WORLD CUP 87 QUALIFYING PREVIEWWritten By: Taylor Jones and Hayley Powell
Finally! Drawkland has done what we once thought was impossible. It may have nearly killed the Elite Eleven, but they managed to steel their resolve. Riding on the backs of home field advantage and a sorta-lucky group draw, they brought Drawkland to not just our first lossless World Cup group stage, but a playoff berth. More of that review in a minute.
Now, we must return to reality and suffer through a challenging and grueling qualifying campaign. There is one silver lining though: thanks to our stellar cycle in World Cup 86 (and a bit of luck with the qualifying format), we're now a Pot 1 team. For the first time since World Cup 81 qualifying, we'll be exclusively punching down on our competition. Just ... don't ask us how that went last time.
WORLD CUP 87In the second-ever World Cup hosted in Drawkland, we had a little more skill on our hands than the first time we hosted in World Cup 79. In World Cup 79, we were a Pot 3-4 team placed in Pot 1 as hosts, but even dodging a real Pot 1 team wasn't really enough to propel us over the edge. We went 1-1-1, losing on the final matchday to Cosumar to barely bump us from a knockout spot. This time, we wouldn't have the same issues to deal with, being more equipped to tackle heavyweight opponents. We'd face Starblaydia, The Hinodejin Empire, and Hampton Island, and one would once again expect us to go 1-1-1 against such a crowd.
The tide was turned on Matchday 1, where we opened World Cup 86 as a whole by taking on a solid Starblaydia team, our hardest match of the campaign. Thanks to heroics by the crowd atmosphere in Seven Stars Stadium and great effort by the Elite Eleven themselves, we came away with a 1-1 draw that proved we weren't going to slink quietly away from the World Cup group stage again. The next matchday resulted in a 4-2 win against the Hinodejins, only our fourth-ever win in a World Cup. All the E11 needed to do was not lose on the last matchday, and we were sure to advance to the knockouts. They did what the original Kick Corps couldn't, holding off Hampton Island to a 1-1 draw that would send us onward.
Unfortunately, our first playoff opponent would be none other than Vilita, who won their group and are no strangers to World Cup playoff games. Defeat was all but certain, but that didn't stop the Elite Eleven from putting on an impressive show in Raikennax. The resulting match ended with flurries of goals on both sides, ending 4-4 after regulation time and unchanging after extra time to force a penalty shootout. A first shot miss by Rodney and a last shot miss by Hanson would seal our fates with a 4-3 penalty shootout that sent us packing home. Thankfully for the Elite Eleven, it was not a long journey, and the fans were supportive all the way.
Ultimately, despite the Round of 16 exit, it was a great result and our best campaign so far. Even the lost that ended the season was a good one, a tightly-contested high-flying match that we took to the very end.
QUALIFYING DRAWNow with the next cycle upon us, there's the double edged sword of expanded potential along with increased expectations. The sky may be the limit for the Elite Eleven, but now anything short of qualification and a decent showing at the World Cup would be a huge disappointment. Need I remind everyone here that Drawkland's first qualifying cycle in Pot 1 was far and away our statistical best and yet ... we failed to qualify. The Elite Eleven have succeeded where the old Corps failed, but they have to do it again if they expect to stick around as the new Corps.
As far as our group draw, it's a pretty comfortable one. Our biggest threats will be Chromatika, ranked 27th in pot 2 compared to our 16th. In this qualifying cycle, all group winners advance, along with the best three second-place teams. The remaining second placers will face each other in a playoff to determine the remaining spots. Ultimately, our performance compared to our groupmates is entirely irrelevant. We need to show out, and not drop points where it's not necessary. Even if the unthinkable happens and we surrender the top spot to Chromatika or another team, we have to have enough points to stack up against the second-place teams across the qualifying groups. Playoffs are volatile. Playoffs are chaos. Playoffs are where dreams go to die. We must avoid them at all costs.
In Group 10, Drawkland and Chromatika are joined by Mavinet, ZSeparatists, Freechi, United States of Devonta, Arklanda, Logano Fraza, Eastfield Lodge, and Smosh Games. These are ranked approximately by how much of a threat they are to qualify. By all standard metrics, we should be able to beat all these teams at home, and nearly all of them on the road. Maggie is a fickle mistress, though, so there are no guarantees. We'll look at our individual chances in a moment.
VENUE SCHEDULEFor the first time since World Cup 82, DISC has decided to go with a qualifying "tour" across Drawkland, rather than hosting every home game in a single venue. For the first four cycles (minus the one we hosted and didn't have a qualifying campaign for) of Drawkland's participation in the World Cup, the qualifying home games were held at Drawk City Stadium. In World Cup 82, to build up hype across the nation for the upcoming World Cup cycle (one cycle removed from our first failure), they set the 9 home games in 9 venues, with varying level of success. People showed up, and the crowds were excited, but ultimately the old Corps once again failed to qualify. After they fell to Omerica on home soil in the IAC, this team was deposed and replaced by the Elite Eleven.
