Doom's All-Star Game Think Tank

[Doomsday 4,130]

Doom's All-Star Game Think Tank

A common fixture in sport leagues around the world, the All-Star Game may be known by different names, but all iterations of it share the same common purpose: bringing the best players in the league together to play a dream game featuring loads of talent and star power, creating a memorable experience for fans and players alike. Often, the game itself tends to be more exciting on paper than it is in reality, as the game itself is most often an exhibition that carries no real benefit to the players, who as a result do not play to 100% of their abilities as to not risk injuries in a meaningless game. For the Victory Hockey League, however, this is not an issue. Injuries do not exist, the players can go all-out to make those dream match-ups on paper a reality. Throughout the league’s history, the All-Star Game has surfaced in a number of different manners, routinely changing, disappearing, and reappearing as the seasons go by. With Theme Week here once again, I’ll be using the opportunity to go over some previous versions of the All-Star Game, some ideas for future All-Star Games, along with how they could work, or perhaps not work at all.

 

The Traditional All-Star Game

 

The most common usage of the All-Star Game has traditionally been a single game, with players from both conferences voted into the game by the league membership. Recently, with the All-Star Game being handled by VSN, at least one player from each team would make the All-Star Game, something that I do not believe existed previously. Another addition made by VSN was the skills competition, with results generated by the player’s attributes and a spreadsheet, clearly using a type of voodoo magic I don’t really understand. This was typically held around the middle of the season, meaning the voting was held based on maybe a quarter of the season’s worth of statistics. When simmed using STHS, it was either held using the same version of the game the VHL itself used, or Version 2, which featured a comically increased amount of goals and fights, leading to some highly entertaining results. Version 2 often featured a best of three series, in which three games were played for three times the amount of comedy on ice. So, in a nutshell, this is the All-Star Game’s base format. However, there is another version of the game which has been seen in the VHL.

 

EA NHL Brings the All-Star Game To Life

 

Sometimes, having game results from STHS can be rather underwhelming. As fast as you can read the results, the experience comes to an end. However, with the use of EA’s NHL franchise, @Beaviss brought the All-Star Game to life. Painstakingly recreating each player and converting their STHS attributes into EA NHL is absolutely time-consuming, and didn’t always play out the best, especially for the goalies. However, the difference in the experience was simply unreal. Beav would stream the game on Twitch, which could be watched live by everyone in the league. Additionally, viewers could interact with both Beaviss and each other using the chat feature, which Beav had set up to be read aloud by a computer voice lady, often to hilarious results. But beyond the visual difference, all the effort that went into this version of the All-Star Game made it more than just something on the calendar to get posted, it turned it into an entire event. Members could tune in and see their player as more than just a name and lines of data, and experience it with the community as a whole. It took so much work, but it made for a wonderful and memorable experience just like an All-Star Game would dream to deliver.

 

3v3 Tourney?

 

A relatively recent change to the NHL All-Star Game saw the standard 5 on 5 game played between the two conferences (or sometimes North America vs the World) switched up to a 3 on 3 tourney played between the four NHL divisions. Many were unsure of the change, but it quickly became apparent that this was an exciting format for the All-Star Game. Open ice led to a lot of opportunities for the players to show off their skills, with a surprising amount of defense being played as well, leading to competitive games that were incredibly fun to watch. I can’t help but imagine a similar format working well with the VHL, especially considering that it could make the All-Star Game end up being more than just a one and done post. It could even be adapted into a round robin style tournament, with the round robin play determining seeding for the knockout rounds.
However, there are some snags here. For starters, I don’t believe 3 on 3 is an option in STHS, which quickly nixes it from the main sim engine of the VHL. The EA NHL game does feature 3 on 3 games, but I am not positive if it would allow you to make a full roster and complete a game involving line changes and all players on the team to eventually take the ice. For that matter, divisions don’t even exist in the VHL, which is a core component of the NHL’s version of the game. At the present time, it doesn’t appear that this is a feasible idea to implement.

 

A Matter of Timing

 

Another element of the game that can be looked at is the timing of the All-Star Game itself. In the NHL, it is generally considered the halfway point of the season, so the statistics that get players selected is from a much smaller sample. Additionally, time passes much faster in the VHL, meaning that there is considerably less time for voters at the halfway point. Theoretically, having the All-Star Game at the end of the season (perhaps in the time just before the playoff sims begin) would allow more time for voters, along with providing a better sample of statistics for voters to decide who the best players in the league were that season, as opposed to those who just had the hottest start. The biggest issue with this, naturally, is that it creates a bit of a crunch for the simmers, who would need to quickly create the All-Star Game rosters and then sim the game(s). Doing the All-Star Game in the off-season, in my opinion, would take away from the other festivities of the off-season, crowding too many different events into the same time and taking away from what is typically a break period for the simmers as well.

 

Overall, I feel like the period of time between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs is the perfect time to have the All-Star Game held, as it ultimately provides more time for every single aspect of it to be as good as possible, along with it being held at a time where it would be the only event in the league while GMs prepare for the playoffs.

 

Making the Selection

 

In the end, the All-Star Game is ultimately about one thing: fun! It’s fun for the players who earn the recognition by being selected, and the presentation and build-up to the game itself can be an entertaining experience for members of the league. Organizing the game in a way where it’s as stress-free and enjoyable for as many people as possible is ideal, as fun is ultimately the driving force behind the All-Star Game, and if it’s not enjoyable, why hold it? As with everything that makes the VHL what it is, it’ll be a community effort to pull off a great All-Star Game, are you up to the challenge?

[Ahma 1,431]

I liked the skills competition. Something different and fun

[Doomsday 4,130]

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