VHL Editorial

[Jericho 917]

Going to be late this week. Girlfriend's grandparents are in the hospital and it's not looking good, so we're going down. I expect to be back tomorrow and to have it done then, but if you guys don't hear from me that's why.

[BOOM 8,435]

Well shit, that sounds unfortunate. Hope the situation improves. All the best.

[Jericho 917]

I'll be home tomorrow night, if you send this issue without I understand. Sorry about the inconvenience but it couldn't be helped.

[Jericho 917]

Edition 324 - Context

 

My dear readers, this week we'll be covering something a little more relevant to current events. I usually try and get my articles in a few days before deadline, and as such I tend to stick to general topics, or at least longer lasting ones. This week I had a few issues that arose at the last minute and required me to leave town for a few days without notice. So my article is being written mere hours before this edition will go out (I assume).

 

This context is relevant to the story, because the semi-finals have already finished playing out. New York won a hard fought series with Seattle and Helsinki got absolutely dumpstered by Stockholm. In the Stockholm-Helsinki Game 6 thread we saw a bit of a scuffle break out between Beketov and Trifecta. Game 6 was another game where Moon played so badly that he was pulled (this being the fourth time in the playoffs for the rookie goaltender). VHL regulars would expect this thread to be filled with Jericho posts about how garbage Moon is (especially with Finn uncharacteristically having the game of his life) but with me stuck in Oromocto (and it's population of 12 people) my fellow Monctonian Robert Sharpe rose to the occasion. Beketov proceeded to point out Moon's 0.865 SV% and "just shy of 4 goals allowed per game" over the course of the playoffs. He then presented the hypothesis that Helsinki as a team suffered from their goaltender.

 

After a few posts from other people about other topics or also shitting on Moon, Trifecta comes in to point out that Stockholm will "lose like they always do anyway". Now I can't say I disagree with his assessment, seeing as how New York is objectively the better team, but I'd say that you probably don't want to draw unnecessary attention to yourself when you play bad enough to earn MVP of the series for the team you played against. I wasn't there to point that out, so Sharpe came in again to do the lord's work. Pointing out that Moon played worse than a CPU (factually true when compared to HEL G, the only CPU goalie to play in the playoffs). Trifecta responded by calling Holik a "joke of a goalie" and saying he'd get wrecked next game (he did lose Game 7 in overtime to Phil Shankly) and that "they didn't wreck me, just got a lucky series going for them." Now I feel this may be a bit of an overstatement. Helsinki had the better skater core after the trade for Covington, but DeGrath only played like a bag of dicks in one game this series, leading to a relatively easy series for Stockholm.

 

Sharpe came back in with stats to back up his point, because he felt strongly that Holik was the better goalie. He pointed out that he allowed far less goals per game even when playing at his worse and that Moon was pulled so often he got less playing time than Power despite having played in more games (Power being the only goalie with comparable games played). Trifecta responded that by the end of his career Moon would be better than Holik. You may notice a pattern here. When Sharpe is making his argument, he presented his hypothesis and then used data to back it up. He used data, and always provided the context necessary to avoid media bias. It wasn't just a few random stats copy pasted. The context around the data is incredibly important because the numbers mean nothing without it. Keep this in mind as we move forward. Up to this point we've gotten no data out of Trifecta at all. He's so far just made controversial claims and future hypotheticals about how great his player will be. He does eventually go on to show data, but as you'll see it's a bit misleading. When comparing rookie regular seasons the stats were as follows:

 

"Let's compare the rookie season numbers shall we.

 

Holik - 44 GP, 7 W, 33, L, 4 OTL, 0.901 SV%, 3.43 GAA, 0 SO

Moon - 64 GP, 40 W, 19 L, 5 OTL, 0.899 SV%, 2.26 GAA, 4 SO"

 

Now the issue here is the complete lack of context. Looking at these numbers, and only these numbers it's not unfair to assume Moon is the better goalie. The issue is that we have no idea what kind of team was around them. I'm a fair example, not having been around for Holik's rookie season I can't tell you what kind of team he was on. Because I know VHL trends I can ASSUME he was on a rebuilding team, and that this would make his stats go to shit, but we're missing the context.

