Brands - Why We Need to Rethink Them

[Nykonax 1,550]

So with the Sponsors Shield in full swing and my team (Jolt Juice) being eliminated me, pepper, reives, and some others were talking about the whole concept of brands, and why they should be changed.

 

 

Too Many Tournaments

 

How many tournaments do we have now? 3, and at this rate we will have 5 by the end of 2019. The whole point of the off season is for players to not play. But now we just fill it with more hockey. Don't get me wrong here, I like the tournaments, but it just feels like too much. It seems like every day there's a new sim for a new tournament that has no benefit to the league. If I was to decide on which tournaments to have, I would have the WJC and WC, but with some changes. Those changes would like like

 

Reward players for being picked to the WJC and WC with some prizes, like money or tpe. The WC would be more money and more tpe, but the WJC should get some love. For the WC you should also be required to play 1-2 VHLMers, like the brand tournament

 

Changes I would make:

 

World Cup/World Juniors

- Give selected players 1,000,000 and 1-2 uncapped tpe (less money for WJC)

- Reward the winning team with an extra 500,000, 3 uncapped, and a gold medal under the awards tab on a player page. (do the same for silver and bronze but a lower amount and less for WJC)

 

Contracts/Pay

 

Since brands are only once every 2 offseasons, contracts should be the same right? You get paid for playing in the tournament, but from what I understand right now that isn't how it works. For instance JJ has Pepper locked out for 2 years, but we only get 1 tourney out of him, but he makes the same amount of money for not even playing in the tournament. Players are getting free tpe for doing absolutely nothing. The same goes for goes GM's. GM's are able to claim their TPE every single week, when they only sign players for maybe a week, and then set lines for a week. They do 1/4 of the work that GM's do, and get paid the same.

 

Changes I would make:

 

Contracts:

-Only pay for and burn a year when a tournament is in that year. For example if the tourney is in S64 and S66, and someone is signed for 2 years, 1 year would be used in S64 and would be paid, nothing used or paid in S65, and then a year used and paid in S66.

 

GM Pay:

- Only pay GM's during the signing season and the week of the tournament

 

How to Continue Brands

 

I've already suggested that we remove the whole tournament because it just feels like a VHL reshuffle, so what how do we continue it. Well I got an idea. If your sponsored by a brand you should get some bonuses. If you make an advertisement graphic or a commercial script then you should get an extra 1 tpe for it if you are apart of that brand. Players should have their brands listed along with their team on the portal. Players should also still sign contracts and get paid, but also get bonuses if they reach milestones or win an award. The bonuses will be made depending on the brand and how much cap space they have. Speaking of cap space, brands should have cap space instead of roster slots that they can pay players with.

 

To summarize:

 

- Give brands a certain amount of cap space to sign players and give bonuses

- Give signed players bonus tpe if they write a commercial script or make an advertisement graphic (doesn't necessarily have to be these things) about their brand

- List players brands along with their team on their player page

- Keep the same roster requirements for brands.

 

Conclusion

 

Brands are an awesome idea for the VHL, and something pretty unique to sim leagues. But with all the tournaments we already have, brands should feel like something your player represents, like a country, not a team. These changes should still be thought out a bit and more can be added, but I feel like this may make brands more enjoyable

 

714 words

Claiming this week

 

 

 

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

Eliminate brands.

[Nykonax 1,550]

6 minutes ago, Sonnet said:

This, specifically, is pretty iffy to me. If we start dishing out rewards like this for the international tournaments, we're indirectly funneling money and TPE into the best Canadian players. In both the World Cup and WJC, I feel like they're basically guaranteed 2nd. I think just awarding the medals is plenty, since it's supposed to be a for-fun ting anyway. 

Good point. Just reward all players who are selected then and not give the winners extra.

 

[Victor 10,563]

4 hours ago, Sonnet said:

In both the World Cup and WJC, I feel like they're basically guaranteed 2nd

Fortunately they're not quite so dominant in the world cup but overall agreed.

 

4 hours ago, Nykonax said:

Good point. Just reward all players who are selected then and not give the winners extra.

 

That's basically free TPE for everyone. With the mercenaries team you have to be very unlucky to be active and not make it.

[BOOM 8,435]

Bring back the Super Cup..... but only if @Tagger is my GM. 

