2026-07-06, 05:13 AM - Word count:
I've been in sim leagues for over a year now (yay?) and have yet to see any expansion, so this upcoming SSL expansion has me excited. With the announcement of the expansion OMs and AMs, I thought to myself: I wonder Who will go into the expansion draft pool? So, as an opportunity to learn more about the league's players and to answer that question, I looked through each roster and tried to parse out what I think they would/should do.
I made a couple assumptions, which will be listed out right below this, about what broad strokes of players would or would not be protected. These are hard rules meaning I am assuming they're followed 100% of the time. Obviously it's hard to apply any rule like that but it really makes it easier for breaking everything down and looking at rosters. Additionally I have absolutely no view into locker rooms so it's possible that lower TPE players are core locker room users and that's not reflected in the budget sheet, but you work with what you have. My final two caveats are that I a) have no idea what I'm doing (both in terms of roster construction or timeline building) and b) am assuming that nothing changes contract/TPE wise from here to the date protections are due. Obviously people will keep earning, or might sign extensions, or go IA etc etc. but for the sake of this exercise I'm assuming everything stays as it is at this moment.
1) Teams will not protect players older than 10 years. Meaning their year on the budget page is S16 or older.
2) Teams will not protect inactive players (noted by an IA contract in the budget sheet)
3) Teams will not (cannot?) protect players on expiring contracts. This means ones ending in S26.
My assumption for those 3 platitudes is based on what is valuable to an organization. By and large, older players who are in regression are useful *now* but will have greatly diminished impact pretty quickly. There aren't many players that fit in there anyway, so it's fine. Similarly, why protect an IA (no or limited earning potential) over anybody active? To me, unless they're a very high TPE player it's not worth protecting IAs so I used that as a rule. And, last, if they're an expiring contract I don't think you can even protect them? But just in case.
4) Teams will protect players from the last 2 drafts, if gaining TPE at a good rate: >400 TPE for S26, >600 for S25
5) Teams will protect players with more than 1600 TPE (and also the one player at exactly 1600 TPE)
6) OMs + AMs are protected
These next 2 are about what players will be protected, and broadly fall into 2 camps. The first is young talent where you want to hold onto them in order to get a return on your investment, especially if they were a high pick. These are some of the most valuable assets in sim leagues: high earning users with young players. The next group is roughly the top 20% of all players, at or over 1600 TPE. High TPE is good. The last one is more a league rule than a me rule, but it helps clarify things.
I think these rules will lead to 11 or fewer players listed, which is good because then it means there's some decisions to make for the organization managers.
Each team will have the players who fall into the categories listed, then maybe some rambling, then who i think their 11 protected players are. If we feel spicy, maybe even list their top available players?
BLACK FOREST & MONTREAL
Rule 1 (Old): William Williams, Wang Zhihao
Rule 2 (IA): Maggie Sinclair, Zoe Clarke, Alex Stain, Cameron Millwall, Rokuv Gibraltar, Luis Fonseca (sorta)
Rule 3 (Expiring): Nobody new
Rule 4 (Young): Christopher Bergmann, Bruce McAllister, Reece Munro, Barry McGlynn, Vincent Haye, Domingo Hernandez
Rule 5 (High TPE): Cade Power
Rule 6 (Management): Tom Maeddisen, Matias Xavier, Siddhartha Kilgannon (OM)
Not-Protected: 8
Must Protect: 9 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 7
Black Forest has an immediate 8 players not worth protecting due to inactivity or age. They do have a very young group from the last two drafts, however, meaning they're protecting six and then tack on 4 more top end stars / managers. That leaves 7 players in limbo, including 5 players from seasons 18 to 22, all with between 1208 and 1322 TPE, with only 2 more protection slots to use. My guess is they'd leave Kelsier Summers and Diego Machado out to dry with no protection packages since 3 of their picks in the season 26 draft were other high earning midfielders, and then Alex Stain is older with lower TPE and probably in the pool.
Top Unprotected Players: Kelsier Summers, Diego Machado, Austin Morley
BUENOS AIRES & ATHENAI
Rule 1 (Old): Sterling Scott, Ryan Kirkpatrick
Rule 2 (IA): Aart de Trella, Askito Satoshi, Ron Wince, Berit Skovgaard, Louie Duck
Rule 3 (Expiring): N/A
Rule 4 (Young): Armero Staple, Mullet Man, Mecha Zilla, Moew enBach
Rule 5 (High TPE): Bengt Rubin, Roy Rivers
Rule 6 (Management): Daryl McManus, Giacomo Santori, Seth Mcneil (OM)
Not-Protected: 7
Must Protect: 8 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 10
Gold Ship misses the young player TPE cutoff by 3, but even without them Buenos Aires & Athens are sitting at 8 protected players. They have a lot of young players, s24 and newer, who are under the arbitrary cutoff I made. The org will have to pick between protecting young talent that aren't top-end earners and a collection of players between 1,000 and 1,500 TPE. I'm not really sure what the managers envision for this organization: If they're headed into a rebuild, they'll protect prospects such as Gold Ship, Curtis Yeager, and Zay Bailey for the future. If they're pushing for contention, then protections will go to Greedy McFootcakes, Tyranno Criminal, Sky Scraper, and maybe Askito Satoshi via pick packages.
