The exodus of VHLers from now defunct HD to HN.

[Shindigs 1,771]

#blamecole

A fair few VHLers have been pretty involved over in another GM league called Hockey Dynasty. Sadly, as is often the case with sim leagues, it met its demise this summer. We actually got one of our current VHLM GMs @badcolethetitanfrom over there. But with that league going under, a lot of us found ourselves needing a new way to scratch that itch.

 

Because even as a VHL/E/M GM the experience is very different than it is as a GM in a GM league. Since over there the players aren't real, and you can approach how you build/tear down a team completely differently than here. Where as a GM, especially in the M, you're more focused on being a teacher and working with people. Than you are focused on the actual "mechanical" GM work.

 

Moving Leagues

So again, @badcolethetitanwho was quite involved over in HD had gotten in as a beta tester for the new, relatively similar, GM league at Hockey-Nations (HN). He had already gotten some people over there prior, as he was privy to the likely upcoming shutdown of HD. But when HD was officially shut down on the 30th, the great exodus of HD members to HN happened. Currently it's most of what we're talking about over in the Moscow LR. Since a lot of us have all ended up in the same leagues over there, with some of us, like @Spartangoing straight into competing. And others like myself going straight into tanks. It really depends on the team you "spawn" with. I ended up with a very young team with a lot of prospects and a 19 year old starting goalie. So competing seemed silly for me. Which has lead to some amount of VHL on VHL trading.

 

I do think it's fun that we don't just interact with each other in the VHL. But that we also take those friendships beyond and into other games, be it the VHLers who play League, or Apex or Valorant. Or the ones spreading out into other sim leagues across the internet. It really helps highlight that we're not just here for the VHL, we're here for the people that make it what it is.

 

Who doesn't love big D?

My approach to what I want to do over there is, perhaps unsurprisingly if you know how I've been building Vegas, a relatively defensive approach. My early trades have focused on bringing in rock solid young defensive defensemen. To build up a solid backbone for the team, and giving me the freedom to chase forwards with draft picks. Which is another interesting thing, the way the drafts work over there means a lot of guesswork. Especially for us late joiners, as we'll only be able to actually partially scout a fraction of the drafts. It makes it a bit more akin to real drafting, as well as VHL drafting. Where you really have no idea what the ceiling might be. That's really cool, because usually in games drafting ends up being way too deterministic, if you know what you're doing. That being said, I don't know what I'm doing yet. So maybe it will become just that in time? Assuming the league lives long enough for us to get there.

 

What has Simon been drinking?

In other slightly more VHL centric news, Vegas are up 3-1 against SSK. Which the most interesting part of that is that it isn't 4-0, really. The playoffs have been very weird so far, Ottawa are up 3-1 against Mississauga, which makes literally 0 sense. We have only put up like 2/3 of the shots we normally do against SSK while they have been putting up like 2x their normal shots against us. So idk if Simon just decided that up is down, and down is up for these playoffs or something? Because there's been some kinda odd results so far, to say the least. And since Mississauga terrify me, I certainly wouldn't mind if Ottawa could complete the upset and take them out. Though with that level of blessed bot performance. Who knows what Ottawa would do to us?

Edited August 7, 2022 by Shindigs

[Scurvy 1,549]

I am going to check of Hockey Nations