Nation States College Football (NSCF) Discussion Thread

[NSCF]

After a week of voting on several nominees, it is my pleasure to now announce the final winners of the NSCF 15 Awards.

Most Outstanding Player of the Year
RB Nic Perrantes (RCU, Sr.)

Offensive Player of the Year
QB Kyle LeBlanc (Angelwood-Aprilia)

Defensive Player of the Year
DE Philip Umiaktorviq (Iqaluit, Sr.)

Special Teams Player of the Year
K Luis Arana (Castle, Jr.)

Coach of the Year
Cliff Scuttlesmith (RCU)


Congratulations to all and thank you to everyone who sent nominations and voted. See you in NSCF 16!

[NSCF]

Post-NSCF 15 Rankings are now available

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As that completes my third NSCF cycle at the helm, I (Cosumar) am now obligated by procedure to invite self-nominations for a new NSCF Commissioner. If interested, please say so in this thread and the committee will vote on it.

I am also willing to continue on in the position if needed. NSCF is one of my favorite parts of this forum and I've greatly enjoyed my time serving as its Commissioner.

[The Redvale]

Looks like there's two number ten teams in the rankings?

Also, I was hoping Maris would come in higher than CU but next season will be interesting for sure with them both going from unranked to top fifteen, and Castle invading the best recruiting spot in Midvale and moving closer to Maris.

[Osarius]

Looks like there's two number ten teams in the rankings?

Equal rank pts. There are no tiebreakers for the rankings.

[Valorem]

So why is Konigsberg (#16) placed below the three #19 teams on the spreadsheet?

[NSCF]

So why is Konigsberg (#16) placed below the three #19 teams on the spreadsheet?

I'm not sure why it sorted like that. Should be fixed now.

[The united states of Saints]

Sweet my QB won offensive player of the year! Thanks for the nominations and the votes as I wasn't able to send any nominations out.

[Osarius]

Aaaaaalrighty then!
The sheet for season 16 is up. I'll be filling in the rest of the detail as I go, as usual. This season, anyone with the link can edit it (don't worry, I have a backup and will roll back any cock-ups) so hopefully there's no need to wait around for me to update stuff.

[Drawkland]

The sheet for season 16 is up.

Perhaps you should update the header of the sheet then!

[Osarius]

The sheet for season 16 is up.

Perhaps you should update the header of the sheet then!

You could have, you know.

[Drawkland]

Perhaps you should update the header of the sheet then!

You could have, you know.

Oh. You're right. My bad.

[Kalalau]

I think I am finally willing to score a conference if needed, but somebody is going to have to teach me to use the scorinator. I keep not putting my name in the hat because I don't know what the hell I am doing on that side of things, and then each time it comes back up and I still don't know what the hell I am doing.

[Osarius]

I think I am finally willing to score a conference if needed, but somebody is going to have to teach me to use the scorinator. I keep not putting my name in the hat because I don't know what the hell I am doing on that side of things, and then each time it comes back up and I still don't know what the hell I am doing.

Probably best to have a play around and get familiar first, tbh. There is an unofficial guide for xkoranate somewhere (which I don't have time to search for and link right now unfortunately) which might help. But in general, if there's anything you're unclear on, just ask.

To clarify: it's not complicated to do, but scorinating for a competition has other bits and pieces to consider, like RP grading and bonus, etc. So it's best to get the basics of scorination down first, imo. I know NSCF has been a first hosting experience for a bunch of people on NS Sport who went on to host larger events, so it's a good starting point... but in my experience it's also easy to get things muddled up if there's a lot going on.

You got plenty of support here though, so if you havent already... download xkoranate and have a play about. Familiarise yourself a bit.

[Kalalau]

I think I am finally willing to score a conference if needed, but somebody is going to have to teach me to use the scorinator. I keep not putting my name in the hat because I don't know what the hell I am doing on that side of things, and then each time it comes back up and I still don't know what the hell I am doing.

Probably best to have a play around and get familiar first, tbh. There is an unofficial guide for xkoranate somewhere (which I don't have time to search for and link right now unfortunately) which might help. But in general, if there's anything you're unclear on, just ask.

