1st Tea Cup [IC] - Lower Bracket Finals @ 11Dec, 2pm AEDT

[A m e n r i a]

Weather in the Empire of Amenria

Amenria, being the gargantuan nation it is, cannot be classified as a country of one climate or another. The northernmost areas of the empire including Siberia, Heilongjiang, and Jilin and have temperatures as cold as -30 degrees or lower while the southern regions of Nusantara and Sri Lanka can reach over 30 degrees on the opposite end.

Thanks to technological advancements in energy, agriculture is no longer a slave to the seasons, with crops being grown in the towering vertical farms of the Poornachandra Pack and the Huang-Ahn Cooperative all year round. This not only helped in feeding the many mouths of the ever-growing population, but also in exporting crops abroad.

While Amenria does use rudimentary physical weather control methods such as spreading certain particles in the air by plane, several individuals have been known to tamper with the weather through spiritual means. Hydromancers can provide drought-stricken areas with much needed rain, skilled pyromancers can shoot large balls of fire at the sky to cause storms, and cryomancers with considerably large Qi reserves can create localized snowfalls outside of winter. Outside of superpowers, shamans have been known to get paid for having their ghost patrons prevent rains during events organized by their human employers. While the use of magic has been outlawed since the nation was founded, these shamans still countinue sell their services to those who know where to find them.

[Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles]

Drunk Pig Crashes Tuk-Tuk into Pet Shop

If you're on the pavements of Punta Tembaga town Pawa, be on the lookout for drink drivers. They're not your typical ones however - most notably, a pig has caused danger with their recklessness.

After a stray pig, nicknamed Daniel by locals, consumed some fermented fruit, it got drunk. The pig wandered around until it reached a parked Tuk-Tuk. The pig somehow managed to drive off in it, either due to the driver leaving the engine on or the pig having impressive hotwiring skills. In any case however, the steering of the vehicle was quite subpar, with the pig not going further than ten metres before crashing the Tuk-Tuk into Pablo Diaz Pets Emporium. In the aftermath, a dog named Pebbles and an unnamed parakeet escaped. The Tuk-Tuk itself was mostly unharmed, with the exception of pig vomit on the seats.

If you have any information on the whereabouts of Pebbles the dog or the unnamed parakeet, please contact Pablo Diaz Pets Emporium immediately.

[TeaFarmers]

Cutoff.

Note - This prompt is the same as the other competition I am hosting:
What are some of the more unexpected events which are considered unacceptable in your country? For instance, in some countries, train operators need to follow schedule by the book.

EDIT: Let me rephrase. People in different countries have different working styles & culture as a nation. What is a don't in your country that others might not be used to? An example could be this: "In Hallikshire, following the schedule to the dot is better than being early".

Addendum - My priority was releasing the results. With regards to the tiebreakers, I will make adjustments if I spot problems in around 10 hours.

Potato - Matchday 5
Canadian Dominion 1–3 HUElavia
Fort McKinley 0–3 Poafmersia
Burikinia 3–2 Panerialand
Delaclava 3–5 Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles
New Al-Khabir 0–1 Loyo

Potato - Matchday 6
Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles 3–1 New Al-Khabir
Panerialand 1–0 Delaclava
Poafmersia 2–0 Burikinia
HUElavia 4–1 Fort McKinley
Sixty-ninE X 0–2 Canadian Dominion

 # Potato                                 Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles    6    6   0   0    19    8  +11    18
 2 Poafmersia                               5    4   1   0    12    5   +7    13
 3 HUElavia                                 5    3   2   0    14    8   +6    11
 4 Canadian Dominion                        6    3   0   3    10   11   −1     9
 5 Fort McKinley                            6    3   0   3    11   13   −2     9
 6 Loyo                                     5    3   0   2     5    7   −2     9
 7 Panerialand                              6    2   0   4    10   11   −1     6
 8 Delaclava                                5    2   0   3     7    8   −1     6
 9 Burikinia                                6    2   0   4     9   12   −3     6
10 Sixty-ninE X                             5    0   1   4     1    7   −6     1
11 New Al-Khabir                            5    0   0   5     4   12   −8     0

Tea - Matchday 5
Baker Park 2–0 Hopal
Qasden 3–4 Ziwana
Saterun 3–2 The Gothanita Isles
Catalaonia 0–1 Sannyamathland
Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley 3–1 Busoga Islands

Tea - Matchday 6
Sannyamathland 3–4 Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley
The Gothanita Isles 0–4 Catalaonia
Ziwana 4–2 Saterun
Hopal 2–0 Qasden
Amenria 1–0 Baker Park

 # Tea                                    Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley           5    5   0   0    14    6   +8    15
 2 Baker Park                               6    4   0   2    12    8   +4    12
 3 Hopal                                    5    3   1   1    10    8   +2    10
 4 Amenria                                  5    3   0   2     9    8   +1     9
 5 Saterun                                  6    2   2   2     9   10   −1     8
 6 Ziwana                                   5    2   1   2    11   10   +1     7
 7 Qasden                                   6    2   1   3    11   13   −2     7
 8 Sannyamathland                           6    2   1   3    11   13   −2     7
 9 Busoga Islands                           5    1   2   2     5    8   −3     5
10 Catalaonia                               5    1   1   3     4    4    0     4
11 The Gothanita Isles                      6    0   1   5     8   16   −8     1

[Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley]

Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley 3–1 Busoga Islands
Goals: Lawrence 21’, 40’, Lambert 51’; Kohut 5’

Sannyamathland 3–4 Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley
Goals: Tymchenko 4’, Chalov 48’, Sandiev 69’; Frinton-Smith 43’, Stanton 53’, Mount o.g. 57’, Lawrence 87’

(Don't really understand the prompt!)

“Five.”

No, not the number of goals Jimmy Lawrence, the former shipyards worker, had scored in the tournament to date – but the number of sugar cubes he wanted in his cup of tea. Frank Lambert poured out a steady stream from the communal urn set up in the Players’ changing room, and added the sugar cubes.

They’d won the game against the Soviets – an exciting affair that had featured a penalty and an own goal among the seven goals that changed hands, plus plenty of hard tackles – but playing against them as adversaries had been a challenging experience for Jimmy. He’d been blacklisted from the docks for his communist sympathies and union organising: it was one of the reasons he’d taken the chance when someone who’d spotted him playing in the work leagues had suggested he take up professional football. He didn’t see the Soviets as enemies so much as international brothers, and had very mixed feelings about having scored the winning goal to defeat them, turning to see Frinton-Smith and St. Clair – with whom he shared considerably less in common than with the Soviet players – hailing him as their champion.

[Commonwealth of Baker Park]

If Rebecca Schoenlein was disappointed that the Federalist Party came up just short of an outright majority in the General Election, she did not show it during the celebrations at the party's election night gathering in Belle Haven.

“We've elected the largest Assembly party membership in history tonight, a reward that voters have given us to recognize the steady governance our Party has provided for over 70 years. We've always worked across the aisle for the benefit of the entire Commonwealth, and will continue to do so when the 33rd Parliament begins in March.”

The unofficial totals released from the Secretariat of State have the Federalists winning 108 constituencies, the Liberal & Trade Union Alliance with 54, the Conservative Party 35, the Social Democratic Party 17, followed by the Progressives with 10 and the Green Party 7; only 3 races will require a full recount of the ballots due to the margin being less than 1% of the total votes cast.
Although the Feds fell short of the 116 seat threshold to secure an outright majority in the new 231 Assembly, there is more opportunity to form a coalition with one or more of the minority delegations on either a long term or specific policy basis.

The results will also cause more attention to fall on two areas in the next Parliament that have not been considered as troublesome previously—the election of the Speaker and the seating of minority party backbenchers in sub-cabinet positions based on a demonstrated expertise and knowledge of a particular area.

