Brutus

Problem is the faceoff before, you lost it to Raph who went it to score a goal. So, in the end of that small size, you were 50%.

For centers, you don't get heavier or better stick handling than Mario, especially combined, so I say this 100%... The center does NOT affect the faceoff results. I've been using him for a long time, and he has no better results than anyone else.

Philly in 7 it is. Great call Habs. Great series Ice. Started out with Flyers winning the first 3 games, all tight. After a desynch at the end of Game 3, and a minor break, the TIDE turned. Ice definitely outplayed me in Game 4 & 5. Ice clearly had a gut check and said, "No sweep, F-Brutus, I'm coming back." I felt that mid-way through Game 5, and game 6, despite losing them, I had made the adjustment to a few of Ice's tactical adjustments, and was in a good position to win Game 7, despite having lost 3 in a row. I figured odds were in my favor for some good bounces after missing most of them in Game 6. It's NHL94 and there are breaks in the puck bounces, and I felt I was due some of them come Game 7, and felt we were playing even, so I had myself as favored for that game in my mind. Game 1 & Game 6 were the two best games of this series. It was ZERO to ZERO heading into the 3rd period of Game 1. Game 6 featured a 3-1 lead by Ice late that ALMOST disappeared if not for some great saves by Ice, but the entire game was just one of those intense battles. Which of course lead to everyone's favorite playoff thing, a Game 7, and it was intense. Ice takes the early lead, 1-0, and after coming back from down 3-0 in the series, HE HAS to be feeling so confident in that moment. I tell myself, "You are playing really good hockey. There is no need to panic. You will get your chances. He's not winning 4 straight. I'm winning this game." 2nd period ends 4-3, with Ice up and me having to have staved off the game's first power play. 3rd period starts with another penalty for Philly, but instead of folding under the pressure, down a goal, lost 3 straight, MARIO MARIO MARIO delivers the shorthanded goal to tie it up. 30 seconds later, Mario adds an even strength goal to give Philly their first lead since 1st period of Game 6, long stretch. Another penalty late for Philly by Kjell turns this ending into a nail biter. After stopping Ice's power play rush, Probert grabs a rare goal. Down 2 goals with less than a minute left, Ice doesn't fold. He pumps the adrenaline button, scores with Makarov and puts one final rush on the net only to be denied by Mr. Roy. Turns out I was right, as I felt I got the puck bounces in Game 7 to end up with the win. I felt if we played all night, we'd end up somewhere near 10 games a piece. GGS Ice.

If you don't even hit a button, you can win some faceoffs. The player being used in the faceoff doesn't appear to impact who wins the drop at all either. So, I don't find mashing helps, but I do it any way out of habit. Also, USED to think it's kind of like rock, paper, scissors in that if I'm pulling back, and you are pushing left, let's say that wins, but if I'm pulling right, and you are pulling back, you win, etc. THERE seemed to be some logic to it, but now I think it's this: COMPLETELY RANDOM whether you hit no buttons, all the buttons, a select button, a direction, etc. I traditionally fair better than most for whatever reason. Did a 7 game series last night in the playoffs for Et Tu Brute vs Ice. In Game 6, he had a 77% faceoff success rate (10 of 13!), and I had Mario at center. After 7 games, I was 51%, and he was 49%. Seems random with a large enough sample size. On a smaller size, you can start to see these, imo.

Also, plabax and Coffey are masterful together do it is no surprise he won a title with them despite the hot/cold advantages. Giving plabax both Cofffey & Yzerman plus a Z smart winger like Fedorov & it is lights out. i know that's why he graced us with his troll presence on the Detroit comments, so I figured I'd get that glory accolades over so we would have to hear about it more.

The sum of the parts do not always equal the whole. To me, how a team's offense interacts with its defense can effect the team's ability to adjust their strategy, so while Detroit can usually outscore an opponent, they struggle to win on defense. I'd have to go back and look at it, but I would wager that 3 things go into Detroit's lack of titles. #1 The best coach playing at the time each classic season runs rarely seems interested in having the best team/greatest advantage. Most don't want to be disadvantaged, but doesn't seem like the best guy has wanted/gotten Detroit. I.e., I'd say Raph is best player playing right now & he's not taking Detroit even if offered more times than not. A strong coach has used & lost with Detriot, but I don't recall the best losing. Certainly not recently. #2 the home/away advantages are set to a disadvantage for Detroit & in a short series, if the wrong players are cold, Detroit could easily be the less skilled team for at least half of the games in a 7 game series. Add in issue #1, and it's a loss for Detroit. #3 Both Dino & Fedorov to me are average players if cold. They lose their toddle ability from puck control and now skate too slow to do much. Dino loses blue line range on his Slapper. Most guys when you play with Detroit acknowledge that like Buffalo, the team chemistry is weak, especially between offense & defense. They rarely seem to flow together. So, you will score a TON of goals during the season, but come playoff time, it's very hard to adjust when the inevitable cold team hits the ice. i think of you turned off hot/cold, you would see Detroit extremely tough to beat. Good goalie, strong defensive players & 3 elite forwards with one top 3 & the other top 10!

