to be honest, i disagree a little bit with you here:
ofcourse, it's very annoying to face a crunch. nobody likes facing those, since using a CT really can change the odds of winning a game. However, the penalty you pay for it, is a big one. i've noticed that very clearly with my TIE vs ITE against Malta. if their Starting SG hadn't been injured, then i'm pretty sure that they would have won that game. however, Belgium has a way better team than Malta. (just using NT as an example)
i find the CT necessairy, as it gives teams a chance to kick out the teams that otherwise would be unbeatable. be honest here, if the CT wasn't so strong, then BBBL teams would be able to TIE all the time in the cup, without any other team being able to eliminate them, other than a very good II team OR another BBBL team. however, i knew pretty well that i would be able to get a win in a normal vs normal enthousiasme against most opponents that were still in the cup. ofcourse, if i had faced a BBBL team then, it would have been over, without me even having a single chance of winning the game. however, i could win against 50 % of the remaining teams, and that gives you a decent shot imo. the possibility of facing a CT is what gives this game a chance to eliminate a stronger team than yours, and that is what makes it so interesting.
regarding the cup and a CT in the cup, i find the current way of enthsouasime good. in the quarter finals, you get PO CT, which makes it that normally, the best team f the final 8 will win the cup ( if they don't understimate the opponent, like SSS did. tumas is a team that bounces back and forth between BBBL and II, so they could get a win of a BBBL team). from the quarter finales on, normally, each opponent will PO CT eachother, and the best team will win. this means that to win the cup, you need to do 2 things: first, make the quarter finals, and once you made those, see that your team has a decent chance of winning it.
now for the cup, i see 2 options that could work:
1) have separated enthousiasme for the cup and the league. this means that if a team CT's in the cup, it will have to pay a much bigger prize, something with i'm not a fan off, since that will take decrease the chance for teams of IV and III to elminate a team from II or BBBL. however, it would urge managers to be more carefull with their enthousiasme in the cup.
option 2) have a seeded tournament. this means that you can see who could be your possible opponents the next round. if you'r facing a II team, and will most likely face a BBBL team, then Cting against the II team will mean a certain victory for the BBBL team, and you'd lose your enthousiasme for getting to the next round ( only to lose their, and you'l probably take a hit in your own competition too). in this case, you can actually see if it's worth to CT a team or not. it means that people still can eliminate the better teams than themselves, but it will also give them a chance to show them that eliminating such a team, might not be worth the loss of enthousiasme. that would force the manager to think more carefully how to use their enthousiasme, and it will still give the weaker teams a chance to beat the better teams.
so if anything should be changed, then i think you should make it a seeded tournament. for the first round ofcourse, everything should be set at random, like it is now, and the place where the game should be played, shouldn't be predetermined either ( say that if you play away game one, then you should have a 60% chance of playing home in game 2 and viceversa, playing home in game one, means you'll have a 40% chance that game 2 will be played at home too..)
that way, you'll get a much more even way in playing away/home games, and people will most likely think more about using their enthousiasme. cause right now, the cup is just a lotery... for me, the enthousiasme doesn't need to be changed. but i guess this isn't the topic to speak about that ;)
Rev