NationStates

The 2nd edition of the Tea Cup, a friendly tournament for the sport of association football, known to some as the sport of soccer, is upon us. This is a tournament that aims to create a platform for teams to come together to play football on friendlier terms, while experimenting with various funky formats to spice up the tournament as a whole.

For all editions of the Tea Cup, information regarding scorination details, such as the formula used, the number of matches scored per cutoff, will be kept constant. Information regarding how RP Bonuses are awarded, as well as the tiebreakers used (if any), will largely be kept the same from tournament to tournament, though there might be changes to suit the theme of the tournament. The biggest change between editions will be the format - as far as possible, the organisers want to use a different format for every edition of the tournament.

Format
For edition 2, we would use a multi-group stage tournament format, similiar to a modified Nations League format. Teams will participate in (up to) 3 group stages, with the final group stage determining placing. Teams will be randomly placed into equal-sized groups for Stage 1. Following which, the teams will be split into 3-4 league groups depending on team's performance. Further details of placement/number of qualifiers to championship group will be determined when the numbers are finalised.

Tiebreakers
For the group stage, the default tiebreakers will be used:
1) Points (3 point for a win, 1 for a draw)
2) Head-to-head Points between tied teams
3) Head-to-head Goal Difference between tied teams
4) Goal Difference
5) Game Wins
6) Coin Flip (OOC: Scorinating draw-off match(es) between tied teams)

If there is a need to tiebreak teams that are not in the same group, for seeding purposes/to decide which team enters the next stage:
1) Position in the group
2) Points (3 point for a win, 1 for a draw)
3) Goal Difference
4) Game Wins
5) Coin Flip (OOC: Scorinating draw-off match(es) between tied teams)

RP Bonus
Because this is a rank-less tournament (WCC ranks will not be used), RP Bonuses will be very generous, scored between a scale of 0 to 5. Teams who submit rosters will be given RP bonuses up to the amount of RP bonus allowed for 1 matchday (0 to 5). In addition, such teams will be given an additional base bonus of 5 (regardless of quality of roster), to separate teams who roster from teams who don't roster.

Scorination Details (same for all editions)
The Tea Cup will be scored with the SQIS formula with additive modifiers in the xkoronate 0.3.3, with max rank set to the rank of the highest-rank team for that cutoff. Poafmersia, although it is the "host" team for the tournament, will not get any home advantage bonus for matches held in Teafarmers. Teams will be allowed to submit a style modifier between -5 to +5, with one change in style modifier allowed by sending a telegram/discord DMs to the host nation, supported by a linked IC RP post. Teams that do not specify a style modifier will be assumed to have a modifier of 0.

On the Use of ChatGPT and AI Programs (same for all editions)
With the rise of Artificial Intelligence Programs that can generate images & large chunks of text, the host believes that any use of the AI Programs as part of roleplaying should be declared. While we are open to using AI to assist in creations of better RP, we believe that use of AI-generated text wholesale should not be given any roleplaying credit. Should any roleplay posted for credit be found to have utilised such AI programs (without being credited as such), the host will take action similar to that of RP plagarism.

For AI-generated images used as part of an original roleplay, the host would consider them to be similar to using online-found stock images. No additional credit would be given for usage of such images.

Host Experience
You can read more about it here

Schedule
Cutoffs will be held at 9am Eastern Daylight Time, or 2pm British Summer Time, 9pm Singapore Standard Time, 2am New Zealand Daylight Time (the next day). Extensions may be granted at host's discretion. Cutoffs will be held at 48/72 hour intervals, with the number of matches per cutoff is dependant on how the format pans out.

Signup Rules/Schedule
Starting with the posting of this post, signups will be open for 11 days, ending exactly 264 hours after the post is made. Late signups will only be considered should more teams be needed to create better numbers for the first stage of the competition. The groups/fixtures for the first stage will be published after numbers are confirmed. Puppets may be cut if necessary for a better format.

Users are allowed to sign up a maximum of 2 nations. Should 2 nations be linked to the same (group of) OOC users, the links must be declared in the signup post. This thread will be used for signups, as well as for asking questions about the given format/tiebreakers. Questions/Signups made over other means will be ignored.

Signups (24):
1. Poafmersia (This OP is also the signup post of Poafmersia)
2. Elmyia
3. The 14 Stars
4. Filonian State
5. Obrela
6. Saterun
7. Hopal
8. Captina Island
9. Featherstonehaugh Cholmondeley
10. HUElavia
11. Gunnison and Telluride
11. Qasden
12. Koronavia
13. Trolleborg
14. Burikinia
15. Jauharius
16. Milk Island
17. Hofn
18. Isles of the Dead
19. Muralos
20. Eshialand
21. Valentine Z
22. Indusse
23. Cassadaigua
24. Copper Cuprum

yes

Yes, in.

In

In!

ok

Back in

we're in.

puppet of Baker Park, although BP will NOT be entering.

We will defend our title.

Eyup

Well try it

Vans'll be back

In

Reentering.

yes

in

in

For narrative purposes, I will sign these guys up instead of usually-preferred 69X.

Signups updated. There is, however, a change to the OP: I have added the possibility of 72 hour cutoffs. Though I still have no idea what is the schedule looking like at the moment, but we are at 19 teams, and the format might get slightly longer. The target is to minimise cutoff count anyways, so that everyone can advance RP storylines in other regionals that will run parallel to this one.

In.

Coming in with a slight twist.

I want to give this a try. Yes, we are in!

In

We’ll join in.

I am withdrawing.

The Brevity Cup is a better fit for this nation.