Why Recreates Should Skip the VHLM Draft

[bigAL 2,176]

What a hectic time to be in the VHL. We’ve got players moving teams, teams moving leagues, draftees moving up and down the scouting lists. It’s a great time of the year. 

 

One of the things happening now is that we’re starting to see the unanticipated side effects of the VHLE. We’re a season in to having this third league. We planned to have things happen that we couldn’t plan, and that’s part of the fun of wide scale system change. You gotta adapt on the fly, or die. Already we’ve had to nuke two VHLM teams and add two more VHLE teams. That wasn’t planned, but it was an efficient, data-based response to a problem that popped up. 

 

I have an off-season problem as well. 

Disclaimer: I’m writing this as Nagy AL, not blueAL. I’m just a guy with thoughts, *not* speaking as commissioner and saying these things are law now. 

 

My problem is that I want to skip the VHLM. Woah. Bold eh?

 

When we first dreamed up this crazy idea, we had a lot of pushback from people who wanted to skip the VHLE. They thought it was another unnecessary step between them and the Hall of Fame. They said they don’t care about the minors and want out of that prison as soon as possible. I disagree with the sentiment, but I get it. With a year of data, and being personally in the situation with my new player, I think skipping the VHLE is wrong; it’s the VHLM that should be bypassed for recreates and max earners. 

 

Where to start? It’s a complex problem with many, many threads to pull on. I think the first question is: What is the VHLM?

 

Full disclosure, I chose not to apply for the VHLM Commish job that McWolf got because of this question. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about things like: what does “development” actually mean in the context of an online sim league? Who is this league actually for? What’s the big-picture purpose of this league? Deep, existential questions with deep answers. 

 

My philosophy of the M is that it’s a filter league that sorts first gens into the ones that will be successful here and the ones that won’t. That means learning the physical act of doing point tasks and updating; it means understanding the culture here and seeing if there’s a fit; it means teaching them what sim leagues are and whether or not that meets their expectations. We don’t want people who “fail” this “test” clogging up our actual competitive leagues; if you’re going to crash and burn, please do it in the M before a VHL GM spends a first round pick on you eh?

 

The culture aspect is a huge piece too. I’m always torn on the idea of the perfect VHLM GM. I often say that I think it should be an experienced, newer member. As the first point of contact, the VHLM is where new members learn who we are, what we do, and how we do it. Of course we’re open to change, but organizational culture is a real if not intangible thing. We need the right people on-boarding our new members. VHLM GM is not an entry level job: it’s the hardest job in the league. We’ve seen how a cynical, jaded GM can mess up a whole cohort of first gens, or how an overly competitive GM can piss off new players with the extreme boom and bust cycle. Our GMs need to know what the league expects of all its members, so they can lead by example, nudge people towards good decisions, and keep our community positive and safe. 

 

Of course, it’s not only the VHLM GM’s job to do that. Recreates play a large role in the organizational structure of the M, but I argue they play too large a role now. My argument is that welfare+ and higher earning recreates should not be drafted to the M, and go to the E after their waiver season. 

 

First, this league is for the new members. It’s so much fun to have ownership over your team, to be part of the core, and really have unbridled, creative fun with the M. Not to brag, but if I enter the VHLM draft, I’m going in the top 5. The team I get drafted to immediately begins to build around me. Like it or not, it’s “my” team, and the first gens are just along for the ride. This is in contrast to my previous season signing with Philly on waivers. I recreated and signed at the trade deadline. The team already had a core group that had been together all season, started their own traditions and silly games, and it was their team. I was a supporting member in their show, and not the other way around. The counter argument is that the recreates are also helping the GM in on boarding the new players, but my Reaper friends still got the experience of playing with me for a month or so. 

