UNOFFICIAL POLL: What Cup Format Would You Like?

[July Fourth]

BEFORE VOTING: Please read the options below

Option 1 - Old "Friends" Format

A return back to the old cup format that was used until last season, the higher levels obviously have the advantage of winning the cups and getting all the prize money they need and any lower level teams that face higher level teams get bumper prize money in the early rounds but are usually heavily beaten and crash out early with no chance of winning the cup. There are many games that see L2 play the likes of L15 often which are anti-climax type of games and we know who is going to win, The highest ranked teams often win the cup season after season. Also in this cup it pairs you up against friend clubs which many players like to see.

Option 2 - Current "Quality Based" Format

This was introduced as an attempt to even out the cup competition but it has affected any token buyers in a very bad way and they have the disadvantage of playing teams about 2 levels above them. Its good to see a more level playing field between teams of quality and iron out the L2 vs L15 situation to give more players a chance of winning the cup but it favors the non-token buying active managers

Option 3 - Level Banded Format

I think this personally is how the cup should work and would work best IMO, teams should be put into a Level Banded format. This would still give the cup a more even playing field for most and it irons out the L2 vs L15 situation, As players move up through league levels they will spend some seasons as 'Underdogs' being on the lowest level in the band and some seasons as 'favourites' when they are on the highest level of the current band, token buyers are not affected in a bad way at all, and we all get to experience being Underdogs some seasons and being Favourites in other seasons, This would be the fairest cup format of them all to everyone.

I would categorize the level bands in the following:
L1 Beginners Cup
L2-L5
L6-L9
L10-L13
L14-L17
L18-L21
L22-L25
L26+ Shark Tank

The draw would seeded like the old format and the higher levels would most likely face inactive/semi active low quality teams in the preliminaries.

As we move up through the levels we get to play in different cup levels and obviously on servers ages sometimes there maybe times were some teams would be the 'odd one out' and they would have to be placed in the band nearest to there relative level. Eg. L18 top level on server but there is only 22 teams at L18 so they would have to play in the L13-L17 band.

Option 4 - Play teams the around the same level as you

This one would be like the current format we have now but with Levels rather than Quality, you would play teams mostly of your level and this would indeed favour token buyers and token buyers in their own right should have this advantage because they paid for tokens, but under this format we wouldn't get to play competitive teams of different levels and it also irons out the L2 vs L15 situation, also the 'odd ones out' would have to play in the nearest level cup to the current level they are in, this makes the cup more fairer to everyone and it would feel like a UEFA Cup competition, (before it came Europa League and it introduced group stages).

It would be interesting to see what everyone thinks.