Simulation Hockey League

1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer. This is completed through a Google form linked below. Make sure to spell your answers correctly or you will not get credit. Post your verification word in your CW post.

mortsleh


3. Written, 3 TPE, Draft Kings (150 words min.)
Pick a draft class in the SHL that you believe had the most impact on the SHL. It can be a consensus pick, like S36, 31, or 53, or an off-the-board one (S41?). Explain your reasoning to why this draft class impacted the league; Could be in a good way, or a bad way.

Championship Week is always a great opportunity to pat myself (and the rest of the s47 gang) on the back. We’ve had a slew of GM’s (hotdog as co in his first season in the league, JNH, SDCore, Aaron Wilson, and Steelhead had all have major roles for a prolonged time). Carpy, Jess, and myself have been major graphic contributors (i know i’ve been IA for the past month and haven’t made a graphic in a year). At our peak season, s47 had ~6 users in the top 10 TPE of all time. SDCore was the commissioner for many seasons and oversaw the biggest change in league history. That change was the engine switch from SimonT hockey simulator to Franchise Hockey Manager prompted by Aaron’s gaming of the system and finding all of its exploits. For being such a small class in a non-reddit class, the gang still has 8 players above 1800. The next two seasons only have 6 combined amongst them.


7. Graphic, 2 TPE, This one's for Seymour
Design a championship ring for either team. Yeah you can use the ring site.




13. Written, 3 TPE, Parody (150 words min.)
There has been some discussion on the forums but its always good to hear more opinions: Parity. Going back 6 seasons including this one there have been 4 teams in the finals: Buffalo, Chicago, Hamilton, and Texas. If you add New Orleans you can go back 8 seasons. 5 different teams for 8 straight finals. Is this an issue? Does it need to be fixed? Can it even be fixed? I'm interested to hear opinions, approaches, or just doom and gloom on whether you think this will change, or if we will still be talking about the same teams making the finals over and over in 5 seasons.

Parity is a good thing (hot take), but fairness is better. All of the GM’s who have experienced long stretches of success didn’t luck into their scenarios. They all simmed and grinded and built relationships. They committed an incredible amount of time to hone their craft and learning locker room managerial skills. I don’t know how effectively it can be fixed. Un-Incentivizing (de?) winning is not healthy, and rewarding mediocrity doesn’t work as a permanent change. Enough first overall players have gone to the Edmonton Oilers or the Cleveland Browns when really it’s the shitty managerial structure that has held the team back, lost the locker room, and not demanded the best of their assets. My biggest problem with this question is the omission of Edmonton’s playoff streak record that has panned multiple GM’s, although it would be pretty cool to get another championship during Julio’s twilight seasons. My suggested fix is to turn injuries on for recreates.


15. Written, 2 TPE, The yearly IIHF task (100 words min.)
Write your predictions for this year's IIHF tournament or WJC if you care about that more. Will there be surprises? Will any players make their country proud? Who's gonna suck? Be bold!

I could probably copy/paste last season’s writeup, but i’ll rehash my belief in the American alchemy program, which hasn’t really worked it’s magic in a decade. TPE-wise, America should be a lock for a medal, but the dominoes havent fallen the right way for the past few seasons. As a top 6 forward that is in the 15% tier of regression, i feel like i should be scraping for shifts. Julio didn’t get meaningful ice time until he was over 1500 TPE. I predict Julio to start sucking and for America to under perform from the “guaranteed gold” that i’ve assigned us in my head. I’m going to will into reality a Norway medal. I want hotdog to get some bling. He’s had a wonderful career after taking the hard routes and being in tough spots, so T’s and P’s to Norway.


18. Written, 2 TPE, Baby come back 100 words min
If you had the power to bring back one user to the SHL, who would it be? We're talking full activity, balls to the wall. They could be a banned user, user gone inactive, or someone who's around but doesn't really fuck with SHL anymore. Pick your user and why you want them back that badly? Did you love them, or do you just want to watch the league burn?

My first nomination is myself. I’ve been crushed with work for the last 4 months. I have the discord tab open, so that i can torture myself during the day, and then read the recaps while lying in bed. I missed a week of PTs in mid-July, but have otherwise been just as active with my earning, but I haven’t gotten to hang out in the locker room and shoot the sit about random topics as much as I would prefer.
Other users that I want to bring back are Tony Ford, the fiery Brit who used the site to resuscitate his real-life social life, and then left us on good terms.
I could also use a little more penknight. He (assuming gender, ive never spoken to the user at length) had a lot of hot takes, and some decent roasts. I didn’t agree with all of his opinions, but new thoughts, differing perspectives, and deep insults are what the internet is about.
Good task, Slash.


21. Written, 2 TPE, Feed my back (its hungry) 100 words min
It's been 2 seasons now and I can always use constructive criticism. What have I done right regarding PTs? What have I done wrong? Was I doing something the wrong way and fixed it? Was I doing something the right way and fuck it up? Do I even deserve 8 mil a season? Any and all thoughts are welcome EXCEPT malicious posts. Do not attack me, or my work. If you have a problem with it, explain why. Don't just say it sucks and its stupid.

Check your DM’s for the pictures of what I would do to you if you ever let me take you out.
I think the PTs have been good. I like the looser feel that welcomes a more improvisational response. It makes the tasks interesting for others to read and interact with. My only complaint is that the bonus point on the mPT’s used to be something fun that max earners and creatives could compete for, but now it’s just a 1 TPE reward for checking a box. I think the topics you’ve chosen are great, but giving users an area to compete creatively for TPE was a unique space. I understand the reason for it’s removal, as grading objectively with 30+ users writing 500 word rants/jokes/speeches/songs and determining which 8 would get a bonus isnt a rewarding task, but if there was different kind that invited that, that could be interesting.
Idea: mmPT. 0 participation points. ~4 users get assigned 1 bonus TPE. fewer people compete because of the 0 participation. Like a graphics tournament for goofy prompts. I chose this one because i wanted something quick and easy for 100 words to fill out my 16 TPE, but now ive rattled on for 180+. Good prompt. I dont care if you think my ideas suck. Ive enjoyed your PTs.

