Eastfield Lodge-Damukuni BID for Cup of Harmony 75

[Damukuni]

The 75th Cup of Harmony
Eastfield Lodge & Damukuni
- Bid -

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HOST INFORMATION

ABOUT EASTFIELD LODGE

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IC Info: The Imperial Commonwealth of Eastfield Lodge is a vast conglomerate of nations and states that resides almost entirely in a separate dimension to the reality you all know and all - a bubble universe would be an apt description (the why is a long story). The one bit of the country that lies in the normal dimension is a tiny island in the northern Rushmore seas, which serves as a transport hub for travel across the region by conventional transport, and for travel to the Imperial Commonwealth via Void Ship.

The history of the country is long and complex, but the key overview is that it is a very socialist Muslim constitutional monarchy, with a noted reputation as being one of the nicest places to visit in the entirety of the known multiverse - the most recent WA census puts the Imperial Commonwealth in the top 100 nations in several measures such as Safety, Compliance/freedom from crime, Tourism, Weather, Compassion, Niceness and Environmental Beauty, amongst several others; most of which are also ranked as the best in the Rushmore region.

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OOC Bidder Info: The user behind Eastfield Lodge has been a semi-regular fixture on this sub-forum for nearly ten years, and is probably most well-known for being extremely poor at qualifying for the World Cup - 31 failures in 33 attempts, including 21 in a row from World Cups 55 to 77. In a more relevant sport, there has been a a bit more success in the field of motorsport, finishing as runners-up in consecutive NationStates Grand Prix championships, before being involved in the World Grand Prix Championship for the past four seasons.

Despite being on the forum for so long, my hosting experience is a bit thin on the ground. I did host a few competitions in my early years, including the 4th Market Cup. More recently however, I have hosted the 12th Beach Cup, the 8th International Firestorm Cup, the 27th Copa Rushmori (along with Pasarga), the inaugural WGP2 season and most recently BoF 69.

ABOUT DAMUKUNI

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IC Info: The United States of Damukuni is an interstellar republic consisting of 21 constituent states, held together by a constitutional federal system. Its president, Charles Preston, is overseeing a time of prosperity and futurization. The First-World nation includes a population of roughly 435 million citizens, most of whom follow one variant or another of Christianity (although freedom of religion is enshrined in the Constitution), and are politically and economically free, although a high slant in favour of traditional values can be observed.

Damukuni boasts an impressive transportation system that utilises a network of 320,000 km of passenger-car highways and several man-made canals, impressive modern (OOC: think mid-21st century, so fairly futuristic) architecture, and culture that includes a wide range of live, filmed, and animated (animato, OOC: cross between Japanese anime and Western-style 2D animated) entertainment.

Sports in Damukuni are widely popular. Association football is the second-most popular sport (the most popular being limited-overs cricket), with basketball and hockey being more popular amongst leisure players. The Associations Twenty20 League (cricket) and Damukuni Football League are managed by the same privately-held governing body, BCCD-DFA Holdings Corp./KK, which, as The Damukuni Football Association (Damukuni FA, but never DFA), is also the organisation submitting this bid in conjunction with the ICELFA. Aranti Desert Province FC and Miracle FC Izaki (renamed for sponsorship reasons as per the new DFL rules) are the two most successful franchises in the current iteration of the DFL, making perennial appearances in the Champions' Cup or Globe Cup and in the Campionato Esportivano di Campeones.

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OOC Info: The player behind Damukuni has been an active member of NS Sports since late 2014 and the WA delegate of Esportiva since 2017, and is the current organizer of the Campionato Esportiva di Campeones (regional domestic soccer) and the Champions' League Twenty20 international domestic cricket competitions. He has also hosted the 22nd Campionato Esportiva (as Damukuni, with The Golden Lotus/the player behind Qasden), the 25th World Lacrosse Championships (as Corcra and Tir Trodaithe), the 3rd (knockouts only) and 4th (full running) International Cups of 7ball (as Fleuronordicia), and the 26th Copa Rushmori (as South Yerfilag, now part of Eshan) Additionally, he has appeared in the World Cup in slightly less than half of his 11 qualifying campaigns, famously beating Semarland the first time he qualified, and in the Cup of Harmony in all but one of the instances he failed to qualify. Other sports RP history includes a famous World Baseball Classic bout in which he (as South Yerfilag) placed 3rd, beating the heavily favored Gregoryisgodistan (now South Covello).

