scoop

Especially when you gotta catch up to Victor in Continental Cups. Him having the most is a VHL tragedy.

Team USA: Looking Ahead Team USA is not in a good place right now, but better times might be ahead; or maybe not. AK47 will be playing his last games as a goalie during the S48 World Cup, leaving Team USA's future in net very unclear. This will be the main area of concern for the team in the coming tournaments, because there are some good American players on the rise. It's almost assured that they will be missing out on winning a medal for the second straight World Cup, which has never happened for the team. If they don't get a good goalie prospect soon, that could become three tournaments of futility in the S50 games. Even with the goalie situation having no solution in sight, they look to be competitive by S52. The youth of Team USA is not represented well on their current roster. AK47 at right wing and Titan Kronos on defense offer two potentially stellar players for years to come; these two players were just drafted to the VHL, giving them several years of eligibility ahead. William Covington III could be the star of the team in S52; a S47 draftee, Covington is already arguably the second-best player on the S48 roster. His Davos teammate Vincent Adultman (from the same draft class) will at least be a depth forward hitting the peak of his career just in time for the S52 tournament. These four players could be mainstays for Team USA in the next couple tournaments, barring any change of course in their training. They might even be the only players on the current team to return for the next World Cup. After Freedom McJustice retires, William Covington will be the best American-born player in the VHL. Looking beyond this year's team, things start to look a little better, especially in the forwards. Playing for Team Mercenaries this year is Kai Roberts, the 6th overall pick in the S49 draft. He might be an iffy prospect, but as things stand now, if he continues to progress as we know he is capable, he could be a great player. Getting even younger, Diana Maxwell and Travis Gowecny are two S50 forwards determined to bring Team USA back to glory. Maxwell in particular has star potential. She is one of the top two prospects preparing for the S50 draft, and by the time of the S52 tournament she will be a budding superstar. Gowecny may or may not make the team in S50, but eventually he will be making an impact for the team. These three are all forwards. As far as defensive prospects go, Shayne Gow will be joining Kronos in the next tournament, but beyond him, it's up in the air. Gow was the 9th overall pick in the S49 draft. There are a lot of questions for this team moving forward, but several pieces are coming into place. They have four of the top 11 picks from the S49 draft. In Maxwell, we could see a second consecutive American prospect go first overall after Kronos was the top pick this year. AK47's switch from goalie to right wing was no doubt a blow to USA's outlook, but it won't be impossible to overcome. Prospects come and go; right now, they're just looking for another goalie to come along.

For some reason I thought Kopralkov was a little more developed and that Riga might have other stuff in store.

Interesting. Cologne betting on Riga to fail this season? The European Conference is looking pretty up in the air at the moment.

How respectable of you to wait until after the S49 draft to create this thread. But yeah S50 > S49 no doubt

Scandinavia owned the face-offs

expect better from these goalies..

Nice game for Jordan Maverick.

Gonna be a struggle for Team USA.

Nicely done Mercenaries!

An expectedly high-scoring game.

Same but we still won't have a goalie

Pre-Tournament Power Rankings I think the biggest thing worth noting about the World Cup rosters this season is that the backup goalie for Team Mercenaries is better than the starter for two team in the tournament. Seven of the top eight goalies come from the roster pools of Europe and World, leaving Scandinavia and USA with much to desire in net. But all hope is not necessarily lost, as most teams do have some form of weakness, but some are just frankly much better than others. Here's a look at my ranking of the teams prior to the tournament, with Phil's thoughts added (in italics). 1. Europe It doesn't get any better than Hans Wingate in net, and he has two of the best defensemen in the league (Phil and Jeff Hamilton) to make things easy. The biggest question for this team is whether or not Severin von Karma can be the offensive leader he has never had to be throughout his career. Can they perform the tri-peat? It's a legitimate question given that they have the best goalie in the league between the pipes, and as a fail safe, another top three goalie in G. Clegane. The experience of the two Hamilton brothers will come in use to facilitate the offense, led by veterans Strauss and von Karma. Will the young talent of Kohler, Muller and St. Pierre be put on display and help Europe get the offense needed though, that is the question. 2. World Lord Karnage is the best player in the VHL at the moment, and Edwin Reencarnacion is not too far behind him. They have a solid defense led by Biggu Kyanon and Arcturus Mengsk, and Ariel Weinstein should be one of the top netminders during the tournament. Teams will look to exploit the inexperience of Pietro Maximoff and Pavel Komarov. If there's one team that will make defenders need to change their pants, it's Team World. Karnage and Reencarnation will easily be the most dangerous tandem in the World Cup, but can Kyanon and Mengsk match up to the strong defense put out by Europe? 3. Scandinavia If this team had a better goalie, they would be closer to the number one spot, but with Sven Wolf as their best option I can't justify putting them any higher. They boast an incredible group of forwards and serviceable defensemen. This team looks destined for some high-scoring games. This team will be scary-good in the next World Cup. Their forward line of Koponen, Ruutu and Molholt is a force to be reckoned with, but their young defense and even younger goalie will most likely be their demise this year. But who knows, as we can recall, Sandro Clegane was last tournament's breakout star and he was a rookie; if Wolf manages a performance like that, the two teams ahead of them in this ranking may be in for a surprise. 4. Canada Zach Parechkin is one of the league's rising stars, and I expect a huge tournament from him. Atticus von Braxton is coming off a horrid playoff performance; he will need to improve if this team is going to win a medal. Francis York Morgan will provide good defensive support. It looks as if Canada will not be guaranteed a medal in yet another tournament. However, the future is bright for Team Canada. The forward of this team's tournament to watch will be Marcel Faux, after a +50 goal campaign, shattering his previous career highs all across the statlines. The young second line of Parechkin, Lincoln and Unassisted will terrorize next World Cup, however their inexperience will be showing during the tournament this year. 5. Mercenaries The strength of the goalies that fall under Europe's domain has allowed the Mercenaries to get Sandro Clegane, who proved capable of winning games on his own in the playoffs. They actually managed to put together a respectable defense, but the burden of offense lies solely on the aged E'Twaun Delicious and Gifford Shock. With Europe being stacked for goalies, Sandro Clegane, a front-runner for the Shaw Trophy this season, has found his way onto the Mercs and this is a great backbone for ADwyer to build his team. He's got a good mix of veteran and young players to work with and combos like Roberts and Delicious, or linemates on Helsinki Matsikas and Kaminogi will really benefit the team this tournament 6. USA With AK47, USA is one of two teams with a VHLM goalie. Unfortunately for them, they don't make up for this weakness in other areas. Freedom McJustice is good, but not good enough to carry this roster. I have a hard time thinking this team can win more than two games, and a winless tournament is not out of the picture. I don't ever remember a weaker US team than this season. Probably the biggest concern for the team is the lack of young players. Only Covington, Adultman, AK47, and Kronos really stand out as bright young talent, while most of the rest are laboured and severely inactive and depreciated wash-ups.

Gigga-Bijou tho

Cool, thanks. Now I can vote, but I won't say for whom.

Or are we voting for 2nd place and Reencarnacion has already been named the winner?

Where in the actual fuck is Edwin Reencarnacion?

Kiddo >

Lord Karnage in 3 years

nice

http://www108.zippyshare.com/v/cJQiA7Ok/file.html Music: The Decemberists - Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)

ok

I apply.