fishy

Next Up: DC's Big Three
 
The DC Dragons entered a rebuild in S81, after last making the playoffs in S80. The past two seasons have been a tough on the DC faithful as the Dragons have been in, or right above the basement of the North American division. GM Eno Rama has not sounded worried at all by this. "This is a normal part of how the league works." Rama said. "You build a competitive core for years, and sometimes that flame burns out. You just take a season or two to rebuild the foundation and ignite a new flame. I feel completely confident in the direction the team is heading" Rama concluded. Rama looks like he can backup what he is saying. He got his franchise goaltender in Bubbles Utonium 2nd overall in the S82 draft. He also then managed to snag his franchise forward Ronan Lavelle 7th overall in the same draft class. DC did not have many picks after that, but they got two important pieces that matter. The Dragons already have their franchise defenseman and captain Ryan Vidot who is on the verge of completing his second season. The Dragons also have a big opportunity in the upcoming S83 and S84 draft classes to help complete their rebuild. They may have franchise cornerstones on each end of the ice, but they will need a lot more help before they are the competitive beasts they were a few seasons ago. DC currently has their S83 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round picks as well as Toronto's 3rd rounder. In S84 they have their 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and Warsaw's 3rd round picks to work with. There is plenty of opportunity through these drafts to get the depth they need. Not to mention in free agency, some of the current personnel may make DC an attractive landing point. Right now, it is Ryan Vidot, Bubbles Utonium and Ronan Lavelle. Who are these "big three"?
 
Ryan Vidot - D (S80)
 

 
Ryan Vidot was drafted 16th overall by the Vancouver Wolves in at the time, a pretty highly touted draft. He was also drafted to the Vasteras Iron Eagles in the VHLE 38th overall, where he would spend S80. Vidot would post up 70 points in 72 games played with the Iron Eagles, paired with 105 shots blocked. Vidot was also then traded to the Dragons in a three way trade with the Riga Reign and Vancouver Wolves. Vidot was to be a Dragon, DC's first rounder went to Riga and Vancouver got Hari Singh Nalwa. Despite leaving such a talented Wolves team, Vidot was happy to be united with Rama, whom he has a very close relationship with. Vidot would then go on to post up 66 points and eclipsing the 25 goal mark in S81. Vidot also blocked over 200 shots and posted up 7 power play goals on a weak Dragons team. Vidot would replicate those 66 points in S82 in another down year with limited talent for the Dragons. He was also able to achieve 30 goals, and double his power play goals with 15 and blocked 282 shots. This was a big step up year for Vidot. It also speaks volumes about his ability to carry the team on his back. Imagine Vidot's production when he is surrounded by active talent.
 
Bubbles Utonium - G (S82)
 

 
GM Eno Rama was ecstatic to draft goaltender Bubbles Utonium second overall in the past S82 draft. Utonium's early development has them in talks of potential to be one of the best of all time at their position. The work ethic, and natural talent is there. Utonium was also drafted 10th overall in the VHLE by the Vasteras Iron Eagles, the same as Vidot. Utonium was unfortunately apart of a losing squad in Vasteras, but posted up impressive numbers despite this. With a not so talented Vasteras team, Utonium's 20-24-8 record does not reflect their performance. The .922 save percentage and 3.1 GAA with 2067 shots thrown their way however is. Utonium also recorded 3 shutouts. This shows Utonium did everything they could to give the Iron Eagles a chance to win these games. Something, the Dragons absolutely need. The Dragons will need to build their defensive corps to help Vidot and Utonium to achieve the recipe for success. The Dragons hit the nail on the head with this selection. Utonium currently holds a balanced build of strong rebound control, size, reflex speed, and reaction time. Expect the Dragons to steal a few wins courtesy of their goaltender.
 
Ronan Lavelle - LW (S82)
 

 
Much to everyone's surprise, Ronan Lavelle was select 7th overall in the S82 draft by the Dragons. Although Lavelle was valued as a prospect, his value was initially late first round/early second round. All the mock drafts had Lavelle going at the end of the first round, with the earliest mock having him go 12th overall. Rama clearly saw something he liked that stood out. Regardless of the reason, this meant DC now had a franchise goaltender, defenseman, and forward to start things off. Lavelle has since made Rama's "reach" look less and less like one. Lavelle was drafted 9th overall in the VHLE by the Geneva Rush, where he spent S82. He led the league in points with 101, and goals with 49 to capture the scoring title. Lavelle's shot, and skating have been what has made him stand out so far. He also has a balanced defensive game, as well as a gifted stickhandler. Although the VHL is a monster compared to the VHLE, how do the fans not get excited their star rookie forward is coming off a strong season in the VHLE. Lavelle will experience the growing pains of the league transition, but as a natural goal scorer he is expected to find the back of the net. S83 will feature the first season that Lavelle, Utonium and Vidot will all be on the ice together playing as a unit. Expectations will be higher for DC. Can they plug in some gaps in order to get more completive and help their big 3 out? DC is looking to make more improvement, and attempt to be a bubble team. What does GM Eno Rama have in store for us in the S83 off-season? We will soon find out!
 
