Baptism of Fire 89 Host Bid: Saterun and Warkus

[Warkus]

Saterun and Warkus Baptism of Fire 89 Host Bid

The Saterun Football Association, alongside the Warkus Football Association, hereby bids to host the upcoming Baptism of Fire.

IC Information

Saterun is a mid-sized country, with the main island being about 230,000 square miles. The country has a population of 34,000,000. There are many stadiums in Saterun, and although the final list would be decided only if Saterun and Warkus win the bid, it would likely be similar to the list of stadiums used to host the past IAC and JRCs. There are three main cultures in Saterun: Agrillistic, Shaantam, and Bnadatish. Agrillistic culture prevails mainly in the west and southwest, and links to a hot summer climate. Possibly due to the climate, the people inhabiting these regions are generally laid-back, which gives Agrillistic culture as a whole a very calm feel. This region has produced many sports stars, mainly Justin Ydrossoponol and Appfel Maconaires. Shaantam, which prevails in the east, is very different. Although it too places importance on sport, Shaantam culture also places extreme importance on hard work and education. It was this that let it seamlessly transition to being home of the new capital after the Civil War. The hotbeds of Shaantam culture, Anasb and Fontecoro, located on the southeast edge of the main island, will host several matches of the tournament. Bnadatish is a tough, northern culture. Generally restricted to the outer three islands, it encompasses the least amount of people. For someone without a firm grip on Saterun history, Bnadatish may feel entirely un-Saterun. The top three islands were not originally part of the country, and were only added during the Reeskavov dynasty, hence their slight removal from the mainland. Finally, the people love sport, especially association football, and the country is no stranger to hosting international teams.

Warkus is a moderately sized nation located in the region Anaia. Warkus is made up of two constituent kingdoms: East Warkus and West Warcus (yes, they spell 'Warkus' differently – think of West Warcus as a place where standard Welsh orthography is used and East Warkus as a place where ‘k’ is used instead of ‘c’.) Warkus was historically a land beset by bloody war and conflict, so a strong emphasis on peace and ‘dovishness’ has been a part of the country’s national identity after both kingdoms were unified. Over time Warkus gradually developed into a market socialist economy with widespread socialised ownership of capital in the form of a myriad of social wealth funds, traditional nationalised sectors, more autonomous state-owned enterprises, workers’ and consumers’ co-ops and so on. Goods and services are on the more expensive side thanks to the nation's wealth and the imposition of a high value-added tax (VAT). The most popular sport in Warkus is association football, followed by basketball and then lacrosse.

Format

We intend to go with a standard format - single round-robin group stage leading to a knockout stage.

8 Teams: 2 Groups of 4, single round-robin, top 2 advance to the Semi-Finals
12 Teams: 3 Groups of 4, single round-robin, top 2 along with the two best 3rd placed teams advance to the Quarter Finals
16 Teams: 4 Groups of 4, single round-robin, top 2 advance to the Quarter Finals
20 Teams: 4 Groups of 5, single round-robin, top 2 advance to the Quarter Finals
24 Teams: 6 Groups of 4, single round-robin, top 2 along with the four best 3rd placed teams advance to the Round of 16
28 Teams: 7 Groups of 4, single round-robin, top 2 along with the two best 3rd placed teams advance to the Round of 16
30 Teams: 6 Groups of 5, single round-robin, top 2 along with the four best 3rd placed teams advance to the Round of 16
32 Teams: 8 Groups of 4, single round-robin, top 2 advance to the Round of 16

Scorination and RP Bonus

We will be using xkoranate-ce (v0.4.0-pr3 - the stable release) with the NSFS formula and additive style modifiers.

RP bonus will be cumulative and a roster will be worth up to a single matchday's worth of RP bonus.

Optional RP prompts will be provided for each matchday.

Here's an RP prompt to serve as an example: "Some national teams have a guiding tactical philosophy. Some like to attack, some like to defend, some care about being exciting to watch or playing fair while others relish in playing ugly and frustrating their opponents. Does your nation have a guiding tactical philosophy? Or do they just care about winning at all costs? Why/why not? Tell us about how your national team plays and how your fans expect them to play."

Tiebreakers

1. Points
2. Goal difference
3. Head-to-head results
4. Head-to-head goal difference
5. IC coin flip (OOC scorinated game with draws turned off)

Tentative Schedule

We aim to start shortly after voting has concluded to allow the World Cup proper to start as soon as possible. If signup numbers do not fit one of our preferred formats, then we reserve the right to either keep signups open for an additional 24-48 hours, cut puppets or add a numbers puppet.