 

The point I'm getting to is that you can make any story true if you twist the data enough. Generally people who are making true claims tend to be a lot more honest with their data. You don't have to resort to weird forms of trickery to TRY and prove your point. You show the data, you build the story around it and include all relevant points. When you're lying you pull one piece of data out of a much larger scope and present it in an isolated situation as proof of your claims. This is a lesson that applies to life. Apply this when you read news articles or see random stats posted on facebook. Stay informed and stay classy VHL.

[Jericho 917]

Edition 325 - Drama

 

The VHL is a constantly evolving enigma. As long as I've been here I'll never be surprised by it's ability to fly in the face of trends. Right now we're in the finals and most of the time the league kind of winds down during this time frame. It's incredibly exciting for the teams involved, but the rest of the league usually doesn't care since they've basically started the off season, but without any of the fun parts. This season we've seen some serious activity that hasn't been matched for a while.

 

I attribute this to drama. Back in the day you couldn't log on without someone ending up in a fight with someone else. Be it a traditional rivalry (like SEA v NY of the 20s) or two member genuinely disliking each other and shitting on each other every chance they get (like Kesler and I back in the day). We haven't seen this for a while seeing as how most of the member base seems to have matured over the years. You'll still see the odd jab at someone here and there, but it almost feels like a nod to the days of old rather than a genuine attack.

 

Lately this seems to have amped up in a few areas. The quarter and semi finals saw a significant amount of threads with Stockholm players (largely instigated by me) throwing a lot of shade at the Helsinki Titans (mostly at Trifecta). I touched on this a bit in my Rivalries article a few weeks back but basically it started with Trifecta shit talking other players and when the tables turned I thought it appropriate to give him an equal amount of shit. Higgins and a few other Titans decided to stand up for their teammate, and then my teammates stood up for me and you end up with a bit of a cycle. Obviously you get a bit of conflict here but in my opinion this feels a lot more civil than the rivalries of the past. It may just be that I've matured over the years but it seems like everyone is mostly enjoying themselves. This expanded into Seattle and New York when Trifecta threw shade at Holik and Beketov strted throwing barbs back. We've seen a lot of discussion in the game threads, and not only about the games.

 

With Helsinki out of the playoffs I expected to see things relatively quieter during the finals. We still get the odd Trifecta comment, but seeing as how New York and Stockholm are two of the most friendly teams with one another I figured it'd basically be a big hug. This has mostly held true, but we've gotten our drama supplied from a fresh source. Semi-recent "newcomer" Scooter was finally outed as former member Bushito, and he and longtime VHL member Kendrick have picked up right where they left off. During his time as Scooter, Bash essentially referred to the BoG as an "Old Boys Club" and shat on the group as a whole. Over time we countered that most of his quotes he used to "prove his point" were from Kendrick exclusively and once outed he dropped the entire charade and went back to mocking his least favourite member. Both of them have basically been arguing about who's jimmies have been more rustled by the entire experience, whether Kendrick is elitist because he was a bigger dick after he found out Bushito's identity and exactly how long Kendrick was fooled by the ruse. A fan 590 Bash wrote (and stupidly placed in the VHL Radio section) that was created around the same time as the thread for Game 4 of the Finals ended up with more activity than the latter, it was a variable hot-bed of activity. Lots of members gathered to watch the two go toe-to-toe and weigh in with their own opinions.

 

These sources of drama are great for the league. In the rivalry setting, I know for a fact that the majority of involved parties are enjoying it. I spoke with Trifecta, arguably the biggest victim of the whole thing, and he basically understands where everything is coming from. He knows that if you run your mouth you run the risk of the blowback if things backfire. Everyone gets what they want. We get to shit on him from his childish antics and he gets an increase in attention. In the case of the latter, I can't be certain having spoken to neither party but given past examples I can extrapolate. Bushito strikes me as incredibly juvenile in general. Image is very important to him, and he values the same thing as a high school boy or an early twenty-something in a bar. He likes to fight and get street-cred, and seeing as how this is the internet his options are limited. Kendrick in turn is someone without much of a sense of humour, and he's slow to forgive a grudge. These two members are essentially oil and water, and things were contained for a while because Bash was gone for a while and without him around Kendrick didn't have anyone taking shots at him. I'm not sure if theirs is from as nice of a place, but neither is thin-skinned enough to let it ruin their league experience and leave. I don't necessarily like all of these members or agree with their views in general but all of them have niche places that nobody else fills. I value all of their presences here. Essentially we end up with a net positive for the league. More posting from our member base. More fun for our member base. I haven't had this much fun in ages.

