Mongoose87

1. We are the most dominant team in the league. There can be no doubt. 2. It's a careful balance. The cap keeps the league fun for the casuals, or the max earners would be too dominant. I wouldn't mess with it. 3. He'll be long time by then, so I guess he'll be a ghost. 6. I think I follow the Twitter account? I don't see it much. 7. I've never been all that big on Fighting games. 8. The Captain Picard Song.

I guess I should've have mentioned this in the article. I took this as a given.

The power forward - one of the most iconic archetypes in hockey. They can hit, they can fight, they can score. They're a goalie's worst enemy and a power play's best friend. General managers have wasted countless draft picks on massive, plodding players, praying that they can refine their technique and learn to skate at the professional level, hoping against hope that they're strong enough to bully adults, not just the 16 and 17 year olds that they've been playing against, despairing that those stone hands are because they still haven't adjusted after their growth spurt left them towering over their peers. Most of the time, these young players - let's not dance around it, these kids - never develop professional skating, or can't adjust to playing against others closer to their size, or are just plain going to be unskilled and uncoordinated for their entire life. They get a short look at their team's camp, play in a few preseason games, maybe even a cup of coffee at the professional level, but ultimately no one will hear their name again in a few years. But sometimes they're special. They make you wonder how someone so big can skate so fast. You can't believe that someone who hits so hard has hands that soft. And then they drop the gloves and beat the tar out of that pest that everyone hates. All the failed picks were worth it, because now we have a player that will own the ice. The power forward is usually a fan favorite. These beskated warriors represent the biggest crowd pleasing elements of hockey: hitting, fighting and scoring. Skilled star players love to play with them; they watch the skilled players' backs and don't drag down the offense. Opponents hate to play against them, their goalies screened, their defensemen hit and their pests punished. Indeed, no one represents old-time classic hockey quite like these centurions of center ice. Gordie Howe, Mark Messier, Maurice Richard - some of the most well known players of their eras, or even of all of hockey. Why then, I must ask, is the Victory Hockey League keeping them down? You read that right. Look over the top scorers this season. There are a handful that will drop the gloves regularly. Two have actually raised their Fighting attribute, the highest to a mind- blowing 53! Why do so few of our top scorers embrace the Gordie Howe Hat Trick and make significant investments in Fighting? Simple: the league is structured in such a way that anyone trying to maximize their on- ice performance will avoid spending TPE on Fighting. That is to say that the costs outweigh the benefits. Let's look at the sim benefits of fighting: Pride - Hockey players that fight tend to take pride in doing so, and users tend to take a similar view in looking at their simulated players. Unfortunately, STHS's inscrutable algorithm has yet to provide any indication that Pride improves a team's chance of winning games. Morale - Pride's humble sibling, Morale, on the other hand, allegedly does have some effect on the sim, and my understanding is that Fighting does improve morale. Morale is also so insignificant that three players deep into my VHL career, I have yet to hear anyone bring it up. Awards Consideration - Maybe the voters will take fighting into account for the Boulet or Wylde? That totals out to some tiny positive difference in the sim that we don't know how to measure and maybe a small positive consideration at the margin, if your player is contending for one of those two awards. There's a word for this amount of benefit: negligible. Now, let's examine the costs: TPE spent - This is pretty obvious. As with any attribute, you have to spend your hard-earned TPE to increase the Fighting attribute. Penalties - Mongoose, you might say, isn't the objective of fighting to rack up those five minute majors? How can that be considered a cost? Dear reader, are you familiar with the concept of Opportunity Cost? Opportunity Cost is the other things you might have done but no longer can because of the choice you made. In this particular case, if your top goal