1. Trivia: Verification word: muffin (3 TPE)
3. Draft Kings(3 TPE): While it is still early, I believe that the Season 60 SHL entry draft will prove to be an influential one on the landscape of the League. Many players are already moving up and many, especially he first rounders, are on trajectory to be impact players for their franchises. Stan Dindesque, Marcel Beck, Zak Wilson, Olof Karsikko; these are just some of the quality players to come out of the draft. It will be interesting to follow, but from the activity levels and earning of the majority of draftees, I think the Season 60 draft class will prove to be one that generates a lot of stars, and franchise players. The pressure is really on @Inf1d3l, who led both his SMJHL Entry class and his SHL entry class at first overall. Stan's trajectory puts him only a few seasons out from being a key roster piece for Montreal, and will undoubtedly be the team's driving force through their competitive climb.
12. Milestones (3 TPE)
14. Upswing (3 TPE):At the risk of sounding like a total homer, I think Montreal is building toward a very strong competitive future. With a strong core of prospects already drafted and earning, Montreal is heading into the S62 draft with a boatload of picks in a packed reddit draft. It will be exciting to see what freshly-minted GM @"Inf1d3l" can do with his first draft largely flying solo for Montreal. Their S60 picks are moving up, with the exception of Roderic Banes, who requested to play a final season in Carolina. Stan, Zak, and Miles all have high potential, and have had strong performances through their J careers. It is very likely that this season marks the beginning of Montreals climb to a strong, competitive organization. With another season to earn, Roderic Banes has the potential to be a breakout star when he is called up to play in S63. No pressure. An exciting time for the young franchise, that has struggled through its first two seasons.
18. Baby Come Back (2 TPE): If I could bring back one user to full activity level, it would be @"dirigiblejones". We miss him in Carolina, he was a super cool dude, and the line of Lee - Hale - Perevalov was on track to do some serious damage. He put out some very fun, high quality graphics and was willing to make them for whoever wanted them. More than all that, he was jsut a fun, cool dude to have in the locker room. It was very sad to watch him go IA. He had some things going on in his life, and there's no hard feelings at all. Just miss him, that's all. 
21. Feed My Back (2 TPE): I enjoyed the PT and mPT choices this year. Some I enjoyed more than others, as it's bound to be, but overall the big plus for me was the options. Having multiple topics to choose from for each task made my life a lot easier, and helped me find extra avenues to battle through the writers block when it kicked it. Overall, I think you did a solid job. 8/10. Only thing I would change is not enough nudity. I think it should be 100% required for all PT managers and graders to post thirst traps on a regular basis. So we know you're human, or some shit. This word count it harder to fill than I thought, but keep up the great work and please don't post nudes that is not necessary. Just kidding. Not really. Unless....

Task 1: (3) finish 

Task 4: (3) Hollywood has come calling and decided to make a movie about my life both on and off the ice, which just goes to show just how close to death American cinema truly is. I have been tasked with choosing a few key moments I feel should be "must have" moments in a film about me, and some have stuck out more than others. The situation surrounding why I wasn't drafted during the SMJHL draft and the events leading to my contract signing with St. Louis will be explained in greater detail. The losses of my nephew, his funeral and my sisters death all within 3 weeks of each other will be included because the heartbreak of that is something I still struggle with all these years later. (especially now that just over a month ago my father passed away, making it even harder.) I would love to tell everyone who will be playing the lead role, but that hasn't been chosen as of yet.

Task 6: (2) A: Up until the finals, Hamilton had the tougher road the the finals, which seems weird to say based on how easy they took down the Renegades to win another Championship.. Texas was able to sweep two of the opponents and the rest was likely a big reason why they failed in the end.

B: To me both Texas and Hamilton should be commended on how they have made it to where they are today. A rebuild is so tough to go through, and there are no guarantees that it will even be successful forcing the team to keep going through them until luck finally goes their way. Texas has received that luck and then some and have all my respect for getting through a tough bunch of seasons.

Task 11a: (2) These seasons finals had the chance to be one of the best in the last few years. Unfortunately, what it became was the exact opposite. I admit I usually try and spin every series as one the best I've ever seen, but I just can't do it this time. The series was a boring one-sided slaughter by the Hamilton Steelhawks. Now is the time I have to give my choice for the Playoff MVP and really only one is even close to deserving the honor. Hamilton goaltender A Jobin wins this one pretty unanimously with his amazing talent on full display, with honestly nobody coming close in my opinion.

Task 12: (2) S61 Milestones

Task 15: (2) This is where I give my picks for the IIHF tournament. This year I have the Gold going to Canada once again, Silver will belong to Sweden, and taking home the bronze will be Great Britain. (who will defeat the surprise team of Norway) I expect that Russia will struggle and finish near the bottom of the standings, while Finland and Japan will have great performances which will push them to the playoff rounds, but fall short of any medals. The United States will be the team that falls somewhere in the middle leaving much to be desired for the team and all their fans watching from home.