Top Unprotected Players: Tyranno Criminal, Jonathan Munoz, Curtis Yeager, Don Lorenzo
CATALUNYA & SEOUL
Rule 1 (Old): Nobody!
Rule 2 (IA): King Szarekh, Bartholomew Twinkletoes (GK)
Rule 3 (Expiring): N/A
Rule 4 (Young): Dennis van Huntelrooy, Vyacheslav Shevchenko, Jayson Bryzski, STAR SCREAM
Rule 5 (High TPE): Bernardo Fry, Nikolai Ahmed
Rule 6 (Management): Joga Bonito, Pablo Kawasaki, Beelze Bot (OM)
Not-Protected: 2
Must Protect: 8 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 11
Only 2 people to cut bait on! TWO! Catalunya & Seoul are going to have a bunch of tough decisions here. Take out the OM and you have 11 players left, including EIGHT players from 1100 to 1465 TPE. I think they'll hold onto their active goalkeeper, Slothlenburg, but the crunch is at midfield with 5 midfielders all in that range and only spots to protect up to 4, via using both pick packages. I think David Doug II and Kim Heung-Min are most likely to not be protected since they're older, with slightly lower TPE, and in the minors. There's also no forwards on the Majors club so they might not feel any pressure to protect Luke Walker in the minors due to roster construction.
Top Unprotected Players: David Doug II, Kim Heung-Min, Luke Walker
HOLLYWOOD & CAPE TOWN
Rule 1 (Old): Ali Dia, Alexandros Mograine, Evan Hunt, Pete Martell, Henry Fantobens, Duncan Walrusson
Rule 2 (IA): Louis Ashworth, Howie Dewitt
Rule 3 (Expiring): N/A
Rule 4 (Young): Dante Von Wolfe, Nick Kasak, Felix Pedro, Joshua Homme III Esquire, Kaz Okada
Rule 5 (High TPE): Juozas Kupinas, Caspain Skovgaard, Alex Calderon, Maverick Jones (GK)
Rule 6 (Management): Ali Dia, Hercule Hefeweizen, Lucas Peixoto (OM)
Not-Protected: 8
Must Protect: 10 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 6
Hercule Hefeweizen is over 1800 TPE but about to become old (season 17). One of the expansion managers, domffl / Ali Dia, is actually on this organization. Dom is force retiring their player and re-creating I believe, so that's not an additional protection. I supposed they could promote somebody to AM and then they use up a protection slot, but who can say? That ends up at 10 people who fit the must protect criteria so there's only one more free spot. They have one additional player over 1500 TPE but under 1600 who isn't too old yet, Marean Dohbra, who will likely fill the last slot. After that it's some 1200 TPE players and young prospects - I wouldn't be surprised if they use a package on one of the players in the 1200 TPE range.
Top Unprotected Players: Xuxu Jang, Tommy Moff
LIFFEYSIDE & ROVA
Rule 1 (Old): Nobody!
Rule 2 (IA): Heung-Man Smalls, Matt Oopsie Wrongsport Turk, Robbie Schuurmans, Jaime Urena, Rena Schwarzer
Rule 3 (Expiring): Puma Superhoops
Rule 4 (Young): Jack Pow, Slabko Plackovic
Rule 5 (High TPE): Snor Lax
Rule 6 (Management): Carolien Miedema, Joseph Mathys Hendry, Chicken McTendie (OM)
Not-Protected: 6
Must Protect: 5 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 13
13 players in limbo is a new record! Liffeyside have a ton of picks from their first two drafts (22 & 23) so it will be a matter of sifting through those 8 picks alongside the rest of the roster. They have two high TPE earners from S24 in ilovezeagle and Rocket which I think they'll hold on to, which means only 4 more free slots. I think the org will use both protection packages to get the most they can out of the current roster construction, which is still pretty young overall, but if anybody goes into the pool I would guess it's Hughes-Galloway and one of Kika Bahl / Jay Cue Jr.
Top Unprotected Players: Orla Hughes-Galloway, Kika Bahl, Jay Cue Jr., Thomas Schwarte
REYKJAVIK & NORTH SHORE
Rule 1 (Old): Ilya Prusikin, Santos Neymarinho, Steven Urkel, Alessandro Del Pirlo, Marco Tentacles, Jean Girard, Brick Wall Jr.