Only once in history has a Speaker of the House of Assembly cast a tiebreaking vote against the Government of the day—Arthur I Houghton blocked the Baker Park Criminal Code Revision Bill from advancing to a Third Reading, sending it to the Committee of the Whole House for further debate—which eventually led to the collapse of Josiah P Moore's first Conservative administration in July 1921.

The incumbent Speaker David Kosik won re-election and traditionally no sitting Speaker has ever been denied re-election to the Chair, but without an outright majority the Federalists could use the office as a bargaining chip if they were to seek out full term partnership with the Social Dems or the Progressives; as for Cabinet positions, the SD leader Kevin Considine served as Secretary of State for Housing during the final session year of the last Parliament and would certainly like to see a substantial role for his parliamentary delegation that nearly tripled their representation.

The Progs probably have a much weaker negotiating position due to their puzzling stance towards the Foxchester bloc; their policy statement has called for a bilateral relationship with those nations, while the government have maintained they will not get out in front of the AO consensus decided at the Stelburg Conference long ago.

[Fort McKinley]

Heroes can only be defeated by Capitalist plot

TRANSIVISTIA (FMNA)--The Fort McKinley National Football Team returned to competition for the first time since the shameful capitulation in the Cup of Harmony in the capitalist hellhole Mertagne, having traveled to a foreign place where the inhabitants are small limbed, with large necks of fatty appearance due to their consumption of all things decadent that are available.

This tournament is called The Tea Cup--an effete beverage consumed by imperialist swine-dogs--which places our Heroes of the Revolution against an assorted field of timid weaklings, unworthy of gracing the same green grass as our boys.

On the first match day the opponent was New Al-Khabir, which was dispatched with great efficiency by the score of 2-0; this was followed by another domination of the team from Loyo, who played as though they wore soiled baby diapers, with a second clean sheet kept, 3-0.
The third match against a side from the imperialist sounding nation of Punta Tembaga & the Terjunian Isles showed the first signs of the same types of blatant dishonesty used against the Heroes in the ACFA exhibition matches several seasons ago; a 2-4 defeat marked by many instances of officiating bias did not keep the team from maintaining a second place spot in the table.

The team faced Panerialand in the fourth match, where they overcame the built in capitalist mischief to prevail 3-2, but since then have seen the secret hand of anti-revolutionary jealousy deny them a pair of wins, as the potato diggers of Poafmersia and the offspring of goats from HUElavia claimed tainted results which have dropped Fort McKinley to fifth place out of eleven in the group.

There should be no further danger from the opponents in remainder of the fixtures, barring further interference from the corrupt capitalist swine who organized the event; the Heroes should progress to the main knockout round as one of the four top group finishers easily if allowed to demonstrate their superiority under fair play conditions.

[PotatoFarmers]

Poafmersia 4–4 HUElavia
Goalscorers: Erle Sartini 34' (assisted by Post); Dagur Lawrence 45', 78' (assisted by Tamura); Kathryn Woolley 89' (assisted by Shea)
Lineup (4-4-2): Jessica Ardens; Kilikina Lee, Cindy Oriol, Nikkita Alfaro, Xenophon Robson; Padrig Dürr, Ruthie Magee, Erle Sartini (c), Verbena Zoltánfi; Dagur Lawrence, Trena Post
Substitutes: Bolívar Tamura (Post 52'); Tate Maynard (Magee 65'); Kathryn Woolley (Robson 65'); Jimmy Couch (Lee 81'); Aapeli Shea (c) (Sartini 81')

Sixty-ninE X 0–1 Poafmersia
Goalscorer: Dagur Lawrence 55' (assisted by Díaz)
Lineup (4-4-2): Aleksandar Malloye; Kilikina Lee, Cindy Oriol, Nikkita Alfaro, Xenophon Robson; Padrig Dürr, Stephen May, Erle Sartini (c), Verbena Zoltánfi; Dagur Lawrence, Iris Díaz
Substitutes: Aapeli Shea (May 70'); Taliah Alcock (Dürr 70'); Gioia Tyson (Oriol 84')

Poafmersia 2–1 Canadian Dominion
Goalscorers: Dagur Lawrence 28' (assisted by Shea); Kilikina Lee 66' (assisted by Bjarnesen)
Lineup (4-3-3): Shirou Amatore; Kilikina Lee, Cindy Oriol, Nikkita Alfaro, Xenophon Robson; Erle Sartini, Sylvia Fusco, Aapeli Shea (c); Tessa Bjarnesen, Dagur Lawrence, Bolívar Tamura
Substitutes: Tate Maynard (Fusco 57'); Gioia Tyson (Oriol 78')

Fort McKinley 0–3 Poafmersia
Goalscorers: Dagur Lawrence 17' (assisted by Sartini), 60' (assisted by Sartini), 90' (assisted by Alcock)
Lineup (4-3-3): Shirou Amatore; Jimmy Couch, Cindy Oriol, Nikkita Alfaro, Xenophon Robson; Erle Sartini, Sylvia Fusco, Aapeli Shea (c); Tessa Bjarnesen, Dagur Lawrence, Bolívar Tamura
Substitutes: Taliah Alcock (Bjarnesen 64'), Leontiy Seet (Tamura 78')

Poafmersia 2–0 Burikinia
Goalscorers: Leontiy Seet 47'; Dagur Lawrence 70' (assisted by Bjarnesen)
Lineup (4-3-3): Aleksandar Malloye; Kilikina Lee, Cindy Oriol, Nikkita Alfaro, Xenophon Robson; Erle Sartini, Sylvia Fusco, Aapeli Shea (c); Tessa Bjarnesen, Dagur Lawrence, Leontiy Seet
Substitutes: Stephen May （Sartini 62'); Gioia Tyson (Alfaro 78'); Kathryn Woolley (Robson 78')

Sporting Daily
Red Panjias' defense improve as Tea Cup crosses halfway mark
Transivista, TeaFarmers - The Red Panjias produced 4 solid wins and a nice draw against defending IAC champions HUElavia, heading into the second half of the group stage second in the Potato group despite only playing 5 games.

Head Coach Adnan Suliaha opted for a younger squad this time, dropping some of the main starters in the Cup of Harmony, and pushed for a younger squad with a bunch of newer players getting starts thsi time round. In the second game, 21-year old Aleksandar Malloye started in goal, while Iris Díaz also got a nice assist on his first start in the same game. Among other newcomers, Gioia Tyson got two subs, while Tate Maynard also got two subs including an important performance against Canadian Dominion.

At the front, without Jordan Huerta, it was Dagur Lawrence who rose to score a solid number of goals, scoring 8 goals in 5 games, including a hat-trick against Fort McKinley. Meanwhile, Kilikina Lee and Xenophon Robson's synergy continues to rise, amid rumours on the domestic front where both players might be united at one of the Poafmersian clubs. Cindy Oriol has also got himself secure as a starter, producing really nice defensive performances against Burikinia and Fort McKinley. Adnan was full of praise for Oriol, calling her performance "outstanding" and worthy of contesting future starting 11.

The group has been rather tight-knit in nature, with three teams tied on 9 points, three teams tied on 6 points, and 3 unbeaten teams at the top. Punta Tembaga and Terjunian Isles, a newcomer to the football scene, have been producing a bunch of shock results against Delaclava and other notable teams to be top on 6 wins from 6, but Poafmersia and HUElavia are also close behind with one game less played and still unbeaten. The players and coaching team in general believe that the team should be able to make progress in the upper bracket, getting a good seeding position and fight their way through the friendly tournament.

[TeaFarmers]

Sorry for the late cutoff. Blame Windows.

