World Baseball Classic Discussion Thread

[Gregoryisgodistan]

I think one of the problems is the incredible randomness of the tournament. Nations who RP get knocked out early, leaving people who can't be bothered to. Of the five nations still alive (one of whom will be done after tonight), only Schiltzberg has posted more than one RP. Milchama hasn't posted a roster (though he does have an RP), Czesc has a roster but no RP, and Devonta has nothing. Maklohi Vai has a roster and an RP, but only one so far. Schiltzberg, to his credit, has been RPing almost every day, but he had no rank heading into this tournament so some people could complain we're giving too little weight to that. Truth is that he was in a group where nobody except him even posted a roster and beat a nation with a roster but no RP in the Round of 16. The only ranked nation who RP'ed that he beat was Abanhfleft in the Quarters, and one of them had to lose. And Abanhfleft wasn't ranked that high.

Playing three game series all in one day may not be a bad idea, though it's not as simple to scorinate so some people may be reluctant to bid that way. It's been done at least once in both the WBC and IBS and there were no real problems. And some people might not appreciate the fact that the tournament is IC-ly taking three times as long for the group stage, which is another problem. Plus some people might consider it too fast a pace, give up, and not RP at all. It's not a perfect solution.

The only really perfect solution would be to create a new scorinator to reduce randomness, much as Saintland/FFR did for (gridiron) football and ice hockey, but it's not as simple as just saying do it. I'm guessing baseball is harder to code because of the linescores, though I personally wouldn't be heartbroken to see those go as long as it showed the number of innings.

[Kaboomlandia]

It might be needed to revisit how much rank is worth vs RPing. For example:

• Ko-oren (17) RPed pretty consistently and missed
• Cosumar (7) RPed sparingly once or twice, I think) and nearly missed the playoffs
• Freelands of Natives and Free Swiss States both CTEd and finished in advancement position
• Czesc goes 8-2 and wins the group with a roster and no RP

[Gregoryisgodistan]

It might be needed to revisit how much rank is worth vs RPing. For example:

• Ko-oren (17) RPed pretty consistently and missed
• Cosumar (7) RPed sparingly once or twice, I think) and nearly missed the playoffs
• Freelands of Natives and Free Swiss States both CTEd and finished in advancement position
• Czesc goes 8-2 and wins the group with a roster and no RP

That's up to each individual host. The Taxachusetts bid would have ditched ranks altogether, but it lost to nobody and I bid instead. The RP bonus I'm using here is, relative to the highest rank, roughly what has been used in the last two or three World Cups of Hockey, where the bid explicitly stated there would be a max of 3 points per day (Ko-oren and I are doing the same in WCoH 27). And that tournament hasn't had much issue with this, especially since we switched to Saintlnad/Taxachusetts/FFR's new SQIS formula.

The only other differences are that the group stage here is slightly longer (10 days as opposed to about 7) and that the highest-ranked nation, Jeckland, didn't actually sign up, meaning the max I entered in xkoronate was the maximum the highest-ranked nation who actually entered (me, ranked second) could have earned up until that point. But the ratio is actually closer to equal when you use my rank than when you use Jeck's anyway.

Also, you need to look at coefficients rather than just rankings. The difference between Jeckland and Super-Llamaland (#1 and #5, even if neither of them entered) is roughly the same as the difference between Super-Llamaland and #13 Maklohi Vai, between Maklohi Vai and #33 Abanhfleft, or between Abanhfleft and an unranked team.

[Kaboomlandia]

So, the four semifinal teams for this rendition, with their pre-tourney rankings:

Milchama (11)
Devonta (58)
Schiltzberg (NR)
Czesc (NR)

[Maklohi Vai]

I think one of the problems is the incredible randomness of the tournament. Nations who RP get knocked out early, leaving people who can't be bothered to. Of the five nations still alive (one of whom will be done after tonight), only Schiltzberg has posted more than one RP. Milchama hasn't posted a roster (though he does have an RP), Czesc has a roster but no RP, and Devonta has nothing. Maklohi Vai has a roster and an RP, but only one so far. Schiltzberg, to his credit, has been RPing almost every day, but he had no rank heading into this tournament so some people could complain we're giving too little weight to that. Truth is that he was in a group where nobody except him even posted a roster and beat a nation with a roster but no RP in the Round of 16. The only ranked nation who RP'ed that he beat was Abanhfleft in the Quarters, and one of them had to lose. And Abanhfleft wasn't ranked that high.