Rule 2 (IA): Orlando Mastache Maldonado, Mikko Rashford IV
Rule 3 (Expiring): Mikko Rashford III
Rule 4 (Young): Kairo Vox, Alex Pena, Martin Krpan
Rule 5 (High TPE): Tre Qartista, George Shaheen, Santiado Mitidiero, Charlie Chambers, Dina Skovgaard
Rule 6 (Management): Fiery Chicken, Bimitar Derbatov, Mikko Rashford II (OM)
Not-Protected: 10
Must Protect: 10 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 3
Both Fiery Chicken and Bimitar Derbatov are AMs but on expiring contracts. I'm assuming they'll get new contracts and therefore be protected. We also run into a bit of a quandary here which was narrowly avoided with Hercule Hefeweizen, where Ilya Prusikin (S16, 1642 TPE) is both too old to protect via rule 1, but is high enough TPE to protect via rule 5. They'll have one free protection available after accounting for AMs and OMs. I think it will go to Zaza Banana who is almost at the 1600 TPE mark as a S21. I could also see them using pick packages to protect Dwayne Pruney (S23, 1251 TPE). Overall, based on the criteria I set, there won't be a lot of hard choices for the org.
Top Unprotected Players: Ilya Prusikin, Dwayne Pruney, Mikko Rashford III (sorta)
ROME & LONDON
Rule 1 (Old): Nobody!
Rule 2 (IA): Hippity Hoppity, Aidan Hutchinson Jr., Daedalus Kronus, Chef Gagne
Rule 3 (Expiring): Angry Lizard, Sharko Demarco
Rule 4 (Young): Maurjiro Rivers, Joao Mendes, Chris McZehrl, Van Jertonghen, Jimothy Erickson, Joseph Daniel Kakou
Rule 5 (High TPE): Nobody!
Rule 6 (Management): Predrag Dobric, Doctor Wad, Ryan Van Eyndhoven (OM)
Not-Protected: 6
Must Protect: 8 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 9
I think outside of the young players playing for London, there's not anyone worth protecting. It's also worth noting the Sharko Demarco would be in the must-protect category except for the fact that their contract is going to expire at the end of this season. There's 3 players in limbo on the minors team, from season 20 to 22 but not yet across 1,000 TPE. You can let those go. That leaves 6 players on Rome to sift through with 3 free slots. I think Letsie (GK) enters the pool as Kakou is only 200 TPE behind and 2 seasons younger. Sanji has the most TPE of anyone left so they're safe, and then it's a decision between two midfielders and two defenders. At midfield, Stoush and Sjoeman are from the same class, but Stoush has almost 200 fewer TPE. At defender, Flip is 4 seasons older with only a 21 TPE lead.
Top Unprotected Players: Brannigan Stoush, Coin Flip, Tumelo Letsie
SAO PAULO & PARIS
Rule 1 (Old): Eric Belmont
Rule 2 (IA): Nobody!
Rule 3 (Expiring): Nobody!
Rule 4 (Young): Owen Goal, Ignignokt, Saba Kvekvetsia
Rule 5 (High TPE): Julian Rubio, Dunkler Sowerwine, Zach Mulder, Slab Head, Joao Peixoto, Yoma Hashimoto, Benecio Aguilera III
Rule 6 (Management): Roquefort Cotswold, Ashito Aoi (OM)
Not-Protected: 1
Must Protect: 11 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 13
Sao Paulo and Paris are the first org to cap out on their protection slots based on these rules. Of the 13 players in limbo 7 of then are over 1300 TPE. Some of the absolute best players going into the pool are from this organization. Even spending pick packages to protect more players, there's just not any way to cover everyone. One thing to note is that Aguilera III, 2103 TPE from season 18, is down in the minors - maybe he goes unprotected to open up another protection slot?
Top Unprotected Players: Nerve De Groot, David Luiz Jr., Ben Nelson, Ozzy Trent Kovacs, Silver Tarandus, Eden Empire IV, Jakob Fensterhausen
SHANGHAI & MAGYAR
Rule 1 (Old): Nobody!
