Independents Cup 12 Sign-Up Thread

[Bunkaiia]

Bunkaiia would like to sign up, please

[Tequilo]

I see. Tequilo I love your RPing so I've always wanted to participate in a tournament hosted by you, but I didn't like how SGIS turned out during the last WC and I'm really opposed to any public RP bonuses, so I think I unfortunately may sit this one out. (That's not a threat, just saying, if you win, please consider me and my puppet numbers-puppets-only to be excluded if it makes more convenient numbers.) Nothing personal.

No offence taken and thanks, sincerely, for your kind words. I don’t want to be the cause of anyone sitting out - we had something of a divisive bid last time and I definitely don’t want to maintain that; we have at least one other potential bidder so I’m going to withdraw my bid and hopefully we can get an alternative sorted soon. I’d rather RP alongside you than see you sit out.

As we have bumped over the 40 mark with signups I’ll also pull my number puppet who would’ve been dropped anyway with the 40 milestone reached.

[Almuzahara]

IAC12 BID: MURALOS / ALMUZAHARA

About the Hosts
Muralos is a cosmopolitan collection of islands located in the corner of the Far East: RL’s Sakhalin and Kuril Islands. It is home to a population of Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and indigenous (Ainu and Nivkh) origins. What is now Muralos was once Soviet Russian and Japanese territory; the country gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1947. The official language of Muralos is Esperanto- a language designed to be universal and easy to learn- but the population is exceptionally multilingual, with each citizen knowing an average of 4 languages. The user behind Muralos has hosted 3 tournaments, including the Asian Archipelago Embassy Cup in 2016 and the ongoing International Playground Wallball Championship. The user behind Muralos has RP’d actively in the IAC-11, the 74th Baptism of Fire, and the 87th World Cup qualifiers.

Almuzahara is a tropical, pious, democratic socialist nation located in Sonnel, bordered to the west by Sevendia and to the northwest by Juvencus. Known for its lush jungles, Almuzahara was first explored by Yahya Leonidas del Toro in the 1510s and settled by ethnic minorities from a faraway caliphate in the mid-sixteenth century. Today, the nation is primarily inhabited by descendants of the original settlers; Arabic is the primary language and Islam is the primary religion, owing to Almuzahara’s historical origins. The user behind Almuzahara would prefer to remain anonymous, but has significant past hosting experience, having hosted a non-WC WCC event and a major American sports tournament, as well as a series of smaller tournaments and an active domestic league. As Almuzahara, the user has actively participated in an edition of the IAC and Sonnel’s 7NC.

Format
Based on current signup numbers, we will be targeting a field size of 40, adding or removing puppets as appropriate to achieve 40 nations. Nations will be drawn into eight groups of five teams each through a standard pot system; both hosts will be placed in the highest pot. After a single round robin group stage, the top two teams in each group will advance to a single-elimination knockout round; knockout round matchups will be determined by an A1 v B2-type setup, rather than by seeding.

Tiebreaker order: 1. Head-to-head results, 2. Goal Difference, 3. Goals For, 4. IC Drawing of Lots (a single-round-robin football playoff in NSFS using the nations’ RP bonuses as skills, repeated until the tie is broken)

EDIT 3/17: adjusted coin flip/drawing of lots tiebreaker to account for multi-way ties.

Scorination

We will use the NSFS scorinator with IAC ranks to host. RP bonus will be cumulative and generous. The hosts will scorinate each others’ groups and knockout round matches to maintain neutrality.

In the interest of transparency, the distribution of RP bonuses given will be released after the tournament, so the effects of RP on tournament results can be understood. RP bonuses for individuals will remain private (although both hosts will be receptive to requests for feedback after the conclusion of the tournament).

Scheduling / Extras

In the interests of time, if selected, we will be looking to close signups, open an everything thread, and post a group draw by Friday, March 19. We are also targeting a start date of Tuesday, March 23.

edit 3/16: Since the presence of competing bids requires a vote to be held, we will not be targeting the above dates for the group draw and start date. Instead, if selected, we will be opening an everything thread / holding a draw immediately after the host vote concludes, with MD1 coming at least four days after the everything thread is posted.

After the conclusion of the IAC, an exhibition match between two teams composed of players from participating nations will be contested, with one team representing players from Muralos’ side of the bracket, and the other representing players from Almuzahara’s side of the bracket.