Word Count: 1007 for weeks ending in 3/13, and 3/20.

Hey all. As some of you may know, I’ve been dealing with some stuff lately and it’s all come together to put me to the point that I will have to step away from the GM world. So, following the conclusion of the Season 82 playoffs, I will be stepping down as Warsaw Predators Los Angeles Stars GM. Hopefully by opening up the job now the league can have someone solid in place for as soon as the offseason begins.
 
After I failed at guiding Vasteras  Halifax in their post-curse-break years way back when, I didn’t think I’d ever try my hand at GMing in a sim league again (at least not in a top level league). I’ve been blessed with amazing players and good luck, but to be able to have the sustained success that Warsaw Los Angeles has been able to have these past four seasons has been awesome. I proved to myself that I could do it, which was pretty cool, and I ended up enjoying the job more than I ever thought I would (most of the time ;)).
 
It's tough to nail down one recommendation with the team housing multiple stellar newer members that will eventually be VHL GMs one day, but I was told I could only pick one, so my recommendation will go to @dlamb @v.2. Constant VHLM GM snubs aside, dlamb v.2 has a ton of experience with GM leagues, knows Warsaw Los Angeles hockey inside and out, and has proven to me over the years that, as someone on the team I could always lean on for another opinion, he can succeed in a VHL GM job. I hope he and any Warsaw Los Angeles player interested in the job will get legitimate consideration.
 
Now I just gotta go win a cup real quick then I’ll be out.
 
didn't want to write my own post so i stole  @.sniffuM's okay goodbye.

i like when everyone agrees

Me and @Berocka finally caught up for a beer this weekend after podcasting for 3 years 
 

10 extra TPE to max out an att isn't the end of the world

That’s kinda where my brain was at. In the grand scheme of things we’re talking minimal differences between the two. I would agree with the change making more sense if we were re-rolling everyone anyway but with goalies not being touched I think it’s easier to leave it be.
 
Bringing this back up since it’s about the last thing of note and then we can get this whole business announced.

Thank you!

Welcome back to another edition of "rory writes exactly five hundred words before abruptly ending the media spot in the middle of a sentence". In this episode, I will be talking about the Victory Hockey League, mostly the Los Angeles Stars of the North American division, for exactly five hundred words. Hopefully I can format my thoughts into exactly five hundred words, or else you'll have to wait for the new episode of "rory writes exactly one hundred and fifty words before abruptly ending the vhl.com article in the middle of a sentence", which I will only be claiming in affiliate leagues. 
 
DeGroot is on the Los Angeles Stars. Obviously a controversial player early in his career, but I can assure the VHL community that within the next couple of weeks it will not matter. I paid more then what I wanted to pay for my own player, and now have to pay myself 4 mil for the next 2 seasons because I went to arbitration, lol. DeGroot was the last option I tried to fill the defenseman spot I was missing for this season. Many European options were brought up and ultimately passed, some to price, but most because everyone who had quality players wanted to keep them, lol. Sven Reikkinen was a player I kicked tires on - Malmo were shaky all season and battling with Warsaw, Riga, and Moscow for the playoffs. Cabe McJake's cap hit was unfortunately too expensive and I did not want to move any other players and cause another gap elsewhere in my lineup.

Oh well, DeGroot has been shit and LA has went from competing for the top of NA to barely better then the rest of the NA crowd. We've clinched playoffs, and I'm sure we're guaranteed at least the 2nd seed at this point, but the looming battle against the meta champions of the world is all we care about. The season series has been pretty evenly split, not gonna check anything but I'm pretty sure we took it 3-2, but every game was a coin flip!! The battle will become how well what I've deemed the "shut down line", of Williams - Stamen - le Massif can handle the "top guns" (mid players but meta) of Vancouver. Our own meta line generally gets weaker matchups, which is why I presume Dan Dan has had an insane season with Fairchild and Florida Man. Crazy that one of our most non-meta players is battling for points, goals, and assists leader, but I assume this also happened with Vancouver's non-meta players Tucker and RED. 
 
