Players in classic league with an overall winning % of:
80 or higher: elite 6, hysteria 4.
70-80%: elite 23, hysteria 14.
Elite had 39 pages of players, Hysteria about 46. Hysteria is a little bit more played.
Players with 30 or less games played weren't counted.
I guess that says (ceteris paribus) Elite is less luck based than Hyst. But you can't say hyst is entirely luck based.
For me the issue is not the luck-factor, but the dubious tactics and the extent to which a scheme rewards cheap play.
Elite, Team17 and Intermediate don't have such loopholes... at all. (afaik)
Roper has some (see for example the clanner I played vs bh, the map was so hard that sd was impossible to make for them. I was 1vs2, so the only thing I had to do was place a mine near one of the other guys, but not near enough to make it explode, cause that would be cow. And then set them off the next turn to take around 30 dmg. without ever making any attempt to w2w). A more common example are top hides (which one MIGHT call cheap).
Shopper has some. The 1st turn plop I mentioned. As well as maybe the petrol attack, which is IMO something that should be taken out by scheme. Same for flamethrowers.
BnG has plenty. This scheme basically revolves around who is able to cheap the most. Through placement, hides, repeat shots, notching, bouncing/sitting, weapon choice, etcetera.
Hysteria has plenty as well. From simple side-hides to telecow and 80 HP sui's.
WxW: fairly clean, see shopper + benefit for the guy who has map experience.
TTRR: clean. Even map advantage has little profit here.
Based on 'scheme flaws' as mentioned above alone, BnG and Hyst might be reconsidered.
But if you were to remove those two you'd end up with a very unbalanced league, where 66% of the schemes are rope based. Even with intermediate included (which is IMO an entirely different game than elite or t17) the league would still be unbalanced.
I personally don't think it's a bad idea to put in some kind of weighing system.
Class A: Elite.
Class B: Ropes: (Roper, TTRR)
Class C: Default misc (Team17, Hysteria, Intermediate)
Class D: Small schemes (Shopper, WxW, BnG, Aerial + alternating decent Freeleague scheme)
If each of these classes accounts for 25% of a player's overall season rating it would balance the league a lot better IMO.
The importance of schemes would be:
Elite 25%
Roper and TTRR 12.5% each (as it is today)
Team17, Hysteria and Intermediate 8.33%
Shopper, WxW, BnG, Aerial + Freeleague scheme 5% each.
This greatly decreases the importance of 'broken' schemes. And adds more importance to those that arent: elite, roper and ttrr.