jacobcarson877

Awesome stuff!

Landon Wolanin

#3

This might be the first time I have ever left a TPE opportunity until Sunday, and it really is harder to write something with the time limit of getting it in before affiliate updates go through. I’m home for reading week, so I’ve been spending a lot of time so far chatting with my dad about the league and catching up on all of the London/Calgary/San Diego news, and talking about some of the lovely league drama that we all love and crave. In particular we talked about GMs, and what we can actually expect from them. Obviously the league as a group of players should expect GMs to meet a certain standard that is much higher than the league as a ruling entity can truly enforce. Players should expect a GOOD experience, the league should expect an adequate one. The real question comes for those GMs that fall in between those 2 thresholds. Not fireable by any means, but lack the self-awareness or the external awareness to pass the torch onto someone else. Being a GM isn’t meant to be a special privilege for people to take on to have some more fun for themselves. It is an obligation to guide and foster a good VHL experience for their player base. And I hope that one day that’ll be the standard we can hold GMs to, but considering the historical bar of firings, that just isn’t the precedent we have held in the past.

Welcome!

Welcome back!

da bears?

Welcome to the VHL!

Hoping to see a whole bunch of old faces returning! Great idea by the team! So crazy to see how many people have been involved with the site over the years, and how both huge and tiny the current community is.

1. It hasn't really inspired anything that I'll call a "must see" yet, so not great so far. 2. With how randomly Simon has rewarded/scorned us, it has been hard to put together a good pattern to assign a rivalry to. I think my default answer is always Seattle though. 3. I mean I would have hoped my efforts would be enough, but it seems Simon was against us from the start. 4. I love to get myself in front of the net for some tap-ins/deflections. 5. I actually haven't watched anything in a while, but I promised myself that I'm going to continue my Gilmore Girls binge... eventually. 6. Chicken fried chicken? I'm essentially abandoning beef as a whole both for financial and nutritional reasons, so I've been leaning on chicken and turkey to fill the void for the most part.

Couple hours earlier and you would've been mentioned in my First Gen Roundup! Great work, and hope you and your buddy keep up the great work and stick around!

Hoping we can meet expectations by the end of the season!

That makes a lot of sense, I wondered why we had related player names haha. Always nice to have some friendly competition and someone to push you forward!

As we all know by now, we’re in a bit of a recruitment dip. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have some awesome new members in the league this season! Obviously I could write thousands of words about my Marlins, and they are all incredible, but I wanted to highlight some of the OTHER talent in the VHLM this season that has caught my eye! This is by no means a comprehensive list. Alex Carlson @Dack – Houston Bulls Get used to the name Dack folks. This member has joined the league by STORM, slamming out task after task, and coming up with one of the best single week performances we’ve seen this season. If this level of TPE addiction can keep up, we may have a star on our hands. You could even see Carlson in the VHLE next season at this rate. Liv Slater @Subject056 – Houston Bulls Subject056 has found her footing in the league, and has become a beacon of positivity around the league. A consistent earner, with a great mentorship team, and may as well be a surefire VHLer in the coming seasons. If nothing else, she loves to stop by and spread kindness, leaving comments and reactions on almost every post I see. Rip Wheeler @ScottyP – Las Vegas Aces If you like what you see in Thunder and Scurvy, you’ll love the newest addition to their group, in ScottyP. He has been earning well so far, and again has an awesome mentorship group to get him VHL-ready. He writes relatable, inspired content, and should be an entertaining story to watch over the seasons. Dank Turtle @DankTurtle – Mexico City Kings DankTurtle has begun to make his mark on the high-flying Mexico City Kings, and has been earning consistently, asking great questions, and providing valuable insight into what it is to be a first gen in the league today. Surely someone who will do well this season, and should continue to be an important player for the championship-vying Kings. Alex DeLuca @Deluca – Mexico City Kings Alex DeLuca may be a bit more risky than some of the other ones on this list, at least at the point of writing this, but coming into the league and being willing to put out a graphic, and for it to be a good one at that, leaves me some amount of confidence that this will be a strong VHL player in the future. While there is a lot more to do, and the rest of the week to begin to showcase that all-important consistency, a strong first week is always a good sign. Sergei Romanov @WithARevelYell – Ottawa Lynx Another one of those members that comes in and makes a graphic and really inspires some confidence in me, that they’ll see the learning curve through and become a great member. With the Graphic getting approved and another TPE somewhere, this member will be at the First Gen Bonus already this week. That is such an important marker in the VHLM, and shows a lot of promise. So yes, the recreate class for this draft is basically non-existent. I wouldn’t blame you for trying to trade out and try again another draft, but those who stick around, there is definitely some talent that should prove to be high-round worthy, and with some mentorship, consistency and recognition, there is a wealth of first-gen talent waiting in the VHLM.

