The New Attribute System Isn't Perfect, But...

[Renomitsu 934]

It's pretty dang good.

 

Fifteen new attributes. As a returning user who spent the last decade or so primarily in VHL – which has been STHS dependent as long as I’ve known the league, it was weird to return to a system that 1) changed how the attributes we add to improve our players and 2) still have them connected to the inherent attributes of STHS. It was a natural response to the rapidly-developing meta of “hey, let’s max scoring, leave out passing, and leave the rest to RNG because this is clearly the best possible build,” leaving virtually no room for secondary attributes.

 

My initial impression? It’s not a perfect system, but it does allow players to develop attributes in a manner that doesn’t match “turn brain off after maxing scoring and defense,” and finally brings to prominence some important attributes like strength and puck handling. It’s had to accomplish that by tying any competence in scoring to either very poor returns or to less desirable attributes – which is fair, as I imagine very few hockey players can make it to relevance without supporting attributes in real life. There’s certainly still a meta to producing excellent players, but it doesn’t seen quite as uniform as in prior seasons. Scoring is still obtained at an absolute premium, but other attributes are seeing some love largely because scoring is hideously expensive. You either have to 1) tie it to your passing if you want anything resembling a decent attribute to begin with, or 2) raise it at an absolute pittance (0.12 points/attribute increase) which becomes highway robbery as you scale up wrist/slapshots.

 

One could argue it makes the attribute feel “less rewarding” or “unfun” to increase scoring. I’d lean towards the former, as the league was quickly heading in a strictly unfun direction with all teams moving as close to 99 scoring/40 passing as possible. Points leaders at the end of each season – despite the league being close to its peak in COVID-19 membership – were getting rapidly out of control in a league that should have been in its theoretical apex of parity. Any pass-first player was discarded as inefficient and teams like the Vancouver Wolves rapidly became the scorn of the league. I’d know – I was on the team for Aloe Dear’s last season or two and it was a somewhat common occurrence to be told that my team was ruining the league. It’s exciting to see non-1,300 TPE players make differences in decisions when building their players. There are still some that use the checking-type builds, and checking/fighting builds are still obviously in the minority. But lots of players have excellent strength scores – especially centers with their multifaceted faceoff attribute – and virtually nobody has a gap between passing and scoring greater than 20.  There are differences between strength, skating, and puck handling for most teams, with centers having greater strength than their winger and defensive counterparts.

 

Oddly even on the high-tier teams, defensive players don’t have exorbitant strength scores. Some have opted for very high passing attributes. There’s excellent diversity in player builds, long story short, and I hope that’s here to stay.

 

And heck, even a top team like Helsinki has a dude with 56 fighting.

 

That’s awesome.

[JCarson 730]

I enjoyed this article.  As a player who has only seen the league since the change, it is interesting to get a returning players perspective.  I can't even imagine a league that has such a defined meta that the players would be almost identical.  It would leave no difference in playing style, no difference in team structure and would be a league fully built on who could amass the best earners.  The variation and differentiation created by the new system allows for a fun mix that i am happy i have gotten to experience.  Great article I am going to give it a 10/10. 

 

Keep up the great work