Copa Rushmori XLI - Sign-Up Thread (ONLY Rushmore)

[Rushmore]

[OOC: This thread is intended to be used exclusively by nations in Rushmore, so if you are not a nation in Rushmore or a moderator performing their duties, please refrain from posting here.]

Another World Cup cycle is about to end, and this means it's time for a new Copa Rushmori edition, the forty-first one! With Cassadaigua claiming victory in the fortieth and most recent Copa Rushmori, held in Pasarga, now we move on to a new edition in which a new winner could potentially claim a piece of silverware and inscribe its name in the Roll of Honour, and that winner could be YOU!

Sign up in this thread, and if you wish to submit a host bid, you can do so here as well.

IMPORTANT:

• Regulars returning from CTE status after the moment this thread was posted may join, provided that they have competed in at least two (back-to-back) of the previous 40 Copa editions.
• Only one puppet will be allowed per user (who must declare it as such when entering it) and their final inclusion into the tournament will be entirely up to host discretion.

* Consider this post as a sign-up from Valladares

Nations signed up (32/?):

1. Valladares
2. Tikariot
3. Astograth
4. Darmen
5. Isle Noire
6. Græntfjall
7. Pasarga
8. Cassadaigua
9. Yuezhou
10. República Guanacasteca
11. Gatchingerrak Union
12. Nephara
13. Captina Island
14. Sanford
15. Southwest Eastnorth
16. Pridnestrovia
17. Gnejs
18. Ceni
19. Mytanija
20. Brookstation
21. Oberour Ar Moro
22. Xinhua
23. Nyowani Kitara
24. San Isidro Labrador
25. Eura
26. The Isles of Avon
27. Sargossa
28. Eastfield Lodge
29. Soldera
30. Cabo Azure
31. Bollonich
32. Savojarna

Puppet nations signed up (Conditional sign-up, master nation in brackets) (4/?):

1. Schutzenphalia and West Ruhntuhnkuhnland [Græntfjall]
2. The Askari Union [Nephara]
3. Norrhem [Tikariot]
4. Olastor [Eastfield Lodge]

Host bids (2):

Sanford
Ceni/The Isles of Avon

[Valladares]

Blah, blah, blah...confirming.

[Tikariot]

Should we? Yes, we should.

[Astograth]

Signup

[Darmen]

HONK!

[Isle Noire]

Si.

[Graintfjall]

We sign up and SWR is our puppet.

[Schutzenphalia and West Ruhntuhnkuhnland]

We sign up. We are puppets of Græntfjall and should be excluded first to make numbers work.

[Pasarga]

Here we are

[Cassadaigua]

We've arrived!
Accept our rule, or get on the bus!

[Yue Zhou]

Yuezhou

[Guanacasteca]

Oink, oink.

[Gatchingerrak Union]

Ope.

[Nephara]

yeah

[The Askari Union]

yeah

nubmers

[Norrhem]

Strikt för siffror, klipp först om det behövs.

Åh, och marionett från Tikariot.

[Tikariot]

Strikt för siffror, klipp först om det behövs.

Åh, och marionett från Tikariot.

Yeah, whatever they're blabbering on about numbers and cutting first.

And they seem to have this odd conviction to have a connection with Tikariot.

[Captina Island]

Back for another go around. Come getcha some....

[Greater Sanford]

Candidature file for Copa Rushmori XLI

Bid summary

D. Tommy Sanford is bidding—

The nation of Sanford is bidding to host Copa Rushmori XLI. (Yay!) This section has all the important topline things you need to know about this bid, and the details are in sections below.

The group stage will not be hosted by Sanford. We may use pod nations with an exceptionally large or exceptionally small number of entrants, but expect to host group stage matches at your own stadia.

We’re bidding with a format that would divide the tournament up by geographic zones, based on nations’ position on the Rushmori map (if they are on it). A massive proportion of the text below is dedicated to explaining how that’d work and why it’d be a balanced, viable format for this tournament.

The four teams which win their zones would compete in a slightly modified double-elimination final stage, to get a sense of which zone reigns supreme, but a single champion of Rushmore will be crowned. 24 June edit: The four teams which win their zones would compete in standard single-elimination semifinals, a final, and third-place playoff, just like a standard-format tournament.