Prompt for tonight: Food. We talked about the tea culture in MD1, but what about the food culture in your country? What are some of the more special food that are considered delicacies in your country?

With regards to the issue of cutoffs:
- 30th Nov Cutoff (MD9&10) will be as per normal, but likely to be exactly at 11pm AEDT (instead of being slightly later)
- 2nd Dec Cutoff (MD11) will be shifted earlier to cutoff at 2pm AEDT.
- Subsequent cutoffs will continue to be at 2pm AEDT, with the dates as follows:
4th Dec: Upper & Lower Bracket Round 1
6th Dec: Upper Bracket Semifinals, Lower Bracket Round 2 & Round 3 (double scorination for Lower Bracket)
8th Dec: Upper Bracket Finals, Lower Bracket Round 4 & Semifinals (double scorination for Lower Bracket)
10th Dec: Lower Bracket Finals (No more 24 hour cutoff)
12th Dec: Grand Finals

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Legend
Blue (W) - Team qualified for the Upper Bracket
Purple (X) - Team qualified for the Lower Bracket, but can still qualify for the Upper Bracket
Dark Green (Y) - Team qualified for the Lower Bracket
Orange (Z) - Team cannot qualify for the Upper Bracket, but may still qualify for the Lower Bracket
Red (E) - Eliminated

Potato - Matchday 7
Fort McKinley 4–3 Sixty-ninE X
Burikinia 4–4 HUElavia
Delaclava 1–0 Poafmersia
New Al-Khabir 1–2 Panerialand
Loyo 2–4 Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles

Potato - Matchday 8
Panerialand 4–4 Loyo
Poafmersia 4–2 New Al-Khabir
HUElavia 3–2 Delaclava
Sixty-ninE X 1–0 Burikinia
Canadian Dominion 0–1 Fort McKinley

 # Potato                                 Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles    7    7   0   0    23   10  +13    21 W
 2 Poafmersia                               7    5   1   1    16    8   +8    16 X
 3 HUElavia                                 7    4   3   0    21   14   +7    15* X
 4 Fort McKinley                            8    5   0   3    16   16    0    15* X
 5 Panerialand                              8    3   1   4    16   16    0    10
 6 Loyo                                     7    3   1   3    11   15   −4    10
 7 Delaclava                                7    3   0   4    10   11   −1     9
 8 Canadian Dominion                        7    3   0   4    10   12   −2     9
 9 Burikinia                                8    2   1   5    13   17   −4     7 Z
10 Sixty-ninE X                             7    1   1   5     5   11   −6     4 Z
11 New Al-Khabir                            7    0   0   7     7   18  −11     0 Z
*HUElavia ahead of Fort McKinley on head-to-head points.

Tea - Matchday 7
Qasden 2–2 Amenria
Saterun 2–3 Hopal
Catalaonia 1–2 Ziwana
Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley 1–0 The Gothanita Isles
Busoga Islands 1–4 Sannyamathland

Tea - Matchday 8
The Gothanita Isles 0–0 Busoga Islands
Ziwana 1–1 Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley
Hopal 4–2 Catalaonia
Amenria 1–2 Saterun
Baker Park 2–0 Qasden

 # Tea                                    Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley           7    6   1   0    16    7   +9    19 X
 2 Hopal                                    7    5   1   1    17   12   +5    16 X
 3 Baker Park                               7    5   0   2    14    8   +6    15 X
 4 Ziwana                                   7    3   2   2    14   12   +2    11*
 5 Saterun                                  8    3   2   3    13   14   −1    11*
 6 Sannyamathland                           7    3   1   3    15   14   +1    10**
 7 Amenria                                  7    3   1   3    12   12    0    10**
 8 Qasden                                   8    2   2   4    13   17   −4     8
 9 Busoga Islands                           7    1   3   3     6   12   −6     6
10 Catalaonia                               7    1   1   5     7   10   −3     4
11 The Gothanita Isles                      8    0   2   6     8   17   −9     2 Z
*Ziwana ahead of Saterun on head-to-head points
**Sannyamathland ahead of Amenria on head-to-head points.

[Saterun]

5 for the Next 5: The top five upcoming Saterun players for the next five years

After an explosive maiden season of the A. Liga, we here at Football Monthly Report have had our eyes out for upcoming talent. We've watched almost every game, and making this list was hard. We not only had to use stats and eyewitness reports, but also factor in team support and press releases by the players themselves. Based on all the data we could find, here are the top five upcoming Saterun players for the next five years.

5. Fabien Cruz, 26, Tsear AC
The four other players on this list might be younger, but Cruz is still getting better. Tsear AC had quite the age range when the A. Liga started. Cruz was in the middle, and at 26 seemed to be at the end of his best days. The A. Liga is notoriously punishing for older players, with the max age being 33 for starting players (not legally, of course, but any players older than that aren't good enough to start). Cruz started well at the beginning, and just got better with time. Even though he's above the average age (25), he's still got a long time left. The NT's hole in the RB position could prove even more crucial to his success.

4. Kenji Armstrong, 19, FC Coppola
FC Coppola was predicted to end 15th at the beginning of the season. Instead, they finished 9th. Armstrong was a huge part of that success. He posses the rare combination of pace and physicality, and dominates that CM position. Highlights include 3 assists against Haleer and 2 goals and an assist against league runners-up Anasb FC. With both Coiro and Lundquist getting on in years, Armstrong could make an early debut. Yousafali has already named him as a potential NT player. He's also guaranteed to stay at Coppola for another 3 years. He'll be able to foster development with low pressure. And he's only 19.

3. Floriano Agrucci, 25, Haleer FC
This time, we are heading to the LB position for Agrucci. He's right around the perfect age for development at 25, and Rhain Davidson has had nothing bad to say about him. "He works hard in training, it shows in games, this kid has it." It is probably referring to his incredible left foot, which is equally impressive in a last-ditch clearance and a 35-yard freekick. Of which three have been scored this season. Unfortunately for him, there is incredible competition for the LB spot on Yousafali's team. In fact, one of his competitors in number 2 on this list.

2. Ayaan Toole, 21, Xaiv FC
Xaiv may have had little success this season, but even that little bit is due to Toole. He is one of the top-rated players on the squad, and is 4 years younger than the average A. Liga player. He was so good that he was brought onto the NT as a sub. So far, he has come on in big matches, most notably the two ties against 4th-in-the-world Pemecutan during WC 91 Qualifying. He made quite the impression, but, as stated before, there is tough competition for LB on the NT. What is exciting about Toole is his utter excitement to go abroad and learn from other leagues. "I definitely want to leave on good terms with the club, and aren't against staying here for a few more years, but I'd like to travel abroad, maybe be the first Saterun player to do so." Not an unreasonable goal.

1. Maksymilian Bates, 25, Haleer FC
A fan-favorite, Bates has no limit. He plundered 25 goals in thirty league games, and scored all four of his teams goals in their Copa Nacional run. As with LB, the ST position is very competitive in the NT, but that won't stop Bates. Yousafali has already named him as a likely addition to the squad come next cycle. He is also being scouted by league-winners Tsear FC and Futsworth United. He will certainly be present over the next half, maybe even full decade.

[Hopal]

The Hopal Herald Sports

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Team Hopal Qualifies for Knockout Round at 1st Tea Cup - How We Got Here

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Team Hopal has qualified for at least the lower bracket here at the 1st Tea Cup. That is to say that Team Hopal has qualified for the knockout round, the format of the tournament here at the Tea Cup is unique and can be a little confusing to regular sports-watcher who are so used to the single elimination bracket. But that's what makes this tournament so special, among many other things. But essentially the difference between the upper bracket and lower bracket is that the team in the upper bracket have a safety, where even if they lose a match they still have another chance to redeem themselves by playing a team in the lower bracket, while the lower bracket is the single elimination system that we're so used to. But Hopal has qualified for at least the lower bracket, and sitting at second place in the group, Hopal has a pretty good chance of making it to the upper bracket. So let's take a brief look at how team Hopal got here.

