Beketov

Grave digging much? Beats me, I'm not 100% sure what I was referring to. Probably just the "wall" of members that would come in and block you every time.

Sokolov may get an award yet but admittedly he would have been a better choice for top defenseman.

Velvet gets 5, Moon already has 2, Holik retired with none. Sometimes STHS can be a fickle beast. In any case, congrats Helsinki. Let's get the off-season rolling!

We’re two guns away from Black Sky and playing terribly with them! Answered some questions from @Quik, @JardyB10, and @tfong while playing terribly in IW.

It's a little trippy for my taste but I might give it a shot this weekend

It late to be asking but I'll have some time Saturday and Sunday so any questions out there for me? Officially only 2 guns off all camos in the game now. @eaglesfan036 @The Bread Man @der meister @Phil @tfong @Molholt @Banackock @gorlab @JardyB10 @evrydayimbyfuglien @Jericho @DollarAndADream @Kendrick @mpclardy @hedgehog337 @Devise @Smarch @Will @Streetlite @punkhippie

A few good options here but honestly I was blown away by #2 so I couldn't vote for anything else. Not sure who made it (@boubabi is my guess) but seriously, well done. I really want to know how you made that emboss look so perfect.

It does seem an oddly high number but we talk about it as if we have 30 teams or something. We have 10, 8 per-expansion. Givwn that the team we're discussing would make up 50% pre-expansion it makes a bit more sense. also, historically speaking, I think those teams have likely had more active GM's which means more free agents willing to go there. Free Agency is a huge deciding factor in regards to dynasties.

I'll claim myself a double week for this

Not in the mood.

1000 TPE Shaw Trophy Those were two things I had never done in the VHL and perhaps my main goals when I created Holik. I wanted to do what I had never done and be named the top goalie and finally surpass that mountain of 1000 TPE; even if it has become an easy landmark for some. Unfortunately Holik’s career will be bittersweet for me. While I did get my main two objectives, and easily my best goalie stats to boot (as well as 2nd all time in shutouts, not that it will last) Holik ultimately was disappointing in several regards. He could never truly get out of the shadows for one. I managed to capture a Shaw sure but I followed that Shaw with 2 better seasons that saw me still playing second (or third depending who you ask) fiddle to better, younger goalies in regards to statistics. I also never managed even a cup finals appearance, let alone a cup, despite playing on teams that arguably should have been there. I don’t regret any decisions I really made; I just don’t know what the sim engine really wanted from me. I do want to thank a couple of my GM’s: @Banackock for believing in me even though my rookie season with Davos was atrocious (if it hadn’t of been maybe I would have beat Clegane in shutouts) and bringing me in to help lead the team in Seattle. I know you felt bad about not getting us a cup, I feel bad about it too, but I don’t blame you. You built the team as best you could and we got two victory cups out of it but just couldn’t reach the pinnacle. You still helped turn me from the mediocre rookie into one of the league’s top goalies. @Devise for potentially messing up his own career in order to give me a shot in NY. No other competing team was even looking my way and you took a risk on me. You benched yourself and crippled the NY defense just to bring me in. I know you have apologized for not getting me a cup but I apologize for letting you down. You put your faith in Holik to be the best goalie in the league and at the end of the day I simply wasn’t. Anyway, this is getting too long and probably too ranty. The point is, I officially retire Jakab Holik; the man with the first name no one could spell. My first player to ever hit 1000, my first player to ever go the full time (even Miller retired at the deadline of his 8th season). Sadly my second straight goalie to retire with no cup but who knows; maybe we’ll have some weak classes and I can get him into the Hall based on regular season stats.

And Holik's careeer comes to a close the way his season's always did, by being kept out of the finals with a mediocre performance. The season series was tied this year so I got my hopes up but I feel as if I shouldn't be surprised at this point, always was a regular season goalie and never could beat those demons that haunted me. Oh well, another cupless player down the drain. I'll reminisce a little more in the retirement thread. Congrats Quebec, Skye was always good at finding ways to outplay me. Just beat those little shit's in Helsinki will you?

I'm not, at least not for a bit. Gonna stick around with just Sokolov for a bit.

Tamper with me all you want, I'm not signing. Also, I probably would have been if you would have been able to stick around back in the day without getting yourself banned.

Unless you mean the Sharpe award it could get a little confusing to have 2 Beketov's

I remember Hamilton. I remember Zimmers drafting me there with Beketov, having no one else on the team, and holding me hostage. Refusing to either trade me or let me continue setting records in the VHLM. I remember wasting away my rookie season being the only player on that team having the blindly trust in the Zimmers vision that was leading nowhere.