Task 18: (2) If I could bring back one user to this site it would easily have to be King. Besides the fact that we had some personal chats off site and were becoming friends before he disappeared, he was a huge part of this place before his departure. His dedication and activity here was unmatched by anybody and while many expected him to eventually burn out, I believe his plan was actually the opposite. It is a real shame what went down that caused him to leave, but I'm sure he is doing well in life and I hope that continues for him.



Total: (16/16)

Trivia: +3
BAP
2. +3
What if... Hamilton was actually punished for breaking the draftee signing rules? This is like one of those society if *blank* happened memes where the picture is a futuristic world, honestly. The precedent that this incident set in the league is going to degrade the trust that users have with HO. Letting the mostly IA league owners over rule a fairly made decision that was decided upon by reading the rulebook and using basic logic to interpret it. And then the league owners, who I think are all Hamilton alums, come in, over rule everything and make a mockery of HO.

It is too close to the incident to really say what could happen, but I feel like none of their picks would have signed there, and they would be making significantly more on the open market. Losing an entire draft would've hurt Hamilton down the line and on top of that would've made them look stupid.


4. +3
Well Mew Two already has several movies about him, but none as a hockey player so he jumps at the opportunity to have a biopic about himself.
The movie would start during Mew Two's SMJHL draft, where he would be anxiously awaiting his name being called. There would be dramatic music playing and then when the trade up that QCC did to draft him is announced, there would be a camera cut to Evok and Flex looking very smug and happy. It would then follow him through his meh rookie season, and highlight the effort he put into his meteoric rise his sophomore season. It would cover his SHL draft process, where he somehow conned JR and Zoone into drafting him third overall.

A big theme for the movie would be showcasing Mew Two's love of Quebec, both the city and the team. It really became a second home for him, and the movie would end with him being called up and starting a new journey.


12. +2
https://simulationhockey.com/showthread....pid3118858
14. +3
Well I think the obvious choice for a team that is about to break into the finals is the Baltimore Platoon. I am of course heavily biased, but I love my squad and I do not think this claim is too outlandish. We were one of the best teams in the regular season and made a decent playoff run before getting run over by the Hamilton Cheaters. We handily disposed of the Toronto North Stars 4-1, and had a bit of trouble with the Tampa Bay Barracuda, who managed to take us to game 7, which we won 7-0 conveniently. We took Hamilton to six, and if that heartbreaking overtime game one had gone the other way, we very well could have won the series outright and been in the finals. I do not think we are losing much to regression and I blindly trust JR and sheep to make good roster moves so I anticipate us being even better in the future

18. +2
Well I do not know if this user was ever in the SHL but I assume he was on one of his Multis. I would bring back retorspace111 aka laflame aka Zamir Kehla! One of my best friends in sim leagues and a huge influence to me in my formative days of sim leaguing. If you ignore the whole he quit the ISFL, then made a multi, which was both a head office intern and a war room member, and then leaked the draft to himself, thus ruining the mock draft for everyone, he really was not that bad. Zamir, if one of your multis sees this, please come home!

Quote:1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer. This is completed through a Google form linked below. Make sure to spell your answers correctly or you will not get credit. Post your verification word in your CW post.

Verification - bap

Quote:6. Written, up to 4 TPE - Grab Bag: Pick up to 4 Challenge Cup related topics to write about! Each topic is worth 1 TPE. Each answer must be 50+ words.
a. Hamilton was not taken to 7 games, Texas enjoyed two series sweeps, which team had the harder path to the final in your opinion?
b. Almost ten seasons ago, in S53, Hamilton enjoyed a 40 win season while Texas mustered a measly 9 wins. Now these two teams sit atop the season standings, and the playoff standings. Which is more impressive, to stay good for a decade, or to complete the rebuild and finally achieve greatness?
c. What is a renegade? What is a steelhawk? Who is Victor Helstrom from the CW trivia?
d. Who is the best player to play for either team? Is it a current player? Retired? Traded? Make your case.

A. On paper, Hamilton actually had the tougher road to get to the finals. I think you could make the argument that BAP and BUF may have been the 2nd/3rd best teams in the league (but I think at least both are top 5), and while Atlanta is not a top team at the moment they have always had savvy coaching. I guess that makes it all the more impressive how easily they blew through the playoffs.

B. I've never always agreed with Hamilton's management or coaching decisions, but to me it is certainly more impressive to stay good for a decade. Rebuilding a team into a contender is one thing, actually winning a championship, let alone multiple, is an entirely different thing altogether. It's like comparing a good team for years in San Jose to the 3 in 6 championship Chicago Blackhawks.

D. For Hamilton I think it's Robert Phelps right now, but the way Aaron Wilson is trending it could be him when it's all said and done. For Texas off the top of my head I would have to say it's between Jack Durden and Andreas Kvalheim. I'm not sure where Kvalheim currently stands stats wise in comparison to Durden but I have a feeling Kvalheim has more hardware.

Quote:12. Milestones, up to 3 TPE
Milestones are folded in with CW. So just link your Milestone claim as task 12 for up to 3 TPE towards your 16 total.

https://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php?tid=119534

Post your claim in the milestones thread for tpe earned per stat, and then link that post in your CW submission. This is done because the person who grades CW will be a different person than double-checks milestones.

Milestone Claim

Quote:13. Written, 3 TPE, Parody (150 words min.)
There has been some discussion on the forums but its always good to hear more opinions: Parity. Going back 6 seasons including this one there have been 4 teams in the finals: Buffalo, Chicago, Hamilton, and Texas. If you add New Orleans you can go back 8 seasons. 5 different teams for 8 straight finals. Is this an issue? Does it need to be fixed? Can it even be fixed? I'm interested to hear opinions, approaches, or just doom and gloom on whether you think this will change, or if we will still be talking about the same teams making the finals over and over in 5 seasons.

