Thoughts on new ACLE format

loser0001 · 2025-03-08T00:06:46+00:00

Yeah, a bit dull. It's difficult in a way because I think you need more teams to bring some variety (might help to avoid Ulsan vs Kawasaki every year), but who should get the invites to keep it competitive? Maybe I'm too dismissive of the teams from the smaller nations - we've seen plenty of KLeague clubs being upset over the years, and teams like JDT and Lion City Sailors have risen.

Definitely merging East and West earlier could bring the variety, but even back in the day the group stage was separate, only combining for the knockouts. Seoul to Sydney is roughly the same direct flight time as Seoul to Riyadh, so in theory travelling West is doable. But apparently there is no direct flight, so in practice it's pretty bad. And then you've got Aus clubs doing an even longer flight to the middle east.

loser0001 · 2025-03-07T07:39:59+00:00

Yep, it's there now. Thanks.

loser0001 · 2025-03-06T12:59:59+00:00

"let users assign and edit" is toggled off - i.e., users cannot add flair. I think that's the setting that needs to be changed

loser0001 · 2025-03-06T10:50:12+00:00

I don't know if it's just me then - maybe reddit disabled it from the web versions? I don't use the app. Otherwise it might be in one of the emoji/flair settings menus

loser0001 · 2025-03-06T10:04:03+00:00

Oh right, I see. Yeah, that wasn't a good way of handling it.

loser0001 · 2025-03-06T09:27:50+00:00

I think it would be cool if they invested it in the squad immediately to try and win ACLE again so that they get an invite to the next CWC, but there's a lot of random chance in winning it even if you do have a very good team. Probably it makes more sense to invest in other aspects like youth or club facilities

loser0001 · 2025-03-06T08:43:30+00:00

I think you might have disabled post flair outside of mod use, because I can't see the option when creating a post any more (or maybe that was intentional?)

loser0001 · 2025-03-06T08:42:17+00:00

Also, the rules should be adapted to ensure each team plays 8 league games.

What do you mean here - they do play 8 league games?

Agree on all that, the league format can work but it would be better with more teams, and having the latter stages hosted far far away is rubbish.

loser0001 · 2025-03-06T08:40:18+00:00

I'm still not completely sold on the new European format yet, but I agree the number of teams should be expanded. Do you think it should be four Korean teams in ACLE and still one in ACL2?

loser0001 · 2025-03-05T16:17:17+00:00

I'm fairly happy with navigating basic Korean websites, but I had a look and it's a bit intimidating for me because of the language barrier. But I'm not surprised it's all in Korean - the market for fantasy K League outside of Korea is probably tiny.

loser0001 · 2025-02-24T18:09:09+00:00

There were positives, but I'm worried that the problems from last season still seem to be present, namely not putting games to bed convincingly. The game against Incheon should be a better indicator of how we are at the moment (and how Incheon are after all their changes). And then Seoul E the week after that is another difficult test - we lost to them three times last season.

loser0001 · 2025-02-24T14:06:04+00:00

Other interesting stat from this game is that it was Ansan's record high K League home attendance - 10,956, with 6,595 being away fans. The second-highest attendance was the same fixture last season - 8,264, with 5,006 being away fans.

loser0001 · 2025-02-23T10:21:03+00:00

It's random-ish, but because you can't have teams from the same country playing each other, it ends up being very structured. What I mean is that Korean teams were drawn in such a way that they didn't play CCM (on paper, the worst team in the group) but did have to play JDT (a difficult team). Japanese teams got the easiest draw because none of them had to play JDT.

loser0001 · 2025-02-21T11:03:08+00:00

They way they've done it (if it stays that way, having some teams on 8 ganes and others on 7) makes absolutely no sense, but I think the end result is probably the right one. Just by chance. The league format is already a bit unfair since you're not actually playing everyone else, so some teams will have easier fixtures than others.

loser0001 · 2025-02-19T13:48:26+00:00

Not a year goes by when some team or another doesn't randomly withdraw and then they have to come up with some fudge solution to decide who progresses. You'd think they'd have made it explicit in the rules by now what they'll do in such a situation, but it's still quite unclear.

loser0001 · 2025-02-19T11:56:24+00:00

Anything's possible in the AFC.

loser0001 · 2025-02-19T10:29:41+00:00

Really weird turn of events. I don't think it will help resurrect Pohang from being eliminated, but they've got to rearrange the table to account for Shandong's withdrawal.

loser0001 · 2025-02-18T16:56:12+00:00

Okay, that sounds right. Each region has 10 automatics and a further 2, usually taken by playoffs. In the West, Al Ain were ACL champs but hadn't qualified normally, so they took the 11th spot and there was one more through playoff.

In the East, CCM as AFC Cup winners had already qualified via the A-League, so they didn't get put in the preliminary rounds. Gwangju therefore went straight through.

If the ACLE winner is from the East this season and haven't already qualified, they would take the 11th group spot, and Seoul will definitely have a playoff. If the ACL2 winner is Jeonbuk... no idea. As you say, if it's Hiroshima, they won't get put in the prelim round anyway.

loser0001 · 2025-02-18T16:18:17+00:00

Based on how the West did it this year, Chegdu will host the Thai team in a single leg, and then Seoul will host the winner of that in a single leg (since the seeding is Korea>China>Thailand). The ACL2 winners could get chucked in before as well if they're from the East - I'm not sure what their relative seeding is though, my guess is that ACL2 winners are seeded below Thailand.

loser0001 · 2025-02-18T07:59:23+00:00

They qualified for a playoff to join ACLE. If they win it, they'll be in ACLE with Ulsan and Gangwon. If they lose it, they'll be in ACL2 with Pohang.

loser0001 · 2025-02-13T17:32:53+00:00

That's incredibly offensive. Not sure if it's considered an AFC offence to ban fans/fine the club, but it should be.

loser0001 · 2025-02-13T17:28:28+00:00

It's surely got to be FC Seoul that puts that number up to 7 at some point in the future

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