Oh we're rivals, but that's a good thing in my books!

LETS GOOOOOO

1. It has also been rough, midterm season is upon me and outside of school stuff has been a disaster. 2. Absolutely! If we keep working hard we can keep up with anyone in the league. 3. I'm a bit unsure of that answer myself. Depends on how this week goes with inactivity, and what roster configuration we want to go with. 4. I'm actually pacing worse than I was last season, but I'm well on pace to hit 300 points in the VHL! 5. I love Prague's logo, it is perfect in every way. 6. Rihanna was great, glad to see she's doing wonderfully, and with a new baby on the way???

for the inevitable second claim (i need an affiliate PT)

I am now also curious as to which team it thinks it is? Based on the spreadsheet on VHLM Playoff History you're absolutely correct.

Hey! Just so you know, you can join a team from this link any time! Just pick a team that is open for your position and it will make a chat with you and the GMs, and they'll send you a contract! https://vhlportal.com/teams/waivers

Instead of listing off a bunch of people who I think are my rivals, which spoiler alert, is mostly just a list of people I’ve competed against that inspire me, which is nearly the same list as the list of people I wrote about for that other Theme Week where we talked about who we appreciate. Instead I want to talk about the value of rivalries in a sim league. With sims coming daily, and roughly 2 games a sim, we pump out games quite quickly. A quick check of the boxscores and boom, you can have seen everything you needed to see in a couple minutes. It can be pretty easy to fall into that trap, and begin to lose interest in the details, and just focus on the goals and assists. But what makes sims interesting, and what makes the league structure as a whole interesting, is seeing how each individual action shapes the events that lead to the outcomes we get. At some point the switch turns on and we all start watching other people’s results to try to see how they affect ours. But something I try to do, as I continue to get to know more members, even if it is from just seeing their PTs, or seeing messages on Discord, or hearing about them from their GMs, is try to begin to pinpoint the people involved in each game. At least a few of them, to keep things interesting. I try to form a little rivalry, sometimes it only lasts for a game, sometimes for a long time, just to bring some narrative element to the sims. We need someone to compete against, and feel like it isn’t our AI vs their AI. We need metaphorical faces for the names we see. When I see someone on the other team score multiple goals, that should stick. We are our own commentators in these games, we make the stories and tell them through our content. How boring would sports be if no one found and reported the stories? Who would make those cool intros for Hockey Night in Canada? Even when 2 completely unrelated teams play each other, there is always some story, and for us to enjoy the VHL those are the stories we need to tell. We need to pit ourselves against each other, not in anger, but in cooperative narrative enjoyment. We need to build ourselves a series of bits, that every day we can foster and check in on. The best rivalries are mutual ones. When both people commit to making each other’s experience more interesting, and wanting to beat each other out in fair competition, it inspires both people to work harder and be better members in the league. When whole teams form rivalries, it can be fun to watch people come out of their shells to earn a little more TPE for the contest. Thinking of past playoff matchups or blowout games, or teams that have eliminated you from the playoffs, and maybe even won the draft lottery. Those make up quite a large list, and I encourage everyone to find something or someone on every team that they can be a rival against, even just for a game.

Please come back