scoring forward is sitting five minutes for fighting, they are also very much not putting pucks in the net for those five minutes. Worse, they could get an instigator and leave the game altogether. I don't think it's a stretch to say that those costs far outweigh the meager benefits of investing TPE in Fighting. From the perspective of lost ice time, the argument could be made that investments in Fighting are actively punished. Personally, I view this as a failure of design in the VHL system. While there is a skill to building a good player and I would never want that element of the league to change, there is a difference between rewarding system mastery and punishing users for investing in a trap attribute. The former is an important aspect of game design. The latter is the sort of failure that punishes new users. I have a proposal for a change that would go a long way towards rectifying this design flaw: stop treating fighting like a normal attribute. We invest in attributes to improve our players' performance. Fighting does not do that, so it should not be an option to invest in. What does that mean? For starters, eliminate the Fighting hybrid attribute and restructure Grit. Next, instead of having Fighting be determined by TPE investment, let users set it to their desired level upon player creation. Since fighting does not provide tangible benefit in the sim, there is no reason to require TPE investment to have a high attribute and the users might as well be allowed to start with it wherever they like. Each offseason the user will have the opportunity to increase or decrease their Fighting attribute by 10 plus the number of fights their player had the preceding season, so a player won't go overnight from being a pugilist to a peacemaker or vice versa. This plan will do a few things. First, it will remove the new user trap that exists in fighting right now. STHS is a fairly inscrutable sim - we don't need to punish people on their learning journey. Second, it will introduce a greater diversity of builds to the league. The change to hybrid attributes already told us this is considered desirable, so this should be a welcome result. Lastly, it will make the league more fun. I know it's very easy for many of us to get very serious about the VHL - we all have that competitive spirit within us - but the ultimate purpose of this whole venture is for people to enjoy simulated hockey. As I said earlier, fighting is a crowd pleaser. We may not have a proper crowd here, but I think there are more than a few users who would love to see their players and others duke it out, if it weren't for the drawbacks. What I don't want to see is an increase in the number of Donald Brashear, Derek Boogard and Eric Godard type players, players who don't contribute to the game outside of fisticuffs. I don't think encouraging fighting will run a serious risk of doing that, either. While GMs may enjoy choosing to take on more fighters, they remain constrained by the salary cap - Opportunity Cost rears its ugly head once again - and no GM is going to choose to spend that precious cap cash on a player who can't improve their team's chances at getting the big prize. Likewise, the league doesn't provide much of a path forward for a user who only cares about pugilism. I can't imagine a user sticking around a very long time earning TPE that they do not spend, or even just doing the bare minimum to remain active without updating. At most, you might see a small uptick of such players in the VHLM, but they would be weeded out quickly. No, what this would encourage is a Renaissance of players who can contribute on the ice but aren't afraid to drop the gloves when their goalie gets run or their star player is taking a few too many hits. It would be great fodder for PTs and game recaps, allowing users to develop rivalries between players that can't help but challenge one another every time they meet. That's the sort of energy that a league like this thrives on, and it's the sort of thing we should be encouraging at every opportunity. This should be an easy decision. I have yet to hear of a disadvantage from anyone I have made this suggestion to. Current low levels of investment in Fighting mean there wouldn't even be that much TPE to refund. This is what they call a layup, a safe bet, all upside. If you are in Head Office, make the right choice, make the choice that makes the league more fun. If you are not, I encourage you to share this idea and help it get to the decision makers and make sure they see that you approve.