Generally I'd fill this last paragraph with random bullshit about my player but DeGroot is now on LA and has been greatly discussed. Instead, I will reveal some recreate names I have been already pondering because being a defenseman sucks and I want to score 100 points as a meta rookie like Londumb rookies. The crown jewel of my recreate names is WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW, for obvious reasons. I think Josh said the 
 
 

For full transparency, the meta conversation has taken the majority of our time and efforts. Our goal is to have a solution ready for implementation next season, and the upcoming offseason is very quickly approaching. Rather than trying to spread thin our efforts across multiple topics, we’ve agreed that the meta should be our top priority.
 
The Meta (update)
 
Since the last update, we’ve had the opportunity to run and evaluate some test sims as well as finalize the method with which we plan to address the issues caused by the sim engine’s meta. At this point, we’ve run through the major potential problems and are trying to patch them before it hits the general public. We're breaking and repairing our solution so that we can try to minimize the amount of things that can be broken after implementation. Our spreadsheet nerds are in heaven right now. You can expect another update on this front soon.
 
VHLM Waiver Improvement (update)
 
We’ve reached out to the VHLM GMs and collected some information from them. We ran into a bit of an issue when we got really mixed feedback from them (i.e., some of them loved it, others hated it). The board is also somewhat divided on how to proceed, and with so much effort being dedicated to the meta solution, this front has slowed quite a bit. We'll return to it once we have more time to determine whether the league will ultimately benefit from the change.
 
Career Point Task Revisit (update)
 
We’ve continued discussion on this front. We’ve recently received some input about introducing tasks that are specific to the VHLE, so we’re also trying to figure out how we can incorporate the new league into our adjustments.
 
VHL Mentorship Program (revisiting)
 
The Board received a proposal a few months ago about implementing a mentorship program. We’ve been rolling around the idea and evaluating various ways of implementing it, leaning toward something like AGMs, which are GM-run and optional. This topic ties closely to our efforts to find ways to retain users after they’ve made their way to the site.
 
New Create TPE Spending (new)
 
A common issue we’ve seen, especially with the pervasive influence of the meta builds, is the concern among members that new folks will apply their TPE in ways that aren’t super beneficial to their player. This could be dumping equal amounts of TPE into every single attribute, not understanding the primary / secondary / tertiary ordering of attributes, etc. We are trying to figure out a way to help new creates start their careers on the right foot and enable them to succeed long term.
 
Our HOF discussion is open! We’re doin the thing! Yay!
 
Closed topics:
Additional Secondary Task: game recaps were rolled out! Woo hoo!

For full transparency, the meta conversation has taken the majority of our time and efforts. Our goal is to have a solution ready for implementation next season, and the upcoming offseason is very quickly approaching. Rather than trying to spread thin our efforts across multiple topics, we’ve agreed that the meta should be our top priority.
 
The Meta (update)
 
Since the last update, we’ve had the opportunity to run and evaluate some test sims as well as finalize the method with which we plan to address the issues caused by the sim engine’s meta. At this point, we’ve run through the major potential problems and are trying to patch them before it hits the general public. We're breaking and repairing our solution so that we can try to minimize the amount of things that can be broken after implementation. Our spreadsheet nerds are in heaven right now. You can expect another update on this front soon.
 
VHLM Waiver Improvement (update)
 
We’ve reached out to the VHLM GMs and collected some information from them. We ran into a bit of an issue when we got really mixed feedback from them (i.e., some of them loved it, others hated it). The board is also somewhat divided on how to proceed, and with so much effort being dedicated to the meta solution, this front has slowed quite a bit. We'll return to it once we have more time to determine whether the league will ultimately benefit from the change.
 
Career Point Task Revisit (update)
 
We’ve continued discussion on this front. We’ve recently received some input about introducing tasks that are specific to the VHLE, so we’re also trying to figure out how we can incorporate the new league into our adjustments.
 
VHL Mentorship Program (revisiting)
 
The Board received a proposal a few months ago about implementing a mentorship program. We’ve been rolling around the idea and evaluating various ways of implementing it, leaning toward something like AGMs, which are GM-run and optional. This topic ties closely to our efforts to find ways to retain users after they’ve made their way to the site.
 
New Create TPE Spending (new)
 
A common issue we’ve seen, especially with the pervasive influence of the meta builds, is the concern among members that new folks will apply their TPE in ways that aren’t super beneficial to their player. This could be dumping equal amounts of TPE into every single attribute, not understanding the primary / secondary / tertiary ordering of attributes, etc. We are trying to figure out a way to help new creates start their careers on the right foot and enable them to succeed long term.
 
Our HOF discussion is open! We’re doin the thing! Yay!
 
Closed topics:
Additional Secondary Task: game recaps were rolled out! Woo hoo!