As for cutoff times, we're aiming to cutoff every 48 hours around 1-2pm PT (4-5pm ET).

AI Policy

AI-generated images: These are permitted provided that they are explicitly labelled as such and they will not contribute to RP bonus.

AI-generated text: This is strictly prohibited, with one specific exception outlined below, and we reserve the right to levy punishments such as zeroing out any prior earned RP bonus and having one's matches during the infringing period scorinated as a forfeit (a 3-0 loss). Given that many of the users participating in this tournament will be new, we may be more lenient than we would be when hosting other competitions.

AI translation: It is okay to use AI tools to translate text into English provided that the original non-English text is posted alongside it for transparency. See this RP from Huayramarca for an example.

The user behind Warkus has considerable RL experience combing through and identifying AI-generated text without the use of AI detection software. If we believe that an RP may contain portions of AI-generated text, then we may investigate further by soliciting advice from other users with experience identifying AI-generated text and by using AI detection software. Given that AI detection software tools are very much imperfect, we will not treat them as providing conclusive evidence. We acknowledge that such a process is fallible, but we hope that this process is rigorous enough to minimise the chances of false positives.

Hosting Experience

Saterun has hosted the 24th Independent Associations Championship, the Multiversal Cup, the now-defunct Lazarus Cup of Nations and several Jenna Raven Cups.

Warkus has hosted the 12th CAFA Cup and the 11th International Basketball Championship along with all three editions of the Warkus International Cup.

[Qusmo]

The other bid thus far has mentioned using a different scorinator. Why made you decide on xkor-ce over the alternatives, such as LISA or traditional xkor?

How would teams be seeded: group-fixed (A1vB2), global-seeded (1v16), Qusma-seeded (1-1v3A1), or another method?

[Saterun]

To start off with the scorinator question, we chose xkoranate and NSFS because that's what we're both familiar with. It's what we used for our previously-hosted tournaments, and what we agreed would be easiest. While LISA certainly has merits, we aren't very familiar with it and didn't want to be experimenting while hosting an actual tournament. LISA has exhibited some teething problems, as seen in the last two World Cups, which makes us especially wary of using it without having taken the time to fully understand it.
For why we chose -ce, we feel that it is a bit easier to use, in addition to being much better on Macs. Traditional xkor, while an option, seemed like more of a hassle and we’d like to give the now stable version of xkoranate-ce a go.

For seeding, we're considering doing group-fixed (A1vB2). Most users who are only familiar with formats seen in RL competitions (a large part of the BoF field) will likely grasp this seeding method easier, and we think it also has the added IC immersion element of allowing nations to imagine their path to the final. That also allows for more straightforward roleplaying opportunities for nations in the knockout stages. Some formats are going to be a bit neater than others, e.g. 16, 20 and 32 can use ordinary group-fixed seeding, 24 and 30 can use group-fixed seeding with the RL Euro-style system while 28 can use the same system but with 21 possible combinations instead of 15.

Of course, we're happy to provide further clarification and answer any new questions that might have come up.

[Warkus]

We’re really aiming to prioritise legibility and simplicity. As we see it, the OOC purpose behind the BoF, at least for new users, is to introduce them to NSS, and having the tournament be pretty straightforward and ‘traditional’ (both OOCly and ICly) helps with that.

Our 16, 20 and 32 team formats provide fully predictable knockout stage matchups. The 24, 28 and 30 team formats also use fixed brackets, but some Round of 16 opponents can’t be known until the group stage has finished because they depend on which groups produce the best third-placed sides. We’ll post the allocation rules in advance, so everyone will know how the system works and will at least have a decent idea of which teams they could be facing. The 28 team format is admittedly a bit more lopsided: only two R16 ties would involve third-placed qualifiers and frankly we would prefer 30 teams over 28.

Qusma seeding has other upsides, namely group-neutrality (ultimately, we think the trade-off between group-fixed and Qusma seeding largely comes down to that versus legibility and RL familiarity). Another advantage Qusma normally has over group-fixed seeding in our 24, 28 and 30 team formats is that it more aggressively avoids early group-stage rematches. But we don’t see that as a downside for the BoF. A third-placed nation might beat a group winner and then get a quarter-final rematch with someone from their group, but that can actually be good for establishing rivalries between nations in the same BoF cohort. That’s a nice thing that can come out of the BoF even if it might be less desirable in other tournaments (though not so desirable that we’d choose global seeding over group-fixed seeding given our other preferences).