 

Second, the VHLM isn’t meant to be competitive, and the VHLE is. Us high earning recreates know the things that are being taught in the M. We just came off a high of an eight year career in the bigs, and want to win some more trophies. Fair enough. The VHLE is meant to be competitive. It’s for the people who want to win. As a player, I’m mostly excited to actually grow and progress. After four seasons of banking TPE, I just want to apply more each and every week. I want the GM to be aggressive in trading. I want to win trophies. Sure that might not happen right away as a 200 TPE third liner, but the opportunity beats the thrill of zooming past the rest of the league on the TPE leaderboard and putting up insanely inflated and overall meaningless stats. 

 

Third, I hope this can mean the VHLE means something in the grand scheme of things. Since the wheat is already separated from the chaff, will VHLE accomplishments and accolades actually factor into things like the Hall of Fame? I hope so. 

 

Anyways, this is a long winded way of a) getting a PT in during a crazy busy week in the ol real world, and b) really hoping I get drafted to the E this weekend. 

[Spartan 4,057]

56 minutes ago, bigAL said:

VHLM GM is not an entry level job: it’s the hardest job in the league

Been saying this for so many damn seasons. When the VHLE was implemented, I expected that it would be the home for the people new to GM'ing. The people who make it to the E already know how to earn, as they had to have made it to 200 TPE. There's isn't as much pressure on a VHLE GM like there is on a VHLM GM to make sure their players know how to earn, all the different opportunities, and to handle the millions of questions first-gens have. When we start hiring 1-2 season old users to the VHLM, they're not being put in a position to succeed. It's unfair to expect a 2/3 month old user to know exactly how everything works in the league, because that's what they need to know to answer questions. Plus starting in the E gives you exposure to both player development and team management in a competitive setting, which helps people understand which avenue they prefer. People who like player development can go to the M, the folks who like competing can move to the VHL. Anyways, that was my slight tirade on a post with a different focus haha.

 

56 minutes ago, bigAL said:

Like it or not, it’s “my” team, and the first gens are just along for the ride

I experienced this exact thing in Minny this past season and it was sorta scary. I, the top 3 pick, was the default centerpiece of the team and Laine made most of his moves because I had asked to seriously compete that season, or at least make the season meaningful. It definitely didn't have the vibes of S72 LVA when we had a 6-4-1, and then added recreates at the deadline, or S73 LVA when we signed a whole lot of waivers that became the core along with some lower draft picks. First-gens need to have a larger focus in the VHLM and I agree, it just isn't there right now.

 

56 minutes ago, bigAL said:

The counter argument is that the recreates are also helping the GM in on boarding the new players

This is actually one of the more common things I've heard from GM's, that they like having recreates on the team to be that veteran presence. It makes sense, to have people who are willing to help the team out that aren't the GM/AGM, since those two alone can't be around all day. More experienced users hanging around the team help out in that area. My pushback to that, was that I'm in every VHLM LR for scouting purposes. I peek around a lot of the LRs' gen chats when I have unread notifications, and will answer questions that have been left unanswered. You don't need recreates on the team to help out if the questions are visible for people not on the team to see and respond to. 

 

This also leads to a point brought up a bit ago of a rookie mentor team, or more people to serve as resources to first-gens when they have questions. Because as we've seen, if the GM/AGM isn't around, first-gens don't really know where else to go to ask questions. Having more resources in place, either in team LR's or in draft class servers, could help alleviate M GM's need for recreates on their teams.

 

56 minutes ago, bigAL said:

will VHLE accomplishments and accolades actually factor into things like the Hall of Fame?

just make an E HoF smh my head

 

--- 

 

Also my most important point here - There is very, very little reason for a max earning recreate, who is conscious about their earning and class ranking, to pass over the M if practice facility in the VHLM is 2 TPE and the VHLE is 1 TPE. As much as I griped about not being allowed to skip the M since that was a personal goal, I really appreciated getting 7-8 extra uncapped TPE over the course of the season that I would have missed if I played in the E. I probably wouldn't lead my class in TPE if I had played in the E, and I'd have chosen to play in the M vs the E at the sake of my player experience - just to make sure I was getting more TPE.

