International Domestic Soccer Discussion

[Tequilo]

Thanks for the update and clarification Kelssek; From an OOC perspective these things happen and transparency is much appreciated. ICly, Motozintla fans, denied a modest run in the Challengers Cup, will forever vociferously boo to drown out the IFCF anthem (“The Challengers”) at the beginning of intercontinental matches, believing themselves a target of Make Sure Moto Stay Average Always; a cunning IFCF conspiracy in response to the annual TV fly-on-the-wall series Make Moto Great Again...

[Tequilo]

I’m a bit baffled by the IFCF coefficients; in the associations section I don’t see the correlation for some of the highest allocations for IFCF4, particularly the biggest four awards to Freeport, Taeshan, Kelssek and Graintfjall - could someone give me a clue? I’ve probably missed something, is there a table of how coefficient points are awarded anywhere?

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

[Graintfjall]

Very minor thing. I noticed that both "Altendalur" and "Althendalur" have entries in the rankings. The former is the correct spelling, and I checked that I did use the correct spelling in both entries. I don't know whether the two entries can be amalgamated; if not, the latter should just be excluded entirely to avoid confusion.

[Northwest Kalactin]

I’m a bit baffled by the IFCF coefficients; in the associations section I don’t see the correlation for some of the highest allocations for IFCF4, particularly the biggest four awards to Freeport, Taeshan, Kelssek and Graintfjall - could someone give me a clue? I’ve probably missed something, is there a table of how coefficient points are awarded anywhere?

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

This is how. https://nssports.miraheze.org/wiki/IFCF#Coefficients

As far as Freeport goes, it is mainly because they only had 1 team in CL/CC play, so their total only got divided by 1.

[Hebitaka]

Hey there. I want to send teams for the IFCF tournaments. How many teams am I allowed to send in each of the tournaments??(I am Unranked and New)

[Tequilo]

Hey there. I want to send teams for the IFCF tournaments. How many teams am I allowed to send in each of the tournaments??(I am Unranked and New)

Hello!

See this post for the full run-down

[Khytonya]

Will you tell everyone that this nation right here makes 22 POSTS every single day? Yet lose in the tournament?

I mean, I didn't want to sound salty and all, and I'm playing against the best-ranked nations in NS Sports so I'm somewhat expected to get my ass handed to them.

But I'm the most dedicated out of all those other people in the AOCAF! And I STILL lose!

[Squidroidia]

First of all, this is for domestic football. I know there isn't an AOCAF Cup Discussion Thread (If anything it's on the AO Forums which are separate from NS Sports), but this is the wrong thread.

And as for your claims, yes you do RP well, and yes the Nations League style format did get you a bad hand of cards, but at the end of the day you just got unlucky. In this community, Margaret, the goddess of scorination, didn't favor you, and that's okay. We all have to struggle at first to do well in competitions, and even then it might take a while. If you RP like you did in the AOCAF Cup this cycle in World Cup qualification, you will get a Cup of Harmony invite.

Again, be patient. And maybe sacrifice a few rubber chickens to Margaret. There is nothing to be frustrated about.

[Khytonya]

First of all, this is for domestic football. I know there isn't an AOCAF Cup Discussion Thread (If anything it's on the AO Forums which are separate from NS Sports), but this is the wrong thread.

And as for your claims, yes you do RP well, and yes the Nations League style format did get you a bad hand of cards, but at the end of the day you just got unlucky. In this community, Margaret, the goddess of scorination, didn't favor you, and that's okay. We all have to struggle at first to do well in competitions, and even then it might take a while. If you RP like you did in the AOCAF Cup this cycle in World Cup qualification, you will get a Cup of Harmony invite.

Again, be patient. And maybe sacrifice a few rubber chickens to Margaret. There is nothing to be frustrated about.

So where's the one for international football?

Also, I sorta want to let my rage out. All in my mind I cared about doing so well in the cup. And when you want your team to do well in competitions like this, you don't accept losses. You reject them. Hell, that's where most of my hours are dedicated to.

Seeing your team crashed out of a tournament is like watching a young child lying in the ground bleeding as he catches his last breath.

• It's heartbreaking.
• It's stressful.
• And even if you can move on, that memory still sticks to your mind. Like a scar on your brain.

