Gregoryisgodistan and Star United States
Bid for Baptism of Fire 58
Gregoryisgodistan: IC information: Gregoryisgodistan is a nation located in Esportiva and ruled by Lord Almighty Gregory, who is worshiped as a deity within that nation. Gregoryisgodistan’s soccer team, the Foot Slaves, made their debut at Baptism of Fire 53 and World Cup 66. Although they have never qualified for the World Cup, they have advanced to the Cup of Harmony knockout stage three times, including two trips to the semifinals and one trip to the finals. They have the ignominious distinction of being the highest-ranked team never to qualify for the World Cup.
Since Gregoryisgodistan has a number of unusual laws, which will be discussed more in the IC thread, all participants and fans at the Baptism of Fire will be issued special papers certifying that they are there for that purpose. As long as they have those papers on them at all times, they will not be subject to the more extreme laws of the nation, such as the death penalty for saying "coconut" or farting. However, if they do not have said papers, they will be subject to all the laws. In any case, they will still be subject to the laws against murder, assault etc. which are punishable by death. This allows participants a chance to avoid having to RP being subject to the extreme laws if they don't want to, while still having a chance to RP it if they wish.
Gregoryisgodistan: OOC information Gregoryisgodistan has hosted International Baseball Slam IV, Handball World Cup 12, Baptism of Iron XVI, Baptism of Iron XVII, and the Almighty Ten Conference of the NSCAA (which actually had 16 teams.) The two Baptisms of Iron were huge successes with very active participation by new participants in the gridiron community. This will give Gregoryisgodistan valuable experience in hosting a tournament for new users, in spite of the lack of WCC hosting experience. One of the staples of his two BOI bids was the constructive criticism and advice given to participants in the tournament following its conclusion, and that practice will be continued in this tournament should this bid win the host rights. (See below for more details.)
Star United States - IC Information
Star United States is currently coming out of a civil war, and is prospering under the new government. Diversity is a word that completely describes Star United States in many ways from culture, to food, to languages, and to wonderful sights in all the six districts of Star United States. Star United States, located in Esportiva, is home to many animal species that reside in the rainforest, or on the National Reserve and Zoo. The country is full of many languages from around the multiverse, but the three most notable ones are English (Estrall, Herbeid, and Piaxse Districts); Spanish (Starix, and Opangue Districts); and Portuguese (Islands). They are all official languages of Star United States.
The country also has seven distinct islands, which are known as: Alegria, Ilha do Sur, Ilha Central, Paz, Ilha Recife, Sorriso e Ilha do Norte. The most spoken language of the islands is Portuguese. Spanish and English are spoken as well, just not as common. Stary Bay is a major political center on the islands and is on Ilha Recife.
Star United States - OOC Information: The user behind Star United States has been around since February 20, 2012. Star United States has hosted various tournaments, such as the First, Fourth, and Fifth Star Triathlon Worldwide Tournament; International FireStorm Cup VI; Triathlon World Championship (co-hosted); Five-A-Side World Cup II; Quidditch World Cup VII; Fourth Runner Cup (co-hosted); and also a league of sports.
Format: Ideally, the number of teams would be a multiple of 8, to allow for 8 groups. If this is the case, the top two teams in each group will advance and we will proceed like in the World Cup and Cup of Harmony. Teams from Groups A-D would play in Gregoryisgodistan through the semifinal, while teams in Groups E-H will play in Star United States through the semifinal. The third place match will be at Estádio da Baía in Star United States, while the Final will be at Lord Almighty Gregory National Stadium in Gregoryisgodistan. All games played in Gregoryisgodistan will be scorinated by Gregoryisgodistan, and all games played in Star United States will be scorinated by Star United States.
If we find it necessarily to add a puppet, or two, it will be done. These puppets would automatically be placed in groups to be scorinated by the other host. In the highly unlikely event that one of these puppets advances to the final or third place game, the other host will scorinate that match. Should they wind up playing each other in that game, a third-party host would be sought at that time.
Scorination and Bonus: Xkoronate SQIS will be used for scorination, with style modifiers ranging from -5 (most defensive) to +5 (most offensive). As all participating nations have a rank of 0, we don’t feel the need to disclose the maximum bonus per matchday as it is inconsequential. However, we will disclose that a roster will be graded as an extra matchday’s worth of bonus. RP Bonus will be cumulative. As usual, quality over quantity is what matters, though simply posting “We won #woohoo” would earn a very small RP bonus. We will take into account, and completely understand, that not all users’ native language is English, and will grade RPs accordingly.
Tiebreakers:
The tiebreakers are as follows:
Goal Difference
Goals For
Head to Head Record
Head to Head Goal Difference
Head to Head Goals For
Playoff if necessary to determine advancement, otherwise random draw
Other Information:
Because this is a tournament for newcomers, some helpful feedback will be offered. First of all, both hosts would post significant background information of their nations and the venues before the tournament starts, to offer a basis for RP. The most important innovation will happen after the tournament concludes. The hosts will send a TG to every new nation (i.e. not puppets or returning users) that posted at least 1 RP during the tournament offering some constructive feedback on what we think they did well and offering some advice as to what they could work on to become a better RPer. The purpose of the Baptism of Fire is not just to get ranking points. It's to help users prepare for the World Cup and the rest of the NSSports World. If there are any experienced nations who happen to be signing up for their first World Cup, but have significant experience elsewhere on NSSports and think this would not be helpful, they can TG the hosts at any point before the end of the tournament to opt out. Ideally, we would be using 8 groups and the same host would be reading and grading all of a team’s RPs throughout the tournament (with the possible exception of the third place game or final.) This allows that host to get a better feel for those RP’s, and therefore that host would be the one to send the advice. That is another one of the reasons we wanted to go with 8 groups if at all possible. In the event it is absolutely impossible to go with 8 groups, it is possible that a user’s RPs will be read and graded by more than one host. In that case, the hosts will decide between themselves who will take which users who they have both graded.
Additionally, following the Final, there will be an all-star game featuring the best players from the Starian half of the tournament against the best players from the Gregoryisgodistani half of the tournament. The players will be selected by the hosts based on how well users RPed during the tournaments, not just on which players were RP’ed as being best. Obviously, we will base which players we select from each team on who was RP’ed as being best, but if the RPs only consist of “john smith scored 3 goals 2day, to of dem were on bicicile kix an on was from 80 meterz and we won #lolomz” then John Smith is not getting selected no matter how good he was supposed to be.
Each host will select the players for their half’s all-star team. The rosters will be announced shortly after the conclusion of the tournament, with the game to follow no more than 48 hours after the rosters are announced. The Star United States All-Stars will be coached by Starian head coach Luke Curtis, while the Gregoryisgodistan All-Stars will be coached by Gregoryisgodistani head coach Horse Beater KFIU9140. The game will be scorinated complete with summary of what happened, who scored, etc.
Please feel free to ask any questions via posting in this thread, telegram, or IRC. Thank you.
By the way, thanks to Red Blackiland for creating the logo. If you like it (or don't), then you have him to thank.