What if the cup games were just between the same league, so all of div 3 in one cup etc. And the winner got something more rewarding so that it would make things more interesting. For example, the winner of the cup could receive automatic promotion to the higher division and 1 million dollar prize money. This would mean that teams could try and promote via the cup or via their league, or via both if they are good enough. Would add some more tactics to the game as well.
The way to promote is already by beating teams in your division. I don't think adding another route to promotion adds much to the game. Then, when you factor the different sizes of each division, we'd have very different Cup experiences by division. What would D.I teams do the the Cup when there's only one division? D.V Cup games would be the "Tournament of the Bots". I appreciate your thoughts on how to improve the Cup experience. As I posted above about my feelings on home court advantage being random, etc., I agree that the Cup isn't perfect as it is, and given the number of posts that so many other people have written on the topic, there's obviously a vast range of opinions on the subject. But I think that any changes that could be made to the Cup need to be be clear improvements to the current system. I think you are thinking about things the right way and posts like yours help get everyone thinking about how to make this game better, I just may have a different opinion on the Cup.
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