Well, I did't get demoted from City league last week, and I'm not playing this week, so here's hoping I get demoted.
The thing that's killed it for me is the assignments. I have a fully-developed City, with 2.2m population and just 2/3 spare building plots. Asking me to upgrade 3 Residential, or 2 London Town, buildings might work for a lot of people, but the only way I could do that [2400/2000 points on the current challenge] is to demolish something and then start rebuilding. Somehow that seems a bit perverse!
As to those who seem to zoom to the top of the Leaderboard with huge scores in no time at all, I really do wonder how they do it 'honestly'.
As long as you have one spare place you should be able to do upgrade residential/tokyo/london/paris zones missions. Just start a new building in the empty spot, no need to have full coverage of all services. Then upgrade the building which should be easy (i.e. just one special item) then you demolish the building. Repeat. (this didn't work a couple of weeks ago if I remember correctly)Disclaimer: this works for me on lvl 29, might be different on higher levels. see my guide http://answers.ea.com/t5/SimCity-BuildIt-Strategies/Being-competetive-in-Mayors-League-without-spending-real-money/m-p/5389133#U5389133
If you have no space at all then you can demolish the cheapest service building (unhappy sims) and thereby getting enough space to start a new building. Start new building, upgrade, demolish, repeat, rebuild service building (sims are happy again). Expensive, but makes the mission doable. Disclaimer: I have never had a full city so I haven't tested this. But it should work. If you try it please let me know.
/Brian
I take your point, and indeed I have done that in the past.
