Delete the E.

[Spartan 4,002]

Obviously this is going to be a contentious topic. @jacobcarson877 just wrote an article about his issues with it, or its shortcomings at least. The E had a stated purpose, but is it really meeting that purpose anymore as of S88 going into S89? I have some massive issues with the E here and some of it stems from today.

 

Anyways, the title and preview is just a bit of bait for some clicks. I don't actually have it out for the E. What I do have it out for are GMs who don't do their jobs. I'll be straight up and say there are plenty of things I don't do well myself. I forget to give bonuses to prospects, my check-ins are sporadic at best, if they even happen at all, and I simply can't win a cup. So I know I have my own issues and shortfalls as a GM and person.

 

 

But holy FUCK do some of you need to put in some more effort in scouting. How are we a sim league and I hear that only 3-4 VHLE and VHL GMs COMBINED reached out to first/second round prospects, if they even reached out at all. This league exists for the experience of our members, and most people I spoke to this pre-draft process said only 2-3 teams including Moscow spoke to them between the E and the VHL. And I reached out over the weekend to most!

 

I really don't know what's going on with some of our GM's but it's pretty embarrassing that some folks draft people well within their projected range without speaking to them. I selected a guy who wasn't spoken to by a single VHLE GM. If we don't step up our efforts, I don't know what some of us are getting out of this role. Dunno what competition there'll be in the VHL if prospects lose interest by the time they're drafted since no one's communicating with them.

 

Anyways I put this in the Thunderdome since I know I don't have the complete picture and am not offering 100% factual info. But the trend points towards the majority of VHL and E GMs not putting in the effort to get to know prospects, and the lack of effort is noticed by those eager prospects.

[Nykonax 1,550]

shl thunderdome shut down so you came here, nice

[Spartan 4,002]

Just now, Nykonax said:

shl thunderdome shut down so you came here, nice

I had to make sure ours stayed nice and safe

[Viper 528]

2 minutes ago, Spartan said:

I'll be straight up and say there are plenty of things I don't do well myself

We know.

[Dom 1,440]

9 minutes ago, Spartan said:

 

Obviously this is going to be a contentious topic. @jacobcarson877 just wrote an article about his issues with it, or its shortcomings at least. The E had a stated purpose, but is it really meeting that purpose anymore as of S88 going into S89? I have some massive issues with the E here and some of it stems from today.

 

 This is the short version of what you came for guys!

 

thank me later 

[jacobcarson877 2,072]

Sometimes I forget that me scouting and talking to prospects before the draft isn't me being a GOOD GM, but merely doing my job lmao

Of course I do things overkill, that's my thing. I reach out to EVERYONE in the draft regardless of whether I have a shot at picking them. It's not for me and my draft, it's for making connections with the members and maybe being the only one who sends them a message leading into the draft. They used to mean so much to me as a first-gen, and the best waiver pitches/ draft interviews still stand out to me today.

 

If you're not going to do the due diligence, just pass the picks. Teams do fine without being avid drafters all the time, if drafting isn't your thing just trade them for players idk

[Spartan 4,002]

1 minute ago, jacobcarson877 said:

Of course I do things overkill, that's my thing. I reach out to EVERYONE in the draft regardless of whether I have a shot at picking them

Yeah I'm not that good with it lol. I reach out to those I'm realistically interested in, but I haven't sent those generic copy paste questions in a while now. I try to have a chat instead which is much more satisfying and personal. Props to you for talking to everyone tho

[jacobcarson877 2,072]

Just now, Spartan said:

Yeah I'm not that good with it lol. I reach out to those I'm realistically interested in, but I haven't sent those generic copy paste questions in a while now. I try to have a chat instead which is much more satisfying and personal. Props to you for talking to everyone tho

And that's exactly what one should expect! You know your pick range, you scout in that pick range and you make the best pick based on the conversations you have and the data you've collected!

(and you draft really really well, so everyone else take notes)

[Enorama 1,980]

Title should be "GMs do your jobs pls" smh. More anti-E propaganda.

