Toast

This picture is huge but a MS needs an image and this is how I feel about the VHL right now. The past season has seemed to fly by but also drag on at the same time for me. I find myself in the same spot where I have been the past few weeks and that is wondering what to write with the clock ticking before the deadline and mostly just doing this to make sure that I don't fall behind. Just last season I was going into the off-season really feeling like I was one of the top prospects available and I think Seattle picking me high in the first round really showed that the work I was putting into the league was paying off. I have had some dud players where I lost my interest and I'm glad that so far, it seems that is behind me. I am dedicated to turning Dawson into hopefully my best player on the league and putting the tarnished reputation behind me. These last few weeks though or I suppose the season overall... has been rough to put it plainly. Compared to my rookie season where I was on a thriving team and the Draft at the end of the road, my excitement has really taken a hit. That's not saying anything against the league, Miami or Seattle but more of a personal thing I guess. I've put more free time into other responsibilities and between work and other things, I have been putting VHL on the backburner to panic about at the end of the week and I need to find a way to stop that. I realized it was a problem when I signed on three/four weeks ago and realized that I had missed the theme week all together and blew an opportunity to get some nice uncapped TPE. That started a spiral of claiming welfare for a couple weeks because I was not investing enough time in the VHL to really come up with anything that was sparking my interest to write. That's probably why I'm opting for the diary style media right now because I'm waiting for something to spark me up again. Dawson will be making the jump to Seattle next season and I should try to be more involved in the Discord there to really give it a fair shot. I guess the point overall of this media submission is to force myself to think about why I have hit some sort of slump and to claw my way out of it. I know that I have the time to really make Dawson into something special (at least in comparison to my previous players) and I want to do whatever I can to help the teams that were willing to take a shot on me. It has definitely been a bit of a bump in the road this season but I'm looking forward to being a pro player now. Maybe it was staying back a season and not being able to spend any of the points I earned? Regardless, I'm not blaming anyone/anything for the recent lack of effort. If you read my rambling thoughts, thank you! Hopefully you're having a fantastic time on the league because it's special to see so many Discords thriving. Maybe I'll start there and we can get Dawson back on track.

My last Miami PC... 1. It wasn't meant to be. I'm slow to answer these and unfortunately Yukon were the better team. Hopefully Miami grows from this and comes back next post-season even stronger. 2. Dawson had a good post-season as well. I wanted to see him really go off and think that could've helped us more but at least he did what he could. 3. Our's because we're not advancing and I hate it! 4. Bad luck. Someone get him some find my phone devices next season so Miami is never eliminated. 5. One younger brother. 6. Arctic Monkeys

Phoenix Dawson will be making the jump to the VHL with the elimination of the Marauders at the hands of the Yukon Rush. Dawson was the 77th-overall pick to Miami in his draft and would end up becoming the captain in Miami and now will sit in the top 5 of the team for overall scoring (until dethroned by others). Dawson will now join a growing Seattle team with fellow prospects from his class like Phil Johnson and Hex Rose. Dawson will slot in with a few minutes on the ice for the team but seems to be someone the team can rely on for the future as they become cup contenders. "I'm excited to see what's waiting for me in Seattle," said Dawson. "I know that I'm ready to jump to the VHL level. I'm grateful to the team and leadership in Miami for believing that I could be someone they could rely on. It's disappointing that we weren't able to win it all but I think we surpassed people's expectations with this season. There are a bunch of people on that team I believe in and I really think Miami will continue to grow"

Thanks for everything in Miami @Ricer13 @tinafrombobsburgers! I'm going to miss the team but I know everyone is in good hands with @Shiny!

