Not convinced there are changes. Folks post this every now and then. 2 Seasons ago I created a new friends league again to keep it competitive. Last Season I got the 6 that were left. This season I got just 1 friend from the 5 that promoted. Its probably just that they added new friends and I dropped the ball by not adding friends from their friendly matches to keep the bond strong.

So this season I have 1 strong friend and 12 randoms I've never seen before, one of which is a 7x6* team active in the Scout Market. Still don't think anything has changed.

PS. One season I went for a random league with no same level friends on my friends list at all - I got 8 Scout buyers/tankers; the next season I left it and went random again and got 3 good teams and the rest trash. After that I created another friends league with me 12 friends and a random which has now diminished over the seasons to leave me with 1 friend in league I have now.