The decline of Riga Reign GM?

[hedgehog337 3,480]

 

*this is the sad lion. The same kind of sadness that Riga Reign is experiencing right now*

 

 

 

S74 offseason. The Riga Reign just completed their 13th post season in a row, a record that still isn't broken (although Calgary is running somewhere around). At the end of the series against Malmo, however it was apparent that there is nothing much left in the tank so the GM Benjamin Zeptenbergs decided to do he hasn't done since the S59 offseason - blow it up and bring a new life to team. The decision was perfectly reasonable - to this day the S75 draft is the deepest draft this league has ever seen so far and Ben was seeing the opportunity make a rather quick rebuild and get back on track without much fuss. Countless picks later - and the new blood emerged into the team knowing that soon enough these guys will challenge the Seattle Bears dynasty...

 

...S81. After the 0-2 stretch against the main rival for the wildcard spot Prague Phantoms the Reign once again fell off to the lotto territory. But it's way from the worst part. The reality is way more harsh - I will turn my biased mode on and tell everyone that the S75 Riga Reign draft class will go down in history as the biggest ''what if'' in history of this league. Or biggest undeachievers, if you wish. 2 playoff appearances in 5 seasons, including the trip to the wildcard against Prague in S76. As of now, it seems like this ratio will turn to 2/6. Or basically, 1 playoff series in every 3 seasons. Zero playoff series win. In only 2 playoff/wildcard games we saw Riga being victorious. In short, nothing but constant disappointment. Excitement is long gone. It looks like the guys who are left from that core are just waiting for the end of the road which was filled with anger, misunderstood, pain and constant blame on Simon T.

 

But even with that, are players really responsible for this to happen? Or there was another party in this shitshow that had something to do with this? Someone higher in position who could've made this team better. Maybe there is ever harsher truth than the whole S75 Riga underachievement. Are we witnessing the decline of one particular person?....

 

 

 

*would you look at this depressed ass face of Riga Reign GM. Everything checks out.*

 

 

Ok, now I'll turn italic off and let's talk for a moment. First off, I think you already guessed it that particular person is none other than myself. If you're not inactive for like 2-3 seasons you would notice that Riga is not experiencing it's best days. And this season is not an exception. What went wrong here? Not exactly sure. There is more than one reason for that and the first one might be that

 

1. I jumped in too quick. Prior to S76 I only missed the playoffs 4 times so when there was an opprtunity to have some playoff actions even if this was the wildcard - I was in. Malmo and London weren't doing anything much and the former team decided to sell some guys. I just couldn't pass on this chance so I made a trade which might be the last blockbuster in my GM career at this moment. Sheilds, Lagesson and the comeback of Sasakamoose were supposed to get Riga back into the playoffs. And that's exactly what happened. Yes, we lost to Prague in wildcard, but there was no reason to panicking. We had so bright future we would get blind just by looking at it...

2. ...I guess I wasn't wrong about that. Prior to S77 I figured it out our weakest point would be a defense as Linus and Thunder were still on the way to stardom. So I was trying hard to fill this gap and I did just that...or more like overdone that. I brought General Zod FA rights for the 3rd round pick and managed to sign him. But then I was very unsure how this would go as Zod was the playmaker and we all know that scoring guys are doing most of the stuff. As the result, scoring first James Rose became Reign player as well. The only thing left after that was sit back and watch us being on the way to the...