Still, it's a good run until the end. You can't forget those first steps no matter how painful it is.

[Graintfjall]

There is not a dedicated international football thread for regionals, though in practice the WCDT has generally been used as a catch-all.

Take a deep breath, though. Bad results suck but they are not comparable to a child dying. If you're getting that emotionally invested I'd gently suggest taking a step back.

[Khytonya]

There is not a dedicated international football thread for regionals, though in practice the WCDT has generally been used as a catch-all.

Thanks. I'll keep a note of that.

Take a deep breath, though. Bad results suck but they are not comparable to a child dying. If you're getting that emotionally invested I'd gently suggest taking a step back.

Look, I have emotions running in my head. When I win, I feel happy. When I lose, I feel sad. When I draw, it goes either way.

Here's the complex part. When you start adding multiple emotions into three different reactions for each result, I can't help but trying to express how I feel when I react to these outcomes to the community. As with the case with the comparison with a dead child, I made that comment after my national football team lost against Twicetagaria. A team that miles away from mine in terms of the rankings.

Naturally, I can't expect a perfect record. At the same time, all I care about is winning. That mindset will bother me the moment losses come slapping at my face. That mindset gives birth to my comment.

I could go on about how many times I'm in despair when my team didn't do well in a sports competition but I don't want to annoy everyone in the community with my pretentious, edgy, exaggerated response.

Anyway, who wants to see my journey?

[Chromatika]

Starting next season (After IFCF 4), foreign youth (U-18) may join the Chromatik Youth League. Please lmk if you have players you'd like to send. Every team is limited to 3, but there are 32 teams in total across two divisions.

[Kita-Hinode]

(snip about IFCF results)

Speaking from experience, international results are a crapshoot. Not trying to pile on about it but winning things in general relies on a bunch of things at the same time, which, more often than not, aren't at your control.

Prestige, if you will, comes more from what you do than the amount of things you won. I'd recommend appreciating your own work to boot this sense of dread from the losses away, I guess?

Don't get too held up on the IFCF. Either you'll do poorly, sulk and leave or do well and become an annoying snob. Both kinda suck, tbh.

[Khytonya]

(snip about IFCF results)

Speaking from experience, international results are a crapshoot. Not trying to pile on about it but winning things in general relies on a bunch of things at the same time, which, more often than not, aren't at your control.

Prestige, if you will, comes more from what you do than the amount of things you won. I'd recommend appreciating your own work to boot this sense of dread from the losses away, I guess?

Don't get too held up on the IFCF. Either you'll do poorly, sulk and leave or do well and become an annoying snob. Both kinda suck, tbh.

I'm no storyteller, but I'm quite an active person in NS sports. I've made many of them in one forum. Real dedication, I guess?

[Kita-Hinode]

Speaking from experience, international results are a crapshoot. Not trying to pile on about it but winning things in general relies on a bunch of things at the same time, which, more often than not, aren't at your control.

Prestige, if you will, comes more from what you do than the amount of things you won. I'd recommend appreciating your own work to boot this sense of dread from the losses away, I guess?

Don't get too held up on the IFCF. Either you'll do poorly, sulk and leave or do well and become an annoying snob. Both kinda suck, tbh.

I'm no storyteller, but I'm quite an active person in NS sports. I've made many of them in one forum. Real dedication, I guess?

Pretty much, yeah. Don't sweat the results.

[Nephara]

The Preliminary Transfer Window 30 is UP!
This means: put up your players in advance if you want, sort out biographies, and have a bit of advance time to get everything hammered out it opens in earnest, when the IFCF cutoff drops; until then the Transfers, Bids and the option to purchase free agents are locked, to give everyone a fair chance.

Below is, of course, the companion to the Domestic League Tutorial, which is the ...

TRANSFER WINDOW FAQ
So, what is the transfer window? The transfer system is how players move from one club to another, and this transfer spreadsheet is how transfers across the multiverse are conducted. North Americans might be more familiar with the term 'trades'. In football, player-for-player exchanges are rare (though not unknown) and players are generally bought for money.

