Brilliant Aries also added an "interpreter". Probably jumping on the BCS train
Ami and Emi are both gone now. My love for Yuka Tomizawa cannot keep me on board. Bye bye BA
Brilliant Aries also added an "interpreter". Probably jumping on the BCS train
Ami and Emi are both gone now. My love for Yuka Tomizawa cannot keep me on board. Bye bye BA
Finally getting a decent look at some of the current V.League wannabes playing the Empress Cup Block Round at videoflow
I used to be a big supporter of Artemis Hokkaido. They've got three V.leaguers I like(d): Yuna Okuyama S (NEC), Yuri Komuro OH (GSS Tokyo), Kaho Obana MB (JA Gifu, Prestige), and I enjoyed the vision for the team they laid out on their web site. But I can't support a team that doesn't grasp the concept that a public web site should be viewable by the public ... They've qualified to the Final Round for both the Empress Cup and the National Sports Festival. They aren't bad, they aren't good, and it's fun to watch Okuyama set Komuro for Back Attacks at Neriman quantity, but they are qualifying because there is nobody up that far north to challenge them.
(Kyushu Block) Fukuoka is where the juice is:
First of all Coach LoveBunny's Higashi team seems to have abstained (giving Kanoa Laulea's Fukuoka a free pass to the Final Match)
Remember the Legendary Fukuoka Kasuga Sea Cats? They were primed to enter V.League 2021-22 but Covid killed them. They tried bake sales and crowdfunding to stay afloat, to no avail.
Long story short: the team that would become Kanoa Laulea's Fukuoka took over the SeaCats Twitter, declared they were taking over, and that the SeaCats players were all leaving of their own volition. The SeaCats Head Coach and players went on to become Fukuoka Girasol
The SeaCats were cool and I thought it was shitty what happened to them so I chose to support Girasol and hate Kanoa Fukuoka (their original name , which is cooler than the one now where it's not clear if it should have an apostrophe or not--Laulea means happiness in Hawaiian, so wtf?).
Fukuoka Girasol's good points are:
Fukuoka Girasol's downside are a few visual glitches:
Much to my chagrin, Kanoa Laulea's Fukuoka looks like the best team of the bunch. They have a couple players I wholeheartedly support: Hina Kumamoto, OH of Toyota then Breath Hamamatsu fame. She has a bunch of IG followers but I don't care. And Yurika Mizoguchi, Libero of Himeji Victorina fame. The team looks healthy, fit, and well coached (also to my chagrin as I don't like their coach for the way he barged in with his coup d'é·tat on my SeaCats
Laulea beat NIFS, a very good Uni Team, in the Final Kyushu match so they advance to the Final Round. Kyushu gets three seats to the Final Round and it's All Fukuoka All the Time:
One last bit about the whole Fukuoka Kerfuffle that may lay the whole thing to rest: For the National Sports Festival, it's all about Prefecture representation. A Prefecture can send an already made team (like SAGA goes as , well ... SAGA) or assemble one from spare parts. The Fukuoka Prefecture is sending a team coached by Kazuyuki Takao (Girasol) that consists of:
Fukuoka Prefecture Selected Members
Fukuoka Girasol 8
Kanoa Laulea's Fukuoka 3
Kyushu Kyoritsu University 1
Head Coach: Kazuyuki Takao
The above 12 members will compete to represent Kyushu
National Sports Festival is October 7–10 (maybe live streamed here)
Empress Cup Final Round is December 9–18 (live streamed at videoflow)
#gogoNoSmilers
brahmin what's your take on whether V.League wants to add a V3 women's? If we add Kurashiki Ablaze to the mix, the two Fukuoka Teams and Artemis would make 14 teams. Eight V2, 6 V3? All these teams are at Veertien Mie level playing, and seem to have a solid business end, sponsors, and the like
They could all beat Forest Leaves Kumamoto, heck the Legendary Yamanashi Chuo Bank Sporting Bears could beat Forest Leaves but they'll never come to V,League
Brilliant Aries just added five Uni girls to their roster, so they have enough players to keep their license
brahmin what's your take on whether V.League wants to add a V3 women's? If we add Kurashiki Ablaze to the mix, the two Fukuoka Teams and Artemis would make 14 teams. Eight V2, 6 V3? All these teams are at Veertien Mie level playing, and seem to have a solid business end, sponsors, and the like
They could all beat Forest Leaves Kumamoto, heck the Legendary Yamanashi Chuo Bank Sporting Bears could beat Forest Leaves but they'll never come to V,League
it is all about teams having good local support and the financial capital behind them as a start point.
the challenge with getting to a V3 level on the women’s side is really a combination of the number of teams do you want to have in V2 and are new teams meeting the V3 license requirements.
