Coincidence?

[Tactician]

There is likely to be a relation between the fixtures and the initial quality of the teams at the time of the draws. Those having a relatively better initial quality are classified as first seeds or favorites ,and they are set to face each other on specific days of the season.

[ponzu]

There is likely to be a relation between the fixtures and the initial quality of the teams at the time of the draws. Those having a relatively better initial quality are classified as first seeds or favorites ,and they are set to face each other on specific days of the season.

Exactly. Which is what HoofDaddy explained in his reply, only he said it "used to be" that way, and now is "completely different". Which I cannot agree with; it seems to be exactly that way:

Nordeus schedules the top rated teams to play each other towards the end of the schedule --> Top rated teams go on to become league leaders --> League leaders play each other towards the end of the season.

I should have figured this out more easily.

Sometimes a highly rated team tanks or gets abandoned or falls behind in the standings for another reason. And perhaps a low rated team is only low rated on paper -- due to 4-5 dead weight 1* players who do not take part in the games. Then you end up playing a successful team low rated) early on and a loser (highly rated) towards the end and it gives you an impression that it's all random.