Official NHL 11 CAG Team - CheapyD All Stars - Hockey Nights Tue @ 10e / Fri @ 8e

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[quote name='Matt Young']I've tried holding onto it looking for another pass and either got criticized, lost the puck and gave up a goal, or both. There's no right answer, it seems.[/QUOTE]

The right answer is to make plays and eventually get better than someone who has been playing the game for a week or two. My honest opinion is that you're not. Aside from really packed in faceoffs where you're getting charged immediately (and those cases I hate...and will try winning faceoffs to both sides, winning it forward, etc. just to throw them off...ie. "not doing the same thing every time"), if you can't figure out how to move with the puck to not get it taken away at least until a pass opens up, you're doing something wrong.

Not being a dick, but being seriously honest, Matt, I feel like we have several forwards on this team that when they drop back to defenseman, they do a better job than you. They have better "chemistry" with Gary. It doesn't make sense that you struggle so much at the only position you play. This is the entire reason we give you more advice/criticism than most anybody else. For the time you've put into the game, you should be a better player than you are. Part of it is skill, but part of it is just knowing what you should be doing in a given situation.

[quote name='Matt Young']Also, Nate was on NHL but had not started a game. he said he'd be available starting at 10, but not only at 10, and I thought 40 minutes would have been enough time for a baseball game before midnight. In fact, I know it would have been enough time for a 9 inning online game. But that's beside the point now, I guess.[/QUOTE]

On a personal level, it's statements like this, and the previously mentioned "What am I supposed to do when I press left and my controller goes right?" that make me not take you seriously anymore. Yes, I used to get along with you just fine. But between the excuses and the throwing people under the bus at the first chance you get (blaming Destro when he was the only one to volunteer to switch positions in the playoffs, your quickness to jump to "well, so and so has said things about you too" statements, etc), I just don't really respect you anymore.

Like I said, from the beginning, criticising your play was supposed to help. Nobody wanted to leave you behind, because we were your friends. But when you fight us every step of the way and just get defensive, it stops being worth the effort. I can't speak for everybody, but that's how I feel about it. It's not like I want you off the team or out of the MLB league or anything crazy and childish like that. I just don't care what you do anymore.
 
Saying, "Not being a dick" doesn't mean you're not still being a dick. I know we've both used hyperbole, but saying I'm no better than someone playing for a week or two is quite harsh. I can't speak for anyone else either, but your attitude regarding the whole situation is just as bad. I can understand people not liking the way I act, but you're quite hypocritical about these things. My honest opinion: You simply cannot accept criticism a lot of the time. You don't even "make excuses" since that what you claim I do all the time (not saying I haven't before, but again, you exaggerate).

I try to listen to you guys. I already covered that before your hissy fit over our MLB game-related message exchange and said I made the mistake of always attempting to follow every bit of advice literally rather than taking it into account and going with my gut while trying to absorb the good advice. I went too far in one direction. I fucked up. That's that. Clear enough?

I blamed Destro for being a bad defenseman in that game, yes. I have offered to switch positions in general, by the way, although not specifically for that game seeing as how the only reason we had Destro in at D was because no one else who was set to play in that game ever really played defenseman (Sean was unavailable or whatever) so I stayed at that spot. I also said the whole team sucked- myself included. You included, too. I've talked to Destro about that and as far as he has told me, he understands why I was frustrated even though he did not agree with several things I said and didn't think the way I handled it was appropriate. That's my point- a discussion between two people with differing opinions led to a peaceful resolution that didn't escalate into... whatever you want to call this whole ordeal.

Forwards on the team who drop back on D have better chemistry with Gary: of course you do! You guys play with Gary a lot more than I do, so you should all know each other's tendencies quite well.

The fact of the matter with my "excuses" is this, and whether you believe it or not, this is reality: The comment you specified about me pressing the stick in one direction, that was what happened. In frustration, I commented about my controller *possibly* not working right. Maybe it didn't; I don't use that one anymore. But maybe it was because my player was facing the wrong way and I needed to do a better job of learning what, when, and how to do those things. But I believed what I said and wasn't saying something I knew to be untrue to try to cover for my mistakes.

The fact about you is this: You have a highly abrasive personality at times- more so in text than in verbal conversation. Fact: the same can be said about me. That's one reason why I wanted to talk rather than type words which could be misconstrued. But we fight because we have a lot in common, and tour stubborn natures regarding sticking to what we believe leads us to clash on things we don't see eye to eye on. I've had more arguments than I'd like on this forum, and you've had just as many. It's just that yours occur more often with random people and I don't give a shit about things a lot of the time except when friends, or at least people I know to a degree, are a part of it. The difference is, you treat me like our only interaction has been the negative shit you brought up, while I take into account our friendship and don't focus solely on the negative. I may be an asshole, but I'm not some random asshole, and I don't deserve to be treated that way by you.