For full transparency, the meta conversation has taken the majority of our time and efforts. Our goal is to have a solution ready for implementation next season, and the upcoming offseason is very quickly approaching. Rather than trying to spread thin our efforts across multiple topics, we’ve agreed that the meta should be our top priority.
 
The Meta (update)
 
Since the last update, we’ve had the opportunity to run and evaluate some test sims as well as finalize the method with which we plan to address the issues caused by the sim engine’s meta. At this point, we’ve run through the major potential problems and are trying to patch them before it hits the general public. We're breaking and repairing our solution so that we can try to minimize the amount of things that can be broken after implementation. Our spreadsheet nerds are in heaven right now. You can expect another update on this front soon.
 
VHLM Waiver Improvement (update)
 
We’ve reached out to the VHLM GMs and collected some information from them. We ran into a bit of an issue when we got really mixed feedback from them (i.e., some of them loved it, others hated it). The board is also somewhat divided on how to proceed, and with so much effort being dedicated to the meta solution, this front has slowed quite a bit. We'll return to it once we have more time to determine whether the league will ultimately benefit from the change.
 
Career Point Task Revisit (update)
 
We’ve continued discussion on this front. We’ve recently received some input about introducing tasks that are specific to the VHLE, so we’re also trying to figure out how we can incorporate the new league into our adjustments.
 
VHL Mentorship Program (revisiting)
 
The Board received a proposal a few months ago about implementing a mentorship program. We’ve been rolling around the idea and evaluating various ways of implementing it, leaning toward something like AGMs, which are GM-run and optional. This topic ties closely to our efforts to find ways to retain users after they’ve made their way to the site.
 
New Create TPE Spending (new)
 
A common issue we’ve seen, especially with the pervasive influence of the meta builds, is the concern among members that new folks will apply their TPE in ways that aren’t super beneficial to their player. This could be dumping equal amounts of TPE into every single attribute, not understanding the primary / secondary / tertiary ordering of attributes, etc. We are trying to figure out a way to help new creates start their careers on the right foot and enable them to succeed long term.
 
Our HOF discussion is open! We’re doin the thing! Yay!
 
Closed topics:
Additional Secondary Task: game recaps were rolled out! Woo hoo!

For full transparency, the meta conversation has taken the majority of our time and efforts. Our goal is to have a solution ready for implementation next season, and the upcoming offseason is very quickly approaching. Rather than trying to spread thin our efforts across multiple topics, we’ve agreed that the meta should be our top priority.
 
The Meta (update)
 
Since the last update, we’ve had the opportunity to run and evaluate some test sims as well as finalize the method with which we plan to address the issues caused by the sim engine’s meta. At this point, we’ve run through the major potential problems and are trying to patch them before it hits the general public. We're breaking and repairing our solution so that we can try to minimize the amount of things that can be broken after implementation. Our spreadsheet nerds are in heaven right now. You can expect another update on this front soon.
 
VHLM Waiver Improvement (update)
 
We’ve reached out to the VHLM GMs and collected some information from them. We ran into a bit of an issue when we got really mixed feedback from them (i.e., some of them loved it, others hated it). The board is also somewhat divided on how to proceed, and with so much effort being dedicated to the meta solution, this front has slowed quite a bit. We'll return to it once we have more time to determine whether the league will ultimately benefit from the change.
 
Career Point Task Revisit (update)
 
We’ve continued discussion on this front. We’ve recently received some input about introducing tasks that are specific to the VHLE, so we’re also trying to figure out how we can incorporate the new league into our adjustments.
 
VHL Mentorship Program (revisiting)
 
The Board received a proposal a few months ago about implementing a mentorship program. We’ve been rolling around the idea and evaluating various ways of implementing it, leaning toward something like AGMs, which are GM-run and optional. This topic ties closely to our efforts to find ways to retain users after they’ve made their way to the site.
 
New Create TPE Spending (new)
 
A common issue we’ve seen, especially with the pervasive influence of the meta builds, is the concern among members that new folks will apply their TPE in ways that aren’t super beneficial to their player. This could be dumping equal amounts of TPE into every single attribute, not understanding the primary / secondary / tertiary ordering of attributes, etc. We are trying to figure out a way to help new creates start their careers on the right foot and enable them to succeed long term.
 
Our HOF discussion is open! We’re doin the thing! Yay!
 
Closed topics:
Additional Secondary Task: game recaps were rolled out! Woo hoo!

So if goalies, depreciation, and the update scale all remain the same and we have discussed and agreed on the attributes is there anything left to discuss here or should I draft up an announcement to look over?

