Here is why I think the COC cup needs to be replaced.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Elite Bowl - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - COC cup winner
Black Dragons vs Free Agent Mascots - - - - - - - - - - - Free Agent Mascots
Black Dragons vs Free Agent Mascots - - - - - - - - - - - Free Agent Mascots
San Diego Blitzkrieg vs Free Agent Mascots - - - - - - - michigan state spartans
Black Dragons vs Free Agent Mascots - - - - - - - - - - - Chester Ducks
Styrian Bears vs michigan state spartans- - - - - - - - - - Styrian Bears
michigan state spartans vs Carrickfergus Knights- - - - - michigan state spartans
Landru Athletics vs michigan state spartans - - - - - - - - Maykop Dynamos
Wilmersdorf Wadenbeisser vs San Diego Blitzkrieg- - - - San Diego Blitzkrieg
San Diego Blitzkrieg vs Carrickfergus Knights- - - - - - - -San Diego Blitzkrieg
Stone Mountain Hawks vs San Diego Blitzkrieg- - - - - - -Stone Mountain Hawks
Black Dragons vs Wilmersdorf Wadenbeisser- - - - - - - - Black Dragons
Styrian Bears vs Black Dragons - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Styrian Bears
Landru Athletics vs michigan state spartans - - - - - - - - The Red Star Goats
michigan state spartans vs Styrian Bears - - - - - - - - - - Styrian Bears
michigan state spartans vs Wilmersdorf Wadenbeisser - Leeds Celtic
OrangeCrush vs Wilmersdorf Wadenbeisser - - - - - - - - OrangeCrush
Styrian Bears vs OrangeCrush - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - OrangeCrush?

As you can see 2/3 of the time a participant of from the Elite bowl wins the following seasons Champ of Champs Cup. The main reason for this (other than those teams being really good in general) is that the main competition for those teams winning the next bowl are not playing in that COC Cup.

This is a list of teams that played in this years COC cup and their world ranking:

1 OrangeCrush RZA Elite League Finalist
3 Styrian Bears RZA Elite League Semi-Finalist
10 Barmbek Cutbacks RZA Elite League Finalist
15 Motol Ducks RZA Elite League Semi-Finalist
16 Torino Black Bulls RZA Elite League Third Round
19 Underachieving Steamrollers RZA Elite League Third Round
28 PR Chaser RZA Elite League First Round
30 Dortmund Griffins RZA Elite League Quarter Finalist
36 Deflators RZA Elite League Quarter Finalist
41 TigerCats RZA Elite League Third Round
55 Bonnyrigg Bombsquad RZA Elite League Quarter Finalist
61 Paxtang Black Panthers RZA Elite League Second Round
67 Werewolves RZA Elite League Second Round
80 The Curtana filled Cellars RZA Elite League Third Round
84 Padborg Borderliners RZA Elite League Second Round
92 Hammaburg Blue Devils RZA Elite League Second Round
127 Traktor Tiefe Furche Admirals 1.1 Third Round
129 Black Seaweed RZA Elite League First Round
130 Chesterton Cheese Thunder 1.1 Quarter Finalist
141 Thunder and Lightning Dragons 1.1 Third Round
151 Juggernaut RZA Elite League Second Round
160 League of Heroes Admirals 1.1 Second Round
166 Berlin Iron Tigers Admirals 1.1 Second Round
168 Tampa Bay Bandits Dragons 1.1 Second Round
173 VenoM Admirals 1.1 Second Round
180 Erfordia Monarchs 1.1 Third Round
207 East Coast Crushers Thunder 1.1 First Round
216 NIGERIAN MAFIA Sea Devils 1.1 First Round
220 Dark Squirrels Claymore 1.1 Second Round
224 Balenghi Thunder 1.1 First Round
229 Berzuchy Claymore 1.1 Third Round
240 BoneCrushers Fire 1.1 First Round
243 Catalunya 1714 Claymore 1.1 First Round
253 Ghosts of the ring Galaxy 1.1 Second Round
271 SARMIS Monarchs 1.1 First Round
276 Torroles HardRock Monarchs 1.1 Second Round
277 Scarges Catalans Galaxy 1.1 Second Round
282 Shankers Fire 1.1 Second Round
285 Växjö Gladiators AFC Sea Devils 1.1 Second Round
290 Badsons Thunder 1.1 First Round

So we have the best team in the the world vs the tenth best. Only the third best team in the game, it could be argued is 'missing' from the final. Of the teams that played (excluding those that have since gone 'bot') 3 are in the top ten, 7 others are in the top fifty and three quarters are ranked between 55 and 290.

