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.
past

3. Written, 3 TPE, Those That Came Before (150 words min.)
When did your franchise last win a Challenge Cup? Write about that team, some of the key players, and what intangibles they had going for them to be able to win it all. If your franchise hasn’t yet won a cup, choose any cup winning team and talk about why you’d like your current team to emulate them. Did they have an all time great roster? Were they scrappy under dogs?

The Chicago Syndicate last won the cup in S57. It was a pretty special team with a lot of key players in terms of the majority of the players had been on the team for a while together and gone through the struggle of being in the great lakes and losing to Buffalo 500 times in a row. It also made the path to the cup much more special since there was probably no better teams to beat on the way to the franchises first cup other than New Orleans into Manhattan into Buffalo into Hamilton. Westbroek, Selman and D Smeb were the main stars up front offensively with P Smeb and Corey Kennedy on the back end and Ren and Dayudie as a great 2nd pair. It was probably the 2nd line however of Soderberg, Shepard and Connolly that stepped up the most in the playoffs especially in the Hamilton series that was the main reason for the success of the team along with Soonikas great goaltending. Oh and Jules Watt and Kit Smeb provided intangibles along with at the time rookie shutdown center Jurt and a young future offensive superstar Minamino.

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. Los Angeles has been riding their top players for almost a full minute more of ice time than Hamilton has theirs. If you were a coach, do you buy into this strategy? Do you let your top guys leave it all out there every night or aim for the most balanced attack possible?
I think its a very viable strategy to ride your top guys as much as possible especially if you're depth is much weaker than your opponent but you're top guys are better than the opponents top guys. The problem comes if the opponent is running a balanced attack and all their balanced lines are equal to your top guys, then that could lead to some major trouble.

b. Guy O'Shea and Evangelos Giannopoulos have been absolute block machines for Hamilton in the playoffs with 109 between them. If you’re looking for offense in this series, how do you get around these two defensemen?
You could just keep shooting pucks at them mindlessly and hope they get injured. Or just make plays and passes around them or fake shots. Or if theyre the best defensive d on Hamilton you just don't match your top offensive guys against them. Or get a 1 goal lead somehow and protect it the whole game what could go wrong.

c. Los Angeles’ defense, on the other hand, has not been afraid to join the play and put up points. How do you prepare for a five player offensive attack? How do you counter?
Well FHM pbps do seem to have some questionable breakaway moments, so if the Los Angeles defense is going up into the offensive attack and not being covered by their forwards, perhaps more breakaway opportunities will arise for their opponents. Or you could prepare a quick transition/counter attack to take advantage of the offensive nature of their D

d. The starting goalies for these teams, Olof Karsikko and A Jobin have been nearly unbeatable up to this point with a 0.937 and a 0.927 SV% respectively. If you’re a player on the other team, how would you get inside their heads so that you can put the puck in the net?
You could try shooting pucks at their head, that could get into their head. Or maybe some chirping, or just running into the goalie, or maybe if its like the NHL the goalies own teams defenseman will push an opponent into their goalie and then a whole brawl will start even though its the guys fault for pushing someone into his own goalie.



14. Written, 3 TPE, Blew it up (150 words min.)
In your opinion, which team is has performed a successful rebuild and built a legacy around starting from the bottom? What constitutes a successful rebuild? Cups? Playoff appearances? Is this team still poised to do great things in the future?

I think the easy answer and example to this question is the Texas Renegades. In the very first season of FHM Texas only had 9 wins for 2nd last in the league, and now here we are exactly 10 seasons later with people complaining about the same teams winning or being in the final 4 with Texas being included amongst those teams. Texas is the prime example of how of a rebuild can be done easily and carried into consistent success and maintained. From a brief look at Texas roster despite regression being much harsher, they should still be capable of doing great things in the future with some solid s58-s60 players as well as other prospects still developing. However they did recently have their GM step down and a new one appointed so I guess we'll wait to see if that changes things at all in terms of the teams management and coaching success.


Code:
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....pid3185135