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S66 PT #5: Hot Take Hoedown
#16

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Take 3: We see more upsets than ever before in the FHM era. Like 8+ rounds won by lower seeded teams.

I emphatically agree with this take.  When we were introduced to FHM from STHS, there were some individuals (myself included) who had some familiarity, though some more than others, and leveraged that experience alongside various other methods including testing and spreadsheet design to fully figure out stacked metas and the absolute optimal settings to run with at any given time.  This was both, in my opinion, a great thing in terms if interest into the league but also a bad thing as certain results were all but finalized before they ever began.

With the change to FHM8, the whole new simulation engine it brings paired off with the rule change that there is to be no more testing and also only global tactics, there is a whole new level playing field that we are seeing for the first time in literal years that I can tell where all teams are having the same struggles, the same roadblocks and no individual thing is giving teams gargantuan advantages over the others.   As frustrating as it can be at times, admittedly, when you play one game and things are relatively balanced (like a 3-2 win or a 2-2 OTW/L) and then the next game you get completely obliterated by 8 goals...I believe that the sought after parity is finally here and we will definitely in terms of playoffs see more upsets and random results than in over a decade (by sim seasons, not actual years) prior here in the SHL.  It truly is an exciting time.

We've finally given the power of the results back to the players.

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#17

HOCKEY PROMPT Written Task: I will be answering Take 1: More than half of the first round will be decided by sweeps for this point task. I am pretty confident that there will be a lot of sweeps in the first round and will break down each of the series that I think will likely be sweeps. First we will start in the Western conference with Texas vs Chicago where I think it is fair to assume the Syndicate would sweep based on the forty point gap from the regular season standings. Next I could see the Los Angles Panthers sweeping the Calgary Dragons with the twenty nine point gap from the regular season standings. In the eastern conference I could easily see Atlanta sweeping Hamilton with the almost fifty points gap from the regular season standings. I could also see Buffalo sweeping Philadelphia with the twenty points gap from the regular season standings. The last sweep I could see is Manhattan over Tampa Bay.

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#18

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Take 1: More than half of the first round will be decided by sweeps.

Wow, okay, uh... Yeah, maybe. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that this does happen, but I think that there's a lot of underdog love in every FHM game generally (at least in the experience I have playing the game casually). This isn't STHS, where you can see the gears working and the general slant towards "the better team" or "the one that should win," where I think FHM absolutely makes a concerted effort to not favor the team that is objectively better too much. In real life, the lopsided matchups don't always end in sweeps. So I think we'll see one or two sweeps in the first, but I don't foresee half of the first round going in a sweep.

Code:
Take 3: We see more upsets than ever before in the FHM era. Like 8+ rounds won by lower seeded teams.

I'm responding to this as well because I think it plays exactly into what I just said in the previous take. Now, I definitely do not agree that we're going to see 8+ upsets in the first round, I think the odds are generally too in favor of better teams to want to take that prop bet, but I do think that there's a strong possibility that we see more upsets now than we have in the past. FHM8 is kind of an absolutely bizarre system that sort of just does whatever the fuck it wants sometimes, so I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that we do see a ridiculous number of upsets compared to previous postseasons, but I think calling that shot at 8 or more is just asking to get disappointed.

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WC: 263

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sigs by me bitch



#19

Take 1: More than half of the first round will be decided by sweeps.

This is the big one, isn't it? The first *real* test of the FHM8 engine in games everyone will be watching. There's always been a split in this league between people who want more variability in sim outcomes with underdogs having a legitimate chance (who for some reason seem to be on underdog teams themselves) and people who want the high TPE teams to consistently dominate (take a wild guess as to which teams those people are on). Personally, I tend to err on the side of hoping the highest TPE teams win most often, not because I like to see dominance from a single team or set of teams, but because it means that the effort being put in by site users is turning into actual winning performances on the ice. Being able to see your effort result in better games from your player and your team is super important, and there are certainly some significant TPE gaps in our first round matchups. I doubt we'll get more than half the first round decided by sweeps, and I hope we don't, because it's fun to see underdogs get some wins too, but it would also feel pretty validating to see the teams who've assembled the best rosters (in terms of site activity, not manipulation of the sim engine) have the dominant playoff runs they've "earned" over the course of their careers.