Covid killed some of these teams potential sponsors even locally, let alone from a potential fan support (extra cash to spend).
sadly, with many Japanese teams, players do not live on their own, unless superstars, so the teams need to have dormitories and the costs with affiliated with keeping the players fed, healthy, etc.
just to even getting a team up and running you are talking $1-$2 million, cause you have to have the infrastructure before you can even think about applying for the V.League. This does not even include player salaries. So the legwork is the difficult portion, but the cash is probably an even bigger issue.
league is probably being strict because a franchise dying is not supposed to happen in this franchise system setup, unless really badly managed.
Kansai (Kinki) University Autumn League Tournament took a break this weekend so eight of the teams could participate in the Empress Cup Block Round. My prediction is Kobe Shinwa and Tezukayama will qualify for the Final Round
Himeji's farm team, MaxValu, beat Kinrankai HS in the first round. They get Tezukayama next
Kanto will play their Block Round October 22, after the Kanto Tournament is over
Well wow. MaxValu beat Tezukayama but then lost to Ryukoku in the final. So it's Kobe Shinwa and Ryukoku who advance to the Final Empress Cup
VTV has reworded their service:
"V.LEAGUE DIVISION 1's official video distribution service "V.TV" provides live and on-demand distribution of all games of V.LEAGUE DIVISION 1, as well as games and bonus footage from past seasons for multiple devices."
No mention of 'some V2'
Raise the price and take away content. The food industry is doing that with cereal and stuff
There's writing on my wall
New Licensing announcements:
Ligare Sendai is S1 [Initial] <- not sure what that "initial" means (maybe it's their 'first' S1)
GSS is still V2. They don't want S1 or to play in V1
Forest Leaves is still S2 -- They may not live long in V.League
Veertien Mie is S3 for their first year
Every other team in V2 is S1
Three V.League wannabe teams already have S3 licenses and will likely join V.League 2023-24:
Artemis Hokkaido
Kurashiki Ablaze
Kanoa Laulea's Fukuoka
Surprised Fukuoka Girasol hasn't gotten S3. They have real coaches, a nice web site you can view outside Japan, nice haircuts, sponsors, sister city agreements, all that crap
It's official for at least Kanoa Laulea's Fukuoka and Artemis Hokkaido. Can't link to Artemis Hokkaido's announcement on their "For Japan Only" stupid web site. Welcome to V.League 2023–24
[UPDATE] It's official for Kurashiki Ablaze as well
Kurashiki Ablaze Announcement
JVL Announcement
Quote"We Oilers players work at a service station (gas station) during the day and practice in a dedicated gymnasium after work. Thankfully, there are customers who know about the players and visit the service station, and I feel that talking with everyone is one of the joys of my job. By all means, I would like you to visit the service station and the match venue and see the team's theme, "tenacious volleyball."
Too good
I just scanned all the V2 team tweetboxes , ugh , and Breath Hamamatsu is the only one who mentions their opening match will be streamed on their youtube. More teams are going to have to do this, and hopefully not on the useless IG shit. I think GSS will also stream. A few V2 teams don't even have the youtube
If these teams want to grow their brand they gotta show their stuff
2022–23 V2 Import Collection
Brilliant Aries A registration:
Registered C Li-Wen Chang 176cm, opposite, Taiwan
Gunma Bank A registration: Evangelia Chantava 188cm, outside hitter, Greece
Registered C
Prestige International A registration: Mesomachi Ugochinyere Okekearu, 183cm, outside hitter
Registered C
GSS Tokyo Sunbeams A registration: Xinmuyi Zhang, 202cm, middle blocker
Registered C
Breath Hamamatsu A registration: Andrade Leirelini, 174cm, outside hitter
Registered C
I can't get enough of this Prestige International Aranmare game plan:
"last season's performance was called "super offensive""
But it wasn't enough. This year they are going for
I've always liked the team and I want them to do well this year so everybody gets to know their new libero
I forgot , we can't see them play
Breath Hamamatsu v JA Gifu:
Brilliant Aries will stream on youtube, gawd I hope it's the local TV broadcast like last year
Breath Hamamatsu on youtube. kinda crappy
GSS Tokyo on youtube. probably crappy
Gunma and Sendai will shitstream on stupid IG. Come on Sendai. Get your shit together
I'm surprised new team Veertien Mie hasn't announced any plans yet for streaming. Seems like they have money and know how. No way to get people to love you if they can't see you. Maybe only their home games, which unfortunately they only have two and they are their last two matches of the season
I wish Chiba Angel Cross would stream
Brilliant Aries. Good stream
Brilliant Aries Captain Mika Murayama has really stepped on her gas pedal this year. Great hair movement on her swing. Beast
Manabe better be scouting V2 as well. Brilliant Aries Mika Murayama is killing it