It seems to me to be that since the Elite league has become a reality, this tournament has become an obsolete competition. Too often it is simply a case of seeing which of the previous years Elite Bowl winners wins this.

The Elite bowl winners get 3m, the runners up get 1m, this is ofcourse not taking into account very significant gate money from the 3 or 4 games a team plays to get to the bowl. But then added to that 2 times out of three one of these two teams historically gets another 10m plus 6 more lots of even higher gate receipts. In reality this means that teams that play in the Elite Bowl should make well over 30,000,000, in the bonus of the COC cup the following season

Now the Elite league is great as it encourages the best teams to compete at a level where no-one truly dominates but the COC cup should not be dominated by such teams (we have the SuperCup for that!!!).

Instead I have three proposals that I think would be improvements.

The first one is to simply keep thing as they are but to not allow Elite Bowl teams to enter.

The advantages are that the glory and the money can't go to the 'best teams' and the only way to compete two years in a row is to get promoted to Admials 1:1 (etc) then to promote again to Elite.
The disadvantages are that it could be seen as a bit unkind to teams that already compete in Elite, and could get dominated by yoyo teams that can get to 1:1 bowls but can't survive in Elite.

The second and third proposals are very similar.

Rather than have a Champ of Champs cup, have instead 3 different cups. An elite cup, a 1:1 cup and a 2:X cup.
Simply all teams in each league level have a straight forward knock-out tournament. In Elites case from 32 to 1, in 1:1 and 2:X from 256 to 1. Bear in mind that although it may sound like a a lot of teams from 1:1 and 2:X but bear in mind it is only two more rounds than the current COC cup.
The advantages are simply that all teams are involved, all teams play 'similar' level teams, it puts an end to a cash cow for the elite of Elite teams.
The downside is that one week a season Elite teams will have to play friendlies against each other, and the Elite competition would last three weeks less than the other levels.
Some decisions would definitely need to be made.
Gate receipts would need to be very much reduced. My initial thoughts would be about 50% more than an actual friendly.
And probably a much reduced winners purse, maybe 3,000,000 for winning Elite level, 2,000,000 for 1:1 and 1,000,000 for 2:X. (Obviously Pete would have the best idea of how to handle the money side.)
The important thing is that the actual effect of winning the competition or going out in the first round shouldn't be too much, as this should obviously be seen as the 'third placed' of the three competitions (not as important as league or SuperCup) .
The final decision would be where to place it, at the beginning of a season or so it finishes at the same time as the current COC cup.

So what's the difference between second and third proposal, simply whether the games are chosen randomly or whether Admirals play Admirals and Claymore play Claymore (etc) until we get to the last eight. Or even do it one way one season and the other the next!

Anyway, thanks a lot for reading this

Please add thoughts, or criticisms of my thoughts!

Smokerteer

I understand where you are coming from. And yes, by introducing Elite, CoC was devalued quite a bit. However, if I follow the concept of having "league level CoC" s, I would never ever introduce one for Elite and D1. Basically, each of the Eilte SB teams and D1 SB teams will be Elite the following season. And, I really dislike any CoC concept that opens CoC for all teams.

If we keep this in mind, we can pf course discuss how to go on with CoC

My first proposal was the only one that would be comparable to a COC but keeps Elite Bowl competitors from entering as they have too significant an advantage over other competitors, that is why in 16 seasons, 11 of the winners of COC have been from the previous Elite Bowl. The trouble is their closest competitors don't play in the COC cup.