Got caught up with too many early memories so didn't get too far but oh well. last memory is being induced as a Builder in the HoF. Was kinda funny actually since @Phil and I more or less compaigned for it to happen (#Bek4Builder!) but there are very few things I've done in the VHL that felt like I was actually being recognized for my work more than that. I've never been a GM in all these long seasons, and I've never wanted to. I've never simmed or been on the blue team and only just recently did I step into the ranks of the BOG. For the most part I've just been an active member for 10 years of my life. That Builder introduction felt like validation. It felt like all that time meant something. Maybe not that I made the best players or won the most cups but that, as a person, my team here was worth it. It's been 10 great years, I wouldn't trade any of them in.

Jumping way ahead this time but the Toronto cup win with White in S29 as well as taking home the scoring title, even if it was with the lowest point total ever. Season 29 is one of my more memorable cups simply because so few saw it coming. We were a band of underdogs that swooped in and stole the cup away. It was a hell of a season to say the least and I think the only time I've won a cup and an individual award in the same season.

You took the name Sharpe, you should have known you'd be cursed from the start.

I see absolutely no advantage to doing that.

That's more active than Sokolov has been thus far haha

Gotta get through these a bit quicker if I'll ever get to my later players so jumping right ahead to the end of Beketov's career. After capturing the Continental Cup in his final season with the Bears I had the honour of having Beketov added into the Hall of Fame as a First Ballot introduction. For some reason during his entire career I had never considered the possibility of making the hall so to get there, especially in my first season of eligibility, felt pretty amazing.

Not the first time haha

Really just wanted to rag on you. Couldn’t point how how few awards I have without pointing out how many you have haha. I honestly doubt Miller would have gotten much even without O’Malley and Tordahl around.

