der meister

1) I hope Shev can help!
2) Congrats! I will bring my lovely self and hope that the smashing waits until after the ceremony.
3) Vegas is the Raiders of the Coyotes in the VHLM. Too much uncertainty has their team distracted. Cakewalk series.
4) My kids are usually pretty busy in the summer so it's just shuttling them around and doing chores. I like having summer hours at work though 
5) I'm right there with you. Our solar system is boring AF.
6) I'm taking Tuesday off to cut wood. We just had 3 trees taken down, so now I have to do cleanup. If you never hear from me again, assume it was a mishap with the chainsaw and not a lack of interest in the VHL.

Kostyantyn Shevchenko was born in Rokhmaniv, Ukraine, a small village in the western part of the country, in Ternopil Oblast. It's a tiny town of fewer than 1,000 citizens, and a town where Shevchenko always stood out. Standing almost exactly 2 meters in height and weighing in at 97 kilos, Shevchenko was always highly athletic and physically capable. It was as a young child on a field trip to Kremenets, the nearest city of comparatively substantial size, where Shevchenko first witnessed hockey, though in this case it was a group of slightly older boys playing a variation of street hockey. Shevchenko slipped away from his group to join the boys, who provided him with a battered old stick. The young Kostyantyn, despite not understanding the rules, proved to be a fast study and dominated the impromptu game, using his size and strength to gain control of the ratty ball they used as a puck.

Several years passed before Shevchenko had another opportunity to grab a stick, though this time it was on ice, skating on a lake west of Rokhmaniv. Although only a passable skater, his size led to a traveling scout who happened to be in the area, Volodymyr Andrichuk, to ask the young Shevchenko if he had ever played hockey before. Shevchenko told of the trip to Kremenets, and the scout gave him a stick and a handful of pucks to "show what he's got." The scout appeared impressed and asked the youth his age. When Kostyantyn revealed he had just turned 12, the scout's eyes went wide, as even at that age, Shevchenko was over 1.7m tall. Due to his rapid growth, most of his clothing was too small, so his musculature was plainly evident as well.

Within a month, the 12-year-old Shevchenko was offered an opportunity to relocate to Kalush, nearly 4 hours southwest of Rokhmaniv, to play for the Legion Kalush youth team. After a series of discussions with his parents, Kostyantyn finally accepted the offer, conditional on being provided an apartment in Kalush for himself and his mother.

Playing for the 16u Legion Kalush squad, Kostyantyn Shevchenko registered 13 goals and 4 assists in his first 9 games, mostly as a power play specialist. Within a month, he was being recruited by several different teams in Slovenia, Poland, and Belarus. His loyalty remained with Legion Kalush, however, and his skills grew rapidly. While Legion u16 did not win their league championship, the now 13-year-old Shevchenko was clearly the star of the team and often drew double-coverage. Learning to play through adversity of that nature proved to be an extraordinary development tool, and in 36 games the following season, Kostyantyn set a league record with 103 goals and added 35 assists, en route to a team mark of 34-1-1.

Not everything was positive for the young Shevchenko, however. Rumors swirled that the Russian Federation was planning an invasion, likely launched from the illegally-annexed Crimea region of Ukraine. While Crimea is nearly all the way across the country from Kalush, Shevchenko could sense the anxiety from both his coaches and his mother. On one particular weekend, Shevchenko overheard his parents speaking from the living room in their apartment, and heard his father, not yet 40, express concern that he may be conscripted to fight against the Russians should a full-scale invasion take place. Secretly, Kostyantyn wondered if he should use his ice hockey talents to get himself and his family across the border into Poland or Slovenia, having fully discounted Belarus as an option due to their political closeness with Russia.

Before he had the opportunity to broach the subject with his mother, a representative of a team located in Vienna, Austria, reached out to the coaching staff of Legion Kalush. To this day, Kostyantyn is unaware of all of the details of that conversation, but what it led to was his head coach, Roman Levchuk, encouraging his family to sell their home in Rokhmaniv and move to Vienna. Levchuk had negotiated on behalf of his star player, concerned that Russian grandstanding could lead to outright violence and war. Levchuk had arranged, if the Shevchenko family accepted the offer, for Kostyantyn to play for the 15u UPS Vienna Caps, and between UPS Vienna and Legion Kalush, would provide the family with the funds necessary to relocate and secure housing.
 

 
 
Fast-forwarding a few years, Shevchenko has become a promising blue chip prospect in the International Central European Hockey League, or ICE Hockey League, playing for the Vienna Capitals. The league consists of 8 teams in Austria, 3 in Italy, 1 in Hungary, and 1 in Slovenia, and while Vienna hasn't won the league championship since 2017, before Shevchenko joined them, he has proven to be a stalwart left winger who projects as a top line scorer at the highest levels.

With the VHLM Entry Draft on the horizon, Kostyantyn Shevchenko has declared himself eligible, despite the fact that he would be once again asked to uproot his life, this time to move to North America to play for one of the 10 teams that make up that league. As for his parents, they have grown accustomed to life in Austria, and as Russian aggression did indeed escalate into war, they began working to secure evacuation for fellow Ukrainian civilians, having started a foundation within Austria to aid refugees. Kostyantyn's biggest reason for declaring for the VHLM Entry Draft is one he has kept secret from his parents: he wishes to provide them with the money they need to continue their foundation and grow it as much as possible. 