Where to start? Put players you would like to see sold in the Transfer List tab. Put players who are going to be released by their clubs in the Free Transfers tab. You will have to manually approve transfers for people in the Transfer List - Free Transfers are just bought on a first-come, first-served basis.

So someone bid on my player. What now? Look at the bid in the Bids tab. You'll notice there's two different columns - Club and Player accepting the bid. Generally speaking, the Club only cares about the transfer fee and if it meets its valuation. It doesn't matter how good the buying club is - the money's the same to the selling club. The player doesn't care about the money that the selling club gets, they only care about if the selling club is good, and if they meet their expectations. Selling clubs want more money, sold players are looking for clubs with more prestige.

How do I determine what leagues are good? The IFCF league rankings determine objective measures of strength. You will also want to consider the strength of the club in its given league - the Nepharan Zenith is a stronger league than the Brenecian A-League, but your player may well prefer to go to regular A-League winners Kingsgrove than Zenith strugglers Leichhardt. Most players also weigh RP quality of a given league into consideration, though only well-RPed leagues will get to the high ranks anyway. The League Glossary section of the sheet also shows the ranks of active leagues alongside short descriptions.

Can I put just anyone up? A good rule of thumb is to write a description for every player in the far right of the spreadsheet. If the player isn't relevant enough for you to want to write a description for them, they aren't worth putting on the sheet. A placeholder description will do for now, but definitely have a real description up by the time the window actually starts - when the IFCF cutoff occurs and the committee starts to score the international tournaments.

How can I buy players? It's the same in reverse. What players do you want to see in your leagues? If they're on the Transfer List, put a Bid for them in the Bids tab. At minimum, this will probably be their cited Valuation. If the club and the player both agree by putting a Y in the relevant tab, then it's a done deal! The player is yours.

What about players who aren't on the Transfer List? You can bid for them, too! The worst that can happen is that the other person says no.

What about Free Transfers? Just put your club and trigramme in the red New Club columns. It's automatically a done deal.

How should I value my players? And how much can I reasonably bid? Fortunately, the NSS economy is far less stratified than the real-world football economy. Instead of big players changing hands for hundreds of Euro, while most leagues outside Europe will never see a transfer of even one million, there's more parity across IFCF and this is reflected in more even results. If it's your first season, your top-half teams might have a full million to spend on a transfer fee, with most of the purchased foreigners being free transfers. Your best player, if they're in the prime of their career (roughly 25-29, but youth adds value, so 24-25 is probably peak value for a player), might fetch one or two million. Other starters on your national team might go for about a million, and ambitious guys in your league hoping to break into your national team will probably fetch like half a million.

Is that a hard and fast rule? No, and there are exceptions. Maybe your league is like the real-life Chinese Super League, a low-prestige league with a lot of money. It's entirely fair to throw a lot of cash around without much prestige, just as long as you're aware of that status. More generally, nobody is going to police you for Doing Things Wrong.

What should my expectations be like for my first season? Modest. Out of a few bids for less prominent players, often in their early- to mid-30s, a few will probably be accepted - and, of course, look through Free Transfers for players who appeal to you. Be realistic, of course - a guy who is like 31 and is still an active international for a strong team is probably not going to join your lower leagues just because he's in the Free Transfers tab - but beyond those obvious cases, you don't need to second-guess yourself. Also, only your top tier is going to be a viable destination for pretty much anyone good enough to be listed on the window, and I'd recommend focusing almost entirely on the top tier for your first few seasons of RPing anyway.

If I have a free agent player, but I care about their destination, can I put them on the Transfer List anyway? Yes. Any bid for them will be for 0 - there's no club with their contract to take the money - and you are free to accept whatever destination you'd like.

Can I start yet? So far, the window is only open in a preliminary stage. People can put their players and managers up, write rumours, and start declaring interest in players, but the actual Sales and Bids tabs, and the New Club columns of the Free Transfers sheet, are locked for the time being. There's no rush, either - you can still add new characters onto the spreadsheet after the transfer window officially opens, when the first IFCF round is posted.