Parity is something that has bothered me quite a bit and I think is one of, if not the biggest issues we have to deal with using FHM. STHS certainly had its warts and was not the best sim engine in the world, but I think the randomness/unpredictability helped it resemble hockey in the real world where almost any team who makes the playoffs has a chance of winning. Granted, at times STHS's randomness would stop stacked teams from even making the playoffs which wasn't great, but I still prefer it to the current situation where the gap between the top teams and everyone else is massive. I'm not a smart enough guy to come up with a serious fix, but I think HO has slowly been making decent steps towards increasing parity. At the end of the day though certain teams will always have better management/coaching than other teams and those successful teams will always be a bigger draw for players.

Quote:14. Written, 3 TPE, Upswing (150 words min.)
What team on the outside looking in do you believe will be the next to break into the playoffs? What team will be the next new team to break into the finals (other than the core 4 listed in the above task)? Who seems to be building and earning at a rate that they will be a scary team in the future? We have already seen some successful rebuilds in Texas, Toronto, and Tampa, and some unsuccessful ones as well. Who is on the right track?

First of all, I'm offended Baltimore wasn't mentioned in the successful rebuild category. After all, we've already had more success than Toronto and Tampa. To answer the question though, it's tough to pick the next couple teams to break into the playoffs. I think that Atlanta and NOLA have done well with building a young core, they just need to keep drafting well and supplementing those young players with quality guys and they'll both be playoff teams within a few seasons. I thought SFP was getting there as well but I'm concerned about them stagnating a little bit. I don't think any of the non-playoff teams are starting to hit the 'scary' threshold at this point. While I'm obviously biased, I think Baltimore is the closest right now to breaking into that 'core 4'. We've shown we can go toe to toe with just about anyone at this point and we are still growing. Tampa and Toronto are right there but it seems they need some coaching touch ups to keep moving ahead. I also think Edmonton has a real great mix of solid vets/young players as well as a very impressive prospect pool, so they will be one to watch over the next few seasons.

Quote:18. Written, 2 TPE, Baby come back 100 words min
If you had the power to bring back one user to the SHL, who would it be? We're talking full activity, balls to the wall. They could be a banned user, user gone inactive, or someone who's around but doesn't really fuck with SHL anymore. Pick your user and why you want them back that badly? Did you love them, or do you just want to watch the league burn?

There are a couple of different folks that come to mind. One of the first ones is Wasty cause I spent so much time in the league with him and it feels weird for him not to be around much anymore. Plus I miss his graphics. Another is ArGarBarGar. Had the pleasure of getting to know him for a while in LAP and he is a great guy. Obviously he created an arguable GOAT player in Alonzo Garbanzo, but also he did a boatload of work that added a ton of cool stuff to the league. I believe it was him that ran the top 100 players list(?), and also his league of accomplished players or whatever it was called was a super useful tool to evaluate player success, and just his overall history work in general is missed a lot (although Luke has helped bridge that gap big time).

1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer. This is completed through a Google form linked below. Make sure to spell your answers correctly or you will not get credit. Post your verification word in your CW post.
+3 TPE
banana


What if i found this game a bit earlier then i actually did, and went and played for the great calgary dragons. How many goals would i have had scored by now, how many parm sandwiches would have been eaten? How many more cups would have been won? In the future, sooner or later we shall see. But overall i think Darwin Koff makes calgary a bit better for every day even tough he isnt playing yet. As a side not i was reading about some free prostade exams by a former player, i could have helped out with that as well. Or watched, or something. There isnt something stopping me from helping out Esa with that now either but who knows what kinda of stuff that could have been done earlier. More parm sandwiches, more beer, and not so much hangovers. Good food, drinks, drugs and ladies. Erm, skip the last bits. No, wait. Keep the ladies. It could be fun.


Obviously class of S61 is the simple choice for that statement, we have a bunch of studs keeping up with some insane amount of work and hopefully most of them can continue to keep that pace including myself. The top earners went a bit bust on the fantasy TPE (not me) so im taking my chance to climb a bit atleast. Its a quite big class with lots of older players in the leauge that played before so its pretty damn exciting to see the mix of old and new players fighting for the ranks among everyone. From my own opinion it triggers me a bit to be the underdog, but ill accept that role every day of the week to prove people wrong. Overall the class is super strong and im happy to train alongside people of similar mindset. People will remember class of S61 for sure. Its just a matter of time before people see that and goes "oh snap" those guys. Yeah.


I have no clue why somebody would like to make a movie about me drinking beer, eating junk food and watching boxing late at night. And going to the Parm to train once in a while to keep those sandwiches away from my belly. It would just be a huge collage of broken sticks, mcdonalds bags and clips of me chirping with my plastic teeths. It would be a bit like that moovie goon, with that guy from american pie who played stifler. But i can actually score some points once in a while. Or rather im pretty good at scoring goals when really needed. Super clutch player, overtime goals, amazing empty netters and licking people all day long. Losing a fight now and then to lesser educated players and hitting the gym when coached yell at me. Not sure if anyone would ever want to watch that garbage. I am the best 4th liner, but still a 4th liner. It cant get that amazing.


2 TPE - 4th liner claims


Im playing in the wjc and its a bit of a mess, but sweden are looking decently strong as always. We have a coach this year that dosent feel that super involved like last year so im gonna say we are gonna get pounded in the bronze game this year against finland and that well, like canada or USA wins the whole thing. It could be super fun, but it really dosent feel that way. It feels like a tournament just to fill out the off-season void. I have no idea how to fix it either? Its probably a window for aspiring coaches to try their wings, and its a good choice. Everything cant be perfect.