HOUSTON BULLS PRESSER!
Hello and welcome to this week's Houston Bulls Presser! Trade Deadline is here which means playoffs are just around the corner! Some new faces join the locker room and the Bulls are juiced up lately fighting for 1st in the Western Conference. Please answer each question to your best ability.

Answer three questions for 1 capped TPE or six questions for 2 capped TPE!
For the Week Ending Apr 21th, here are your questions!
 
1. The time has come, trade deadline is here and players can recreate for the S95 draft. With that being said, a new Right Winger joins Houston! Konstyantyn Shevchenko @der meister comes from Ukraine and is looking to add to our playoff push! How is Houston looking now heading towards playoffs? We currently are tied with Saskatoon for 1st in the Western Conference.
2. Hulk Smash @Cuffy  just recently got engaged! Congrats brother! Of course we will all be invited to the wedding, what wedding gift are you bringing? As GM I am bringing season tickets for everyone that was invited.
3. Houston is cruising now! Less than 20 games to play and we still are fighting for 1st in the West. Playoff format follows as 1v8, 2v7, 3v6, and 4v5 by league overall. If playoffs started today, as 4th seed we would play 5th seed Las Vegas Aces. Is Vegas a team you do or do not want to face in the first round? Are there other teams you would prefer to play?
4. I'm always itching for summer as it is my favourite season of the year and I don't have school to worry about. What are you most excited for this summer? I'm heading home to work on the water again and I am very excited for that.
5. Houston is a southern state known for Space Exploration apparently (google searched it, might need @LucyXpher to confirm). If you could travel through space where would you go? I'm heading out of the milky way to find aliens in other galaxies.
6. How has your week been? Anything exciting or fun happening lately? What do you have planned for this week?
 
 
To claim TPE:
Go to the portal > Player > Manage > Claim Capped > Type > Press Conference

Thank you to everyone who participates in these pressers, I read all of your answers!
 
Let's Go Bulls!
 

Awesome. 

Welcome back!!

Welcome back!

Player Information
Username: der meister
Player Name: Konstyantyn Shevchenko
Recruited From: Returning
Age: 17
Position: RW
Height: 79 in.
Weight: 214 lbs.
Birthplace: Ukraine

Player Page
@VHLM GM

I'd move L.A. to Dublin, Ireland. Not because I don't like the team as a whole, but because I'm not fond of Los Angeles. Here's my jersey ideas, and I'd call the team 
Dublin Draugr
 

The Sprawl Trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive) is on my list, I have it along with Burning Chrome
 
Currently reading Cyberpunk 2077: No Coincidence by Rafal Kosik

For those of you reading Wheel of Time, stick with it. Some books are a bit of a slog to get through (looking at you, book 10), but it's worth it. Don't watch Wheel of Prime. Complete trash. The WoT audiobooks are excellent, as well, and a lot of libraries have audiobook lending via app. I'm currently listening to book 8 again as I make my way through the series.
 
As for Sanderson, don't sleep on his one offs. I'm a big fan of Warbreaker, and Elantis is a fascinating debut. The first book of Mistborn was my favorite. 
 
I'm still slowly working my way through the Warhammer 40k book Xenos. I did buy myself The Last Ronin, the Ninja Turtles graphic novel in hardcover. That's my treat after Xenos. Then it's on to either Deus Ex: Icarus Effect, or a John La Carré novel, of which I have several and have read none.

I just finished Thrill Switch by Tim Hawken  https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/62587788 
I did a mix of reading the physical book and listening to the audio book, which i had access to via spotify.  The first time I had listened to anything in audiobook format.  I really enjoyed the book.
 
I am very into cyberpunk settings right now so I will probably stick with that genre.

I just started the fourth book of the Wheel of Time series.  I read the first couple books years ago when they originally came out and never finished the series.  Thought I would go back and read them.  In 2023 I read the prequel and the first 3.  Hopefully I will get a chance to o through most of the remainder in 2024.

That's good enough confirmation for me!

It's encouraged

Is my rebrand allowed to show boobies?

Re-create? Hmm.

4 months is a reasonable timeframe for this right?
 
That's right everyone, I did not forget about you! Life has just been a bit hectic so I haven't had time to sit down and do this BUT I am finally gonna have a nice solid amount of time next week so it is my pleasure to announce that the third (at this point annual) Beketov Zoo Tycoon 2 stream will take place next Friday, April 12th, at 6:30pm EDT. Hopefully I'll have time to get the bugs worked out in advance and we can spend a few hours having fun and creating some VHL member based animals as we have the last two years.
 
As always the stream will be on my twitch channel which you can find HERE and I'll be aiming to upload the VOD to the league YouTube channel after for those who can't make it but hopefully a lot of people can since it's way more fun when people are hanging in the chat with me.
 
I'll see you all then!

Potentially DOZENS of dollars!

Sorry, made her unrecognizable now
 

Your sister's got it going on.

This is why I clicked on the thread.

At this point is it a number or just a screech?

With that logo, you tell me the city and I'll be there.

Potentially DOZENS of dollars!