Talking About My Past, Present and Future (?) Players

[Tagger 2,722]

Edwin Encarnacion

The PIM King

 

When I first made Edwin Encarnacion for the VHL, I didn't really have any super specific build goals in mind cause I knew so little about hockey that I really didn't know what type of players there were in the sport. My initial aim was to add to attributes that would make me a strong defensive player with some offensive capabilities and, to a degree, I think my player had some success doing both as, while Edwin was never a point per game player, he did receive votes one season for the Sterling Labatte Award predominantly thanks to his impeccable defensive record accompanied by decent offensive numbers. Not long after that point though, I was more than clear on where I was headed with Encarnacion. He had a lot of all-time defenseman records within his reach and, given the opportunity I had to break them, I would have been foolish not to take it. So I re-rolled my attributes specifically to pump all my attributes into those that would get me PIMS, hits and shot blocks and specifically looked to joining the very worst teams in order to boost those defensive stats as much as possible. By the end of his career, Encarnacion managed to finish with two all-time records for a defenseman, hits and PIMs (Encarnacion was also a five-time season leader in the PIMs category) but unfortunately fell short of the shot blocks record by 19, although it's worth pointing out that the defenseman who leads that category played 9 VHL seasons (Played in S1 as a waiver player before his draft, then played a further eight VHL seasons in the pros). Even despite that, it was a little frustrating to miss out on that record by right as, in my final season, I barely played any minutes in the first four games of the season (despite being the teams only defenseman), one of which had our winger pick up 9 shot blocks and, while it still wouldn't have been guaranteed, I think Encarnacion would have had the right attributes to get the SB's he needed had he played the right minutes from the start. Ultimately though, I was happy to achieve as many records as I did and had a lot of fun writing about the Encarnacion character and his hi-jinks on and off the ice.

 

Edwin Reencarnacion

The HOFer

 

As I had been peaking in activity in the VHL close to the end of Encarnacion's career, I felt like I had the capabilities of making a very good player in this league if I were to make one who just focused towards being very good. Lo and behold, before the draft the player wound up earning so much TPE that it actually prevented me from applying for a GM job I'd previously been offered! Back in S42 (Encarnacion's last season), I'd been offered Bushito's job as Seattle GM after he had failed to sign any of his draftees to entry level contracts before the start of the season. By what the rules stated he would have lost A.C Savage (who signed a contract with another team), but the commissioners overruled the signings and placed Savage back on the Bears. However this along with some other previous issues led the commissioners to begin looking for a new General Manager, which was set to be myself. However, before anyone even knew I was set to become Bears GM, the Bears roster made threats to the upper management that they would leave the team if Bushito was replaced as General Manager which ultimately led to him staying in the role. However just one season later, Bushito was let go as GM (Can't remember the specific reason why but I feel like someone who wasn't in any place to retire did because Bushito had stopped fulfilling GM duties and that led to the dismissal) and the commissioners were once again looking for a replacement. However, because the lottery had already taken place and I was around 150 TPE ahead of my closest rival draftee, I was ruled out because it was deemed unfair on the team who owned the #1 pick, the New York Americans, to take me out of the draft. So anyways, I was drafted to New York first overall (not my first ever first overall selection in sim leagues, but my first and only in the VHL) and Reencarnacion went on to be a very good player indeed, peaking in Season 48 where he would win five personal awards (MVP, Most Outstanding, Most Points, Most Goals, Top Two-Way Forward). I also became GM for the Americans in Season 47, winning a Continental Cup with the team in my first season. However, after beginning a rebuild in Season 50, it made no sense to keep Reencarnacion around for his final eligible season, so I retired him a season early after trading him to the Legion, where he won his second Continental Cup. Luckily, despite my early retirement, I'd racked up enough points and hits that I wound up entering the Hall of Fame as a first ballot entry! While my build with Preencarnacion will never equal the physicality of Reencarnacion, I always look back to my first HOFer's points for reference as to my chances to make the Hall with Preencarnacion.  

 

Edwin Threencarnacion

Backup Goalie God

 

Like Encarnacion, Edwin Threencarnacion did not wind up following up on the same goals I had of him at creation and, unfortunately, my memory's a little fuzzy as to why I specifically made a goalie in the first place. I know I was the GM at the time still for the New York Americans and I originally made Threencarnacion a center I believe that would basically fulfill the same role as Reencarnacion. However not long after creating him (a matter of days I believe) I changed him to a goalie, which I'm not entirely sure why, but I think partly had to do with the fact that by Threencarnacion's draft (Season 52), a lot of the VHL's goalies (the Cleganes and Weinstein) would be in their final season, so I really needed to bring in a goalie myself if I wanted to be secure in that department. However, not long after that change, I wound up stepping down as General Manager (another thing where the reasons for my decision weren't fully certain, but I think it might have had something to do with us trying to bring back the Victory Football League, with what would have been a program akin to the Affiliate Welfare program we have today, but done a year earlier) and was left playing a position that I didn't particularly want to play (the goalie switch was purely to help the Americans), which led to a period where I wasn't paying as much attention as I previously had been to the league. So I decided to come up with the idea of being a pure backup goalie, who would be more than happy to only start a certain number of games and come off the bench after three goals had been scored on the starting goalie. Prior to my draft, I'd been asked if I would reconsider my stance on my player (in fact I received a message from Advantage after the lottery saying he planned to take me second overall, I guess he hadn't seen my media that I'd been writing about my player at the time), but I stood firm based on the fact I'd made my plans clear a full season in advance and didn't want any pressure on myself to be consistently active. Ultimately, Threencarnacion wound up doing better than I could have ever imagined in his emergency role and, after playing five seasons in the VHL, he still has the highest career save percentage at .936%. Obviously given that this save percentage is in part because of targeted starts, it's not something officially registered, but that won't stop me talking about it! 