I would like to bring back Barry B Benson to the VAN 4th line, just like last year. He has never been a very active player, since he play other sims. But it was nice having him joining late last season and really trying to do something nice while he had to play with muppets and MVPs like Darwin Koff and Strawberry Sailfish, its so bad conditions to thrive i cant blame him for doing other stuff, but holy crap that was a really nice 4th line and im hoping he can pick up his game in Regina and remember all the beer and hotdogs with Darwin Koff outside the arena, all together while hiding from our coaches like a bunch of 16 year old teens.

Total 19 TPE (16 Max)

1. Trivia VW: Flex

3. I may be a little bit biased here, but the best draft class of all time is the Season 53 class. First off, the class is full of amazing players who are legitimate superstars in the league today. It looks like the class will have 16 players hit 2000 or more TPE, which is a ton of talent on the ice when someone from the class is out there. There are another ten or so players who won’t quite hit that prestigious 2k mark, but they are still important players for their clubs. The S53 class also holds a ton of league jobs, we keep this place up and running. We have had a ton of managers, graphics gurus, the IIHF commissioner, and head office members. If you can think of an area of the league, the S53 class probably is involved in running it. Lastly, but also most importantly, the S53 class is full of wonderful people who I have gotten the chance to know over the last two years, and it has been a fun ride from day one. I’m excited to see many more of us win awards, lift the cup, and get into the hall of fame one day.

6.
a. I would say that Texas had a harder path to finals, but not by much. They were probably sweating when they were going into game seven versus Chicago, but the other two series were very easy for them. Hamilton didn’t really struggle with any of their series, breezing through the eastern conference on their way to the finals. 
b. I would say that it is much harder to maintain ten seasons of greatness then run a successful rebuild. The hardest part of running a team is the infinite test simming you need to do to make it far into the playoffs in this league, and Hamilton has been doing that for ten seasons now.
c. A renegade is probably some outlaw or bandit kind of person. It has to be a call back to the old wild west era of Texas history, where robbers and thieves ran wild across the desert. A Steelhawk is most likely a hawk made of steel, I would like to think it’s fairly literal. I have no idea who this Victor Helstrom person is.
d. The best player for Hamilton over the last few years has been Aaron Wilson. He is almost always at the top of the leaderboard in points. The best player for Texas over the last few seasons is probably Andreas Kvalheim. His defensive prowess and knack for goal scoring has been a huge part of the Renegades success in recent years.

12. 3 Milestones

20. My new sim basketball player, Jorvar Hallbjornsson, isn’t very good at any sport yet, but if he played defense could probably be a top ten pick somehow because hockey coaches love tall defensemen for some reason, even if they aren’t good at hockey. My football player Evan Jones is a fast safety, so I could see him playing as a defensively sound winger, a Mark Stone type of player. He is already used to reading offenses to try and break up plays so it would be a fairly easy transition for him as long as he could skate. My baseball player James Barker would probably end up as one of those really fast guys with absolutely no hands. The kind of player who gets a ton of breakaways but never converts on any of them. But who knows, in FHM breakaways feel almost automatic so maybe he would score a bunch in the right coaching scheme. As for my hockey player Alexander Roach, I feel like he would be a good linebacker or box safety in football, considering he already loves to hit people, it would be easy to get him to tackle people. I am not sure how good he would be in baseball since the mechanics of that sport are quite different.

Verification code = karl

It's hard to argue against the big ones you highlighted in the prompt, but one draft I feel doesn't get enough love is the S25 draft. A bit of bias since this was my first draft, but here me out. In the first round we had Jasper Clayton (HoF player, HoF GM and commissioner), Robb Wind (GM), Lord Pretty Flacko (HoF, GM), Luke Fleming (HoF, GM) Geoffrey Allen (GM), Zack Hoover (GM), Cynthia Taylor (GM). In the second round there was Nikolaus Scholz (HoF, GM), Jonathan Lundberg (HoF), Jack Durden (HoF). So in total there were 6 players inducted to the hall of fame which isn't exactly amazing (and no where near any of the big classes like S20 or S31), but a lot of GM's. In fact at one point in the mid to late S30's I think more than half of the SHL teams were managed by 1st Gen players selected in the S25 class as well as the commissioner role.

A. Both teams faced a bit of a pushover in round 1. In round 2 both faced arguably their toughest competition. In round 3 I think the Blizzard surprised people by making it that far and Texas clearly got the better of them. Meanwhile Hamilton had to overcome a very strong Baltimore team so I'm going to give the edge to Hamilton on this one, but it's not by much.
B. Staying good for a decade is far more difficult than a successful rebuild. Not to say a rebuild is easy, far from it, but for teams to stay good for so long they need to keep a steady flow of quality players. The tricky part here is that there's only so much ice time available and it's not unheard of for an up and coming promising player to leave the juggernaut for a team with space available on the top lines. On the flip side everyone is growing together on a rebuild so no one is buried to the same extent. It's hard to motivate someone to build their player when they'll be pinned on line 3 for like 5-6 seasons.
C. Hamilton is known for it's steel factories so I'm guessing they just took a really generic name like the hawks (looking at you Detroit) and added a cool moniker in front of it. As for the renegades google defines it as "a person who has deserted their cause or defied convention". The first doesn't sound great for a team, but defied convention sounds pretty bad ass. But mostly it's just a cooler way to say outlaw *gun sounds*. As for Victor Helstrom... find out next week!
D. For Hamilton a few names come to mind, but it has to be Robert Phelps. 1000 games played, 988 points and multiple cups. It's a crime he never won any individual hardware, but he's a one team player and the franchise leader in points. For Texas it's a toss up between Jack Durden and Andreas Kvalheim. Much like Phelps, Durden has zero hardware and leads the team in points, but I think Kvalheim will pass him before he retires and is one of the leagues premier power forwards with multiple Dar's. He's the best Renegade in my opinion.

