KaleebtheMighty

Lots of love Thad, I hope you’re doing well and I enjoyed GMing alongside you through the M, the beginning of the E, and now the VHL. You can always reach out if you need anything buddy!

It’s Thursday. 

Congratulations on a long successful tenure with Calgary, you’ve definitely made a mark on the franchise and the community as a whole. Good luck to your player and thank you for putting up with me and my trade discussions

While his VHLM career left some questions about his level of play, his VHLE season with Rome has removed most doubters. Dalkr Vidarsson stands to end the season as the best goaltender in the VHLE and could garner an award for that honor. He should end the season with the most wins for a goalie, the best save %, the best GAA for a full-time starting goaltender, and second in shutouts (with the potential to move to first depending on how the last sims go). Compared to his VHLM season, this is a huge jump forward for Dalkr.

Rome currently sits in 3rd place within the VHLE standings and will move onto the playoffs. The only question will be who they play, either Vasteras or Cologne. If they get just 1 point out of the final 2 games, they will remain in 3rd and play Cologne. If they lose out, Vasteras will be their opponent. While they do have a better regular season record against Cologne, Vidarsson shows no concern for which opponent he will face in the playoffs. Confidently, Dalkr is ready to continue his elite level of play and hopefully help guide Rome to a championship victory this post-season.

Claiming week 3: 12/10

28 minutes ago, Alex said:

can I get you to order yourself a pizza that you have to eat?

You know what....yeah if you win I'll do it lol

I'm back with a repeat from last year.

FREE PIZZA (final cost up to $25 USD) OF YOUR CHOOSING!

You tell me where and what kind of pizza, and I'll do my best to get you that pizza. And I promise not to judge you on your choice of toppings

@Beketov yep Justin Lion was our backup, played his 8 games then went to Vancouver

Claiming week 2: 12/3

Ultimately - as comments increase and opinions are shared - I appreciate all of the input here even when it’s one that disagrees with the ideas I mentioned. Always good to get feedback and express different ideas to better things here, even if I end up being wrong.

Thanks everyone!

Love the feedback! I'd like to at least say any of my suggestions and comments are not meant to call anyone out but provide constructive criticism or input on issues observed.

@Gustav you make some great points in your feedback. I would definitely mention that a role in the BOG should come with some experience as a VHL GM for a few seasons at least. That experience is crucial for understanding how things work. While having some involvement in the day to day aspects of a GM could be beneficial, it is the appearance to others outside of it that could draw questions. We have to wonder when a decision is released if bias was involved on multiple sides. Was a decision made involving those who are GMs because they brought their input in? Were decisions made against those GMs? From someone coming into a league, seeing a Gary Bettman equivalent acting as a BOG while also trying to GM a team like the Arizona Coyotes might not paint the best picture and cause extra scrutiny to be made over many decisions.

I'll admit - since you mentioned it - if I were to be offered a BOG job, I'd end my tenure in Malmo even if it was at the end of this season. Trust me, I'd love to stay, but it's the appearance of impartiality that helps benefit this league and I firmly believe that.

Second point, VHLM GMs still want to build a competing team. If a new player comes in and builds a player that isn't to the VHLM GMs liking, is the VHLM GM willing to let the player chart his own path while offering good suggestions to help them get better? Yes and no. Some do, some want to win. And that sometimes comes at the expense of the new player being told where exactly to put his TPE in order to fufill the role of the player that GM needs for that season. And then they have to try and progress forward.

I'll actually pull @BOOM's comment into this one as well on "assigning a mentor to a team". That could work as well! I just think the viewpoint of being a mentor needs to be separate from a GM trying to compete or rebuild, where the sole focus of the mentor is on the new player. And yes, a lot of those messages might go unanswered. That happens. But it's about providing that "service" to people that goes a long way with creating a community. If we're known for that, word of mouth might spread outside of our community to others looking for a group to join. You just never know.

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Again, the feedback is awesome and I think this is what the theme week was pushing for. Thank you all for weighing in!

22 minutes ago, Ahma said:

from what Kaleeb wrote about retention, maybe it could do good to separate M GMs from the "mentor" job

Exactly this. They need to be separate, since the VHLM GM is also focused on their team. It’s a lot easier to go ask for help from someone who reaches out to just chat about their player and how things work than the GM who could trade you or is trying to focus on multiple things at once

A hot topic indeed, recruitment is a beneficial theme where we as a league can look introspectively at our process and see what we can do differently. While my suggestion may not be a “this fixes everything” level idea, I think we can truly benefit from this.

Bringing in new players and people is tough right now. And Zetterberg’s call out of recruitment, while a bit intense, does bring to light some key issues. What exactly are we doing? Sure, seeing cool stats or graphics online through Instagram is neat as a current player/member, but if I’m on the outside looking in, what the heck am I looking at? Why would I get involved? What’s in it for me? We as a community struggle now with retention and getting people involved. And we struggle with bringing people in. There seems to be no good system to keep people here once they get here.

To put it bluntly, we need a recruitment and system overhaul.

To go into more depth, we need to look at a few things. I’ll break it down with some key aspects to look at along with some suggested fixes. Then of course, I’ll make some general points that I hope don’t come across as finger pointing but ones that I feel someone needs to make especially after having been a part of this community for a while.

RECRUITMENT

First up, let’s look at recruitment. Our current efforts have been…dismal. We need to focus on what exactly brings people in here to begin with. I look back at my own experience with how I discovered the VHL (reddit and we can’t do that anymore which sucks) but what made me pull the trigger to join was the community. I saw the comradery on the forum, in discord, and each team’s locker room. So I ask a question regarding recruitment…

How does someone on the outside now see this community if we are focusing on Instagram or Tik Tok?

