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

• Artemis Hokkaido
• Fukuoka Girasol
• Kanoa Laulea's Fukuoka
• Vasagey Oita (they're barely at Club Ehime level , so forget them)

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:

• Cute Head Coach (He was a hunky Olympic Beach Player, middle-aged now but his goatee is still whippin' ass)
• Good blocking team. I've only seen them play high schools but their read and technique seem very good
• The Captain and setter Nanase Akahoshi whose self described best feature is her "protruding butt". Girasol doesn't do a dub sub, they do a sing sub. Nanase stays on in the front row as OP for the rotations -- and kills it. I love that kinda shit
• Mana Ishikawa, of Toray and PFU fame is an absolute bomber. She's not real good at anything else besides swinging hard, which seems almost cruel and abusive against high school kids, and she seems a little plain ornery overall, but she helps the team a lot

Fukuoka Girasol's downside are a few visual glitches:

• Their main OP has bad posture. Distracting
• Their libero perspires too much
• The whole team looks kinda old

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:

• Kanoa Laulea's Fukuoka
• Fukuoka Girasol
• Fukuoka University
  

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:

• 8 members from Fukuoka Girasol
• 3 members from Kanoa Laulea's Fukuoka
• 1 member from Kyushu Kyoritsu University

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

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

Quote from user

oh the shade

Kurobe is in V1

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

Source
Source

[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."

Source

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

"ultra super attack type"

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