Trying to guess your favourite player

[Victor 10,525]

Not so long ago I was thinking who a few people's favourite players are and realised there was some solid Media Spot potential there. It's a bit of a guessing game because it's all about the mindset – favourite doesn't necessarily mean best. It depends on a lot of factors, including activity at the time and how invested you are in the story. For instance, my best player was probably Clegane, but my favourite is still Chershenko. So, without further ado...

 

Trying to guess your favourite player

 

@CowboyinAmerica

Karsten Olsen

Hans Wingate

Gabriel McAllister

 

Quite a difficult one to start off here as you've done quite well on your last 2 players. I feel like I got a happier vibe from 'WinGod', what with being undisputed best goalie for a bit and the threepeat (first and only of its kind etc etc). Both Wingate and McAllister are remarkable playoff perfromers too but I'm going for Wingate here fully expecting the correct answer to be Olsen.

 

@sterling

Sterling Labatte

Grimm Jonsson

James Bencharski

Alexander Labatte

Tom Slaughter

Jeff Hamilton

 

With a 6/6 Hall of Famer record this is actually quite difficult to call, but I've always got the feeling that your favourite player was your first – hence the same username ever since. If I had to rank the rest it would be the other Labatte in second, and Grimm Jonsson in third, and who knows about the rest. Going for Sterling, but spoilt for choice really.

 

@Higgins

Mitch Higgins

Tuomas Tukio

James Faraday

Black Velvet

Jacob

Jack Shephard

 

The draft hype, the threepeat, then some individual success and finishing on a high in Helsinki as GM, I think this is a pretty easy call. Plus the banner in your profile always gives the game away given it's been nearly 10 seasons now. I reckon before Velvet it was Tukio, once upon a time the statistically best goalie ever (or thereabouts) but he's been usurped quite comprehensively.

 

@tfong

Terence Fong

Ginzou Fujiwara

Daisuke Kanou

Ying Qin

Xin Xie Xiao

Biggu Kyanon

Fook Yu

 

The laid-back resident Asian Fong never lets on that he cares too much about his players, but still must have some favourites. Given Kanou was possibly the best playoff goalie ever (award named after him and all) and not too shabby in the regular season, I have to imagine he takes the crown.

 

@Beketov

Robert Sharpe

Alexander Beketov

Alex Young

Niklas Kristensen

Jason White

Evgeni Chekhov

Jackson Miller

Jakab Holik

Roman Sokolov

 

What's in a name? Beketov changed his name early in the VHL days to, well, Beketov, and has kept that since despite going through a multitude of players in the ensuing 50+ seasons. That gives the game away to be honest and is no fun. Damn it Beketov.

 

@street

Fayt Leingod

Geno Esposito

Benjamin Glover

Keiji Toriyama

Lloyd Light

Diana Maxwell

mist4ke

 

This is quite an interesting as I never know how to read street. I feel like Glover might have been the favourite at one point, just because that was probably the peak of your activity, but Maxwell to me achieved what Glover did, but even more given the two cups with New York. Therefore I'm going with Maxwell here out of the two Hall of Famers.

 

@Quik

Matthew Pogge

Branden Snelheid

Matt Bailey

Matteo Gallo

Mats Johnsson

 

I know I've missed some off here, but I don't think it matters – it has to be Matt Bailey. You're still talking about him now and made his son (grandson?) just this past trade deadline. Granted, it's easy to understand why – one of the greats of his time, a pioneering two-way forward and massively versatile. My favourite is still Gallo mind (go Davos, what a steal by the GM).

 

@Tyler

Pavel Dubnikov

Nicholas Evans

Andreas Bjorkman

Connor Evans

Milos Denis

Slava Aleksei

The Charm

 

Honestly, I have no idea. Going to go for the (probably) best player on the list in Bjorkman, with the added bonus of ending the Vasteras Curse, for a time anyway. However I feel like it could also be one of the Evans', or maybe even your current player, who's also broken a bit of a curse in Davos. Just don't let Damien take over as GM now. @.sniffuM

 

@Green

Remy LeBeau

Thomas O'Malley

Pietro Maximoff

Peter Quill

Adam Warlock

 

If this was me, it would be O'Malley all the way. In fact, it might well still be O'Malley and that's completely understandable, given he is not so arguably probably almost certainly the best player ever accounting for Campbell playing in the stone age. But it's boring going for the best and I feel like if anyone has a softer spot for a slightly worse player then it's Green. I feel like Toronto playoff hero LeBeau is #1 in your heart.