You don't respect me because I disagree with you and because you can't differentiate between a person explaining their actions (reasons) from excuses. While I've done both, you claim that any such statement I make trying to convey why I do what I do in the game is an excuse. And if you can lose respect over someone for the way they react about a video game, you clearly take things more personally than you're willing to admit. And in response, I've taken your words personally because I expected better from you as a person and as a friend.

That's good that you don't want me off the team, because that shows that while you're the club creator (even though I was a GM before you made your version, it's a fact that you put in far more time and work into the team and have an exponentially greater need for control) you have not yet reached the point where you think your say is the final say in everything, even though it often comes across that way.

You want things to be this way? Fine. I've tried to reason with you on a personal level, and it was nothing but a waste of time. I'll simply treat you how you treat me, we can play games as team members... I'll still listen to your game related advice and won't waste energy bothering with anything else. I'm quite capable of ignoring the personal stuff even though I've obviously chosen to do the exact opposite with you up til now in my admittedly naive attempts to reach an understanding. Maybe I need to be more like you and just have a "fuck you" attitude. Your philosophy doesn't seem to be conducive to having happy, healthy relationships people, and I won't apply it to real life or anyone else on this team for that matter) but clearly it will save us both time and energy if I take the pure business approach with you.

As long as you hold to what you've said and don't try shutting me out of team play, ignoring me when I want to get games in, etc. then we can have the minimum amount of interaction- purely game related and hopefully conflict free- if that's what you want. It disappoints me greatly, but I'll admit that expecting to see things the same way someone else does was naive on my part and I never seem to learn that lesson.

I am who I am, and you are who you are. Hopefully our desires to prove to one another that our own stances are correct will lead to better play from both of us and benefit the team. I'm sure that not having to slog/ through our bickering in the thread and my long-winded attempts to explain myself to you when you neither desire nor deserve to hear those explanations will at the very least be a relief to everyone else. If circumstances ever change, my door's always open. For now, we can shut up and play some fucking video games.
 
Sorry I signed off so abruptly last night, guys. After we quit out of that last game, my system froze. The last thing I heard was Rob say he was done with NHL for the night anyway, and since it was almost 2:30, I just decided to go to sleep. It was a nice kick in the nuts after EA gave us craptastic goalies all night though. There is something drastically wrong when an Amateur team scores on four of its first six shots. Thx EA. Luv U 2.
 
I know I've mentioned this before, but I wanted to repeat it again. With Minor League Baseball season starting on Thursday, I'm back on my five day a week, actually going into work schedule. As such, I won't be around for most hockey nights. I'll still play on my nights off, but my activity level is likely to drop now.

That said, I'm working from home tonight, so I should be on around 1230-1 am.
 
Yeah! I'll be on tonight. Pretty banged up from my game last night with two bruisers. At least I showed them who the big boy was. :p

Maybe we can see this face off thing Matt is talking about. I'm still perplexed by it.
 
I hopped on Live, but didn't see anybody on. I'm just screwing around with my old Road to the Show in MLB 10 now. Just post in here whenever anyone wants to play and I'll get back on my Xbox.
 
[quote name='Vulcan2422']It was nice to end the night with a Butt Rocket and to win with only a few seconds left. :D[/QUOTE]

I hope you recorded that timely Butt Rocket.
 
[quote name='n8rockerasu']That's awesome. I want your job. I hope you start all of your interviews out with "Hello. Nice meet you."[/QUOTE]

I always make sure to end an interview with "I want to make romance inside of you."
 
[quote name='jza1218']I always make sure to end an interview with "I want to make romance inside of you."[/QUOTE]

Well, yeah. Who wouldn't find that flattering?

Also, if anybody is available for two minutes to hop on NHL so I can record our banner celebration that would be great. I just want to record the celebration then quit out of the game since I don't have my video switcher hooked up, and trying to play through my capture card causes massive lag that surpasses anything EA could even generate. At worst, I can do it tonight, but it would be nice to get it done earlier if possible.

EDIT - Sweet. Alan helped me get it recorded, so look for that video to be posted soon! :)
 
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[quote name='Vulcan2422']I was on and saw you on there. Wasn't sure what you were doing. Shoulda sent me a message.[/QUOTE]

I was about to, but saw you loaded up BC2 right away. Alan was still in the dash when I sent the message, so I got him first. You should enjoy the video though. :)
 
[quote name='moojuice']Keep an eye out for the special edition which contains a purple massager[/QUOTE]

Yeah, but that's only for the first 3 orders. You can't just go around giving out purple massagers all willy nilly.
 
[quote name='n8rockerasu']Yeah, but that's only for the first 3 orders. You can't just go around giving out purple massagers all willy nilly.[/QUOTE]

Just placed three orders.
 
