They take more into consideration other than just money spent but it is a piece of it, probably a big one. I'd bet not cheating is a big part too. (not accusing you or anyone, just saying)
Hmm I picked a west coast team, that way I get the boost during crunch time at the end of events. It doesn't always work out, but when it does it sure is nice, but I live in a state that has no team, and I'm a Seattle Seahawks fan so I went with Mariners
I'd even take a market place like in madden mobile, so you could load teams up and cheat. It's just a blind auction for money or gold. So when you get 4 third basemen that are awesome you can sell 2 and get the other position you need that still has a 4 star
I don't know about glu specifically, but I work in IT Security, and they may be tracing your device ID, IP address of your phone or wifi at home, or your Mac address. Then even if you create a new team it will just pop up on their software that a team was created on a blacklisted device, then they jail it, legit team or…
Agreed, I was struggling bad at silver but am killing it and cycling at gold. Last year I went platinum too quick and could never do anything on WOH... So don't level your team too quick