individual items in the store, what each one did, and how to claim things from it. I generally agree with this sentiment as well, that the options are clearly presented and are easy to purchase and evaluate for what they offer. Prominent questions/comments: - Why it has never been updated in a while? - Do you receive your contract money for the next season before the last date for dep. fighters for the previous season? - Why doesn’t my balance show my true balance? Another question generally up there in user familiarity, but a bit more shaky for sure. Only 15 out of 25 are in the "confident" bracket (7-10 range), but with the average centered closer to around 8, there is still uncertainty from just about every user spare about 4, in their ability to properly manage regression. Some of this extends out to Jagr's vs % fighters, how to balance purchasing the non-regression related store purchases, and how to identify what plan is the best for each specific user. Prominent questions/comments: - When is the right time to buy non-regression purchases? Is it ok to bite the full 3% in your first regression? - It would be fantastic if someone were to make a dep. fighter guide - If I’m not a top earner, which depreciation fighters are the best for me? - Will there (or should there) be an added depreciation fighter option now that there's potential for some to depreciate 4 times? (Spoiler alert - NO!) This is one of the weirdest set of responses that I got, like a quasi-inverted normal distribution curve? Focused primarily on the extreme ends than in the center, which makes sense. You either know the salary brackets - what TPA+Banked amount makes what amount of money - or you don't. If someone isn't familiar with the rulebook in terms of contracts, obviously they wouldn't be familiar with structures or brackets. It is a lot of information, and an area that new VHL GM's have struggled with at first, myself included. Prominent questions/comments: - Does the original amount of money a player is signed for matter at all if said player is going to change salary brackets? - Why (are contract amounts/bracket tier amounts) so low? - I still don't fully understand when your TPE kicks in for any given season. The way I understand it is your contract scales based off of what your TPA is. And during the latter half of your career its even more because that is your "prime". I just don't understand how that works in relation to a season-by-season basis and the cap. I'll admit I started running out of money related questions to ask that the general community should know about, so I sort of went a bit niche and the responses reflect that. Stuff like bonuses, options, backup goalie cap deductions are mainly tools and options that really only VHL GM's have to deal with. Players only experience options if they have to opt into something, but not much else about it. Prominent questions/comments: - I get bonuses and options but wtf about everything else? - The VHLE stuff doesn’t make any sense. VHLE rule book says all VHLE contracts are $1.5 M but I see VHLE guys on $3M, so I’m guessing that’s just for players who are VHLE only (no VHL team has their rights)? Also looks like the VHL rule book hasn’t been updated to include the VHLE as there is zero mention of it. - It's all way over my head Another question I bullied folks with lol. Everyone VHL GM's favorite topic, mid-season trades that involve cap reductions/faux-retention, along with releasing players under contract and dealing with the future cap hit/penalty. A pretty niche topic, but I think it's cool and any future VHL GM will have to know how this area with partial cap-hits works. Prominent questions/comments: - Just like how does that work? - Don't even think of trading me Spartan. ( ) - Yeah no clue here, do players get % of their salary as a cap hit for % that’s remaining? - Huh? This exists? - Should midseason releases involve more cap retention? I shouldn't be able to cut someone at the deadline for the same amount as I'd keep in the preseason.

happy birthday to a fellow december baby

pizza pizza

hm, why are the capped averages still messed up despite being well into the update week? I'm definitely not at 11.25, where is that stemming from?

say it publicly weenie

don't say anything mean don't say anything mean don't say anything mean don't say anything mean

better see a fat dump into LD

yo I saw this title and panicked so hard lmfao

I just read what I wrote and question if I'd say it to my mom's face

As a first gen, I joined right before the S71 VHLM Draft and was drafted to Vegas. I spent the full season there, and then was drafted to Moscow in the S72 draft. I stayed down in the VHLM in S72 because I had not hit 250 TPE, which is what you're saying. However, as a TDL recreate, I went from 80 TPE at the S79 TDL to 206 TPE at the S80 VHLE draft. But my draft class is S81. So I realistically would have only spent 1 season in the VHLM and then gone to the VHL with Nico Pearce under the old system as well. First gens are just impacted more severely because you join randomly, and it is often not at the optimal creation point. Simply a lack of luck. Guaranteed vs potential TPE. If you go to the E, you will certainly lose out on 8-9 uncapped TPE that you would have gotten in the VHLM. Also you can do all three fantasy zones while in the VHLM as well, which is why if I had gone up and Hylands had stayed down, he surely would have passed me in TPE. When everyone in all three leagues can do all opportunities, the person who skips the M loses out more than someone who skips the E.

