Laine

@IamMOOSEglad to have you back bud!

Returning for a third straight offseason, the Victory ProAM Tournament is now starting their seasonal recruitment drive. We have managed to expand our tournament this year with many players already involved! To fill our rosters, we need 4 Forwards, 6 Defensemen and 2 Goalies. Players are allowed to switch positions as need (Forward can play defense, defense can be forward). We will be trying to fill those holes ASAP, so feel free to drop a reply with your position, team and player name below and look to join the tournament discord (We are in many VHL and VHLM LRs). If we do not have enough goalies, we may let players switch over to goalies but we'll only do this if we don't get the two goalies we need. Hopefully it will not need to come down to that. Also, GM applications are OUT! The post is in the tournament discord and all you have to do to be considered is react on the announcement. If you have any more questions or concerns, feel free to contact either myself, @Zetterberg or @MexicanCow123 via VHL messaging or preferably via Discord. We hope to see you there just in time for the offseason! Be quick though, because GMs will be drawn on December 28th! (211 words)

Things are starting to get busier on my end again so these may not come until one or two weeks after Christmas.

6th......

Classic Gumballs, getting the first star when it doesn't matter

Love to see it! Great work everyone!

Review: I really like the logo swap. Nice and clean along with the shade on the top right of it. The WJC writing by the neck and top-left of the logo is a nice touch. Although, the arms are a little blurry, along with some parts of the helmet. Background looks nice, I like the black with the logo on the right and the yellow on the left with the player as a divider. Overall, really nice work, but it would be awesome of you could get rid of the blur by the arms. 8.5/10

Review: A lot of articles will evaluate each trade on a one by one basis, but this is creative. If you evaluate trades one by one, you never see the full assets a team brings in or sends out if they do multiple deals. The chart is a really creative displaying just how much movement there was along with crowning the winners and losers of the deadline. The one by one evaluation does end up getting more words and a more detailed approach, but again you don't know the scale unless it was only a single deal by a team. Overall, this chart is clean and helps display the sheer mass of assets that were moved either before or on deadline day. Really well done! 10/10

HELSINKI, FINLAND - It wasn't exactly the way they wanted to do it, but the Helsinki Titans found a way. Helsinki clinched the European Conference last night after a 6-5 win against the defending Continental Cup Champion Vancouver Wolves. The win was the sixth straight for the Titans, who are now 9-0-1 in their last 10 games after a rough middle of the season. They sit at 41-18-8 on the season, good for 90 points and 9 points ahead of the next closest team in the European Conference. A main catalyst in the change of pace has been sophomore right winger Patrik Laine. Laine, who started the season relatively slow, now has goals in 7 of his last 8 including 2 multi goal games, along with extending his point streak to 8 games with 1 assist against the Wolves. After having 15 goals and 38 points through all of last season, Laine now sits at 28 goals and 62 points with 5 games left to go, shattering his old records. "I mean the mid-season struggles were explainable, especially with that trade for Emi that Jub made. It took a little bit to get fully in sync but once we did we just started rolling. I really don't know how to explain my great play lately. I owe it all to my teammates. During my struggles, I would get so frustrated but management and my teammates would just tell me to stick with it and it would pay off. So far it has, and I have all of them to thank. Clinching the European Conference as you can imagine is exciting, but we've been here before. We've lost in the finals twice in a row now so we gotta remain focused on the task at hand. I'm ready to give it all I have heading into the postseason." Despite his rough rookie season, Laine was a catalyst for energy during his first postseason, notching 5 goals and 16 points through 18 games. Despite this, Laine tells us that he believes his best development has come on the other side of the ice. "Yeah, certainly my shooting, passing and puck handling have gotten better since last year, but the biggest jumps I've seen have been in my skating and defense. I was abysmal last year in my own end and I knew my defense and skating were the two biggest parts in that. I trained all offseason with backchecking, sprinting, laps. You know, whatever would make me a better player while also listening to the coach staff. Now I feel like I'm one of the best defensive forwards in the game but I still know there is work to be done. Feels good to see the improvement in all of it though. Vikingstad was also a big help in all of it. He coached me through many new techniques I could use for training along with 1 on 1s. Feels good to have a great teammate like him to help you out when you need it." Laine and the Titans have 5 more games to play before the S75 Continental Cup Playoffs start on December 26th, 2020. (524 words)

That locker room was awesome even though we lost a lot. Thanks for making my first season special @MattyIce and thanks for being a great friend!

claiming also for PT doubles

You even have the banner to show for it!