Playing three game series all in one day may not be a bad idea, though it's not as simple to scorinate so some people may be reluctant to bid that way. It's been done at least once in both the WBC and IBS and there were no real problems. And some people might not appreciate the fact that the tournament is IC-ly taking three times as long for the group stage, which is another problem. Plus some people might consider it too fast a pace, give up, and not RP at all. It's not a perfect solution.

The only really perfect solution would be to create a new scorinator to reduce randomness, much as Saintland/FFR did for (gridiron) football and ice hockey, but it's not as simple as just saying do it. I'm guessing baseball is harder to code because of the linescores, though I personally wouldn't be heartbroken to see those go as long as it showed the number of innings.

I think the clearest solution is to have an explicitly higher weighting of RP in the next WBC. I would support that over ditching the ranks as Saintland proposed in his puppet's bid.

[Tree Death]

Thursday isn't May 22? *gasp*

Votes are due May 22, not Thursday. Sorry.

[Gregoryisgodistan]

Results please?

[Kaboomlandia]

I think one of the problems is the incredible randomness of the tournament. Nations who RP get knocked out early, leaving people who can't be bothered to. Of the five nations still alive (one of whom will be done after tonight), only Schiltzberg has posted more than one RP. Milchama hasn't posted a roster (though he does have an RP), Czesc has a roster but no RP, and Devonta has nothing. Maklohi Vai has a roster and an RP, but only one so far. Schiltzberg, to his credit, has been RPing almost every day, but he had no rank heading into this tournament so some people could complain we're giving too little weight to that. Truth is that he was in a group where nobody except him even posted a roster and beat a nation with a roster but no RP in the Round of 16. The only ranked nation who RP'ed that he beat was Abanhfleft in the Quarters, and one of them had to lose. And Abanhfleft wasn't ranked that high.

Playing three game series all in one day may not be a bad idea, though it's not as simple to scorinate so some people may be reluctant to bid that way. It's been done at least once in both the WBC and IBS and there were no real problems. And some people might not appreciate the fact that the tournament is IC-ly taking three times as long for the group stage, which is another problem. Plus some people might consider it too fast a pace, give up, and not RP at all. It's not a perfect solution.

The only really perfect solution would be to create a new scorinator to reduce randomness, much as Saintland/FFR did for (gridiron) football and ice hockey, but it's not as simple as just saying do it. I'm guessing baseball is harder to code because of the linescores, though I personally wouldn't be heartbroken to see those go as long as it showed the number of innings.

I think the clearest solution is to have an explicitly higher weighting of RP in the next WBC. I would support that over ditching the ranks as Saintland proposed in his puppet's bid.

I would support this. I mean, URSS beat Czesc 11-zip and me 11-1 without lifting a finger (although they were DOSed in the middle of it, still)

[Gregoryisgodistan]

I think the clearest solution is to have an explicitly higher weighting of RP in the next WBC. I would support that over ditching the ranks as Saintland proposed in his puppet's bid.

I would support this. I mean, URSS beat Czesc 11-zip and me 11-1 without lifting a finger (although they were DOSed in the middle of it, still)

Czesc only had bonus for a roster, no RP's, and since all he did was list starters with no bench (other than relief pitchers) or batting order, it wasn't very high. You, on the other hand....