[Hot Skitty on Wailord Action]

HSOWA bid for the Independence Cup

From the absolute twit behind the fourth Coupe d’Esquarium, the nineteenth Handball World Cup and the tenth Independents Chalice comes the most cursed Independents Mug bid yet…

The HSOWA Independents Glass group stage will have eight groups with various … special features, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the knockout stage. The number of groups is fixed and groups may consequently be of different sizes if necessary, with the larger groups to be chosen randomly. Tiebreakers will be in the default xkoranate order (GD, GF, H2H points, H2H GD, H2H GF); if nations are tied on all criteria, the nations will be ranked by the number of letters in their names (most letters wins).

Scorination will use the latest version of xkoranate with the SQIS formula and additive modifiers. In the absence of a formally adopted IAC ranking system, seeding and rank bonus will be based on the current interim IAC ranking system; neither the hosts nor the titleholders will be entitled to automatic places in pot 1. And about those special features…

Group A is for Attack: Both teams must score in every fixture. Fixtures where either team fails to score are replayed until both teams score.
Group B is for Beach: This group will play beach soccer. That is all. (This group will be scorinated using EFL’s beach soccer formula.)
Group C is for Clean: At least one team must keep a clean sheet in every fixture. Fixtures where both teams score are replayed until at least one team does not.
Group D is for Death: The highest-ranked team in each pot will automatically be drawn into this group. Otherwise, this group proceeds as normal.
Group E is for Extra: Matches in this group may not end in draws and will go to extra time and penalties if necessary. Shootout victories will award a bonus point.
Group F is for Fasting: The normal tiebreaking criteria will not apply in this group. Instead, any ties will be broken by means of summer vigil fasting.
Group G is for Garbage: The lowest-ranked team in each pot will automatically be drawn into this group. Otherwise, this group proceeds as normal.
Group H is for Handicap: One team will have its skill reset to zero each matchday, determined at random. Teams may be subject to a skill reset multiple times, so be careful…

All knockout stage games will be played in a floating stadium, with the fixtures to be drawn at random after the conclusion of the previous round. Group winners will be drawn against group runners-up in the Round of 16, with subsequent rounds unseeded; teams advancing from the same group will not be drawn against each other until the final. As the match will canonically take place immediately before the final, if the third-place match is level at the end of 90 minutes, both teams will be declared tied for third place and the bronze medals cut in half for presentation to both teams.

As for timing, it would proceed similarly to IAC X: sign-ups would close and the everything thread would go up shortly after the completion of the bidding process, with MD1 scheduled for approximately a week later and cutoffs every other day afterward. Cutoffs would be at approximately 22:00 EDT (02:00 next day UTC).

Questions, comments and concerns are welcome.

[Kohnhead]

Group F is for Fasting: The normal tiebreaking criteria will not apply in this group. Instead, any ties will be broken by means of summer vigil fasting.

I am quite intrigued by this bid to say the least, how would you plan on scorinating the fasting (I am no scorinator expert just saying) and do you believe that too much fasting could damage the athletes?

[Drawkland]

Group F is for Fasting: The normal tiebreaking criteria will not apply in this group. Instead, any ties will be broken by means of summer vigil fasting.

I am quite intrigued by this bid to say the least, how would you plan on scorinating the fasting (I am no scorinator expert just saying) and do you believe that too much fasting could damage the athletes?

Summer Vigil Fasting is an event included with the base version of xkoranate. I believe it was used as a demonstration event in the Olympics at least once.

ALSO, with two bids in, I'll give anybody else 24 hours from this point to post a host bid, if you for some reason feel the need to bid at this point. From there I will initiate the voting sequence.

[Hot Skitty on Wailord Action]

I am quite intrigued by this bid to say the least,

Probably not a compliment, but thank you.

how would you plan on scorinating the fasting (I am no scorinator expert just saying)

In the event of such a tie, I will be using xkoranate’s built-in summer vigil fasting event.

and do you believe that too much fasting could damage the athletes?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The overriding desire to avoid a fasting bout would certainly make a good RP opportunity, though.

[Kohnhead]

In the event of such a tie, I will be using xkoranate’s built-in summer vigil fasting event.

Summer Vigil Fasting is an event included with the base version of xkoranate. I believe it was used as a demonstration event in the Olympics at least once.