After two pretty disappointing World Cup Qualifying campaigns for Team Hopal, Manager Tom Villiers came under fire, and many called for his firing. It was determined however, that the Hopalian Olympic Committee still had confidence in Villiers after that latest World Cup Qualifying performance, and he was able to hold onto his job. But that didn't silence the critics, and many Hopalian fans still thought that there should be new leadership atop the Hopalian National Team. This inaugural edition of the Tea Cup was the first international tournament after the World Cup, and Villiers entered Team Hopal in an attempt reset the page, and hopefully prove his leadership and this team by snatching some wins. Villiers came under fire however for keeping much of the same team going into this tournament as the one that had competed in the last World Cup Qualifying, with the new additions to the Starting 11 being mostly older players who were making their return; some called this a recipe for disaster considering what had unfolded at the last World Cup Qualifying.

But this was the team that went into the first match against the Gothanita Isles, and this was quite the struggle for Team Hopal against what many considered not a very strong team, in fact they sit currently at the bottom of the table for the group, eliminated from making the upper bracket. But Team Hopal was only able to snatch a hard-fought 3-2 win, as the offence for Team Hopal carried the team over the edge to victory. The Hopalian defence was not very strong in this game, with defenders Kaylee Haboshinter, Kay Redford, and Alison Terrace all being subbed over the duration of the game. Goalkeeper Alex Gargin was also heavily criticized for the loss, and many feared the disappointing team of the World Cup Qualifying was making a return.

Before the next match against Ziwana, Tom Villiers made some major changes to the Hopalian defence. With Full Backs Kaylee Haboshinter and Alison Terrace being replacing by Hector Cruz and Brian Atwood. Assistant Captain and longtime veteran Kay Redford would also be replaced for the game as Centre Back by Karos Yamover, while Lucy Anderson remained in her position as the other Centre Back. Going into this game against Ziwana, Team Hopal faced stiff opposition, as this strong Ziwana team stifled most opportunities that Team Hopal could get. But the Hopalian defence held strong for this match, and Alex Gargin had a good match too, what many considered to be the best match of his career so far. Gargin had been the longtime back-up to former Hopalian Goalkeeper Adrian Turcotte, and has struggled to find his way since Turcotte's departure and his succeeding to his position as Starting Goalkeeper, failing to live up to many people's expectations. But after Ziwana got a goal on Turcotte, rather late in the game on a quick rush Tommy Sanchez was able to steal a goal for Team Hopal, with the game ending with a draw 1-1.

Team Hopal would have a bit of a break before their next match against Amenria, with a bye in between their matches. Tom Villiers would bring back Assistant Captain Kay Redford for this match as Centre Back, recalling Karos Yamover to the bench before this game against Amenria. This match would go in a similar fashion to Hopal's first match against the Gothanita Isles, with many goals for both sides, and the Hopalian defence and Alex Gargin running into its troubles. The trio up front for Hopal of the Frey brothers, Harris and Uma is their amazing chemistry, speed, and tenacity, and the steady guidance of Captain Tommy Sanchez lit it up for Team Hopal, scoring a total of 4 goals between them. But as said earlier the Hopalian defence and Alex Gargin had its troubles and conceded 3 goals, with of 4-3 final for Team Hopal after a last minute goal from Tommy Sanchez.

Tom Villiers would make some changes again for Team Hopal's defence again as they prepared to take on the experienced Baker Park team. Brian Atwood would be replaced by Karos Yamover and Hector Cruz would be recalled for Kaylee Haboshinter at Full Back as Hopal prepared to face tis highly experienced team. But it would be to no avail as Team Hopal would be overpowered by this highly experienced Baker Park team, who stubbornly refused to concede any goals, and managed to get two past Alex Gargin. This would be Team Hopal's first loss at this tournament.

So it would be more changes on the defence again for Tom Villiers before this next match against Qasden with Karos Yamover and Kaylee Haboshinter being exchanged for Hector Cruz and Alison Terrace. Villiers also opted to switch out returning-at-this-tournament veteran Jake Gonchar for offensively-minded Erin Tarter as Centre Mid in order to infuse some more young blood into the Hopalian midfield. This would be much a better game for Team Hopal than the last game against Baker Park, it was almost a perfect for Team Hopal, or at least Tom Villiers. Hopal conceded no goals and the defence held strong, with each of the Frey brothers earning themselves a goal off of the other to get Team Hopal a 2-0 victory and three more points.

Tom Villiers decided not to change anything for this next game against Saterun, but this wouldn't be as easy of a match as it was against Qasden. While the Hopalian offence was able to generate three good goals, with Sanchez and each of the Freys earning a place on the score sheet, Alex Gargin let in what many saw as preventable goals, and Hopal left the match with only a 3-2 victory.

The next match against Catalaonia would be much the same for Alex Gargin. Tom Villiers had decided not to make any changes going into this match, and it went mostly well for Team Hopal. Team Hopal dominated possession and kept the pressure on the Catalaonia side, staying in their zone, with the Frey brothers being magnificent in their play. Hopal managed to earn themselves 4 good goals, throughout the entirety of this match. But when the pendulum swung in the other direction, and Catalaonia pushed into the Hopalian zone, getting past the Hoplain defence, which to the Hopalian defence's credit rarely happened, they easily good past Alex Gargin. Alex Gargin let in two more quite preventable goals, and many Hopalian fans are fuming. While Team Hopal got the 4-2 win and here qualified for the lower bracket, many are still not happy.

But with this qualification to the lower bracket, and with the remaining group matches being relatively low stakes for Team Hopal, Tom Villiers is willing to experiment. Finally doing what many have been calling on him to do for a while, and putting the 21-year-old backup Travis Durant in net for the next game. Hopal has three goalkeeper backups going into this tournaments, which just goes to show the depth of Hopalian goalkeeping, and the success of young goalkeeping development. But so far that hasn't seemed to translate on the international stage, as two highly regarding Hopalian goalkeepers Adrian Turcotte and Alex Gargin have had their disappointments, and many are saying it's too early to put in Durant and risk him falling to this pressure at such a young age.

But that's we got here, through the chemistry of the Frey brothers, with the help of Tommy Sanchez, changes in the Hopalian defence, and a disappointing Alex Gargin.

[A m e n r i a]

3 Must-Try Dishes in Amenria

Amenria is an ancient empire with millennia of history, and numerous styles of cooking from all over the country. Amenrian food can typically be recognized by not only the taste, but also its visual characteristics such as colour and appearance. These are the top 5 dishes you must try when visiting Amenria.

Butter Chicken

Originating in New Delhi, one of the largest cities in the state of Baratha, the Butter Chicken is a spicy, aromatic, and creamy dish with a hearthy consistency and deceptively low carbohydrates. The chicken is marinated in a delicious mix of yoghurt and a variety of spices that often includes garlic, ginger, cloves, and cumin, among other spices commonly associated with the state, which can be attributed to the rich flavour that seeps into every piece you bite into.

Sate

While grilled meat on a skewer sounds simple, this Javanese dish became the state dish of Nusantara because of the unique sweet and spicy flavour of the marinade, often consisting of sweet soy sauce and various spices, used prior to grilling. It is a versatile dish that has been seen using all sorts of meats, including chicken, beef, venison, or even crocodile in the non-Muslim communities of the empire. Sate is usually served with peanut sauce and either rice cake or steamed rice.

