The VHLM System

[Grape 548]

The focus of the VHLM is player development, but that doesn’t mean just waiting until they get enough TPE to make the jump to another league. Player development is teaching players how to be successful in the league, and how to be engaged with the community. A lot of GMs do a good job in giving the building blocks in order for people to be successful, but the problem is the player engagement part. Despite this being a development-focused league, teams are still gonna try and win, and there’s nothing wrong with that. People like competition and people want to win. It becomes a challenge, however, for new members to stay engaged with their team because of the VHLM meta of practically selling everything one year to tank then buying everything the next to go all in. New members get wheeled and dealed all around and some struggle to get proper footing. A member could be in a bustling locker room then get traded for a regular and are placed in a desolate locker room with barely anyone. Any chance to really build a connection with a good group of people is damaged. The only way to stop the isolation and over half the league being kind of ass is to change the meta. There needs to be a way to have a consistent core, at least for more than a season. An idea I have is to increase recreate TPE, so old members spend exponentially less time in the M, while new members are in the M for more seasons. A member who’s been around long enough could eventually skip the M entirely. It’s just a thought and I have no idea how it would work if implemented. The bottom line is that the meta in the VHLM needs to change one way or another so that new members can have a more genuine experience.