To clarify: it's not complicated to do, but scorinating for a competition has other bits and pieces to consider, like RP grading and bonus, etc. So it's best to get the basics of scorination down first, imo. I know NSCF has been a first hosting experience for a bunch of people on NS Sport who went on to host larger events, so it's a good starting point... but in my experience it's also easy to get things muddled up if there's a lot going on.

You got plenty of support here though, so if you havent already... download xkoranate and have a play about. Familiarise yourself a bit.

Yep. It is actually because of some of these things that I would like to offer to scorinate if needed. Typically we get about three or four peeps who do the scorinating, and while I most definitely appreciate it, I feel perhaps a greater need to diversify the pool that determines those RP grades and bonuses. It's not even that I disagree with where those might land (not that I have some super secret access to how people have graded things, because I don't). I just think it is in general a good practice to diversify, and I think truly exemplifies some of the real debates out there about real life college football (ie, is the SEC the best conference in football because they all play sound defense? Is the Big 12 a better conference because nobody can stop their offense? Is the Pac12 continually underrated because of their geographic location which hinders east coast voters from objectively observing?). Sure, it gets settled on the field. But I also think there are more peeps with an opinion that may or may not change the dynamics of how fandoms work.

My thoughts anyway.

I won't lie about my intentions. I feel like I have some of duty to share the load and am willing to do so, but I have less than zero intention of moving that to any other NS sport as NSCF is really the only significant interaction I have with NS anymore. For what its worth, while I don't know the intricacies of xcoranate, I have scorinated before (its late and I won't look it up, but the Yukon River Sled Dog Races from Yukon River Wilderness and Outrigger races through Costa Aluria, but both were through a scorinator I developed for each [full disclosure, my host nation or representative won both of those competitions, but also RPed the heaviest in each, something that was quite clearly labeled from the get-go as a big piece of the scorination]).

I appreciate your thoughts about getting into Xcoranate and tinkering with it, and will likely do so this weekend. I have tried before as well, but I just didn't understand it before, which I find odd because the sled dog races has a full link to the spreadsheet I developed as the scorinator, so its not like the concept of what goes into the final output is lost on me. I just flat don't understand Xcorinate, or didn't before.

I will try again, though.

[Osarius]

I feel perhaps a greater need to diversify the pool that determines those RP grades and bonuses.

I hear you.

Didn't actually realise you'd hosted events before, tbh. My bad.

But I do think xkoranate has a bit of a learning curve. Though it's not too bad once you're familiar.
Also, I found the guide, btw. If you haven't seen it yet: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=145487

[Kalalau]

Didn't actually realise you'd hosted events before, tbh. My bad.

But I do think xkoranate has a bit of a learning curve. Though it's not too bad once you're familiar.
Also, I found the guide, btw. If you haven't seen it yet: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=145487

I didn't take offense to it. TBH, they are pretty obscure sports, with a very small pocket of participants, and both were hosted under a nation name that is not Kalalau (and while Costa Aluria is linked with some actual posts to Kalalau, I don't know that Yukon River Wilderness ever really was, except maybe via small disclaimer in the post footer). Plus, I get that it is potentially weird that my nations won both of them AND I was the scoring party. I've addressed this already earlier as part of the RP bonuses heavily included in the scoring, but still, some might think that is unacceptable, and I generally don't draw attention to it for fear that will be looked down upon. Not an apology, as I don't believe one is warranted, but I do believe in full disclosure.

