Task 01: (Written, 3 TPE)
You are at the airport awaiting a flight to meet back up with your team after spending the day being honoured as a 'Hometown Hero' in the place where you grew up! Tell us about your day... what did they have planned for you? Who did you see there? What were you given? How did it turn out? ... In 150 words or more, tell us all about this big moment as hometown hero.

So in Reykjavik this time each year they have a big hockey game on a natural rink built into a glacier in Iceland. It is huge like 20 players per team at a time, all ages and skill levels are invited. Myself, Goku Muerto, and my brother Vegeta Muerto were the banner-bearers and hometown heroes honored by the community. We are the first brothers to play in the SHL at the same time, even if Veggie is pretty bad, he's still a player. Not that I'm that much better, tbh. Anyway we each got to carry the flags, there's a blue team and a white team, and we wear the jerseys and get to be team Captains also. The teams are formed through a 'toss all your sticks in a pile and we throw them to 2 sides, wherever your stick goes, that's your team! Then the game starts and it's all madness and fun, everybody chasing it around for a couple hours, although by the end the little kids are mostly tired and it gets a bit more competitive as only the real players remain. After that we drink hot chocolate and schnapps and sing songs around the bonfire until it gets really dark. It was a really fun event, I remember going to it when I was a lot younger, I wanted to be a pro hockey player like my cousins Riko, Danko, and Darko! And all of them were there, we got a group picture of all 5 of us and it was on the front page of the Reykjavik newspaper the next day! A very proud moment!

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Task 05: (Written, up to 6 TPE)
Pick up to 6 challenge cup related topics to write about! Each topic is worth '1' TPE. Each answer must be '50' words or more.

1. Breakdown this finals matchup for us, how will it play out? who will be the stars of this series, what will the outcome be? (*tag anyone involved)

West Kendall was the superior team all year, and should walk away with this in 5 games. They did just squeak out against Buffalo while Calgary took care of their business handily in the West, but the high Platoon have too many high powered players for Calgary to match up against. The goaltending is fairly even but I see West Kendall's offense controlling the play more often than not.


3. Which player in the finals should be considered their teams playoff MVP and which should be considered their teams unsung hero thus far and why?

Dani Forsberg @Insayne has been on fire for WKP, leading the team in scoring, and currently with a 5 game point streak, so he showed up when needed. Not far behind is @"Crossfit Jesus" who has always been a good luck charm for his team, and is also riding a 3-game point streak, WKP needed someone to step up when they got down against BUF and these guys both did. The unsung hero for WKP is Rex Kirkby @Acsolap - even though he is young, he has been rock solid defensively and contributing points where he can, he plays with a lot of confidence!


5. After trading off there best players and declaring themselves in a full rebuild back in S45, The Calgary Dragons have made it to the S47 finals.. just 2 seasons later.  Choose: ('No surprise', 'mild surprise', 'major surprise' or 'in shock') and explain why.

It is a MILD SURPRISE that the Dragons are back in the finals. Although they secured their playoff spot handily, after the regular season it seemed like Edmonton and New Orleans were the clearcut favorites to be playing in the Western Finals, but they both lost in the first round. It's not a huge surprise though because this franchise is a proven winner and always seems to do their best work when they aren't the favorites going into the playoffs. Management doesn't need to prove anything to anybody, they've been here many times before.

6. Which young players in this series (S42-S47) have a chance to break out and make a name for themselves here in the Challenge Cup Finals? (*Tag that player)

For WKP, Rex Kirkby @Acsolap (again! sorry!) has been playing big minutes and more than holding his own. He has 4 points and a +4 rating, so he is making a solid contribution and has really shown why WKP picked him in the 1st round in a stacked S43 Draft.

For the Dragons, we look at another S43 Draft pick, Nicky Pedersen Jr., @mstuk41 who has been outstanding and leading the team with 11 points heading into the final round, he has become a true leader for this team which has a lot of high-caliber youngsters but Nicky is really on top of his game right now.

7. The West Kendall Platoon are back in the finals after a season out of the playoffs and a team that was in serious regression Choose: ('No surprise', 'mild surprise', 'major surprise' or 'in shock') and explain why.

NO SURPRISE here, Despite the regression issues, this team has a ton of good players and no obvious weaknesses. They traded for Bennett, Woodcroft, and Berezin to shore up their team and it paid big dividends. They have 9 players with an OV rating of 80 or greater, which is second only to Buffalo, so they definitely have a lot of talent. They also were able to find chemistry across all lines and no player had a negative +/- while on the team. So, yeah, they are stacked, it was more shocking that they missed last year than that they made it back this one.

8. Star netminders Kata Vilde and Beaujeaux Biscuit have both carried there teams into the finals. Which franchise goalie has a better chance to carry their franchise to a title?

I think both goalies are great and it's hard to say which one is better, but I have to say Biscuit comes in with a lot of confidence, he's won it before, he's backed Ireland to 5 straight Gold Medals, he's not afraid of the pressure and hype of an SHL Finals. I don't think there's much the Dragons could do to throw him off his game, he's always cool and calm under fire.

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Task 11: (Written, 3 TPE)
Writers on the internet have jokingly tossed around the following playoff roster idea: "when a team eliminates another team, they get to claim a player from that eliminated team to join their roster" Pretend the SHL has adopted this rule this postseason. Pick one of the teams in the Challenge Cup final and pick any player from a team that they've eliminated to add to their roster for the finals. Why did they choose that player? How will this player help out? Where will they play in the lineup? (must be 150 words or more, *tag all players)

The Calgary Dragons would choose Thè Dude @Dude to join their team. They chose this player because the one big weakness for Calgary is their defensive depth, and Dude is a very good defender with a lot of talent. He will help them by providing a more stable presence on the blueline while also contributing big plays and points, especially on the powerplay, where he had 9 of his 17 points. Calgary will put him on the powerplay and also have him play on the 2nd pairing, so between him and Driftwood @Slappydoodle they will get offense from both pairings instead of just 1. This will give them a better chance to match WKP's firepower while also giving a boost to helping to slow them down.



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TASK 13: (*CASUAL MEMBER SPECIAL* Send answer in PM, up to 3 TPE)

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