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week of 6/6, 6/20, and 6/27 (6/13 was theme week)

Nice goalie battle, big gwg for lexi. gg prague, onto game 6

don't wanna upset anybody so figured I'd just come in and say GGs prague

Who's acting surprised in here?

Chiropractor youtube is a scary rabbit hole

*Week ending July 4th* (Answer 6 questions for 2 TPE)

1. We survived an early scare from Malmo to take the series 4-1. How do we stay fresh going up against Prague in the European Conference finals?

2. What has been the most surprising moment of the postseason so far?

3. Who was our MVP in the Malmo series?

4. Do you prefer your ice cubed or crushed?

5. Which VHLE locations would you most prefer to see selected?

6. Which team do you believe will make the finals from the North American Conference?

7. Which team do you believe will win the lottery tournament?

8. What's the deal with "cubed" ice from fridge dispensers being shaped like semicircles??? Do they really expect us to believe this piece of ice shaped like a goddamn orange slice is a cube??

9. Who will be most important to our team in our quest to win the Prague series coming up?

10. What is your favorite hot beverage?

Just now, Victor said:

Man made a spreadsheet to respond to a thunderdome 

I actually made it mid-season and updated it when the regular season ended.

3 minutes ago, JardyB10 said:

Phfft, a paltry 87 points in S75. Pretty frickin’ embarrassing honestly.

Twas our third season in existence

If you make it 5 seasons instead of 4 and include S74 when Warsaw last missed the playoffs, our gap on Helsinki and Seattle shrinks but we maintain the lead. Go out one more year though and cover Warsaw's entire existence, and we get leapfrogged by at least those two teams, possibly Moscow as well. That 41 point season in our first year definitely didn't help.

I wanna clarify after talking to some people that I'm not leaving the league, just stepping away from the GM job. yall can't get rid of me that easy

What a crazy 3 year run for Helsinki. First ever 3-0 collapse and first ever 2-0 wildcard collapse sandwiched around a finals appearance.

7 minutes ago, McWolf said:

I think it would be hard for commissioners to determine if a GM broke the rule by mistake or if they intentionally broke it to give them an advantage, so that'd be a tough task for them to determine a harsher penalty if it was intentional. Not a fan of that, because it leaves too much to interpretation. 

Agreed, which is why I suggested formalizing a generally harsher punishment scale as a deterrent. I'd like to see commissioner discretion applied to harshen the punishment no matter what if the scenario clearly could play a part in a playoff race rather than the commishes take the time to consider potential intent, but that's down to them at the end of the day.

And I'd say generally knowing your punishment will be much lighter if you break the rule but make the playoffs as you're not risking cap space or anything besides however many games you were off by could be pretty easily gamed by GMs. I see no point in leaving the rule ripe for potential exploit.

So there have been some interesting instances over the past couple seasons regarding the Louth rule and I wanted to bring a few things to the forefront and see what people think about the rule and the way it’s enforced in general. I don’t mean to call out Quik and Bek, they do a great job and the past two seasons specifically had some extenuating circumstances in regards to the rule. Similarly, I don’t mean to call out @diamond_ace and @Enorama either, nor do I mean to claim they performed any intentional foul play here. Just using them as recent examples as I iron out my opinions on some of the things that have played out with the rule in the past couple seasons.

Firstly, and much less importantly, Prague’s punishment for missing a full four backup games in S77 felt very light. I understand nobody wants to be forced to have to play their backup as many as four times in the playoffs in a scenario where you’re already down 3-1 as they were at the time, but losing the first of those games (which they were already made less likely to win, being forced to go to the backup and all) and being able to completely wash their hands of the situation just didn’t feel remotely significant. If they missed one game, maybe even two, I’d get it, but missing half of your backup games and then just getting off scot-free from the other three games felt like a pretty weak precedent to set.

Onto the bigger issue here: DC failing to meet their punishment for breaking the Louth rule in S77, this season. I’m of the opinion that a team that breaks the same rule two straight seasons (or in this case, fails to fulfill their allotted punishment) should be punished more harshly the second time around. That’s pretty standard stuff, but the thing that inspired me to actually put this together is the potential ramifications that this had on the NA conference playoff race.