What are some general points of etiquette?
BLACK TABS: Anything in a black tab is not for you to edit. That's where formulas go, and messing around with them is likely to break the sheet.
ORDER OF TABS: Do not change them. It is, in fairness, easy to mistakenly click-drag them out of position; if you do, please drag it where you left it. The first four tabs are always TRANSFERS - BIDS - TRANSFER LIST - FREE AGENTS.
LEAGUE GLOSSARY: To avoid clutter, please only include up to two tiers, and ideally just your two primary associations unless there's a pressing need to have more.
SIGNING PLAYERS TO LOWER TIERS: There is an expectation that you only sign players to divisions you intend to roleplay, and when you're starting out, a strong expectation you only sign players to the top tier. As a general rule of thumb, when you are in the top 32 IFCF rankings, your second tier might start to attract foreign free agents.
WHO PUTS A SIGNED PLAYER IN 'TRANSFERS'?: Whoever places down the final 'Y' of Club or Player Accepted has to take that line and paste it into the Transfers tab in order to seal in a transfer. As a result, a player with Y/Y in Club/Player Accepts is assumed to be de facto signed. Do not input the Y in those columns unless you are genuinely putting the green light to that transfer.
COMMENTS AND NOTES: Use 'notes' instead of comments to cut down on clutter in the row of tabs. These can be useful for adding details - e. g. specifying that a bid for a young prospect will see them play with the reserves for a couple of seasons - but please use in moderation.
IN GENERAL: It's okay to make a mess so long as you clean up after yourself.

How can I use the filters?
The 'pyramids' on the top rank of most of the sheets can be used to filter details, but when used they will filter for everyone. To avoid inconveniencing other users, please either make sure to use them for short periods and then 'unfilter' them afterwards, or go to 'Data > Filter views > Create a new filter' and make your own instance of the sheet's filters.
If you need to remove someone else's filters, click on the pyramid and click 'Select All'. DO NOT 'Data > Turn off filter', which removes the filters entirely and just means they have to be put back.

Have other questions, or just want to hang out and chat? Then feel free to join the NS Sport Discord channel!

[Xanneria]

Whose responsbile for selecting the bids for each IFCF Cup?

Asking for a freind!

[Equestrian States]

Whose responsbile for selecting the bids for each IFCF Cup?

Asking for a freind!

The host of each cup is responsible for selecting their competition's final venue.

[Kelssek]

I will be scaling back the week-by-week RP of the Kelssek Football League for at least the next 2 seasons, so if the chance of having your players' names pop up in a commentary is a factor, or if you feel this portends the downfall of the KFL, please feel free to put your nation's players on the transfer window without further consultation. I will fill in helpful details if I have any.

[Tequilo]

Everyone has a second team, right? I mean, I love Sardíneros of Chanco Cóndor, but I still sacrifice to the wights for Echegoyan FC - when will they be good again? - and I still miss FC1.Bjarnarey Flotilla. Ah, The Barge on a blizzardy Tuesday night in the Arctic Circle...

For those who have been glued to my domestic football RPs (...anyone? hello?...) you will have read that MiCF, an internet community football membership, have acquired a club - the legendary-for-being-so-obscure Hipopótamo-Joaxha - where they intend to manage from the comfort of their own wifi.

"That's weird, I must've missed that..." : 'From Keyboard Warriors to Championship Managers' - MiCF takeover season t.-1 | MiCF season t.0

MiCF season 1 is almost upon us. They have already opened up several decisions to the members and guess what - you are automatically invited to take part if you so wish. Fans of 1830 Cathair, Directus, Sabrefell Moths and the Shango-Fogoa Premier League, why not choose Hipopó as your second team? Get involved!

A three minute survey is all it takes to activate your membership. Remember, it's just for fun. And maybe gives me something to write about.

[Strike]

I am putting in a formal request for the IFCF team to adjust the upcoming IFCF deadline to be more consistent with traditional IFCF deadlines.

Historically, IFCF deadlines have come on Sundays and have been announced with a cutoff time of 23:59 UTC on the date advertised.

For some reason, this cycle, not only has the deadline been moved up from the normal Sunday to a Friday of a major worldwide holiday, but the timing has also been changed from 23:59 to 04:00 - effectively taking a full day off the deadline from the "Advertised" date of January 2nd.