Ah I did not know, I feel a lot more comfortable with this bid now

[Sannyamathland]

(Image)

HSOWA bid for the Independence Cup

From the absolute twit behind the fourth Coupe d’Esquarium, the nineteenth Handball World Cup and the tenth Independents Chalice comes the most cursed Independents Mug bid yet…

The HSOWA Independents Glass group stage will have eight groups with various … special features, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the knockout stage. The number of groups is fixed and groups may consequently be of different sizes if necessary, with the larger groups to be chosen randomly. Tiebreakers will be in the default xkoranate order (GD, GF, H2H points, H2H GD, H2H GF); if nations are tied on all criteria, the nations will be ranked by the number of letters in their names (most letters wins).

Scorination will use the latest version of xkoranate with the SQIS formula and additive modifiers. In the absence of a formally adopted IAC ranking system, seeding and rank bonus will be based on the current interim IAC ranking system; neither the hosts nor the titleholders will be entitled to automatic places in pot 1. And about those special features…

Group A is for Attack: Both teams must score in every fixture. Fixtures where either team fails to score are replayed until both teams score.
Group B is for Beach: This group will play beach soccer. That is all. (This group will be scorinated using EFL’s beach soccer formula.)
Group C is for Clean: At least one team must keep a clean sheet in every fixture. Fixtures where both teams score are replayed until at least one team does not.
Group D is for Death: The highest-ranked team in each pot will automatically be drawn into this group. Otherwise, this group proceeds as normal.
Group E is for Extra: Matches in this group may not end in draws and will go to extra time and penalties if necessary. Shootout victories will award a bonus point.
Group F is for Fasting: The normal tiebreaking criteria will not apply in this group. Instead, any ties will be broken by means of summer vigil fasting.
Group G is for Garbage: The lowest-ranked team in each pot will automatically be drawn into this group. Otherwise, this group proceeds as normal.
Group H is for Handicap: One team will have its skill reset to zero each matchday, determined at random. Teams may be subject to a skill reset multiple times, so be careful…

All knockout stage games will be played in a floating stadium, with the fixtures to be drawn at random after the conclusion of the previous round. Group winners will be drawn against group runners-up in the Round of 16, with subsequent rounds unseeded; teams advancing from the same group will not be drawn against each other until the final. As the match will canonically take place immediately before the final, if the third-place match is level at the end of 90 minutes, both teams will be declared tied for third place and the bronze medals cut in half for presentation to both teams.

As for timing, it would proceed similarly to IAC X: sign-ups would close and the everything thread would go up shortly after the completion of the bidding process, with MD1 scheduled for approximately a week later and cutoffs every other day afterward. Cutoffs would be at approximately 22:00 EDT (02:00 next day UTC).

Questions, comments and concerns are welcome.

Sorry but I think that your ideas are a bit too noble for my test.I am much more comfortable with a normal system,as it is done in RL.

[Galimencia]

We would like to sign up.

[Omerica]

For the record, I am asking these questions solely for clarification purposes.

knockout round matchups will be determined by an A1 v B2-type setup, rather than by seeding.

Will there be crossover for the round of 16 or will all advancing teams stay in the nation they played the group stage in?

Tiebreaker order: 1. Head-to-head results

In the event that three or more teams are tied, what are all the head-to-head criteria that will be used to separate them?

[Muralos]

For the record, I am asking these questions solely for clarification purposes.

knockout round matchups will be determined by an A1 v B2-type setup, rather than by seeding.

Will there be crossover for the round of 16 or will all advancing teams stay in the nation they played the group stage in?

Thanks for the questions!
All advancing teams will stay in the nation they played the group stage in.

Tiebreaker order: 1. Head-to-head results

In the event that three or more teams are tied, what are all the head-to-head criteria that will be used to separate them?

We anticipate that ties of three or more teams will eventually separate into two-way ties, as it often does in the World Cup. We will apply the tie-breaking criteria we mentioned in the host bid until a team is eliminated from consideration, then repeat this process until we have our top 2 teams.

[Squidroidia]

Method to the Madness
Squidroidia's bid for IAC 12

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About Squidroidia

Squidroidia is a country of squids (And kids) with roughly 8 million people living in its borders. Born out of the ashes of the Apocalypse, in which robotic clones of Inkling pop stars brainwashed the Inkhallen population into madness, the country is technically a dictatorship but has had its powers slowly granted back to the Inklings and humans over time. The user behind Squidroidia has had experience with hosting events before, as they have hosted the second International Football Cup and the inaugural Sepak Takraw World Cup, as well as multiple seasons of domestic hockey, lacrosse, sepak takraw and association football. Internationally, Squidroidia have a best finish of 3rd place in association football, coming in both IAC 10 and Baptism of Fire 73.

