theme week thing

[hedgehog337 3,483]

So here it is, VHL is going further into the teenage years as it's celebrating the 15 year anniversary. Some of current members here aren't even that old so that's something. So the theme week said we can look back and reflect and I guess I can do that. Most of memories are gonna revolve around my GM tenure since uhhhh....out of 44 seasons I already spent here I was a managing a team for 35 seasons and counting (including Bratislava).

 

My first comeup - late 40's.

 

Don't exactly remember in which season, but I became something bigger than ''clicker'' with Zeptenbergs in the second half of S40's. I even was leaving teams to FA couple of times and I think this means something. Later I even started to do medias, though it was very uncertain for how long I could last with the grading system we had these days. Luckily for me, that system was abolished which gave me a breathing room and perhaps this was one of main reasons why I actually stayed in this league.

 

Did I have any part in making VHL toxic in S50's?

 

I think, not. Like always I was being a bystander and making lots of side comments in hot threads because why not. You know the feeling when you're reading the hot shitstorm and then comes members who are spamming some random shit ''for fun'' and killing the whole vibe of the thread. I was being like that. I remember that Riga locker when most of times we were discussing Helsinki and @boubabi in particular. That was also pretty much peak Riga forum locker under my tenure. Though the S76 thread blew out the water every other season post number wise, but these days we had more than two members participating in locker. Anyways, yeah VHL was suffering in 50's. Burnout from PP2 and constant drama made members less invested in this league. And new members never really came cause nobody had the energy to recruit. Though ironically these were the days I really started to flourish. Bratislava and then Riga GM, the rise of my activity, making good players...

 

Most fun times #1:

 

...speaking of which. I really was having fun seeing some members in shook when 450 TPE Krīgars started to light up the league for some reason. Well, with the help with the 440 TPE inactive Locke. You think 70's meta is something new? Riga was out there exploiting this in late 50's already, though I obviously never knew anything about 40 passing meta stuff. Also, Petenis in mid 50's was something lol.

 

PP2

 

Another part of history of the league. Not a small part either, even to this day this is being mentioned. The higher ups were trying to save the league from dying by implementing idea from @Molholt. We did get more players, but also on top of that we got more players that got burned out from trying to work with 2 players at the same time. By the way, Krīgars was the product of PP2. At least it gave VHL more hall of fame players...eh?

 

Most fun times #2:

 

It correlates with the previous two points. Winning is fun and having back to back is even better. Everything worked in our and my favor. Getting a hall of fame goalie for cheap, meta being on our side. For obvious reasons I was a fan of that.

 

Beaviss.

 

At this point pretty much iconic member for VHL. He came in S56 and quickly climbed up in ranks with his hella active energy. Seeing that this league is not far from crumbling he decided to do something. No, not to quit VHL. He and his ''right hand'' @Spade18 actually managed to do a proper recruitment which actually gave results in rather quick fashion. Some of the first wave first gens that came in early 60's are still in this league. His efforts in recruitment brought us to the first point of culmination - the S66 draft which was the biggest and deepest the VHL has ever seen by that time. He kept his energy until mid 70's when the league was already very far away from the 50's shitshow times. @Beaviss

 

VHL portal.

 

''It goes hand in hand'' - pretty much recruitments relations to portal. The idea that was started by @Devise(?) was done in real life by @Will in early 60's. Then it was and still being improved by @Josh and @Dil. The portal is named one of the biggest reasons why the recruitment was so successful. Earning TPE and updating player became an easier job. It made VHL more casual which appeared to be a positive since more members were buying into this idea.

 

My first step down - S54.

 

Yall out there thought I only started this in mid 60's? In my very first season in Riga I had a dubious trade idea which never worked so I went to cry a river to not so oldhead GM @Banackock and told him I'm about to step down. Oh if he ever knew who will still be Riga GM in 31 seasons he would probably told me that this job is not for me. Instead, he was telling me to not give up....well I didn't lol.

 

My least favorite playoff series.

 

S65, Toronto 4-1 Riga. Thanks I hated that. I was so pissed I even was typing in caps lock on and I pretty much never do that even when I'm mad. So you know how livid was I after losing game 5.