my milestones claim

I feel like making the playoffs is a pretty low bar when 16 teams get in and there's only 20 teams in the league. Nothing against the teams that make it (or don't) but a better measuring stick is winning the first round. With that being said I'd like to focus on the Tampa Bay Barracuda. You mentioned them in the prompt so perhaps this is an obvious one, but I think they're the next team to make a big splash. In the last three seasons they've finished 15th, 12th and 6th (most recently) so the progress is there. This last season they finally won a playoff round for the first time in what feels like forever so that's another check box filled. The next step is to knock off a big dog like a Hamilton or a Buffalo or more recently a Baltimore. I guess what I'm saying is Tampa is setting themselves up nicely to do what Baltimore did just a couple seasons ago and crack the top 3 in the very competitive eastern conference.

1) VW: Breakfast (3 TPE)

4) It's time for the action adventure sci-fi extravaganza "Zebulon"! It follows me from my early days skating on ponds in rural New England, battling evil in youth hockey tournaments, being carted to the other side of the continent and in another country to win a Cup before swinging all the way back east to the American coastline to work alongside the greatest heroes the world has ever seen. There will be babes, hunks, insane special effects, a shark with a frickin' laser beam on its head and a group of villains so heinous and vile (Hamilton) the movie might have to be rated R. I will of course be the protagonist, striking down evil left and right with my shoulders and hips while stealing pucks before it even registers in their brains. But like the Avengers and Justice League, I play on a team and together we will vanquish this foe for the glory of Arstotzka! Or Baltimore. (158 words, 3 TPE) 

12) Milestones (3 TPE)

13) I have always wondered if the league needs a salary cap in the form of limiting TPE totals for a team so they cannot have 10 2000+ players on their team. Of course, the bad side of this is that it punishes hard working GMs who have spent years building teams up; this isn't a real league where players are good immediately. So what if you weighted TPE amounts? For example, when a player hits a certain TPE level the amount stays static for 4 or 5 seasons (a player's "peak" 20s) as counted towards the cap but every year after that it goes up 10% or something? I don't know, maybe some variation of this, I have had a few. (121 words, 2 TPE)

14) The easy answer here for the next team to make the SHL finals is my own team, the Baltimore Platoon. They have steadily climbed up the ladder the last five seasons to become one of the top teams in the league.  They were the only team this playoffs to take Hamilton to six games. They have a solid core of players who are hitting their peak years along with excellent management who are motivated to take the team to the next level. I would be very surprised to not see us in the finals in the next few years, and hopefully winning it as well. (105 words, 2 TPE)

19) I get to make my own pill? Ok, I am going to go with my favorite color and introduce the CLEAR pill!  What does this amazing pill do? Well it makes the puck invisible to anyone who hasn't taken the pill. Passes will be impossible to block since defending players will have no idea whom is passing to whom. Imagine the chaos when every player lines up to take a shot and the goalie has no idea which of them has the puck! Of course, the big drawback is that the fans won't be able to see the puck. The advantage there though is that maybe they won't yell "SHOOOOOOOOOOOOT" anymore. (111 words, 2 TPE)

21) I have enjoyed PTs overall but there were definitely times were I thought "Ugh, I just don't want to do this one," and it felt like a chore to get through.  However I recognize it is a tough job to come up with ideas every single week that appeal to a finicky group and respect the job that you do. More importantly, giving us two options each week has really improved the whole thing. I have generally found one topic to write about enjoyable every week out of the pair given. So keep up the good work, I think you are doing a great job! (105 words, 2 TPE)

1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1 TPE for participation, 0.5 TPE for each correct answer. This is completed through a Google form linked below. Make sure to spell your answers correctly or you will not get credit. Post your verification word in your CW post.

verif word: tocaps


12. Milestones, up to 3 TPE
Milestones are folded in with CW. So just link your Milestone claim as task 12 for up to 3 TPE towards your 16 total.

https://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php?tid=119534

Post your claim in the milestones thread for tpe earned per stat, and then link that post in your CW submission. This is done because the person who grades CW will be a different person than double-checks milestones.

Claim : https://simulationhockey.com/showthread....pid3118930


3. Written, 3 TPE, Draft Kings (150 words min.)
Pick a draft class in the SHL that you believe had the most impact on the SHL. It can be a consensus pick, like S36, 31, or 53, or an off-the-board one (S41?). Explain your reasoning to why this draft class impacted the league; Could be in a good way, or a bad way.

The S20 Draft, when I first created, was one of the draft that propelled the SHL forwards both in terms of number of users but also in terms of quality users. The subsequent drafts also brought in quality users but hte S20 had a volume unmatched at the time. I recall getting drafted to Kelowna, alongside users such as WBF, JRT, Chester Cunningham, Narconis and others teams had guys like Bojo and a few others. That draft warranted creating a couple expansions in the following seasons. Many of the 2014 created accounts still linger in relative activity and contribute to the site their own way. What I recall the most about the draft was also how many highly touted users ended up busting, such as myself. But some burned even faster, going from max earning and commenting on site ever 10 minutes to completly disapear within a season. Back then, without discord, it was harder to get involved and learn thru other users but we used something called chatzy that made it similar to discord, while a bit less practical.

14. Written, 3 TPE, Upswing (150 words min.)
What team on the outside looking in do you believe will be the next to break into the playoffs? What team will be the next new team to break into the finals (other than the core 4 listed in the above task)? Who seems to be building and earning at a rate that they will be a scary team in the future? We have already seen some successful rebuilds in Texas, Toronto, and Tampa, and some unsuccessful ones as well. Who is on the right track?