Rule 2 (IA): Damian DeSoto, Jordan Bamford, Stif Stampe
Rule 3 (Expiring): Franz van Grimbergen
Rule 4 (Young): Phil Space, S Sei, Owen Bryant, Joe Mormor, Josh Harper, Cory Stevens
Rule 5 (High TPE): Allie Bunson, BigMac Johnson, Trick Johnson, Tony Delvecchio, Petter Lind
Rule 6 (Management): Marcel Voda, Shingo Takechi, Thomas Hohenhahn (OM)
Not-Protected: 4
Must Protect: 13 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 7
And now we have a team over the protection cap! I tried to be strict enough with the rules to avoid this, but there's no shame in making it this far before it fell apart. Shanghai and Magyar suffer from too much of a good thing. They have 6 young prospects over the TPE threshold, most from the S26 draft, and then 5 high TPE players on top of management. I think this means everyone in their minors who isn't young will be open. They'll use pick packages to keep Thomas Jimotheus and Sam Albinson in Shanghai, which just leaves one majors starter to replace - defender Lan Mandragoran, assuming they get picked. But Magyar has 3 defenders over 1K TPE so as long as they're not all taken things will work out.
Top Unprotected Players: Lan Mandragoran, Arsene N'Goussou, Greg Evil, Damian DeSoto
TENOCHTITLAN & KRUNG THEP
Rule 1 (Old): Bérangère-Amandine Bruère-Estrangin (I copy and pasted this one I will not lie to you)
Rule 2 (IA): Dom Patterson, Billy Elliott, JG wentworth, Pardner Magool
Rule 3 (Expiring): Larv Itar
Rule 4 (Young): Blaise N'Kufo
Rule 5 (High TPE): Elizabeth Rose Bloodflame, Roger Roger, Mazeed al-Kazmi, Cesare Pinkman, Sandro da Silva, James Asprey
Rule 6 (Management): Andre Caetano (OM), Tonto Tut
Not-Protected: 5 (excl. Patterson)
Must Protect: 8 (+1 OM) (incl. Patterson)
Limbo: 9
A fun new quirk here is that Dom Patterson is both inactive and listed as an Assistant Manager which is the source of the notes up there. I'm not sure how easy it is to remove an AM? If it's just like a, snap your fingers and it happens situation, I think they'll get removed and potentially not protected? Before using pick packages, there's a pair of valuable players to protect in McNuggie (S23, 1155 TPE) and Jonny Elliott (S2, 1559 TPE), which leaves one free slot open. With an absolute dearth of young players, I wouldn't be surprised if Tenochtitlan protect their entire majors roster just to keep the window open a little bit longer.
Top Unprotected Players: Hanibal Armaros, Turd Ferguson, Dom Patterson (maybe)
TOKYO & CAIRO
Rule 1 (Old): Anthony Lee, Beaklie Eilish
Rule 2 (IA): Diglett Primarus, Killua Zoldyck jr, Johnny Crying
Rule 3 (Expiring): Alexis Ramos
Rule 4 (Young): Leonardo Stone, Baptiste Azzola, Emmanuel Ofusu, Ekon Ayo, Umaq Yupanqui
Rule 5 (High TPE): Ronflex
Rule 6 (Management): Vivi Nefertari (OM), Scorp E. Unshark, No Face
Not-Protected: 6
Must Protect: 8 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 10
Tokyo and Cairo only have one player over 1600 TPE and appear to be in a pretty heavy rebuild, with 11 players in the last 3 drafts, and only 2 players in the minors from before that. I think they'll lean more towards protecting their S24/S23 players such as You, Grizz, Woof, Bobby, and Dusk instead of their older players on the majors roster. Also given the state of the rebuild they won't want to extend any pick protection packages, meaning some of those older players go into the pool. I think Woof and Bobby are locks for two more slots since they're already on the majors. Of the others, Grizz seems the most likely to take the last protection pick since they have a 50 TPE lead over the next closest.
Top Unprotected Players: Leah Slothinson, Anthony Lee, Killua Zoldyck jr
XELAJU & MASQUES
Rule 1 (Old): Youthful!
Rule 2 (IA): Irepsej Imeinaktok, Resetti Moretti, Nacho Kusora
Rule 3 (Expiring): Karlach Cliffgate, Grimace, Capybara Chevalier, Brodie James
Rule 4 (Young): Isaiah Ali, Saphira Brightscales, Sadie Black, Le Chonk
Rule 5 (High TPE): None!
Rule 6 (Management): Stefano Rosini Samson Okoro (OM)
Not-Protected: 7
Must Protect: 5 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 11
The four players on expiring contracts is the most we've seen so far. If i were allowed to project forward, I'd expect all of them to be extended + protected but I can't. So, as it is, Xelaju have only 5 must protects which is tied for the fewest of any organization. I don't think they use any pick packages since it seems like they're in a rebuild with lots of picks from season 26. So they have 6 slots which I expect them to use on players like Emerson, Mizukana, Kunicki, Atliketwopercent and Mobek - all on the majors and between 1100 and 1500 TPE. They could choose to protect some of their lower earning players from recent drafts, like La'Mort or Ash (both S26 and just below 400 TPE), but I'm not sure the juice is worth the squeeze on that one.
