Quote:1. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min)
VIP Status babyyyyyyyy - your player has been invited to attend one of the first homestands of the CC finals as a VIP guest - all expenses paid, front row seats, any hotel you want - and it's all on the Commissioner's dime! Are you going to Games 1 and 2 in Tampa or Games 3 and 4 in Calgary? Why are you picking there? And what are you going to do in that city to run up Eggy's tab??

This isn't technically offered as an option in the question, but fuck it: I'm going to Game 2 in Tampa and Game 3 in Calgary. There's no better contrast between the miserably cold weather in Alberta and the miserably hot weather in Florida.
As for running up the tab? Constant room service. Hell, make it room service on the go. I'm hiring a personal servant to follow me around and make sure my every whim is satisfied. I'd like to imagine they'd have a bucket of caviar in one hand, and several ironed shirts in the other, ready to offer me a fresh white shirt if mine gets stained with caviar. Do I get messy when eating caviar? Nope. I don't even like it. I'd just dump it on my shirt because fuck it, comped.
This is all without mentioning the private performances from local theater actors (gotta support the arts), personal roulette table and croupier, luxury rented sportscar that I would trash while trying to dump caviar on my shirt, and hiring a blimp to fly over both cities letting everyone know that the Halifax Raiders are better than either team. ■
[192 words]

Quote:2. Written, 2 TPE (100 words min)
After a slow start to the regular season, the Dragons have surged of late and have rallied around the #CalgaWe notion of togetherness. On the other side, the Barracuda battled through a difficult East and are led by a very strong young core. Which team are you personally rooting for to take home the Challenge Cup and why?

So one of the things I’ve noticed coming into the league in the last couple of seasons has been just how important your rookie/junior locker room is in forming relationships and connections with people in the league, especially with alumni. Case in point: my answer to this question is largely determined by the people in the Halifax locker room, which counts a few Barracuda and Dragons players among them. Esa and Rublic (Rush) are there representing Calgary, and Kalakar (Kholin) and ztevans (Z. Evans) represent Tampa Bay. I like all of these people and want them to succeed, and since I don’t really want to play favourites, I’ve found myself rooting for both teams.
Given the series is over, I obviously know the outcome, and so I’m really happy that the Dragons managed to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the series to take the Championship Cup… but at the same time, I feel really bad that the Barracuda lost, especially in that way. ■
[163 words]

Quote:3. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min)
Are there any changes to the playoff format you'd like to see implemented? More wild cards? Move to a single-elimination to bring about even more chaos? 999-game series to minimize chaos? Be creative!

Creativity taken into account, I'd like to see the league move to a system where the series doesn't end until one of the teams has scored a benchmark of goals. Let's say... 32. So if it's Seattle vs Rochester, for example, and the first four games end 8-2, 8-3, 8-1, 8-0 (respectively), then great! Seattle moves on. But who could ever say no to a game 13 in a playoff series? It would really reward scoring, to the point where a team could lose three out of four games and still move on. Imagine: Seattle beats Rochester 8-0 in the first game, and loses the next four games by a score of 7-6, 8-6, 8-6, and 7-6. Seattle moves on because they've reached that 32 goal mark before Rochester, who end the series with 30 goals scored. Or if the series had every game end in 3-2, it would take a team a minimum of 10 games plus some of an 11th to move to the next round. Isn't that fun? Did I mention this is a terrible idea? ■
[179 words]

Quote:5. Written, 3 TPE (150 words min)
Due to some controversial calls during the playoffs, the league is looking at updating the current rules(icing, offside, etc) What new rule or change to a room would you implement to better the game?

It's tough to answer this question because I'm not sure whether it's meant to be in terms of hockey played on the ice or hockey as represented by STHS.

If it's hockey on the ice: I'd like to see the blue lines done away with in favour of just a red line. Or even to have blue lines done away with altogether. There's already the option of having a forward parked at the opponent's blue line to cherry pick. With this change, you'd be able to move that cherry picking forward up towards the opponent's net. I'm not sure if it would be worth it, though, because you're just going to wind up playing shorthanded in your own zone in a defensive situation. So not a whole lot would change for the worse, but for the better we'd be getting rid of offsides which are boring as shit and hurt the flow of the game.

If it's hockey represented by STHS: I'd like to see better description of the play in between goal action, shots, hits and faceoffs. Things like odd-man rushes or even zone clearances, to get a better picture how the play is developing or has developed. When you look at the 'play-by-play' in a game sheet, there are sometimes minute long gaps between "Player A wins the faceoff vs Player B" and "Player C ices the puck" that leave me wondering what the hell happened in between? This is especially apparent when writing play-by-plays. You can always just make stuff up, which is what I've done in both my PBPs, but it couldn't hurt to have that information generated by the sim engine. ■
[276 words]

Quote:8. Written, 2 TPE (100 words min)
Which player from Calgary or Tampa Bay would you bet on to win a regular season individual award in a future season? What player and what award? What makes you think they'll live up to their potential and take home the hardware?

I feel like it's an easy call to say that Benjamin Blue would probably wind up winning an award for best goalie again in the future considering he's already won it twice in the last five seasons. I'd say Flacko Lagerfield would have a good chance at winning an MVP award, as he's been a really strong player in fantasy recently and that player has the ability to put up big points. Also, won the MVP two seasons ago...

Mike Izzy is a big game player, and has it in him to maybe win another MVP before he retires. Otis B. Driftwood and Kristaps Ball are two strong defensemen that have the potential to top the league on the blueline, as Ball did a couple of seasons ago. ■
[128 words]

Quote:13. Written, up to 5 TPE Pick up to 5 Challenge Cup related topics to write about! Each topic is worth 1 TPE. Each answer must be 50+ words to qualify.

D. What's your favorite player NAME on either team? why? (note: not who's your favorite player. which player name)

I have two favorites, one from each team, but both for the same reason: both Atlas Rush and Benjamin Blue are weird enough to stand out but I can actually see them being the names of real life hockey players. Of course, I'm opening myself up to completely missing a reference in either name, but I like to think Atlas was named by a parent that was way into geography... or maybe someone that wanted their kid to take over the world. And Benjamin Blue has strong alliteration and a neat color for a last name you don't see often (like ___ Black, ___ White, or ___ Green.) ■
[108 words]

Quote:14. Written, 2 TPE - The Procrastinator Special! (100 words min)
Welp, you waited until the last day to grind out your CW and the CC finals are longggggggg over by now. congrats to [TEAM], woo! Reflecting back on the series, who gets your vote for series MVP? Make the case why this player deserves it over any other.

Even though Kata Vilde had a rough couple of games to start the series, they got better as it went on. They were great in game 3 in a narrow loss to the Dragons, and then knocked it out of the park in critical games 4 and 5, with a .971 and .976 save percentage respectively. It's tempting, of course, to go with someone like Izzy who can lead the offense or Driftwood who had a couple of great performances later in the series, but your goalie's typically on the ice for all game, every game. When you're on the ropes and there's nothing between you and elimination, you want your goalie to be your best player, and I think that's who Vilde was. ■
[124 words]