 

Dead puck era (S64 - 72)

 

The successful recrutment effort brought lots of fresh blood into this league which meant we had less horrible teams that could be dunked on. The scoring league wide went down really quick and even having expansion teams didn't stop overall scoring from plummeting. We were witnessing some fascinating achievements like winning the scoring title with as low as 88 points. Goalies for sure were eating really good these days.

 

Second big rectuitment wave (S72-75)

 

Well, you could say it wasn't as much as recruitment crew job as it was from something unfortunate thing. That thing was named C-19 and the lockdowns that were a result of this virus. People had nothing much to do at home all the times and VHL was the one way how to spend the time. Regardless if you were a sim league veteran or a newbie. The draft classes were really booming these days which culminated in the biggest draft in VHL history - S75. That was really something huge and I'm pretty glad I had lots of picks there hah. Some of newbies from that timeline are already holding high positions in this league and one of them was even a commish for a moment. Truly great days.

 

My least favorite period (S77-81)

 

I think I don't need to explain again why. Good summer, shit results, lots of job. All of that came up in one time and drove me out of the league for the most part. My activity during that time was the worst since early Zeptenbergs days. Thanks, I hated that too.

 

Meta/high scoring (S76-82)

 

I have to say, the first seedings of that were planted earlier by @FrostBeard's Malmo. Even in S71 when he tried to rebuild during the season I felt like the players he got from that big Riga/Malmo trade actually made this team more offensive based as their builds were scoring friendly. That even helped them to leapfrog Helsinki for the last playoff spot though before that trade they were trailing behind. Couple of seasons later he assembled players that were really about scoring and not much else and that worked pretty well. Not without Condor's help of course, but still. Soon enough, they won a championship. In fairness, I doubt Frost had any idea about making the scoring heavy team, he just was drafing and trading for players that were fitting into their timeline and that's really about it. Neither other GM's were watching him like that. But something here was really up - get more scoring first players; do not even bother for physical or passers and get what you want. Other GM's were starting to do the same stuff (though again, I don't think Malmo was the reason). Year by year we were witnessing teams getting more scoring based until @Nykonax said fuck it and assemble a 40 passing team. I think we all know how it went for his managed Vancouver and why the hybrid system was implemented in the first place.

 

VHLE (S80 - )

 

Something nobody ever thought it would happen. A third league. The so called ''C-19 recruitment'' also brought a good amount for clickers who weren't that active to have a big role in a team, but still were decent enough to have a spot in a team. Soon enough teams were having large problems to land them anywhere since they had no cap or roster space. In the attempt of these 300-400 TPE clickers not ending up without a team this league was created.

 

 

Alright, enough about history stuff I'm tired and I'm off to sleep soon.

 

That's it and I'm out.

[FrostBeard 2,049]

To be honest @hedgehog337I never actually thought about my time as Malmo GM in those terms. Now that I think about, I never truly cared about player builds or anything like that, I cared about people who would fit our LR, thought about making moved to make sure that the team was competitive in the long run. Made some terrible choices too. Looked through the builds. Yes. Malmo was a Meta team. I am sad now. 

[Banackock 8,045]

This job is not for you

[hedgehog337 3,483]

10 hours ago, Banackock said:

This job is not for you

 

Too late old man! 

[frescoelmo 1,276]

Good for you man I don't remember like anything from S35-75 lol

[Spade18 1,305]

I'm glad my legacy is as @Beaviss's right hand man =P

[hedgehog337 3,483]

On 7/19/2022 at 6:09 PM, frescoelmo said:

Good for you man I don't remember like anything from S35-75 lol

 

I even remember a player named Our Lady Of Perpetual Motion

 

wondering who was the member behind that

 

btw w2 claim

[hedgehog337 3,483]

w3

[v.2 1,406]

Great little history piece here, perfect for the theme week.  You filled in a lot of gaps for me that I missed during my time away from the league and its great to hear about the implementation of things like the portal, the #1 QoL feature that def helps for retaining members. Also sad I missed the whole Beavis era but I wasn't aware how vital he was for recruitment!  You should write more historical pieces like this outside of theme week, they are fun.  Overall rating 9/10