And URSS did get bonus for this, just not very much. Basically, I'll never give 0 RP Bonus for an RP unless it's gibberish, in another language, or about the wrong sport (that is to say RPing a 4-1 baseball game as if it were a 4-1 soccer game, not simply writing an RP about another team.) But that didn't get much. That's another problem I think - the NSFS formula will result in much better performance for a team with non-zero Rank than for a team with zero rank, even if their rank is the minimum allowed in xkoronate (which it basically was in URSS's case.) But more pertinently, if a team posts a roster and does nothing else (like Czesc), or has a low but non-zero rank but doesn't even post a roster (like Devonta), they have a chance to go far because of how random it is. Saintland is working on another scorinator right now. The code is in the scorinator discussion thread if anyone is interested.

[Frenline Delpha]

I would support this. I mean, URSS beat Czesc 11-zip and me 11-1 without lifting a finger (although they were DOSed in the middle of it, still)

Czesc only had bonus for a roster, no RP's, and since all he did was list starters with no bench (other than relief pitchers) or batting order, it wasn't very high. You, on the other hand....

And URSS did get bonus for this, just not very much. Basically, I'll never give 0 RP Bonus for an RP unless it's gibberish, in another language, or about the wrong sport (that is to say RPing a 4-1 baseball game as if it were a 4-1 soccer game, not simply writing an RP about another team.) But that didn't get much. That's another problem I think - the NSFS formula will result in much better performance for a team with non-zero Rank than for a team with zero rank, even if their rank is the minimum allowed in xkoronate (which it basically was in URSS's case.) But more pertinently, if a team posts a roster and does nothing else (like Czesc), or has a low but non-zero rank but doesn't even post a roster (like Devonta), they have a chance to go far because of how random it is. Saintland is working on another scorinator right now. The code is in the scorinator discussion thread if anyone is interested.

So, if I undestand correctly, rank has actually little significance in the current forumla, or if not, the thing is more random than a chicken with its head cut off.

[Kaboomlandia]

I would support this. I mean, URSS beat Czesc 11-zip and me 11-1 without lifting a finger (although they were DOSed in the middle of it, still)

Czesc only had bonus for a roster, no RP's, and since all he did was list starters with no bench (other than relief pitchers) or batting order, it wasn't very high. You, on the other hand....

And URSS did get bonus for this, just not very much. Basically, I'll never give 0 RP Bonus for an RP unless it's gibberish, in another language, or about the wrong sport (that is to say RPing a 4-1 baseball game as if it were a 4-1 soccer game, not simply writing an RP about another team.) But that didn't get much. That's another problem I think - the NSFS formula will result in much better performance for a team with non-zero Rank than for a team with zero rank, even if their rank is the minimum allowed in xkoronate (which it basically was in URSS's case.) But more pertinently, if a team posts a roster and does nothing else (like Czesc), or has a low but non-zero rank but doesn't even post a roster (like Devonta), they have a chance to go far because of how random it is. Saintland is working on another scorinator right now. The code is in the scorinator discussion thread if anyone is interested.

From your earlier post, I realize that three of the four teams still alive have minimal or no RPing this tournament.

[Tree Death]

Voting has closed! The result -


Patistan: Three AYE, Four NAY
Abanhfleft: Seven AYE, Zero NAY


Congrats to Abanhfleft, commiserations to Patistan.

[Gregoryisgodistan]

Czesc only had bonus for a roster, no RP's, and since all he did was list starters with no bench (other than relief pitchers) or batting order, it wasn't very high. You, on the other hand....

And URSS did get bonus for this, just not very much. Basically, I'll never give 0 RP Bonus for an RP unless it's gibberish, in another language, or about the wrong sport (that is to say RPing a 4-1 baseball game as if it were a 4-1 soccer game, not simply writing an RP about another team.) But that didn't get much. That's another problem I think - the NSFS formula will result in much better performance for a team with non-zero Rank than for a team with zero rank, even if their rank is the minimum allowed in xkoronate (which it basically was in URSS's case.) But more pertinently, if a team posts a roster and does nothing else (like Czesc), or has a low but non-zero rank but doesn't even post a roster (like Devonta), they have a chance to go far because of how random it is. Saintland is working on another scorinator right now. The code is in the scorinator discussion thread if anyone is interested.