Im gonna use my big homer pass here and say Atlanta Inferno is the next team to build a dynasty and reach the Hamilton, Buffalo and Texas status. We have a bunch of core users who max earns and keeps the locker room fun. GMs put in a lot of work to design tactics and optimise the ressources they have under hands. They always make sure we get the best picks for PTs, for fantasy, and that our builds do not suck. We all strive to make the team competitive and have fun watching our games. We all know it is a long process to build a dynasty and everyone is chipping in patiently. It has been a year the team is set up now, and of course top players are subject to regression, but if you look at the 5-6 last drafts, atlanta picked a player (or 2!) that are ranked amongst the top 5 in TPE earned, meaning the prospects are ready to step up faster than average.

6. Written, up to 4 TPE - Grab Bag: Pick up to 4 Challenge Cup related topics to write about! Each topic is worth 1 TPE. Each answer must be 50+ words.
a. Hamilton was not taken to 7 games, Texas enjoyed two series sweeps, which team had the harder path to the final in your opinion?
b. Almost ten seasons ago, in S53, Hamilton enjoyed a 40 win season while Texas mustered a measly 9 wins. Now these two teams sit atop the season standings, and the playoff standings. Which is more impressive, to stay good for a decade, or to complete the rebuild and finally achieve greatness?
c. What is a renegade? What is a steelhawk? Who is Victor Helstrom from the CW trivia?
d. Who is the best player to play for either team? Is it a current player? Retired? Traded? Make your case.

a. Hamilton had the harder path to the finals, they faced up and coming Atlanta, then had to also clear thru Baltimore Platoon and buffalo. That is a path that does not guarantee a playoffs finals appearance and Texas while also deserving of it, didn't have to face a tougher opposition except for Chicago.

b. Usually I would stay to remain competitive like Hamilton, but they kinda have a special privilege where players join a winning tradition rather than build it with new pieces. I think texas rebuilding to a top contender status is impressive, especially considering the turn around level in GMs and players where it can take a lot of time to even reach competitive status.

c. A steelhawk is something boring and flavourless. They were my rival in Toronto and i hate them. A renegade is a bandit for the desert, living out of the society or established law, a bit anarchist. They usually abuse from the weaker and should be feared by us regular normies. Victor Helstrom is the answer of a trivia question, probably related in some way to the SHL championship.

d. The best player to play for either team is Nour. I don't know much about Hamilton but when Nour played in Hamilton, I hated them a bit less. He had a legendary career there and is my teamate in Colorado and I will always cheer for him. He is the commissioner too and works really hard and it is appreciated. For Texas, I recall Jordin FourFour back in the days was a goalie everyone aspired to become. A realy staple for the franchise and unlikely will a Renegade be the face of a franchise as much as he was.

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1. CW TRIVIA - Chomp 

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ISFL Affiliate - https://forums.sim-football.com/showthre...#pid524801

3/3
3. Draft Kings (182 words)
I may be a little bit biased when i say this. Ima let you finish, but Season 53 is the best class in the SHL hands down. What a great reddit draft that saw so many of the members of our class quickly join the job ranks in the league. I only have enough words to write about people i'm closer with so sorry to all of you that i'm gonna miss. All the S53 draftees in Detroit. We were the core that brought the cup home. So many of us are in management and helpful positions around the league. 7 is leading the events department and changed the way we have been doing site drafts. I'm there coordinating, Jobin is doing art stuff and just making the league a better place overall. So many of us are J GM's updaters SHL GM's. Roastpuff heading up the IIHF. Ace heading up the WJC. There are too many of us to count but we all, old and new are constantly working to make the site a better place. Shameless "Zoltan smelly HO" plug.


11.a (2 TPE) 124 words
People always say that forwards are a shoe in for MVP on teams. However, in my eyes its always been the goaltender. One certain A. Jobin deserves to be crowned the MVP, at least he already has in my book. Hamilton swept the series and the team was led by none other than their brick wall. Game 4 for the win, A. Jobin posted a shutout. Closed the door to the series and to his third challenge cup since being called up to the Hamilton Steelhawks. This guy is just a machine and is posting up pretty crazy numbers. He may have a great team in front of him too, but keeping the opponents score low goes a long way against strong teams.


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12 . Milestones -  https://simulationhockey.com/showthread....pid3118957


19- Weird pill man 3/3 176 words
Nothing would be better for a member of the cult of Zoltan than to have a special pill designed in conjunction with the weird tench coat pill guy from Slash's dreams. There is no easier way to build a cult following that to just have people take a pill and brainwash them into devoting the rest of their life to worshipping lord Zoltan. Zoltan would of course still continue peddling the regular way, but some people would probably agree to take the oddly shaped Z pill. Once on the market it was an absolute disaster. Most people had trouble swallowing it and on first cough most of the powder just ended up on the ground. If you've ever watched someone do the cinnamon challenge its a little bit like that. Since it wasn't such a popular option the weird trench coat man put the special zoltan pills on clearance. When people are looking at having a good time, this is definitely something pretty low on the list. The weird pill was a failure for me.