Let’s do something new. Let’s do something exciting. Let’s do something that’ll energize local rivalries. Let’s do something that’ll funnel lots of money to D. Tommy Sanford. Let’s host Copa Rushmori XLI in Sanford.

IC details

Sanford is located in central Pavola, with a population of about 630 000. The world mostly knows us if they know us at all for our strong agriculture industry, with corn being a particular specialty, but we’re so much more than that. We’re also an area leader in health care as long as you can afford it and stealing people’s money legally finance. We’ll be so happy to welcome you to the Pavolan plains for the forty-first Copa Rushmori.

Nine stadia host Sanford PREMIER League football each season, though we’d only use eight of them, because frankly, the one in Lewiston is kind of a dump. Four of those stadia have hosted the Sanford PREMIER Cup final, seven have hosted international football on the club level, and with a capacity that can pack in more than five percent of the nation’s population, Tommy Sanford PREMIER Stadium has hosted the Copa Pavola III and Copa de Campeones 53 finals. If that exhaustive list of Sanford hosting football things doesn’t inspire confidence in our ability to host a tournament of this magnitude and prestige, we can’t imagine what will!

This tournament will also mark the debut of the Sanfordan national team. Previously, Sanfordan sport has been contained to domestic or, since IFCF 7, club competition. However, after five seasons of the Sanford PREMIER League profoundly transforming Sanfordan football, we feel it’s ready to provide D. Tommy Sanford another lucrative revenue stream introduce itself to the world — and what better way to do that again with the D. Tommy Likes Money thing than to host the grandest competition in all of Rushmore?

Format overview

In many ways, our proposed format would resemble each of the forty Copas Rushmori which have come before. However, there are a few twists which, we believe, would make Copa Rushmori XLI unlike any other tournament which has come before. We would crown not only a single champion of Rushmore, but also champions of four geographic zones within Rushmore.

Each geographic zone will correspond to one or more subregions on the Rushmori map: Terranea, the Vatmark, Terramidia, the Southern Oceans, the Goose Coast, Branta, Oygruppen, Tempalia, and Pavola. For example, a Pavolan Zone may include Pavolan teams; a Southeastern Zone may include Terranean and Vatmarkish teams; a Southwestern Zone may include Terramidian, Southern Oceanic, and Goose Coaster teams; and a Northern Zone may include Brantan, Oygruppeni, and Tempalian teams. The exact zones and teams to be include in each zone will be determined by which teams enter the Copa Rushmori and where on the regional map they are located. More detailed information about zone allocation will be provided below.

The format will change a bit based on the number of entrants. With any number of entrants, though, there will be three stages: the zonal group stage, the zonal knockout stage, and the panregional stage. Taken together, the zonal group stage and the zonal knockout stage will divide the competition into four separate zonal mini-tournaments, the champions of which will meet in the panregional stage.

Format details

Each zone will essentially comprise its own mini-tournament, a quarter of the size of the full Copa. If the number of teams is a power of eight (greater than twenty-four), there will be two groups per zone. This would be ideal, but is not necessary. Otherwise, each zone would play in a single group. The group stage will be standard, save for the group draw. Between fifty and sixty percent of the teams in each group will qualify for the zonal knockout stage, which will be a standard single-elimination knockout tournament, yielding a single zonal champion.

Each of the four zonal champions will advance to the panregional stage to crown a single, unified Copa Rushmori champion. The panregional stage is simply a four-team double-elimination tournament, with the only modification being that the Copa Rushmori final will be played as a single match. That is to say, no matter whether they advanced to the final from the winners’ bracket or the losers’ bracket, the winner of the final will be crowned the champion of Rushmore. 24 June edit: The panregional stage is simply a four-team single-elimination tournament, with a third-place playoff for semifinal losers. The team that wins their zone, then defeats two other zonal champions, will be crowned the champion of Rushmore.

Each nation will host half of their own group stage matches — unless the number of entrants is at most twenty-four or at least forty-eight. Outside that window, there may be an odd number of group stage matches per team, in which case group stage matches would be hosted in neutral-site pods to be played throughout Pavola. All matches beyond the group stage will be hosted in Sanford.

