Sljppers

Twelve Drummers Drumming

Well, I'd compare this to a kiss from a rose on the grey. The more I see of your graphics, the stranger it feels. And now another with Efex bloom? The vig of the gloom wins the day. BA YA YA BA DA

The render is crisp and the flare effects are well done. The text is a good choice and the rule of thirds is pretty well obeyed. I particularly like the background, the whole thing is fitting. One criticism I'd give, if it's constructive in any way, is that the contrast and balances behind the after effects looks really dark and vivid and the effects themselves wash the graphic out.. a lot. That same contrast in the graphics work is juxtaposed with the filters- is that a stylistic decision? Either way I'm sure he'll appreciate what you did here. Beyond that, with as much care as was put into the presentation why did you omit the logo swap? 8/10 (Reposted from here)

1. How was your thanksgiving? did it go exactly as you expected? Better, actually. We beer brine our turkey in Goose Island IPA and it turned out literally perfectly. Finished the left overs last night. No fights, played some cornhole. It was great. 2. How excited are you for the next holiday? I love the idea of Christmas, but the older I get the wider my eyes get at the bills after. And now I have a big house I have to string with lights. And two kids. It's a lot of work. But hopefully I get some headphones and get to see some smiling kids. 3. Since it's technically those cold weathers and warm drinks time. Coffee, Hot Coco or tea? and why? Definitely coffee, and by the gallon. I was a barista for like three years before I started bartending so it's a trained preference, though I always kind of disliked tea. Dark, Strong and Black. But not too hot. 4. Despite us being low, did you see any improvements so far this week that could boost us in the standings? We played a bot instead of our new pick up at Center, but that seems to have been rectified. Maybe find Luke Spinelli and shake him awake, or something. I'll make content for him to post, I don't care at this point. I'm going as hard as I can for that TPE, I know that. We just need bodies. 5. What is your players highest stat so far despite the lowly season? are they performing better or worse than expected? PIM, haha. But Erin is doing great for a first year as far as I'm concerned. 29 points in 27 games, with 3 game winners shooting at 14.42%; and 13 shots blocked. So better. Definitely better than expected. 6. What online (preferably free) games do you recommend our locker room could play so we could have some fun? Among Us is the best game to build up some camaraderie. Doesn't take a whole lot to play. It's free. Personally I'd rather just play some boardgames on Table Top Simulator, but heeyy. Thanks for posting the presser!

Hahaha, well. Damn. Good to know it exists! My bad man.

Did you have a source for the pic or did you do a facial morph for the new pose? Great work all the same, though I think the logo could be slightly less transparent. Really nice.

Both of these guys seem like really upstanding dudes. I hope the best for the Rush outside of their Mississauga games, for now. Great interview questions, and thank you so much for posting this! The formatting really does the job better than having added something like M: and F: to each of the lines. Thanks for posting this, it's a great insight into the operation of another team.

Transaction ID: 20446863013858729 $1 Million Store Money 5 Uncapped TPE Doubles Week

The render is crisp and the flare effects are well done. The text is a good choice and the rule of thirds is pretty well obeyed. I particularly like the background, the whole thing is fitting. One criticism I'd give, if it's constructive in any way, is that the contrast and balances behind the after effects looks really dark and vivid and the effects themselves wash the graphic out.. a lot. That same contrast in the graphics work is juxtaposed with the filters- is that a stylistic decision? Either way I'm sure he'll appreciate what you did here. Beyond that, with as much care as was put into the presentation why did you omit the logo swap? 8/10

+10 Erin Esurance

This is a very useful little exposé on both the players and trophies that I, personally, had wondered about. Incredibly apropos timing on the article! Hell, really, there should be a link from the trophies in player profiles to this post just to explain what they mean to people who are new like myself. The writing itself was engaging and thoughtful, with a Sports History tone in the very words. Incredible writing, formatting, and use of pictures to frame the text. Thanks so much for writing it! 10/10

This took me forever to make. The jersey recolor was really daunting and the person's face is a random AI generation and she didn't really have a neck so I had to source that, too. Rough one. Took theming from @Zetterberg's work titled "Mississauga_background.png" for the jersey from an earlier work of his. I was going to keep this for a full graphic PT submission but I just dropped a 2000 word media spot and I don't want to not share. Sources: https://www.candgnews.com/storage/cache/articles/82087/1200GirlsHockeyFinals.jpg https://www.thispersondoesnotexist.com/ And the Mississauga Background from Google somewhere but I can't find it again. Sorry to the Photographer. This image obviously isn't being used for any monetary purposes and is solely in the realm of personal use.