Before the season began, Miami stripped down their roster. A lot of players set to return were shipped out for picks or other players who might have another season in the M ahead of them. There wasn’t much expected of the team as the only returning player was Phoenix Dawson. However, with some draft success, free agent acquisitions and some trades to get some more proved talent on the team, Miami finds themselves heading into the post-season. The team was not expected to find too many wins through the season ended up in fifth place for the league. The 37 wins was enough to get the team above the .500 mark and found a positive goal differential of 6. The team found some great success on the top line with Alexander the Great and Phoenix finding each other for almost 80 goals through the season. If that success can keep up through the post-season it’s possible we will see the Marauders going on another possible championship winning run? It will come down to if Miami can keep up the chemistry and their goal scoring ability. Regardless of the result, it seems Miami will be pleased with the success of their season.

1. I'm slow on this again but we definitely got it going! Heading into playoffs now well ahead of expectations for the team prior to the start of the season. 2. Absolutely. The GMs did great building up our team and I think we really found some chemistry together. 3. Dawson won it! Not quite 40 goals but it's good to see my player doing what he can to help lead Miami. 4. I think it's worthwhile. The team has been in there for majority of our games so let's hope it all stays together going through post-season. 5. Dusty Rhodes 6. Cats but it doesn't stop me from owning one so I guess it's not severe!

Do any of you feel like you’re just going through the motions? I think because I’m stuck at the cap waiting to jump to the VHL that I’m finding my second season to be dull compared to the first. This is nothing against my teams, but more so just a lull I’m going through I suppose. I didn’t even realize that there was a theme week going on until signing on right now to do my tasks quickly the hour before they are due. The start of the year always seems to be a low point for me. The rush of the holidays and seeing this community come together brought a ton of joy to me and now it’s the recovery period I suppose. I’m excited to get into this later part of the season and get going into the next season. I’m hoping that will spark me back up and I’ll be back to my top earning ways like my first season with Dawson. I really just need to not procrastinate and give VHL time at the start of the week instead of leaving things until the last minute. Anyways, I hope you all had a great week and a good Valentine’s! Until next time.

CHANGES LOOMING IN SEATTLE? Phoenix Dawson is one of the VHLM prospects in the Seattle system set to graduate following this season SEATTLE, WA — The Bears seem to be on a cusp of another solid run as they are currently sitting fourth in the North American conference and have plenty of future looking to graduate to the Bears in the upcoming season. The question facing the team is what are they going to do in terms of roster space? In the S76 VHL Entry Draft the Seattle Bears were busy in the first round alone. They acquired Hex Rose and Phil the Rock Johnson who are currently playing limited minutes with the Bears as well as Miami center Phoenix Dawson. Seattle also saw some luck in the second round being able to draft MacGruber with the 24th selection and Alexander the Great at 30th. Currently in the Miami, Dawson and Alexander have found chemistry on the ice and are leading their team in scoring with Dawson in the top 10 of the league overall at the moment. The prospect pool are thriving right now and will be hungry to crack the Seattle roster. The problem facing Seattle is who will be the players that are determined to be the ones that can be set free? Majority of the roster is younger players from S74 on and now the S75/S76 prospects will be wanting time on the ice as well. Seattle also flipped their pick in the S77 draft to acquire Leo Strauss from Toronto. With all of this depth at center, it will not be surprising when Seattle’s hand is forced to move a couple of these younger players to competitors simply because there won’t be room on the roster. The only aging players in Seattle’s offense are center Vin Calia, who has already been switched over to wing to make room for the younger core and captain Jim Bob who will likely be sticking around in Seattle as one of their consistent scorers. This means that Seattle will likely be assessing their prospect pool over the season to determine which prospects are most likely to pan out while others may be moved to bring back picks that are further down the road so Seattle can focus on the development of their current crop of players. As things stand it seems that Dawson and Logan Moore are the two prospects guaranteed to make the jump to the pros next season while MacGruber, Alexander and a handful of other prospects could be very close behind them. While there is room to wiggle with the prospects on defense, there is definitely a log-jam at offense at Seattle and teams must already be well aware of this possible problem looming for the team. This will definitely be something to follow as the trade deadline looms and over the off-season as Seattle will continue to build towards a force in the league. The only question for the team is which young stars will be on board for the journey?

