A case in point for the disaster of cup elimination is WW: even if it doesn't cost you wins in the league, it may cost you come playoff time. It's pretty plausible, I think that going out of the cup early costed them a final appearance: I knew that when push came to shove, I'd likely be able to beat them on higher enth that I had accumulated with a longer cup run (this is also how I stole an away win at SB in the final the season before...).
The way the enthusiasm spectrum works is that min. level enthusiasm can't degrade on its own, while max. level enthusiasm degrades incredibly quickly on its own (for example, I had 15 enthusiasm after my last game, but it's now at 11, which may fall to 10 for tomorrow's game). The higher a team advances in the tournament, and the more important the cup games are and difficult the opponents become, the more likely the team will need to choose playoff crunch time -- so, considering that and the fast degradation of high enthusiasm, it's very possible my enthusiasm would've been the same had I made it to the end of the tournament. What's certain is that if I made it that deep, I would've had to intentionally lose league games, so I might not have had HCA, which would've been disastrous for my chances in the playoffs.
What gave your team the advantage over mine was the ~300k team salary difference. A huge team salary difference doesn't always mean the more expensive team has an advantage, but it does if that manager has proven he has great judgment choosing players.
Last edited by Ortho Stice at 2/27/2012 7:49:55 PM