DC finished 2 points ahead of LA, but LA had tiebreaker over DC. So, there is a legitimate possibility DC got a win with Wolski that may have been a loss had Olson been in net like he was supposed to; while that's not a guarantee, it could potentially have had a pretty significant effect on how the playoff spots were ultimately doled out. Again, not accusing eno of gaming the system or anything, but lightly punishing a scenario that had that deep of implications on the final standings sets a precedent that GMs can possibly take advantage of. Have a potential wildcard matchup you feel confident in? Get 65 games for your starter to push for the playoffs if it’s a close race and take your chances with your backup once you make it into the playoffs. You get my point.

Obviously having to consider situations like that in the enforcement of the rule complicates things and adds on to the time the commishes have to spend on that enforcement. As such, I believe that making the standard precedent for enforcement of the rule harsher at its base level would work as a strong enough deterrent for scenarios where there is a GM that would exploit the rule and was in the position that it was a potentially-viable help to their playoff chances. What I’d suggest is to come up with a more concrete punishment system or maybe at least a minimum punishment, something that can be added to the rulebook to serve as a baseline, and still say that anything beyond what is set in there can be added or adapted at commissioner discretion. Should people agree that this is something that could be tightened up, this is primarily what I think would need to be discussed.

tl;dr the Louth rule

4 hours ago, bigAL said:

Damn dude, I hope everything’s on the way to being alright irl. Shit comes, but then shit (hopefully/eventually/always) fucks off to go bother someone else. You got this buddy. With this new free time can we expect more frequent 3PPAO now???

I dunno, that's up to the other guys.

Hey all. As some of you may know, I’ve been dealing with some stuff lately and it’s all come together to put me to the point that I will have to step away from the GM world. So, following the conclusion of the Season 78 playoffs, I will be stepping down as Warsaw Predators GM. Hopefully by opening up the job now the league can have someone solid in place for as soon as the offseason begins.

After I failed at guiding Vasteras in their post-curse-break years way back when, I didn’t think I’d ever try my hand at GMing in a sim league again (at least not in a top level league). I’ve been blessed with amazing players and good luck, but to be able to have the sustained success that Warsaw has been able to have these past four seasons has been awesome. I proved to myself that I could do it, which was pretty cool, and I ended up enjoying the job more than I ever thought I would (most of the time ).

It's tough to nail down one recommendation with the team housing multiple stellar newer members that will eventually be VHL GMs one day, but I was told I could only pick one, so my recommendation will go to @dlamb. Constant VHLM GM snubs aside, dlamb has a ton of experience with GM leagues, knows Warsaw hockey inside and out, and has proven to me over the years that, as someone on the team I could always lean on for another opinion, he can succeed in a VHL GM job. I hope he and any Warsaw player interested in the job will get legitimate consideration.

Now I just gotta go win a cup real quick then I’ll be out.

*Week ending June 27th* (Answer 6 questions for 2 TPE)

1. We have made the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season. What can you take from past playoff experiences into this latest round of postseason play?

2. We won the Victory Cup for the second consecutive season, this time sharing the award with Chicago. What does taking this award mean to our team and the legacy of this group of players?

3. What are your predictions for New York-DC and Helsinki-Malmo?

4. What is your favorite flavor of gum?

5. What is your least favorite flavor of gum?

6. Which team that missed the playoffs are you most surprised about?

7. Which team that made the playoffs has your favorite logo/color scheme (besides Warsaw of course )?

8. If you could be any animal, which animal would you be and why?

9. Which league leader in any category are you most impressed with for their performance this season?

10. Light or dark liquor?

Jumping in to also throw my support behind more backup games in the E. I think the higher requirements for teams with human backup goalies is fine coupled with jardy's idea of making the bot goalies really bad, so long as adding the extra wrinkle to the rules is properly enforced by management. I also agree with the idea of always giving 1 for PF in the E.

Bernard and Lahtinen are the clear ins, Hogan should get his shot soon.

Agreed on skipping out on inducting a builder for at least a season, imo there's a pretty clear difference between the people who have gotten in as builders the past 6 seasons and the people currently eligible.

When I first joined a sim league (a baseball league called EPL that used OOTP6.5 to simulate, found it randomly in the off-topic section of the GoalLineBlitz forum in around 2008), I primarily enjoyed that these leagues allowed me a way to act on my budding interest in sports while kinda focusing on the 'nerdier' aspects of the numbers over the action, which was always what appealed to me more.

