Best VHL Magazine Articles of All Time

[STZ 5,360]

Best VHL Magazine Articles of All Time

 

Okay, maybe not of all time.but I rank them since I've been Editor which was a lot of Editions. I've read a lot of articles, and skimmed (almost) every of them, so I think at the very least my opinion might carry a little weight in this category. More than anything, I wanna give recognition out to those who have made the Magazine last for over 8 years. The rankings are based off of discussion generation, readership size, consistency, longevity, and effort - highest of importance being the discussion it generated. So here it is:

 

10. Moment of the Week - Boom

Boom first started with the Magazine with the role of finding and creating fake ads for the magazine which were then added to make it look like a real physical magazine. When I joined as editor, I wasn’t a huge fan of it, as it really looked like filler, and wasn’t really value-adding. Boom’s position evolved into creating the “Moment of the Week” which was more just a picture that would be on the front of a website. Over the years, he has enhanced his submissions to include a mini write-up as well. Always consistent, Boom has been a contributer for a long time, and is a great way to open up each magazine after the Cover.

 

9. Victory Three - Green/Toast

This is another of my favorites, based off mostly consistency and format. Green posted this article for almost the entirety of my time on the magazine. While it didn’t quite generate a whole lot of discussion, it was always posted early and was a great way to get three top news stories to readers. There was a level of bias in some of Green’s posts as I noticed over the course of his two players, a lot of the talking points were about the teams he was on - to be fair both of his players were generational players, so they probably would have been the focus anyways!

 

8. Kesler Unfiltered - Kesler

While this article has been on a low recently, it doesn’t change what it meant to the magazine at the time of its peak. This article basically came to being as Kesler took over Jericho’s “Up’s and Down’s”. Since it was almost a secondary editorial piece I renamed it to Kesler Unfiltered (only because I was too lazy to actually edit his shit grammar every week [which has improved I might add]). At its peak, this article stirred the pot and had people talking. It drew people to read the Magazine, and for that it earns a spot on my top 10.

 

7. Covers - solas

Solas is the only guy who has been with me through this whole ride. There was a few moments where I had to cover for him (no pun intended), but for the most part he has been doing the cover ever since the near beginning of my tenure. There’s a lot to say about that, and I have a whole lot of respect for someone who can consistently produce on time. Low maintenance magazine contributors are the only way a Magazine stays alive for nearly 300 Editions.

 

6. The Beat - Cowboy

I don’t think there has ever been a writer who has drawn people in this quickly like Cowboy has. The only reason his article doesn’t rank higher is because it has yet to stand the test of time, but for sheer quality and attention it’s received by readers, it has bumped a lot of other well-written articles out of the position. The Beat article has taken many forms over the years with writers like snipesalldaylong, Kyle, and Sball all writing it (Sball’s evolved into a separate article see: The List). Each did an interesting job, and in all honesty of those three I thought snipes was incredible for the amount of work each week he put in (full article and interview). I would have bet a lot that a season-long following of one franchise would have bombed. I would have guessed that only those on that team would have been following it - I would have been wrong.

 

5. Insider Trading - Higgins

Higgins’ Insider Trading piece was the most consistent piece for years. It was around long before I took over the Mag from Ree, and I’m positive it lasted for over the 100 edition mark. For a league that didn’t have a lot of trades and transactions, Higgins was still able to find talking points that generated discussion. Stamkos took over briefly and did an amazing job reviewing past trades, but he unfortunately burnt out quick. I always think of this article when I look back at all the editions I’ve skimmed through and posted.

 

4. Hometown Heroes - Sherifflobo

This was one of the most underrated and simply amazing articles the Magazine ever had. It was an article that was from the previous regime, but I believe when I took over, lobo had repositioned the article to take on a more complete look at the member and not just each player. He would showcase any chosen member, and what they have done for the league and what their player and previous player had accomplished. It was a fantastic way to give back to the members, and always was a hit for whoever was written that week. This was also used when the “Purchase a Mag Cover Article” was introduced. Obviously we’ve been missing that article ever since lobo left the magazine. In addition to this article, sheriflobo was also a huge participant in a lot of my joint special editions that I put out, so a huge shoutout to him.

