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Schocar · 12-01-2024, 05:21 PM

Task 1: Lo-Fi (3 TPE)

Task 2: I don’t think a major offensive advantage goes to Philadelphia for having the lead point and goal scorer compared to second, simply because so much of a player’s ability to score points is reliant on their team. If there was more of a difference in the standings sure, but just between first and second? I feel the competition there comes down to the tactics on the manager's side and their fellow linemates rather than Gnabe and Tony themselves. Heck, to get more specific I think the defensive capabilities of their lines is what will decide that matchup even more than the wings and forwards. (104 words, 2 TPE)

Task 9: In my opinion it’s easy enough to just make playoffs then get kicked out in the first round by teams that spent time retooling and took a season off from being in the playoffs. I can understand a team’s reticence to do so, but ensuring that you have an actual shot at the playoffs by building a long-term connection between each of your lines, playing the long con seems to be a pretty good way to play it to me. I’m certainly biased, but seeing Calgary’s plans to build up a solid rapport in each of their lines over so many seasons ensures that when we make a run for the playoffs it’s with the strongest team overall possible rather than a stellar first line and mediocre to bad supporting lines. This is not only going to give us a serious shot at the cup for a few glorious seasons, but also is a lot of fun for the players involved as we build up that rapport between us in real life in our locker rooms. I’m sure some of my opinion on this is formed by my time in the J where everyone made it to playoffs, which was cool after the Grizzlies got robbed of a playoff spot in my first season but also meant that there was no real excitement for the first couple rounds as dud teams just got wiped aside. (235 words, 4 TPE)

wizard_literal · 12-01-2024, 06:38 PM

Code:
1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1.5 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.

trivorb

+3 TPE

Code:
9. Written, 50 to 200+ words.

During their 20 seasons in league Philadelphia has never missed the playoffs. Which is impressive but still there are other teams with longer playoffs streaks, while other teams clean the house others try to stay afloat and do a retool while still staying in playoffs, both with varying successes. Out of last 5 Challenge Cup winners both Los Angeles and San Francisco missed playoffs about 6 seasons before they won their cup while New England has been in playoffs since S67. What in your opinion is best way to achieve success in SHL? Is it better to have high but shorter peak or should teams try to aim staying close to top but likely never reaching it for longer, potentially almost indefinitely? Can they somehow do both?

I would say the key to success is consistency. You have teams that will tank to stock pile draft picks and get guaranteed value early and often in the draft, but this of course comes with seasons where you're missing the playoffs. Tanking is a tried and true method of reaching the championship, but if we're just talking about making the playoffs, you don't need a fully stacked roster to get there. Even with a first round exit you can end up picking within the top 12 of the draft, and typically that means you can get an active user that will hit that 1500 TPE range. I think this is the key to staying consistent, and in my opinion the better method of team building. Short windows of success are achieved from full rebuilds, but long term success is possible without this. Every season that you make the playoffs is a season where you have a chance to make it all the way to the cup. And Philly has continually showed this by building a stable roster through the draft. They might not always be world beaters, but they always roster a squad that has a small chance to win it all, and over time those chances at a cup eventually result in the elusive title.

217 words

+4 TPE

Noruoficeland · 12-01-2024, 07:01 PM

9. I think it’s better to have a high but shorter peak rather than tread water in the playoffs and consistently not get as high as one would like—or, rather, how deep they would like to be in this analogy. The short but higher peaks can be explained in a few ways—the first that comes to mind is the restructuring required from players either making recreates or dropping out of the league. The teams must wait for new blood to join their ranks and slowly improve until the whole team is at the Playoff level. This leads to short but higher peaks because of a whole new generation alongside the old, summoning the strength to succeed and go further than they could before. Another reason for short but higher peaks is a change in tactics used by the GMs. Some are hesitant to change tactics, while others could change frequently. Keeping an open mind about tactic changes is definitely how teams that previously couldn’t make the playoffs suddenly did, especially in combination with a newly structured team. At least, this is what I can surmise or assume from someone who has only played in the J. I’m hoping it’s at least somewhat accurate. (4 TPE)

