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In classic Game of Stones fashion, I started scheming as soon as the season ended (around the time of the CL final). What have I cooked up, you may ask? Well, I have created a much-too-complicated system to track and rank every manager's performance across every season played. This is called the Coefficient.

Coefficients

This idea is based on the Champions League team and nation coefficients, where each team is ranked based on a rolling window, dependent on their performance in European competitions. In fact, Italy and Germany's performances in European competitions granted them each an extra CL spot for their respective leagues! Unfortunately, we do not have cross-league competition(yet?), so I created a system that "objectively" ranks managers. This was done to the best of my ability, so if there are any contentious placements, well… sorry.

Methodology

As we do have multiple outlets for matches (the league + mid-season tournaments), managers will gain points from wins in all competitions. I set these values as follows:

• Win in the league
  • 2 points
• Draw in the league
  • 1 point
• Win in a cup
  • 1 point
• Draw in a cup
  • 0 points

This puts a little more emphasis on long-term league performance, while still rewarding managers for picking up wins in cup matches. In two-legged ties, each match counts as individual games rather than the full tie.

In order to accomodate for managers having played two seasons, their coefficient scores from each season are put through a weighted average, with Season 1 being 35% and Season 2 being 65%. This rewards recent performance and consistency across the two seasons. Due to the (unfortunate) lack of mid-season tournaments, every manager who had a coefficient score in Season 1 gained compensatory points equivalent to the average cup coefficient score in Season 2.

Phew. Hope that made sense.

That said, let's get into the numbers! Here's a nifty chart.

P	Manager	Season 1	Season 2	Total
1	Matthew	60	68	65.2
2	Luke	-	59	59
3	Dylan	58	52	54.1
4	Gavin	-	52	52
5	MatthewR	51	48	49.05
6	Darryan	67	38	48.15
7	Kevin	40	48	45.2
8	Scott	50	42	44.8
9	Jesse	51	36	41.25
10	Andrew	52	35	40.95
11	Zach	-	38	38
12	Emily	37	-	37
13	Coop	-	-	-
14	Matt	-	-	-
15	Rebecca	-	-	-
16	Soph	-	-	-

Kickoff Tournament

Now, you may be wondering how this pertains to the kickoff tournament that starts Gameweek 1. Well, this ranking will give us the ability to draw groups for the kickoff tournament, which will seed a knockout bracket mimicking the now retired (RIP) Champions League format. In the group stage, you will play against each team once, seeding the knockout rounds which are two-legged (until the final, thanks Champions League). Each group will contain a team from each Pot. There will be 4 Pots, each with 4 managers in them, based on their coefficient rankings. These are the Pots:

Pot 1

• Matthew
• Luke
• Dylan
• Gavin

Pot 2

• MatthewR
• Darryan
• Kevin
• Scott

Pot 3

• Jesse
• Andrew
• Zach
• Emily

Pot 4

• Coop
• Matt
• Rebecca
• Soph

Unfortunately, our lack of data on the newcomers automatically slots them into the final Pot as they hope to gain their first coefficient points come Gameweek 1.

The Groups

The groups have been drawn! Please watch the group stage drawing here(I haven't figured out video embedding yet :)): https://youtu.be/cgNjk1DwuhU

In a couple days I will update the Season 3 page to include the group stage draw, so yes if you want to see what group you're in, you've gotta watch me do it live! Also, special shoutout to Emily for lighting, makeup, VFX, graphics, video, audio, directing, and editing along with lending her creative geniuses for the new logo!!!

Weekly matchups will be finalized after the matchups for the season are generated so as to avoid double gameweeks! By default, the matchups will be in 1v4/1v3/1v2 order, so expect something similar.

Good luck and welcome to the Kickoff Tournament!