FORMAT

NO    GRPS  SIZE  ADVANCE
24    4     6     Top team automatic; 5 v 12, 6 v 11, 7 v 10, 8 v 9, into a Quarterfinals
25    5     5     Top 2 + next 2 teams, Playoff: 5 v 12, 6 v 11, 7 v 10, 8 v 9
28    4     7     (Same as 24 teams)
30    6     5     Top 2 teams, Playoff: 5 v 12, 6 v 11, 7 v 10, 8 v 9
32    8     4     Top 2 teams
35    5     7     Top 2 teams, Playoff: 7 v 10, 8 v 9
36    9     4     Top teams + next 7
40    8     5     Top 2 teams
42    6     7     Top 2 teams, Playoff: 5 v 12, 6 v 11, 7 v 10, 8 v 9
44    11    4     Top teams + next 5
45    9     5     Top teams + next 7
48    8     6     Top 2 teams

Tiebreakers:

• 3-1-0 system
• Head-to-head 3-1-0 system
• Head-to-head goal difference
• Goal difference
• Head-to-head goals for
• Goals for
• Fewer goals against
• Toss (by overall RP bonus)

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
xkoranate 0.3.3 will be used, using Schiavone-Guayabalense International Scorination (SGIS) formula; we will use additive style modifiers.

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Questions and comments will be entertained below for the entirety of the bidding period.

Edit: All scenarios containing 4 groups of x nations are updated so that the top 4 teams, instead of the top 2, advance, due to initial oversight.
Edit 2: Amended as per EFL's answers to Qusmo's and FFR's questions.

[Qusmo]

I'm guessing knockouts will be seeded, instead of the standard A1 v. B2, &c., format? If so, will the bracket be reseeded between rounds?

I noticed that, even though the twenty-five-team & thirty-five-team formats both use five groups, they have different playoff qualification criteria: with five groups of five, the top two plus two advance, but with five groups of seven, only the top two advance. What's the rationale for this? &, further, it seems like all the formats besides those with five or six groups are designed to pare the field down to precisely sixteen for the knockout rounds; why cut the field of knockout round qualifiers further, by only letting ten or twelve move on? Since you're willing to allow some third-, or even fourth-, place teams qualify in certain formats, why not expand it to top three plus one for five-group formats & top two plus four for six-group formats? I think you can probably tell which format I'd prefer, but I'm interested in y'all's rationale.

Also, is there any scenario in which goals conceded could split sides tied on goal difference & goals scored?

[Free Republics]

Am I reading your tiebreakers wrong or did you leave head to head off the tiebreaker list entirely? If so, why?

[Eastfield Lodge]

I'm guessing knockouts will be seeded, instead of the standard A1 v. B2, &c., format? If so, will the bracket be reseeded between rounds?

I noticed that, even though the twenty-five-team & thirty-five-team formats both use five groups, they have different playoff qualification criteria: with five groups of five, the top two plus two advance, but with five groups of seven, only the top two advance. What's the rationale for this? &, further, it seems like all the formats besides those with five or six groups are designed to pare the field down to precisely sixteen for the knockout rounds; why cut the field of knockout round qualifiers further, by only letting ten or twelve move on? Since you're willing to allow some third-, or even fourth-, place teams qualify in certain formats, why not expand it to top three plus one for five-group formats & top two plus four for six-group formats? I think you can probably tell which format I'd prefer, but I'm interested in y'all's rationale.

Also, is there any scenario in which goals conceded could split sides tied on goal difference & goals scored?

1) Yes, knockouts will be seeded if there's uneven advancement (i.e, where we advance best 3rd/4th place teams), but the bracket won't be reseeded between rounds.
2) After some discussion, we've decided to change the group advancement stuff. The numbers will be finalised later, but for now, 24/25 will advance 12, 32 and above will advance 16. Basically, we don't want to advance too many people, because we want the group stage to matter. As it is, we don't envisage having to need to use the smaller number formats, given the decent amount of RPs in the qualis so far.

Am I reading your tiebreakers wrong or did you leave head to head off the tiebreaker list entirely? If so, why?

3) Maybe because we wrote them entirely wrong. (And no, I can't think of any scenario where Goals Against would differentiate after tied GD and GF).

Actual tiebreaker list: Point, H2H Points, H2H GD, GD, H2H GF, GF, "coin toss" (RP bonus).