1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max
Verification word: applepie



5. Written, 3 TPE, Blood on the Ice (150 words min)
Written after the fact, this is such a loaded question, and I'll allude back to this later on in champs week. Winnipeg should have won the championship but fell to the Wolfpack, for a number of reasons that I can't seem to find anywhere. I'll start with the offense I guess; despite their entire first line being in regression, Sulfurgold and Jager bring a nice offensive potency alongside Svoboda, who enters regression this coming season. Goaltending is likely their strongest suit, with the newly-acquired Karsikko between the pipes and maxing out at nearly 1k tpe. The real question here lies with the defense, where outside of Svechnikov and Noodle, there's nothing extremely exciting to write home about. They DO have some depth on the offense and a little bit on the 2nd defensive pairing, but when placed alongside many of the counterparts they had to defeat to make it to the finals, they just don't stand up. I've really got nothing here.




6. Written, 2 TPE, Hopeful Haiku (5 words min.)
Scoring all the goals,
Sconnie passing me the puck,
Lighting up the net




7. Milestones, up to 3 TPE
Milestones



14. Written, 3 TPE, IIHF Analysis (150 words min.)
Heading into this season's IIHF is pretty similar to every other year, there seems to be a dark horse that emerges out of the preliminary round. Ireland is slowly but surely growing into a beast, and I think this season we'll really be poised to open some eyes. Our strongest class of players has come out of the Season 68 draft, so there's a lot more earning to be done before fully reaching our potential. As far as other countries, you're really looking at the usual suspect when it comes to podium contenders. Canada has always, and will always ice a strong team. Japan is another one to keep your eyes on, as they always have good depth. An interesting one to watch will be USA, as they have struggled the past few seasons in the Round Robin. They have a strong team but just can't seem to pull it together early in the tournament for good seeding.




17. Written, 2 TPE - The Procrastinator Special! (100 words min.)
To be completely honest, I think that New England winning the Challenge Cup is nonsense. If you take a look at the standings and the teams that had to go through to get there, it's a little more than a miracle that they even got that far. They do have a modestly-nice team on the ice, but nothing compared to teams like Montreal, Winnipeg, Philadelphia... those are all teams that have an entire roster fullof 1k tpe players. No disrespect to the Wolfpack, but you cannot convince me that there wasn't some sort of sim magic at play that somehow handed them the championship.