Person Versus Self

[Gustav 6,425]

Ah, theme week...

 

You'd think I'd have a lot of ideas on my mind for RIVALRY WEEK after it's been my idea for years on end at this point. Seriously, if I had a nickel for every time I brought it up in response to "we're out of ideas" and then watched us go with some concept like "VHL vacation" instead...well, you know the deal. But I'm not the constantly-online free time monster I used to be, and the sigma grandest can lead to some writers' block every now and then (especially when that free time is what I get to spend not working on things). Since I'm used to assignments, though...

 

You may remember, at some point in your academic career (as I do distinctly from second grade and probably every single year thereafter until we'd all gotten the point), learning about the types of conflict in literature. Person vs. Person, Person vs. Nature, and all that. Person vs. Society is an awesome one that could describe my adventures with THIS LEAGUE'S DRACONIAN MODERATION STANDARDS, while Person vs. Destiny (which I learned as Person vs. God, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that that's changed these days) is another awesome one that describes every VHLer's adventures with a certain simulation engine. 

 

What I'm here to talk to you about, however, is Person vs. Self. Allow me to explain.

 

 

A Person vs. Society conflict at work.

 

 

Art Vandelay was drafted #1 overall in S84, and as yet, hasn't quite lived up to his VHLM-earned reputation as a shutdown goaler. Sure, his rookie season was promising, but aside from some unexplainable good looks against a select few teams, not much has warranted consideration for anything special (as if I, as a bad dumb evil BoG member, haven't been trying to shoehorn that in anyway). We are--for once--not here to talk about Art Vandelay (Art Vandelay), though. We're here to talk about his GM, @InstantRockstar, whose player seems determined to thwart his team's success.

 

Augustus Kennedy was drafted 10th overall, one season before Vandelay in S83. He's spent his entire career up to this point as the starter in New York, waiting one season before being called up and sharing a rookie season with Art in S84. Much like Vandelay, he's taken some solid performances and a hot reputation early on (winning Top Rookie and boasting the league's lowest GAA one season later) and made not much out of them, riding the Americans to their usual consistent bunch of nothing. Neither team has accomplished anything of note during my entire time in this league (for LA, that meaning their entire existence), and there's a whole lot of interference to IR's GM work coming from his building work.

 

Now, it's at this point in the article that I realize an index doesn't show a player's stats against every team, but rather a team's stats. I'd hoped to compare Kennedy's stats against everyone, but we'll have to settle for New York's in general. Yes, there will probably be some backup starts in there...but with New York's backup posting losing records, I think we're still good to go with the general point.

 

S84: 4-0-1 vs. LA | 28-39-5 overall

S85: 1-3-1 vs. LA | 33-31-8 overall

S86: 4-1-0 vs. LA | 33-35-4 overall

S87 (so far): 3-0-1 vs. LA | 18-23-2 overall

 

Total: 12-4-3 vs. LA | 112-128-19 overall

 

Aside from S85, the Americans have played wonderfully against the Stars. I personally remember many of these games being instances of New York being outshot and still managing to pull out a win thanks to some stupid STHS goaler heroics, and this kind of thing has continued to happen this season. It's especially annoying because our friendly neighborhood GM doesn't even WANT to be beating LA...yet it happens and he effectively gets handed a loss when his player decides to actually show up. LA shouldn't be conceding a point in nearly 80% of their games against none other than New York, who's barely getting a point in 50% in general (a mark that's below 50% if we remove those LA games). 

 

So yeah--perhaps it's time for LA and New York to be rivals on a larger scale (at which point I ask @thadthrasher for a second opinion). We're the two biggest cities in the US, we're both underachieving NA conference teams, and you're holding our GM hostage. Let's take this thing Person vs. Person.

[thadthrasher 1,692]

12 hours ago, Gustav said:

So yeah--perhaps it's time for LA and New York to be rivals on a larger scale

East Coast = Best Coast

[JCarson 727]

Article Review:

This is a great article, the continued comparator of the mediocrity that is at the hart of this rivalry is what makes rivalries in the VHL work.  We really have not much in common, we both got drafted (so that is something) but I will compare myself to you until my last retiring breath. You are the bane of my existence.  Even though neither of us has accomplished anything to note you will be my rival (will you agree to be mine). 

 

I like that the author went to the lengths to gather actual data to make their point.  9/10 because my scoring is as arbitrary and pointless as the heroic goaler ability of STHS.