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sig credit: Ragnar, Sulovilen, Enigmatic, Bayley
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#20

Take 3:

The FHM8 era has definitely been a fun start. It's hard to tell if some teams are just aging out or if other teams are learning the new engine faster than others. Either way it's nice to see some teams in a different position than they used to be. Throughout the season there have been some blow outs of expected teams but then at times there's teams like Texas getting wins over the previous champions when they probably shouldn't be. So it will be interesting to see how things go in the playoffs. Stamina has been a huge change to FHM8 and it demands more of it. I think we'll start seeing teams with weaker stamina get dropped off very quickly. Scoring seems to have increased this season as well so if teams the goal scorers get on the ice and score early they may be able to hold up on stamina and pull off a win late game. Playoffs are a wild beast and upsets are rare but I do think we will see at least one unexpected team advance in the first round.

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#21

Player Prompt:
As a goalie, we need to be tough mentally to compose with the pressure. But for the social media part, I'm not really on Twitter, Instagram or Tik Tok. I only have a Facebok account and it's private. I tried to not look at the media too much and it's mostly my friend who told me what's happening in the media and if there is talk about me. I tried to focus on my own business and not read all the shit people can say about me. Players around the league talk enough so you already know what you really have to know. The rumors are useless because it's mostly started by fans or by someone who have no idea what he's talking about.
With the journalists, I tried to be not too corporate or too friendly, but just trying to say enough so they will like you and the team will not be mad at you.

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#22

Take 5: Manhattan has a good chance to represent the East in the Challenge Cup final.

The Manhattan Rage potentially have to get past the following competition, in order to represent the Eastern Conference in the Challenge Cup Final:
Atlanta Inferno
Buffalo Stampede
Montreal Patriotes
Manhatten Rage
Toronto North Stars
Tampa Bay Barracuda
Philadelphia Forge
Hamilton Steelhawks

The Manhattan Rage qualified from the regular season fourth in the conference with 82 points, just behind the Montreal Patriotes (83 points), Buffalo Stampede (86 points) and Atlanta Inferno (102 points).

In theory, they should at least be able to beat the strugglers in places 6-8, being the Tampa Bay Barracuda (73 points), Philadelphia Forge (66 points) and Hamilton Steelhawks (55 points). The Toronto North Stars in 5th place (78 points) are close enough to provide a good matchup to the Manhattan Rage, but for them as well as for the Montreal Patriotes and Buffalo Stampede the difference is close enough that the Manhattan Rage have at least a decent chance at making it into the finals.

The team that's going to be the hardest to beat are the Atlanta Inferno. They've topped the regular season league standings as the only team breaking 100 points. However, the Manhattan Rage have beaten the Atlanta Inferno in all of their three matchups during the regular season. And none of those games were really very close.

Based on this, the Manhattan Rage have at least a decentchance of making it into the final to represent the Eastern Conference.

 
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Falcons Monarchs Switzerland   Switzerland Monarchs Falcons
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#23

Take 2: I just don’t see Montreal making a deep run this season, because I think they have a glaring weakness that will be exposed. They have only one true goal scorer in Kris Darzins, and if he gets shut down, then Montreal will struggle to get much goals needed. Toronto had a rocky start in the first half, particularly due to poor goaltending, and a underachieving first line, but that has changed in the second half, with Toronto winning 12 of its last 16 games. The key to stopping Toronto is attempting to shut down the team’s second line, which the teams top producers are on, with Ty Murphy’s 87 points and JLC’s 80 points. Finally, Toronto is one of the best teams short handed, and finished second in the season for short handed goals with 6. This will likely go to 6 or 7 games, but Toronto will shock the league and eliminate Montreal.
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#24

PBE affiliate

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#25

Player Prompt:

Media and fans are always a topic of conversation with professional athletes. They can be toxic, hurtful, rude, dangerous, but they can also be supporting, uplifting, inspirational, etc. We've all dealt with both sides of the coin. Here in LA, we've had it pretty good lately. It's hard for the fans to be on our case too hard because we've been to 2 cup finals, including winning last season. That's the kind of good will you need to keep fans at bay. Now, they'll still let us have it if we play bad, but there is a trust with them that they know we'll get it together.