2068 Words, will claim for weeks ending Dec 6, Dec 13, Dec 20, Dec 27. Unless I can break that up. I like doing graphics. I don't think I can break it up though, right? Please let me know.

So it's stated over and over, max skating, puck handling, and defense. Erin Esurance is brand new, and my first foray into the VHL space. I made a small spreadsheet to analyze the statistics of the 74th season of the VHL and how previous Left Wing players have shaken out for our last season. We're all standing on the shoulders of giants to some respect, the newest of us more than others. Does the common wisdom hold true? One thing worth mentioning, something that could have deleterious effects on the implications of this data is that the teams aren't analyzed, the teammates for each of these LWs are obviously particularly important to the points they generate and thusly this analysis is mostly meaningless. However, we will see a truly breakout performance most anyone with a bit of interest in the statistics of the VHL is already aware of, as well as a particular steal of a draft pick based on average performances for the left wings of the league over the last five seasons. This analysis was mostly for my personal benefit, and this article is likely going to be a rambling mess, because I have not personally written anything to merit review in, at best, the last ten years. Firstly, let's start with the averages. As previously mentioned, team strength is not taken into account. Noting, of course, that we can't capture each player's rookie statistics and thusly our averages will also skew based on activity. Similarly, players with no playing time in S74 are going to be omitted. Of note, those players are Rookies Chris Reynolds and Kasey Tamm, as well as second year backup Michael Hall. A more in depth analysis is the realm and work of those better suited to statistical analysis than myself, of course. I am, humbly, a bartender. This is not my profession nor passion, but I do enjoy making spreadsheets for fun. Were, perhaps, I a better statistician I could leverage that hobby into a revenue stream and my wife would be very glad for it; rather than angry at my staring deeply into my computer screen long into the night trying to intuit formulae that I simply do not otherwise know into meaningful data to help my two week old player achieve honors totally unfitting her meme derived and otherwise unheralded pedigree. I also have no idea how to insert tables into a post on these forums, apparently. So I'll just link the spreadsheet here. This is a common problem I have been having here. If somebody actually bothers to read this Cronenberg of an article, please do me the service of remediating my boomer nonsense and teaching me how the code function works. It would make this article, and every one following, a lot more visually interesting. The average LW is taken with the 19th pick in the draft, and will be expected to contribute about 52 Points through a combination of 23 Goals and 29 Assists. The average LW will effectively omit Fighting, Discipline, Face Offs, and Penalty Shot with a total investiture between the four statistics of twelve points. Then, in order of importance, the average LW will invest in Scoring, Defense, Skating, and Puck Handling. The average LW is also 6'2" and 203 lbs. The MVP of each set of drafted LW's per season based solely on point performance since S68 are Ondrej Ohradka (S68), Patrik Tallinder (S69), Damien Wolfe (S70)*, Squirrely Dan (S71), Robin Winter (72), Marshall James Frostbeard (S73), and Aloe Dear. Let us give a special mention to Groovy Dood (S73) who matched Frostbeard in points, with a very slight disadvantage in goals vs. assists. The average MVP of each bracketed LW is taken with the 15th pick in the draft, and will be expected to contribute about 79 Points through a combination of 36 Goals and 43 Assists. The MVP LW will effectively omit Fighting, Discipline, Face Offs, and Penalty Shot with a total investiture between the four statistics of ten points, with a notable reduction from the average in Fighting, Discipline, and Penalty Shot, and a two point increase in Face Offs. Then, in order of importance, the average MVP LW will invest in Scoring, Defense, Skating, and Puck Handling. Of note, our MVP LW spends three points less on Checking than the average LW, and has eight points more in Strength. As well, our MVP LW has about 103 more TPA than the average. Our MVP LW is 6'1" and 195 lbs. One mention I'd like to amend here, is the breakout performance of Ondrej Ohradka (S68). He was drafted 44th in S68, and yet slashed through defenses with 30 Goals and 45 Assists for a combined 80 Points. He did this with as far as we can see only 548 TPA, invested mainly in Scoring 98, Defense 90, Skating 82, Puck Handling 82, Passing 80 and Checking 62. That TPA is likely reduced from last season, as he has 932 TPE. However, congratulations to a great player for bucking the averages and over-performing for his draft position. The point leading LW of the 74th Season of the VHL's regular season was Patrik Tallinder (S69), and congratulations to Patrik Tallinder (Acct.) for that feat. He was taken with the 10th pick of the draft, and contributed an astounding 127 Points through a combination of 53 Goals and 74 Assists. Patrik also effectively omitted Fighting, Discipline, Face Offs, and Penalty Shot with a total investiture between the four statistics of four points, with only two points in Discipline and Face Offs. He is a TPA monster, with 828 invested in Scoring, Skating, Puck Handling, Defense, Strength and Passing . Mr. Tallinder spent less on Face-Off, Checking, and Discipline than the average MVP LW. He has a total investment of 241 more TPA than the mvp average and 345 more than the average LW. Interestingly, he has less TPA than a players Jim Bob, Thomas Landry II, and Soren Jensen. Our point leader is also 6'1" but weighs only 175 lbs; twenty