I don't really have a specific point I want to make with this thread, just thought this would be interesting to share... So for those of you who don't know, the VHL is basically the other big hockey sim league out there, they are actually even older than the SHL but not quite as big. Back when the Passing-exploit was discovered and we decided to switch to FHM, the VHL of course took notice as well yet they decided to stick with STHS. It was an interesting crossroads I think where the two leagues decided on very different paths, with the VHL trying to fix things within STHS while we switched engines which fixed some problems but also created new ones.

Now I haven't followed the VHL that closely even though I have a semi-active player over there now, but it actually seemed to work decently well for them. The 40-Passing meta didn't spread as quickly as one might have expected and they were able to keep STHS viable when we had already given up on it. However, in recent seasons this matter has finally crept up on them as well, with one team winning Cup after Cup going all-in for the meta, essentially starting the same arms race that we are seeing here where the rest of the league sooner or later has to embrace a certain meta as well, if they want to remain competitive.

So the VHL finally felt forced to take action as well and this week they presented their solution for trying to fix the meta problem, while sticking with STHS. You can read what they decided to do here: https://vhlforum.com/topic/117081-hybrid...-the-meta/

I think it's a very interesting (and quite long read) and I don't really have a strong opinion on whether it's the right call or not, I just thought it might be worthwhile to share it over here so that we can get some perspective on how other leagues are trying to deal with their meta problems. Maybe we can draw some lessons from it as well, maybe we can't, but I suggest taking a look at what they came up with because at the very least, it's quite creative.