Peking Duck

Named after an alternative romanization of Beijing, Peking Duck can be characterized by its thin and crispy skin. It is seasoned with five-spice powder prior to roasting, a mixture common in Central Amenrian cuisine, and served whole and carved as diners look on. First, the cook slices off the thin skin for you to enjoy with a choice of dipping it in sweet bean sauce. Then, the juicy and tender meat, wrapped in steamed spring pancakes and your choice of vegetables, with cucumber and spring onion being typically available options, is served.

[Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles]

TEMBAGAN GUITERREZ SIGNS FOR LOZHOAN GIANTS

Pablo Guiterrez, an 18 year old winger from San Hernan, has signed for Lozhoan First Division football club Langhan Town on a permanent basis. As the only Tembagan to be playing professional football, as well as the only one based outside the country, it will be interesting to see how his development continues.

Born in the town of San Hernan on Punta Tembaga, Pablo Guiterrez had been playing football in several local academies before his skills caught the attention of scouts from Madger FC. His electrifying performances in the Tembagan league earned him a callup to the national team. After several man of the match performances, including a fantastic dribble past four Delaclavan defenders to score a goal in our 5-3 win over the giants, many clubs came doorknocking. Langhan Town reportedly paid Madger FC a fee of a hundred thousand lozhons for the player, which when converted to our local credits demolishes the local outgoing transfer fee record.

While not expected to be a starter for his new team, if he keeps on performing the way he does, expect Guiterrez to tear up the Lozhoan First Division in the weeks to come.

[TeaFarmers]

cutoff. Reminder that next cutoff is 2pm AEDT on 2nd Dec.

Prompt: Last Matchday of the Group Stage! Well, for 20 teams. The prompt is more about the experience in TeaFarmers thus far: How is the tournament thus far? What about your fan's experiences in the country?

---

Legend
Blue (W) - Team qualified for the Upper Bracket
Purple (X) - Team qualified for the Lower Bracket, but can still qualify for the Upper Bracket
Dark Green (Y) - Team qualified for the Lower Bracket
Orange (Z) - Team cannot qualify for the Upper Bracket, but may still qualify for the Lower Bracket
Red (E) - Eliminated

Potato - Matchday 9
Burikinia 5–3 Canadian Dominion
Delaclava 2–1 Sixty-ninE X
New Al-Khabir 1–6 HUElavia
Loyo 4–6 Poafmersia
Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles 1–1 Panerialand

Potato - Matchday 10
Poafmersia 3–3 Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles
HUElavia 1–1 Loyo
Sixty-ninE X 1–3 New Al-Khabir
Canadian Dominion 4–4 Delaclava
Fort McKinley 1–1 Burikinia

 # Potato                                 Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles    9    7   2   0    27   14  +13    23   W
 2 Poafmersia                               9    6   2   1    25   15  +10    20   W
 3 HUElavia                                 9    5   4   0    28   16  +12    19   W
 4 Fort McKinley                            9    5   1   3    17   17    0    16   X
 5 Delaclava                                9    4   1   4    16   16    0    13   X
 6 Loyo                                     9    3   2   4    16   22   −6    11*  Z
 7 Burikinia                               10    3   2   5    19   21   −2    11*  Z
 8 Panerialand                              9    3   2   4    17   17    0    11*  Z
 9 Canadian Dominion                        9    3   1   5    17   21   −4    10   Z
10 Sixty-ninE X                             9    1   1   7     7   16   −9     4   E
11 New Al-Khabir                            9    1   0   8    11   25  −14     3   E
*Head-to-head Points: Loyo 4, Burikinia 3, Panerialand 1

Tea - Matchday 9
Saterun 0–0 Baker Park
Catalaonia 0–2 Amenria
Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley 1–2 Hopal
Busoga Islands 0–0 Ziwana
Sannyamathland 5–3 The Gothanita Isles

Tea - Matchday 10
Ziwana 2–2 Sannyamathland
Hopal 1–0 Busoga Islands
Amenria 0–0 Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley
Baker Park 3–1 Catalaonia
Qasden 1–2 Saterun

 # Tea                                    Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Hopal                                    9    7   1   1    20   13   +7    22   W
 2 Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley           9    6   2   1    17    9   +8    20   W
 3 Baker Park                               9    6   1   2    17    9   +8    19   W
 4 Saterun                                 10    4   3   3    15   15    0    15   X
 5 Sannyamathland                           9    4   2   3    22   19   +3    14*  X
 6 Amenria                                  9    4   2   3    14   12   +2    14*  X
 7 Ziwana                                   9    3   4   2    16   14   +2    13   X
 8 Qasden                                   9    2   2   5    14   19   −5     8   Z
 9 Busoga Islands                           9    1   4   4     6   13   −7     7   Z
10 Catalaonia                               9    1   1   7     8   15   −7     4   E
11 The Gothanita Isles                      9    0   2   7    11   22  −11     2   E
*Head-to-head Points: Sannyamathland 3, Amenria 0

[Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley]

Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley 1–0 The Gothanita Isles
Goals: Dence 87’

Ziwana 1–1 Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley
Goals: Payen 59’; Lawrence 23’

Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley 1–2 Hopal
Goals: von Schurburg 25’; U. Frey 32’, Cruz 67’

Amenria 0–0 Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley

Having won their first six games in a row, Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley had faced an unexpected downturn in form, taking just one point from nine in their next three games. And while there various theories about the reason for this turn in form -- fatigue, teams adapting to the "WM" formation, referees clamping down on the "hack their ankles off" approach (having scored an early goal against Hopal, Friedrich von Schurburg was dismissed, and 10-man Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley ended up conceding a late winner to Hopal's substitute defender Hector Cruz). For the players, the reason was clear. It was the food.

"Can't understand what these blighters are frothing about," harrumped Algie St. Clair as he carefully deboned his fillet of sole.

"Quite quite, all this stuff and nonsense about their tuck not being up to scratch." Mansfield Frinton-Smith dabbed a spot of sauce from his veal escalope from his whiskers with his monogrammed handkerchief. "Bunch of bally agitators."

In the Players' dining room, Jimmy Lawrence was pushing the scrag end of a bit of meat around his plate. It wasn't that he didn't like liver-and-onions, but did it really have to be cat's liver? Stephen Hobbs was trying to make the best of his toast sandwich. Frank Lambert sadly recalled the spicy dishes he'd eaten in the mess hall when serving in Hindustan, contrasting with the bland luncheon meat stodge he was now picking the weevils from.

[TeaFarmers]

Cutoff!

Heading into the knockout stages, the prompt this time is another one word prompt - feelings. Talk through the feelings of your players, your fans, your coaching team, or the feelings of anybody right now. Are they affected by their performance in the group stage? Or events back at home? Or experiences in Teafarmers?

