NationStates

Why?
Motivation

There has been a lot of discussion in the World Cup community lately about the pacing of the world cup. The users behind this bid would like to see the next world cup happen sooner rather than later, and we believe that the best way to make that happen is to do something about it: to bid. Our goal in presenting this bid is to respond to a lot of the discussions that have happened recently, which have covered schedule, format, and much more. The bid we are presenting is designed to start sooner and end quicker than recent cycles, while staying true to the spirit of the world cup.

To put it more succinctly, the world cup is a lot of fun, and we’d like to do it again.

We also believe that aiming for a more compact world cup cycle will help to reduce burnout. That means not just quicker turnaround, but also shorter, less intense qualifiers. We will be aiming for a reasonable time frame, but also including quarterly - rather than mid-point - qualifying breaks.

This joint bid by four parties acknowledges the success of recent ‘team efforts’ - the 4-party WC-85/CoH-77 and the 3-party BoF-72. In particular we feel that having additional users involved provides for security coverage in the unlikely - but in the present global climate not impossible - event of any one host facing RL difficulties; and adds additional oversight and transparency to decision-making. All three events in the last cycle benefited directly from having more than the traditional 2-2-2 host format.

Who?
The Hosts

Taeshan
Taeshan has been around in various sports since their entrance in World Cup 37. An 11 time qualifier in 47 attempts Taeshan has managed to qualify for the last 3 World Cups after a 18 tournament absence from successfully entering qualifying. A 2 time Quarterfinalist, and 3 time Round of Sixteen nation Taeshan has hosted A Cup of Harmony, a Copa Rushmori, and a Sporting World Cup. The Taeshan national team is currently in the top 20 in the World, and the Taeshan Premier League is one of the top 15 leagues in the World. Taeshan’s history in the World of Soccer is matched only by a short list of nations, if albeit much less successful than the majority of those nations.

Taeshan is divided into 8 Island Provinces. Taeshan is notable for its rather winter weather based climate. On the Eastern tip of Rushmore Taeshan has approximately 90 million citizens across the 8 Islands, and the mainland annex of Williams Isle and Hannah.

OOC: Taeshan has hosted Cup of Harmony 55, Copa Rushmori 14, Sporting World Cup 10, and Quidditch World Cup 10. Taeshan also hosted events at the Rushmore Games as Antoletia. Taeshan has also run the TPL and it’s tiered league for the past 13 OOC years as well as various other leagues.

Eastfield Lodge
One of the more infamous competitors in World Cup history, the Imperial Commonwealth of Eastfield Lodge exists mostly in a bubble dimension attached to the region of Rushmore. A veritable paradise for both locals and visitors, if the World Assembly Censuses are to be believed, this Muslim nation is probably best known for being utterly hopeless at footballing endeavours, being one of the least successful long-lasting sides in World Cup history with only 2 previous finals appearances in 37 attempts, and only a Copa Rushmori title to their name in international football.

OOC: The user behind Eastfield Lodge has been a regular fixture on this sub-forum for over ten years, with little success. Along with hosting a few competitions in the early years, including Market Cup 4, Beach Cup 12, and International Firestorm Cup 8, he has also hosted the Copa Rushmori 27 (along with Pasarga), the inaugural WGP2 season, BoF 69, Cup of Harmony 75, Copa Rushmori 34 as well as being one of the original IFCF committee, which will have finished its third cycle.

The Cup of Harmony Hosts
Tequilo

Tequilo is an alliance of six former sovereign states and three independent city-states living harmoniously - and chaotically - in peaceful union, named for the explorer Europa ‘Tequilo’ A’Merika; deciding her first and last names sounded a bit silly the Alliance opted for her nickname, based on her penchant for intoxicating horticulture. A long history of playing football - pitxi in the local dialect - has only recently come to light on the world stage, with a first entry into the World Cup in the ‘85 cycle.

OOC: Habitually changing guises, the user behind Tequilo has been around NS Sport for more than a decade, occasionally winning things, hosting things, and making stuff up. All three NSWC titles have been won as different nations - Tamarindia (BoF), Wight (WC) and Bonesea (CoH); along with a Cuppet with a different puppet; an Under-15 World Cup and a Di Bradini Cup as Wight; and an Independent Associations Championship as Bonesea. The user has hosted two World Cups and a Cup of Harmony; an IAC and a Cuppet and other assorted minor competitions. The user created and hosted all three editions of the Brevity Cup, founded the IAC, and inaugurated the Galactico Index.

Reçueçn
Reçueçn is a small, multicultural country in Western Europe (although you’re most likely not living in the right timeline to find it on a map, if you happened to check). The nation’s alpine ranges are better fitted to skiing than soccer, but Les Licornes have risen to relevance surprisingly quickly since their recent return to the World Cup.

OOC: Reçueçn has hosted a recent edition of the IAC, a couple editions of their Beçonailles tennis tournament, the Pan-Pacific Cup, and their own domestic football league, as well as having spearheaded the launch and hosting of the FFI which has now completed two cycles. They have also hosted multiple competitions on their region’s own forums, including co-hosting a regional olympics.