 

Aackckqz Ky

Mr. Roll The Fuckin' Dice

 

One of the great things about being a mailman for a living is that it's a job that doesn't really require a lot of thinking. At the end of the day, it's nothing more than a slightly more structured paper round, and we get paid better than the vast majority of any other entry level jobs, it's fantastic! Not having to think about your job while you do it though also frees myself up with plenty of time to think about the other stuff in life and it was in fact in this time during my rounds that I came up with the concept of Aackckqz Ky, although at that point his name had obviously not been decided. Ky was a player who was almost 100% random; the number of letters in his name, the letters in his name, nationality, position, height and weight, the contracts he'd sign, the teams he'd join, the point tasks he would (or wouldn't) do, the assignment of every single TPE, all decided completely randomly. And it was fun...for the most part. A lot of people enjoyed the idea of Ky, but unfortunately some people (namely the now suspended Punkhippie) made it less fun by either trying to tell me how I should approach the random nature of the character or constantly asking me whether a certain thing was random or not. Unfortunately as well, my creation of Ky for the S56 Draft came at a time where I was starting to get fed up with the league; the communication with the administration was at an all-time low (this was a point where Higgins was really just a VHLM simmer and Will had gone quiet due to studying), recruitment was terrible (we were pretty much relying on a flawed two player rule and recreates around this time), members were at each others throats and the league seemingly seemed insistent on having a ten team league that just was not working at all (as a point of reference to newer members, seasons would often have half the teams in the league looking WORSE than Davos heading into this season, that's how rough we're talking), so I took off without notice mid-S56 just because I was fed up to be honest, although I did come back in S57 to retire Ky just so I could fully remove any attachment I had to the league. Like I say, I enjoyed the little stint I had with Ky, it's probably not one I'd do again though cause I prefer to come up with new and original ideas when I use a gimmick as opposed to repeating ones that myself or others have already done before. 

 

Edwin Preencarnacion

The Reminder

 

After a three-four season break and after the league had made numerous strong changes in my eyes (contraction and bringing in new admins to help being the main two), I came back to the league and made Preencarnacion. I didn't get off to the best start with him, as there were a couple weeks I believe I didn't earn any TPE at all, but I got back into it soon after and was back to earning a solid amount of TPE per week. I was never really looking to cap at first, but just hitting a sustainable amount of TPE per week was OK with me as I'd had no intention of becoming a two-way player this time around, so didn't need the TPE for checking. However, a couple of things motivated me to up my game. One was that I found the setup of my own draft class very interesting, which led to me getting motivated to write more about the league. The other was that people seemed to forget that I was capable of making good players. Despite never having had a player play an extra season in the VHLM (I had always exceeded the TPE cutoff immediately following my VHL Draft), the Mock Draft predictions (Note: Why did we stop doing these when the drafts only got better?!) had me being taken lower down than I'd anticipated, but the one that surprised me the most was the many predictions that had be falling later than Mikhael Vega. Reason why this took me by surprise was that while, yes, I hadn't made a serious player in my last two attempts, I'd always made the VHL. Mikhael Vega's agent, iRockstar, had failed to make the VHL in each of his last five attempts (and even Vega himself didn't actually beat the 200 TPE cutoff for the VHLM!), so I felt like I had to remind some people as to what I was actually capable of doing in the TPE earning department. Lo and behold, I now have more TPE than the first overall pick, over 200 TPE more than the second overall pick and only my teammate Podrick Cast has more TPE than myself from that draft class. While I feel like I'm proving my point in the TPE department, my player is racking up the points in a big way in the VHL, with 324 in just 3 seasons, however I'm probably going to have to do some more to add to my award cabinet if I want to improve my chances at the Hall of Fame, as I currently only have my Continental Cup win from last season to show for it. 

 

???

The Challenge

 

I've still yet to properly decide on whether I will be making a player after Preencarnacion. It's not that I don't enjoy the league, I certainly do still enjoy it, but I feel like for me to progress further in the real world, I'm going to have to make some sacrifices and I think this would have to be one of them. We'll address that issue though closer to the time, but IF I do make another player, I know exactly what I'm doing, and it's something I'd be interested to see play out. It's got the competitive spirit of the Reencarnacion/Preencarnacion characters while simultaneously embracing the gimmicks that made Encarnacion/Threencarnacion/Ky enjoyable. 

 

2350 Words, using for Weeks ending

12/30

1/6

1/13

1/20

 

[Victor 11,037]

10 hours ago, Tagger said:

, I'd been offered Bushito's job as Seattle GM after he had failed to sign any of his draftees to entry level contracts before the start of the season. By what the rules stated he would have lost A.C Savage (who signed a contract with another team), but the commissioners overruled the signings and placed Savage back on the Bears. However this along with some other previous issues led the commissioners to begin looking for a new General Manager, which was set to be myself. However, before anyone even knew I was set to become Bears GM, the Bears roster made threats to the upper management that they would leave the team if Bushito was replaced as General Manager which ultimately led to him staying in the role

Ughhh I forgot about this shitshow. Seriously fuck S43 Seattle.

[Da Trifecta 1,902]

1 hour ago, Victor said:

Ughhh I forgot about this shitshow. Seriously fuck S43 Seattle.

 

Hey, FUCK YOU MATE!

[BOOM 8,825]

A mailman! 

 

Makes sense.... you always deliver.