Here is a question. Do stacked divisions actually matter?
Most people would agree that the threshold of "stacked divisions mattering" would be that they usually win champs because they are "stacked".
Lets look at the data. (
Taken from this post on average OPR)
Code:
Year Winner Prechamps OPR rank
2016 Carver 4 out of 8
2015 Newton 4 out of 8
2014 Curie 4 out of 4
2013 Galileo 1 out of 4
2012 Galileo 4 out of 4
2011 Galileo 2 out of 4
2010 Newton 4 out of 4
2009 Galileo 3 out of 4
2008 Galileo 4 out of 4
2007 Newton 1 out of 4
2006 Archimedies 4 out of 4
2005 Newton 4 out of 4
2004 Archimedies 1 out of 4
So for the 4 division era, the average OPR placement of the world champs is 2.91. 8 division avg is 4.
Scaled avg for 8 divisions is an average pre champs OPR rank of 5.54. So... No correlation.
What about how well "Stacked" divisions preformed at champs? (Based on avg opr)
Code:
Year Division Result
2016 Newton QF
2015 Carson QF
2014 Archimedes QF
2013 Galileo W
2012 Archimedes QF
2011 Curie F
2010 Archimedes QF
2009 Newton QF
2008 Archimedes QF
2007 Newton W
2006 Newton F
2005 Archimedes QF
2004 Archimedes W
Assigning 1,2,3,4 for each stage they make it through elims, you get an average round KO of 1.62 meaning on average,
the most "stacked" division ended their day in quarters for Einstein.
If someone wants to do avg of the top 24 for each division so we can redo our analysis, but right now your odds don't look particularly good for this whole "division" balancing having any impact. Looks like divisions don't really need to balanced from everything I can see. luck in match schedule and creating a cohesive and competent alliance matters way more.
EDIT
In fact the top 5 most "stacked" divisions 4/5 got KOed in the first round on Einstein. That makes sense. 50% of teams get KOed first round, hence it's at best a random correlation, and too small of a sample size to actually say that the majority of stacked divisions actually perform poorly compared to average divisions.
Code:
1 2016 new QF
2 2015 cars QF
3 2005 arc QF
4 2008 arc QF
5 2013 gal W
So yeah.
No correlation.