Spartan

rip

mood

oh good I can blame the two losses today on your jinx

iOS sure

@Domino is DQ'd. Half the roster (Grachev, Socks, Camus) were retired players. Final pick was never made despite being given plenty of time.

@Vkobe-v pick a new defenseman, Keef is retired

you can't read either though, might as well just listen

No intro, minus 1 TPE - you set the bar too high for yourself. Generic intro is fine if you get the vibe right. Music is fine, your last intro/outro was like a full minute of music and didn't fit with your vibe at all. The last one I listened to at least. @dasboot's recorded intros with his guitar was perfect. Learn from him. Imagine being prepared for a podcast. Imagine saying the VHLM is your favorite when you're more active in Moscow than your own locker room smh. This YouTube ad has probably been one of the larger influxes of members, but we can look back and see that retention rates are quite low. More volume = more people retained, but the % is still low I think. You started talking about Mississauga and I stopped listening, will comment again once it's done. I do enjoy hearing about shit stomps though. I can't believe you would throw your own backup under the bus in a loss. What a horrendous thing to say! How are you going to start this podcast by talking about the recruitment boost and then say you have no depth. Train up your newbies smh. Waiver warriors win championships. Don't fucking trade your picks in this next draft, stock up. There were so many post-draft creates, you're going to want those picks because the draft will likely be deep. First rule of advisory council is that you don't talk about advisory council you bum. As soon as I complained about our PK and PP, we went 4/8 on the PP against Prague and then 6/6 on the PK lol. Simon hears all. I also am not really adjusting things, I just gripe about things beyond our control. I haven't changed lines once, all I've done is rotated in Kobe for a backup start. Why did we start talking about Moscow and then go back to the VHLM, this is such a letdown. I thought the content was getting good Cole Pearce 1oa woo woo! Higher draft pedigree than Nico Pearce, damn buddy. LMFAO you suck, letting the backup beat you. Goalie builds are quite annoying, there's a core 4 to follow just as there is for skaters, but within that, there's an SC/DF equivalent. I think it's rebounds and style control? I'd go look at Rara's build when he was in the VHLM as the guide to follow, it's what I ended up giving to my goalies in the VHLM since I've never been a goalie. God damn you're already trying to get traded off the team????????? I think the Pearce's are just both pretentious asshats at this point, then there's Calix who no one knows. Like Peyton and Eli, then there's Archie. Did you just.....crap yourself? I'm concerned. Though I get wanting to go to competing teams and making your season seem worth it, although I found it hypocritical for myself to say the VHLM is for development/growth/community building while also wanting to win. Interesting fence to balance on. I hear VHLE, I sleep. I heard Sam, I think you blamed the sims, or lack of sims, on her. Seems right. I hear Moscow, I awake. Captain curse is painful man. Only Newhook survived the full season, but he ended up retiring after that season. The order since I became GM was Palloon, traded midseason to Prague. Newhook, retired after the season. You, traded the next offseason. Phil Stein, traded the next offseason/option not picked up. Out of all the losses, I found the Stein one the most difficult one to execute, and it makes me more disappointed to know that he doesn't want to be active currently due to life stuff. Hoping for the best from him, he'll come back eventually. Chatted with him a couple days ago. Oi I'm not a bad fucking gambler, I've never been in the red for my balances. I'm at a positive return on investment from my first $20 that I ever spent on betting smh. Moscow meta was basically intended, fight fire with fire, although we definitely aren't at the level VAN was last season. Moreau has 95 PA, Idaho has 80 PA, Seabass has like 70 as well. Granted Atreides has 50 PA, Pearce, Glass, Strong all have 40. You're not going to get any lashback from me, because I don't like it but I'll do what I need to do to win games as long as it's following the rules, and as long as the folks on the team are having a good time. Winning usually = good time. I will be very happy if/when rules to combat meta builds go into effect, but for now if it helps us win then we'll roll with it. I think the people on the team are talented enough on their own merits to win games, it's a good roster on paper even if the builds weren't necessarily meta. Gus' article will be interesting, I responded as well. I doubt it'll be a very controversial article since Gus isn't one to make emotional/passionate posts, and when handling other people's responses, you sort of have to treat them as data points to make a very neutral, "facts only" article. It's one people will read and go "hm ok, those are the opinions, the common ones, very neutrally presented." It'll be a good reference for folks with more opinionated perspectives to build their own points off of if Gus' articles fits their narrative. Max earning speedrunning is nice and all until someone gets their claim denied for a lack of effort. Hogan fucked up and posted all his claims into the wrong week, which I then had to fix. It also seems easiest for a graphics person to get it done. I'd record the video of you writing a media spot in 5 minutes, that's 6, a pc for 2 and 1 review, then the video is 3 TPE since it's a vhl.com article. Could have it all done in like 7 minutes if you're a fast typer. Godspeed. Do you get turned on by people drinking beer? This is concerning. SBA content I will be deducting time spoken about the SBA from this podcast /s. I can't believe you fucked up player creation twice. Wooo Laine is not leaving we love Laine! M GM drama? I didn't listen to the last one, idk what you said. But it seems to be p common for an M GM to think someone else fleeces folks, don't think it should be taken personally. More of a "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me." I do think targeting new GM's to trade with is a bit shady, but it is what it is. At least wait a few days before sharking the new folks, that goes to a lot of you.

