courtjestr19

I’m thrilled to have heard the name before seeing that it was your create lolol welcome to VHL pboomg!

1. I think we will be able to hang on to this lead for sure. We just had an influx of S100 creates today which will even improve our team over our previous bot lines. We're not just good right now, we're scary good. Gotta keep updating and putting in the TPE but you can't ask more from a regular season performance so far. 2. Kinda, though I haven't watched as much this year as in prior years. I did have Houston winning it all in my bracket (which was not a popular pick) so I mean, here's to hoping! 3. This is my first create and I'm even just excited for S99, no less S100. Of course for any sim league to survive so long there has to be broad engagement, and that folks are already turning out to create for S100 is definitely pretty cool. I'm looking forward to playing alongside those creates in that season, definitely. 4. I always liked playing handball (not Euro-style, though I like that too), which for us was with a kickball-style ball. 5. Yeah---we have some experienced users that just recreated, which is definitely exciting. I'm not sure I know anyone well enough to say I'm super excited, but I did see that dil has like 6 cups to their players so that's pretty sick. 6. New Zealand, without a doubt. Beautiful country, even better people. I loved just being outdoors the whole time while there.

I’m not sure I can say that my create, Additional Pylons, will be able to put up the gaudy numbers he has in his Houston Bulls rookie season, but I can commit him to the following. First, Additional Pylons’s calling card will be his defense. Built like a true defensive defenseman, the kind of guys I’m trying to build my player around are hard-nosed NHL blueliners like Drew Doughty and Ryan Suter. These guys were the lifeblood lock-down guys of strong Kings and Wild teams, respectively, and that’s who I envision Pylons to grow into over time, likely with a bit more scoring thrown in eventually. Even now in Houston, his stats kind of emulate these two. For example: Pylons (S99), scaled to 82 gm: 14 G, 38 A, 58 +/-, 8.75 SHT%, 35 PIM, Doughty (15-16): 14 G, 37 A, 24 +/-, 7.1 SHT%, 52 PIM. Second, Pylons will consistently put in the work. So far in the VHL, I’ve been a max earner. My plan is to max earn throughout my entire career. I’m a graphics guy and did two of the recent major article graphics (which, not gonna lie, was pretty sick to see on the front page). I want to try and get as high up in TPE as I possibly can in my first season, and eventually want to proudly draft Pylons to my own Victory Hockey Fantasy League team. Side note: I just did this for the first time with my pitcher in the PBE (Andy Beans), and this is how I knew I finally made it . Third, I strive to be active and positive in the team locker room Discord. My brief time in Miami and my current home in Houston have been awesome places to hang out, and my goal with my virtual player is to contribute much more than virtual shots blocked and virtual +/-. I’m thrilled with the community aspect of the VHL so far, and if the conversations I had with the minors GMs in my first draft experience are any indication of the people here, I really am very excited to be brought on to a majors squad in the future. My philosophy in my two sim leagues to date has been to put in effort into both being a welcoming person in the locker room while being the best user/earner I can be. Look forward to seeing wherever Pylons ends up, but mostly, I’m just happy to be here so far. In the meantime, we have a Cup to chase in Houston! Let’s Go Bulls! WC: 429

(Note this is my Theme Week submission!)

1. Heck yeah I'm going to complete a theme week PT! My render is Zdeno Chara, who has some excellently bloody pictures out in the cosmos. Gonna cook this week, can't wait. 2. Let's Go Mets! Yeah, I'm a big Mets fan and already can't get enough of the Soto Shuffle (after hating it for years). Used to be a brutal team to root for but with the new ownership things finally look bright! We had a great season last year with a deep playoff run so here's to making some noise again! 3. If Bart keeps standing on his head and the defense blocks shots, we can beat anybody. We certainly have a bone to pick with Philly and should return the favor of their win a couple weeks ago. 4. Good question—to be honest, I'm not sure. I always go back to watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but if we're talking watching a movie with my kids, I have to mention Ratatouille. As a classic SciFi action movie, I'll also take The Matrix. 5. Heck yeah we do. We're just getting started. We're straight outta the the Prohibition Era: no shots allowed 6. Pylons is a gentle giant off the ice. If anything he'd want to have a deal with a charity, not a product. So I'd say he'd want to work with a youth mental health charity.