Top Unprotected Players: Nico Grimes, Nico Lam, Scat Cat
Thanks for reading, see you all next week
I made a couple assumptions, which will be listed out right below this, about what broad strokes of players would or would not be protected. These are hard rules meaning I am assuming they're followed 100% of the time. Obviously it's hard to apply any rule like that but it really makes it easier for breaking everything down and looking at rosters. Additionally I have absolutely no view into locker rooms so it's possible that lower TPE players are core locker room users and that's not reflected in the budget sheet, but you work with what you have. My final two caveats are that I a) have no idea what I'm doing (both in terms of roster construction or timeline building) and b) am assuming that nothing changes contract/TPE wise from here to the date protections are due. Obviously people will keep earning, or might sign extensions, or go IA etc etc. but for the sake of this exercise I'm assuming everything stays as it is at this moment.
1) Teams will not protect players older than 10 years. Meaning their year on the budget page is S16 or older.
2) Teams will not protect inactive players (noted by an IA contract in the budget sheet)
3) Teams will not (cannot?) protect players on expiring contracts. This means ones ending in S26.
My assumption for those 3 platitudes is based on what is valuable to an organization. By and large, older players who are in regression are useful *now* but will have greatly diminished impact pretty quickly. There aren't many players that fit in there anyway, so it's fine. Similarly, why protect an IA (no or limited earning potential) over anybody active? To me, unless they're a very high TPE player it's not worth protecting IAs so I used that as a rule. And, last, if they're an expiring contract I don't think you can even protect them? But just in case.
4) Teams will protect players from the last 2 drafts, if gaining TPE at a good rate: >400 TPE for S26, >600 for S25
5) Teams will protect players with more than 1600 TPE (and also the one player at exactly 1600 TPE)
6) OMs + AMs are protected
These next 2 are about what players will be protected, and broadly fall into 2 camps. The first is young talent where you want to hold onto them in order to get a return on your investment, especially if they were a high pick. These are some of the most valuable assets in sim leagues: high earning users with young players. The next group is roughly the top 20% of all players, at or over 1600 TPE. High TPE is good. The last one is more a league rule than a me rule, but it helps clarify things.
I think these rules will lead to 11 or fewer players listed, which is good because then it means there's some decisions to make for the organization managers.
Each team will have the players who fall into the categories listed, then maybe some rambling, then who i think their 11 protected players are. If we feel spicy, maybe even list their top available players?
BLACK FOREST & MONTREAL
Rule 1 (Old): William Williams, Wang Zhihao
Rule 2 (IA): Maggie Sinclair, Zoe Clarke, Alex Stain, Cameron Millwall, Rokuv Gibraltar, Luis Fonseca (sorta)
Rule 3 (Expiring): Nobody new
Rule 4 (Young): Christopher Bergmann, Bruce McAllister, Reece Munro, Barry McGlynn, Vincent Haye, Domingo Hernandez
Rule 5 (High TPE): Cade Power
Rule 6 (Management): Tom Maeddisen, Matias Xavier, Siddhartha Kilgannon (OM)
Not-Protected: 8
Must Protect: 9 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 7
Black Forest has an immediate 8 players not worth protecting due to inactivity or age. They do have a very young group from the last two drafts, however, meaning they're protecting six and then tack on 4 more top end stars / managers. That leaves 7 players in limbo, including 5 players from seasons 18 to 22, all with between 1208 and 1322 TPE, with only 2 more protection slots to use. My guess is they'd leave Kelsier Summers and Diego Machado out to dry with no protection packages since 3 of their picks in the season 26 draft were other high earning midfielders, and then Alex Stain is older with lower TPE and probably in the pool.
Top Unprotected Players: Kelsier Summers, Diego Machado, Austin Morley
BUENOS AIRES & ATHENAI
Rule 1 (Old): Sterling Scott, Ryan Kirkpatrick
Rule 2 (IA): Aart de Trella, Askito Satoshi, Ron Wince, Berit Skovgaard, Louie Duck
Rule 3 (Expiring): N/A
Rule 4 (Young): Armero Staple, Mullet Man, Mecha Zilla, Moew enBach
Rule 5 (High TPE): Bengt Rubin, Roy Rivers
Rule 6 (Management): Daryl McManus, Giacomo Santori, Seth Mcneil (OM)
Not-Protected: 7
Must Protect: 8 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 10
Gold Ship misses the young player TPE cutoff by 3, but even without them Buenos Aires & Athens are sitting at 8 protected players. They have a lot of young players, s24 and newer, who are under the arbitrary cutoff I made. The org will have to pick between protecting young talent that aren't top-end earners and a collection of players between 1,000 and 1,500 TPE. I'm not really sure what the managers envision for this organization: If they're headed into a rebuild, they'll protect prospects such as Gold Ship, Curtis Yeager, and Zay Bailey for the future. If they're pushing for contention, then protections will go to Greedy McFootcakes, Tyranno Criminal, Sky Scraper, and maybe Askito Satoshi via pick packages.
