NationStates

Welcome to the Independent Associations Championship (Independents Cup) - 16th edition! This is the signup thread. If you've been here before, you know the drill. If not, read on for more information about the "non-regional" regional tournament!

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ELIGIBILITY & ENTRY
Any nation that is not a resident of the Big Four sporting regions - AO, Rushmore, Esportiva, and Anaia - at the time of this post may sign up to compete in the IAC. You may have been resident there in the past and may have competed in their international tournaments previously. You may plan to move to the sporting regions in the future and participation in this tournament does not preclude that, although it would be considered extremely bad manners to do so at the time of participation. Note, even if you've participated in the IAC in the past, you cannot participate with us if you're currently residing in a Big Four region, especially if you've signed up for their tournament.

The Independents Cup is not, of course, a WCC-sanctioned tournament, and while it sometimes uses official WCC rankings it has no impact on those rankings. Nations that have participated in WCs and nations that have not are both welcome to compete in the IAC, by signing up in this thread.

PUPPETS
Puppets of main nations resident in the Big Four are still eligible to compete in the IAC provided the puppets themselves are not resident in the Big Four, and it is permissible to create puppets just to take part here - all eligible nations are welcome. These puppets are suggested to be declared for transparency.

Previous entrants may enter two nations into the IAC provided they meet eligibility criteria. This means any user who competed and RPed (roster + minimum 1 post) in a previous edition of the Independents Cup (it doesn't have to be the nation they are signing up to the IAC with). When entering two nations, please declare puppet status.

Everyone else may enter one nation to this tournament.

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HOSTING
Hosting rights for IAC-16 are still available. Single or joint host applications are welcome, from users who have experience in hosting competitions of this scale. Bidders must be signed up for the present competition and users behind the nation must have competed in one of the previous installments, even if under a different flag. Host bids should be posted in this thread and include the usual details including methodology, formulae, and indicative scheduling - please read guidance on expectations for format and scorination further down this post. A vote may be organized if more than one bid is received. Currently signed up nations with at least one previous user entry will likely be eligible to vote.

Please note, if only one bid is posted, the IAC-OC reserves the right to select the bid without running a vote, in the interest of time. The IAC-OC also reserves the right to run a vote for a single bid, but a vote is not guaranteed unless there's at least 2 bids. This is consistent with IAC precedent going back to the beginning.

There are currently two bids: that of Drawkland & Juvencus, and Poafmersia

FORMAT & SCHEDULE
Precise arrangements will be confirmed by the host once selected and as the numbers become clear, but the suggestion for prospective hosts will be for a group stage dependent on group size followed by a knockout bracket from 16 qualifying nations. Hosts will decide on a cap, with puppets taken out of the draw first if sign-ups exceed this at their discretion if necessary, last in first out.

The timetable will likely run in tandem with the Big Four championships; precise dates to be confirmed and dependent on the rate of sign-ups and the preference of the host, taking cue from the other tournaments. I advise hosts to plan 48 hours between each cut-off to allow good time for RPing.

SCORINATION
The tournament will be scorinated using the host's preferred method which will be confirmed in due course. We have not officially sanctioned an IAC-specific ranking system, thought we've had an unofficial system be used for the last several cycles. We still prefer that IAC-specific ranks or RP bonus amounts must be sizeable enough to potentially allow new and consistently high quality RPers a good shot at the title: see unranked Veldgouwen's run to the final in the first edition.

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SIGN-UP & DISCUSSION
Sign up in this thread to participate in the sixteenth edition of the IAC. Questions and clarifications welcome. Please remember to declare puppets. For more advanced discussion, feel free to consult our Discussion Thread, available at that link or our forum signature here.

This post confirms Drawkland's sign-up.

Sign-Ups
1. Drawkland
2. Juvencus
3. Eshialand
4. HUElavia
5. Sudilia (puppet of HUElavia)
6. Kriegiersien
7. Tjorl
8. Bohr
9. Montaña Verde
10. StrayaRoos Barrier Islands
11. TJUN-ia
12. 69X
13. Geektopia
14. Wombledon Town (puppet of SBI)
15. Belnegau
16. Seven Green Mountains (puppet of Montaña Verde)
17. Sevendia
18. Kamisato Ayaka Nation
19. Cakranegara
20. Poafmersia
21. Indusse
22. Sett Forest
23. Saterun
24. New Eestiball
25. Arjunnagar
26. Bears Armed
27. Octapolis
28. Space
29. Abanhfleft
30. Adab
31. Imoto
32. Bliuji
33. West Barack and East Obama
34. Elmyia
35. Squidroidia
36. Britonisea
37. Sannyamathland
38. Trolleborg
39. Ealdracaland
40. Togonistan
41. Valentine Z
42. The Heraion
43. Omerica
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.