When someone from the VHL joined the EPL and started making graphics that blew everything people in the EPL were making out of the water, I immediately joined the VHL and found a community aspect that really engaged me. It took a few tries for me to actually stick around, but in the end the thing that really kept me around (especially with hockey never being a sport I followed or particularly enjoyed) was the GFX community. My being able to grow several levels beyond where I ever thought I would possibly get with my own GFX abilities is a testament to the great GFX community the VHL has.

*Week ending June 20th* (Answer 6 questions for 2 TPE)

1. We've gone through a rough stretch lately that has us barely clinging onto the top spot in the EU. What can we do to re-gain some positive momentum?

2. Which EU team do you feel stands as our biggest threat in the postseason?

3. What were your thoughts on the flurry of trade deadline activity?

4. Which new recreate for the Season 80 VHL draft are you most excited for?

5. Youtube or Twitch?

6. Which of the 10 teams currently in playoff positions do you think is most likely to miss the playoffs and why?

7. How would you grade your player's performance this season on a scale of 1 to 10?

8. How would you grade the team's performance this season on a scale of 1 to 10?

Excellent career my friend.

*Week ending June 13th* (Answer 6 questions for 2 TPE)

1. Coming off our roughest sim of the season, what can we do to get back on course?

2. Many of the teams around us in the European Conference standings are riding positive momentum. How do we stay ahead of the pack?

3. Our backup goalie has been a sore spot for us, but we only have one more game to play them. How does it feel to nearly be done with WAR G for the season?

4. If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

5. Aloe Dear has established herself as the league's points and assists leader for some time now. Is there perhaps a Campbell or Slobodzian trophy coming to a Warsaw player this season?

6. Chris Reynolds is one goal off the VHL lead, pushing to be the first Warsaw player to lead the VHL in the goalscoring category. What can we do to get him there?

7. We're on pace to top our franchise record of 291 goals from last season, being the first VHL team in nearly 20 seasons to score 300 goals if we maintain pace. Do you believe we'll get there?

8. How high can you jump?

9. Aloe Dear finished last season 1 point shy of tying Hunter Heart Helmsley's franchise record of 113 points in a season, but is on pace to shatter it this year with 130. How confident are you that Dear will pass up HHH's season franchise record?

10. What is your favorite dish/meal to cook or prepare by yourself?

shotty dOug dimmadome

*Week ending June 6th* (Answer 6 questions for 2 TPE)

1. Which team have you most enjoyed facing so far this season?

2. What has been more surprising to you: Toronto's recent collapse or Moscow's recent surge?

3. Who is the leading candidate to get Warsaw's nomination for Most Improved Player in this early stretch of the season?

4. Got any words of advice for WAR-G so he stops being such a scrub and holding us back when we have to play him?

5. Chicago is giving us the most legit challenge we've had for the league goals and goal differential lead in the past couple seasons. What adjustments can we make to come out on top again?

6. Despite being by far the worst team in the standings, Vancouver has given us a run for our money every time we've played them. What can we do to avoid playing down to our competition in those games?

7. Which non-Warsaw player do you think has been the most impressive so far this season and why?

8. Why is Aloe Dear getting hit so much more than every other player in the league?

39 minutes ago, N0HBDY said:

These are really cool, it's definitely something new to see when someone doesn't use a hockey player as their sig. I would say I'm not to huge of a fan, but not very much against it, you did a great job on that one. For the bottom two, those are both very very cool and definitely better than if I attempted to try doing sig's. For the top one I will rate it a 8.5/10 just because it's kind of a new style and I'm not really used to seeing stuff like that. For the last 2 I'll kind of be judging them off each other. The first one is also amazing and I give it a 9/10, the 9 because when I talked with Z one time about sig's one time, he mentioned about the emblems on the jerseys around the collar's. Other than that it would be a 10/10. The second one I'll give a 9.5, the little animations or moving effects you have on it makes it look unreal, but same thing with the first one of the two, the emblem on the collar.

Yeah I usually do the collar emblem when I do JCs, but I figured this one would take me a long time so I grabbed a previous JC I did rather than making a new one and apparently I didn't do the collar on that one.

Just so you know, this is the graphics discussion forum not the PT forum, so while I appreciate the review idk if you can claim it for TPE. I'd say I'll ping you when I claim these so you can repost then but it's most likely I claim these as VHL.com graphics rather than PTs.