11. The hometown of Carolina Krakens, Charlotte, North Carolina, is very far from San Francisco! It is across the whole country! According to the internet, by bus, which is how we’re required to travel for the sake of this prompt, it is about 69 hours and 39 to 47 minutes away! That’s 2.9 (rounded down) days of travel. Of course, we could not always be traveling, though. Let us say we travel for about eight hours (Dungeons and Dragons reference, anyone?). If we travel that long, it would take us about nine days (rounds up from 8.7) to reach San Francisco. Of course, this does not cover anything that might go awry! Traffic, bus malfunctions, the lateness of the players at any of the stops, or even consistently driving 8 hours. But this is still a great time for team bonding! My character, Walbilly Koala, and Swedish Chef spend a lot of time on the ice together because we are both Forwards. So, I think that would make us peas in a pod on any trip we go together! But I couldn’t have Koala neglect his defencemen either! For example, the beloved Chuck Stewart! We’d see what delicious local food we can find along the way to San Francisco! (4 TPE)

Verification word: Magibli

charlieconway · 12-01-2024, 07:09 PM

Quote:1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1.5 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.

verification: alejandro

{+3 TPE}

Quote:6. Which team to miss out from the Finals was best in your opinion? Why them?

I think the best team to miss out on the finals was the Atlanta Inferno. I admit that I am biased, but the Inferno have talent at all positions. There’s a wealth of gifted forwards with players like Billy Herrington, Jae-ik Barron, Jiggle E. Puff, the Lavoies, Violet Stoica, bongo… and a perennial all-star in Philippe Eko Eel, as well as up and coming stalwarts on the blueline like Sim Wen, Kristian Seppanen, Dan Johnston, and Paul Bondage. Even a vet like Shoyo Hinata provides much needed experience for such a young team. The Inferno were only just beaten by the Forge and outplayed them in a few games as well, including one that they lost. Play that series again five times and I think we’d need a 7th series to break the tie.

{134 words, +2 TPE}

Quote:9. Written, 50 to 200+ words.
During their 20 seasons in league Philadelphia has never missed the playoffs. Which is impressive but still there are other teams with longer playoffs streaks, while other teams clean the house others try to stay afloat and do a retool while still staying in playoffs, both with varying successes. Out of last 5 Challenge Cup winners both Los Angeles and San Francisco missed playoffs about 6 seasons before they won their cup while New England has been in playoffs since S67. What in your opinion is best way to achieve success in SHL? Is it better to have high but shorter peak or should teams try to aim staying close to top but likely never reaching it for longer, potentially almost indefinitely? Can they somehow do both?

This is an interesting question because it isn’t one asked by just SHL GMs. In pretty much any professional sports league, especially ones with parity, teams are faced with a choice on whether or not they want to go for it or retreat and regroup.

The SHl is no exception, but I think there’s a key difference: team recruitment isn’t quite the same as it is with the NHL or another NA sports league. You can get away with picking later in the first round when you know the players on a personal level and people tend to want to return to where they were established previously.

Regardless, I think answering the question on its own merit, I would much rather bottom out for seven seasons and then win the Challenge Cup in the eighth than contend for eight years but never win it all. In the end, the goal of any team is to win the championship, and it can be really demoralizing to go your entire career without winning the highest honor in the sport. I almost know this from experience: my last player, Adam Barron, only one a single Challenge Cup in his 20-season career.

But yes, I think it’s possible to do both, at least with the aforementioned intricacies of player recruitment in the SHL.

{219 words, +4 TPE}

*Soviet Sexpot* · 12-01-2024, 07:10 PM

Code:
1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1.5 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.

trivial

Code:
11. Written, 50 to 200+ words. Finals Roadtrip

Your team has scheduled a road trip to go see games 1 and 2 of the SHL finals between San Francisco and Philadelphia (or to four-star cup finals between those games if your player plays for either team). You’re in charge of officially setting up the trip. The only rule? You gotta go by bus! Where do you stop along the way? Which of your teammates are you most excited to go on a trip with? Do you end up missing game 1 and 2 because of the many stops between your team’s home city to San Francisco that you’ve planned? Does the bus end up breaking down at any point? How does the trip go? If you’re on a team playing in the finals, plan a trip to the first away games instead (by bus ofcourse, for teambuilding and fun).

Hell frieking yeah! Who doesn't love a great roadtrip and what better way to build team chemistry? Remember Slapshots? Now imagine that on a bus from Chi town to San Fran and then another trip to Philly. Midway point kind of and boy would it be an entertaining mess. Stops? We're hitting up Bucee's and stopping in Vegas for a night on our western journey because why the hell not? Going east? We would roll through Detroit to eat some Detroit style pizza, smash some Philly's before the game, and after make a detour to Baltimore to check out the sights. Broken bus? Unlikely, we're chartering a brand new one w/ ample seating, stinky toilets in the back and plenty of room in the cargo hold for luggage and rowdy teammates. Reality show anyone?