As Miami went through a retooling in the pre-season, there weren’t many that expected the team to be able to keep up with the top teams in the league. With the success of the team’s draft picks and center Phoenix Dawson, the team seems to be picking up some steam and showing the league otherwise. With the most recent set of games, Dawson has broken into the top 10 scorers in the league with his 58 points through just 36 games so far this season. This is still far behind the success that Theodore Hoffman is seeing in Ottawa, but it seems that Dawson’s game continues to evolve the more time that he spends in Miami. Dawson will be graduating to the Seattle Bears following the season, but it seems that he is determined to do whatever he can on the ice to make sure that the team has a fair shot at another Cinderella run through the playoffs. With some free agent acquisitions and some possible trades in the works, watch Miami to become the dark horse team through the playoffs. If they can continue finding success on the ice, they may even go into the post-season as one of the favourites to win.

1. Well I'm answering this a little late and this gap has almost doubled but I'm really happy with the effort the team is putting in! 2. Alex the Great and Dawson are both pulling off fantastic games. I'll have to pat myself on the shoulder here as I think Dawson is doing an excellent job in that two-way build I imagined. 3. Pick up some capable defenders to really help with this push into the post-season. 4. Spoilers: They got two points 5. Two. A miniature schnauzer and a cat! 6. Jacksonville Jaguars

1. Yes, we're finding our groove and I feel like this will keep playing. 2. Alexander the Great is playing like a star and Shiny is a fantastic LR member. 3. Every other team in the league because no one comes to mind. 4. No because we are a team fighting to be at the top but I wish it was higher. 5. 5'11" 6. Holiday spirit and stuff really feels nice

10/10 appreciate a GM willing to give people a bit of insight behind the moves. While this doesn't have specific information (shame) about what went down and why this had to happen... hopefully we'll get into it sometime later.

10/10 @Ricer13what incredible work. This is something that should be pinned here and bookmarked by any first gen member for reference. Flows nicely with the colours, spacing and direct links. Fantastic stuff.

The Return of Victory 3… A long, long time ago I used to write for the VHL Magazine. This was released to the VHL community weekly and consisted of several types of articles and editorials. I think a favourite of the league was the TPE lottery that was included but I also like to believe that a favourite of everyone’s was the Victory 3. This was a quick article that would rehash the “need to know” news of the week to the readers and sometimes it would be repetitive of the headline columns, but it gave people a quick summary of what was going on. I wrote this piece for the Magazine for I want to say two years or so (thank you @STZ)? Someone may need to fact check that, but it was definitely a long run! I figured as I have struggled to think about what exactly what I want to write each week for media, I have decided that I am hijacking the article and turning this into a weekly thing that you can expect from me on Sundays and I will break down what I feel is some important news of the week. Typically I tried to keep my opinion out of the Magazine submissions but in this new V3 era… who knows how I’ll be feeling? VHLM Relieves GM… Last Sunday, diamond_ace announced that Dil was being relieved from his role as Halifax general manager. While it seems that there were various circumstances regarding this decision, it was seemingly one that some in the community were already aware of. To be a VHLM GM is a position that requires a lot of work from someone in hopes that you can help shape the future of the league and the community overall. Being relatively new to coming back to the league, I’m not quite sure what the reasons behind this decision could have been but it seems apparent that there was enough behind the decision to make this call. The thread itself announcing this received a considerable amount of attention with a post from gorlab advising Dil to not cause a departure from the league. I have not been active in the general league Discord because you all are nuts to be honest but I know that Dil was a driving force there prior to the muting fiasco and is someone highly regarded in the league. It seems Dil is still interacting with the forum which is good to see. Rory was named the new Halifax GM in the same post and hopefully the 21st will be able to move on from this and succeed. Greg to Seattle… Yeah, shocking… I’m bringing my own team in for material for the V3. I thought we would get a few weeks in before I had to do this but this is huge news! Late Friday afternoon a trade between DA BEARZ and Toronto was announced. In exchange for a S77 1st, 3rd and Big Chungus, Seattle received a S78 2nd and Leo Strauss. While Strauss was the 40th overall pick in his draft, it’s clear that Strauss is someone that can really grow with the Bears. Gregreg’s history with Seattle is well known by older members of the league and more importantly was the most prominent GM I had in my first few years in the league. While Toronto referenced that Leo had to be moved due to some “locker room differences” it seems (plus Steve to LA), things could not be looking better in Seattle in my completely-unbiased opinion. With Banack, Phil, Victor, IR and now greg I really feel at home in a locker room with quite a few of my old friends. Greg immediately signed an extension with Seattle until S81 so it seems people will just need to get used to seeing Greg back in Seattle! I hope everyone has enjoyed this return to the Victory 3. Please check back each week for a quick breakdown of anything I feel is important or if there is anything you would want to see me discuss in a completely neutral setting where I definitely don’t give my opinion on the situation, feel free to hit me up on Discord or here!

