Spartan

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

G - Papa Emeritus @BOOM almost done!

Lemiuex is a defenseman now, would you still like to select him? If not, please quote this post and repick please

F - Paul Atreides F - Lee Xin D - Rolf Fizzlebeef Jr G - Artem Tretiak @Beketov

woooooo

Hi! Didn't make a hiring thread or public announcement about it, but with @BrutalBoost getting a promotion to Sasky GM, Moscow's AGM spot was left vacant. Fortunately, we were able to hire a fantastic replacement in @STZ, who will bring many, many seasons of VHL experience to our management team! Congrats Steez, glad to have you . Moving on to our captain announcement, we unfortunately lost @IHateBobNutting, keeping the Moscow captain curse going. He really was a fantastic captain, and I will really miss him around. However, we're lucky to have plenty of fantastic members on this team who show leadership potential on the team. First Alternate - The Seabasstard - @Seabass Seabasstard returns to the first alternate role, one that he held last season as well. He took huge steps forward, and his appointment to the leadership team reaped immediate rewards, as Moscow made it to the Finals last season. We'll be counting on the veteran leadership from Seabasstard to make another deep run this season! Second Alternate - Hard Markinson - @STZ Markinson, draftmate of The Seabasstard, joins the Moscow captain team for the first time. One of the leaders on the back end, he will be tasked with mentoring the young defensemen of the team such as Arvid Johansson and rookie Zdeno Chara. Under his leadership, along with the pure skill of Aurelian Moreau, expect the Moscow defense core to take major steps forward moving forward! Captain - Duncan Idaho - @OrbitingDeath The clear cut leader of this team with stoic poise, Idaho leads the team with few words, but plenty of actions on the ice. OD is the top earner on the team as well, and serves as a role model to everyone else. Co-MVP of the S80 season and certainly Moscow's Team MVP, I'm very pleased to name the anchor of our franchise as the captain! I'll do my best not to trade you.

G - Thadius Sales @tinafrombobsburgers

I saw a ping and almost nuked this group if it was another DQ lol. Glad you're done though!

F - Pistil Stamen @Daniel Janser

Congrats Chris! Long time since you were a wide eyed first gen on Vegas. Very proud to see you come this far, best of luck with the final season!

D - Jaromir Lemiuex @RomanesEuntDomus

@Ricer13 please mark down that @NSG88will be receiving 50% payout, and tag me for his picks until he returns from his trip

@Phil is skipped, @Josh on the clock.