1. I think a lot of credit goes to our leadership team on the ice. Idaho, Marky, Seabass all serve as fantastic role models and leaders, and they've got everyone playing well and responsibly. 2. Playing alongside Idaho, it's hard to not say him, but Paul's also been quietly fantastic. Most of the spotlight goes on Idaho, but Paul leads the league in FO% and is right up there with Idaho in points, just 4 shy. 3. We see him in practice and the vets tell me he was just as good last season. Obviously the organization brought in championship pedigree Rara Rasputin in net last season, but I think anyone would have been fine with Papa in net as well. He's certainly showing off his 1st overall reputation now, and I think he can keep it up. 4. I'd love to see the Menace rock a jersey like the mid-late 70's Penguins jerseys, aka their current jerseys. Maybe even an inverted gold jersey like the Pens did for their most recent stadium series. 5. It's a pretty tight race behind us, just 5 points splitting 2nd and 7th place. Malmo seems to be Moscow's biggest competition recently, but Prague also looks pretty dangerous. That being said, it was nice to drop 6 and 7 goals on them, respectively. 6. It's all been a blur for me, the offseason felt rough honestly. Lot of spotlights and pressure there, but it's been nice to be here in Moscow and just play some games. It's a lot more relaxed here and there's an expectation of winning which we've been meeting so far. Just enjoying this first season and trying to get more pucks into the net. Thanks Steez

LAINE PULLS LET'S GOOOOOOO

that's fuckin everyone who's said a word into a live mic smh

Claim 2/4

I had thought of this idea quite a bit ago, and kept forgetting to write about it since it needs to be done on a Sunday. However, I have finally remembered, and finally get to do it! Overall, and especially increased due to the changes to affiliation claiming, I've felt that written content on the forums has reduced significantly. There's a few reasons for that, and a big one is that a lot of people have hopped on the podcast wagon, and the other one that I anticipate in the future will be the affiliate vhl.com replacement changes. Therefore, I wanted to make a VHL.com series that highlights written content that I enjoyed over the past update week. It's definitely subjective, and I may have missed content other people really like, but I felt it'd be a nice thing to do for the folks who write content for me to read when I'm procrastinating at work. Bo Johansson, The Late Bloomer - @Shindigs This was was a more recent one, but I always enjoy when folks combine some written task with a graphical medium like Shindigs did here. As an Updater, I get annoyed sometimes with content like this since it's impossible to copy/paste into a word counter, but this one was relatively obviously over word count, and it gave me a good chuckle as I read through the "Player Trivia" sidebar. A Tale of Two Cups - @animal74 At this point, I think Animal is the absolute best VHL history-related writer in the league. He does fantastic work with VSN covering the all-decade teams, as well as plenty of other history-related pieces, but this one was especially cool to read as it quite literally described the connection between two users and their players across a decade of life. Lospenov to Houston, but for How Long? - @Gretzky didnt lift da puck I've always been enamored by Gretz's work, especially due to the dedication he puts into building out his players' characters. With one of his old players, I think he even had a player AND agent twitter account to "feud" with then San Diego GM Thad. While other articles may be better formatted and written, I really liked this piece because of the story that keeps getting told in quite the extravagant and unfiltered manner. Rough Start for Promising Rookie - @Scurvy A first-gen jumping out of the gates and writing a media spot in his first week always impresses me. There were quite a few that were written over this past week since the recruitment boom, but I always enjoy player/team centric pieces with a focus on learning the ropes in our league. It's always exciting to get fresh blood in the league, especially when they start out with good content like this! My First Award and Why I Don't Necessarily Agree With the Reasoning - @GustavMattias I can't write a piece appreciating written work and not include anything by Gus in it. His work is my favorite to read on the forums, and often provides some thought-provoking discussion, or some super rational point that never ruffles feathers because he does it in such a good way. For anyone new, or anyone unfamiliar with awards voting rationale, this could be a decent piece to read about what defines "VHL MVP" I'd keep going and hyping up more content, but I'm well over 200 words - bye!