From your earlier post, I realize that three of the four teams still alive have minimal or no RPing this tournament.

Yes, but my point is that none of them have a rank+RP of 0. Devonta has no RP bonus, not even roster bonus, but has a rank. MV has a considerable rank and has RP'ed once plus a roster, Czesc at least has a roster. And Schiltzberg is actually active. Czesc making it out of the group stage was surprising, but in the knockout stage they beat Semarland, who only posted a roster, and Patistan who had a much higher rank but didn't even do that. The problem isn't with the RP Bonius - it's commensurate to RP Bonus in other sports. The problem is with the scorinator.

[Super-Llamaland]

Article I: Council Eligibility

Section 1. To be an eligible member of the WBC Council (hereafter referred to as the WBCC), a nation must have fullfilled one of the following criteria:
a.) posted a roster and at least one roleplay in the previous two Classics
b.) either hosted or co-hosted a WBC.

Section 2. To maintain membership in the WBCC, a nation must fulfill both of the following criteria:
a.) Posting a roster every Classic.
b.) Participating in host voting every Classic.

Section 3: Users who are bidding to host the World Baseball Classic may not vote on the host. These users will not be subject to removal from the Council under Article I, Section 2b.

Section 4. If a Member of the Council fails to maintain its membership criteria for consecutive Classics (by failure to fulfill either criteria) they will be removed from the Council for a minimum of one Classic and until both criteria are again met during the same WBC tournament. However, this may be appealed and put to a vote, with two-thirds majority reinstating said member to the Council.

Article II: Responsibilities of the Council

Section 1: The Council, and only the Council, will vote for the next Host or Hosts of the Classic and will choose from available bids.

Section 2: The Council will be the determining body for repealing or amending the Constitution. A two-thirds majority of the full WBCC membership (rounded down if necessary) shall be necessary to ratify a proposed constitutional amendment.

Section 3: Any member of the Council can withdraw from the Council, but will be subject to the above eligibility guidelines if they seek reinstatement.

Section 4: The Council is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the Classic. The Council will be held to any subsequent rights and/or responsibilities that are created henceforth into the WBC Constitution.

Section 5: Any member of the WBCC may move to submit a rule change, constitutional amendment, or other WBC related proposal. A vote on the submission will be held if one other WBCC member "seconds" the motion. Upon motion and seconding The WBCC president shall ensure that the vote is held in a timely manner.

Article III: Voting Procedures

Section 1: For a Council vote to be considered valid, a motion must have a simple majority of votes cast provided that a quorum of Council members votes in favour of or against the motion at vote. Any measure that receives the votes of one more than half the active Council membership will be automatically approved.

Section 2: For the purposes of this amendment, a "quorum" shall be defined as half the current voting membership of the Council, rounded down.

Section 3: Any Council vote that does not reach quorum will be considered invalid and re-voted upon.

Section 4: The President may veto any Council vote that does not reach a two-thirds majority, and the vote will be considered invalid.

Article IV: Impeachment Procedures

Section 1: In order to initiate impeachment and/or removal from office proceedings against a current member of the World Baseball Classic Council, another member in good standing must motion for impeachment. If a different member seconds the motion, the member is considered impeached.

Section 2: In the event that a Council member is impeached, the full Council will have one week to discuss whether or not to remove the impeached member. During that period, the impeached member is still considered a full voting member of the Council on any items other than those involving the impeachment proceedings.

Section 3: The council president will initiate the removal vote, which shall only take place in the event two thirds of votes cast are in favour of removal from office. If the president is the one being impeached, the vice-president will serve the same role as the president for the purposes of this section.

Section 4: In the event that two-third of votes cast are in favour of removal from office, the Council member shall be removed from the Council with immediate effect for a period of two World Baseball Classics. At the end of the two-Classic period, the member must petition to rejoin the Council and initiate a plan to address any concerns outlined in the impeachment proceedings in order to be reinstated to the Council.