The Beketov Agency Player Review - Part 2 Welcome back! In my last MS I discussed my first four players in the league from the all-star Alexander Beketov to the Black Sheep Kristensen and, you know, the other two. In this one I’ll be covering my last 5 players including my current 2 active ones. So sit back and enjoy yet another Beketov retrospective. ---------- Player #5: Jason White - 506 TPE Drafted: Season 25 - 3rd Overall Awards: Continental Cup - Season 29 Szatkowski Award - Season 29 Statistics: 432GP, 143G, 284A, 427P, +201 Coming off Niklas Kristensen (quite early I might add) I felt as if I had something to prove with my next player and White...kinda did that. I still got drafted high which was nice to see; and quite surprising since NY gave me another chance. I think a GM change had happened or something. In any case, it was nice to have a bit of a comeback with White. He never got the kind of statistics Beketov did; in fact while writing this I realized that (spoilers) none of my forwards ever really did. But I digress. I managed to get my name on the cup again thanks to a Surprise Toronto Legion team in Season 29 and I also snagged my only Szatkowski award that season. Unfortunately the season holds the record for the lowest points total to ever win the award (107) but I still won it so that felt really cool. In general I found White’s career to be kinda lacklustre. That season with Toronto was really fun since the team was so active and no one really expected us to play as well as we did. However that was the only season I felt like I was more than just a depth forward. White was definitely an okay player, don’t get me wrong, but not really top 3 if I were to list out my personal favourites. Player #6: Evgeni Chekhov - 675 TPE Drafted: Season 32 - 4th Overall Awards: N/A Statistics: 322GP, 151-145-26, 0.914SV%, 2.51GAA, 31SO Oh Chekhov, poor Chekhov. First off, yes, that is how you spell the name. This was my first player with a trickier name and it shows with how often the name was miss-spelled. In any case, Chekhov was chosen early on in Season 32 in order to become the first real star goalie for Cologne. He stuck out his entire career on a Cologne team that could never quite get the pieces they needed to compete which unfortunately led to an earlier retirement than I had initially planned. Cologne just wasn’t working out for me but there was no goalie market to do anything so I wound up retiring rather than wasting away. All of that aside though, Chekhov wasn’t a bad goalie really. I continued my trend of improving with my goalies (somewhat the opposite as my forwards) and Chekhov’s stats are respectable. I won’t be making the Hall of Fame with him any time soon and I never managed any awards but I would argue that Chekhov still stands as one of Cologne’s better goalies over the years that they’ve been a team. It is unfortunate that I retired him early because I think I could have done a lot more but it’s the decision I made and I stand by it. Player #7: Jackson Miller - 825 TPE Drafted: Season 39 - 5th Overall Awards: Continental Cup - Season 44 Continental Cup - Season 46 Statistics: 576GP, 268G, 348A, 616P, +182 Miller is a bit of a weird player for me to review. I remember when he was my active player that I deemed him a pretty strong forward and thought his stats were really quite good. Like for some reason I was thinking he might be able to land in the Hall but was surprised when he didn’t. Surprised, that is, until I actually looked at his stats to write this. Though I managed 2 cups with Miller (the only time any of my players have done that) and he has respectable stats they still aren’t great. At the end of the day I still had better all around stats with Beketov and I played fewer games with him. I know I probably shouldn’t compare all my forward to my best one but I can’t help it. In any case, Miller was my most active player up to that point in time and, until my current player, had the most TPE I had ever earned. He also had huge hype enterting the league as he was part of the Big 3 drafted by Helsinki in S39. I don’t recall who the other two were but I know @Higgins had one of them. Sadly things didn't pan out as planned for that Helsinki team and Miller wound up moving around a lot... like really a lot. His player page for moving around never got fully updated but if I recall correctly Miller was traded from Helsinki to Toronto, Toronto to Calgary, Calgary to Cologne, Cologne back to Calgary, and then from Calgary back to Helsinki. There may have been an extra one in there somewhere as well. Point is I never had much time to settle anywhere as Miller but the places I did land were sometimes very good fits for me. Specifically my second stint in Calgary and Helsinki as I won cups with both of those. At the end of the day Miller is no Beketov, I recognize that, but I had fun with the player. His stats are still decent and he did get two cups which is nice. Who knows, maybe some individual awards would have been possible if not for @Green and @BOOM winning everything around that time-frame. He also had one of the best sigs I’ve ever had in my opinion which is the one from above. Player #8: Jakab Holik - 1000 TPE (In Progress) Drafted: Season 48 - 3rd Overall Awards: Shaw Award - Season 53 Statistics: 500GP, 292-178-30, 0.922SV%, 2.00GAA, 88SO The first of my two current players. As a quick note before I get into this, the TPE is listed as “in progress” since I’m still earning for Holik but the statistics above are my final Regular Season stats, I calculated my last season in there as well. Anyway, I had some pretty high expectations of myself with Holik and overall I’m pretty happy with how he turned out. My main two objectives were things I had never done before: 1000 TPE and a Shaw. I managed to do both of those with Holik while managing some really impressive statistics at the same time. Unfortunately my first couple of seasons (after being drafted by a rebuilding Davos and then traded to a rebuilding Seattle) were rather poor statyistics wise which probably kept my back from a few all-time records but I made up for it later. I’ll admit, I got lucky in regards to teams with Holik. About half my seasons in Seattle we were expected to do really well and then joining New York as a Free Agent we were still one of the top teams. With that said, I was also unlucky in a way: the amount of competition against me. When I was first coming into the prime of my career the goalie market was dominated by the Clegane brothers (@JardyB10 and @Victor) as well as Ariel Weinstein (@Smarch). Once they retired I was set up to be the dominant goalie for a few seasons but Apollo Skye (@Velevra) and later Rhett DeGrath (@STZ) had other plans. I did manage to get the Shaw I so coveted in Season 53 but sadly that would be my only one (assuming I don’t win one this season which I won’t). My statistics did actually improve from that point in both aSeason 54 and Season 55 but DeGrath was just too strong. Anyway, I’m rambling. We’ll see how the playoffs go this season in regards to me potentially getting the cup that has so long eluded me with Holik. If I could pad my trophy cabinet a little bit more, in all honesty, I think Holik could be my second Hall of Famer. His playoff stats may not be the best (they really aren’t as a matter of fact) but in the regular season Holik was quite good. Tied for 13th all-time in wins, 19th in S%. Both decent but not amazing. However he’s also 7th in GAA (with two of those above him having played far fewer games) and 2nd to only Hall of Famer Greg Clegane in Shutouts. I don’t know if that’s enough to get Holik into the hall but in my opinion they are stats I can be pleased with. At the end of the day Holik has been my best goalie, hands down, and I’ll be sad to see him go. Player #9: Roman Sokolov - 315 TPE (In Progress) Drafted: Season 53 - 4th Overall Awards: N/A Statistics: 144GP, 46G, 94A, 140P, -52, 426SB Honestly, this section might be a bit shorter than most. Sokolov is my newest player, having been created with the 2nd player rule. He’s only played 2 seasons on a rebuilding Toronto so obviously his award cabinet is currently empty. However, as my first defenseman ever, so far I’m pleased with Sokolov. He’s easily (in my opinion) in the discussion for the Labatte award in only his second season after an amazing 245 shots blocked campaign. He also has a respectable 140 points in 144 games which isn’t bad at all for a D-man. I’m not sure Sokolov will ever reach insane levels of play (or a positive +/- at this point) since I’ve mostly been giving him Welfare but he’s still interesting to me. It’s much different to be a defenseman when I never have before and so far I’ve been enjoying it more than I assumed I would. I thoroughly hope the future is as bright for Sokolov as his Sophomore year implied it could be. ---------- So, that’s everything. 7 players with careers ended, 1 that will be ending soon, and 1 just starting. In that time I’ve only managed 1 Hall of Fame introduction and 4 individual awards. I may not make superstars every time, and honestly this might prove to people that I don’t make many great players at all but it’s been a hell of a ride over the past 10 years and I can’t think of anything I would rather be doing with my time. Here’s to the next 10 years and the next generation of Beketov agency players. *For Sokolov