 

Also yes, scouting the first 2-3 rounds is bare minimum (call it 30-40 picks total). I'm OK with letting it slide beyond that point. If you're picking someone at like 20th overall without speaking to them, what the hell is your job pay for? It takes two seconds to send a "hey i might draft you, thoughts?" to anyone you're considering picking up on draft day.

[Spartan 4,002]

Just now, Enorama said:

More anti-E propaganda.

I'll counteract that by publicly stating I'm looking forward to playing in the E with my recreate and not skipping it this time. I think the team brandings are neat outside Yukon and I'd be happy to play for really any of the GMs there

[Will3 415]

I agree with you 100%. I can count the number of VHL Gms that reached out to me on one hand missing two fingers. Also none of the VHLE  managers scouted me at all and my player fell like a rock. I put my emotions about this into my players' Hello Europe.

[Pifferfish 345]

3 minutes ago, Will3 said:

I agree with you 100%. I can count the number of VHL Gms that reached out to me on one hand missing two fingers. Also none of the VHLE  managers scouted me at all and my player fell like a rock. I put my emotions about this into my players' Hello Europe.

That's disgusting honestly. Hey... When an E job opens up you better get in there and change it... 

[Will3 415]

6 minutes ago, Pifferfish said:

That's disgusting honestly. Hey... When an E job opens up you better get in there and change it... 

When I ready, I will. 

[rory 1,759]

Some of the players that might be disappointed in not being reached out too were just not in my long-term goals for the club, and so I apologize. Seeing as this is a major problem, in the future I will be sure to touch base with people regardless of the situation my squad.

[Grape 528]

VHLE GMs too focused on signing IAs that they forget to scout active players too . In all seriousness though, if you aren't reaching out to players, you don't deserve your job, period. It's part of the role. Not saying you have to go and reach out to everyone (although that would be nice) but bare minimum reach out to players around where you think you're drafting. And to add to that, maintain that mentality with all players, whether they be new members or returning. Simply put, you don't scout me, I won't play for you. It's not a hard thing to do. Just do your damn jobs. If you sat on your hands and didn't reach out to anyone, don't bother claiming job pay this week. You don't deserve it

[rory 1,759]

Just now, Grape said:

VHLE GMs too focused on signing IAs that they forget to scout active players too

Yeah, this is one of my problems in my first year. I suggested moving the IA waiver window until after the draft for this reason, but realistically the time crunch is probably too short for that. I reached out to a lot of IA members that I recognized, and got a couple to come back to the league but not until after they were IA claimed to random teams. Very frustrating experience for me, lol.

[Dil 1,744]

hi there, been a while but I agree, not for any reasons stated above but I just want to see josh have to revert all the VHLE portal changes muahahahah

[Pifferfish 345]

16 minutes ago, rory said:

Yeah, this is one of my problems in my first year. I suggested moving the IA waiver window until after the draft for this reason, but realistically the time crunch is probably too short for that. I reached out to a lot of IA members that I recognized, and got a couple to come back to the league but not until after they were IA claimed to random teams. Very frustrating experience for me, lol.

That's dope... I've planned to do that that with former Reapers long gone IA.

[v.2 1,260]

Didn’t read the post but I agree with the title.

[McLovin 393]

I'd go as far as to say this is just a league wide problem with managers. Granted, I've never held an actual GM job outside the WJC, only having been an AGM in the VHL and M, but I still feel like I understand probably better than most that prospects are widely ignored when it comes to interviews and it hurts user retention something horrible. The problem doesn't end there though, and I brought this up a bit in the GM chat, but I feel it's more appropriate at length here. 

The only way to make sure players stick around and are willing to play for teams/leagues is to give them a reason to be. Getting to actually know players, building a locker room chemistry and getting them excited to see their players in action are excellent ways to retain people and make them hyped to be here. Even little things like having a live streamed draft where you do bits in it, like live player interviews or analysis like we did with the M draft. Little things like that go a long way in making people stay interested in the league and make 'em want to play for you.