134 Words

Code:
13. Written, 50 to 200+ words. Five Nation Tournament

The only international tournaments in SHL are WJC and IIHF but in real life we have had Olympics, World Cups and now the 4 Nation tournament. What kind of tournaments besides of IIHF and WJC you’d like to see in SHL? How they would be different from the current tournaments? How often they would be played and would they be played instead of current tournaments or would both be held at the same time? Or would you think it would be instead better to restructure current tournaments?

I'd like to see a mid-season cup tournament similar to what the NBA has instituted recently. It would follow a similar format where each team plays 4 match ups against a division rival, 2 at home, 2 away and then they play in elimination style format to win the mid-season cup. They would also count towards the regular season games much like the NBA does, but only the playoff/championship sudden elimination games wouldnt. I think it would be a great way to make things more interesting early on and at mid-season to see how teams square up against each other. Granted we don't have injuries, but we do have TPE earnings and those fluctuate so it could provide various winners from what the season champs end up being. I also think that to add to the flair, none of the games should be allowed to play OT, they immediately go to a shootout pending a tie after the 3rd period.

160 Words

KalixIzalumi · 12-01-2024, 07:16 PM

1). trivia: code cinnamon-roll
(3TPE).

3). I don't see why any player couldn't win an award if they have the proper stats. In fact having a defenseman earn what I understand is to be considered an award for primarily offensive based players, it could show greater potential for achievements, and allow offensive players a bit more competition. on another hand though, if we want to keep these awards separate to player offensive and defensive categories, then perhaps more of an outline for criteria should be discussed. Having a defensemen win the Anton Rasov would definitely be something interesting for the current league season and get people talking more.
(102 words. 2TPE).

*Punk42AE* · 12-01-2024, 07:58 PM

PBE Affiliation

*thiefofcheese* · 12-01-2024, 08:10 PM

Code:
1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE max - 1.5 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.

CW TRIVIA LINK

Cheese
+3 tpe

Writing Prompts

For all written prompts you will gain 1 TPE for every 50 words written up to a 200 words / 4 TPE from single prompt.
Include at least prompt number, wordcount and TPE gained to each of your answers

Code:
Written, 50 to 200+ words each. Short Prompts

2. Gnabe Dabson leads in both goals and points while Tony Soprano is second for both. Is that enough to give offensive advantage to Philadelphia?

I am doing this after the finals but have no idea who won so going to play this like I did it beforehand. I do not really think that the first vs second really matters in a single series. Sure Gnabe has more over the course of a season but over 7 games it can just as easily swap. So I would say neither has a large advantage just from these two players. Now the rest of the team can lead to an offensive advantage but I do not know anything about wither team so can not say anything to be sure.

102 words - 2 tpe

3. Cale Salad is currently 6 points ahead of next defencemen in points for these playoffs, if they keep it up could we see defenceman winning Anton Razov?

This would be amazing. The awards tend to always skew to the forwards and, simply put, that is not how these should really go. Each position plays a very important role and no one is able to win with a big gap in any of those places. That being said, is the Razov the one for points?

57 words - 1 tpe

4. High end offensive talent is cool and all but Justin Time is ahead of BASE PACK on save%, goals against average and goals saved above average. Can Philadelphia solve them or is it Time for another Challenge Cup in San Francisco?

When a goalie gets hot the stats do not matter. If the goalie just decides that today is the day to not let anything in and brings team momentum then things really start to click on the other end of the ice too. I would argue that is a bigger momentum builder than even a crazy good shot. Give me one of those crazy stick saves and the whole place erupts and then they take that motivation all the way down the ice. I'm going to say Base Pack all the way here. For no other reason than just being awesome.

101 words - 2 tpe

***lore*** · 12-01-2024, 08:40 PM

Accidentally forgot that it was only 8 TPE and not 16, so keep some of it as insurance against the trivia I guess.

Code:
1. CW TRIVIA, 3 TPE

code word: boop

Code:
2. Gnabe Dabson leads in both goals and points while Tony Soprano is second for both. Is that enough to give offensive advantage to Philadelphia?