Format explanations by number of entries

Each format would produce four zonal champions, so the panregional stage — a modified double-elimination tournament between each of these four teams 24 June edit: single-elimination semifinals contested between each of these four teams — is identical regardless of number of entries. Details for the zonal group stage and zonal knockout stage are provided below for every multiple of four between twenty-four and forty-eight, though larger or smaller formats may be accommodated in the unlikely event that we settle on those numbers. To keep zone sizes uniform, the total number of entrants will be a multiple of four.

If there are twenty-four teams, they will be divided into four zones, each composed of a single group of six. The second- and third-place teams in each group will play each other in the zonal playoffs, after which the playoff winner will play the first-place team in the zonal finals.

If there are twenty-eight teams, they will be divided into four zones, each composed of a single group of seven. The first- through fourth-place teams in each group will play each other in the zonal semifinals, after which the semifinal winners will play each other in the zonal finals.

If there are thirty-two teams, they will be divided into four zones, each composed of two double round robin groups of four. The first- and second-place teams in each group will advance to the zonal semifinals, playing a team from the zone’s other group, after which the semifinal winners will play each other in the zonal finals.

If there are thirty-six teams, they will be divided into four zones, each composed of a single group of nine. The fourth- and fifth-place teams in each group will play each other in the zonal playoffs, after which the playoff winner and the first- through third-place teams in each group will play in the zonal semifinals, and the semifinal winners will play each other in the zonal finals.

If there are forty teams, they will be divided into four zones, each composed of two groups of five. The second- and third-place teams in each group will advance to the zonal playoffs, after which the playoff winners will play the first-place teams in the zonal semifinals, and the semifinal winners will play each other in the zonal finals.

If there are forty-four teams, they will be divided into four zones, each composed of a single group of eleven. The third- through sixth-place teams in each group will play each other in the zonal playoffs, after which the playoff winners will play the first- and second-place teams in the zonal semifinals, and the semifinal winners will play each other in the zonal finals.

If there are forty-eight teams, they will be divided into four zones, each composed of two groups of six. The second- and third-place teams in each group will advance to the zonal playoffs, after which the playoff winners will play the first-place teams in the zonal semifinals, and the semifinal winners will play each other in the zonal finals.

Zone and group allocation

Teams will be divided first into zones, then, if applicable, groups. Neither zone selection nor group selection will be random, but we believe the results will be reasonably balanced. The following section is perhaps too dense for its own good, but I want to be transparent about how zone and group selection will work, because it would be different than any prior tournament.

Zone selection will be determined on the basis of each nation’s primary subregion. For nations which are located in multiple subregions, this means the subregion in which the nation’s “mainland” or metropole is located, or its capital or the majority of its territory, as opposed to exclaves or outlying islands. Nations whose claims are pending as of the time of this bid will be noted as such and will be recorded as being in the subregion they requested. Nations not currently located on the map, nor with any pending claims, will be recorded as “unknown.”

Once subregions are determined, every effort will be made to match all entrants within the same subregion together, which should typically be possible unless more than a quarter of entrants are from a single subregion. Nations which have a recorded primary subregion will then be grouped such that geographically contiguous zones of one or more subregions have approximately equal numbers of teams.

Nations with unknown subregions to their zones will be allocated to preserve zone balance, wherever possible. Since these nations are typically lower-ranked or unranked, compared to nations which are already on the map, this will likely be done via the following process: the highest-ranked unknown-subregion nation will be allocated to the zone which currently has the fewest nations, with ties broken by number of teams of that tier or higher and the average ranking of teams within a zone, where unranked teams are assigned a rank immediately below the lowest-ranked ranked team; and the process will repeat for every successive unknown-subregion team with a rank. Unranked unknown-subregion teams will be allocated randomly.