Potato
Delaclava 2–1 Fort McKinley
New Al-Khabir 1–2 Canadian Dominion
Loyo 1–0 Sixty-ninE X
Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles 0–0 HUElavia
Panerialand 0–0 Poafmersia

 # Potato                                 Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles   10    7   3   0    27   14  +13    24
 2 Poafmersia                              10    6   3   1    25   15  +10    21
 3 HUElavia                                10    5   5   0    28   16  +12    20
 4 Delaclava                               10    5   1   4    18   17   +1    16 (A)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 5 Fort McKinley                           10    5   1   4    18   19   −1    16 (A)
 6 Loyo                                    10    4   2   4    17   22   −5    14
 7 Canadian Dominion                       10    4   1   5    19   22   −3    13
 8 Panerialand                             10    3   3   4    17   17    0    12
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 9 Burikinia                               10    3   2   5    19   21   −2    11
10 Sixty-ninE X                            10    1   1   8     7   17  −10     4
11 New Al-Khabir                           10    1   0   9    12   27  −15     3
(A) Head-to-head Points: Delaclava 3, Fort McKinley 0

Tea
Catalaonia 1–0 Qasden
Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley 0–0 Baker Park
Busoga Islands 3–6 Amenria
Sannyamathland 2–1 Hopal
The Gothanita Isles 2–6 Ziwana

 # Tea                                    Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Hopal                                   10    7   1   2    21   15   +6    22
 2 Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley          10    6   3   1    17    9   +8    21
 3 Baker Park                              10    6   2   2    17    9   +8    20
 4 Sannyamathland                          10    5   2   3    24   20   +4    17 (A)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 5 Amenria                                 10    5   2   3    20   15   +5    17 (A)
 6 Ziwana                                  10    4   4   2    22   16   +6    16
 7 Saterun                                 10    4   3   3    15   15    0    15
 8 Qasden                                  10    2   2   6    14   20   −6     8
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 9 Catalaonia                              10    2   1   7     9   15   −6     7 (B)
10 Busoga Islands                          10    1   4   5     9   19  −10     7 (B)
11 The Gothanita Isles                     10    0   2   8    13   28  −15     2
(A) Head-to-head Points: Sannyamathland 3, Amenria 0
(B) Tied on head-to-head points and head-to-head goal difference.

Fixtures for Next Cutoff
Upper Bracket Round 1 @ Transivisita Sports Complex, Transivistia

Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles vs Sannyamathland @ Orange Alpha
Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley vs HUElavia @ Orange Beta
Poafmersia vs Baker Park @ Cyan Alpha
Hopal vs Delaclava @ Cyan Beta

Lower Bracket Round 1 @ Alice Bay Sports Complex, Jamila

Fort McKinley vs Qasden @ Pitch 7
Ziwana vs Canadian Dominion @ George Hall
Loyo vs Saterun @ Johnson Hall
Amenria vs Panerialand @ Pitch 777

[TeaFarmers]

Cutoff.

Since nobody used the last prompt, I am lazy to generate a new one and decided to just recycle the last prompt.

Heading into the knockout stages, the prompt this time is another one word prompt - feelings. Talk through the feelings of your players, your fans, your coaching team, or the feelings of anybody right now. Are they affected by their performance in the group stage? Or events back at home? Or experiences in Teafarmers?

Upper Bracket Round 1 @ Transivisita Sports Complex, Transivistia
Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles 2–3 Sannyamathland
Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley 1–1 HUElavia (1–1 AET) (0–2 pen.)
Poafmersia 1–0 Baker Park (Scorinated by Zwangzug)
Hopal 3–2 Delaclava

Lower Bracket Round 1 @ Alice Bay Sports Complex, Jamila
Fort McKinley 1–0 Qasden
Ziwana 1–3 Canadian Dominion
Loyo 0–2 Saterun
Amenria 3–0 Panerialand

Fixtures for Next Cutoff
Upper Bracket Round 2 @ Transivisita Sports Complex, Transivistia
Sannyamathland vs HUElavia @ Orange Alpha
Poafmersia vs Hopal @ Cyan Alpha

Lower Bracket Round 2 @ Alice Bay Sports Complex, Jamila
L5 - Fort McKinley vs Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles @ Pitch 77
L6 - Canadian Dominion vs Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley @ George Hall
L7 - Saterun vs Baker Park @ Johnson Hall
L8 - Amenria vs Delaclava @ Pitch 777

Lower Bracket Round 3 @ Alice Bay Sports Complex, Jamila
Winner of L5 vs Winner of L6 @ Pitch 7
Winner of L7 vs Winner of L8 @ Pitch 77

[Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley]

Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley 0–0 Baker Park

Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley 1–1 HUElavia
HUElavia win 2-0 on corner kicks*
Goals: Stanton 45’; Honda 34’

The prompt is, of course, impossible to respond to, because people from Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley never discuss their feelings.

Never.

"Stiff upper lip old chap," Algie St. Clair tells Frank Lambert, clapping the halfback on his sturdy shoulders as Lambert reads the telegram from home reporting that his 9th, 10th and 13th siblings have died of budget cuts.

Not a twitch of David Stanton's face as he punts home the equaliser against HUElavia and for a ghostly moment sees in the shadows of the cheering crowd all the young men from his village who never came home from bloody Flanders fields.

The stolid Jack Dence or terse Bill Caldwell would never think of speaking openly about their own feelings, they having actually served in the Great War and come home to tell, or rather not, the tale.

Never shall Mansfield Frinton-Smith speak of those days at Oxonbridge, he and Bertie Rootenham-Tootenham sharing more than just a bottle of Hungarian Tokay and an interest in the Pre-Socratics.

And not a hair twitch on Harry Zoomtwat's upper whisker as he draws up his plans for his final great adventure of 1922. In the Valley of the Kings, Sid reports, reading aloud from the Londontown Times, a great expedition is planned. To discover the final resting place of the great Pharaoh, Tuttifrutti.

* OOC: I do not expect anyone else to respect this bit of godmoding! But... in 1922, penalty kicks were not yet used as a tie-breaker. There were rare occasions when corner kicks were used as a tie-breaker. So in my canon, I'm RPing that the game was decided based on HUElavia having won more corner kicks than us. Obviously, HUElavia is free to completely ignore this and RP a conventional penalty shootout.

[PotatoFarmers]

Delaclava 1–0 Poafmersia
Lineup (4-4-2): Shirou Amatore; Kilikina Lee, Cindy Oriol, Nikkita Alfaro, Xenophon Robson; Padrig Dürr, Sylvia Fusco, Erle Sartini (c), Verbena Zoltánfi; Dagur Lawrence, Bolívar Tamura
Substitutes: Aapeli Shea (Fusco 62'); Gioia Tyson (Zoltánfi 79'); Tessa Bjarnesen (Dürr 79'); Trena Post (Lawrence 88')

Poafmersia 4–2 New Al-Khabir
Goalscorers: Dagur Lawrence 29' (assisted by Post), 60' (assisted by Sartini); Trena Post 45' (assisted by Dürr); Leontiy Seet (Lawrence 90')
Lineup (4-4-2): Shirou Amatore; Kilikina Lee, Gioia Tyson, Cindy Oriol, Xenophon Robson; Padrig Dürr, Stephen May, Erle Sartini (c), Verbena Zoltánfi; Dagur Lawrence, Trena Post
Substitutes: Aapeli Shea (May 78'); Leontiy Seet (Zoltánfi 85'); Ruthie Magee (Dürr 85')

Loyo 4–6 Poafmersia
Goalscorers: Dagur Lawrence 8' (assisted by Shea), 43' (assisted by Sartini); Bolívar Tamura 31' (assisted by Oriol), 78' (assisted by Dürr); Iris Díaz 55'; Trena Post 90' (assisted by Sartini)
Lineup (3-4-3): Shirou Amatore; Cindy Oriol, Gioia Tyson, Nikkita Alfaro; Padrig Dürr, Erle Sartini, Aapeli Shea (c), Verbena Zoltánfi; Dagur Lawrence, Iris Díaz, Bolívar Tamura
Substitutes: Trena Post (Lawrence 69'); Jessica Ardens (Amatore 81')

Poafmersia 3–3 Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles
Goalscorers: Iris Díaz 7' (assisted by Sartini), 80' (assisted by Lawrence); Erle Sartini 54' (assisted by Tamura)
Lineup (3-4-3): Jessica Ardens; Cindy Oriol, Gioia Tyson, Nikkita Alfaro; Padrig Dürr, Erle Sartini, Aapeli Shea (c), Verbena Zoltánfi; Dagur Lawrence, Iris Díaz, Bolívar Tamura
Substitutes: None