1. Which is fine, but also not a pre-existing issue that you had mentioned. I just wanted to know what pre-existing M issues are getting blamed on the VHLE. Perhaps this was a misstatement which is fine, I just hadn't heard of any arguments that met this criteria and was curious to learn more about it. 2. Some types of inactivity is unavoidable yes, like life catching up to people, or folks naturally losing interest. We do need to address when a league has higher inactivity rates than others, and I think there are others who have done research on it that will present it when the time is appropriate. Not going to step on toes, but I agree that the inactivity rates in the VHLE are a little concerning - that we're not putting an appropriate level of focus on retention and engagement on the VHLE that it deserves. 3/5. Not going to argue semantics, that's just how I saw the statements come off as, and I know it comes out of passion. Nothing wrong with it, but there are times when a dissenting opinion just merits a response of "ok cool," instead of a "this isn't a valid opinion." Again, just a point of caution. 4. It is not a misrepresentation of the situation, and I didn't say you disagreed with the revised CoC. I was referring to others asking for more transparency as to how the revised/updated/revamped policies are enforced, and more information on what is considered off limits so that the community can be more informed as to where lines are drawn. There's a difference between "Spartan is banned for cheating" and "Spartan is banned for deleting updates off of other players 3 months after the updates we approved." One is inherently more informative than the other, specifically only addresses the offending party, and does not provide any information about anyone potentially impacted by the offender's actions. That's what people were asking for. Not the juicy details of any and every situation.

https://forms.gle/SDBpAap3kJqfPnh46 fill it out

*cracks knuckles* I've already commented on a decent amount of points that have come up in this thread, and I'm generally ignoring the stupid quabbling that happened in here. Some other points that I saw and went "oooh this could be fun to respond to" are what I cover below. I tried to group them up when applicable but probably failed a bit because I multi-quoted 8 posts and tried to group them into a single quote.....this'll go well eh? Edit before posting: I've royally fucked up quotes so here are tags for everyone whose words I yoinked. @Horcrux @fromtheinside @a_Ferk @Moon @Beketov @Daniel Janser Out of curiosity, what pre-existing issues are you referring to that are getting applied specifically to the VHLE? The main arguments against the E that I've seen is lower PF that is significant to a max earner, an extra season en route to the VHL, and a higher IA % than any other league. I'm a clear proponent of the E and have expressed skepticism of the anti-E sentiment as well, but I don't get this "blaming for pre-VHLE issues" argument against the people who don't like the E. Yeah this is an odd gray area here, where I think that people are allowed to have opinions without needing to explain them - except if they're a decision maker and need to back up an action. I also think that an opinion of "this adds an extra season between me and the VHL" isn't something you can demand evidence for. It's literally just an "I don't like this" and that is perfectly valid for someone to say. Ferk's comment here about inactive players is an opinion that also provides some statistic. Whether it's 100% accurate or not, I don't know, but I have seen inactivity numbers in the VHLE and they are more significant in number than in the VHLM or VHL. Just an overall word of caution that just because you don't necessarily agree with an opinion doesn't mean you get to invalidate it if it isn't presented to your standards, especially when you're asking for discussion and opinions. More of an aside, but I just found this funny. When change occurs, people ask tough questions. It seems those tough questions aren't welcome though. Only the "tough" questions asked that lead to change you're in favor with seem to be acceptable. I've seen you try to shut down a lot of CoC questions in the past simply because you didn't like the questions being asked, or that you didn't agree with where they were coming from. Change is a two-sided coin, there will be proponents and dissonance to any change. People not liking specific changes does not mean the league as a whole does not "handle change well," it just means that people have opinions and that's perfectly natural. I don't know why you needed this odd jab in a post that otherwise was in good taste and presented with good intentions. I actually didn't know BOG "needed/is strongly suggested" to publicly support league initiatives, but I guess that's pretty cool to see. I do think that dissonance should also be presented, but in a constructive manner instead of just ripping shit apart for the sake of it. Cool little insight here Scotty. But also yeah, of all the people you'd expect to support the E, it'd be: Admin - approved the E's existence Mod - literally just keeping the peace in the community, not going to tear apart a controversial topic and add fuel BOG - overall also approved the E's existence VHL GM - generally have benefited from the E existing since 250-400 players no longer clutter up rosters if the GM's don't want them there VHLE GM - this is their job! The only job group you mentioned I'd expect to gripe about it (and seemingly, they have) is the VHLM GM since the E has handcuffed their competitive inclinations , dropped the TPA of players available to them, and cycled their rosters faster than before. General members are a coin flip, veterans already didn't like being in the M because they only care about the VHL. First-gens will hold whatever opinion they're told to hold before they take the time to do their own research. Something something biased post something something not random sampling something something. Writing off people who care about their earning is definitely not the proper look. 1 tpe per week over the course of the entire season adds up. It's more than a doubles week, and you don't even lose any contract money for it. Granted, I won't say that the VHLE "sucks" because PF drops from 2 to 1. If that's your logic, you're not going to like the VHL either . But to Bek's counterargument, I will also counter-argue. If I'm going to drop down to 1 TPE in my first post-draft season regardless of if I'm in the VHLE or the VHL, and if I have the choice to play in either the E or the VHL, I 100% will be choosing to play 9 VHL seasons. Though I would also fully support dropping PF in the M to 1 TPE again since we have lower caps now anyways, and as you said, there's an extra season on everyone's career that would make up the lost 1 TPE. As a max earner, I would just hate to lose out on 8-9 uncapped TPE while others in my draft class who didn't earn as well from recreation-next season benefit from it. It's like a punishment for earning too well.