Top Unprotected Players: Tyranno Criminal, Jonathan Munoz, Curtis Yeager, Don Lorenzo
CATALUNYA & SEOUL
Rule 1 (Old): Nobody!
Rule 2 (IA): King Szarekh, Bartholomew Twinkletoes (GK)
Rule 3 (Expiring): N/A
Rule 4 (Young): Dennis van Huntelrooy, Vyacheslav Shevchenko, Jayson Bryzski, STAR SCREAM
Rule 5 (High TPE): Bernardo Fry, Nikolai Ahmed
Rule 6 (Management): Joga Bonito, Pablo Kawasaki, Beelze Bot (OM)
Not-Protected: 2
Must Protect: 8 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 11
Only 2 people to cut bait on! TWO! Catalunya & Seoul are going to have a bunch of tough decisions here. Take out the OM and you have 11 players left, including EIGHT players from 1100 to 1465 TPE. I think they'll hold onto their active goalkeeper, Slothlenburg, but the crunch is at midfield with 5 midfielders all in that range and only spots to protect up to 4, via using both pick packages. I think David Doug II and Kim Heung-Min are most likely to not be protected since they're older, with slightly lower TPE, and in the minors. There's also no forwards on the Majors club so they might not feel any pressure to protect Luke Walker in the minors due to roster construction.
Top Unprotected Players: David Doug II, Kim Heung-Min, Luke Walker
HOLLYWOOD & CAPE TOWN
Rule 1 (Old): Ali Dia, Alexandros Mograine, Evan Hunt, Pete Martell, Henry Fantobens, Duncan Walrusson
Rule 2 (IA): Louis Ashworth, Howie Dewitt
Rule 3 (Expiring): N/A
Rule 4 (Young): Dante Von Wolfe, Nick Kasak, Felix Pedro, Joshua Homme III Esquire, Kaz Okada
Rule 5 (High TPE): Juozas Kupinas, Caspain Skovgaard, Alex Calderon, Maverick Jones (GK)
Rule 6 (Management): Ali Dia, Hercule Hefeweizen, Lucas Peixoto (OM)
Not-Protected: 8
Must Protect: 10 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 6
Hercule Hefeweizen is over 1800 TPE but about to become old (season 17). One of the expansion managers, domffl / Ali Dia, is actually on this organization. Dom is force retiring their player and re-creating I believe, so that's not an additional protection. I supposed they could promote somebody to AM and then they use up a protection slot, but who can say? That ends up at 10 people who fit the must protect criteria so there's only one more free spot. They have one additional player over 1500 TPE but under 1600 who isn't too old yet, Marean Dohbra, who will likely fill the last slot. After that it's some 1200 TPE players and young prospects - I wouldn't be surprised if they use a package on one of the players in the 1200 TPE range.
Top Unprotected Players: Xuxu Jang, Tommy Moff
LIFFEYSIDE & ROVA
Rule 1 (Old): Nobody!
Rule 2 (IA): Heung-Man Smalls, Matt Oopsie Wrongsport Turk, Robbie Schuurmans, Jaime Urena, Rena Schwarzer
Rule 3 (Expiring): Puma Superhoops
Rule 4 (Young): Jack Pow, Slabko Plackovic
Rule 5 (High TPE): Snor Lax
Rule 6 (Management): Carolien Miedema, Joseph Mathys Hendry, Chicken McTendie (OM)
Not-Protected: 6
Must Protect: 5 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 13
13 players in limbo is a new record! Liffeyside have a ton of picks from their first two drafts (22 & 23) so it will be a matter of sifting through those 8 picks alongside the rest of the roster. They have two high TPE earners from S24 in ilovezeagle and Rocket which I think they'll hold on to, which means only 4 more free slots. I think the org will use both protection packages to get the most they can out of the current roster construction, which is still pretty young overall, but if anybody goes into the pool I would guess it's Hughes-Galloway and one of Kika Bahl / Jay Cue Jr.
Top Unprotected Players: Orla Hughes-Galloway, Kika Bahl, Jay Cue Jr., Thomas Schwarte
REYKJAVIK & NORTH SHORE
Rule 1 (Old): Ilya Prusikin, Santos Neymarinho, Steven Urkel, Alessandro Del Pirlo, Marco Tentacles, Jean Girard, Brick Wall Jr.