PT Affiliate (PBE)


Nuggets


Milestones +1

1. Verification word = vagabond (+3, running total +3)
2. I wouldn't WANT to change much about this particular moment in SHL history, as I do think changing sim engines was a net positive for the league even though I hate the fact that three specific teams are basically rolling their way to victory every season. But what if we had never changed sim engines, and left everything with SimonT Hockey Simulator? The entire league essentially resorts to 40/99 (or its closest alternative with the league as it was prior to the engine switch), nobody gets any checking, and everyone goes for 70-something discipline as the classic meta build. Everyone adopts it to abuse the sim engine to the greatest possible degree, and the league becomes exceedingly boring as only one build is ever used while competing. Players with fighting or high checking become niche players in the league, used only with tanking teams who are attempting to acquire some more 40 passing/99 scoring players; the SHL gets boring as all hell and needs to contract in order to combat player loss. In short, yeah, the engine switch was probably a good one. At least the non-Hamilton teams can add some points to something other than scoring before losing. (199 words; +3 TPE, running total +6)

6. a. I have to imagine Texas had the tougher road to the finals because they don't have one specific user (AWil) making their strats. The sim hasn't been totally figured out by anyone on the Texas team, so by default their road to the championship was harder. It's a bit demoralizing to understand that's just the way things will be, but I'm not so delusional as to suggest that Hamilton facing a team with higher TPE than Texas did makes their path any harder. Just look at the season results for Hamilton season-in and season-out – it's obvious. (96 words)
b. I think success repeatedly through this many seasons isn't interesting anymore, but to me Hamilton's run is more impressive obviously. Teams with significant success typically require many players in their prime, and that tends to be followed by rapid decline as said players regress. The fact that Hamilton has been successful this long means they're either attracting a ton of FAs or they're drafting absurdly well despite a significant position disadvantage. Either way it's impressive. (75 words)
c. A renegade is a person that deserts and/or betrays something – it can be a group, nation, or some kind of code/principles. I have no idea what a steelhawk is, though on searching for it on the internet apparently it's a rollercoaster and flat ride somewhere in Missouri, so I guess that's fine. I don't think it's a real term, but plenty of team mascots don't have real life counterparts (consider the Stanford tree… thing). Who the hell is Victor Helstrom, anyways? (81 words)
d. Aaron Wilson is Hamilton's best player, bar none. He had a +59 in the regular season and scored 104 points, the most in the regular season by a full 17; he had the most even strength points by a good margin, plus was just two off of the lead for special teams points. I think part of that is excellent strats and another part of it is having fantastic teammates, but at the end of the day Wilson's talent does a lot of work for him too. (87 words)
(+4 TPE, running total +10)

12. Milestones: https://simulationhockey.com/showthread....pid3118971 (+3, running total +13)

13. Honestly? I think it is an issue, but I thought it was more of an issue that three of those four teams were in the same division for several seasons, and only one of them was moved out despite continued dominance from all three of the former Great Lakes teams. I think Texas will have their peak and gradually decline but think about how awful it must be to be a Toronto, Montreal, etc. division team. You're forced to play the two best teams in the league every single season – and that's been the case for several seasons. It must be horribly demoralizing to now be forced to play them even MORE often than a couple of seasons ago, AND you can't even get deep into the playoffs without a FORCED division 'rivalry' matchup before the conference finals. So not only is your chance of even making a championship as one of the other teams in the Northeast division essentially doomed, but you're forced to bash your face in against those teams (Ham/Buf), which hurts your career stats long-term, and you can't even make a conference championship. Wouldn't you be frustrated as one of those other few northeast teams?
(199 words. +3, running total +16)

Verification word: sheepy


This is pretty easy for me considering how many people in the league are in management right now. So many users in S53 are currently impacting the league in a very positive way. By my count, there are seven first generation players in S53 who are GMs in the SHL and SMJHL and a few who used to GM or served in Head Office as well as the current IIHF Commissioner. Currently it is looking like at least one of us is going to break the all-time TPE record and at least two others will give it a good run. Many S53 members also created some of the best media posts I’ve ever seen on this site and I also felt that impacted the league in a great way. The whole class is just now beginning to hit their primes and several have cups already and I expect many hall of famers from this class when all is said and done.


It is very hard to give it to one player on the Steelhawks, but the honor probably should go to Mitchell van der Heijden, who had critical goals in Games 1 and 3 to seal it for Hamilton. He ended up scoring the most points in the final series and even in the games he did not score, he was a dominant force on the ice. A couple of honorary mentions would be Theo Morgan and Aaron Wilson, who both scored often but did not put up as many points as Mitchell van der Heijden. On defense, Samuel Michaud was probably Hamilton’s best player and should also be mentioned, but didn’t show up on the scoresheet often.

Claim 3 Milestones


I don’t want to put my team because that’s an obvious one that has finally begun putting up the wins, but I will anyways. The Baltimore Platoon are not projected to lose anyone this offseason and while they have a few guys regressing, the team is still growing season to season and will be one of the real threats in the Eastern Conference for many seasons. Without giving too much away, we know exactly what we need to do to get it done and I’m very excited to see how it plays out over the next season and beyond.
As far as a team that is one to look for on the horizon, I think that the New Orleans Specters are the team that is truly heading in the right direction. They have a very large and mostly well earning core of players from S56 to S58 who are all going to begin to reach their primes over the next few seasons. With the right coaching, they could be absolutely terrifying starting in I’d say about S64.


With all the talent on the team, the USA missed last year’s medal round and while it’s hard to see it happen again I think this will continue for at least this season. I expect the usual teams such as Canada and Great Britain to lead the charge this season and win their respective groups. Norway might return to form, but I expect Japan to be back in the thick of things yet again and you cannot count out Sweden or Czechia. While I have the second highest TPE on my team, I don’t expect to produce this season. Instead, I imagine Bobby Lane (the highest TPE player on Team USA) will be the big driver of our offense.

CW TRIVIA LINK
taco







https://simulationhockey.com/showthread....pid3119025