Once all teams have been allocated to zones, they may be further divided into groups, dependent on entrant numbers — specifically, if the number of entrants is a multiple of eight, no less than thirty-two. If this criteria is met, each zone will be divided into two groups per zone via the Thue–Morse sequence. That is to say: one group within a zone will contain the first-, fourth, sixth-, seventh-, tenth-, and eleventh-ranked teams within a zone, while the other group will contain the second-, third-, fifth-, eighth-, ninth-, and twelfth-ranked teams within a zone. However, if entrant numbers are not thirty-two, forty, or a greater multiple of eight, each zone will compose a single group, in which every team will play every other team from the same zone.

Examples

To hopefully help make this concept more concrete, and to demonstrate that a geographic group draw could be balanced, I have conducted three sample group draws, with the same entrants (and their respective rankings at the time) as in the past three Copas Rushmori. Essentially, these examples answer the question: what would the last three editions of this tournament have looked like had this format been in place?

In the example group draws below, teams are also provided their ranks and pots, as of each respective tournament. Unranked teams are assigned the lowest pot, even if there are more than eight unranked teams in a given tournament, since there is no actual difference between an unranked team that was assigned to pot four or pot five in the actual tournament. Finally, each nation’s primary subregion is provided.

Below group draws, I have provided a guide to what the zonal knockout stage would look like if the top-ranked team in each group won their group, the second-ranked team in each group took second in their group, &c. In all cases, the panregional stage — which follows the zonal knockout stage, as the final stage of the format — would be a double-elimination 24 June edit: single-elimination tournament contested by each of the four zonal champions.

I have also provided two tables per example tournament: one table revealing the average rank (assigning unranked teams a rank of one worse than the lowest-ranked team in the tournament), number of Pot 1 teams, number of ranked teams, and number of teams total in each zone, and a second table revealing the same statistics in each group.

My purpose here is to show that, despite what may sound like a radical premise, this format does not necessarily mean that the competition will become unbalanced. If the zonal playoffs, semifinals, and finals are thought of as tournament-wide playoffs, octofinals, and quarterfinals, respectively, I believe any of the past three Copas Rushmori would be competitive, balanced, and viable, from any zone and any group.

Copa Rushmori XL: XLI-Style Redraw

Zone allocation
Northern Zone: Tempalia (4), Branta (2), Oygruppen (2), Unknown (2)
Pavolan Zone: Pavola (7), Unknown (3)
Southeastern Zone: Terranea (5), The Vatmark (2), Unknown (3)
Southwestern Zone: The Goose Coast (3), Terramidia (3), The Southern Oceans (1), Unknown (3)

Zone            Avg.  Pt1  Rkd  Ttl
Northern        26.2    1    7   10
Pavolan         23.4    2    8   10
Southeastern    25.0    2    7   10
Southwestern    26.4    3    7   10

Northern Zone Group A
Sargossa (Rank 1, Pot 1) — Oygruppen
Oberour Ar Moro (Rank 19, Pot 3) — Branta
Eastfield Lodge (Rank 25, Pot 3) — Tempalia
South Jeolerina (Rank 39, Pot 4) — (Unknown)
Raspotochje (Rank UR, Pot 5) — (Unknown)

Northern Zone Group B
Pasarga (Rank 12, Pot 2) — Oygruppen
Southwest Eastnorth (Rank 13, Pot 2) — Branta
Brookstation (Rank 21, Pot 3) — Tempalia
Falkyr (Rank UR, Pot 5) — Tempalia
Gnejs (Rank UR, Pot 5) — Tempalia

Pavolan Zone Group A
Savojarna (Rank 6, Pot 1) — Pavola
Tikariot (Rank 15, Pot 2) — Pavola
Bollonich (Rank 26, Pot 3) — Pavola
Isle Noire (Rank 27, Pot 3) — (Unknown)
Concordia (Rank UR, Pot 5) — (Unknown)

Pavolan Zone Group B
Pridnestrovia (Rank 7, Pot 1) — Pavola
Græntfjall (Rank 11, Pot 2) — Pavola
Nyowani Kitara (Rank 16, Pot 2) — Pavola
República Guanacasteca (Rank 38, Pot 4) — Pavola
Three Golden Kingdoms (Rank UR, Pot 5) — (Unknown)