How?
The Scorinator
We will use the NSFS formula on Xkoranate 0.3.3 with additive style modifiers. The tournament will use a cumulative RP bonus. Accumulated RP bonus from the qualifiers will be scaled to two matchdays’ worth moving into the World Cup finals and the Cup of Harmony.

For tiebreakers, we will use:

• Points
• Head-to-head points
• Head-to-head Goal Differential
• Goal Differential
• Goals Against
• Coin Flip

RP Bonus
We'll be giving maximum bonuses of 1.5KPBs per Matchday, along with a maximum of 2 KPBs for the roster. There will not be a no-roster penalty, although we will institute a floor of 0.5 KPBs for roster bonuses, regardless of quality. RP grading will not be public.

The Format
Our ideal format for qualifying is twenty groups of nine. Numbers - and groups - may vary, but we will use a single (double round robin) group stage from which every group winner will qualify and every runner-up will be guaranteed a playoff. Ideally we will use 20 groups, but are willing to use any number of groups from 15 to 24 balanced groups. We also plan to employ double matchdays with whatever group format we choose, with the aim of a maximum of 16 scorinations. Any double matchdays will be followed by a day off, either with the planned quarter-qual breaks or additional break days as required. Thus, for teams not going into playoffs, qualifiers should last twenty days at most, including breaks. Hopefully with the flexible format we will only need one double matchday in each half.

Most Ideal Formats
150 teams: fifteen groups of ten
160 teams: twenty groups of eight
168 teams: twenty-four groups of seven
180 teams: twenty groups of nine
192 teams: twenty-four groups of eight
200 teams: twenty groups of ten

As with World Cup 85 we present this bid as a team effort; Eastfield Lodge & Taeshan are the lead bidding parties for the World Cup; they will score the second half of the qualifying stage; and will be solely responsible for the World Cup Finals. Reçueçn & Tequilo will be subsidiary partners responsible for scorinating the first half of the qualifying tournament and then taking the lead on the Cup of Harmony (see below).

What Else?
The Cup of Harmony
Tequilo and Reçueçn are aware that as bidders for the Cup of Harmony, they will have to win that vote separately when the time comes. But that is part of this bid and we don’t want to leave it out; it is our responsibility to let the community know what it can expect regarding this portion of the cycle, should our bid win.

We will use the same scorination method as the World Cup (xkoranate/NSFS/additive/) and the same tiebreakers (Pts, H2H Pts, H2H GD, GD, GA). There will be a set limit on the number of participants to be decided once participation levels in this cycle have been determined: either 32, 48, or 64 teams.

Per tradition the CoH will be scorinated every other day and we will aim to complete the day before the WC final so that that fixture is the final fixture of the cycle.

Since I put the question to Drawk & Newmanistan, I'll put it to your bid as well:

Are you going to reveal your bonus scale publicly like the other 3 bids have?

Free Republics wrote:Since I put the question to Drawk & Newmanistan, I'll put it to your bid as well:

Are you going to reveal your bonus scale publicly like the other 3 bids have?

We're still discussing bonus specifics as we didn't anticipate other bids to be so open with their details, so we'll get back to this once we've done that.

Free Republics wrote:Since I put the question to Drawk & Newmanistan, I'll put it to your bid as well:

Are you going to reveal your bonus scale publicly like the other 3 bids have?

Having discussed this, I've gone ahead and edited in the RP bonus scale and details we'll be using into the OP.

(Acknowledging my conflict of interest as a competing bidder here)

1) For clarity, does the "per matchday" mean "per scorination day", i.e. does a double-scorination (if you use any) will count as one MD for bonus purposes, or for two?

2) Assuming 16 scorination and 1.5 possible bonus per MD, plus up to 2 for the roster, you're setting teams to max out at potentially 26 points -- likely well above what the other bids are offering. How do you feel this addresses concerns in the community that the pressure to RP at a high level helps lead to stress and burnout?

3) That high of an RP bonus can also wreak havoc with the max points function required in NSFS. How do you plan to set maxpoints when scorinating to address this?

Legalese wrote:(Acknowledging my conflict of interest as a competing bidder here)

1) For clarity, does the "per matchday" mean "per scorination day", i.e. does a double-scorination (if you use any) will count as one MD for bonus purposes, or for two?

2) Assuming 16 scorination and 1.5 possible bonus per MD, plus up to 2 for the roster, you're setting teams to max out at potentially 26 points -- likely well above what the other bids are offering. How do you feel this addresses concerns in the community that the pressure to RP at a high level helps lead to stress and burnout?

3) That high of an RP bonus can also wreak havoc with the max points function required in NSFS. How do you plan to set maxpoints when scorinating to address this?

1) Yes, so 1.5 KPBs per day of scorination

2) We're thinking that simply having a shorter qualifying schedule, along with the added breaks, will be enough to curb a lot of the burnout concerns.

3) Having discussed backstage, we're thinking of trialling a system Farf mentioned on Discord during the last WC, where the maxpoints are set at whatever the highest rank+RP value was before that day's RP bonuses (but not including the roster bonus, so the most anyone can be is 1.5 points above the maxpoints).