Plus, at the high end it's fairly similar already. It's just the low-mid tier players really catching a break. I don't think anyone is complaining if low tier players are getting an easy time with depreciation.
 
Also also, this could be a step towards the store no longer being just "save for depreciation fighters" if depreciation doesn't actually cripple 450 TPA players anymore.

just found out we didnt do anything for black history month so i made this. use it next year or something idk maybe change the red to these colours instead idk its not my job just throwing something out there since nobody else cared

So that’s actually slightly good news I would say. Arguably we could say the numbers should be higher to account but I think with more important attributes and it being harder to hit high attribute numbers that having depreciation be a bit less of a pain to deal with might balance things out slightly.

Alright I think I wrangled my spreadsheet to work reasonably well for this. I didn't spend much time theorycrafting my new builds to be efficient, so this isn't a perfect analysis, but it shows exactly what I expressed earlier. Depreciation will actually be easier to fight because attributes are more spread out.
 
I took three builds and spent 610 TPA, 900 TPA, and 480 TPA, first with the old system, then with the new system, and saw how depreciation would affect each of them. The delta row is probably what is most useful to see for this exercise, and you'll see that it's lower on the new builds than the old across the board. The new cost starts to approach the old cost as TPA creeps up (see 121 vs. 141 in the first column of test subject B).
 
Note: there are some rounding errors with the TPA maybe just from how I had to build my little TPA tool right now, but it does not affect my total by that much (I think the lee-way is like 10 TPA max)
 

It's fine lol, there's really no reason to debate something so small.

A bunch of you have me on Facebook so you’re bound to find out anyway, I might as well post it here like I did last time. New future VHL talent coming in September:
 

1. it has been a hard week, personally, nationally, globally. i’m tired, so many people are tired, and time just keeps going. we all just keep going. what else is there to do but keep going
2. some people have been making chokes about relocating moscow. i think that’s dumb. the team is moscow menace, not vladimir putin menace. the russian people are protesting the invasion, they don’t want it. nobody says anything about changing team names for na franchises when they make another weird attack on humanity
3. i have tried to write a new bog update post. i’ll get there eventually. that shit is lowkey hard because i gotta figure out how to update without giving spoilers and determine what’s actually important enough to make the post but if it’s not long enough then it’ll be considered a shitty post but if it’s too long then it’ll be spoilers and yeah
 

1. it has been a hard week, personally, nationally, globally. i’m tired, so many people are tired, and time just keeps going. we all just keep going. what else is there to do but keep going
2. some people have been making chokes about relocating moscow. i think that’s dumb. the team is moscow menace, not vladimir putin menace. the russian people are protesting the invasion, they don’t want it. nobody says anything about changing team names for na franchises when they make another weird attack on humanity
3. i have tried to write a new bog update post. i’ll get there eventually. that shit is lowkey hard because i gotta figure out how to update without giving spoilers and determine what’s actually important enough to make the post but if it’s not long enough then it’ll be considered a shitty post but if it’s too long then it’ll be spoilers and yeah
 

1. it has been a hard week, personally, nationally, globally. i’m tired, so many people are tired, and time just keeps going. we all just keep going. what else is there to do but keep going
2. some people have been making chokes about relocating moscow. i think that’s dumb. the team is moscow menace, not vladimir putin menace. the russian people are protesting the invasion, they don’t want it. nobody says anything about changing team names for na franchises when they make another weird attack on humanity
3. i have tried to write a new bog update post. i’ll get there eventually. that shit is lowkey hard because i gotta figure out how to update without giving spoilers and determine what’s actually important enough to make the post but if it’s not long enough then it’ll be considered a shitty post but if it’s too long then it’ll be spoilers and yeah
 

I've been trying to write a .com piece for a couple of days. I keep looking at the empty page, mindlessly scanning stats on the App, clicking through subforums. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the attempted criminalization of being a parent of a trans child in Texas, the subversion of democracy in the US, it's impossible to care about the trivialities of fake hockey. Even trying to write this piece, I stopped after the second sentence and looked at news from and about Ukraine. Whether it's President Zelensky affirming to his citizens that he is there on the front lines to defend the nation that he loves, or the Eiffel Tower being illuminated in yellow and blue, or stories of the Ghost of Kyiv, I can barely see through the tears that are welling in my eyes. I don't know if this will count for 2 TPE, and at this point, I really don't care, but for anyone reading this, I encourage you to be an active participant in politics - local, state, provincial, national, whatever: VOTE. Even if people are trying to stop you from doing it, VOTE. Voter suppression happens BECAUSE your vote has power. Elections have consequences. 

Consider the 1.5 bit stricken from the record then. Moving on!