Format

Since we have 41 signups, most likely this bid will be going for 40 participants, with a puppet unfortunately being cut. However, unlike the 8 groups of 5 Omerica used for IAC 10, there will be 5 groups of 8, which leads into the major twist of this bid - The Masterminds.

Each group will be assigned a "mastermind" out of the teams in the group. These Masterminds will be hidden from everybody until the Matchday 7 scorination results, however it is okay (And actually encouraged) to guess the Mastermind of your group, as it is to encourage more active RPing. When the Masterminds are revealed, whoever is the Mastermind of their group will have their RP bonus halved if they advance to the knockout stage. The top 4 teams in each group and the 4 best 5th place teams will partake in the knockout stage, with the group winners and 3 best runners-up earning byes to the Round of 16, with everybody else seeded for the Round of 24. Seeding will be based on a team's ranking compared to every other team who advanced, and reseeding will happen after every round leading up to the Final.

The tournament will use xkoranate 0.3.3 as the platform being used, with SGIS as the scorinator. The groups of 8 will be single round robin (7 matchdays), and tiebreakers are as follows if the points are tied:

• Head-to-head points
• Head-to-head goal difference
• Regular goal difference
• RP Bonus
• Coin flip

The temporary IAC rankings will be used as the starting skill for each nation. Rostering will have a generous bonus, and RPing will grant bonuses as well (Nothing extra for Mastermind guessing, however).

Scheduling

Since the group stage is pretty long (Remember, 7 matchdays!), group stage scorination will happen every day from 6:00 PM EDT to 10:00 PM EDT. After that, however, there will be a 2 day break for the start of the knockout stage and scorination will happen every other day from there. This IAC will take about 18 days to complete, which may take us up to the opening of World Cup signups.

If you have any questions, please ask them! Feedback is greatly appreciated!

[PotatoFarmers]

(Image)

HSOWA bid for the Independence Cup

The HSOWA Independents Glass group stage will have eight groups with various … special features, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the knockout stage. The number of groups is fixed and groups may consequently be of different sizes if necessary, with the larger groups to be chosen randomly.

Would these "special feataures" extend themselves into the Round of 16 and onwards?

[Muralos]

We would like to sign up.

Don't forget to declare if you are puppet of Sannyamathland! (My hunch as you are part of the same alliance and have similar sigs.)

[Galimencia]

We would like to sign up.

Don't forget to declare if you are puppet of Sannyamathland! (My hunch as you are part of the same alliance and have similar sigs.)

No,I am not a puppet of Sannyamathland.We share the same pc,but we are actually brothers in RL.Thus,both our nations are controlled by different users.I am not sure if that make us a puppet of Sannyamathland.If it does,kindly let me know,I will ask him to confirm this one as his puppet.

[Muralos]

Don't forget to declare if you are puppet of Sannyamathland! (My hunch as you are part of the same alliance and have similar sigs.)

No,I am not a puppet of Sannyamathland.We share the same pc,but we are actually brothers in RL.Thus,both our nations are controlled by different users.I am not sure if that make us a puppet of [natiob]Sannyamathland[/nation].If it does,kindly let me know,I will ask him to confirm this one as his puppet.

I see! I don't think you would be a puppet of Sannyamathland in that case!

[Galimencia]

No,I am not a puppet of Sannyamathland.We share the same pc,but we are actually brothers in RL.Thus,both our nations are controlled by different users.I am not sure if that make us a puppet of [natiob]Sannyamathland[/nation].If it does,kindly let me know,I will ask him to confirm this one as his puppet.

I see! I don't think you would be a puppet of Sannyamathland in that case!

Ok ! Then I think it is not necessary.

[North Alezia]

in

[Tequilo]

Can I just get some clarification on the content of the Hot Skitty bid, regarding the 'special features' - this is presumably RP material only?

There might be some internet humour I'm not getting, apologies if so. If you are really asking people to vote for groups with resetting bonuses and so on, I think it would be helpful to be clear. Funny RP is great but I'd much rather see a straight OOC bid so we know what we are voting for.

[Drawkland]

Can I just get some clarification on the content of the Hot Skitty bid, regarding the 'special features' - this is presumably RP material only?

