Stockholm Vikings: Your S81 Renaissance Cup Champions

[thadthrasher 1,692]

 

Of course, there is an interesting history that goes behind the S81 finals. The story begins in S65 when @InstantRockstar took charge of the San Diego Marlins. For 10 straight seasons he lead San Diego valiantly, but unfortunately never captured a cup. After that 10^th and final season ended, beginning S76, a young and new General Manager took over San Diego. His name was @thadthrasher

 

During my time in San Diego, only missing the playoffs my first season, I was able to learn a bit from IR and from the multiple VHLM GMs who were willing to give advice. Of course, the VHLM saw the return of IR when he took over Miami and led the team to two cups.

 

Then, both of us found ourselves applying for a new league, the VHLE. We were both selected to take on brand new teams and build something new and unique. IR took over the Rome Gladiators and I was given the Stockholm Vikings.

 

All of that history led up to the S81 VHLE Renaissance Cup Finals where GM @InstantRockstar and GM @thadthrasher faced off with their respective teams.

Below you will read a brief recap of each game, followed by my own thoughts and “thank you” notes.

Game 1

This game opened the series at home for Stockholm. Standing in front of the fans, and in front of Rome, Stockholm seemed to be ready and eager for the series to begin. And man oh man did they show it on the ice. In the first period Stockholm found themselves responding to Rome’s goal with three of their own. They continued this momentum in Period 2 with two more goals, and finally a 6^th one in the 3^rd. Frustrations reached its peak for Rome when Deke Rike @JCV instigated a fight and ended up being ejected from the game at 18:54 in the 3^rd period. The game ended with a 6-2 victory for Stockholm.

Game 2

In a similar fashion, Stockholm began this game with 3 goals. And, much like in Game 1, Nezuko @Baozi scored two of them. Rome’s Robert Wilk @Tomat0 responded with two of his own, ending the period 3-2 Stockholm. Only 12 seconds into the second period, Nezuko sent in another goal, grabbing the first Hat Trick of the Renaissance Cup Finals. The crowd went absolutely nuts. Then, the Loch Ness Monster @LuluSalesAway sent in another one. Rome responded soon after and that was the final goal of the game. The game finished 5-3 Stockholm. The series was now 2-0.

Game 3

Now that the series moved to Rome there was a growing hope that @InstantRockstar and the Gladiators could secure a win. They started by scoring the first goal of the game. From there, Stockholm scored, and the rest of the game saw Rome scoring twice, then Stockholm twice, then Rome twice, then Stockholm twice. In the third period Stockholm upped the pressure by scoring two more goals, propelling them to a 7-5 lead. With just over a minute left in the game, Rome’s Biggie Cheese @a_Ferk sent in Rome’s 6^th goal of the game. Now, in the final minute of the game, Rome needed to up the pressure to tie it all up. Unfortunately for them, they did not pull through and the game ended with a 7-6 victory for Stockholm, now up 3-0 in the series.

Game 4

This was the game that Rome needed to show up the most to. They needed to absolutely forget the three previous games and make this one count, or it would be the end for them. Unfortunately, the home-ice-advantage did not do much for them. In the first period Stockholm silenced the Roman fans with 4 goals to Rome’s 1. With a breath of fresh air, and after a heated speech from the GM himself, period 2 started off well for Rome with the goal from Tyler Steel @tylerwest. This goal gave hope to both the players and fans of Rome. However, it would be the last goal that Rome would score in the S81 Renaissance Cup Finals. Stockholm went on to score 4 more goals, sweeping the series after an 8-2 Game 4 victory.

Words from Stockholm General Manager @thadthrasher

I want to begin by saying just how happy I am with the way this season went. The beginning of the season was not looking the best, and halfway through we were not ranked very well. According to @KaleebtheMighty, in this article, and rightly so, we were looking to be 5^th overall and lose to Cologne in game 7 of the Semi-Finals. Fortunately for us, that’s not how it went down.

 

While it’s hard to pick out any one player to be called our Most Valuable Player during the playoffs, the statistics clearly point to one. Playing all 9 games, and with more than 2 points per game, totaling 20, this player was a clear selection for MVP (at least in my eyes). With 9 goals, 11 assists, and a 12+/-, Florida Man @zepheter was clearly the Playoff MVP. Of course, every player on the Vikings contributed to the overall victory of the team.

 

I want to extend a special thanks to my amazing Assistant General Manager @Kisslinger. This man was ready, willing and able to talk shop at any point. Multiple phone calls were had between us throughout the season, and many hours were spent strategizing, redoing lines, and figuring out what we would do with trades. On top of that, he was happy to take the reigns of Stockholm over the last few days while I’ve been adjusting to being a father. He submitted lines for the last few series, and kept the team hyped. Truly, I don’t think I could have done this without his help!

 

Finally, and as corny as possible, I dedicate this Renaissance Cup victory to my son, Wesley. As @BarzalGoat pointed out in our VHLE GM Corner, “it wasn’t fair that I had to play you immediately after you got a child, that’s unstoppable power.” You, sir, were correct. We couldn’t have done this without the unstoppable power of Wesley (the future supreme overlord of VHL).

 

#thanksBabySales

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1024 words claiming weeks ending 16, 23 January 2022

[BarzalGoat 728]

Baby power is an untapped resource of victory 

[thadthrasher 1,692]

7 minutes ago, BarzalGoat said:

Baby power is an untapped resource of victory 

let's see if it helps my player in Vancouver win a cup lol

[Kisslinger 339]

Let’s goooooo! Congrats all of Stockholm! Tonight we celebrate!! Thank you for the compliments Thad, I appreciate it. Cheers boys and girls

 

and thank you Wesley for making us unstoppable

[Doomsday 4,034]

Review:

 

You did it, Thad!! You finally brought a championship to the Stockholm Vikings!! Who knew that all it would take for all the previous GMs to get the job done would be to have a child? Sweden is now 2/2 in Renaissance Cups as well, a truly dominating showing to kick off the new league! Kisslinger is also a great lad, loved having him as a teammate in Prague during my time as Landry II!

 

As a history nerd, I loved the set-up of your article. You set the stage very well, and covered each game in just enough detail to cover key moments, but not drag on and on. It's easy to recap games and be boring about it, but that's not something you need to worry about, you've got a way with storytelling that captivates a reader's attention. 

 

Congratulations on winning the Renaissance Cup!!

 

10/10

[ROOKIE745 570]

review time: First of all let me say congrats for winning the VHLE Cup! Excellent performance! I think you covered each game well, good amount to read. I appreciate all the tags and the use of bold and underline. I like the "words from Stockholm general manager" bit, brings in some character. I do think you could have separated it a bit more, it looks a little cluttered, just like a blank space between each game summary and such, also considering this is a cup win a picture of a player or a GM holding up the cup would have been very fitting to have here. Overall 9/10.

[thadthrasher 1,692]

Claiming 23 January