[Jericho 917]

Edition 326 - Momentum

 

Ironically, this article comes after a 2 week break for the magazine so that STZ could lavish in a free week and probably hang with his kid or something. That's right ladies and gentlemen, we're talking about momentum, so buckle the fuck up and enjoy the ride!

 

Truthfully, momentum is the hidden factor that determines league success. You'll notice that activity spikes and drags around similar points during the season and the calendar year. It's fairly predictable, if you've got the knowledge to do so. When we're at our best, we push momentum as long as we can. When we're at our worst we kill our momentum and the league suffers as a whole. Basically we want to make sure that we capitalize on natural points of excitement: Playoffs, Giveaways, etc. We also have to try and create incentives to promote activity during natural points of drag: Christmas break, the off season, etc.

 

This week, we made a change to our playoff format that should be incredibly helpful with keeping a good flow of pace during the post season. Previously we were doing one game a day during the finals in order to give them the respect they deserved. The issue we ran in to, is that if a final goes to 7 games, we end up spending an entire week on it. This is great if you play for one of the teams involved, but the finals only impacts two teams obviously, meaning if you're on any other team you're basically just twiddling your thumbs waiting for the off season to start. Recently we decided to invoke the same system we use during the semi-finals. We do two games a day for the first four games, and then a game per day until a winner is decided. The only exception being that if a team goes up 3-0, game four will be simmed the next day in order to give them a chance to change lines. This helps with pacing and is much more acceptable to non-finalists. You wind up with a maximum of five days instead of seven, and the only way you hit five is if one team wins the first three, but the series goes to seven. Any other scenario ends up with a seven game series playing out over four days.

 

In general I find we do a pretty good job making sure that we weather the storm of natural low points. We tend to do giveaways (something everyone enjoys) during breaks like Christmas (usually an activity killer). We do a lot of things during the off season and make sure it doesn't last too long so people don't run into too long of a break. The only regular low-point we run into that we haven't found a solution for is some point during the season. It isn't always consistent but we usually see an activity drop partway through the season when nothing special is going on. There has been talk of doing double sims on the weekend to help with this, but I have mixed feelings about the idea. If we speed up the regular season we will end up with shorter careers which is something I'd be against. I don't have a better alternative at the moment, but I think it's important we recognize the cause and treat that rather than treating a symptom. The cause is routine. People settle in to a long season and until you reach a shake up point (like trade deadline) things get a bit stale.

[Jericho 917]

Edition 327 - Awards

 

Fuck me, I'm tired this week. Between two Easters and the launching of Pajodcast Media last week, I've barely had time to think. Unfortunately for me, the VHL stops for nobody, and my role on the Board of Governors demands a certain level of commitment to change. Lately we've been talking about something we find to be a little outdated, and it's time for an overhaul.

 

I'm talking about awards. Some talk has gone around about renaming all the awards, the main argument for being that we're honouring people who aren't around anymore for the most part (outside of a few fringe cases like Sterling and Beketov). I'm actually not big on this idea, because even if people like Scotty and Brooks aren't in the league anymore, they were among the founding fathers of the league. They did some amazing things, and they deserve our respect. We already have ways to honour members who contribute to the VHL, but trophies are something different. The only way I want trophy names to change is if the award itself changes, and that's something I'm actually in favour of in a few cases.