111 words - 2 TPE

No, because San Francisco is stacked with high scoring on every single line. The Pride's goal differential in the regular season was an insane +143, and the next closest team had +88 (with the Forge in third at +87). And trust me when I say it's not our defense core making that happen. The entire team just likes to score, and score a lot. They just happen to have a more even spread than other teams, but it's clearly been used to their advantage. Even if all else fails, ancient dust bones Justin Time will be there to take away any edge either Dabson or Soprano manage to make for themselves.

Code:
3. Cale Salad is currently 6 points ahead of next defencemen in points for these playoffs, if they keep it up could we see defenceman winning Anton Razov?

57 words - 1 TPE

Defensemen aren't allowed to have any fun or be celebrated, so absolutely not. I would love it if it did happen, no matter who the d-man, but forwards are too flashy and shiny, and goalies are much too cute. Defensemen have the most thankless job, and they really deserve more awards to even simply be eligible for.

Code:
4. High end offensive talent is cool and all but Justin Time is ahead of BASE PACK on save%, goals against average and goals saved above average. Can Philadelphia solve them or is it Time for another Challenge Cup in San Francisco?

75 words - 1 TPE

I already touched on this (oops), but Justin Time has reached the goalie stage where they are well past their prime, but then somehow channel their 18 year-old selves and turn into brick walls. Brick walls that are in great physical pain, but brick walls nonetheless. That said, I think Base Pack is pretty elite as well, so the cup battle will more likely fall to being over whose offence can solve the opposition's defense.

Code:
5. San Francisco has more goals scored per games played than Philadelphia, mostly because of their depth scoring. Which players that aren’t part of first powerplay unit do you expect to have high impact in this series? 

60 words - 1 TPE

Bah God, that's old man Viktor Hargreeves' music I hear! I didn't think I'd have any reason to talk about him at all. But in all seriousness, he still has enough of a scoring touch that I can see him feasting if Philly leaves him unchecked. At the absolute worst, he still takes and wins faceoffs like 18 year-old Viktor.

Code:
6. Which team to miss out from the Finals was best in your opinion? Why them?

159 words - 3 TPE

If I judge it solely on who gave the San Francisco Pride the biggest challenge, it would be the Calgary Dragons hands down. That entire series was a nail biter, and I still think they could have bested us with a little more luck. Besides the Dragons, I think it would easily be the Los Angeles Panthers. They are way too loaded with talent for how things ended for them this season. Derek Martin had a career season, Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz remains one of the top goalies in the league, and their first defensive paring in Elena Maximova and Willow Söderberg-Snooks are just simply terrifying together. If the Dragons hadn't had some wizardry going on this post-season, I am very confident in saying it would have been LAP who gave SFP the biggest challenge, pretty much as they always have (at least for Viktor's entire tenure), and I have no doubt they're going to bounce right back in season 81.

*gurbs* · 12-01-2024, 08:53 PM

1. CW word: word [+3]

2. [+1 50 words] Yes, Gnabe Dabson and Tony Soprano's dominance in goals and points gives Philadelphia a clear offensive advantage. With two elite scorers leading the charge, their depth and firepower can overwhelm opponents. This duo ensures consistent offensive pressure, making Philadelphia a formidable threat in every game they play.

9. [+4 200 words] Philadelphia’s streak of never missing the playoffs in 20 seasons is nothing short of remarkable. Consistency at that level, especially in the competitive environment of the SHL, is a testament to their organization, player development, and adaptability. But while Philadelphia has maintained a steady presence, the debate between striving for long-term stability versus a shorter, high-intensity push for success remains intriguing. Take Los Angeles and San Francisco, for example. Both endured significant rebuilds, missing the playoffs for six seasons before hoisting the Challenge Cup in recent years. Their patience paid off, showing that sometimes tearing it down to rebuild stronger is the most efficient route to the ultimate prize. On the other hand, New England has been a model of consistency, making the playoffs since S67, proving that staying competitive without a complete rebuild can keep a team in the championship conversation. The ideal strategy likely blends both philosophies. Teams could aim for sustained competitiveness, avoiding total collapse, while strategically timing peaks when their roster, cap situation, and draft picks align. Philadelphia’s consistency is inspiring, but without the ultimate payoff, questions will remain. Striking the right balance between rebuilding and retooling may be the real secret to long-term SHL success.

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