Section 5: Any Council member removed due to impeachment proceedings must be nominated to rejoin the Council and must be formally seconded. If that occurs, the Council may vote on readmission when votes for new Council members are being taken. If a simple majority of votes cast are in favour of readmission, the impeached member shall rejoin the Council with immediate effect.

Article V: The President of the Council

Section 1: The Council will be headed by a president who will be elected by the members of the council, using the same election procedures as outlined in Article III.

Section 2: The president will be elected after every other World Baseball Classic, and will serve terms of two Classics. It is possible to serve multiple terms, however a president may not serve three consecutive terms.

Section 3: The president's duties are the following: opening the sign-up thread; opening and collecting host voting; opening and collecting constitutional proposal voting; keeping the council list updated; opening and collecting council member election voting; and making any other decisions which are not fit to be decided by the council as a whole.

Section 4: The president must appoint a vice-president to serve in his/her absence. If the president goes missing for an extended period of time, takes a break from NS, or ceases to exist, the vice-president has the right to step up and serve as the president pro tempore.

Section 5: The president may be impeached under the procedures of Article III. If the president is impeached and removed from the council, the vice-president becomes the new president and may appoint a new vice-president to take their place.

Article VI: Tournament Sportsmanship

Section 1: No team may voluntarily forfeit games or entire series after a World Baseball Classic has started.

Section 2: Only nations that have ceased to exist during the playoffs of the World Baseball Classic before being eliminated are deemed as forfeiting.

Section 3: Nations that cease to exist during a group stage or equivalent of the World Baseball Classic shall be prohibited from advancing beyond that stage, but must play out the remainder of their schedule in that stage. Nations that are subsequently re-founded prior to the end of the stage may advance beyond that stage.

Section 4: Forfeited games due to CTE by a nation are automatic victories for the opposing team and should be scorinated as such.

Section 5: The score of a forfeit is 9-0.

Article VII: Tournament Rankings

--insert blurb on rankings here when we decide what we're doing with them--

Article VIII: Miscellaneous Procedures

Section 1: When creating the signup thread, the thread creator is to provide (at minimum) a link to the winning bid of the last World Baseball Classic and set a definitive deadline for when host bids must be received by.

[Frenline Delpha]

Friendly note: 3 and 5 still say section.

[The Central Shadow Nation]

Is this still open?

[Maklohi Vai]

Is this still open?

WBC 33 is almost over. WBC 34 will open signups in about six weeks.

[The Central Shadow Nation]

Good,Got my team in my factbook.

[Kaboomlandia]

Has an unranked team ever come back from 2-0 down in the finals to win? We could be seeing this tomorrow.

Anyway, congrats to Devonta, and commiserations to Czesc.

[Gregoryisgodistan]

Has an unranked team ever come back from 2-0 down in the finals to win? We could be seeing this tomorrow.

Anyway, congrats to Devonta, and commiserations to Czesc.

No unranked team has ever won the WBC, other than WBC 1 of course.

[Kaboomlandia]

Has an unranked team ever come back from 2-0 down in the finals to win? We could be seeing this tomorrow.

Anyway, congrats to Devonta, and commiserations to Czesc.

No unranked team has ever won the WBC, other than WBC 1 of course.

So, we could have history here.

[Frenline Delpha]

Quick questio to all council members, Would it be wise for me to apply for host of the WBC next time around?

[Gregoryisgodistan]

Quick questio to all council members, Would it be wise for me to apply for host of the WBC next time around?

