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Wonderstar Awards S115: League Of The Season (15/07/2014 04:13)


It's time for the fourth of our seasonal rankings of the 33 leagues - Seasons S112, S113 and S114 are found behind those links. Leagues whose sides performed well in the Champions League and Super Cup in S115, and/or had a lot of competition for their title or international spots, are ranked highly, regardless of how strong their average team Q makes them in theory (a Q-based measure of strength is provided for comparison).

 

For a rolling, weighted 5-season average of these scores check out the ManagerLeague League of Leagues!

 

A quick recap of the methodology: Leagues receive ratings for Strength (based on player Q and teamstats), International Performance (based on their results, progress, goal difference and opposition strength in Champions League and Super Cup), and Competitiveness (based on how even the league is - leagues dominated by one or two teams will be lower ranked than one in which every team is very strong). Each rating ranges from 0 to 100, and a final league rating is made up of 2 x International Performance, plus 1 x Competitiveness. Strength is included in the table for comparison, and does not contribute to the overall rating - though of course stronger leagues would be expected to be more competitive and perform better internationally. So which leagues were the most impressive in Season 115?

After a quietly strong under-the-radar performance in Season 114, the USA emphatically broke their glass ceiling, providing 3 of the season's 4 finalists. After two borderline perfect international seasons - 25 group stage wins last time round were supplemented by 23 more this season, as well as 9 wins and one defeat in the knockouts - the US league is one of only two to have increased its score each of the last three seasons. And with the best international score two seasons running, the only thing holding the league back now is its relative lack of strength in depth: The top teams have excelled, but there's a question mark over whether the sides behind them are ready to make the step up as and when those top teams fade away or go through rebuilds. For now though, this is certainly a period of American dominance, and ominously, that competitiveness is improving year-on-year too.  

England are the other league to have posted three consecutive rating increases. While the US dominated the finals, English teams actually did similarly to the USA's previous season, racking up slightly more points as they produced 4 group stage qualifiers (and one third place). In fact, only eventual champions Vagabonds managed to knock out any English teams in the Champions League. On the back of both this and an envious strength-in-depth, England top the league table for the second season running. Norway crept higher with a similarly strong international performance, and Greece continued to overperform their modest strength levels thanks to good performances by Death House FC and Aristotelis Forest.

Belgium shot up the rankings, the International league are starting to look more like a 5-qualifier league, and Serbia bounced back following a disappointing S114. In an opposite reversal-of-fortune, Portugal and Germany fell back after their strong S114 performances. Most dramatically perhaps, Romania collapsed from 2nd to 16th. The table gives each league in order (including the change in ranking since S113), with columns showing the number of international places assigned to each league, their strength, international performance and competitiveness. Ranks are in brackets:

 

 - Belizio

 

 

 

 

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