 

3. Offside Editorial - The Rest

I think it would be inappropriate for me not to shout out to the other five guys who have held the Editorial slot. While I believe there is another gear that Sterling can hit, these guys did a great job and never let me down by not posting an article. Victor, Higgins, Doomsday, and Devise all deserve some recognition here. Robbie too, although I wasn’t a part of the mag at that time.

 

2. Historical Significance - Victor

A lot of people might look to the Magazine for their lotto number and maybe do a quick ctrl+f on their player name - but for those looking for some of the best written pieces about the history of the league and how the league has developed, look no further than Victor’s pieces in Historical Significance. This article was created after Victor left the Editorial as a place for him to post articles but not as consistently as the Editorial. It gave him more freedom to do the articles he wants when he wants, and it has proven to be an amazing platform. While there are sometimes a period of time between articles, when he posts them, they are always of high quality. I can easily make most of his articles two pages, but there’s kind of been an ongoing battle to keep it one big wall of text on one page.

 

1. Offside Editorial - Sterling

There may not be a crustier member in the league whose opinion means more than anyone else's. We have had the benefit of always having prominent voices in the Editorial position, whether it be robbie, Victor, Higgins, Doomsday, or Devise. However, the Editorial has always had the most attention and generated the most discussion when it came from Sterling. He has a way of finding great discussion points even when there seems to be nothing to talk about in the league, at times. When I first joined the Magazine team he was my most consistent writer, and after he left for a brief time, he’s returned once again as one of the bests.

 

 

Honorable Mentions:

GM Perspective - Mike, Rookie Watch - ADV, By The Numbers - ADV, Power Poll - Toast, The List - sball

 

 

So... What is your favorite? What would you add or delete from the list??

Edited April 27, 2016 by STZ

[FacePuncher 1,343]

 

[Victor 10,942]

Yeah sorry when I start writing I always aim for 500 words but sometimes it gets into 750 and I'm like fuck it this is all awesome I can't remove some of it.

[Higgins 3,618]

Nice.

 

I really enjoyed writing the editorial piece for the magazine. I only wrote 13 editorial articles from 181 to 200, but I think it was very high quality for each article. After only that short time in the position I definitely felt like I couldn't contribute to any new fresh editorial topics, it's a tough gig to provide meaningful, insightful and researched information every week.

 

My Top 3 to write were

The Power of First Gens (181)

TPE is getting out of Control (188)

Milestone and Success of the Magazine (200)

 

Can't believe it's been almost 2 years since I left the mag and it's still going strong

[STZ 5,360]

1 hour ago, ADwyer87 said:

 

 

I've honestly been super impressed with your stuff covering the VHLM, only reason you didn't hit the list is because it's still relatively new to the VHL Magazine and really I've only read less than 10 of your submissions..

 

Since returning, you've been one of my best writers - so don't feel discouraged

Edited April 27, 2016 by STZ

[Will 4,660]

25 minutes ago, STZ said:

 

I've honestly been super impressed with your stuff covering the VHLM, only reason you didn't hit the list is because it's still relatively new to the VHL Magazine and really I've only read less than 10 of your submissions..

 

Since returning, you've been one of my best writers - so don't feel discouraged

 

I'll just assume I wasn't included because I don't actually write 'headlines'

 

But for real, Victory 3 is already what I feel like Headlines should be so I just say what I want 

[Kesler 1,514]

lol

[eaglesfan036 4,603]

Great work steezy.

 

Editorials have always been my favorite as well so you got number 1 and 3 right

[BluObieZ 1,125]

In Your Face. Best article of ALL-TIME