 

@Will

Don Draper

Aleksi Koponen

John Locke

 

Draper was actually a bit of an underachiever and Locke, while randomly an absolute beast (especially in the playoffs), I feel like you missed too much of his career to be the favourite. Therefore I have to default to Koponen, who had a pretty decent Hall of Fame career and was part of your very successful Helsinki GM stint.

 

@diamond_ace

Lars Intranquilo

Clark Marcellin

Martin Brookside

Kerkko Hyvarinen

Evan R. Lawson

 

And they say the VHL doesn't allow for diversity – this is a pretty unique blend of players. Lots of good players to choose from – late-bloomer Brookside, assist god and best second line center money can't buy Marcellin, but I feel like you're a person who still thinks back fondly on your first player, being nearly lifetime Wrangler Intranquilo. Could be wildly off the mark here though.

 

@Tagger

Edwin Encarnacion

Edwin Reencarnacion

Edwin Threeencarnacion

The weird random number generator one

Edwin Preencarnacion

 

Well at least these were pretty easy to remember. I think you had lots of fun collecting PIMs and maybe even being a career backup with a VHL record save %, and it's very possible Preencarnacion will turn out the best based on these first 2 seasons. That said, I feel like it's still Reencarnacion for being pretty much indisputably your best player (apart from in save % of course).

 

@Smarch

Tommy Brown

Max Weinstein

Baron Von Jonsson

Robin Big Snake

Abraham Sander

Conner Low

Ariel Weinstein

Lee King Snatch

Rusty Trombone

Joseph Bassolino

 

What an eclectic mix. Conner Low stands out so much here as a vindication of sticking around for 11 actual years that it has to be him. I was recently doing that rookie/sophomore stuff for Cast and I actually forgot how good Low was straight away bearing in mind that I was pretty aware of how good Low was. That said, all this talk of Low but your fave is Big Snake isn't it?

 

@.sniffuM

Damien Walec

Joey Clarence

Tukka Reikkinen

GIYGAS

E'Twaun Delicious

 

I've missed a few of your weirder players because I don't think it matters. The Reik has to be the answer here and I remember there was one point I was making the argument that he was the best player ever (this was at a time where Leeroy Jenkins was the likeliest candidate for the new Campbell (i.e. the pre-O'Malley days)), and though that might have been a bit excessive, he was still ridiculously good that's for sure. Shame about all your other players though.  

 

@Devise

Rauno Pajari

Skylar Rift

Logan Laich

Thaddeus Humbert

M.T. Power

Ryzard Macht

Verner Reinholdt

 

You strange, strange man. I actually wouldn't be able to do this, this bizarre self sacrifice ritual which is your player building. It also means your mentality is clearly so different to mine that I'm not sure how I'd be able to get in your shoes. Is Rift your favourite because he was actually almost Hall of Fame material? Or Laich because he was so bad it was actually funny? I'm going to go for Humbert because I feel like that was when you had the most enjoyment as a GM and it was a decent player.

 

@Fire Hakstol

Jim Gow

Robin Gow

Bernie Gow

Shayne Gow

Jeff Gow

 

Such incredible creativity. I never realised until I actually wrote out all your players' names. Also, I feel like you always liked Riga and Robin embodied Riga and also had a pretty decent career. I know for a fact you hated Bernie and have to imagine that the others didn't quite reach the team+individual heights to make them a favourite.

 

@DollarAndADream

Travis Boychuk

Zach Parechkin

Torstein Ironside

Bo Boeser

 

Threepeat, Hall of Fame, overall an excellent time, it has to be Parechkin. The rest of your players seem like fun but missed that tiny bit of luck which I think you need for maximum enjoyment. Parechkin took all of it and ran and so I feel this is one of my easier guesses.

 

@Velevra

Shane Baker

Severin von Karma

Apollo Skye

 

You'll get inducted into the HOF this year I promise. A terrible oversight for a great player who I therefore assume is your favourite. My favourite of yours was Shane Baker of course, Matt Bentley's partner in crime on that great Davos team, but I feel like it'd be a stretch to think you think the same. Skye though, I missed most of his career but he was very impressive looking back.

 

@Advantage

Michael Angelo

Ryan Sullivan

Brick Wahl

 

This is horrible because I can't remember all your players (Gunnar Rask is the only other one and I don't really want to include him). That said, seeing as your sig's 'past notable players' only include this trio, I reckon I can narrow it down pretty easily. And similar to Quik, I feel like your current player name gives the game away. That and the fact I've spoken to you a lot over the year and I am pretty confident that Sullivan is your favourite by some distance.

