WCoH XXXVIII (38) Signups (Open)

[The Royal Kingdom of Quebec]

Woohoo!

[Greater Cebu]

The great Democratic Republic of Greater Cebu joins the World Cup of Hockey. Padayun para sa kadaugan, GCHF. Go further for victory, Ursas.

[Mercedini]

In for another crack at the big time.

[Taeshan]

Maybe the second best hockey league in the world, deserves a national team again.

[Terre Septentrionale]

In!

[Austrakia]

In.

Puppet of hated Neu Engollon.

[Neu Engollon]

In.

Puppet of hated Neu Engollon.

Yep. Love you too.

[Bliuji]

In

[Savojarna]

SAVOJARSK ISHOKEJFÖRBUNDET and SAVOJARNA SPORTS AUTHORITY

proudly present

Background information

Savojarna is a nation in Northeastern Rushmore, located on a mainland part that takes up around half the area of the country, three major islands, and a number of other islands that are partially inhabited. It houses just under 23 million people, and is known as a sports-crazy nation. Savojarna have made a name for themselves by appearing in the final of the World Cup of Hockey 34, which they hosted, winning the Copa Rushmori 31, and being back to back handball world champions, as well as being one of the strongest nations in the world in skiing and biathlon. It has been running on the basis of democratic market socialism since a revolution in 1909, and is currently at peace with all nations in the world (although there was recent inofficial involvement in a minor conflict with Eura) and a member of the Common Rushmori Community. Besides humans, it is notable for two more species living in the nation: The native Sumani humanoids that are commonly known as elves, although this is largely considered a misnomer as they are not related to any other known species carrying that name and they reject that name themselves; and the three living types of dragons living in the North of the country.

Savojar culture is a regionally diverse hodgepodge of three main groups: The main islands of Vestrholm and Ejana, together with the minor Norderholmen island chain, are the dominant culture by virtue of being the most populous region as well as the historic centre of power. The majority of people in this area worship the Norse Gods, although aside from rural Ejana and some places in the North, people are not very religious anymore. The dominant language in these area are the various dialects of Savojarsk, a North Germanic language that has a variety of dialects that are barely mutually intelligible (but is usually spoken in a standard variety by now); however, in the entire country, English is widespread and about 85% of the country claim to speak it fluently. To the east, the island of Sumanen is the second notable cultural area. Sumanen largely follows the same Gods, although there is more regional variety and the worship of Thor is rather rare. The dominant language on Sumanen is Finnish, although the cities of Hovikkära and Virkaja have large Savojarsk minorities. Finally, there is the most distinct area in the South on the Rushmori mainland, Russica. Speaking a Russian dialect and being predominantly Orthodox Christians, this area - formerly a colony of Savojarna - has retained a large cultural autonomy and is distinctly different from the rest of Savojarna. Savojars are known to be friendly, but also rather rough and sometimes a bit quiet. They do however like to show off their country and are very friendly towards visitors.

OOC: Experience
Savojarna hosted the WCoH 34 and the WJHC 12, as well as the inaugural Alpine Skiing World Tour and the Ragnar Johansson Trophy in ice hockey. As Ficiscia, the user behind Savojarna hosted the track cycling one-off Neptunia Sixdays as well.

Format

As of now, there are around thirty countries signed up. The proposed format is a single-round-robin with a single elimination playoff to follow. The elimination games will be seeded according to tie-breakers, with all group winners playing group runners-up, and all games will be played in Savojarna. Round-robin games will be OT and shootout, with points distributed according to the IIHF system (3 for a regulation win, 2 for an OT win, 1 for an OT loss, 0 for a regulation loss). In KO games, continuous OT will be used. Group sizes for various numbers of participants are:

32 entrants: 8 groups of 4, Top 2 advance to octofinals
36 entrants: 6 groups of 6, Top 2 and four best group 3rds advance to octofinals
40 entrants: 8 groups of 5, Top 2 advance to octofinals

Tiebreakers will be as follows:
1. Head-to-Head results of involved teams
2. Head-to-Head goal difference
3. Goal difference
4. Goals scored
5. Coin toss

OOC: Roleplay, Scorination, Schedule
RP bonus is cumulative, and given out in a ratio so that an unranked team that reaches maximum RP bonus every day could match the top ranked team's ranking points by the first KO game (although I am reluctant to give max bonuses). In order to account for the home ice advantage of Savojarna, and to weigh up for the fact that hosting makes it harder for me to RP, Savojarna will start with a bonus of half the maximum RP bonus for one matchday. This bonus will not add up over time, i.e. it will only be added once. RP will be purely graded on quality, with no technical criteria (e.g. length, design etc.), although those may make your RP more enjoyable and thus better rated.