I haven't been around the VHLM very long, but I think we might be witnessing something crazy out of a defense in Houston right now. Since taking one on the chin in Philadelphia, Houston's defense seems to have taken the giving up of 33 shots personally, as subsequent games have just exhibited lockdown defense by the Bulls. In fact, the first game was just marked by the defense putting their bodies on the line for Bart Lorequavius with a total of 11 blocked shots and another 15 turned away by the netminder. The games since have gone like this: W 1-0 vs. SASK, 15 shots allowed, 11 (!) SB SOW 3-2 @ LVA, 16 shots allowed, 6 SB W 6-2 vs. MIA, 23 shots allowed, 5 SB W 1-0 vs. LVA, 11 shots allowed, 3 SB W 5-1 vs. MIA, 10 shots allowed, 3 SB W 1-0 vs. HAL, 13 shots allowed, 4 SB W 3-0 @ MIA, 21 shots allowed, 6 SB W 1-0 vs. LVA, 9 shots allowed (!), 4 SB W 2-0 @ LVA, 7 shots allowed (!!), 1 SB That's an average of only 12.5 shots per game reaching Bart, who has exceeded the task with clockwork-like regularity. With only 1 shot allowed in the last 71 attempts, Bart's 98.6 SV% and ridiculous run of 5 shutouts in 6 games is wild and awe-inspiring. If Houston is planning on a deep run in the playoffs---certainly the goal in the clubhouse---they were witness to Las Vegas's run to the Cup via a stout defensive effort and have put on a clinic this season in their own effort. And a clinic is has been! WC:270

1. We're definitely never going to lose again. 2. Absolutely not. Hot dogs don't have the requisite symmetry of the sandwich group. Hot dogs are cylindrical, and sandwiches need a sandwich axis to be valid. By this definition, hamburgers are sandwiches, but meatball subs are not. Also see https://cuberule.com/ 3. Pylons is a gentle giant. He wants to sit in a corner and vibe to some classical music before hitting the ice. Some Bach keyboard concertos are good. 4. Yeah, I play games. I've been playing some Hades II which is a fun roguelike, as well as Out of the Park Baseball 26. 5. Just wrote a VHL.com article about this. I strongly believe we'll overtake them as we have the TPE to back it up. 6. Ooh, I like PNC park in Pittsburgh. It's a beautiful baseball stadium.

The running of the Bulls is in full effect in the S98 VHLM season. Houston (27-5-2, 56 pts), after a slightly sluggish start and a couple of transactions (bringing in studs Gingy and Dog Jagr), has gone on an utter tear through the VHLM to comfortably sit on top of the Western Conference. With 96 goals for and an utterly unreal 47 GA, the Bulls have maintained excellence in the back half. Bart Lorequavius has made a habit of standing on his head in net, and is a strong favorite to have the Houston all-time career and season shutout record in almost no time. On the other side of the league, Philly has cut down the opposition to the tune of a 27-4-3 record and 57 points. Their 118 goals scored in 34 games is not only terrifying, but leads the entire VHLM by a margin of 20. The key to their success seems to be the relatively strong depth across the board, but it remains to be seen whether the hot start is sustainable (e.g. Alto Red's 2 PPG pace at 243 TPE). At any rate, the race for the cup seems to be an exciting one at this junction, and will be exciting as we continue on through the sims! WC:212

lol yes, confirmed

ye

There we go, now we're starting to settle in! After a bit of a middling start, the Houston Bulls have gone on a tear in the VHLM. Houston with one fewer game played than Mexico City sits only two points behind, with a point differential of +26 to bolster what looks like a fearsome goalie in between the pipes in Bartholomew Lorequavius. Bart has been utterly stingy, giving up only 1.42 GAA and steadily improving his SV% in the last week. Trade acquisitions Gingy and Dog Jagr have excelled for the Bulls so far, with Gingy cashing 9 goals and helping on another 13 and Jagr accumulating 16 points of his own while getting in the way of a team-leading 24 shots. After a slow roll out of the gate, Alex Bridges IV has already matched his goals total from last season and is nearly up to a point per game. Overall the defense has shown up strong for Bart, with each of the non-bot defenders blocking more than 20 shots apiece. Lots to be proud of, and the trends are good for this Houston team which is getting more and more excited at the prospect of a cup! WC: 199

1. Thanksgiving. Definitely my favorite food, and generally I've always done small get-togethers that are focused on appreciation. I also freaking love cooking all of the dishes. 10/10 holiday in my household. 2. Not yet---we haven't even really gotten going yet. I think we had a wildly bad spate of luck losing on 8 shots against to Miami's bot goalie, lol, and we'll get the penalties under control a bit better. 3. No yet, but I plan on it soon. I'm partial to Michigan, who just won the Big 10 championship as a Cinderella. They're getting hot at the right time! 4. I think it'll be Halifax over the season. They're strong across the board and look like a legit championship contender. 5. What? We're only on false spring #2. We have several more before Winter V: The Snowpocalypse and Actually Summer 3 swing by, then finally followed by proper Spring (for five days). 6. My pick for the Continental Cup is still NY. They're really strong across the board---offense, defense, and they of course only have Ws in goal. They haven't started off like the Dynamo but I think they're still too good to not go far.