[Nykonax 1,550]

7 hours ago, Victor said:

That's basically free TPE for everyone. With the mercenaries team you have to be very unlucky to be active and not make

For sure, I'm not proposing a ridiculous amount like an extra 5 uncapped. Like just 1 or 2 uncapped, or maybe even capped if you are selected. These ideas overall need to be thought out a bit more, and some changes do need to be made, but overall brands should be changed to not just be another meaningless tournament. 

 

15 hours ago, Nykonax said:

Give brands a certain amount of cap space to sign players and give bonuses

- Give signed players bonus tpe if they write a commercial script or make an advertisement graphic (doesn't necessarily have to be these things) about their brand

- List players brands along with their team on their player page

- Keep the same roster requirements for brands.

 

I think this is a good way to change brands though, but even that could use some tweaking. Like sonnet said maybe allow them to only sign 3 or 4 with like a 10-15 million cap space

[Devise 4,475]

6 hours ago, BOOM™ said:

Bring back the Super Cup..... but only if @Tagger is my GM. 

 

Only you could get a like out of a Super Cup mention. Keep on Booming. 

 

On the topic of the Brands tourney while I do think an argument could be made to scrap it all together I also think some of it has to do with it being our first time doing it. Personally I think 6 brands is probably too little. If we allowed the rosters to breath a bit more, maybe go to 8, it would allow players to get more minutes/stats during the round 1 portion. Sim wise we also run into stat problems when we run more than 2 lines deep. 

 

That said I think the counter argument against it has more to do with us just having a lot of tournaments, which is totally fair. 

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

1 hour ago, Devise said:

 

Only you could get a like out of a Super Cup mention. Keep on Booming. 

 

On the topic of the Brands tourney while I do think an argument could be made to scrap it all together I also think some of it has to do with it being our first time doing it. Personally I think 6 brands is probably too little. If we allowed the rosters to breath a bit more, maybe go to 8, it would allow players to get more minutes/stats during the round 1 portion. Sim wise we also run into stat problems when we run more than 2 lines deep. 

 

That said I think the counter argument against it has more to do with us just having a lot of tournaments, which is totally fair. 

 

It's not just the tournament though. You have some players getting a ton of contract money for multiple years...to basically do nothing except play in a tournament every three years, and maybe write a themed media spot once a year. The contract money aspect of it, especially at the top end, has never made sense.

[Devise 4,475]

4 minutes ago, Fire Hakstol said:

 

It's not just the tournament though. You have some players getting a ton of contract money for multiple years...to basically do nothing except play in a tournament every three years, and maybe write a themed media spot once a year. The contract money aspect of it, especially at the top end, has never made sense.

 

I mean it was meant to be a loop right. GM's attract not just high TPE players but players who members want to play with to be able to build the better teams etc. But yeah I get you. I still don't think it's the rich getting richer as much as just flooding the market with more money. But that is how it was pitched first, before a tournament. And even if the tournament is scraped you still see support in here for some sort of sponsorship or attaching contract money too it. 

 

I've talked about it before in the BoG but it's starting to get tough to appease a base of VHL users because so many people want more things to engage with, but nobody gets excited, invested or involved unless there is TPE or Player Store money involved. Hence why we were fine adding the player store stuff with this. But I do think a part of the older community starts to feel obligated to participate in these things even if they otherwise wouldn't, just to keep up with whatever it is is being earned. 

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

38 minutes ago, Devise said:

 

I mean it was meant to be a loop right. GM's attract not just high TPE players but players who members want to play with to be able to build the better teams etc. But yeah I get you. I still don't think it's the rich getting richer as much as just flooding the market with more money. But that is how it was pitched first, before a tournament. And even if the tournament is scraped you still see support in here for some sort of sponsorship or attaching contract money too it. 

 

I've talked about it before in the BoG but it's starting to get tough to appease a base of VHL users because so many people want more things to engage with, but nobody gets excited, invested or involved unless there is TPE or Player Store money involved. Hence why we were fine adding the player store stuff with this. But I do think a part of the older community starts to feel obligated to participate in these things even if they otherwise wouldn't, just to keep up with whatever it is is being earned. 

 

Because you have to. I mean, at the very top, if you have a $3 million or $2.5 million dollar brand contract for even 3 seasons...that's a ton of money to use in the player store, to the point that what was once a choice (do I upgrade my player now or save money for purchases that slow down depreciation?) are no longer a trade off you have to make.

 

I know I'm an old fart who cares about nothing except winning Continental Cups (Founder's Cups and World Cup Gold is cool too though), but I just don't see the point in this at all.