In my d.III last season I was doing gameday summaries in a season where we know that Yuck was gonna dominate anyway. I thought I might bring some of that here too, but I'm too lazy to actually do a *comprehensive* league analysis. So I'll start with one game per conference.
We'll start with the Great 8, because the big hitters are there.
The HipsterBears visited Belvedere Square Market and left with a big win against Belvedere Square Lakers. Somehow the Great 8 got two teams that relegated from the NBBA. HipsterBears is one of them and on this day they face one of the impressive promoted teams. I haven't scouted the Great 8 all that carefully yet, but BSL went for 2-3/balanced-normal GDP, so I assume that HipsterBears often play II. They switched it up this time, though, and the busted guess was likely the difference maker here. Some notable scoreboard elements: Vasilko (BSL) put up 40 points in 40 minutes while HipsterBears spread the scoring with 29 assists and 5 starters in double digits.
In the Big 8, the most interesting match was SK @ Prairie Dogs. SK needed a win after getting stung by my boys in the opener, and despite the half missed/half right GDP they got it. This game was tight and if I had to infer a difference maker from the box score I'd say that the 22 free-throw (19 made) for SK ended up being key (but I'd have to rewatch the third quarter to be sure: SK went 27-13 in it). Prairie Dogs put up a 136 Buzzermanager rating: this is one of the highest I've seen this season, and certainly the highest in a loss. Their 0-2 record does not reflect their actual strength.
In general, it seems that the Big 8 will be somewhat "flatter" with teams playing not too differently from each other and the Great 8 will have a clearer top and bottom. But it's early to tell.