Southeastern Zone Group A
Nephara (Rank 4, Pot 1) — Terranea
Cabo Azure (Rank 18, Pot 2) — Terranea
Gatchingerrak Union (Rank 22, Pot 3) — The Vatmark
Norrhem (Rank 32, Pot 4) — The Vatmark
Srednjaci (Rank UR, Pot 5) — (Unknown)

Southeastern Zone Group B
Eura (Rank 5, Pot 1) — Terranea
Valladares (Rank 17, Pot 2) — Terranea
Darmen (Rank 20, Pot 3) — (Unknown)
Kalosia (Rank UR, Pot 5) — Terranea
Space Elephants (Rank UR, Pot 5) — (Unknown)

Southwestern Zone Group A
Cassadaigua (Rank 2, Pot 1) — Terramidia
Mytanija (Rank 10, Pot 2) — The Goose Coast
The Askari Union (Rank 36, Pot 4) — (Unknown)
Schutzenphalia and West Ruhntuhnkuhnland (Rank 43, Pot 4) — (Unknown)
Dai Ban (Rank UR, Pot 5) — (Unknown)

Southwestern Zone Group B
Astograth (Rank 8, Pot 1) — The Goose Coast
Yuezhou (Rank 9, Pot 1) — Terramidia
San Isidro Labrador (Rank 24, Pot 3) — The Goose Coast
Xinhua (Rank UR, Pot 5) — Terramidia
Captina Island (Rank UR, Pot 5) — The Southern Oceans

Group            Avg.  Pt1  Rkd  Ttl
Northern A       25.6    1    4    5
Northern B       26.8    0    3    5
Pavolan A        23.6    1    4    5
Pavolan B        23.2    1    4    5
Southeastern A   24.0    1    4    5
Southeastern B   26.0    1    3    5
Southwestern A   27.0    1    4    5
Southwestern B   25.8    2    3    5

Zonal playoffs
Southwest Eastnorth (13) v. Eastfield Lodge (25)
Oberour Ar Moro (19) v. Brookstation (21)
Græntfjall (11) v. Bollonich (26)
Tikariot (15) v. Nyowani Kitara (16)
Valladares (17) v. Gatchingerrak Union (22)
Cabo Azure (18) v. Darmen (20)
Yuezhou (9) v. The Askari Union (36)
Mytanija (10) v. San Isidro Labrador (24)

Zonal semifinals
Sargossa (1) v. Southwest Eastnorth/EFL
Pasarga (12) v. Oberour Ar Moro/BRO
Savojarna (6) v. Græntfjall/BOL
Pridnestrovia (7) v. Tikariot/NYK
Nephara (4) v. Valladares/GKU
Eura (5) v. Cabo Azure/DAR
Cassadaigua (2) v. Yuezhou/ASU
Astograth (8) v. Mytanija/SIL

Zonal finals
Sargossa/SWE/EFL v. Pasarga/OAM/BRO
Savojarna/GRF/BOL v. Pridnestrovia/TKT/NYK
Nephara/VLD/GKU v. Eura/CBZ/DAR
Cassadaigua/YZH/ASU v. Astograth/MYT/SIL

Panregional stage
Double-elimination tournament contested by each of the four zonal champions
Single-elimination tournament contested by each of the four zonal champions

Copa Rushmori XXXIX: XLI-Style Redraw

Zone allocation
Northern Zone: Branta (2), Oygruppen (2), Tempalia (2), Pavola* (1), Unknown (1)
Pavolan Zone: Pavola (8)
Southeastern Zone: Terranea (5), The Vatmark (1), Unknown (2)
Southwestern Zone: The Goose Coast (3), Terramidia (2), The Southern Oceans (0), Unknown (3)
Because nine teams whose primary subregion was Pavola entered Copa Rushmori XXXIX, one had to be allocated away from the Pavolan Zone. As the only such entrant to have territory outside Pavola — Hofvinger, in Tempalia — Græntfjall was assigned to the zone to which Tempalian nations were allocated.