There might be some internet humour I'm not getting, apologies if so. If you are really asking people to vote for groups with resetting bonuses and so on, I think it would be helpful to be clear. Funny RP is great but I'd much rather see a straight OOC bid so we know what we are voting for.

I believe the case is the latter. I can't speak directly for HSoWA/Omerica, but I believe this is mostly a joke bid, posted to force a host vote for the IAC rather than direct selection by the IAC-OC, and not intended to actually garner any votes.

Speaking of which, host voting will begin soon. I just need to get everything in order for that and it'll be underway.

[IAC Organising Committee]

With North Alezia's signup, we are now sitting at 41 signups. I have a feeling we'll get another signup or so in the next couple days, but if not, note that the last puppet to be entered was Hot Skitty on Wailord Action (Omerica).

More importantly, we have a host to vote for. Below you can read over the three four bids we've received for IAC-12.

Almuzahara & Muralos
Hot Skitty on Wailord Action
Squidroidia

It's been awhile since we've had a host vote for the IAC, so here's the deal: If you have signed up for this edition of the IAC, and have also completed a previous IAC with that nation or any puppets, you may vote. You only get one vote per user, so even if you have a puppet signed up, you can't vote twice. Based on these requirements, there's probably around 25-30 eligible voters right now. We probably won't get anywhere close to that number, but please vote anyway!

Please send a telegram to THIS nation (IAC Organising Committee) if you would like to vote. Your options are to award the hosting rights to Almuzahara/Muralos, Hot Skitty on Wailord Action, Squidroidia, or to Re-open Bidding.

In the interest of getting things along, as well as the fact that most interested parties will vote within a day or two, the deadline for votes is around Saturday afternoon, say 1:00pm Eastern time. This gives you 3 days to vote.

[Sajnur]

Sajnur in

[Omerica]

We anticipate that ties of three or more teams will eventually separate into two-way ties, as it often does in the World Cup. We will apply the tie-breaking criteria we mentioned in the host bid until a team is eliminated from consideration, then repeat this process until we have our top 2 teams.

It is perfectly possible that three teams all have the same number of points at the end of the group stage—IAC X Group H, for example—, so “head-to-head results” is ambiguous in that case. Given the rest of the tiebreakers, my intuitive understanding is that if three teams finished with the same number of points, they would be compared on head-to-head points, head-to-head goal difference and head-to-head goals for in that order. Is this understanding correct and, if not, what is meant by “head-to-head results”?

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Would these "special feataures" extend themselves into the Round of 16 and onwards?

No. The “cursed” element of the knockout stage is supposed to be the lack of a fixed bracket.

Can I just get some clarification on the content of the Hot Skitty bid, regarding the 'special features' - this is presumably RP material only?

There might be some internet humour I'm not getting, apologies if so. If you are really asking people to vote for groups with resetting bonuses and so on, I think it would be helpful to be clear. Funny RP is great but I'd much rather see a straight OOC bid so we know what we are voting for.

The Cursed Bid is OOC. In the event that the voters have lost all sanity, the bid would be implemented exactly as written.

I can't speak directly for HSoWA/Omerica, but I believe this is mostly a joke bid, posted to force a host vote for the IAC rather than direct selection by the IAC-OC, and not intended to actually garner any votes.

The statement about my intent is 100% correct. I implore everyone to not vote for the Cursed Bid.

[Almuzahara]

We anticipate that ties of three or more teams will eventually separate into two-way ties, as it often does in the World Cup. We will apply the tie-breaking criteria we mentioned in the host bid until a team is eliminated from consideration, then repeat this process until we have our top 2 teams.

It is perfectly possible that three teams all have the same number of points at the end of the group stage—IAC X Group H, for example—, so “head-to-head results” is ambiguous in that case. Given the rest of the tiebreakers, my intuitive understanding is that if three teams finished with the same number of points, they would be compared on head-to-head points, head-to-head goal difference and head-to-head goals for in that order. Is this understanding correct and, if not, what is meant by “head-to-head results”?

To clarify, "head to head results" refers solely to "head to head points". Teams will be compared by head to head points, followed by total goal difference, followed by total goals for. Similarly to the most recent World Cup, if at least one team has exited the deadlock, but multiple teams remain tied after these three tiebreakers are used, we will compare all remaining teams by head to head points, followed by goal difference and goals for, repeating until we are forced to draw lots or until the tie is broken.

In the unlikely event that we need to randomly select between multiple teams, single round robins will be scorinated between all tied teams, with skills set to RP bonus, until the tie is broken.