I will scorinate with xkoranate, using the SQIS formula and xkoranate-style/additive modifiers from -5 to +5. Third-person scorination will be used from the KO round onwards for matches that involve Savojarna. While cutoff times are not fixed yet, they will likely fall somewhere between 21:30 and 23:00 CE(S)T. My tentative timeframe will be to start in early November to ensure no collision with the Olympic Games, and run for about two to three weeks.

Any questions about this bid will be happily answered!

[Volinovia]

Volinovia wants in.

[North Quadana]

In!

[World Cup of Hockey Federation]

Host Vote
Members of the WCoHF may vote to:

- Accept the bid from Savojarna
- Reopen bidding
- Officially abstain

All votes should be sent by telegram to Vyinta by October 27th 2000 CDT.

[Cassadaigua]

We're in

[St Saratoga]

Ope let me squeeze right into this event, sorry

[United States of Devonta]

Im in, if we still got room

[World Cup of Hockey Federation]

Host Vote

Accept the bid from Savojarna - 1
Reopen bidding - 1

With a tie, as President I follow the constitutional bylaws and cast the tiebreaking vote, awarding the rights to the tournament to Savojarna.

[Gim]

Would like to participate.

[Kingdom of the Polar Bear]

The KOPB would love to participate!

[Savojarna]

I greatly thank the one voter, and the WCOH Federation President, for their votes in favour of Savojarna 38! By my counting, we have 36 entrants right now, which would nicely correspond with six groups of six teams. However, as stated in my bid, I wish to start only after the Olympics are finished to avoid piling onto the already significant overlap of competitions. Hence, I tentatively will cut off signups on Sunday, 3 Nov (the last day of the Olympics) and scorinate MD1 on 5 Nov. If there are objections to this timeframe, please raise them as soon as possible so that I can adjust things accordingly.

[Savojarna]

As there have been no further signups, I decided to close signups and open up the Everything Thread. Groups will be drawn tomorrow, and the first matchday will be on Thursday, 5. November at around 22:30 CET/21:30 UTC/16:30 EST.

[Savojarna]

Important host announcement

There has been a mistake regarding signups. I have used the signup list in the OP of this thread as basis for the signups and tacked on the five nations who signed up after the signups were last updated. However, what I had not seen was that Kita-Hinode and Bliuji had signed up and not been included in the OP signup list (although I did even scroll through the thread, but missed their signup even when doing that). As a consequence, and after consulting with more experienced hosts on Discord, that means three things:

1) We now have 38 teams, which is an awkward number. While we do have puppets, both are puppets that have been roleplayed along with their main nations, I would rather not kick them out. If someone messages me until tomorrow morning 9:00 CET (that is, 9.5 hours from the moment this is posted) with a puppet to make things work out again, I will create and throw in one of my own as well, and we'll use the 40 team format.

EDIT: We are switching to the format of eight groups of five, thanks to Banija signing up a puppet (and myself throwing in one as well). New groups should go live tomorrow morning around 9:00 CET.

2) Regardless of the decision we take on team sizes, the groups will have to be re-drawn to accommodate changes in the pots. RP's written until now will be graded normally, even though they don't apply to the new groups anymore. That means that you don't have to retcon your RP unless you want to.

3) Cutoff for the first match day will be pushed back 24 hours and occur tomorrow at the indicated window. The new schedule will be noted in the Everything Thread when the new group draw is released.

I apologise dearly for this mistake, and I hope that the rest of the tournament will go smoothly. Please forgive me for having missed those nations, and I hope that you can still trust me for possible future host bids!

[Silver Beach]

I'll sign up in regards to the above announcement. Puppet of Banija.

[Gyatso-kai]

I apologise dearly for this mistake, and I hope that the rest of the tournament will go smoothly. Please forgive me for having missed those nations, and I hope that you can still trust me for possible future host bids!

Mistakes happen dude. No worries.

[Adyatin]

#40 is here (puppet of Savojarna)

[Savojarna]

#40 is here (puppet of Savojarna)

Confirming those wacky authoritarians to my South.