Rule 2 (IA): Orlando Mastache Maldonado, Mikko Rashford IV
Rule 3 (Expiring): Mikko Rashford III
Rule 4 (Young): Kairo Vox, Alex Pena, Martin Krpan
Rule 5 (High TPE): Tre Qartista, George Shaheen, Santiado Mitidiero, Charlie Chambers, Dina Skovgaard
Rule 6 (Management): Fiery Chicken, Bimitar Derbatov, Mikko Rashford II (OM)
Not-Protected: 10
Must Protect: 10 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 3
Both Fiery Chicken and Bimitar Derbatov are AMs but on expiring contracts. I'm assuming they'll get new contracts and therefore be protected. We also run into a bit of a quandary here which was narrowly avoided with Hercule Hefeweizen, where Ilya Prusikin (S16, 1642 TPE) is both too old to protect via rule 1, but is high enough TPE to protect via rule 5. They'll have one free protection available after accounting for AMs and OMs. I think it will go to Zaza Banana who is almost at the 1600 TPE mark as a S21. I could also see them using pick packages to protect Dwayne Pruney (S23, 1251 TPE). Overall, based on the criteria I set, there won't be a lot of hard choices for the org.
Top Unprotected Players: Ilya Prusikin, Dwayne Pruney, Mikko Rashford III (sorta)
ROME & LONDON
Rule 1 (Old): Nobody!
Rule 2 (IA): Hippity Hoppity, Aidan Hutchinson Jr., Daedalus Kronus, Chef Gagne
Rule 3 (Expiring): Angry Lizard, Sharko Demarco
Rule 4 (Young): Maurjiro Rivers, Joao Mendes, Chris McZehrl, Van Jertonghen, Jimothy Erickson, Joseph Daniel Kakou
Rule 5 (High TPE): Nobody!
Rule 6 (Management): Predrag Dobric, Doctor Wad, Ryan Van Eyndhoven (OM)
Not-Protected: 6
Must Protect: 8 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 9
I think outside of the young players playing for London, there's not anyone worth protecting. It's also worth noting the Sharko Demarco would be in the must-protect category except for the fact that their contract is going to expire at the end of this season. There's 3 players in limbo on the minors team, from season 20 to 22 but not yet across 1,000 TPE. You can let those go. That leaves 6 players on Rome to sift through with 3 free slots. I think Letsie (GK) enters the pool as Kakou is only 200 TPE behind and 2 seasons younger. Sanji has the most TPE of anyone left so they're safe, and then it's a decision between two midfielders and two defenders. At midfield, Stoush and Sjoeman are from the same class, but Stoush has almost 200 fewer TPE. At defender, Flip is 4 seasons older with only a 21 TPE lead.
Top Unprotected Players: Brannigan Stoush, Coin Flip, Tumelo Letsie
SAO PAULO & PARIS
Rule 1 (Old): Eric Belmont
Rule 2 (IA): Nobody!
Rule 3 (Expiring): Nobody!
Rule 4 (Young): Owen Goal, Ignignokt, Saba Kvekvetsia
Rule 5 (High TPE): Julian Rubio, Dunkler Sowerwine, Zach Mulder, Slab Head, Joao Peixoto, Yoma Hashimoto, Benecio Aguilera III
Rule 6 (Management): Roquefort Cotswold, Ashito Aoi (OM)
Not-Protected: 1
Must Protect: 11 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 13
Sao Paulo and Paris are the first org to cap out on their protection slots based on these rules. Of the 13 players in limbo 7 of then are over 1300 TPE. Some of the absolute best players going into the pool are from this organization. Even spending pick packages to protect more players, there's just not any way to cover everyone. One thing to note is that Aguilera III, 2103 TPE from season 18, is down in the minors - maybe he goes unprotected to open up another protection slot?
Top Unprotected Players: Nerve De Groot, David Luiz Jr., Ben Nelson, Ozzy Trent Kovacs, Silver Tarandus, Eden Empire IV, Jakob Fensterhausen
SHANGHAI & MAGYAR
Rule 1 (Old): Nobody!
Rule 2 (IA): Damian DeSoto, Jordan Bamford, Stif Stampe
Rule 3 (Expiring): Franz van Grimbergen
Rule 4 (Young): Phil Space, S Sei, Owen Bryant, Joe Mormor, Josh Harper, Cory Stevens
Rule 5 (High TPE): Allie Bunson, BigMac Johnson, Trick Johnson, Tony Delvecchio, Petter Lind
Rule 6 (Management): Marcel Voda, Shingo Takechi, Thomas Hohenhahn (OM)
Not-Protected: 4
Must Protect: 13 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 7
And now we have a team over the protection cap! I tried to be strict enough with the rules to avoid this, but there's no shame in making it this far before it fell apart. Shanghai and Magyar suffer from too much of a good thing. They have 6 young prospects over the TPE threshold, most from the S26 draft, and then 5 high TPE players on top of management. I think this means everyone in their minors who isn't young will be open. They'll use pick packages to keep Thomas Jimotheus and Sam Albinson in Shanghai, which just leaves one majors starter to replace - defender Lan Mandragoran, assuming they get picked. But Magyar has 3 defenders over 1K TPE so as long as they're not all taken things will work out.