Edited November 19, 2021 by Spartan

[AJW 1,812]

1 hour ago, bigAL said:

Second, the VHLM isn’t meant to be competitive, and the VHLE is.

 

I would much rather have a bunch of low TPE new creates trying to learn and have fun in the LR with winning being a second idea instead of recreates who just want stacked M teams so they can win. The M is for the player satisfaction 100%. The reason I wanted to be an M GM so bad was to be a teacher for new members, fill my roster with whoever wants to join, to get away from the main purpose of the VHL in winning. Don't get me wrong winning is fun, but just relaxing, having fun in a locker room and meeting new people is awesome.

[DMaximus 1,045]

I think players should automatically be moved up to the E the moment they reach 200 TPE. If the M is for development and members become developed, why make them stay locked in the development league for an entire season?

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

Review:

 

No.

[Dom 1,444]

I think it's no surprise if I say now that I'm not a huge fan of the VHLE but I need to admit that reading this article made me rethink my point of view on the VHLE and I think you really bring some good points there. While I do plan to skip the VHLE with my next player, I think that some changes in those leagues could probably make me do the switch between which one I want to skip.

 

As for the changes that could be considered, maybe stop using the VHLE as an in-between league and just make both leagues from 40 to 250 TPE. Put the recreates in the E, the first gens or recreates who had for exemple, lower than 500 TPE on their last player in the M. That way, you get rid of max earners in the VHLM and while you can't skip any of these leagues, you can easily just spend a season down. While we mainly talk about recreates for skipping the E, I think the problem of staying down too long is probably similar or even bigger for first gens. For sure, they don't complain as much as the old members but thats just because they are new and not settled in the league yet, but the truth is that learning that you will only be able to play in the big  league after 4-5 months because you didn't know how to earn properly in your first weeks is just discouraging for a new player and we probably already lost new people from that discouragement. So having the same TPE range for both league could fix all these issues

 

Great article @bigAL !

Edited November 20, 2021 by Domg5

[dlamb 1,306]

On 11/19/2021 at 12:19 PM, Spartan said:

Also my most important point here - There is very, very little reason for a max earning recreate, who is conscious about their earning and class ranking, to pass over the M if practice facility in the VHLM is 2 TPE and the VHLE is 1 TPE.

Yep, this right here. I wasn't expecting to have the choice, and honestly, I'm not even sure if I actually do have it, but as much as I want to experience a new league, I can't pass up the extra uncapped.

[v.2 1,275]

Abolish the E

[bigAL 2,176]

Sweet, it’s just 1000 words. Claim 2/2. 
 

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I find organizational structure and administration fascinating. Here’s to hopefully hearing my name called at the E draft tonight! 

[JardyB10 4,837]

I don't think there's anything wrong with cornerstoning a VHLM around a veteran VHL member. You've got a reliable strong player and a reliable member in the locker room to help out with the noobs, while the player can help elevate the rookie numbers. Obviously I don't agree with the idea of stacking a team with veterans or valuing them much higher than new members, but with the amount of waiver that come and go over the course of the season, I do think it's an all-around good thing to have a couple vets.

 

That said, I think it would be a fun idea to allow VHLE teams to call up vets mid-season when they reach 200 TPE or something like that. That allows the members to help out the VHLM team for a while until they can stabilize a core of new players, but devalues the re-creates somewhat and discourages GMs from stacking up on them.

 

In conclusion plz come play for Halifax

[KC15 340]

Reveiw:  Still don't love the new league - the "E".  But I'd hate it much less if the author's approach were taken.  Leave the M purely for the new creates.  They can learn and bond on their own and create their own culture within the culture of the VHL as a whole - great point Al!  If you are going to create a new, third league, I don't need to go to the league where I learn about the league - ever.  Another great point, Al.  The article made me see the E in a new way and for that Al, deserves great kudos.  10/10