pounds lighter than the average class mvp and twenty eight pounds lighter and an inch shorter than the average LW. So what does this tell us, the average plebeian newb with no insight into the league overall, no understanding of previous winners, lines, team strategies? Nothing. Not really. As I mentioned before none of this data tells us the real story of a player because ours is a team game. However, if one was to prototype their LW it may be of note the specifics of size. Maybe bigger isn't better? But the mantra, Skating, Puck Handling, Scoring and Defense seems to ring alarmingly true, to the deference of extraneous points in other statistics. And of course, now is the time where, noticing the length of my article, I attempt to pad the word count in order to alleviate myself of the problematic weekly demands on my time. Anyone with a High School education can do this, really; though perhaps it is called Secondary in Canada? Irrespective, the final year of our nascent education before we are cast into the real world. But now the demands of our review process are drastically less stringent, and the flowery niceties once relegated behind the garish banner of a red pen mark by a professor or teacher can instead flourish in the warming embrace of reward. Called to, for your writer’s personal purposes, I suppose an extra six or twelve training points; should we get there in the following. Of all of the players in my spreadsheet, which I certainly hope you glanced at because it took longer to put together than actually writing this, we highlighted the performances of seven. The previous years’ best point-totaling Left Wing players were from Ondrej Ohradka, Patrik Tallinder, Damien Wolfe, Squirrely Dan, Robin Winter, Marshall James Frostbeard/Groovy Dood, and Aloe Dear. Where, exactly, do they stack up 24-26 games deep into season 75? Ondrej Ohradka is in his fifth year with the Prague Phantoms, his sixth in total. He is 61st overall in the VHL in points, posting 22 in 25 games, scoring 0.59 every given twenty minutes of ice time. Due to Mr. Tallinder’s specific exclusion, we’ll save his statistical heralding for a bit later, and move along to Damien Wolf; who despite having the ignominious award for being the only LW drafted in S70 still posts a 96th in the league 18 points over his 24 games. Squirrely Dan, our standout for being drafted with the 22nd pick of S71 posts a respectable 22 points in 24 games, though he is only hitting 6.77% of his shots with nine out of 133, he is averaging 0.63 points per twenty minutes of ice time. Robin Winter has posted the lowest yet of our little “Where are they now,” coming in at 123rd as of 11/30 for the Dynamo, despite demanding a second round pick only three season ago in 72, with fifteen points and 0.46 points per twenty minutes of ice time. Marshall James Frostbeard’s highest point total of the season 73 LW drafts in S74 came off a sixteenth round pick for the Malmo Nighthawks and he currently manages the team, boasting the 59th position with 23 on 25 games. However, perhaps the Managers know what they’re doing, his counterpart pick Groovy Dude who commanded the top pick of the entire draft in 73 now boasts the very top billing of the 75th season in both points with 41 and points per twenty minutes of ice time at and astounding 1.27, leading the next best scorer per the time they play by a boggling 0.18 goals. And we would be remiss to not mention Aloe Dear who went first in the draft only a season ago. He is currently leveraging 22 points on 25 games for the Warsaw Predators, cementing him at 68th in the league as of the time of this writing. Last season’s first place draft pick however is posting a very solid 0.74 goals per twenty minutes on the ice, beating out a full 143 other players in the league and setting the young player at 40th in that metric of the rankings. Patrik is not having as stunning a season from the outset of S75, now playing for Calgary after five seasons on the lines of Riga; with 25 points in 26 games, scoring 0.69 P/20 minutes. However, with such a standout performance last season we can only expect him to bounce back. Calgary's still second in the North American conference, as well, so a diminished early performance may not indicate too much. My nearly autistic analyses since the beginning of my time in this league have led me to understand and agree with the didacts, by and large, though some deeper inspection over on the SimonT site and the words of a member on their forums leads me to believe that perhaps the VHL values Skating a bit more highly than it should. I intend to follow the same footsteps as many of these great Left Wings, with only a small break in the build away from the norms. The meta is seemingly stale, however: The average MVP LW’s Skating/Passing/Shooting weights are 34.72%, 27.98%, and 37.3% respectively. The difference separating an MVP caliber draft pick and your average LW from the Minors? A total disparity of 2% different decision making. That means just about every single LW in the league is going to Skate about a third of the time they have the puck, pass a little more than a quarter, and shoot a little less than two fifths of the time. At the end of this analysis I can say I hope in the future we can at least come to modify our builds in more meaningful ways, and that the TPA totals’ bloat wanes a bit. It’s only so interesting to compare 90/70/95/90 in so many myriad ways. And that's where I come to ask for your, dear readers, responses and input. What did I miss? What would you have liked to see that would have made this read more enticing? What conceptual failure did I make in this analysis? I welcome any criticisms or comments, constructive or otherwise. Do you think there's any place for a meta-breaking build at left wing? From this brief analysis, I do not think so, as a person entirely new to this simulation and this community; but I hope somebody proves me wrong.