As for the media, I don't really care what they have to say. They have a job to do and most of the time it's to create a story out of anything or try to stir up some drama. That's what drives clicks and views so you can't really take any of that to heart. For me, as long as we have the fans on our side and the players in the locker room have each other's backs, the media can do and say whatever they think they need too.

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Guy Incognito - D - #24
Texas Renegades
Season 76
0-0-0
Regular Season - [G 0] [A 0] [Pts 0] [+/- 0] [PIM 0] [Hits 0] [SB 0]

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#26

Quote:Take 4: Hamilton will go further than Los Angeles. 


My take on this is a definately “no way”. Los Angeles is the reigning champion and had another impressive regular season, finishing 3rd behind Atlanta Inferno and Chicago Syndicate with a record of 45-17-4 and a goal difference of +124. They take on Calgary Dragons in the first round, who finished 14th, with a record of 31-32-3 and a goal difference of -23. With players like Luukas Lilja, Long John Donair, Rock Strongo, Jonas Kahnwald and Olof Karsikko i just can’t see the Panthers lose against the Dragons. Now, Hamilton Steelhawks finished the season on 16th place with a record of 25-36-5 and a goal difference of -44. They take on the 1st seed Atlanta Inferno in the first round of the playoffs. The odds of Hamilton winning that matchup is even lower than Calgary winning against Los Angeles. With all respect, but this take is silly. I don’t see it happening. Mathematically almost impossible.



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#27

Take 4: Hamilton will go further than Los Angeles.

I'll take a look at both sides on this one, seeing that one of these teams is my teams. Some previous seasons I could definitely see the argument here, given that Hamilton always finds a way to squeeze out more performance per TPE than other teams. People wrote them the past couple seasons, yet they still found a good amount of playoff success. So to argue in favour of this take, I'd say that you should never write a Hamilton team off in the playoffs. On the other side, LA was probably a slightly better team last season than in this one so another run at the cup is no guarantee.

That being said, LA is still one of the top teams in the league, and they're playing a Calgary team they dominated throughout the season, going 6-0 against them. Meanwhile Hamilton has a huge task ahead of them in trying to beat Atlanta, the top regular season team this year. What's more, is that Hamilton has regressed heavily from the past few seasons.

If Hamilton can complete the upset, then anything goes. Especially given that LA has some tough opponents ahead of them after round 1. With that said, I'm comfortable with saying LA makes it further than Hamilton.

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PanthersPanthersPanthersPanthers




#28

Answering for the player prompt:

After a few seasons as captain of the Seattle Argonauts, it is safe to say that Vaseline Podcalzone is very well prepared to face whatever media fire storm that awaits him. It helps that his agent has helped him understand how to navigate the confusing terrain that is the media. From giving generic responses in interviews, to having his own social media handler, it is safe to say that words won't really impact Vaseline Podcalzone on and off of the ice. Podz wasn't really that familiar with social media until he actually came to North America, actually. It was his teammates on the Newfoundland Berserkers that helped to get him acquainted with the world of social media, namely Twitter. Podz scarcely tweeted during that time, except for some retweets from the team's social media page. Even nowadays, you really won't see Podz making his own tweets, save for sponsorships or retweets.

WC: 155

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#29

PT pass because I wrote one of the takes but I'll never reveal which one!

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#30

pt pass

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06-11-2021, 05:33 PMKenitohMenara Wrote: [Image: BLUE.jpeg]
Welcome to the hall, Ben!





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