If someone can make the unlimited overtime, go ahead, and then post it here. I don't have access to editor tonight or tomorrow. ALSO, in the MEANTIME, if you get to over time, SAVESTATE at end of regulation. In the event you get all the way to a tie, DO NOT DO NOT save. Restart a new game, and consider it sudden over time. Whomever scores first, wins. Then have the winner go back to the SAVESTATE from end of regulation, load it, and score 1 goal to win in OT. Save this state and you will have at least the 3 regular periods and the same winner to load for stat purposes. Obviously, if someone WINS in OT, then just save there and crisis averted

As the ONE play in series is complete, there are currently 8 teams in A playoffs, and 8 teams in B playoffs. The site is live, and a playoff series can be loaded. IF someone wants to make a playoff ROM, please post it in the PLAYOFF ROM thread I'll create. IF IF IF you think it will take more than 1 week to schedule your series with your opponent, please REACH OUT TO ME and let me know why. I would like to have all first wave of series done by next Sunday night latest. Failure to respond can result in forfeits.

Playoffs are setup. Here is the break down: In A, we had 9 coaches make the playoffs. So, #8 Seed & #9 Seed (Tex & JJ) had a play in series to see who faced off with the #1 Seed (Raph). After applying forfeits, there was a 3 way tie between FPB, Ice & Brutus, and after applying 2 forfeits to Zep because of not being able to play CBK, Zep moved up from the 7th seed to the 6th seed. Given I beat Ice head to head, FBP beat me and Ice beat FPB, there was no ESTABLISHED set of rules for picking top seed. I went with the simplest, GF/per game, which put FPB #3, Ice #4, & Brutus #5. Over in B, it was WAY simpler. CBK has been a non-participant for most of the season, and lagged way too far behind on his games to allow him into the playoffs. He won't be invited back. Nice guy, plays solid, and responds to my texts, but doesn't schedule games enough or get them in or whatever. Not going to try to make it personal, because it's not. He's just off the list. That left 8 coaches, and added or not adding forfeits did not change the rankings much, so 1 through 8 was fairly locked. No need for a play in series.

The HOME team clearly has an advantage in ETB. It's not monstrous but it's there. Now, button response delays are MUCH more important to who wins/loses, so I actually think the Away team in some instances ends up with the bigger advantage. I do NOT edit the ROMS, and find as long as we all play with the same ROM, I'm generally not going to complain much. BUT, I do prefer NO home/away advantages when playing NHL94. Generally, I tend to EXI a lot more with a ROM than I end up playing regular season/playoffs, so in GENS, hosting/switching who hosts, etc, is a pain in the arse. I prefer to just line up & play 10 straight without being at an advantage/disadvantage based on who is hosting (being HOME). But, I understand for straight league competition and playoff format, wanting some HOME advantages. Either way, we should probably make sure we know what the end result of our settings is when we are setting up a league ROM.

However, imo, guys play WBF draft leagues, and play Classic, where the ROM is NOT WBF. So, re-ranking the WBF of TEAM's, instead of players, does hold a lot of value to most guys I see asking for exi's or that play with me.

For Chicago, I've not played w/ them WBF, only their players in a WBF league with a draft in place. However, Eddy & Steve Smith are a real, real strong start to a defense. The second option is a middle weight, 6 defensive awareness Chelios. That's still one of the top defenses when you include goalie. I think Chicago's non-JR forwards are still not at par even in WBF, as the weight isn't high enough to put them above the standard with their average speed and even less exciting shooting skills. BUT, JR can still dance, and shoots with a 5/5. With a STRONG home/away setting, if the advantages are no set to zero, I'd consider Chicago a top team in WBF. No longer the top team though for sure.

So, tradition is 2 month long seasons for leagues 20-24 coaches in size. It's the obvious reason for this setup by me. i was unable to get enough people to 56 games to finish the league ahead of schedule, so I did not shorten the season. For my part, as a participant, I've finished my team minus Zep. I've finished half another team's games minus 2 X Ice. But as a commish, it's hard to scream at people who are still within standard setup guidelines laid out at the season's beginning. So, I can easily agree that a one month or month & half schedule is better. But changing rules mid stream is never a good idea. We know next time. Coach & Plabs are the few openly campaigning for short seasons before the seasons start, so the other banter sounds foolish to me given it wasn't there when I was creating the setup. I have signed up & played in both your guy's leagues in the past so I'm not opposed to your ideas. I did not think with Spring Break & Easter that we would be sitting so close to completion at 3-4 weeks in. If I had, I'd have made it 5 week season. Hindsight 20/20. I do believe the 4 X your own conference & 2 X the opposite has been a very successful formula, so that's a plus going forward. An easy way to mix A & B together without too much brain damage. i also thought Skip's VHL was dead since it took like 3 months to finish the playoffs, but given he just started that up again, I did not want to run the shorten B version of this league (~10 coaches NOONE month scale) like I originally discussed. i also am not doing DNP's, but just not re-inviting the guys who don't play. Maybe next season we might have 9 in A & 8 in B. I will likely put more emphasis on league quality over even schedule/stats. both chef & cbk were needed to get us to 20, which is a small number & we had 2 drops!! Most of us don't want to play in a 6 man league or we would already be doing it, over & over & over by now. so, I'll discuss with all the active coaches for next season we run & see who is welcome back.