Transaction ID: 20507344611412320 $1M Cash 5 uncapped Doubles Week

While the season is well underway at this point, there are still some off-season stories to catch up on. Ninth-overall pick in the VHL Entry Draft Phoenix Dawson did not report to the Seattle Bears training camp leading up to the season citing an importance of reporting back to Miami to help with the VHLM Dispersal Draft. Dawson was selected as one of the centers for Team World and ended up getting a gold medal for his resume. It was soon after this that the Marauders announced that Dawson would be wearing the C on his jersey after a successful run with the team as a rookie. It seemed to come as a surprise that Dawson seems more set on being a core part of the bridge season for Miami who went out and picked up quite a bit of youth. This is quite the difference than the 8th-overall pick Hex Rose who is quickly stepping into the role of being Seattle’s center for the future. While Miami and Dawson have had a bit of a slow start to the season, there seems to be quite a bit of confidence from the war room that the team will be able to sneak into the late playoffs and possibly repeat the success of their championship-winning run.

D - Odin Omdahl Still @Midnite!

G - Jean Pierre Camus @RedSusback to you

F - Kyl Oferson Back to @Midnite

F - Andrew Su @RedSusfor 2!

D - RJ Jubis @Midnite back to you!

DA BEARZ

F - John Merrick @RedSus

1. It's so nice to have some life in the locker room! I was on my own with the general managers for almost two weeks and while that was fun, it's nice to have a team again! 2. Step into the captain(?) role effectively. Helped lead this team through a transition year and help direct the new core before graduating to Seattle. 3. I think we can make a run into the playoffs once we find some strategies and lines that really work for us! 4. Press conference! I don't need to think about what to write and just answer questions! 5. Ottawa 6. Professional Wrestler

So this is a last minute .com article because I really thought that training camps opened up today, but it makes sense that it's tomorrow! Anyways, lets go over the fact that I am joining DA BEARZ. Going into the draft, I had two teams that I was really hoping to go to. These teams were London and Seattle. Over the charity draft I was able to join the London Discord through McWolf's incentive and I've really enjoyed hanging out at "the pub" with the group that's there. I really think that I could have been a solid part of that team going forward. Unfortunately with London picking at 13 though through a trade, it just wasn't meant to be. I'm extremely thankful to have been selected by Banack and Seattle at 9th overall though! I really think that I've come back for good with Dawson and I'm happy that Seattle seems to believe in that as well. @Banackock is the one who reached out to see if I'd give VHL one more try and a way to pay it back to Seattle is to make sure that I build the best possible center. Seattle also made the right move taking Hex Rose at 8th overall before me and I'm interested in seeing how the future goes. Seattle got some more solid young players and things are looking good there. We've got one more season in Miami and I'm looking forward to it! Here's to a good S76.