Yes, I know there are a million comebacks - but I come back with "Why?" Have cutoffs always been at 23:59 on a Sunday? No, not exclusively, but it certainly has been the norm. At the very least I would propose that the time of the deadline be returned to 23:59 UTC as has been tradition, effectively giving folks the advertised date of January 2nd to complete their submissions, opposed to, in many cases, needing to have them done by January 1st instead.

[The Sarian]

I am putting in a formal request for the IFCF team to adjust the upcoming IFCF deadline to be more consistent with traditional IFCF deadlines.

Historically, IFCF deadlines have come on Sundays and have been announced with a cutoff time of 23:59 UTC on the date advertised.

For some reason, this cycle, not only has the deadline been moved up from the normal Sunday to a Friday of a major worldwide holiday, but the timing has also been changed from 23:59 to 04:00 - effectively taking a full day off the deadline from the "Advertised" date of January 2nd.



Yes, I know there are a million comebacks - but I come back with "Why?" Have cutoffs always been at 23:59 on a Sunday? No, not exclusively, but it certainly has been the norm. At the very least I would propose that the time of the deadline be returned to 23:59 UTC as has been tradition, effectively giving folks the advertised date of January 2nd to complete their submissions, opposed to, in many cases, needing to have them done by January 1st instead.

This is the first I have seen of the deadline. Whilst I admit this is my fault, in future could we please also post it in this thread, in addition to the IDSN thread?

[Strike]

This is the first I have seen of the deadline. Whilst I admit this is my fault, in future could we please also post it in this thread, in addition to the IDSN thread?

Thats probably actually a pretty good idea for those not in the discord, especially as once the deadline is posted it quickly gets hidden by the league posts. In here it might be more obvious that there is a new IFCF post. Perhaps as an alternative a mod could take the task of temporarily adding the date of the deadline in the title of the IDSN when it is upcoming.


That said, for those concerned about the upcoming IFCF deadline, don't forget that the deadline is strictly for the submissions of your entries so the draws can be made. The deadline to have RPs count for the cycle has always been up to the first scores post of the competition. While traditionally that has been within a few days of the deadline, during the most recently completed cycle the first scores were posted 9 days after the deadline for entries to be submitted - meaning that RPs submitted over a week after the deadline would still have counted for that cycle.

[Equestrian States]

That said, for those concerned about the upcoming IFCF deadline, don't forget that the deadline is strictly for the submissions of your entries so the draws can be made. The deadline to have RPs count for the cycle has always been up to the first scores post of the competition. While traditionally that has been within a few days of the deadline, during the most recently completed cycle the first scores were posted 9 days after the deadline for entries to be submitted - meaning that RPs submitted over a week after the deadline would still have counted for that cycle.

A quick note here that that is not official IFCF policy. While you could get some last-second RPs in, you are strongly advised to submit everything before the posted deadline. We might accept some RPs that are submitted after the deadline and before the draw, but we do eventually reach a point where we finalize RP bonuses so that those responsible for running each competition can begin to work on producing the results well before the first scores post. If you have an RP that is posted after the official deadline, please immediately contact one of the IFCF council members and provide a link to your post(s). Even then, if you're posting after the deadline, you should not automatically assume that your late RPs will be counted.

As for when the official deadline is, we gave everyone two weeks' notice and provided a countdown timer with the announcement. We decide when each deadline is as a group, so as to accommodate those organizing the competitions each cycle, as the IFCF is a significant time commitment for us. If you want to have a say in when those deadlines are, I advise you to volunteer your services the next time we ask for nominations for the IFCF Council.

[Strike]

That said, for those concerned about the upcoming IFCF deadline, don't forget that the deadline is strictly for the submissions of your entries so the draws can be made. The deadline to have RPs count for the cycle has always been up to the first scores post of the competition. While traditionally that has been within a few days of the deadline, during the most recently completed cycle the first scores were posted 9 days after the deadline for entries to be submitted - meaning that RPs submitted over a week after the deadline would still have counted for that cycle.

A quick note here that that is not official IFCF policy. While you could get some last-second RPs in, you are strongly advised to submit everything before the posted deadline. We might accept some RPs that are submitted after the deadline and before the draw

If the IFCF intends to change the longstanding UICA policy regarding RP bonus grading then I would strongly recommend they defer any such changes to a future cycle when they can be properly communicated to the participants.