Majalah PowerPlay

I am the manager of a hockey team for almost 3 years. I am doing fairly well, as in fact my 10th ranking at the start of the Canadian National Cup. To be really honest I should have been around 20th, even 25th rank. But never mind! To admit, that after only 8 seasons and a second sojourn in the First Division, I consider that I am doing fairly well up so far. I know, I know, I'm blowing my own horn, but who will if I dont! :-)

With a team strength averaging in the 200s, I am therefore capable of excelling in the Canadian Tier 1 Division. Good job guys! Save that I know very well that the Canada in PPM is not the Canada in real life. In PPM, Canada is only ranked 27th in the number of registered managers (almost 9000). That of course has an important impact on the quality of my placement. Less opponents, less competition. It's Logical. My rank has much improved.

And if I wasn't Canadian? If I was Czech or Slovakian, what rank would I have been placed in either of those countries? In what division would my team evolve? Instead, if I was Belarussian, would I beat all in my way?

Humour me a bit.

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic forms 7% of the managers in PPM. Just to give you an idea, there are 179 leagues in the 5th division of hockey...just 5th! In comparison, Canada has only 8 leagues in the 4th Division. We can certainly figure that competition is probably a little more intense in the Czech Republic, compared to Canada.

The lower end Division 1 teams have average Team Strength of around 245. The highest Czech Division is therefore completely inaccessible to me. I figured that, next.

In Division 2, the low end teams average around 210-220. Once again, barring maybe a miracle, it would be much too tough for my poor little 200 TS team.

In Division 3, the lower end teams are weaker than me, with an average of about 180. I can therefore confirm I'd be at least Div 3. And with that brief overview, everything suggests that I'd be battling for a promotion regardless of which league in Division 3.

My team would therefore be a good Czech Div 3 team, rather than a poor Canadian Div 1 team. Nothing grand and glorious, mind you! Other teams like mine, Czech has hundreds of them. It is, frankly, a bit hard on the ego! :-)

Belarus

At the other end of the spectrum, Belarus brings about 3000 managers to PPM, is around a third of the size of what Canada brings in. The country offers only 3 different levels of hockey and only a handful of Div 3. There, finally, I should be better off.

The low end teams of Div 1 struggle to hit an average Team Strength of 100. The middle of the pack is between 140 and 180. Perfect! So far so good. I should place pretty well.  But low and behold the top 8 teams, I'm stuck...nothing to do, they all average around 250 on the strength scale.

After analyzing, I wouldnt even make the playoffs in the Belarussian Div 1... I think that's even more of a blow to the ego than the Czechs. There are a small number of teams, but certainly world class.

The rest of the world

Since Belarus resisted me, I played everything and I moved my team to Jamaica or Zimbabwe. I find myself in the rest of the world playing against teams that dont even have national leagues. I could not believe that Japan, Iceland, or even Grece has better teams than me!

And basically, I'd fare fairly well if I evolved outside the tradional hockey markets. Finally something to cheer about! But I'd still be far away from winning anything in Division 1. There are several world-class teams in the rest of the world. These teams have average Team Strengths of over 250. I'd probably make the playoffs, but that's about it.

Once again, my ego takes another shot. I thought I had a pretty good team, well developed and well ahead when compared.