Panerialand 0–0 Poafmersia
Lineup (3-4-3): Jessica Ardens; Cindy Oriol, Gioia Tyson, Nikkita Alfaro; Padrig Dürr, Erle Sartini, Aapeli Shea (c), Verbena Zoltánfi; Dagur Lawrence, Iris Díaz, Bolívar Tamura
Substitutes: Quispe Nordström (Tyson 45'); Ruthie Magee (Sartini 45'); Trena Post (Díaz 64')

Poafmersia 1–0 Baker Park
Goalscorers: Dagur Lawrence 82' (assisted by Tamura)
Lineup (4-3-3): Jessica Ardens; Kilikina Lee, Cindy Oriol, Nikkita Alfaro, Xenophon Robson; Erle Sartini, Syliva Fusco, Aapeli Shea (c); Tessa Bjarnesen, Dagur Lawrence, Leontiy Seet
Substitutes: Bolívar Tamura (Seet 55'); Gioia Tyson (Alfaro 78')

Sporting Daily
Red Panjias defeat Baker Park at Tea Cup, first in Poafmersian history

TeaFarmers - After matchdays of poor defensive performance, first against Delaclava, then against Loyo, and finally against Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles, a Jessica Ardens-led defensive charge helped the Poafmersian team secure two nice draws against Panerialand in the final matchday of the Group Stage, and defeat close rivals Baker Park in the first stage. Against Baker Park, the Red Panjias were determined to secure their first win against them, and despite the competition being a friendly, the players were very determined to showcase some of their talents and push a good result against the opponents. It was the motivation of being in the national team for the long run - who wouldn't want it?

THe game started off very calmly. Like against Panieraland, most of the focus was placed on defense. So much so that head coach Adnan Suliaha came out after the game against Panierland to say that his players "don't know how to score anymore". It was as though they scoreed all that they wanted in the previous 3 matches, now the games became a snooze fest. As it was a friendly, Baker Park didn't field all of their top players for the game either, and both sides literally played at around 70-80% capacity of what it should ordinarily be. With the offence being inefficient in front of goal, it was a subtitution that changed things from the Red Panjias. Bolívar Tamura managed two shots on goal, which was saved and parried out for a corner respectively. The offence started gaining some steam, and some more additional attempts on goal was made. In the end, it was a one-two pass and shoot effort from Dagur Lawrence and Tamura that produce the sole goal for the match, giving the Red Panjias their first win over Baker Park in the team's history.

With the result done and dusted, the Red Panjias turned their attention to the next game against Hopal. With the chance card in hand, Adnan Suliaha remains hopeful that this friendly tournament would allow him to make his team choices ahead of the upcoming Beverity Challenge Cup (ICly held after) as well as the IAC. "The friendly tournaments would give us an opportunity to test out new strategies and field younger players, before we confirm our team makeup for the IAC."

[TeaFarmers]

cutoff

Upper Bracket Round 2
Sannyamathland 1–0 HUElavia
Poafmersia 3–0 Hopal (scorinated by Quebec)

Lower Bracket Round 2
Fort McKinley 1–2 Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles
Canadian Dominion 0–3 Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley
Saterun 3–3 Baker Park (3–4 AET)
Amenria 2–2 Delaclava (3–2 AET)

Lower Bracket Round 3
Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles 1–1 Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley (1–1 AET) (3–4 pen.)
Baker Park 2–3 Amenria

Fixtures for Next Cutoff
Upper Bracket Finals @ Transivisita Sports Complex, Transivistia
Sannyamathland vs Poafmersia @ Room Blue

Lower Bracket Round 4 @ Alice Bay Sports Complex, Jamila
Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley vs HUElavia @ Pitch 777
Amenria vs Hopal @ Pitch 77

Lower Bracket Semifinals @ Alice Bay Sports Complex, Jamila
Match between winners of the two Round 4 matches @ Pitch 7

[TeaFarmers]

Time Warp in TeaFarmers causing matches to be delayed

Transivistia - TeaFarmers experienced its first time warp in 300 years, causing time to go out of control for a short period of time and adding chaos to the world.

A time warp, in TeaFarmers terms, is a terminology that is similar to a disaster in the terms of normal humans. It is when the time control devices get out of control and time starts to not make sense to all humans in the country. For Teamers, they do have some level of control over this time warp issue, though every time this happens, a set of procedures need to be followed to reset the damage caused by the incident. In reality, this means efforts need to be redirected to absorbing the time warp event and not organising other activities. Non-Teamers might find time going ridiculous slowly at times and suddenly speeding up, affecting their ability to commit to certain time-sensitive activities. It would also affect all time measures, such as their watch, smartphones, or any clocks that they bring with them.

With the recent time warp event under control now, and time more secure for the nation, major events can now be rescheduled for some time in the near future. Among these, it is confirmed that the Lower Bracket Round 4, Lower Bracket Semifinals, as well as the Upper Bracket Finals of the 1st Tea Cup will be pushed back by 24 hours (OOCly and ICly) from their original schedule. A letter will be delivered to the foreign officials to explain the circumstances behind the delay, and the government of TeaFarmers, who is the main organiser for the event, will issue an apology to all teams affected.


(OOC: The Round 3 cutoff will be changed to 9th Dec as above, and everything else pushed back by 24 hours. It is expected that I might cutoff slightly earlier, at 1.30pm AEDT/2.30am UTC instead for the Lower Bracket Finals & the Upper Bracket Finals cutoff.)

[TeaFarmers]

cutoff. Prompt this time is about natural occurrences of disasters/events in your country, such as the time warp. If your country has none, react to the time warp incident above (you can dm me for more info)

Results
Upper Bracket Finals @ Transivisita Sports Complex, Transivistia
Sannyamathland 0–0 Poafmersia (0–0 AET) (2–4 pen.) @ Room Blue

Lower Bracket Round 4 @ Alice Bay Sports Complex, Jamila
Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley 5–0 HUElavia @ Pitch 777
Amenria 1–2 Hopal @ Pitch 77

Lower Bracket Semifinals @ Alice Bay Sports Complex, Jamila
Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley 1–1 Hopal (2–1 AET) @ Pitch 7

Lower Bracket Finals @ 11Dec, 2pm AEDT
Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley vs Sannyamathland @ Room Blue, Transivisita Sports Complex, Transivistia (cap. 65k)

Grand Finals @ 13Dec, 2pm AEDT
Poafmersia vs Winner of Lower Bracket Finals @ Room Blue, Transivisita Sports Complex, Transivistia (cap. 65k)

[Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley]

Canadian Dominion 0–3 Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley
Goals: Stanton 18’, Lawrence 75’, Dence 88’

The Long Name Derby
Punta Tembaga and the Terjunian Isles 1–1 Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley
Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley win 4-3 on corner kicks*
Goals: Iglesias 74’ (pen.); Dence 90’

Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley 5–0 HUElavia
Goals: von Schurburg 6’, 52’, Lawrence 15’, Stanton 45’, Caldwell 80’

Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley 2–1 Hopal
Game finished 1-1 in regulation and was decided in extra-time
Goals: Zoomtwat 36’ (pen.), 104’ (pen.); Sanchez 67’

It was the crunch elimination game against Hopal. Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley had won a penalty earlier in the game, and now they had won another game.

Harry was going to take it.

He had scored the first penalty, crashing it in as the keeper dived the wrong way, but a second penalty presented a conundrum. The keeper knew he favoured shooting left, so he might dive the right way this time. Harry could second-guess the keeper and shoot in the opposite direction, but, the keeper might call his bluff and dive the same way.

The one thing Harry should not do, of course, was blast the ball miles over the crossbar.