 

When I first started back in 2019, when my first player was drafted to the Reapers, the GM at the time @BladeMaiden hyped my player tf up, as she did with her whole team. Because of that, we had a TON of active players, and with the chemistry off the charts, it encouraged us to stay active in a community we found fun, which translated to us winning a Founders Cup. It's a tried and true method, and it hurts my heart to see that aspect of the league slowly dying out. I've been doing my best to revive that mentality with the Aces, but one team doing it in a community with 3 leagues and 30 teams overall isn't gonna fix the problem. It needs to be a collective effort from the managers in all leagues to put in that little bit of extra work to make sure people want to actually represent your team.

 

I love this community, the people here are fuckin amazing. While I don't completely agree with the E slander, I do agree with the fact that a lot of the woes of the league, and parts of the community as a whole can be self inflicted by managers who choose to do the bare minimum. Whether that be for job pay or just a lack of drive to get to that point, it doesn't really matter. You signed on for the work, if you can't put in that effort to make your team fun to play for, I'll go as far as to say you shouldn't have the job. All of this, of course, is just my opinion, but I felt it was necessary to get out as I feel very passionately about it.

[Gustav 6,117]

I think it has something to do with the situation that the E has an extremely limited TPE range, and that keeping active players in this range isn’t something that happens for extended periods of time per player. If E GMs see no reason to support their actives, then perhaps it’s time for the E to start taking some “cut your IAs” measures (and if the response to that is “that would get rid of too many players,” then perhaps it’s time to start wondering whether there’s a need for the E). 
 

In general, and as applies to any league, I’ll never understand GMs who don’t scout anyone. It’s a direct benefit to YOU to know whether the player you pick is going to be willing to help your team, whether they’re planning to stay active, or if they’re about to go backpacking through Kyrgyzstan (or if they just don’t really like your team). I’ve seen early picks backfire severely because the GM didn’t take 30 seconds of their time to reach out. It’s a shame that I have to frame this as “here’s how you can win more games” too—ideally we should just recognize that there’s a need for players to feel valued. 

[KaleebtheMighty 1,426]

Bottom line, a GM needs to reach out and at least speak with those active in their draft around their pick range. I’m like @jacobcarson877, I’m overkill. I send out a message with a link to a form to fill out containing questions I use to gauge a prospect. Heck my draft board excel sheet is nuts, ask @Spaz. It’s probably annoying to some of our veteran players and I try to not spam them with the form and stuff, but that’s the image new VHLers want to see when they come into this league, that there is a scouting system.

 

There needs to be a requirement for GMs to do their job. Maybe we need to instill a complacency period where a GM is selected for an off-season to have their process watched and critiqued

[Alex 2,876]

9 hours ago, Spartan said:

But holy FUCK do some of you need to put in some more effort in scouting. How are we a sim league and I hear that only 3-4 VHLE and VHL GMs COMBINED reached out to first/second round prospects, if they even reached out at all. This league exists for the experience of our members, and most people I spoke to this pre-draft process said only 2-3 teams including Moscow spoke to them between the E and the VHL. And I reached out over the weekend to most!

Don't need to scout if you don't have picks  

(JK, I actually did scout and send interviews to all the potential 3rd rounders)

Edited June 13, 2023 by Alex

[KRZY 415]

Completely agree with all of these statements. Scouting and effort is important to any team at any level . In my personal experience as a first gen player I only wanted to play with teams that took the time to scout me and show interest in not only drafting my player but helping me develop that same player.

 

but at the same time I can probably count on one hand the amount of VHL/E/M teams that reached out and genuinely showed some type of interest. 
 

it’s been said before aswell early picks can bomb and completely flop and vice versa with the later picks ( my player is an example of this ) I was a later pick and am one of the higher TPE earners within my draft class . 
 

I guess all I’m trying to say is why wouldn’t you take the time to scout it benefits you and your team if you take the time to do it and do your job . As well as creates and promotes an exciting culture for players to be involved and excited come draft time !

[nerji 126]

I just figured scouting was a semi rare thing in the VHL. I heard from two VHL teams prior to the VHL draft and exactly zero from the VHLE teams and I fell to the third round in that draft. Regardless, happy to have some teams set now but going to miss Mississauga