Zone            Avg.  Pt1  Rkd  Ttl
Northern        20.6    2    6    8
Pavolan         21.5    1    6    8
Southeastern    18.0    3    7    8
Southwestern    19.5    2    7    8

Northern Zone Group A
Sargossa (Rank 4, Pot 1) — Oygruppen
Southwest Eastnorth (Rank 15, Pot 2) — Branta
Eastfield Lodge (Rank 26, Pot 3) — Tempalia
Brookstation (Rank UR, Pot 4) — Tempalia

Northern Zone Group B
Pasarga (Rank 6, Pot 1) — Oygruppen
Græntfjall (Rank 9, Pot 2) — Pavola
Oberour Ar Moro (Rank 23, Pot 3) — Branta
Isle Noire (Rank UR, Pot 4) — (Unknown)

Pavolan Zone Group A
Savojarna (Rank 5, Pot 1) — Pavola
San Ortelio (Rank 16, Pot 2) — Pavola
Bollonich (Rank 28, Pot 3) — Pavola
Ardengard (Rank UR, Pot 4) — Pavola

Pavolan Zone Group B
Tikariot (Rank 10, Pot 2) — Pavola
Pridnestrovia (Rank 14, Pot 2) — Pavola
Nyowani Kitara (Rank 17, Pot 3) — Pavola
República Guanacasteca (Rank UR, Pot 4) — Pavola

Southeastern Zone Group A
Nephara (Rank 2, Pot 1) — Terranea
Valladares (Rank 13, Pot 2) — Terranea
Cabo Azure (Rank 24, Pot 3) — Terranea
Soldera (Rank 33, Pot 4) — (Unknown)

Southeastern Zone Group B
Hispinas (Rank 3, Pot 1) — Terranea
Eura (Rank 7, Pot 1) — Terranea
Gatchingerrak Union (Rank 21, Pot 3) — The Vatmark
Takeshwar (Rank UR, Pot 4) — (Unknown)

Southwestern Zone Group A
Cassadaigua (Rank 1, Pot 1) — Terramidia
Yuezhou (Rank 12, Pot 2) — Terramidia
Darmen (Rank 18, Pot 3) — (Unknown)
The Askari Union (Rank 40, Pot 4) — (Unknown)

Southwestern Zone Group B
Mytanija (Rank 8, Pot 1) — The Goose Coast
Astograth (Rank 11, Pot 2) — The Goose Coast
San Isidro Labrador (Rank 25, Pot 3) — The Goose Coast
Kiltoch (Rank UR, Pot 4) — (Unknown)

Group            Avg.  Pt1  Rkd  Ttl
Northern A       21.5    1    3    4
Northern B       19.8    1    3    4
Pavolan A        22.5    1    3    4
Pavolan B        20.5    0    3    4
Southeastern A   18.0    1    4    4
Southeastern B   18.0    2    3    4
Southwestern A   17.8    1    4    4
Southwestern B   21.3    1    3    4

Zonal semifinals
Sargossa (4) v. Græntfjall (9)
Pasarga (6) v. Southwest Eastnorth (15)
Savojarna (5) v. Pridnestrovia (14)
Tikariot (10) v. San Ortelio (16)
Nephara (2) v. Eura (7)
Hispinas (3) v. Valladares (13)
Cassadaigua (1) v. Astograth (11)
Mytanija (8) v. Yuezhou (12)

Zonal finals
Sargossa/GRF v. Pasarga/SWE
Savojarna/PRD v. Tikariot/SOR
Nephara/EUR v. Hispinas/VLD
Cassadaigua/ASG v. Mytanija/YZH

Panregional stage
Double-elimination tournament contested by each of the four zonal champions
Single-elimination tournament contested by each of the four zonal champions

Copa Rushmori XXXVIII: XLI-Style Redraw

Zone allocation
Northern Zone: Tempalia (3), Branta (2), Oygruppen (2), Unknown (1)
Pavolan Zone: Pavola (7), Unknown (1)
Southeastern Zone: Terranea (6), The Vatmark (1), Unknown (1)
Southwestern Zone: The Goose Coast (3), Terramidia (2), The Vatmark (2), The Southern Oceans (0), Unknown (1)

Zone            Avg.  Pt1  Rkd  Ttl
Northern        20.6    2    6    8
Pavolan         21.8    1    6    8
Southeastern    22.3    3    5    8
Southwestern    22.4    2    6    8