 

First and foremost, it's really time we deal with this Top Leader/ Most Sportsmanlike situation. For years, back when we let those brain dead monkeys in the GM pool award these, these votes went all over the place. People didn't even know what the criteria was for each award. Now that the BoG does it we've managed to establish that Top Leader is a forum based award, for the person who best represents their team around the league in a season, while Most Sportsmanlike goes to the most successful player offensively who manages to stay out of the box. Truthfully we don't need both. Most Sportsmanlike is dumb. We've called it the pussy award in the past, and i's truly less important than any other category. It basically always goes to either a Phil player, or Tom Lincoln historically. Ditch it and bring in something more important...

 

..Like Top Defensive Defenseman! For years there's been a debate over which stats matter more than which stats in the top defenseman category. Historically the GMs used to favour offense, but even in he BoG there is no consensus on what matters the most. It's time we split the top defenseman award into top offensive D and top defensive D. Offensive would remain the Labatte, while defensive would be given to a new player. Someone like Lars Intranquillo or some other defensive defenseman historically.

 

One other award that was tossed around was having a Comeback Player of the year. There was debate on whether specific players in the past could qualify for Most Improved if they'd been good before, then had a bad season and managed to bounce back. I'm in favour of splitting the award again, into Comeback Player of the Year and Most Improved. Most Improved is someone who's having a good season for the first time. Comeback Player of the Year is for someone who had a slump but managed to turn things around. I suggest Comeback Player of the Year be named after Nikolai Lebedev, a forward who played in the 20s. He seemed to embody the spirit of this award, playing terribly in half of his seasons and fantastically in his other half. They even went on a cycle of terrible followed by good and back to terrible. Look no further than Lebedev for this award.

 

The BoG will keep deliberating on this topic in the following weeks but I do hope to see this matter resolved by next season. It'd be good to finally put someof the more controversial awards to bed.

[Jericho 917]

I'll have this done in the afternoon tomorrow. Been a weird week, apologies.

[Jericho 917]

Edition 328 - VHLM Removal...Again

 

You might think this is a Robbie article based off how much I'm talking about one topic over and over, but I'm going to recycle an idea I'm very passionate about. It feels appropriate given how certain things have changed lately. We're talking about ditching the VHLM again!

 

Long(ish) time readers will remember that 3 of my first 4 articles covered this topic in great detail, including the best way to implement it. I still feel all of those suggestions hold weight, but the league has changed a bit since that time, and I feel it's almost inevitable at this point. The VHLM has already redacted to five teams, and it clearly isn't functioning as intended. This season there are two tiers of teams: The Las Vegas Aces and everyone else. Robbie has gotten quite a bit of criticism for the empire he's built himself. I've defended his choices publicly, because I think he's done the best thing he could with the situation he was given, but the situation itself is still a smoldering dumpster fire. Robbie has already capped on free agents, which means that anyone who joins the VHL for the rest of the season has to join a team that has about as much of a chance of winning the Founder's Cup as Kesler does getting into a bar. It's just not going to happen.

 

At this point we've already cut the league in half, and it seems like more cuts are likely on the horizon. This means we're heading toward the worst case scenario, a two team league. This would literally be the most boring shit ever, a 72 game season against the same team followed by a single playoff series. I'd hate that enough as a veteran member, but at least I'd have the option of playing a second player in the VHL at the same time and focusing on that. Any new member is going to be stuck with that for about two months, and nobody who belongs outside an insane asylum would stay through that.

 

So this brings us back to the suggestion I had months ago. Ditch the VHLM, boost starting TPE and let people join the VHL on a waiver system until the first draft. Ryan and I discussed this on the most recent VHL Pajodcast (which can be found on our sick new youtube channel, along with maybe some STZ comments about Stardew Valley). First impressions matter a lot, and the VHL experience is infinitely better than the VHLM one. Let's put our best foot forward with new members, and get those scrubs on teams with our best members.

 

I bring this up again because it seems that we're on a crash course with a wall right now. Eventually something is going to have to be done, and I'd rather we not be caught off guard. If we have a plan going in, implementation will be significantly smoother. If we aren't prepared and we have to step into this half-assed, the entire VHL experience could suffer. Meticulous planning is what has kept us alive for the last decade, let's stick to our strengths. Catch this problem before it hit critical mass.