Not unless you host several other tournaments in the interim. I would strongly advise against making the WBC your first hosting experience. It's a major tournament and can be overwhelming. That being said, you don't have to have experience hosting major tournaments, and indeed I had no such experience prior to hosting this. Neither Ko-oren nor myself had ever hosted a major tournament to completion before being awarded the World Cup of Hockey, though I had already hosted about half of this tournament and hadn't failed to host it to completion - it just hadn't finished yet. International Baseball Slam IX will be held at some point after the conclusion of this tournament - I'm in charge of that and will probably open signups around the end of next week with the hope of starting mid-June to minimize conflict with the World Cup Qualifying. My first host experience was IBS IV, and given the smaller size, about half the size of the WBC, it's a good tournament for first-time hosts. Bid for that, do a good job hosting, and we'll see. The World Junior Hockey Championships are also coming up in a few weeks - Quebec said he'd open signups sometime during the knockout stage of the WCoH with the hopes of starting right after.

Basically, get a few minor tournaments like the IBS or WJHC under your belt to prove you can do this, then maybe bid. Even then, it might help to launch a joint bid with a more experienced member. But realistically, no experienced member is going to chance doing a joint bid with you unless you have at least some hosting experience. Now, that's not to say no experienced member will ever bid for a major tournament with someone who has no host experience, but that person would likely have to be a veteran forum member who's been here for years and just never hosted anything. Ko-oren barely has more host experience than you, and it was almost exclusively club competitions, but he's been here for close to five years, twice as long as I have, so I was willing to do a joint WCoH bid with him. But for a new member like you, you'll need to host at least a couple minor tournaments.

If you look at my host experience before hosting this, I hosted five minor tournaments and an NSCAA conference. Obviously, one of the minor tournaments had to be my first, but it was a minor tournament, not a major one. Most people, myself included, would be very reluctant to vote for a solo bid by someone with no host experience for a major tournament, and would be equally reluctant to bid with said nation, unless they had years of experience on the forum like Ko-oren.

Milchama's another great example. He's participated in every WBC since WBC 1, but has never hosted, and I don't believe he's hosted anything else either. Would I trust him enough to bid with him for WBC 34, assuming I have the time? Absolutely. Would I vote for a joint bid with him and a more experienced nation? Well, that depends on other aspects of the bid but Milchama's lack of experience wouldn't be a hindrance as long as his partner had some. But how long you've been here is the one thing you can't control in all this. Get out, bid for some minor tournaments, host a few, come back, and maybe see about a bid. In the meantime, keep up the active RPing so people know who you are.

And get a newswire if you haven't already. It's not necessary - I didn't have one before hosting IBS IV - but it sure helps.

[Frenline Delpha]

Quick questio to all council members, Would it be wise for me to apply for host of the WBC next time around?

Not unless you host several other tournaments in the interim. I would strongly advise against making the WBC your first hosting experience. It's a major tournament and can be overwhelming. That being said, you don't have to have experience hosting major tournaments, and indeed I had no such experience prior to hosting this. Neither Ko-oren nor myself had ever hosted a major tournament to completion before being awarded the World Cup of Hockey, though I had already hosted about half of this tournament and hadn't failed to host it to completion - it just hadn't finished yet. International Baseball Slam IX will be held at some point after the conclusion of this tournament - I'm in charge of that and will probably open signups around the end of next week with the hope of starting mid-June to minimize conflict with the World Cup Qualifying. My first host experience was IBS IV, and given the smaller size, about half the size of the WBC, it's a good tournament for first-time hosts. Bid for that, do a good job hosting, and we'll see. The World Junior Hockey Championships are also coming up in a few weeks - Quebec said he'd open signups sometime during the knockout stage of the WCoH with the hopes of starting right after.

Basically, get a few minor tournaments like the IBS or WJHC under your belt to prove you can do this, then maybe bid. Even then, it might help to launch a joint bid with a more experienced member. But realistically, no experienced member is going to chance doing a joint bid with you unless you have at least some hosting experience. Now, that's not to say no experienced member will ever bid for a major tournament with someone who has no host experience, but that person would likely have to be a veteran forum member who's been here for years and just never hosted anything. Ko-oren barely has more host experience than you, and it was almost exclusively club competitions, but he's been here for close to five years, twice as long as I have, so I was willing to do a joint WCoH bid with him. But for a new member like you, you'll need to host at least a couple minor tournaments.

