Hosting Bid
For almost as long as Astograth has been known on the global stage, as a nation they have been close friends with Kagdazka and Pazhujebu. Despite the distance between the two countries, many famous footballing individuals have travelled to the opposite nation to contribute for the betterment of another. Slava Semënov, Edorta Urrustoy, Kolya Tchailharovic, and Itzeder Unzueta are just a few of these storied names, and surely the list will grow as Father Time works his magic.
So why not band together for the Baptism of Fire? Both nations have played host to World Cup Committee-sanctioned tournaments before, and both have the infrastructure to put together a prestigious tournament, as of course the Baptism of Fire is.
Experience
The user behind Kagdazka and Pazhujebu has been an intermittent NS participant since mid-2007 and an uninterrupted participant for 18 months. In that time, he is thrilled to have: developed a complex transfer simulation system for his domestic league, entered in five World Cups (nine including those undertaken with old nations The Pazhujeb Islands and Kagdazka), and hosted the 43rd Baptism of Fire with fellow AO nation Andossa Se Mitrin Vega.
The user behind Astograth has been an active participant in NS Sports for around ten months now and hosted the 48th Cup of Harmony alongside Civil Citizenry, which ran without a hitch. Additionally, he is currently hosting the Rumiatzi Open, one of the major tennis tournaments of the ITA season.
Format
Both Astograth and Kagdazka and Pazhujebu are in favor of a standard-format group stage, with groups of four to ten teams playing single-round robin matches against one another. For a total number of signups, a multiple of four is preferred, though not required (a short, second group phase could be added on before the knockouts in order to make a stranger number work). The group stage(s) would then be followed by straight knockouts, with a third-place playoff and final culminating the tournament. The tie-breakers for the group stage would be as follows: Head-to-head results, goal difference, wins, goals for and finally, a play-in match.
Scorination
An agreement has been reached between the FAs of both Astograth and Kagdazka and Pazhujebu; the result-processor xkoranate, version 0.3.2, and its SQIS programming language will be used to track results and generate official tables. K&P's cutoff times would be at around 03:00 or 04:00 UTC while Astograth's would be at 0:00 UTC.
RP Bonus
Each RP will be graded on a five-tier scale going from 0 to 2. Points will be awarded based on quality, creativity, and length, in that order, with respect for opponents’ permissions also taken into account. Some spelling and grammar mistakes are acceptable, especially considering that for some users English is not their first language. These bonuses will grow smaller as time goes on, to reward frequency of roleplaying, but will never degrade to the point where they count for nothing. If multiple RPs are posted from one nation in a single day, they will be considered one combined RP for the day.
Style Modifiers
Style modifiers have traditionally not been included in the Baptism of Fire, and we do not intend to be an exception. For this reason, goals for will be one of the group stage tie-breakers.
