EHM The Blue Line

Big news! Not only are we announcing that Challenge 18 (Baie-Comeau Drakkar of the QMJHL) officially starts today, but also we have today installed the new Challenge Stats Upload Tool!

The Upload Tool is going to make posting your Challenge Stats much quicker and much easier! No longer do you need to use the Challenge Stats Spreadsheet or post your stats in a thread in the Challenge Centre. Instead, just click on the "Upload Your Challenge Stats" link located under the EHM Challenges and User Control menus from the nav bar. This will bring you to the Upload Tool where you can enter your stats directly into the site. Just enter your team totals stats as of each quarter into the Upload Tool (you don't need to calculate the stats you have accrued for each quarter) and it will calculate and check your quarterly stats for you!

There are more details regarding the Upload Tool here. I strongly recommend all users read it so that everybody fully understands how to use the Tool and how the Challenges will now work.

To help make things easier, we have made some changes to the Announcements Box at the top of the Challenge Centre. It now details exactly when the Challenge finishes (make sure you are logged in and your time zone has been set correctly) and how many days, hours and minutes are remaining. It also tells you how many games constitute each quarter. Note that for this Challenge you should post your stats at the following intervals: 17, 34, 51, and 70 games.

Another change to note is that we now have a Screenshots Recording Thread where you must post your end of season screenshots (and any other screenshots required by the rules). We cannot approve your stats for quarter 4 until you post your screenshots.

So let the Challenge begin! Good luck and enjoy!

One more thing - we have set the deadline for this Challenge as 1 November. However, we're just going to keep running this one until the arrival of Lidas' 2010/11 rosters. Once his rosters have been released, we'll close the Challenge roughly 7-10 days afterwards. We know that everybody will be eager to start new games (and a new Challenge) using his 2010/11 rosters - as are we!!

If this means that we have to close the Challenge before 1 November then obviously we'll be flexible with regards to users wanting to finish their current seasons and posting their stats.

Oooo. This team is bad!

Bad doesn't quite do them justice. Abysmal might be a bit more fitting.

Not only that, there is NO STAFF! Oh wait sorry, one scout and one trainer.

Oh and no one wants to coach them either

Loosie wrote:Oh and no one wants to coach them either

As always, wait a day and let the players retire. When doing a staff search, set position as any, then you can find better (and willing) coaches. I got Keith Carney as my head coach, mostly green attributes

I did notice in testing that it was still difficult to get people to want to sign on as your staff, even if you waited for retirings. This team is so bad that I think it scares people off.

Things are looking a bit busy today. I don't think I'll have time to start my team up until tomorrow. I'm hoping the rest of the week isn't so bad. I'd really like to dive into this challenge.

I went through pre-season 1-and-5. This sure will be a long season. Olsson, Renaud and the goalies Dunnett and Alain-Rajotte looks good, though

If anyone wants to further punish themselves... you could try only hiring staff with French names. When I was testing I actually looked to see if the filter for "QMJHL based" worked for staff but it appears to only work for players. It's a shame. That would have really made things interesting!

bruins72 wrote:If anyone wants to further punish themselves... you could try only hiring staff with French names. When I was testing I actually looked to see if the filter for "QMJHL based" worked for staff but it appears to only work for players. It's a shame. That would have really made things interesting!

HAHAHA! I love it... Hmmm, how to make this challenge as miserable as possible???

Oh Man! I've never seen so many players with 1's at attributes!

bruins72 wrote:If anyone wants to further punish themselves... you could try only hiring staff with French names. When I was testing I actually looked to see if the filter for "QMJHL based" worked for staff but it appears to only work for players. It's a shame. That would have really made things interesting!

Sort them by language. French speaking only

Manimal wrote:

bruins72 wrote:If anyone wants to further punish themselves... you could try only hiring staff with French names. When I was testing I actually looked to see if the filter for "QMJHL based" worked for staff but it appears to only work for players. It's a shame. That would have really made things interesting!

Sort them by language. French speaking only

Aren't most players and staff in Canada set up as French-speaking?

OK, so i will try this as my first challenge and learn from here.

Dont wana spoil it form the start so is this all right:

I read the rules so i can sign all staff i want but not replace my head coach until in six month.

I have to upload first stats after 17 games, right?

I can do any player moves , thats how i understood it, but can i recall those guys that are on loan , they look good...