Tuesday night is TONIGHT you MOFO's. Darko, Chef & CBK all need games, so maybe you guys could knock out your 4 x 4 x 4, and that would put you all up 8 games each and back inline (somewhat).

Hey guys. Sorry my schedule didn't work for most of you. I was the low man on the totem pole for games played, which is weird for me, because I normally finish my games plus help out with another team. I was around almost every night but Sunday night for those who could stay up past their Grandma's bedtime, but no dice Seriously, going forward, I'm dropping out of SNES. I prefer Gens anyhow, but my gaming schedule does not match with hardly anyone on the SNES format, so it just doesn't make sense for me to join these leagues and be able to complete half my games. Best of luck to you guys in the playoffs! Fedorov on the free agent market next season.

FYI, Skip's ROM is a Blitz based rom. Blitz enables 6 buttons for Y button goalie control. If you don't have 6 buttons enabled (even if you only have a 3 button joystick), it will desynch.

Coach Mac will take over for Winnipeg. Winnipeg is NOT playoff eligible. Hopefully, he can get them up to speed and enjoy the extra games for the pure GA of it. SIMILAR to Lupz's situation, it is a personal, REAL life issue dragging down Atomic's availability and can only offer our hopes & prayers going forward for his family and himself. As I told Mr AtomicRaven, he is welcome to rejoin any league that I'm involved in in a future date.

It's working fine for me.

FOR rest of season, NY Rangers VS A, under control of Brutus. VS B, under control of Tex. In order to make this easier, B teams that the Rangers play vs Tex need to upload their games. If this becomes an issue, Tex can send me the games, and I'll upload them. Cherio.

In the mean time, I will fill in & play his games for him. His team will not be playoff eligible, regardless of my record.

Lupz texted me last night that he is dealing with a family situation & it will prevent him from finishing his season. He had previously been extremely sick so what would normally be one of the early finishers has turned into our first casualty. Lupz went into further details in his text & he will be fine. Don't want to sound alarms & worry anyone about our buddy, but it's not my place to speak for him/share his private details. He will be welcome back I future seasons.

I actually get annoyed with this stuff. I realize some guys get out ahead of other guys in their games played. Season set for 56 games and 8 weeks. We are 16 days into the season, and we are at 49% of games completed. Basically 6 weeks left, and I'd say we are well ahead of pace. If we get to mid April, and it's the same guys still behind, I get something like this. If you are PM'ing a guy, messaging specifically that player on Discord (AIM in the past), and also calling them out on the forum, and they are NOT responding to you with any response, then please forward this information over to me. I will get them to reply or replace them. AGAIN, just showing up when we are available, asking for games, and announcing it dead isn't accurate. For those trying to finish their season EARLY, the following guys are going to be hard to play right now: J&J was sick and then on vacation. Scheduled to return March 19th. Lupz is dying and might not ever recover! (He's been laid up in bed for 2-3 weeks now. All jokes aside, get better bro.) Ice has been traveling for work and backed up. The few nights he was clear for lots of games, noone was around. Atomic is dealing with a computer issue that is causing his league games to be lagged beyond. Pearate is dealing with something similar and might be part of his lower participation rate. Darko is in France and is a f&cker. PM him when you know you will be around on a weekend, and he's normally good to find games> CBK does not OFTEN log into the AIM/DISCORD setup. I find sending him a PM in the past was the best way to get games with him. CHEF is generally up really early in the AM and as such, goes to bed really early. Guys looking for games with him who DO NOT find themselves on closer to 6 pm to 7 pm eastern should consider trying to set up via PM or Discord a private conversation when you could schedule a game.

Not saying Slack isn't better, but Discord is WAY better than AIM, and we already had guys converting over to Discord in a previous attempt, and it certainly seems to do everything this site would need of it. Plus, AIM was ending end of the month for some guys as an option, so we needed to get something done. This will do for now. We can always figure out if there is a better option at a later date once we have everyone OFF of AIM. Maybe revisit the debate mid to end of summer. For now, it's Discord.

Guys, AIM is f-d up, and is going to change how it works end of the month. Several members are having issues with it and several more will not be able to use it END OF MONTH. So, we are switching to discord for Et Tu Brute. It's REALLY easy. Download from here: https://discordapp.com/features Invite for NHL 94 general Discord chat: There is a sub-channel for Et Tu Brute in it. https://discord.gg/wWdZez7

This forum is not so easy for me to navigate these days. I spent about 20 minutes trying to find the ROM for Genesis NHL '95 last night. Anyone able to upload it here, or the link to it?