The VHL as a whole tends to slow down during the offseason. The VHL and M drafts along with Free Agency provide some activity but it doesn't usually hold up the entire offseason, leading to quite a bit of inactivity until training camps commence. In the past, many members have tried to keep active during the offseason but nothing seems to stick. Myself, in partnership with @Zetterberg and @MexicanCow123 have come up with not only a solution to the offseason inactivity but also something that benefits the league as a whole: The Victory ProAM Tournament! What is the Victory ProAM Tournament? The Victory ProAM Tournament is a tournament put on by Myself, @Zetterberg and @MexicanCow123 during the offseason. Users can join by checking out the recruitment drive during the playoffs. How does the Victory ProAM Tournament work? The amount of teams will vary, but the overall structure stays the same. Different teams will be picked every offseason, with different GMs and AGMs at the helm every go around as well. To benefit newer players, we always try to make the GMs newer users or users with no GMing experience, not only to help teach them but to also give them the vital experience they need. Each GM is allowed to appoint one AGM for the entire tournament. Extra help will be available to the GMs besides their AGM, as many players alike help GMs when help is needed. GMs are allowed to name their own team, with names also changing every offseason. The team building process begins once GMs are selected. A draft lottery is conducted to determine in which order GMs will pick throughout the draft. The draft board is put up with players going off as they are selected. The draft is in a snake order. Each GM must select 6 forwards, 4 defensemen and 2 goalies to complete their team. Skaters CAN be moved around to various positions, although we prefer you draft based on natural position (Ex: a forward can be moved to defense if needed). Once teams are selected the sim schedule will be uploaded with sims starting one or two days after the final playoff game is played. Why should I care about the Victory ProAM Tournament? There are many reasons to join the tournament. First and foremost, it helps cure the boredom that ensues during your standard VHL offseason. It also gives newer and older members a chance to make friends and communicate with one another. Last offseason, we saw many friendships come as a result of this tournament. Lastly, it helps give younger players experience with opportunities in GMing. It also benefits older players who can pass their skills down to young members. Our S75 Offseason recruitment drive will launch NEXT WEEK! We have also started formal recruitment in many VHL and VHLM lounge rooms, so keep your eyes peeled for that. If you want an invite for the discord server but don't see the thread or any invites in LRs, feel free to contact myself, Z, Cow or any of the other members inside the discord server (there is a lot of us). Until next time. (525 words)

1) We'll always be here for you @Spaz through thick and thin. Even though you destroyed me on national television. 2) I like hanging out with friends and family. There isn't really anything I dislike. I love looking around at the holiday spirit as well. For instance, when I was at school earlier this week, one of my teachers dressed up as an elf. 3) Elf is an instant classic, but my favourite pair of movies is definitely Home Alone 1 and 2. 4) I caught Vikingstad singing some Metallica. He had the voice down pat I gotta give it to em. 5) I have to say, @BladeMaiden's 12 Days of VHL Christmas takes the cake for me. I've read through quite a few media spots and seen some graphics but that one made my week. 6) #MostLikelyToBeInconsistent 7) Definitely drawing. I can write really well but I can not draw worth anything lol 8.) Fried Chicken is a personal favourite, but Apples are definitely right behind. 9) Probably against New York, I told Bacon that if he switched to Geico he could save more. He didn't like that too much though but it was funny. 10) Probably during a Team Europe practice a few seasons ago. Me and Venus were out on the ice before practice. One of my shots hit the crossbar, bounced off the top of the glass and landed on top of the scoreboard. I think that puck might still be up there, even though we informed arena staff about it. 11) I don't really watch TV all that often, but I am a huge fan of Gordon's Ramsays shows. Particularly the trio of Hell's Kitchen, Masterchef and Kitchen Nightmares. 12) The only time I've gotten distracted is when I've had some good friends in the stands and family. Doesn't distract me during the game, but during warmups it certainly does.

in order goes Home, Away, Alternate from top to bottom

Laine took no prisoners jeez.....

#BanGorlabBecauseHeWantsToBeBanned

Get some popcorn, I have quite a few people to go through. Before I get started on the names in question, great idea @chatfan036 to start a thread like this. Brings out the kindness in the community during the holiday season! The person I owe to me being on the VHL to this day is @Sonnet. I was pretty confused with things at the beginning and was considering moving on too early. He walked me through everything so I definitely owe him one because who knows where I would be at right now if I didn't stay. Someone I owe a lot to @BladeMaiden but not just from a VHL perspective but also from a life perspective. She's taught me a lot about life as well being a great friend and AGM in Helsinki. @Jubo07 for taking a chance on me in the first round and for being a really good GM. Helped me settle into Helsinki the moment I got there and has been very supportive of me and my fellow Titans. @JigglyGumballs for not only being a great AGM over in Vegas and helping the VHL community but for being a great friend irl. Love you bud @Zetterberg, @MexicanCow123, @Jtv123, @fishy, @fromtheinside, @DreMin15 and almost 50 others for helping me put on a tournament during the offseason. This tournament would not have happened without you guys! @MattyIce for showing me the ropes when I first joined and helping me with donations (I WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE OKAY?). I know I'm forgetting a lot of names, but thank you to EVERY SINGLE VHL MEMBER who makes the community a better place for all of us and take care of each other and those around us.

6 uncapped! The community is shining through in times of need for many people! great job VHL!

Way to go Bana! Keep it up!

Day 10! (I believe I found it?)

Ladies and gentlemen, we got em.

give it up for day 9 everyone!

DAY 8! GIVE IT UP FOR DAY 8!