Spoiler, they don’t. They have no idea what we’re doing minus the fact that you can make a player and have them participate in a sim league. They look at what we put out, are confused, or simply don’t get attached to it, and move on. Why would a random picture of Connor McDavid with a weird colored jersey and logo make me excited to go join this random sim league I see?

What we need to change and focus on with Instagram and Tik Tok is reels. We need some actual “ads” of the VHL where people are discussing the league, maybe taking a funny clip from a set podcast or blurb, and putting that on as a reel. We need to show the community of the VHL and hockey sim leagues, not just stats or cool pictures. Our target audience are more than likely people looking for a hockey community of some kind to spend time in. That’s what we need to showcase. And that starts to tip toe into my second notion…

RETENTION

This is another low point for us. We’re entering a realm where the cracks are beginning to show slightly, and all we can seem to do is point fingers at others and not do anything. We point out teams fielding low rosters, we single out users pushing a negative agenda, and we harm the community that makes us great. There is no responsibility taken, and the course does not alter. We need a change. A big change. Actually a few big changes across the board. I think we need to bring in another organization, tool, or job into this community that focuses on retention and maintaining the community. No, I’m not talking about mods keeping the peace. I’m talking about guides for new players and helpers who value this community and showcase the very best of us. There needs to be a new emphasis on a group experienced enough but level headed enough to bridge new players through their first few seasons.

Let’s run through a hypothetical of a user who joins for the very first time and is excited to get into it. We’ll call him Billy. Billy creates a new user and hops into the forum. He gets some fun messages from some people, maybe a VHLM GM, and gets waiver offers from a VHLM team. He joins, gets told in the Locker Room maybe how things should work (if he’s lucky) and is just kind of handed the keys to his own destiny and told “if you need help ask!”. Then he gets told he’s actually going to partake in 3 drafts in the offseason and suddenly has to try and figure out which team he’s playing for, earning TPE accordingly, builds for their player, etc. And now, after a season of getting help from a VHLM GM (again, maybe), he has to look around, figure some things out himself, and try to piece together a career. Who knows if anyone else is doing their job of assisting (we’ve discussed this point plenty of times before as well). Daunting? Absolutely, and it pushes people out.

VHLM GM’s are often tasked with this additional role, and it’s time consuming. We potentially need a separate group who are not aligned to a team that exists solely to work with new players on how the league works. I’m not saying they need to be on call all of the time for everyone, but like a “VHL Helpline” to answer questions and guide new players to a longer career here. This needs to be users who value the league and community far above their own player’s accolades or accomplishments to bring out the best in others.

What would also help a bunch are actual easy to follow guides for starting out. And I’m not talking about the point task guides. I’m talking about videos that walk you through in detail how to get started, how everything works, and what to expect at each phase of the VHL. It’s a big task and a bit of production, but having tutorial videos would help immensely with keeping people in the know when they first start out.

COMMUNITY

Here’s where I get to step on some toes after being fairly neutral for quite a long time. The VHL community is not completely free of bias. There is a trend to go with what is commonly viewed as the best with little to no other opinions. So here’s some other suggestions that I think would benefit how things are done here:

Members of the BOG should be completely free of other responsibilities. It is the duty of the BOG to remain impartial to dealings within a league to provide appropriate guidance for that league; being a GM can taint that level of oversight. I say this as a GM myself that, if I were to ever get to that level of responsibility, it would not be fair or correct to also hold a GM position in any league.

The community during the season is lackluster with no other events until theme week, and then we slowly churn through a season. If we want to help this community flourish, there needs to be more involvement on a weekly basis from higher ups that creates events or things for the community to look forward to. If we do the bare minimum, regardless of position or role, we will get the bare minimum, and the league will flounder until it is just the regulars doing the same thing. We need to give the extra push to keep people longer.

Attitudes need to be checked in certain positions. As responsibility increases, so do the characteristics you need to display. It is our duty (those who have been here awhile) to create an environment where everyone is welcomed, where everyone gets to participate, and where everyone enjoys their time, even at the expense of your own player and team. Especially at the expense of your own player and team if you are managing or in a key role within the community. If those wielding that responsibility abuse it or flaunt it to support their own gains, everyone else falls behind until only those in positions of power remain, creating a whirlpool where only the select few benefit.

I don’t like taking off my neutral hat, so after saying those things it’s going back on. There’s a lot to fix here and a lot to take in. But having been here now over 3 years, I think I have earned the ability to offer some input into multiple things. Each of the 3 categories need to be addressed in order to work towards bringing in more people and retaining them. I don’t have all of the answers, and some of mine may be wrong. Hell all of them may be wrong and I could be completely missing the mark. But the ship needs to be steered in another direction soon, or the path we are continuing on could spell dark times for the VHL ahead.

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Word count: 1,511 words | to be claimed for weeks 11/26, 12/3, and 12/10

On 11/8/2023 at 12:28 AM, GioSivo said:

(whoops meant to send this yesterday but i guess i didn't lol)

Ciao Roma! Back again for another season, that means its time for pressers!
 

1. How are you feeling about playing for Rome this season?

2. Are you happy with the captains and leadership decisions?

3. We're first in the league! How do you feel about that start?

4. Does your player wear a tinted visor?

5. Who would you consider our rivals?

 

6. If you could prank the GM of Rome without getting caught, what would you do? (don't tell baby bob)

 

1). Good! We've got a good team here and are consistently pushing for 1st place in the league!

2). Yes, again it's a great group here!

3). Loving it and let's keep on rolling!

4). As a goalie, no way lol. Gotta be able to see the puck well at all times.

5). For some reason I always enjoy our battles with Stockholm and Vasteras, so I'd say they are our rivals.

6). I'd fill his office with packing peanuts