Top Unprotected Players: Lan Mandragoran, Arsene N'Goussou, Greg Evil, Damian DeSoto
TENOCHTITLAN & KRUNG THEP
Rule 1 (Old): Bérangère-Amandine Bruère-Estrangin (I copy and pasted this one I will not lie to you)
Rule 2 (IA): Dom Patterson, Billy Elliott, JG wentworth, Pardner Magool
Rule 3 (Expiring): Larv Itar
Rule 4 (Young): Blaise N'Kufo
Rule 5 (High TPE): Elizabeth Rose Bloodflame, Roger Roger, Mazeed al-Kazmi, Cesare Pinkman, Sandro da Silva, James Asprey
Rule 6 (Management): Andre Caetano (OM), Tonto Tut
Not-Protected: 5 (excl. Patterson)
Must Protect: 8 (+1 OM) (incl. Patterson)
Limbo: 9
A fun new quirk here is that Dom Patterson is both inactive and listed as an Assistant Manager which is the source of the notes up there. I'm not sure how easy it is to remove an AM? If it's just like a, snap your fingers and it happens situation, I think they'll get removed and potentially not protected? Before using pick packages, there's a pair of valuable players to protect in McNuggie (S23, 1155 TPE) and Jonny Elliott (S2, 1559 TPE), which leaves one free slot open. With an absolute dearth of young players, I wouldn't be surprised if Tenochtitlan protect their entire majors roster just to keep the window open a little bit longer.
Top Unprotected Players: Hanibal Armaros, Turd Ferguson, Dom Patterson (maybe)
TOKYO & CAIRO
Rule 1 (Old): Anthony Lee, Beaklie Eilish
Rule 2 (IA): Diglett Primarus, Killua Zoldyck jr, Johnny Crying
Rule 3 (Expiring): Alexis Ramos
Rule 4 (Young): Leonardo Stone, Baptiste Azzola, Emmanuel Ofusu, Ekon Ayo, Umaq Yupanqui
Rule 5 (High TPE): Ronflex
Rule 6 (Management): Vivi Nefertari (OM), Scorp E. Unshark, No Face
Not-Protected: 6
Must Protect: 8 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 10
Tokyo and Cairo only have one player over 1600 TPE and appear to be in a pretty heavy rebuild, with 11 players in the last 3 drafts, and only 2 players in the minors from before that. I think they'll lean more towards protecting their S24/S23 players such as You, Grizz, Woof, Bobby, and Dusk instead of their older players on the majors roster. Also given the state of the rebuild they won't want to extend any pick protection packages, meaning some of those older players go into the pool. I think Woof and Bobby are locks for two more slots since they're already on the majors. Of the others, Grizz seems the most likely to take the last protection pick since they have a 50 TPE lead over the next closest.
Top Unprotected Players: Leah Slothinson, Anthony Lee, Killua Zoldyck jr
XELAJU & MASQUES
Rule 1 (Old): Youthful!
Rule 2 (IA): Irepsej Imeinaktok, Resetti Moretti, Nacho Kusora
Rule 3 (Expiring): Karlach Cliffgate, Grimace, Capybara Chevalier, Brodie James
Rule 4 (Young): Isaiah Ali, Saphira Brightscales, Sadie Black, Le Chonk
Rule 5 (High TPE): None!
Rule 6 (Management): Stefano Rosini Samson Okoro (OM)
Not-Protected: 7
Must Protect: 5 (+1 OM)
Limbo: 11
The four players on expiring contracts is the most we've seen so far. If i were allowed to project forward, I'd expect all of them to be extended + protected but I can't. So, as it is, Xelaju have only 5 must protects which is tied for the fewest of any organization. I don't think they use any pick packages since it seems like they're in a rebuild with lots of picks from season 26. So they have 6 slots which I expect them to use on players like Emerson, Mizukana, Kunicki, Atliketwopercent and Mobek - all on the majors and between 1100 and 1500 TPE. They could choose to protect some of their lower earning players from recent drafts, like La'Mort or Ash (both S26 and just below 400 TPE), but I'm not sure the juice is worth the squeeze on that one.
Top Unprotected Players: Nico Grimes, Nico Lam, Scat Cat
Thanks for reading, see you all next week
![[Image: 5ukCmzz.png]](https://i.imgur.com/5ukCmzz.png)