1. Yes. Don't ask me how I know. 2. People are fools that look to other names like Daniel or Donald. 3. I always wanted to win the Brooks, since I like shooters. That ship has sailed. 6. Sweet and bubbly with a gentle aftertaste. 7. I've always preferred graphics. I find it hard to pick up writing articles if interrupted and podcasts require too much interrupted time. 8. I'm confused as to why the VHLE is still there.

This might be controversial, but I don't care: David

1. I think so. We might even do it today. 2. In a word: Contrafilatinulous. 3. I didn't follow super close, but the Prague trade seemed... odd. 6. I've been in the same fantasy hockey league since my second year of university (14 years). 7. Gummy candies. The chewier the better. 8. I'm not really a dream car kind of person. If I got a "dream car" I'd probably sell it.

OVERVIEW Giorgiy Costanzov is something of an anomaly for contemporary goaltending, representing a style of play that truly died out in the 90s.. He lacks the mental fortitude one would like to see in net, yet he seems to succeed anyways. He is extremely undersized, small for a wing, let alone for what has become the biggest position in hockey, but is deceptively agile, often finding himself diving across the crease or attempting challenging poke checks to make saves that would be routine for a butterfly goalie. Anonymously, scouts have remarked at how peculiar their interviews with him have been. "He came up and introduced himself to me, he said, 'Name is Giorgiy, I am unemploying and live with parents.' I didn't know what to say," one scout reported. He has expressed numerous misgivings about his father, legendary Red Army goaltender Fedir Costanzov and described a bizarre punishment where he would be made to wrestle Fedir off of a goalpost before he could leave the house. THE BAD Does not have ideal size for a goaltender. Costanzov says he is 5'5", but reports say he actually measures 5'4.5". A stocky, short limbed build does not help to counter that concern. Not naturally athletic. Has a physique that suggests poor workout habits and low levels of off-ice commitment to his own improvement. Extremely neurotic. Some teammates find him extremely off-putting, and he has been known to lose it at the drop of a hat. After being pulled in the finals, stormed out of the arena yelling about "the summer of Giorgiy." You really wonder if he has the mentality for professional hockey - professional anything, really. I saw him eat poutine out of a garbage can. THE GOOD Deceptively agile and flexible. Manages to throw himself across the crease from any position. Literally made a save with his pants down. Not afraid to be aggressive in fighting the screen. Has been known to knock players right over on his way across the crease. Elite glove ability. Has been known to practice his trapper on golf balls. Always gets the high glove side, now matter how rough it is to see. Team owners love him. Was constantly getting called into the front office for private meetings. THE BOTTOM LINE Costanzov is a curious prospect. If he continues to overcome his physical and psychological shortcomings, he could succeed at the VHL level. Could he ever live up to his father's legacy? Seems doubtful.

That's right, Ghost. He was my stalwart. It's gonna be the summer of Giorgiy!

I was ahead of the curve, my first ever player was Ukrainian! Also, this is the retry at your G's would be successor in the GOMHL.

Player Information Username: Mongoose87 Player Name: Giorgiy Costanzov Recruited From: Returning Age: 31 Position: G Height: 65 in. Weight: 185 lbs. Birthplace: Ukraine Player Page @VHLM GM

1. I was hoping to score more goals. Wanted to go out with a scoring trophy. 2. The pt where you'd get 1 tpe for reviewing a PT? Is that gone? 5. I ran some tests. Basically, if one team has leadership and the other does not, but they're others identical, it will produce a small advantage that doesn't justify the investment. TBH, I'd make it something like experience where players accumulate out over time for things like fights, GWGs and shot blocks. 6. Man, I have a three year old and a one year old. Never say never, but never. 7. One horse- sized duck. I don't think the duck design would scale well to larger size. 8. Well, I'm not completely amoral and obsessed with power or revenge, so Jedi. Old man moment: before the prequels, the Jedi made a little more sense. They could get married and Yoda wasn't a kindergarten teacher.

1. Skor McFleury. Leading a team this deep in scoring as a defenseman is no mean feat. 3. I don't use one NHL player because I swap their head to be Shatner. 5. I'd change the amount of time I have to do graphics (increase it). 6. No. I usually pick the best one from the past few years up and coast with that for a few years. 7. I'm actually more of a football fan, I just find hockey is better for sim leagues, due to the large number of games played and the small number of positions. 8. I've been to the US, UK, France and Spain. Technically I've been to Portugal, but it was just a connection.

1. He's fighting to stay in the top 10 for goals. I want to climb that list. 2. Defense. Smarter people than I theorize that it's the sim's stat for hockey smarts. 4. Another step towards correcting that mistake. 5. I wonder if he's even ever seen a real wood stick. 6. You don't let 60 goal scorers walk. The real problem is old man Tavares' contract. 7. I can make a sound like a horse's hoofbeats by clapping my hand on my chest.

2. A glass of Romulan ale and a long trip to Risa. 3. I want to lead the league in goals and sail off into the sunset with another cup. 4. There is no true rival that can match the might of David. 5. Super Coach. I'm too busy for vhlf. I just hold things up. 6. Geno Malkin, always and forever. 7. I was an early bird as a kid, and my kids keep me from sleeping in, but my natural tendency is to be a night owl.

Hard to believe this will be Jimmy T's last season in purple. In going to make it count.

1. We could be even better than last year's HISTORIC team. Repeat time. 2. See my above remarks about it being repeat time. James T gonna lead the league in goals, this time, too. 3. It doesn't hurt as bad as in other leagues, where you can't bank to fight regression. 4. I always have a soft spot for the Marauders, not in the least because of my rebrand. 6. Always recruit - users, volunteers, head office members, you name it. When your user base shrinks, your volunteer pool shrinks and when that shrinks you start to burn people out. 8. Next question.