Been seeing Davos in the rear view mirror, getting a bit too close for comfort. Whatever you're doing is working, it's nice to see after a long stint of unsuccessful seasons. Cheers bud.

I mean everyone would love to be a top pick. At a level every person cares about their draft pedigree as well. When you roleplay hockey, anyone can be a first overall pick right? But the first two HOF inductees from the S72 draft class were second round picks. I had a player be named MVP after being picked 11th overall. As you said, it doesn't matter where you get picked in the grand scheme of things, it's just a stress point before it happens. People will get drafted for more than their build. Do not worry, as long as you aren't intentionally memeing your build away, you will have a respectable career. I get the cause for concern, but hopefully this has assuaged it a bit.

No, that'd set up the potential for a lot of shady shit lol

Byron?!

brother this article was from July lol

Why are we firing GM's when it is the responsibility of staff and the BOG to come up with rules to address league issues? Our current structure and 81 seasons of using STHS have brought us to this point. GM's are simply using the tools at their disposal to build their teams in accordance with the rules. We never had a team openly embrace the meta to the extent that occurred in S80, but the meta was known and folks catered to it. As someone said, you can find many examples since S70 of teams pursuing a meta inclined team comp. The issue has only flared because of what happened last season. At that point, it's no longer on us as GM's to be upholding an unwritten rule, it's on the people who influence and make rules to find a solution. Also every single active player has been drafted and rostered. There is 0 instance of anything different occurring. There are no active FA's left in any league, every active prospect will get drafted. I don't know where this fear of not getting drafted is coming from, but it's completely unbased and is simply not true. A vocal anti-meta player went 2oa and got traded for another first round pick plus more. There are plenty of teams who roster non-meta players, and who will select them in the draft because as you said, players at high tpe *should* end up playing to that skill level. Do they? Not always, but that's more a byproduct of bad sim luck than getting neglected by a GM.

Yeah I was about to say that you should probably read how salary works once you get to the VHL. It's in the VHL rulebook, section 2 I believe. That should help you get a proper idea of how you would get money in this league once you go pro. It's not dependent on performance in the sim, but rather on how much TPA+Banked you have.

To an extent. You can try and project your career earnings to see how much you'd make. Take out the regression fighters you'd buy, the remaining can go to doubles weeks or other stuff. It's a very individual dependent question and relies heavily on the type of earner you are and the build you plan to maintain through your prime.

No timestamps for this one, it was pretty fluid in regards to topics. I didn't even bother relistening for any issues so.....you're getting this completely raw. Good luck!

fantastic song, great choice

Congrats on the one year bud. Had a blast playing minecraft with you! Hope we can do it again soon