So just play until 17 games now right?

This will be interesting. We went 3-2 in Pre-Season.

QMJHL Rankings have me 18th (which will probably for everyone), and NO ONE was in the top 10 positions/prospects at all. What have we gotten our selves into.

bruins72 wrote:

Manimal wrote:

bruins72 wrote:If anyone wants to further punish themselves... you could try only hiring staff with French names. When I was testing I actually looked to see if the filter for "QMJHL based" worked for staff but it appears to only work for players. It's a shame. That would have really made things interesting!

Sort them by language. French speaking only

Aren't most players and staff in Canada set up as French-speaking?

I don't know. I have never bothered with checking languages

What the Dickens? I'm five-and-O at the start of the season. Goalies has been great!

OMG - this is going to be a total crapshoot. I can't get a head coach to sign - c'est terrible!

Ranked 17 heading into the season.

Lost first game 8-0. Excellent!

Beukeboom wrote:OK, so i will try this as my first challenge and learn from here.

Dont wana spoil it form the start so is this all right:

I read the rules so i can sign all staff i want but not replace my head coach until in six month.

I have to upload first stats after 17 games, right?

I can do any player moves , thats how i understood it, but can i recall those guys that are on loan , they look good...

So just play until 17 games now right?

You're basically right. Just be sure to read the challenge rules (in the top left corner of Challenge Center). If you have any questions, ask them in Challenge Questions & Feedback Thread.
In the first season you cannot trade any player. But you can send them on loan or move between your first and farm team.
Good luck

The new stats recording tool looks awesome, great work!

Going to check out this supposedly terrible team as soon as I finish my current task at work, should be interesting.

I've been toying around with the original DB Red Wings lately as I'm prone to do when I'm not playing a challenge, trying out new tactics with the same lineup. Still haven't been able to work out a pattern of what works and what doesn't though, I really should start writing down what I try and what the results are. I get the feeling I'm repeating the same mistakes over and over again. I remember being able to get great production from my defensemen but I have no idea how I did it, now I can barely get Lidström to .5 PPG.

Anyway that's way off-topic, on with the challenge!

Beukeboom wrote:OK, so i will try this as my first challenge and learn from here.

Dont wana spoil it form the start so is this all right:

I read the rules so i can sign all staff i want but not replace my head coach until in six month.

I have to upload first stats after 17 games, right?

I can do any player moves , thats how i understood it, but can i recall those guys that are on loan , they look good...

So just play until 17 games now right?

These questions really belong in THIS THREAD but I'll answer them here for now. Any follow up questions about challenge rules should really go to that thread I linked. The thread we're in now is for discussion of our challenge teams and our experiences with them.

So the head coach rule... that's usually something that applies to the NHL. In the case of the junior hockey teams, they seem to have a lot of GM/Head Coach combos. So when you take over as GM, it also moves out the Head Coach. So if your team starts without a head coach, you're allowed to hire one to start the game. After training camp, you've got to follow the "hiring from within" rule about head coaches (must be employed by your team in another role for 6 months before being hired as head coach).

Stats are uploaded at 17, 34, 51, and end of season/playoffs. I believe it tells you this on the challenge info box at the top of the challenge center, as Archi mentioned in his announcement.

What do you mean by player moves? You can't make any trades in the first season and after that you're limited to what is laid out in the trading rules. You're also not allowed to make any UFA signings. You're free to sign players you already own the rights to and you're allowed to recall loaned players. Just remember, you're not allowed to sign any of your unsigned prospects once the season starts.

Oh that first quarter was not pretty, this is going to be a long long season. After the first 17 games we are 2-13-2 and have scored only 30 goals. Hopefully the first QMJHL draft is better than the first OHL draft.

This team is really interesting

My lines after pre-season games are as follows:
Olsson - Caron - Darveau
Bussieres - Villeneuve - Cliche
Duhamel - Richer - Mimar
Bernier - Fiset - Langelier-Parent

Lamarche(c) - Renaud
Laperierre - Parisien
Chenevert - Letourneau (these french names are killing me )

So far, Dunnett is doing surprisingly well in the net. Keeping fingers crossed...

But I had problem signing good staff. I have to be satisfied with Charlie Sullivan (head coach), Alex Briere and Claude Lemieux (because of his french name ).
And just one scout