The
.Chromatik Football Federation.
and
.Sylestonean Football Association.
are proud to present a joint bid for the hosting rights of World Cup 95.
.Chromatik Football Federation.
and
.Sylestonean Football Association.
are proud to present a joint bid for the hosting rights of World Cup 95.
Introduction
What & Where (or: Background)
The nation of Chromatika, located in northern Anaia, is a burgeoning nation of about 20 million people. Coming out of a brutal dictatorship led by the Chromatik Party, the still newly-free country is steadily growing and adapting to democracy, with a first peaceful transition of power from one party to another having happened less than a decade ago. In terms of hosting experience, the user behind Chromatika has hosted the 88th edition of the World Cup with Cassadaigua and 93rd edition of the World Cup with Tumbra. They have also hosted a bevy of other competitions in football, including the 46th edition of the Baptism of Fire as Yesopalitha, while also successfully hosting the 73rd edition of said tournament as Chromatika, the 52nd Cup of Harmony, and the 12th Under-18 World Cup, to name but a few highlights. Outside of football, the user has also hosted six major tournaments from other sports, including baseball, gridiron/American football, basketball and ice hockey, giving them a wealth of experience on the forums.
Sylestone is an equatorial island nation of 30 million located in western Esportiva, and probably the biggest political power in one of Esportiva’s more isolated regions. While the scenery and world class beaches may originally seem like paradise, the unrelenting heat and unpredictable weather eventually takes its toll on those not accustomed to the conditions. While the user behind Sylestone has never hosted a World Cup before, they still have two Cups of Harmony - the 78th edition with Ethane and the 81st with Zwangzug - and the 74th Baptism of Fire with Græntfjall to their name. Outside of football, the user successfully took over the reins of the 14th GCF World T20 Championship under unforeseen circumstances, as well as hosting a range of minor tournaments ranging from handball to lacrosse.
Format
Who (or: Numbers)
Our preference is for twenty groups, so our aim at this stage is to limit signups to 160+2 and run with twenty groups of eight. In this scenario, the twenty group winners will be granted automatic qualification to the World Cup, with the twenty second-placed teams undergoing a one legged playoff system, with the winners also qualifying for the World Cup. If this number is not possible, we will still try to work with twenty groups unless absolutely impractical - we are also open to working with fifteen group systems, with playoffs utilised either way (second and third seeds if we use fifteen groups of ten). By our count, we already have 125 signups, but updates will be provided as we ascertain a better idea. In order for full transparency to be achieved, neither Chromatika nor Sylestone’s users will enter puppets.
In the World Cup, the round of 16 will follow the same process as in real life - A1B2, C1D2, B1A2, etc. to ensure host nations remain on opposite sides of the draw for as long as possible.
When (or: Schedule)
We are operating under a relatively strict time frame - the second half of qualifiers will not start before the 16th of November due to personal commitments and we’d ideally like to finish before the New Year. As our ideal format utilises twenty groups of eight, we will try to scorinate the first and final matchdays separately, although this may not be possible if the format does deviate. Should we win the hosting rights, Chromatika will take the first half of qualifiers and Sylestone will take the second half, and Chromatika will also scorinate the one-legged playoff.
Projected cutoffs are 3am to 5am UTC for Chromatika and 10am to 12pm UTC for Sylestone. Any changes will be broadcast as far in advance as possible. Please note that Daylight Savings Time will end for Chromatika on the 5th of November, which may fall during scorination of the first half of qualifying should we win the bid.
Roster and RP threads will open once the Baptism of Fire hits the playoff rounds.
How (or: Formula and RP bonus)
We believe that the recent somewhat-compromise that has been brought up when it comes to scorinating formulae, in which SQIS is used for qualifiers (due to its working home-advantage system), while NSFS is used for the finals (due to its ability to better handle differences between highly-ranked teams, and the lack of need for home advantage), is a good one. We will be adopting this.
RP bonus carryover will consist of up to two days’ RP bonus — the single highest RP bonus attained during qualifying added to the average of RP bonus attained across the span of qualifying. Should your best RP score 1.7, and your average across the entirety of qualifying be 1.2, your carryover bonus would be 2.9 out of a maximum of 4. This in no way means that the final tournament will be using an RP bonus scale of 2 per cutoff, however.
Style modifiers from +5 to -5 will be allowed, with no restriction on style modifiers apart from that. We will entertain one change of style modifier per team throughout the duration of the World Cup, so long as the hosts are duly notified beforehand in a manner that is not RP (ie. through telegram or Discord message)
There has been, over the past twenty years or so, a conversation that comes up on the level of RP bonus. Players can rest assured that RP bonus will be generous, and cumulative, enough so that low-ranked nations should be able to compete with a nation in the upper echelons of the ranks by the end of qualifiers through consistent, good-quality writing, Margaret willing. It is also important to note that quality is not equivalent to quantity, et cetera, and that a good, short RP is more likely to score higher than a yawningly long and boring RP. In general, the principles outlined by Graentfjall in their team’s World Cup bid should be looked towards. In general, we are willing to provide basic data such as mean, median and standard deviation for each cutoff, and we welcome users to ask private questions about their own RPs, although we will not be giving away actual grades.
There will indeed be a roster bonus — up to two matchdays’ worth — should we be elected as hosts. On the other hand, there will also be a penalty for not rostering — 50% of the offending nation’s rank for the first cutoff, 75% for the second cutoff and 100% for the third cutoff so by that time the nation will be the equivalent of unranked.
Please note — and we will be strictly enforcing this — that we will be coming down extremely hard on plagiarism and RPs that are suspected to have been written by an AI, without proper credit attribution. The following criteria will serve as a general guideline, as special cases may occur.
Using images generated by an AI drawing engine: Grey area. Will most likely be fine as long as the image is not the main purpose of the RP - 99.9% of cases will be acceptable.
Copy-pasting an RP spat out by an AI chat engine: X
Editing an RP spat out by an AI chat engine: Grey area. Please avoid this, though we also recognise this is the grey area for which debates will be had. We are more likely than not to give these kinds of RPs a pass, since they have been transformed to some extent by the co-author of the RP.
Writing a wholly original RP off a prompt generated by a hypothetical AI: ✓
Penalties for the above will be met with a possible reduction in, or reset of, RP bonus.
When it comes to tiebreakers, we will use the following, in decreasing order:
- Points
- Goal difference
- Head-to-head points
- Head-to-head goal difference
- IC coinflip — an additional match is scorinated, in a neutral venue, utilising only RP bonus, with ties turned off.
Why… (or: Questions)
Questions on any part of the bid are welcomed.
TL;DR
What and Where? Chromatika and Sylestone are bidding for the hosting rights of World Cup 95.
Who? By and large, twenty groups, and one-legged playoffs. Second-placed participants will partake in playoffs. Twenty group winners + Ten playoff winners + Two hosts = Thirty-two finalists.
When? Second half no earlier than mid-November. Cutoffs will take place every 48 hours, for two matches. We will look towards scorinating the first and last match days separately from each other. Chromatika will scorinate the first half; Sylestone will scorinate the latter. Chromatika will scorinate the playoffs.
How? SQIS in qualifiers, NSFS in finals. Style mods from +5 to -5. RP bonus will be generous and cumulative. Quality over quantity. Roster bonus of 2 matchdays’ worth. Non-rostering penalty goes from 50% of rank from first cutoff, 75% from second cutoff and 100% from third cutoff. RP bonus carryover will be applied, with up to two matchdays’ worth being carried over. Plagiarism and AI-writing without proper credit will be heavily punished. Tiebreakers go Points > GD > H2H Pts > H2H GD > IC coinflip