Thanks for keeping us rando newbies in mind. Listened to this whole thing.

Season 76 seems to be a breakout year for the Philadelphia Reavers, with the rest of the next three trailing teams of the Eastern Conference all in a battle for second place separated by a game or less. The Hounds, however, seem to be boasting a strong performance of their new set of first year wingers, despite the team taking a notable seventeen goals against them compared to second place Halifax. Both Eeli Rantanen and Erin Esurance are putting together a strong point performance with a combined 48 points in the last 20 games between the two playing opposite zones of one another. With 14 goals and a game winner, and 11 goals and two game winners on the season, respectively; the two promising forwards still have some work to do in catching up with the Minnesota Storm's first year players Joseph Sharkton and Ron World Peace III and their combined 60 points. However, AGM Bacon of the Hounds has been quoted saying, "If these two young Forwards can keep up the pace of their training, they'll be great." The jury is out in the league, with two young agents representing the players. But, if the two Left Wings can improve their play on the defensive side of the ice, Season 76 looks like it may be a shining year for the Hounds' rookies.

Her career didn’t start on skates, or on the ice. Hardly even within the realm of athletics, infact. Hot to the scene on the back of a featherweight contract in a ring of heavyweight goliaths, born in the spring of the Bay Area in San Francisco, California, Erin made her first mark. From 2004, she would don the visage of a pink haired spy as the company spokesperson for an, at the time, relatively unknown auto insurer. With a scant bit of steam behind her, her polling numbers priming her tumult, she tore through the circuits of the media maelstrom, punishing viewers for even briefly forgetting her name in an unapologetic black catsuit. But her meteoric catapult had an arc of finality. Erin took the hot embers of fame into her hands on very thin ice. She’d be born of a demographic targeting campaign, after all, targeted to men from 18-24, and there are really only two things that appeal to them universally. The scandal was plastered across the net, reaching a budding internet community at record pace. Her audacious lascivious actions cost her dearly; and being a pedantic little vixen hardly sold insurance anyway. Her work slowed down, though she managed to retain some slots, some tandem projects with people like Kim Possible, her old workmates, and Dennis Quaid. But her days were numbered. Her contract was pulled, and she was discarded from the now widely publicized company like cup winning memorabilia for the losing team. She did the rounds on the net, taking part of whatever jobs may come her way for the last few years, the vibrant lustre of her crisp young eyes dulled and distorted by her time being passed around on the internet. But there was light. A way not out, but in redemption. Certainly, what was done could never be undone, but there was no trial on this vast, endless sea of opportunity that could not at least be met and acceded to. Hell, she has been a spy, fought an incredible amount of crime, monsters, she owned a motorcycle, had gone surfing, snowboarding, playing basketball even.. Well, playing hockey against robots! With all of that experience under her belt, and the curves of, if not the personality of a paperclip, she found a sparkling gem of an opportunity. She was decent for a rookie on skates, and could handle a puck as that was all that was ever asked of her. But beyond that she had no skills of mention whatsoever before being picked up from her home in the States to the land of Tim Hortons, Maple Leaves, and communist Healthcare. She aims to be an integral part of lines for the Mississauga Hounds; proving to the Coaches and to herself that the random beaten dog of a meme they found lying in the gutter could in fact become a shining beacon of triumph in the face of immeasurable obscurity and nostalgia, not to mention the shambles of a roster left on the team, but at least she’s had experience playing with bots before. At least she gets time on the ice. But the road up is steep and slippery; who knows if she’ll be able to keep up the pace of training without tripping and backsliding into Rule 34? Perhaps together, we shall soon find out. “Accipite pretium. Emptio. Fac esse duplicatam.” I definitely don't know how to add pictures into the article on this forum.

