Succeeding Late in 3 Steps

[IamMOOSE 361]

Overview

 

            It’s the most common comment made towards Kevin King. I joined this league on one of the final days of eligibility for the current season’s rankings, meaning Kevin King will be going into a draft very much as an underdog. Very much, behind the pace of other more established members. I’ve seen analytics predict King to be a second line Center max, and even a great depth player. King’s also been attached to many articles, calling him a high upside underdog, a determined player with a lot to give, and at the time of this writing, King is projected as not only mid-to-late 2nd rounder for the VHL, he’s in the top 10 amongst VHLM players for the upcoming VHLM draft. It’s a hard grind road that King took, but it’s already returned value. King’s 145 TPE puts him on pace to begin next season’s campaign closer to 200 than not, in a field where he started again, much later than most. A refreshed VHLM will have new talent from the upcoming S74 field, putting King in a prime position to be a top contender for whichever team is fortunate enough to claim him in the draft. But enough blowing smoke; how did we get here in a league that seems almost surprised by the effort? This is a Dear John letter to new players as we talk about the successes and failures that you can make as a late arrival in the VHL.

 

Step 1 – Be Patient, Don’t Get Frustrated

           

            It’s a really fun league with some great people. It’s also a frustrating mess at times and the sim engine is often completely illogical and punishing for seemingly no reason. In my one month of membership at the time of writing this, I’ve been through 11-Game pointless droughts, equally decent point streaks, I’ve had as high as a 58% Faceoff percentage and am again, as of writing sitting at 43% in a playoff series against a team where only one Center on their team ranks higher than my player in that category and it isn’t even a significant difference. You will find yourself frustrated by the sim engine and how obviously flawed it is. It will inevitably bother you that parts of the player creation are unusable for a variety of reasons. That said, it’s a league that seems to listen. It’s a community that does understand all of these things and ultimately with time, the minor things are addressed and get better and the major things like sim engines, we’ll see. It’s a league where content creativity is the star. It’s where you as the user need to focus.

 

 

Step 2 – Be Committed

 

            It’s not a joke when I say this game and sim leagues as a whole take time. Your time. In a league where your success is 90% your commitment to the community, it’s important to get invested. You’re almost playing a character here, embrace it. The more fun you have with this the less it feels like work to write out long-winded articles about how to help other players in the league.

 

Since my inception into the VHL as a sim league, I’ve been a part of 3 weeks of play at the time of writing. I’ve capitalized on 97.22% of available Capped TPE for a total of 35 of 36. I’ve also managed to accumulate 38 TPE (I excluded the initial 72 TPE Base) from Uncapped activities that have completed since joining. The point of all this is work ethic. It’s the #1 thing that will get you places in the VHL. You can welfare yourself all you want but ultimately you are sacrificing your own experience. You want to maximize your points as fast as you can. My advice to any new player is that you get that itch to turn out articles, do all your work in that window. If you can, get some stuff banked up. It helps on a weekend where you just aren’t feeling it or in my case, will have to uproot his life and go somewhere new. Make use of your friends and peers in the community, run questionnaires and mailbags, ask people to do interviews with you. Record podcasts in bulk and release them weekly. If you’re good at graphics, bank some and time the releases. The better you get at collecting data, opinions, news, projects, whatever, the easier it is to find a subject to cover for your weekly points.

 

Step 3 – Have Goals in Mind

 

            It sounds silly in a simulation league. It isn’t that serious. The idea is you want to have fun. If you’re a people person, make an effort in the community. You want to have goals. Subconsciously, even in games we all have an idea of what and where we’d like to be. That could be someone’s competitive drive to be successful and makes successful builds, it could be more managerial, building a dynasty. You could just be a social butterfly as we mentioned. For someone like myself, I lean into more manager roles and beyond as I look at bringing new ideas to the league as a whole, with the idea of improving aspects of the experience. No matter who you are, make the goals that fit you. Again, the goals you set will often help you decide what to do to pursue that agenda. It’ll help with your decision-making when it comes time to write that next piece.

 

Conclusion

 

            It’s the grind. That pursuit in many different forms that can push you in this league or anywhere for that matter. You don’t get pushed up the ranks or highlighted in articles by accident. You put in the work, you get recognized for your effort, you apply yourself to others doing the same thing. This is a guide for late players but damn sure applies to everyone. You will get what you put into this league. There is no time or position in this league where you cannot succeed if you put in the time.

[ahockeyguy 110]

Good work on this, and good advice! I look forward to seeing what King does, especially next season. Maybe hold out for Miami?

 

I thought a brief advice section like this is wonderful; I'd love to see it added as a kind of resource for brand-new players on how to manage time. That said, it might have been good to have a kind of step-by-step approach to the advice (e.g., "First, make sure to gain your practice right away on Mondays!"). Under Step 1, it also might have been good if you had named one or more of the reasons you think the simulation engine is flawed, and how that affected you (I'm not disagreeing with you, just saying it might have been good). I also loved the self-referential nature of the end of the first paragraph of Step 2. I didn't think this was long-winded; I thought it was great! I'd like to see King develop and look forward to more writing from you! Score: 8.5/10