When you created Elite I did a suggestion. It was this

What I have noticed is, over the seasons since, you are inadvertently favouring the very top of Elite by including two teams as the top tier in a competition where as before Elite there were 16 top tier teams competing for the trophy.

That is not to say that these teams are not deserving of success but it has become the case that the Elite Bowl is artificially favouring the very best teams as you can see from the statistics I provided. In my opinion the gate money and prize money is far to much for a comparative cake walk compared to Elite Bowl and SuperCup.

To put this in an English football analogy, the best teams competing in the COC were:

1 Chelsea
3 Manchester City
10 West Bromich Albion
15 Swansea City
16 Burnley
19 Middlesbrough
28 Millwall
30 Sheffield United
36 Queens Park Rangers
41 Bolton Wanderers
55 Southend United
61 Burton Albion
67 Bristol Rovers
80 Carlisle United
84 Crawley Town
92 Morecambe

I think you may see my point, yes the top two may not win but I know where I'd put my money.

The other two proposals are simply to abandon the COC completely, and replace it with the three different tiers playing all inclusive knock-out competitions. Something that should be good to win, but not to be taken too seriously, almost like a large 'friendly cup'. Serious bragging rights and a trophy to the winner but not an over-whelming monopoly for the few!

I agree with Smokerteer, Champ of champs does not quite work anymore. How about just reducing the gate for CofC games. instead of making 5M per game make the gate 500-800K like a friendly.

I like it the way it is. I am looking forward to those games in Season 33 with my return to Elite League. (Oops, almost forgot I have to play season 32 first )
PS season 17 I beat FAM to win the CofC and won it again in season 20

The CoC might not be the best feature of RZA but i really do not see how this, lowering the gate income, will be a good addition to the game...

The problem is that the same teams keep going deep into the Tournament. They make an extra 30-40 million dollars. They buy better players (or pay higher salaries). Which gives them an advantage to win more, and the cycle continues. Added to this, they also go deep into Super Cup and League playoffs. The extra money really adds up season after season. So we end up with what we have now. An elite group at the top that is really difficult to break into. Reducing the gate for CofC would help this problem.

In the same time you are taking the money from a new , young team too ... when they get promoted every round in CoC give them a very nice amount to make their team better...
Imo those Elite teams who repeat that cycle are there because they have amazing managers who know how to build great teams and not because of CoC money...

Those new young teams in the Cof C are playing one or two games and getting knocked out. Not much money there, and its only once going from D2 to D1. The top teams go year after year and play 5-7 games each time. Make lots of extra money that everyone else can't get.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but respect for the achievements of the top managers, I have copied them a lot to try and achieve my own successes

But, while I do feel that while the COC was vital when the game started as there was no elite things have changed significantly.
Pre-Elite there were eight top divisions, Admirals, Claymore, Dragons, Fire, Galaxy, Monarchs, Sea Devils and Thunder. Each would have it's own isolated league season and produce a Bowl winner. The next season those 8 winners, 8 runners up and the equivalent teams from the lower tiers would meet in the COC cup, and after half a dozen rounds one team would be declared the winner, the king of kings, the laird of the leagues, the sovereign of all nations, the Champ of Champs. (OK, there was also the Supercup, but let us not be distracted). This Champ of Champs would be considered the best team over that two season period, (a little less so if they didn't actually win their league for their qualification). I hope you get the idea
This was also reflected in the prize money. Winning your league bowl earned you 2,000,000, winning the SuperCup 5,000,000 but being crowned the Champ of Champs that was worth 10,000,000. All were happy and everything was right with the world.
But then after thirteen seasons, there became a way to finally prove which of these teams was the best in just one season THE ELITE BOWL
The four best teams from each of the eight leagues all met in the Elite League, after 17 weeks those 32 teams were whittled down to just 12. Those twelve would then be seeded and would meet in the playoffs until only two remained and then those final two would meet in a bowl and a winner would be decided. They would collect there 2,000,000 (plus there gate money from previous playoff rounds of a touch over 30,000,000) and would be declared 'Elite Bowl Champions'
But the following season as they prepared for to repeat the glory from the previous season, they were also entered into another cup, one where all but one of there closest rivals from the previous season couldn't take part, one where the prize money was five times greater and one where statistically speaking, as history shows, they were more likely to win than 96.875% of the other competing teams combined. (more likely to win than 96.875% of the other competing teams combined. - it's worth repeating ).
Of course this is no real surprise, if there were no elite bowl winners in COC and instead just 'Admials 1:1' to 'Thunder 2:2' how often would you expect the winner to come from a non '1:1' division? It's only because there are only 2 Elite Bowl winners and 16 '1:1' teams that the occasional upset happens.
It's the fact that the prestige of winning the Elite Bowl is only considered a 2,000,000 achievement, but then why grant the winning team an average of (as far as I can work out) 30,000,000 in a competition which the competitors are of a much, much lower overall standing.
Just compare these to lists:

COC cup teams with world ranking

1 OrangeCrush  
3 Styrian Bears  
10 Barmbek Cutbacks  
15 Motol Ducks  
16 Torino Black Bulls  
19 Underachieving Steamrollers  
28 PR Chaser  
30 Dortmund Griffins  
36 Deflators  
41 TigerCats  
55 Bonnyrigg Bombsquad  
61 Paxtang Black Panthers  
67 Werewolves  
80 The Curtana filled Cellars  
84 Padborg Borderliners  
92 Hammaburg Blue Devils  
127 Traktor Tiefe Furche  
129 Black Seaweed  
130 Chesterton Cheese  
141 Thunder and Lightning  
151 Juggernaut  
160 League of Heroes  
166 Berlin Iron Tigers  
168 Tampa Bay Bandits  
173 VenoM  
180 Erfordia  
207 East Coast Crushers  
216 NIGERIAN MAFIA  
220 Dark Squirrels  
224 Balenghi  
229 Berzuchy  
240 BoneCrushers  
243 Catalunya 1714  
253 Ghosts of the ring  
271 SARMIS  
276 Torroles HardRock  
277 Scarges Catalans  
282 Shankers  
285 Växjö Gladiators AFC  
290 Badsons  


Elite League teams with world ranking

1 OrangeCrush
2 Wilmersdorf Wadenbeisser
3 Styrian Bears
4 Leeds Celtics
5 Black Dragons
6 San Diego Blitzkrieg
7 Free Agent Mascots
8 Chelt Nam Bobbers
9 Landru Athletics
10 Barmbek Cutbacks
11 BobBoy Magpies
12 Diorite Lions
15 Motol Ducks
16 Torino Black Bulls
18 Michigan State Spartans
19 Underachieving Steamrollers
28 PR Chaser
30 Dortmund Griffins
35 Deflators
41 TigerCats
46 Bourbon Street Brawlers
55 Bonnyrigg Bombsquad
58 GLADIATORS
61 Paxtang Black Panthers
65 Neuseen Buccaneers
67 Werewolves
80 The Curtana filled Cellars
84 Padborg Borderliners
92 Hammaburg Blue Devils
129 Black Seaweed
150 Juggernaut

Quite a significant difference in depth of quality teams.

As for taking money away from new teams, the newest team to reach the quarter finals started in season 21, hardly a new team, in fact only one came from outside Elite, and made, by reaching this stage around 17,000,000. A nice amount that is not to be sneezed at but the equivalent of just over two home league games. in fact, you could you can make more money simply by investing your 50,000,000 in the media centre.
As seems to be the average, one team from the previous COC cup final will get the chance to do it all again next season, whereas only one team that played outside Elite this season will also have this honour and it is certainly rarer.

For a final and simple example example.
Lets assume that the best division in all European football/soccer leagues are called division one. One day the best four sides from all 8 European countries (it's a while since I did geography but 8 countries sounds right) all broke away and formed an Elite Champions League. They would play until there was a final. But then would play the following season the Best teams two teams that hadn't played in the Elite Champions league, and the best one that were in divisions 2 as well. Would this result in a competition that had the highest prize money (five time higher than winning the Elite Champions league final)? Or such a big additional gate receipt from progressing to it final?