 

....PLAYOFF MISS! YES YOU HEARD IT RIGHT! PLAYOFF MISS WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THE BIG TPE TEAM MISSING THE POSTSEASON FUCK STHS!11!!!!! Something really went wrong there. Too much defensemans? Too much playmakers? McLaren's 40 passing not working because he over-updated his checking skill? Not sure, but the offense was just not there. And this wasn't the first time in my GM tenure when Riga was just not up to the par with some of the best scoring teams, but it still was enough to secure the playoff spot rather easily. Now, this wasn't the case. For some reason, Malmo was starting to heavily overperform and as the result they actually managed to sneak into the playoffs. I get that they were mostly about scoring, but I still think that was absolutely atrocious display from STHS. Speaking of which, I will never let this go; but that also takes us to the most important reason of this shitshow:

 

3. My ego. To be more precise, it got hurt. I was just not used to have these situations. When you look at some current GM's record you notice a lot of more exprienced ones had the bad moments when they couldn't make the playoffs even when competing. Enorama had that, McWolf had that, Peace had that. Hell, even the mr. dynasty himself had to feel this pain at the very beginning of his VHL GM tenure. But what about me? As it was mentioned earlier, I've never had to experience this kind of frustration. It was simple for me - if we were competing, we are making the playoffs. If we are tanking, no playoffs. Nothing in between. S77 was literally the first time in my GM time when we were prematurely eleminated and oh boy that hurt my feelings a lot. My dislike for STHS was brewing for so many season and this really got me triggered as hell. Because that's who I am in real life - I just can't be a good loser. Sore loser is the way to go according to me. And while we're at it - S77 and 78 Malmo was the fluke, thank you very much. Anyways, my hurt feelings triggered another negative trait in me...

 

3.1. ...the decrease of my interest as I've started to just give up. When something goes wrong, I do tend to lose a desire instead of fighting back. And the VHL was never an exception. The timing of this didn't help either. I would rather enjoy the spring and summer than dealing with this issue. I mean, having a good time in summer outside of home is never the bad thing. It just took me out of the managing job. I also was working a lot in June although I wouldn't say that was the big reason. But I really lost a desire. More and more managing jobs were done by then-AGM Ledge and I was being like...meh. I think Peace knows what I'm talking about. Do you remember that trade between Riga and Toronto when we decided to swap players in mid-S78? It actually could've happened faster had I more interest in actually being invested in these trade talks rather than just ''looking at the message for 5 seconds and then yeah I'll decide it tomorrow someday I don't know when whatever''. So in short - I just lost it. Lost the passion I've had before. It also affected me with earning TPE. Since the early summer I've been nothing but a clicker which shows something.

 

And of course, we made the playoffs in S79 which finally gave me something to cheer about. But this was just a spoon of honey in a barrel of tar because everything else was there. Lack of scoring, lack of excitement and lack of doing anything from the person who should've at least tried to change the narrative. And another playoff miss in S80 completely killed my faith and interest. When I'm messaging some free agents with ''we have some roster space'' rather than ''we will be a good team'', you know that something is not right. And as we are approaching the S81 trade deadline we can see that Riga is once again is moving to the wrong way.

 

And now I'm just feeling empty. Not even angry, just full of nothing. The days of ''STHS IS GARBAGE FUCK THIS SHIT SIM ENGINE KILL SIMON'' are slowly fading away. And even my complaints about the results and sim engine aren't really genuine anymore because I see what STHS wants and nothing else matters. I will stop it there because I have nothing else to say about it. Just one more thing.

 

 

Is this the last we've ever seen of hedge in Riga?.......

 

That's it and I'm out.

 

13.12 - 19.12

20.12 - 26.12

27.12 - 03.01

[Banackock 7,713]

Selling

[hedgehog337 3,480]

13 minutes ago, Banackock said:

Selling

 

selling

[BOOM 8,435]

Good read and feel bad for Riga tbh. 

 

I think that lion is just hungover though. 

[Tate 328]

[Banackock 7,713]

26 minutes ago, Tate said:

[Frank 4,804]

 

@hedgehog337

[hedgehog337 3,480]

third claim

[fonziGG 1,065]

Review: This was a fantastic read into the mind of a very experienced GM. Seeing what you went through with Riiga, mentally, even during a time where I GM'd Vancouver was interesting. I also think it was very interesting to read the flashback to S75 in the beginning. The photos are also a nice touch (how did you find a photo of a sad lion? lol).

 

10/10 read. One of the best things I've read on the site for a while now.