I've got to disagree a bit on the last statement in the sentiment above this. I think the work is very, very good, and the ice effect is evident in the background. The coloring is perfect to produce contrast and the balance is done well with the vignettes on either side of the player, which is enhanced with the x detailing and the really nice font selection for his name. Fair layering. I couldn't ask for more out of a graphic, outside of the VHL graphic on his collar not sharing the same perspective as the rest of his pose and the only other point would be that the vignette fade effect is a bit evident, with the fade out a bit too stark near the outer edges. But that's a super minor thing. This work is of a quality for me, personally, to aspire to. 9.5/10

When you're doing an image flip, when that image has writing or numbering it's pretty important to replace or freeze the letters or numbers to prevent them from appearing mirrored. That wasn't done here and personally I think it detracts a bunch from the work as a whole. If you don't know how to make that happen, I think you could read up a little tutorial for yourself for the future. There's a bit of artifact problems around the text, logo, and player as well, but the selection around the player himself and the logo is very clean so I can tell you can improve. Compression creates this problem, so I'm assuming you saved the image at a lower quality than what you were working in. The background coloring also flows into the logo, which I'm not sure was intentional. Photo editing is hard, and I'm not trying to be pedantic. I hope some of this helps! 6/10

Person's face is computer generated, all work done in pixlr over the last six hours or so. Haven't done any graphic editing since college. (Source Img)

1. What are you thankful for in everyday life? Well, I'm thankful for my kids and the wife and to be fortunate enough to generally not worrying about much. House just got paid for so that's a big one. 2. What are your plans for thanksgiving? Uhg, we're hosting the family. So the last couple days have just been cleaning and cooking. But with the kids that lasts for about two hours before everything reverts to it's natural state. 3. what do you plan on getting during the black friday sales? Hopefully nothing but I am positive I will be dragged out for it. Honestly I haven't gotten anything for anyone for Christmas yet, so maybe it's not the worst idea. 4. Do you think we need to fix the lines, or wait until we start dominating like last year? Well I don't know about the last year, but I think we're worse? I know giving me minutes doesn't really help anyone but I certainly appreciate the ice time. 5. How has VHL helped get you through 2020 so far? It really hasn't, but I'm very new. It's probably going to force me to be more creative, I guess, than I would have otherwise been. Frankly I'm not looking forward to that, haha. However, it is giving me a better bearing to keep track of time in unemployment. 6. Which player on the team would you buy a gift for and what kind of gift? DanDan, Eeli, and Jordan all give me something to shoot for. But if inhad to choose just one player, it's going to be to our goalie look. I'd buy them one of those kind of annoying analog puzzles, which you have to get the ring off those metal bars in some incredibly unconventional way, or something.

Accept. I definitely was scared off the goalie, yes. Haha.

Player Information Username: Sljppers Player Name: Erin Esurance Recruited From: Other (Google Play) Age: 16 Position: LW Height: 68 in. Weight: 140 lbs. Birthplace: United States of America Player Page @VHLM GM

Player Information Username: Sljppers Player Name: Odin Jordan Recruited From: Other (Google Play) Age: 16 Position: G Height: 74 in. Weight: 210 lbs. Birthplace: United States of America Player Page @VHLM GM