Northern Zone Group A
Pasarga (Rank 5, Pot 1) — Oygruppen
Southwest Eastnorth (Rank 19, Pot 2) — Branta
Oberour Ar Moro (Rank 21, Pot 3) — Branta
Bollonischian Maribaya (Rank UR, Pot 4) — Tempalia

Northern Zone Group B
Sargossa (Rank 6, Pot 1) — Oygruppen
Darmen (Rank 16, Pot 2) — (Unknown)
Eastfield Lodge (Rank 20, Pot 3) — Tempalia
Txakhaxi (Rank UR, Pot 4) — Tempalia

Pavolan Zone Group A
Savojarna (Rank 3, Pot 1) — Pavola
Pridnestrovia (Rank 17, Pot 2) — Pavola
San Ortelio (Rank 28, Pot 3) — Pavola
Bollonich (Rank UR, Pot 4) — Pavola

Pavolan Zone Group B
Græntfjall (Rank 10, Pot 2) — Pavola
Tikariot (Rank 13, Pot 2) — Pavola
Nyowani Kitara (Rank 25, Pot 3) — Pavola
East Neutralia (Rank UR, Pot 4) — (Unknown)

Southeastern Zone Group A
Nephara (Rank 1, Pot 1) — Terranea
Valladares (Rank 11, Pot 2) — Terranea
Cabo Azure (Rank UR, Pot 4) — Terranea
Gatchingerrak Union (Rank UR, Pot 4) — The Vatmark

Southeastern Zone Group B
Eura (Rank 4, Pot 1) — Terranea
Hispinas (Rank 7, Pot 1) — Terranea
Kalosia (Rank 38, Pot 3) — Terranea
Schutzenphalia and West Ruhntuhnkuhnland (Rank UR, Pot 4) — (Unknown)

Southwestern Zone Group A
Cassadaigua (Rank 2, Pot 1) — Terramidia
Astograth (Rank 15, Pot 2) — The Goose Coast
The Askari Union (Rank 34, Pot 3) — (Unknown)
San Isidro Labrador (Rank UR, Pot 4) — The Goose Coast

Southwestern Zone Group B
Mytanija (Rank 8, Pot 1) — The Goose Coast
Yuezhou (Rank 9, Pot 2) — Terramidia
Ancharmunn (Rank 33, Pot 3) — The Vatmark
Norrhem (Rank UR, Pot 4) — The Vatmark

Group            Avg.  Pt1  Rkd  Ttl
Northern A       21.0    1    3    4
Northern B       20.3    1    3    4
Pavolan A        21.8    1    3    4
Pavolan B        21.8    0    3    4
Southeastern A   22.5    1    2    4
Southeastern B   22.0    2    3    4
Southwestern A   22.5    1    3    4
Southwestern B   22.3    1    3    4

Zonal semifinals
Pasarga (5) v. Darmen (16)
Sargossa (6) v. Southwest Eastnorth (19)
Savojarna (3) v. Tikariot (13)
Græntfjall (10) v. Pridnestrovia (17)
Nephara (1) v. Hispinas (7)
Eura (4) v. Valladares (11)
Cassadaigua (2) v. Yuezhou (9)
Mytanija (8) v. Astograth (15)

Zonal finals
Pasarga/DAR v. Sargossa/SWE
Savojarna/TKT v. Græntfjall/PRD
Nephara/HIS v. Eura/VLD
Cassadaigua/YZH v. Mytanija/ASG

Panregional stage
Double-elimination tournament contested by each of the four zonal champions
Single-elimination tournament contested by each of the four zonal champions

Technical details and miscellany

RP bonus will be generous, with the intention that an unranked nation which consistently RPs well could be competitive with a non-RPing top-ranked team before the tournament is over. A roster bonus will be awarded, equivalent to the RP bonus for a single matchday. A roster penalty will also be assessed to teams which fail to post a roster, equivalent to half of a team’s rank.

I’ve finally regained access to xkoranate, so xkoranate 0.3.3 will be used, using the NSFS formula and additive style mods. Every matchday, the maxrank will be equal to the sum of the maximum Copa Rushmori coefficient, the maximum roster bonus, and the maximum amount of RP bonus that could be earned by that point in the tournament.