 

@Bushito

Tayson Barabash

Peyton Nydroj

Satan

Damon Tyrael

Brady Stropko

Hudson Abbott

Norris Stopko

Jasper Canmore

 

There are lots of options here and I wouldn't be surprised if Stopko or Canmore take the crown in the end, but of the earlier players, I feel like your peak activity over a whole career was with Nydroj and you also didn't have to cut it short for GMing reasons. Therefore, the Toronto sniper is my choice for your choice of favourite player.

 

That ends that, I went off people I saw online and who had multiple past players, but if I missed you let me know and I'll take a wild stab in the dark at your favourite player too.

[Victor 10,525]

1,764 words so

 

week of 24th

week of 1st

week of 8th

[CowboyinAmerica 2,705]

14 minutes ago, Victor said:

@CowboyinAmerica

Karsten Olsen

Hans Wingate

Gabriel McAllister

 

Quite a difficult one to start off here as you've done quite well on your last 2 players. I feel like I got a happier vibe from 'WinGod', what with being undisputed best goalie for a bit and the threepeat (first and only of its kind etc etc). Both Wingate and McAllister are remarkable playoff perfromers too but I'm going for Wingate here fully expecting the correct answer to be Olsen.

 

Wrong, it's actually the 10 TPE guy I created Season 27 or something!

 

Yeah, I'd say it's Wingate. Similar to McAllister he had two distinct phases of his career, but both parts for Wingate seemed to be above-and-beyond fun (the underdog Wranglers, also my first sim championship in like 5 real life years, then the threepeat).

 

EDIT: Though to give a small shout out to Olsen, I'd say that was my most fun VHLM/Draft process, since that Oslo team was spectacular and I didn't really know where I'd be going in the Draft.

Edited September 27, 2018 by CowboyinAmerica

[Smarch 2,939]

Honestly my favourite was BVJ, Low is 1b tho @Victor

[Beketov 8,639]

Mine was in fact too simple I will say haha. Holik is very close though since I’ve always preferred goalies and he was by far my best one. If Thompson keeps up his pace from this season he may very well pass Beketov though.

 

Mind you I doubt I’ll ever change my account name again. It’s been far too long with this now and people know it so I think it’s gonna stick even if a better player does come along. For now my only HoF player and the one with the award name does make the most sense.

[Victor 10,525]

6 minutes ago, Smarch said:

Honestly my favourite was BVJ, Low is 1b tho @Victor

I did think you'd throw me a curveball tbh. BVJ is a fairly sensible choice and it was a fun time so makes sense.

[Will 4,600]

Koponen would be right, certainly the player I was most engaged with. Locke was fun but even when I came back I figured he was too far gone so I didn't really 100% into him.. it worked out though. 

[Quik 4,113]

Great article, really brings back the nostalgia!

 

But yeah, mine was too easy lol. Baileys easily the best player I ever created, Snelheid a distant 2nd in that regard, but a close 2nd in terms of favourites. Actually kinda hated Pogge lol, that’s why there’s been no 2nd goalie create yet. 

 

Also, Kronos is definitely the grandson. Been 43 seasons since Bailey retired haha

[diamond_ace 3,106]

1 hour ago, CowboyinAmerica said:

 

Wrong, it's actually the 10 TPE guy I created Season 27 or something!

 

Yeah, I'd say it's Wingate. Similar to McAllister he had two distinct phases of his career, but both parts for Wingate seemed to be above-and-beyond fun (the underdog Wranglers, also my first sim championship in like 5 real life years, then the threepeat).

 

EDIT: Though to give a small shout out to Olsen, I'd say that was my most fun VHLM/Draft process, since that Oslo team was spectacular and I didn't really know where I'd be going in the Draft.

Bobby Krims. My biggest draft bust. I'd say it's well worked out since then, for the league on the whole...

[diamond_ace 3,106]

I feel like anyone with less history with me would easily have been swayed by Marcellin or Brookside and their careers. Both good enough to at least have been briefly mentioned in HOF talks before rightly being sidelined in that regard, but miles ahead of anyone else I've done. It is actually Intranquilo, you were right, but I doubt many people would have been right. Hence trying to recreate a slightly more successful Intranquilo with Hyvarinen, to rebuild my wavering activity at the time (it didn't work, but oddly, the mostly inactive Hyvarinen still ended up being a slightly more successful Intranquilo with a third the TPE). Also, you either missed or intentionally didn't include Hrdina, not a bad choice though since he barely broke 100...

