Ark Premier League

Introduction
The Ark Premier League is the official football (soccer) league of the Nations Of Ascended Honor (NOAH), one of the greatest soccer alliances in CyberNations. As such, it is open to current members of NOAH to join. New membership in the league is added starting 2 weeks before the end of the current season, and the cutoff is the start of the new season. Information for joining NOAH and the Ark Premier League can be found here

This is a highly competitive league hosted on the Xpert Eleven site. In the league, you manage a team, both in the forming and training of the team, and also in the setting of rosters and tactics for every match. You even have the options of buying and selling talent, as well as developing new players from the youth league. Best of all, you get to match up against other players on the pitch and watch as the games are played out, to see how your carefully selected players compete on the world stage in their quest to win the coveted Ark Trophy of Glory!

Season 4 is underway. Registration for Season 5 begins March 29, 2008, so check back then for more information if you would like to participate in the greatest of football leagues!

Ark Premier League Champions

Season 1: VolNation Mighty Volunteers

Season 2: Belvon Crusaders

Season 3: VolNation Mighty Volunteers

Season 4: Season underway, concluding on 4/11/08!

Season 5: Registration starts 3/29/08!

Recap
The inaugural season of the Ark Premier League began with 7 clubs participating. Early on, both the VolNation Mighty Volunteers and the Franciscan Monks esablished themselves as frontrunners winning their first two matches. The Glasgow Destinies, upon defeating the Monks in Round 4, also worked their way up to take their place among the league leaders. In a subplot, also in Round 4, a dispute as to the King of NOAH Spam was played out on the pitch, where the Republic of Scotland took the title with a victory over Viridian Athletic (known as Elbows United at the time). Meanwhile, the VolNation Mighty Volunteers continued their winning ways, acumulating 4 victories until they were upset 5-2 by the Belvon Crusaders. Belvon had been flying under the radar after having lost its first 2 matches, but with this victory, they too served notice that they would be a major player in the League. The Monks took advantage of the VolNation defeat by moving into a tie for first, setting up a Round 7 showdown between the two clubs. This match ended in a draw, which coupled with Glasgow and Belvon victories, left all four clubs within two points of each other at the halfway point of the season.

The second half of the season was played in reverse order to the first half, with home fields switching. In round 8, the Mighty Volunteers took advantage of homefield to defeat the Monks and take sole possession of first. With wins by Belvon and Glasgow, the Monks slid from first to fourth. In the next round, in the third straight matching of first and second place teams, the Mighty Volunteers evened the score against the Crusaders, and following Monk and Destiny wins, the Mighty Volunteers had opened up a 2 point margin on the pack and the Crusaders slipped back to fourth. That margin, however, did not hold up as the Mighty Volunteers demonstrated a complete inability to win on the road, which allowed the Monks, Crusaders, and Destinies right back up to the top. In Round 11, a win by the Crusaders, and a tie between the Monks and Destinies, allowed the Crusaders to take first place for the first time in the season, passing the Mighty Volunteers, who due to their bye week, slipped all the way back to third behind the Crusaders and Monks, with the Destinies right on their tail. In Round 12, with the Monks on their bye week, the Mighty volunteers managing yet another tie on the road, and the Crusaders decisively beating the Destinies, it looked like the Crusaders were firmly in the drivers seat with 2 rounds left and a 3 point lead over the second place Mighty Volunteers. Even with the last round being the Crusaders bye week, the Crusaders could virtually clinch the first Ark Trophy of Glory with a round 13 win over the Monks. However, the Monks handed the Crusaders a decisive 3-1 loss, and coupled with a VolNation win at home and a Destiny victory, there was once again a tie at the top between the Crusaders and Mighty Volunteers, with the Monks one point back and the Destinies 3 points back.

The Crusaders hopes for the trophy rested on Glasgow defeating the Mighty Volunteers in Glasgow and the Monks losing or tying their away match to Celtic. To the delight of the Crusaders, Celtic came up big, pulling off a tie with the Monks, keeping the Monks behind the Crusaders due to point differential. But it was the streets of VolNation that filled with celebrating fans as the Mighty Volunteers won only their second road match, defeating the Destinies 2-0. A suitably wild ending to an exciting first season of play for the Ark Premier League.

Season 4
Follow this link for up-to-date standings

Season 5
Registration begins 3/20/08