Thanks to Wight for the logo!
Equestria Cup Discussion Thread
Equestria Cup I
Equestria Cup II
Equestria Cup III
Signups Thread
Welcome everypony, to the fourth running of the Equestria Cup! Once again, the tournament is being hosted in the Pony Republic of Equestrian States. Although the 25th World Baseball Classic will also be taking place throughout the duration of the Equestria Cup, the National Equestrian Sports Council is determined to not let this edition of the tournament be delayed or cancelled as was the case in the last few years. Visitors should expect to see plenty of foreign (and not necessarily equine) faces during their stays.
Group Play
Group A
The first listed match will be played at Sky-High Coliseum in Cloudsdale, and the second at Manticore Park in the city of Everfree.
1. Crystal Empire
2. Conclespia
3. Skallen
4. The Grand Pegasus Enclave
5. Zebrabwe
Group B
The first listed match will be played at Derby Field in Manehattan, and the second at the Maple Bowl in Trottawa.
1. Yesopalitha
2. Shining Armour (Signup Thread)
3. Kaldus
4. Kriegiersien
5. Sanian Confederacy (Signup Thread)
Group C
The first listed match will be played at Elements Stadium in Ponyville, and the second at Filly Financial Stadium in Fillydelphia.
1. Strawbee
2. Poni
3. Equestrian States
4. Manetreal
5. Fox Den
Group D
The first listed match will be played at Pony Lands Park in Manechester, and the second at Apple Orchard Park in Appleoosa.
1. Shrillland
2. Cevalo Nacio (Signup Thread)
3. The Emerald and Former Crystal Isles
4. Allinlia
5. Yorobia
NOTE: Assigned numbers are used for the set-up of groups and should not be misinterpreted as rankings.
As there are 20 teams signed-up to participate in the Equestria Cup III, there will be four groups of five teams. In group play, each team will play all the others within their group. Each team will have one bye day during this time. The top two teams from each group will advance to the elimination tournament.
Tiebreakers in the group stage are: Head-to-Head results, Goal Differential, and Goals For.
I will be using xkoranate 0.3.3 with the SQIS formula to scorinate. RP Cutoffs will probably be around 8:00 PM UTC (3:00 PM EDT) every day. Delays of scorination will be posted in the OOC thread, so subscription to that thread highly recommended.
New to Sports RPing? This part's for you.
Shamelessly Borrowed from the Baptism of Fire 45 Thread
First, you'll really want to read the Guide to Sports Roleplaying.
Second, more specifically speaking, here's how this tournament will work: a scorinator (which is a computer program that weighs different factors in order to generate scores for sports games), in this case xkoranate 0.3.3, will produce results on a daily basis. In order to improve the odds that the scorinator will be kind to you and your team, you are encouraged to leave an in-character (IC) post, at any time, detailing the events that are surrounding your team, your team's fans, your team's coach... your team's... well... anything, really! This post will be evaluated by the host and plugged into the scorinator as a bonus. The most important things to take into consideration while writing your RP will be quality, creativity, and length, in that order.
Need RP ideas? Think about this example. Let's say you've created a roster for your team, and you've decided that an Earth Pony striker named Blazing Saddle is the best player on the squad. You can go with the most "conventional" type of RP, and write about Bazing's performances for the team from the perspective of a newspaper match report. That's fine. But you can also take different approaches to Blazing's Equestria Cup experience; you could write about his experience on the field first-person, or you could write from the perspective of a fan hurling abuse at him, or you could write about an opposing player sizing him up before the game, or you could do a statistical analysis of his performances... you could even write about his personal history, long before he ever came to the Equestria Cup!
The sky is pretty much the limit when it comes to RPing. In fact, the only limit is this: don't violate any RP permissions from other teams. What are RP permissions? Well...
My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my goalscorers Y/N
Godmod scoring events Y/N
RP injuries to my players Y/N
Godmod injuries to my players Y/N
Hand out yellow cards to my players Y/N
Hand out red cards to my players Y/N
Godmod other events Y/N
Copy and paste this box into your roster, when and if you post one. Bold, italicize, or otherwise indicate your responses to all these questions, so that your opponents know how far they can go when they're talking about your team.
What does not belong here in this thread, you ask? In short, almost anything that isn't In Character (IC). Relevant questions are acceptable, though it would be more appropriate to send a telegram. Everything else should go in the Equestria Cup Discussion Thread (see the link at the top of this post, don't be afraid to bump it). If you make enough Out-of-Character (OOC) posts in this thread to sufficiently annoy the host, you risk having your RP bonus reset. Posting things such as 'cannot RP now, will RP here later' will be considered OOC remarks. In addition to being totally unnecessary (as in sports RPing the order in which teams make posts does not matter), they are exceptionally confusing for both hosts and fellow players to try and keep track of. Pointless comments like "LOL, I pwn'd [insert nation name here]!!!11!!" will also annoy the host and almost guarantee a RP bonus reset.
I will be adding stadium info in the next couple days before the first cutoff, but until then please feel free to post your rosters (they must be posted in this thread to earn you a bonus) and begin RPing. Good luck everypony!