If you look at my host experience before hosting this, I hosted five minor tournaments and an NSCAA conference. Obviously, one of the minor tournaments had to be my first, but it was a minor tournament, not a major one. Most people, myself included, would be very reluctant to vote for a solo bid by someone with no host experience for a major tournament, and would be equally reluctant to bid with said nation, unless they had years of experience on the forum like Ko-oren.

Milchama's another great example. He's participated in every WBC since WBC 1, but has never hosted, and I don't believe he's hosted anything else either. Would I trust him enough to bid with him for WBC 34, assuming I have the time? Absolutely. Would I vote for a joint bid with him and a more experienced nation? Well, that depends on other aspects of the bid but Milchama's lack of experience wouldn't be a hindrance as long as his partner had some. But how long you've been here is the one thing you can't control in all this. Get out, bid for some minor tournaments, host a few, come back, and maybe see about a bid. In the meantime, keep up the active RPing so people know who you are.

And get a newswire if you haven't already. It's not necessary - I didn't have one before hosting IBS IV - but it sure helps.

Okay. Thanks, Greg. Also, what is a newswire?

[Kaboomlandia]

Not unless you host several other tournaments in the interim. I would strongly advise against making the WBC your first hosting experience. It's a major tournament and can be overwhelming. That being said, you don't have to have experience hosting major tournaments, and indeed I had no such experience prior to hosting this. Neither Ko-oren nor myself had ever hosted a major tournament to completion before being awarded the World Cup of Hockey, though I had already hosted about half of this tournament and hadn't failed to host it to completion - it just hadn't finished yet. International Baseball Slam IX will be held at some point after the conclusion of this tournament - I'm in charge of that and will probably open signups around the end of next week with the hope of starting mid-June to minimize conflict with the World Cup Qualifying. My first host experience was IBS IV, and given the smaller size, about half the size of the WBC, it's a good tournament for first-time hosts. Bid for that, do a good job hosting, and we'll see. The World Junior Hockey Championships are also coming up in a few weeks - Quebec said he'd open signups sometime during the knockout stage of the WCoH with the hopes of starting right after.

Basically, get a few minor tournaments like the IBS or WJHC under your belt to prove you can do this, then maybe bid. Even then, it might help to launch a joint bid with a more experienced member. But realistically, no experienced member is going to chance doing a joint bid with you unless you have at least some hosting experience. Now, that's not to say no experienced member will ever bid for a major tournament with someone who has no host experience, but that person would likely have to be a veteran forum member who's been here for years and just never hosted anything. Ko-oren barely has more host experience than you, and it was almost exclusively club competitions, but he's been here for close to five years, twice as long as I have, so I was willing to do a joint WCoH bid with him. But for a new member like you, you'll need to host at least a couple minor tournaments.

If you look at my host experience before hosting this, I hosted five minor tournaments and an NSCAA conference. Obviously, one of the minor tournaments had to be my first, but it was a minor tournament, not a major one. Most people, myself included, would be very reluctant to vote for a solo bid by someone with no host experience for a major tournament, and would be equally reluctant to bid with said nation, unless they had years of experience on the forum like Ko-oren.

Milchama's another great example. He's participated in every WBC since WBC 1, but has never hosted, and I don't believe he's hosted anything else either. Would I trust him enough to bid with him for WBC 34, assuming I have the time? Absolutely. Would I vote for a joint bid with him and a more experienced nation? Well, that depends on other aspects of the bid but Milchama's lack of experience wouldn't be a hindrance as long as his partner had some. But how long you've been here is the one thing you can't control in all this. Get out, bid for some minor tournaments, host a few, come back, and maybe see about a bid. In the meantime, keep up the active RPing so people know who you are.

And get a newswire if you haven't already. It's not necessary - I didn't have one before hosting IBS IV - but it sure helps.

Okay. Thanks, Greg. Also, what is a newswire?

A domestic league, kind of like your water polo league.