Sorry I quit out last night. I had kind of a crappy day yesterday and taking those back to back OT losses was frustrating. Then when my mic started acting up I just threw it across the room. In the last game though, it really didn't even seem like we were trying. When Gary took that fight early on, it basically opened the flood gates for them since with two AI defenders, they were just deking around them for easy goals. It just felt like that was their reason for fighting him, and we walked right into it. And as we know by now, there's really no point in playing if we don't have steady defensemen.
 
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Ill be on around that time, though more than likely around 8:30 Est.

Also, I finally got around to buying a capture device. If it's all right with everybody, and I actually get motivated to do it (doing something and saying something are two different things, lol), I'd like to record our games and break them down when necessary, kinda like a "coaching corner"-esque thing.
 
[quote name='moojuice']Ill be on around that time, though more than likely around 8:30 Est.

Also, I finally got around to buying a capture device. If it's all right with everybody, and I actually get motivated to do it (doing something and saying something are two different things, lol), I'd like to record our games and break them down when necessary, kinda like a "coaching corner"-esque thing.[/QUOTE]

Hmm...I don't know if I feel comfortable with that without legal representation. It sounds potentially damning.

No, seriously, I think that's an awesome idea. It will really get us down to the nitty gritty of what we're doing wrong and what needs work. For the most part, everybody is skilled enough to compete with the good teams in the game. Usually, when we struggle, it seems to be caused by people getting mixed up or out of position. Being able to assess where everybody is on any given play can only make us better.
 
Alright, threw this together, it's not that great.

A couple of defensive breakdowns explained, narrated on the fly. My mic would cut out, and I would have to adjust it. Eh, it's a learning experience. Also, I messed up the settings when I processed the video, so it's gonna be 480p max, I think. I may re-upload later on with a higher resolution

I'll probably do some more breakdowns, and actually have a script so I know what I am about to talk about without having to see it happen first.

EDIT: Actually, nevermind, Im reupolading it, the quality of the video right now is really grainy.

EDIT2: Should be in HD soon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH_FxJ-wR_4
 
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All good points taken into consideration now that I can see what I'm doing wrong instead of just being told. Man your voice is different than Live lol. Anybody up for trying to work on our plays better tonight?
 
Man, I wish I had checked the thread earlier (I've spent most of the night trying to get Oregon Trail to run on my PSP, lol...why? I really don't know). I really like what you did with the video, Alan. It's really nice being able to look at the plays after the fact and are definitely things we can work on. Several things related to discipline and seeing the play in front of you...which we struggle with at times.
 
I remember someone saying they didn't want to use a capture card during the game because of input lag, I forgot to mention what I do when I use a capture card. Split the signal from the 360s output with one going to the capture card and one going to the TV. This will allow you to play on the TV with no lag while the capture card still records.
 
[quote name='SeanAmI']I remember someone saying they didn't want to use a capture card during the game because of input lag, I forgot to mention what I do when I use a capture card. Split the signal from the 360s output with one going to the capture card and one going to the TV. This will allow you to play on the TV with no lag while the capture card still records.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that was me. Usually, I do run a splitter. I just didn't have my full set up available when I made our banner celebration video.
 
Gary is right about Alan's voice. I have stated in the past that it sounds somewhat muffled over the XBL headset, but in the video it definitely does not sound as deep as it does on Live.
 
Maybe I'm just used to hearing him, but I don't think he sounds that different. Maybe a little clearer, but everybody has sounded clearer since the big party chat codec update. Definitely different from "pre good codec" era though.
 
You guys play last night? Sadly enough I always hate turning down Rob's advances to play NHL, but after playing 3 games yesterday (own game and filled in for two other people) I didn't want to see anything hockey related till at least tuesday.
 
^ damn, I was gonna see if I could get some help boosting up to Legend tomorrow night.

I'm currently a B overall, but an A- position, B- team play and B stats, I figure I can get up to the legend status pretty quickly, right?
 
After last night's games I am wondering if boosting up offensive awareness really does help. Just seems like since I dropped it down I've had a lot of shots get robbed by the goalie. Maybe it's my imagination.
 
[quote name='jza1218']After last night's games I am wondering if boosting up offensive awareness really does help. Just seems like since I dropped it down I've had a lot of shots get robbed by the goalie. Maybe it's my imagination.[/QUOTE]

Probably your imagination. I think I've got mine at 70 and had several where I sniped corners last night (a couple in that last game alone, I think). I really think it's just dumb luck with what kind of goalie you get and how well he reacts to things.

I will say though, we were a force in that last game. Passes were crisp, forecheck was strong, and we did a great job rotating to cover each other when we needed to. Rob, you were throwing some sick moves to set me and Brandon up too. I really wonder what that Elite team thought when they found themselves down 5-0 halfway through the 2nd period, while they only had 5 shots on goal. A few more games like that and we'll be ready for the playoffs.
 
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