Great podcast, guys! And appreciate the kind words here @SMYLS4

1. We are going to be so good this season. I believe in this roster and am enthused that Bart Loreguavius is going to be in goal for us this season. There's a lot of good to look forward to! 2. I'm a big baseball guy, and watching R.A. Dickey of the Mets (later Toronto) throw knuckleballs into the strike zone was one of the best things I've ever seen in any sport, ever. 3. My optimism is unbridled and I cannot wait for a new season to start. 4. Tough one. Give me Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park. One of my most formative in my musical journey. Also there's a great jazz piano duet with Chick Corea and Hiromi Uehara that kicks a lot of tail if anyone likes that genre. 5. To avoid being a homer here, I really like Malmo's. That neon green is sick. 6. Korean tteokbokki is my #1 of all time. Past that, probably empanadas at #2, properly seared and rendered duck breast at #3, classic thanksgiving dinner at 4, and beef tenderloin at number 5.

After my first offseason I'm stacked up with TPA and ready to roll. In a twist of the Victory Hockey League minors draft, Additional Pylons was selected by the Houston Bulls with the 5th overall pick. In fact, this was my first minor league draft ever, as this is my first create here and in the PBE, my other sim league, I joined midseason and was picked up by the State College Swift Steeds as a waiver claim. Not only that, but even in the majors I wasn't selected particularly high—I think my player, Andy Beans, was only taken with the 22nd overall pick. So this felt rewarding, and I'm looking forward to making good on the potential with Houston's top-flight offense and goaltending. Overall this is about as good of a team success scenario as I could have hoped to join, and I'm very excited for the beginning of the season to arrive tomorrow. On the other hand, it means that the Pompeii Sour Grapes are no more, and came an unfortunate one win shy of a finals victory over the Winnipeg Wheelbarrows. SMYL did a great job GMing though, and with the strong roster here in Houston he'll have a great opportunity to get us a Cup. To a great season, all! WC:215

1. Nah, this is my first off-season so I'm just having a good time making graphics and whatnot. Plus, Simon has been off-kilter lately for ProAm so it's not bad that he gets a little break before the season, lol. 2. I did not—actually, I'm realizing more and more I just don't know where things other than the ProAm are streamed. Which, btw, I now have my first career point (in 56 games, lmao). Let's goooo. 3. I'm excited for you guys. That'll be fearsome in a few years for sure. Always hard to say what a future will look like, but you guys are both quality and should add some oomph to the LR and on the ice. 4. The VHLM draft is gonna be sick. I'm really excited for it—I missed my own minors draft in the PBE by being a waiver claim so this is the first time I'll get drafted in a minors anywhere! I'm projected to go a bit before Miami is on the clock so I'll miss everyone, but why not go with a diamond-in-the-rough type, first-gen create and give them a team they can be excited about? 5. I'm right-handed but can do many things lefty pretty decently (like throwing!). 6. I'll prob hang out in the Miami LR, ya. But although I was only on the team for a short while, I'm really happy to have Marauded. Big props to @Ricer13 who is a consummate pro.

Also known as "fun with debasers"

The VHL minors draft is soon upon us! With that, I wanted to take a look at the top five earners of the S99 class. Interestingly, all of these earners are defensive, with four blueliners and a netminder in the top five. 1. D - Titus Cunningham (@thadthrasher). Former Marauder Titus clocks in at a whopping 179 TPE, tops of the S99 class at the moment. With a more balanced defensive build, expect to see the American Titus playing an important role on the power play for some blue line for a couple of seasons. 2. D - Krister Von Casar Tzesar (@comrade cat). True free agent, 6'8"-240 lb KvCT is a true bruiser, with 160 TPE and 50 of those going straight into body checking. The man wants to mash---can't really argue with that (and to be fair, if you did argue with that, you might get mashed) 3. G - Yor Bjorven (@Rin). Initial results in a small sample size in Mississauga for the Icelandic Bjorven indicated some growing pains for the 6'3"-238 lb netminder, but 159 TPA will get Yor going as the goalie for a needy minors team for a couple of seasons. 4. D - Additional Pylons (@courtjestr19). Also a former Marauder, Finnish AdPy only "played" (i.e. spectated) in a couple of games in Miami down the stretch. 154 TPE (after this article, lol) represents perhaps the last of the maxed earners and profiles more as a defensive defender. 5. D - David David (@Knight). Another hulking defender, UK-based double-David is a physical defender who put in some time in Mexico City as a third-line menace last season. With 123 TPE and some points into both poke and body checking, we may see D2 both squashing offensive players on the boards and fellow defenders on the offensive side of the puck. Good luck to all in the VHLM Draft! WC: 309