1. They have not yet invented the word to describe it. Our top men are on it. 2. I wanted more shots and therefore goals in the regular. Tying for the playoff goal lead in a season like this was glorious, though. 5. I have a few: stepping, mustard, plastic, widely. Oh, and also: smothering, take, coursed and glue. I think my meaning is pretty clear. 6. Recovering from a really bad cold. 7. One of the local radio hosts in Pittsburgh said that if a caller had suggested this trade, he would've hung up on him. I think that encapsulates it. 8. Easy, the egg. Whatever evolved into the chicken laid the first egg that would hatch a chicken.

James Teekirque - SS

1. You know, I'm not really worried about the match up with Riga. 3. I don't believe in no-win scenarios. 4. Vancouver is just so dominant. I can't see anyone else taking it. 6. I've been in the same fantasy hockey league since my third year of university. Many new faces, but many old ones, too. 7. Monty Python and the Holy Grail was financed by six members of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. 8. If you don't count compound eyes, then legs. Everything has at least as many legs as eyes, and many have more, like my cat.

Where's the money Lebowski!?

1. I'd make it cheaper for players to boost their faceoffs and fighting ability. 2. I'd go meta and do a theme week retrospective, asking people to talk about their favorite past weeks theme. 3. You don't mess with perfection. 5. I've had the pleasure of attending a few. My first ever was when I was a kid. I saw Jaromir Jagr's career best game, 3G 4A against the Islanders. I didn't even know what a hat trick was. 6. Not bad. We added some forward and G depth, which was crucial. Still need to do something about Jeff Carter. 8. I'd like to say I'm excited for Baldur's Gate III, but frankly I don't know when I'd even play it.

I'm going to take this as an unlimited power sort of scenario. Contrary to the usual approach, let's start with some things I want to emphasize that I'm keeping the same: -The North America: Europe conference split. These two continents represent the vast majority of interest in hockey and I think it would be misguided to take the VHL outside of them. -The weekly TPE cap: This structure is essential to both allow max earners to earn, but also allow casuals to create players that can contribute. -Stick with Simon T Hockey Simulator: No matter how much it sucks, it still sucks less than the alternatives. Now, on to my sweeping changes to the league: -A bounty of unlimited Free Weeks for life to the user or users who are able to bring Simon T alive to my secret volcano lair. Enough is enough; he must pay for what he has done to us all. A tank of sharks with lasers attached to their heads awaits him. -The VHLE must go: I expect many commissioners for a day will be doing the same. The experiment has gone on for long enough. Now that we've forced the lifers out, who is the E for? It is a speed bump, a purgatory that we burn a season in, toiling towards nothing. It cannot continue the charm of a new player’s creation that we experience in the M. It lacks the prestige of the VHL proper. It chews through promising new GM prospects. Let it die, before it drives another user to be inactive. Instead, we will expand the VHLM and VHL by four teams each, providing good homes for the forlorn players of the VHLE. -Rebalance TPE costs: There are a few attributes that are naught but a tax that players in certain roles must pay. The center must spend his hard- earned TPE to be competent at faceoffs, leaving him with no chance to ever equal his winger cousins. The enforcer must invest her precious TPE in fighting, depriving herself for the privilege of being sent off the ice for five minutes. The grinder spends their TPE on checking, knowing it will send them to the box more often. Never again! Now, centers will receive an automatic 10 point boost to their STHS faceoffs attribute, plus an additional three after each season. Checking and fighting will no longer be attributes that are purchased. Rather, they will be set between 40-99 at the user's discretion at player creation and may be modified at each offseason. -More hybrid attributes to contribute to the STHS Penalty Shot attribute: The status quo implies that the only way to score on a penalty shot is with a well-placed wrist shot. Where is the spinorama? Where is the dirty dangle, the between the legs? Where is the fake shot and then to the backhand? Skating and puck handling will now also contribute to Penalty Shot. -A slush fund to send 10% of all income to the Cayman Islands. There you have it. Embrace the Mongoose of change and you will find that the league will flourish, great and cobra-free.

1. Probably Leduc, though it's hard to say, since we're so deep up front. 2. It's probably the best one, though I give a lot of credence to goal differential. 3. Nothing hits quite like a poisoned vodka supply. 4. My best is checking, because it's very low. My worst is passing, because it's not as low as I'd like. 6. Captain Jean-Luc Picard, of the USS Enterprise 8. Have you ever heard of Washington Pennsylvania?