The 2011 BA team also played up a year this year. Seems like their option was to kill the teams in the E9 on their own level or move up. The 2013 team has also lost no games to any other E9 team. BA should probably just be in the EHF.

Individual players also matter too. Just because a team is bad doesn't mean all the players are bad. There are some EHF teams that suck and have won no games but there might be a kid or two on the team who are actually good. Why they stay on those teams I don't know. Maybe it's a loyalty thing.

Same for E9- I can think of a few E9 teams that aren't doing well that have great players who are most likely going on to play college hockey someday. As long as individual players make progress the team they're on doesn't always matter in the end.