Harry would be a right royal tit if he did that. In fact, if he did that, it would be fair to say it would be an absolute disaster. Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley was not known for its extreme weather: extremely uninteresting weather, with persistent rain, smog in the capital of Londontown, flurries of snow at Christmas and mild summer. Nor did it lie on geographical fault lines: it was not prone to earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, though Harry in his travels around the world had seen both. Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley's wildlife was not even particularly ferocious: attacks by mountain lions, killer lizards, or poisonous snakes and spiders, were unlikely (though just to be sure Algie St. Clair and Mansfield Frinton-Smith shot large quantities of wildlife on their weekends away at the place in the country). But balls flying over crossbars from important penalty kicks? That, indeed, was a well known hazard.

Harry set down the ball, rolled up his sleeves. Wiped a sweaty forelock from his forehead. Charged forward and put his laces through the ball. The ball soared up -- up -- up!

And thudded into the underside of the crossbar, bouncing down into the net.

Harry scored his penalty, because Harry is not an utter wanker.

One hundred years later...

* OOC: I do not expect anyone else to respect this bit of godmoding! But... in 1922, penalty kicks were not yet used as a tie-breaker. There were rare occasions when corner kicks were used as a tie-breaker. So in my canon, I'm RPing that the game was decided based on Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley having won more corner kicks than us. Obviously, PT&TI is free to completely ignore this and RP a conventional penalty shootout.

[PotatoFarmers]

Poafmersia 3–0 Hopal
Goalscorers: Dagur Lawrence 17' (assisted by Tamura), 89' (assisted by Shea); Bolívar Tamura 56' (assisted by Sartini)
Lineup (4-4-2): Shirou Amatore; Kilikina Lee, Cindy Oriol, Nikkita Alfaro, Xenophon Robson; Padrig Dürr, Sylvia Fusco, Erle Sartini (c), Verbena Zoltánfi; Dagur Lawrence, Bolívar Tamura
Substitutes: Aapeli Shea (Fusco 72'); Tessa Bjarnesen (Dürr 79')

Sannyamathland 0–0 Poafmersia (0–0 AET) (2–4 pen.)
Penalty Takers: Tessa Bjarnesen ✓, Dagur Lawrence ✓, Bolívar Tamura ✓, Erle Sartini ✓
Lineup (4-3-3): Shirou Amatore; Kilikina Lee, Cindy Oriol, Gioia Tyson, Xenophon Robson; Erle Sartini, Tate Maynard, Aapeli Shea; Tessa Bjarnesen, Trena Post, Leontiy Seet
Substitutes: Bolívar Tamura (Seet 60'); Stephen May (Shea 78'); Dagur Lawrence (Post 97'); Sylviua Fysci (Maynard 118'); Jessica Ardens (Amatore 118')

Sporting Daily
Commentary: The "friendly tour" that ended up being too friendly
The Tea Cup competition was meant to be a friendly tournament for Poafmersia to test out tactics and test around with younger players. Turns out, it might not be the best place to test whether the strategies and players are actually suitable for the team.

The Tea Cup is an ongoing friendly tournament, held in the futuristic nation of TeaFarmers, which is also meant to be an avenue for the national teams to field younger players in preparation for the upcoming regional and next year's World Cup Qualifiers. Given that it is a friendly, some nations chose to field second-level squads, while others chose to field young players to give them more on-the-field experience. With the format of the tournament out of the PFFA's control, more attention was placed on developing each and every player and ensure that the friendly tournament was a reasonable construct. This edition of the friendly tournament featured a 11-team group stage, followed by a double-elimination round robin. That means teams played a total of 10 matches during the group stage, followed by a long double-elimination round robin with up to 7 games, depending on the team's performance. The Poafmersian team, to date, played 13 games with a 14th game incoming. Which means that the team definitely has lots of experience playing against a whole variety of other teams out there.

Or so that is what we may have thought.

Firstly, it is worth noting that teams have generally submitted less-than-full strength teams for the competitions. While there are high-ranked nations in the tournament, including Baker Park, Delaclava and HUElavia, it is worth noting that most of the nations are younger nations in terms of their footballing history. Furthermore, many of the teams presented a more attacking-oriented strategy towards their football style, meaning that there was absolutely no representation on the negative scale of "how much attack should your team do". Teams focused more on possession control, or parking-the-bus strategies, weren't represented in the tournament.

With such a weird format, it was also worth noting that the duration was on the long side, which was something the PFFA would take note when they discuss future editions of the Tea Cup. The target would certainly be preferring to have shorter group stages in exchange for longer-than-usual knockout tournaments. With teams not being on similiar levels, it was also worth noting that most matches ended really one-sided by the end of 90 minutes, so there was also a serious lack of stamina training for extra time and penalties, something which is on the minds of PFFA.

However, in spite of the concerns, there were some highlights. It was a good showing by certain plaers, with Kilikina Lee and Xenophon Robson pairing up so nicely that many would wonder if both players can be reunited in the Apex or in some other club. Youngsters plying their trade overseas, such as Cindy Oriol and Dagur Lawrence, also made a case for themselves as to why they can contest for the starting spot, ahead of the upcoming IAC. On the other hand, many under-21 players who got interesting showings, such as Stephen May and Gioia Tyson, may just have rose their stocks ahead of a transfer window where Poafmersian clubs are bound to be on the look for young players here and around the multiverse.

Attention for the tournament would be turned to tonight's bronze medal match. Or not quite that bronze medal match you are thinking about. The loser tonight, in the Lower Bracket Finals, would take home the medal, while the winner will face Poafmersia to lift the first ever Tea Cup.

[TeaFarmers]

cutoff. Final prompt is about gifts. In your country, what is a good gift to give others? What is considered some of the better prizes in competitions? Is it a norm to just give cash rewards, or do your people prefer other things?

Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley 1–0 Sannyamathland

Match held at Room Blue, Transivisita Sports Complex, Transivistia (cap. 65k)

Congratulations to Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley for qualifying for the Grand Finals, and commiserations to Sannyamathland for losing out and taking the Bronze Medal.

[Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley]

Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley 1–0 Sannyamathland
Goals: von Schurburg 16’

Harry was in his room, listening to some music, when there was a knock at the door. Sid had gone out in search of quail's eggs for a slap-up dinner, so Harry had to answer the door himself, and found the figure of Freddie von Schurburg waiting for him.

"Hallo Fred old chap," he said, clapping the strange little man heartily on the back. Freddie had a damned funny accent but he was a top little football player, and had scored an absolutely corking goal against the Soviets to put Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley through to the final. In fact, Freddie had played the entire game with the kind of manic desperation that suggested he needed the tournament to keep going because his mission wasn't complete yet.

Freddie sidled into the room and glanced suspiciously at the battered gramophone, which had seen better days since being dropped out of Harry's biplane during a particularly vigorous walrus spotting expedition over Aboveland.

"Mendelssohn," explained Harry, air-conducting for a moment. "Writes a honking good tune, wot wot, even if the blighter was a bally G..."

"Jew."

"German, yes, quite quite. Anyway."

"Ah-so. Herr Zoomtwat."

"Is it?" Harry checked his hair in the full-length mirror he'd looted from one of his expeditions to the Middle East. A couple of dense curls out of place, which he slicked back with the hand not holding his glass of whisky.

"A gift," continued Freddie, holding out a wrapped parcel. It was, to Harry's delight, not shaped at all like a book. He took the parcel and felt a pleasing clink as he gave it a waggle.

"I say! Top hole, old bean. But what's this all in aid of? 'fraid I didn't get you anything."

"Nein, nein," said Freddie, holding up his hands disarmingly.

"No, I didn't get you nine things either."

"Das ist gut."

Harry sucked in his stomach a bit and glowered. "Well, a chap might have put on a pound or two, eating three square and only playing a game every day or so, wot wot, but there's hardly any call to be so bally up front about it. I say!" He glanced with alarm at Freddie, who was now beating his head against the wall in frustration.