Warrior General Games

Here is my stab at the preseason power rankings for the Western Conference.
Basing it all on player levels for each team's starters and backups, here is how the Western teams are ranked.

#1 San Jose SkyForce
#2 Springfield Patriots
#3 Las Vegas Jokers
#4 Nic Cage 4-Ever <3
#5 Indy Hellcats
#6 Minnesota Eagles
#7 Fredericksburg Cavaliers
#8 St. James's Gate
#9 Council Crest Bullmastiffs
#10 Holland Pinoy All Stars
#11 Oakland Onslaughters
#12 Louisiana Xtreme
#13 Tac-Town Hustlas
#14 Damascus Swarmin' Hornets
#15 Fort Wayne Fury
#16 Dallas Orangebloods

Again the above rankings are based on each team's player level on both the starters and backups. As we all know a team loaded with level 30ish to 40ish players already has the inside track into winning their matches.

Here is how I group the teams above:

Elite team
San Jose SkyForce
- With a team loaded with players with levels between 36 to 45, they are looking to be heads above the other teams in the West. The clincher is will talent be enough? With all the acquisitions the team's chemistry is way way down and hopefully that doesn't affect their playing ability in their first 3 to 5 games. This team will hope that they don't get any of the teams just below them (see below group) in their first 4 games or else it will be tough for them to get back on track.

Almost Elite
Springfield Patriots, Las Vegas Jokers, Nic Cage 4-Ever <3, Indy Hellcats,Minnesota Eagles
- Here comes the veterans of USA BBB#8. These teams are next in line after the departure of the previous elite teams due to promotion. With each team keeping their core players intact, look for this teams to go out of the gates and try to win each game by big margins.

Middle of the road
Fredericksburg Cavaliers, St. James's Gate, Council Crest Bullmastiffs, Holland Pinoy All Stars
- Surprisingly the St. James's Gate joins this group after getting crushed by the teams in this group last season St. James has given them the chance for some pay back this season. This group is strong enough to possibly get a couple of upsets against the elite teams but player levels doesn't get them enough firepower to move them up to the bunch of elite teams.

Bottom of the pile
Oakland Onslaughters, Louisiana Xtreme, Tac-Town Hustlas, Damascus Swarmin' Hornets, Fort Wayne Fury ,Dallas Orangebloods
- Teams in this group will need a ton of recruits to move them out of this group. Unless one or a couple of these teams breaks the bank, none of these teams poses a threat to beat any of the above groups.


- Dino

Thanks for the write up, its nice to almost be something, finally

What?

You cant be serious about Nic Cage being behind Springfield and Las Vegas. We crushed both of those teams by more than 60 points last season. Doesnt look to me that they changed anything so I'd be disappointed if we dont beat them by 50+ again.

Do agree that San Jose looks strong but dont think they are any better than some of the top teams we played close games with last season - Gotham, Camp David, etc.

I do expect Holland Pinoy to make some noise this year--but think the other middle of the road teams wont get much better.

Hey - thanks for doing this - great job. Some good info - and thanks for the kudo's for the St. James's Gate. We've worked hard in the off-season - and middle of the road is a great leap forward for us.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Please remember the rankings are based on player levels.
What separates a team from another team is their team tactics (i.e. Offense AI, Defense AI, Individual tactics).
Last season most of the teams have pretty bad chemistry and looking at it everybody has now near 100% chemistry thereby making this season a pretty exciting one.

I expect the following teams to be in the playoffs in no particular order (I sorted them alphabetically):
- Indy Hellcats
- Las Vegas Jokers
- Minnesota Eagles
- Nic Cage 4-Ever <3
- San Jose SkyForce
- Springfield Patriots

I would try my best to come up with the weekly power rankings and match up comparisons and similar things to spice up Season 8.

thanks for the power rankings! great reading! the Cavaliers will be here to pull off an odd shock or 2

Great rankings! Thanks for taking time to do all of this! Maybe you can do some for the East too......

Do eastern conference!

Originally posted by Fetialis
Do eastern conference!

Give me guys tomorrow to review each team on the Eastern side of Ocho.

Lol fair enough on Oakland, being a new team and all

Very nice job with the rankings. We're naturally hoping for an undefeated season, but I have to say the schedule's much tougher than I thought it would be. It looks like Bort managed to get all the CPU teams filled during the long and tenuous offseason.

I'm guessing our low chemistry may bring us to a 14-2 record, which isn't too bad either.

Should make for a fun year to see everyone's tactical methods!

Nice job Dino!

I agree with most, except Nic Cage is elite. They are easily alone in the top-2 with San Jose.

I also think that you are giving the Jokers more credit than they deserve. They still have a bunch of CPUs on their team, and their overall team rating is a 45, which is below Holland and Council Crest. They have beaten both of us each of the last 2 years, but CC and Holland have caught up.

I would move Fredricksburg up to the almost elite category and bring down Las Vegas to middle of the road. Other than that, good write-up.

Just for fun, here is my prediction, for the preseason power rankings. There is a lot of parity (finally) on teams 5-10 and the gap is small, there could be some upsets which will juggle around the standings. San Jose and Nic Cage are the two elite teams to beat, the rest of us are scrapping for position. Hopefully before the season is out my Hellcats can move up to join Minnesota and Springfield as a #3c possibility. That will require an upset of our own Good luck everyone.

#1 San Jose SkyForce
#2 Nic Cage 4-Ever <3
#3a Springfield Patriots
#3b Minnesota Eagles
#5 Indy Hellcats
#6 Fredericksburg Cavaliers
#7 Council Crest Bullmastiffs
#8 Holland Pinoy All Stars
#9 Las Vegas Jokers
#10 St. James's Gate
#11 Oakland Onslaughters
#12 Louisiana Xtreme
#13 Damascus Swarmin' Hornets
#14 Tac-Town Hustlas
#15 Fort Wayne Fury
#16 Dallas Orangebloods