The Elite Eleven, being a troupe of athletes based in Sadeg, had played all their games in Spartan Veteran Stadium, which is normally used for gridiron. Since the World Cup is held in the gridiron offseason when the stadium is vacant, the Eleven took to using it with pride, since it's a solid venue. Since then, it's been used exclusively for qualifying home games. It's now been that way for four cycles, though one of them doesn't count since we hosted and thus didn't have a qualifying campaign. Huh, that sounds sorta familiar doesn't it? DISC seems to feel confident enough to spread out the qualifying games again, especially since hosting the World Cup last cycle seems to have reinvigorated the national spirit for the sport.
Without further ado, here's the schedule for each home game of the World Cup 87 campaign. Notice that there's two games scheduled for the normal Spartan Veteran Stadium, thanks to the incredibly clout power the Elite Eleven possesses. It's like they've got a permanent hold on the nuts of all the decision-makers at DISC.
MD2 vs ZSeparatists: Spartan Veteran Stadium, Sadeg (107,500)
MD4 vs Smosh Games: Pitch of the Plains, Bellator (101,000)
MD7 vs United States of Devonta: Castle Stadium, Raikennax (149,500)
MD9 vs Mavinet: National Pitch, Metropolon (149,000)
MD10 vs Chromatika: Drawk City Stadium, Drawk City (175,000)
MD12 vs Freechi: Kanyo Pitch, Kayo (164,000)
MD14 vs Logano Fraza: Bethelm Arena, Bethelm (102,100)
MD15 vs Arklanda: Oreme Field, Kilnelm (115,000)
MD17 vs Eastfield Lodge: Spartan Veteran Stadium, Sadeg (107,500)
If you're familiar with Drawkland geography, you'll notice this campaign takes a simple "there-and-back-again" approach with the spacing and scheduling of these matches. The campaign begins on familiar ground for the Elite Eleven, their old haunt of Spartan Veteran Stadium in Sadeg. They then venture all the way out west to Bellator, then hit Raikennax, before ending back in the Metro District for the two biggest home matches of the campaign, one to end the first half in Metropolon and start the second half in Drawk City.
The second leg sends the Corps out east to Kayo. Then, in the MD14/15 double header, the twin cities of Bethelm and Kilnelm will play host to the two lowest ranked teams in the group. Finally, the Elite travel back to Sadeg for their home closer against the perennial factory of sadness that is Eastfield Lodge. Unfortunately there will be one more game to play after this, a pretty crucial one in Mavinet. We can only hope we finish strong.
PROSPECTSAs we said earlier, this group is basically ours to lose. Mathematically, we deserve all the points. We start off the campaign hard, with our most difficult match of the campaign. Chromatika (pot 2) on the road. A win here would pay dividends down the road, especially if we take care of business against the teams destined to be bottom-feeders of this group. All logic points to the Elite Eleven and Chromatika running away with this group, but you can't count on success. Just ask any of the teams ahead of us in our early cycles. One cycle you think you're set to qualify easily from Pot 1, then BOOM! Some random Pot 7 team just stole your qualifying spot.
Of the challengers, the biggest contender has got to be the pot 3 squad of Mavinet. Ranked a mere 60th, they're not even high in the pot 3 list, but we'd be foolish to discount their skill. If any team has a chance to spoil the run for us, it's them. Pot 4 yielded the United States of Devonta to us, a familiar name if you follow any major sport for awhile. I mean, they're familiar because they've been around for awhile, but not really due to success. There's a lot of scary teams from pot 4, eager to steal points from the big boys, but fortunately for us, Devonta is a tamer option. Their rank of 83rd is mostly built on the merit of consistently entering and consistently not being terrible. I would consider them less of a threat to steal a qualification spot, but more of a trap game team that would ruin our run if we're not careful.
In Pot 5 we've been dealt Eastfield Lodge. All things considered, I think we're safe from them making a qualification run, but like Devonta, we can't be so foolish as to play weakly against them and drop points. The same goes for our Pot 6 opponents in ZSeparatists. Being the third-best team in the pot, this is statistically the hardest matchup we have, comparing rankings within each pot. They're still ranked 121st though, so at this point we're getting to the plucky teams that may be stealing points if we're unlucky or lazy, but in all likelihood will simply be used to boost our record.
Finally, we get to the dregs of the bunch. A few new debutants from the Baptism of Fire, including Freechi, Arklanda, and Logano Fraza to worry about. There are some tough-looking new teams out there, but none of these three seem to be the harder-hitting of them. They could make a shock run, as Baptism-fresh teams tend to sometimes do, but I wouldn't hold your breath. Anything less than six points from each would be a disappointment. There's also the unranked debutant of Smosh Games, who are likely to be even less of a contender.
To sum it all up: we're a pot 1 team, dammit. Ranked 16 in the multiverse right now. Anything less than qualification will be a failure, and anything less than six points from half our groupmates will be considered major upsets. Over an 18-game campaign, you're going to want to amass at least 40 points to consider yourself in a good range to qualify. In a
perfect reasonable world, we should be looking in the ballpark of 45 points from this campaign. Upsets are bound to happen where we don't expect, though, so anything over 40 will be a solid showing in my book. To be honest, though, the points I could care less about. Qualification is the goal. The Elite Eleven have done it three times now ... let's see them do it again. Their jobs may depend on it. On Corps.