(OOC: I had no idea Smarch was Robin Big Snake)

[Devise 4,475]

@Victor

 

Cool article idea. Your right but not for the reasons you think you are. My favorite GM run was the M.T. Power run in NY. We won back to back, and it was very much a "build a great group of guys for the LR" time. I did a little of that in my previous tenure, but I took over knowing that was what I wanted to do and executed. It felt good. But Power was a psuedo meaningless player to me. A stopgap that I never ended up needing. 

 

Humbert was my favorite player because I was finally actually able to discover my role when the inevitable shoe drops on some of my players. Visa vi, the utility player. Humbert played both center and d, started D, and was relatively competent out of the gate. Not amazing, but competent. I don't think he was my best player though. Rift probably I guess, but honestly Reinholdt is probably my best skater. I probably have highest single season point and goal totals with him. He was my most traditional player though. I just tapered off due to life reasons/site fatigue near the second half of his career otherwise I think he probably would of been my favorite. I enjoyed hanging with DaaD and Beketov in Toronto tbh. 

[Baozi 1,635]

I liked this MS.

 

But XXX was my favorite player. While Kanou is my hardest working one he was the one where I went crazy over as well given how my regular season stats wouldn't correlate to my massive TPE advantage early on. XXX had the least stress and i had the most fun because i think i didn't really have too many expectations for him and just jokinga round on him all the time.

[hedgehog337 3,480]

1 hour ago, Victor said:

but if I missed you let me know and I'll take a wild stab in the dark at your favourite player too.

 

yes please

[Bushito 1,945]

I like all my player and I’ve went inactive or switched for GM reasons on every player except the two I have now. Brady Stropko is my favourite however

[Tagger 2,722]

I would say my favourite was actually Encarnacion rather than Reencarnacion. Reencarnacion is obviously my best player to date, but I was focused more on the GMing side of things while  having him under my control as opposed to the player (e.g. even though I was involved in winning Toronto their 3rd in the threepeat, I paid very little attention to it and actually keep forgetting I won two Continental Cups with him). Encarnacion was my favourite because the nature of the player (Full-on goon) and my member status involving not too many commitments allowed me to go real in-depth with the character in media spots and such, plus the happy circumstances that came with it (The five-time PIM champion, beating up Tom Slaughter in the sim despite him extremely rarely picking up PIMs himself, etc.)

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

Yes, Robin was my favorite. Most successful and represented Riga during that time period, multiple cups.

 

Jeff - Good player, at least 1 cup, fun times in Davos and Quebec, still on-going

Jim - 1st player, fun times in Ottawa with @Jericho, got @eaglesfan036 involved in the league

Shayne - Decent player, good time in Helsinki, at least 1 cup, possibly 2

Bernie - He Who Shall Not Be Named, aka I will never make a goalie again

 

Also, I'll have you know @Victor that my next player will have a much more interesting name than my previous 5.

[Da Trifecta 1,896]

@Victor line mine up please

[.sniffuM 1,741]

Aeschylus Jigglejawns CXXXVII tbh

[Tyler 881]

This is a really cool idea @Victor

 

I'd probably say any of bjorkamn/Nick Evans/Aleksei. 

[DollarAndADream 3,356]

Parechkin is definitely my favourite.   That's an easy guess though! He was super fun. He broke records, won trophies, won cups, made the HoF, and played with some great players.

 

Bo Boeser probably could have gotten close. I really liked him and it seemed like his career just started to take off before I had to retire him.

[JG10 28]

Love this article. As a new guy I find it crazy(but good crazy) how many players you guys have got and how long this league has been running for.

[Victor 10,525]

8 hours ago, hedgehog337 said:

 

yes please

Krigars. I think you slowly built up from a good team player in Zeptenbergs (also threepeat member right), then a fun goon turned good all around defence man in Petenis, but Krigars was just really good and you won cups with Riga.

 

6 hours ago, Trifecta said:

@Victor line mine up please

I'd like to think Davey Jones because he lasted 6 seasons and Davos was good fun. Also Moon though maybe? He was really good for a time.

 

It does feel like you have no favourites cuz you always retire them.

[NotAVHLM-GM 1,858]

It was O' Malley Victor, I indeed loved Lebeau, but my orange furball was one of my favorite sim league player ever in any league

[Da Trifecta 1,896]

4 hours ago, Victor said:

I'd like to think Davey Jones because he lasted 6 seasons and Davos was good fun. Also Moon though maybe? He was really good for a time.

 

It does feel like you have no favourites cuz you always retire them.

 

Jones would have to be correct. The most fun I had out of any player tbh.

[BOOM 8,401]

Do me... but not the aliases! 

 

Excellent idea this.