1. Trivia
Verification word: Woo

3. Written, 3 TPE, Haven’t I Seen This Before? (150 words min.)
Despite being the 8th and 10th ranked regular season teams in the league, our finalists from Winnipeg and New England represent two of the most dominant teams over the past several seasons. What do you think is the secret to their success? What can other teams learn from them? Which one is more likely to be back again next year?

There is a clear reason why these two teams have been successful, and that is because I have had a player there. My players don't play for teams who are not championship contenders. Why would I do that? Johnny FourStar is a big winner and that is why Winnipeg is in the cup final. There may be other secrets to the teams success. Maybe there is something a little extra in the water here in Winnipeg. Maybe we just have some stellar management. It could be just luck! But I think that the single most important reason why the Winnipeg aurora are in the Sim hockey league challenge cup finals is because they took a chance on the best young forward in the league, the one the only Johnny FourStar. If the Winnipeg bears keep doing this one super easy super simple trick (keep Johnny FourStar on their roster and gainfully employed) I think I know who I'm going to bet on being here next season, and that's in the cup finals.

(172)

4. Written, 3 TPE, The Char B1 bis In The Room (150 words min.)
This league was until quite recently dominated by a cabal of four teams. Two of them, Winnipeg and New England, are our finalists. A third, Philadelphia, was a finalist last year. The fourth... was Montreal. Does the success of Winnipeg and New England prove that Montreal pulled the plug too soon and should’ve kept the gang around? Or did at least one of the others just get lucky and Montreal made the better decision, without hindsight? What team-building lessons can we learn from this?

Obviously Winnipeg and New England made the right call by keeping the band together this long. Everyone else are a bunch of big dum dums and gave away perfectly good hockey players at the exact wrong time! How could they! What were they thinking! Retirement is for bozos! Keep players until they turn to dust. On this point, why do people retire their players? What else could they be doing if they aren't playing simulated hockey? Are they into hobbies. Opening up new papa john's pizza franchises in West Virginia? Are they just tired of staying in shape? I am going to play hockey until the day I virtually die. You can't get me out of this league. And as long as I'm in this league I'm going to keep the gang together. I will tell my gm to never trade or drop anyone. Or else I am going to leave too! Just you watch, I will do it!

(159)