Rejected/Withdrawn
none

Confirming the above. Also, watch this thread for a bid soon

ya boy signing up

Hi.

Back for a 2nd time!

(Serving as a puppet for HUElavia)

Sudilia wrote:Back for a 2nd time!

(Serving as a puppet for HUElavia)

Glad to see our allies back

(Confirming the above)

in

We're in

entering

It's about time that the premier independent tournament returns to Sonnel's shores! Sonnel has hosted IAC matches on three occasions: all of IAC-7 in Drawkland, half of IAC-12 in Almuzahara, and a couple venues featured in IAC-15. Now, we figure it's time to bring the Independents Cup back to Sonnel wholesale.

We're featuring the return of Drawkland to the IAC hosting stage, and the debut of fellow Sonnelians Juvencus to the scene.



Drawkland has hosted at least one of every event on the WCC calendar, IAC-7, and a multitude of American sports tournaments. They've hosted many tournaments of this size or larger to completion, and IAC-16 would be another smoothly-run competition.

This would be the first hosting job for Juvencus, but we are confident in their abilities to handle duties in this IAC.



For IAC-16, we will use the SQIS formula with xkoranate. Additive (xkoranate) style modifiers will be employed. As per the standard, any participating nations will be allowed to select a style modifier between -5 and +5. The entirety of the tournament will be hosted in Drawkland or Juvencus, so no home field advantage will be used.

The interim IAC ranks will be used for scorination. Nations must post a roster to receive their rank bonus. Rank bonus, if applicable, will be immediately given in full once a nation submits their roster.

RPs will be generously rewarded. Bonus will be entirely cumulative throughout the tournament, so there will be no bonus degrading between the playoffs and group stage or anything like that. Quality and effort will be rewarded over needless quantity, as is the custom.



Based on the previous half-dozen tournaments, we can expect at least 40 signups. I have provided the following options for signup landmarks, and their associated formats. The ideal number will be a multiple of 8, and if we're within 2-3 signups of that, we'll cut or ask for numbers puppets as necessary. The formats below are the ideal formats, but if they aren't attainable then we'll select another format, likely 6 groups or 10 groups. The playoff format will be approximately half the field, regardless of numbers.

32 nations: 8 groups of 4. Top 2 teams in each group will qualify for the 16-team playoff.
40 nations: 8 groups of 5. Top 2 teams in each group, and 4 best third-place teams will qualify for the 20-team playoff, byes for Top 4 teams.
48 nations: 8 groups of 6. Top 3 teams in each group will qualify for the 24-team playoff.

All group stages will be single round robin. Playoffs will be standard single-elimination, no matter the bracket size.

The tiebreakers for ties within the group stage tables will be as follows: Points, Head-to-Head Points, Goal Difference, Wins, RP bonus "coinflip" (OOC scorinated match without ranks)

Drawkland and Juvencus will be hosting the other's groups to ensure no conflict of interest in scorination.



We hope all independent nations will enjoy this edition of the IAC, regardless of host. We have this bid out early, but if any other nation wishes to bid for this edition for the IAC, they are welcome to.

Any questions for this bid can be asked in this thread and we will respond as quickly as possible. If this bid is modified the changes will be noted here.

Thank you!

Also, this is Drawkland's 4000th post on the NationStates forum. Neat!

Confirming my participation in the bid above!

Also congrats Drawk on reaching 4000 posts!

I think it's a fantastic bid for IAC 16.

As a question, for a 48-team tournament, with the knockouts for 24 teams advancing be like the one done in IAC 15?

Montaña Verde signs up.

Mrrp
(in)

5 subs
26 player squads
IN IN IN IN IN IN!

LFG

No Hojnacki, alternating managers, unchanged squad. Let's do it

In,Puppet of Crazy Emus

Wombledon Town wrote:In,Puppet of Crazy Awesome Emus

mRRP,confirming

triumphans reddet Belnegau

We sign up as puppets of Montaña Verde but allowing ourselves to be excluded if numbers work better without us, especially if those numbers are 7.

Numbers that are 7?!?

anime clones back at it again

We're in