Quote:
Originally Posted by Citrus Dad
The OPRs are much more skewed this year than in the past. That reflects the increases technical difficulty.
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I'm going to somewhat disagree with this, or at least add another explanation that also contributes to the increased OPR disparity this year.
No Defense (or No Defence in 1114's case)
Every year prior, the big name teams would have a gigantic target on their back, which invited every team to try to do their best to stop them. In years past, 1114 would see waaaaay more defense played against them than any middle of the road team. That naturally keeps the OPRs a little tigher: as soon as teams see you breaking away from the pack, they'll defend you harder to bring you back.
This year, there's nothing you can do to slow 1114 down. Therefore, for the first year ever they've had unimpeded access to do whatever they want to do. I'd almost argue that if defense was banned every year, there would have been similar disparities in OPR in the past.