kinda wish you kept it going lol

Lofty Expectations' Best Friend is Pressure Pressure. Say that word a few times over and over again, and it soon ceases to feel like a real word. It's a feeling, however, that doesn't ever seem to go away for Nico Pearce. Widely heralded as the top prospect in the S81 VHL Draft, the pressure and the spotlight was always on Pearce to perform to his pre-draft ranking. After his stint on the Minnesota Storm, critics were quick to point out that he wasn't even the top point scorer on his team, with Barry Bonds Jr., Nils Godlander, Nezuko and James Glove Dropper all recorded more points in S80. During one late season press conference with teammate Nezuko, reporters asked the Japanese winger how he felt about his scoring. "I'm outperforming 1st overall Pearce. EAT MY SHORTS" A lighthearted jab at his teammate who chuckled along with it, but the draft night showed that some teams had an eye on the duo's production with Nezuko going 1st overall, and Pearce sliding to 10th overall. Reports from around the league stated that Pearce seemed shaky and unconfident in himself during predraft interviews, preferring not to be the keystone piece of a team, but to be a key supporting member on teams with playoff aspirations. "You know, I've never seen a prospect with that little self-confidence in my time as a VHL scout. He was completely unwilling to be someone a team could build around, and it just seemed like he wasn't ready for the expectations of a first round pick in the VHL. While he was the unanimous top prospect coming out of college, and had an impressive season in the VHLM, he lost some of his confidence somewhere along the way and just seems to be totally averse to being in the spotlight. Most prospects build up their brand, grow their presence online, go viral somehow. No one's heard from Pearce at all. He doesn't post on social media, no one reports on him, no one knows what he does. It's like he just shows up to games and then goes home." - Excerpt from a VHL Scout Despite the harsh criticism, Moscow seemed to feel confident enough in selecting Pearce, seemingly to fill their hole at winger in their top 6. It's an ideal destination for the 21 year old, with superstar winger Duncan Idaho, fresh off an MVP win, to mentor the young forward. Veterans Lexi Glass and Brian Strong Jr. are also quality wingers to learn alongside and Paul Atreides and The Seabasstard are quickly becoming household names. If there's a place for Nico Pearce to find his game, it'll be in the bitter cold of Moscow, Russia - where there's no choice but to play hockey and hope you don't turn to the vodka. Through 9 games, Pearce has been tossed on the first line to play alongside Atreides and Idaho, as the team seems to love playing Strong and Glass together due to their chemistry. With only 4 points so far, it's fair to question how long of a leash GM Euron Leonidas has given the rookie, and at what point Pearce's minutes will get reduced if he doesn't start to produce. Up through now,with the Menace sporting a 7-1-1 record and tied for the league lead in points, it seems like the Menace are in no rush to change up their lines, and would rather be patient with their highest first round selection since goalie Papa Emeritus in S79. It's up to Pearce now to determine if he can return to his coveted form, or if he'll continue to hide in the shadows, fearing the spotlight and the pressure that comes along with it.

@Berocka

F - Paul Atreides D - Jaromir Lemiuex @Beaviss

As has been the case with a couple others missing picks yesterday/today, it's the holidays and folks are with family. He'll have until tomorrow morning to make his picks otherwise I'll DQ him myself. Please continue the draft and I'll check in tomorrow morning.

I've been made aware that people are busy with family during the holiday season so I'll give @GreenGatountil tomorrow to make his final pick or risk being DQ'D. Tag me when you make the pick Green, and I'll update the roster for you, Bek.

can I get an updated roster please, on mobile rn and on the go

Y'know, I actually looked to see timestamps specifically. When I first looked at this, I thought you had missed a pick before yesterday, and the ping yesterday at 11 am was to remind you to make up the pick. I see now that you were tagged to make your final pick at 11 AM, which would have expired at 11 PM, and then 6 hours after that would have been 5 AM. I'm going to give you 100% payout because I understand you were traveling quite a lot, therefore making the pick by 5 AM in accordance with the rules was unrealistic. Also, you only had 1 skip and as explained, were mostly impacted by others delaying their picks. Although you weren't really given the penalty until 5 today, I'll be nice because its Thanksgiving. I was grumpy in DM's with you because you pulled me away from playing Mario Kart with my cousins . Though as I explained, and for transparency, the reason you were initially given the 50% payout was due to the rule stating that people with 1 skip had until 6 hours after the final non-makeup pick in the group to finish their roster. This was to prevent someone with 1 skip from delaying as long as possible into the season to make a well-informed pick that their peers did not have the advantage of. Following that reasoning, @Vice you will be keeping Lemiuex as the selection since another set of sims just occurred, and allowing you to use 2 sets of sims to make a selection would not be fair to the others in the group. Hope this is fine with you. Happy Thanksgiving

F - Venus Thightrap @N0HBDY

@Vice is getting 50% D - Jaromir Lemiuex @fishy