In the zonal group stage, teams will be sorted by points, then head-to-head points, then head-to-head goal difference, then overall goal difference, then wins, then, if necessary, an IC coin flip (OOCly, RP bonus, or if still tied, the results of a second scorinated match between the teams in question). If more than two teams are tied on points, and at any point at least one team either wins or loses a tiebreaker but at least two teams remain deadlocked, the tiebreaker procedure will be reset to the beginning of the sequence among just the teams which are still tied.

Although Sanford is making its debut at the Copa Rushmori, the user behind Sanford is not. As Qusmo, I have previously hosted Copa Rushmori XXXII. That tournament was the first in Copa history to use the Qopa format to seed a sixteen-team bracket from six groups. Every Copa Rushmori since in which the entry numbers have made the Qopa format possible have utilized it — though that does, admittedly, become slightly less impressive when I reveal that those criteria only includes one tournament, Copa XXXV. Although I did not have access to xkoranate until recently, I have also scorinated editions of Pug Qusmyra, Pug Xily’a, the Sanford PREMIER League, the Space Laser Dinosaur Robot Pirate Land Soccer League, and la Ligue de Xuois.

But wait. Why, though?

This is a bit more of a nebulous question, but it’s one I also want to address. I love weird new competition formats, but a lot of the strange stuff I come up with just isn’t feasible for domestic stuff, much less a tournament like this. We’ve talked for years about a region-based World Cup, and we’ve also talked for years about why it wouldn’t be feasible. But why not a subregion-based Copa Rushmori?

It’s not as if anyone would subregion-hop to fish for a better group or zone — and even if they tried to, that’d require posting in the forums, which would be easy to spot. And unlike most other regions, and possibly even most other times in this region’s history, this could actually be competitively viable — there are many different strong teams, spread out across many different subregions and corners of the map. Sure, it’d probably be ideal to wait another cycle or two before jumping into hosting again, but I don’t know how long this moment will last, where a format like this could actually be fair for participants, beyond just vaguely (and incredibly subjectively) sounding cool. & I actually have time, in a way I haven’t really had since I stopped RPing with Qusmo. So why not?

I think this could be exciting, and I think it could give a boost to local and subregional rivalries. Two teams can border each other, yet go IC years or even decades without meeting each other in a competitive fixture. I’m hoping this could change that, and I’m hoping it’ll be fun. I hope you’ll feel the same way.

I am happy to address any questions or concerns anyone may have — including if there are any red-line “I cannot consider this bid because of X” reactions out there. In any event, I’m excited for this Copa, and I’m excited about the possibility of debuting something new.

Also, rather anticlimactically,

“in."

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Edit log
24 June: added bid logo; changed panregional stage format from modified double elimination to single elimination

[Gatchingerrak Union]

Thank you for this fascinating bid. Of course, I know you'll do a good job if your bid's selected.

I do have a slightly unconventional but good question for you.

Just earlier on the NS Sport Discord Server, a question about the roleplays that involve the use of GPT-3 (and to lesser extent, DALL:E, because that's more of graphic realm) popped up. Of course, that has caused an endless row of discourse about what to do with grading RPs that involve possible use of prompts or even worse, lines and paragraphs, that may be generated by AI.

Of course, prompts are one thing as they do not really count for an RP. That said, it's the actual RP content that may become a problem.

Of course you, a budding fellow in advanced stage of his undergraduate studies, would know, that it's a grey area in terms of plagiarism. But more often than not you'd hear stories of those doing that, getting caught and boom, au revoir. What'd be your stance on grading RPs that have used texts from AI text generators ala. GPT-3 specifically for this CR?

[Southwest Eastnorth]

Also In!

[Trans-Dniesters]

In it to (try to) win it.

[Gnejs]

In.

And for the record, I think the proposed bid sounds very fun.

Strikt för siffror, klipp först om det behövs.

Åh, och marionett från Tikariot.

Så det norrhemska talmålet är slående likt Gnejsiska? Så oerhört trevligt.

[Ceni]

In.

[Mytanija]

Yes!