As the third season of ISL comes to an end, the power balance is the same as before
As the third season of ISL comes to an end, the power balance is the same as before
The ISL regular season is over, and although the league is changing the sport of swimming, one thing remains constant.
Let’s see if you can spot it. Here are the finalists for each of the league’s first two seasons:
- 2019: Energy Standard, London Roar, Cali Condors, LA Current
- 2020: Cali Condors, London Roar, Energy Standard, LA Current
And after 10 matches in the 2021 season, the league standings are as follows:
- Energy standard 16
- Condors of Cali 15
- London Roar 13
- Toronto Titans 12
- LA Current 11
- Aquatic Centurions 10
- Iron team 8
- Tokyo Frog Kings 6
- Trident DC 5
- NY Breakers 4
By some metrics, Toronto sneaking into fourth place could be classified as a variety. By others, LA Current drops from fourth to fifth in a season where they haven’t had a superstar Ryan murphy it’s really more the same. With the playoffs ahead and Toronto’s poor performance in Game 9, there can be no assurance that the Energy-Cali-London-LA blockade will be broken when the league travels to Eindhoven for its playoffs in November.
Konstantin Grigorichin doesn’t appear to be such a parity-conscious person, and the insistence on this seems to be a particular blockade of US sports leagues, with their penchant for redistributive writing. But there is a fine line for the league to move forward. Coherent identities and philosophies are great, but at some point swimmers from the New York Breakers and DC Trident must see their enthusiasm wane like a constant punching bag in the team standings.
It’s worth looking at the positives first. Teams have, over two or three seasons, shaped unique identities, and these can certainly fluctuate as does the fortunes of the nations they are based on. Does Italy have a historic Olympic performance? Good for Aqua Centurions. Japan struggling under pressure to host the Tokyo Games? Too bad for the Frog Kings. You saw the cost to the London Roar last year without their Australian contingent and the Toronto Titans soaring following Canada’s success at the Olympics.
Some imbalances are inevitable. As long as American talent is widely distributed among four franchises and the college system excludes a large part of this talent pool (especially since the stars on the female side are younger like in Tokyo), there will be a deficit incurred. by someone. The decision to broaden the impact of distance swimmers was a boon for teams at the bottom of the standings last year like Toronto (via Alberto Razzetti and Summer McIntosh), circuit breakers (Abbie Bois and Brendon Smith) and the Trident (Bailey Andison).
But the ISL scoring system is inherently very cumbersome. Having solid depth in the middle of the pack is useless if another team’s superstar steals the jackpot. It is even more pronounced in the relays. If you’re lacking in sprint depth (that’s Tokyo and New York) then skins aren’t promising for you.
This leaves the only obvious remedy for a redistribution of star swimmers. ISL has been reluctant to do so; in some cases – like Siobhan Haughey switch from DC to Energy Standard – this reduced the star power of the teams. The ability to attract athletes is, to some extent, in the hands of each program, and the onus is on franchises to do so, financially and otherwise. But when you see, as is often the case, a team like the Condors or Energy Standard capable of producing the top four or five or seven of the top 10 scorers in a game, there’s a clear imbalance.
ISL generates enthusiasm in sport. It’s just a question if the similarity of leaders year after year is going to flatten that out.