The linked post was helpful, for sure. I am still a bit confused as I look at NSCF scoring procedure, as (maybe) this was the source of my original confusion:

Scorination and Roleplaying
This section governs all NSCF rules pertaining to scorination and roleplaying.
All games will be scorinated using the latest available version of xkoranate.
The sport will be set to American football, using the SQIS formula with IFAF overtime.
Home advantage should be enabled for all games except the Championship game.
All conference hosts must be designated before the season starts, and they must declare an approximate RP cutoff time for their conference(s).
Backup hosts must also declare before the season starts.
The playoffs are to be scorinated by at least two persons.
In the event that the two persons scorinating the playoffs control one each of the teams in the Championship game, a third party scorinator should be found.
Scorinators are to use the official NSCF rankings as base ranks for all teams.
A maximum of FIVE points RP bonus may be awarded per matchday, regardless of the number of RPs posted.
The amount of RP bonus awarded is entirely at the discretion of the person doing the scorination.
RP bonus is to degrade by fifty percent every three matchdays; that is, after matchdays three, six and nine, all accumulated RP bonus to that point is halved. Subsequent RP bonus is added to this amount.
RP bonus is reset to zero after in-conference games are completed.
RP bonus is cumulative through the three Non-Conference matchdays with no degradation.
RP bonus carries over from Non-Conference games and does not degrade or reset during the playoffs.

Primarily, my questions are those oranged lines.

• Other NSCF documentation notes that the home team is listed first. Is this true in Xcoranate as well? Would I enter the home team as the first team in the match, or is there some other designation?
• Does the official NSCF ranking as base rank get entered somewhere that I am not seeing, or get entered at all? Is this ranking taken from the spreadsheet developed by Osarius?
• I also don't see where RP bonuses are entered. Am I missing something?
• RP bonuses are cumulatively added and then reduced based on elapsed schedule, right? So if Team Coneheads has a cumulatively added RP bonus of 15 after three matchdays (the maximum allotment, just for kicks), this would then degrade to 7.5? From here, it looks like the next RP bonus (lets say five, again just for kicks) would then make the RP bonus 12.5 on matchday four, yes?

I think with these items answered, I have enough information to adequately understand the workings of Xcoranate. I am basing this on Xcoranate 0.3.3 Windows version.

Sorry to move this to an Xcoranate discussion, but I think since it is NSCF specific with questions directly related to NSCF procedure, that this belongs here...


EDIT: Linkied up to NSCF procedure
ERIT 2: Yukon River Sled Dog Expedition and South Seas Outrigger Jubilee

[Osarius]

Gonna answer all this from memory, so I might need to come back and alter some of this later (if nobody corrects me beforehand)

Other NSCF documentation notes that the home team is listed first. Is this true in Xcoranate as well?

Yes. The home team is, as far as I can remember, always listed first in xkoranate.

Would I enter the home team as the first team in the match, or is there some other designation?

Typical procedure is to create a group and let xkoranate do the scheduling and tables for you, but yes, if you enter Team A, then Team B when creating the matchup, Team A will be treated as the home team.

For the purposes of NSCF, you only really need to let the commissioner know the order of the teams listed in the group you create in xkoranate (assuming you select round-robin mode). Because the scheduling is always done the same way for a specific number of teams, once we know the order of the listed teams, we know the schedule.

Does the official NSCF ranking as base rank get entered somewhere that I am not seeing, or get entered at all?

rank = skill in xkoranate. There should be an option for this (alongside style) when entering teams.

Is this ranking taken from the spreadsheet developed by Osarius?

The commissioner should provide the official ranks. You'll know they're the ones you're after because all the values will be under 7. Usually the #1 team has about 5.5-6 rank pts. I say this because I do provide a lot of different ranks, and I think I do have the actual NSCF rankings in a sheet somewhere, lol. To keep things simple and clear, only ranks the commissioner posts should be considered official, though.

I also don't see where RP bonuses are entered. Am I missing something?

There are different ways to do this, but the easiest -- and the best way to ensure RP bonus operates as intended, for NSCF at least -- is to just add RP bonus directly to rank.

RP bonuses are cumulatively added and then reduced based on elapsed schedule, right? So if Team Coneheads has a cumulatively added RP bonus of 15 after three matchdays (the maximum allotment, just for kicks), this would then degrade to 7.5? From here, it looks like the next RP bonus (lets say five, again just for kicks) would then make the RP bonus 12.5 on matchday four, yes?

You are correct. So in your example, you would add 15 pts to the team's skill value prior to scorinating matchday 3, and 12.5 prior to scorinating matchday 4. I made a spreadsheet to automatically calculate this too, somewhere (you'll notice I make a lot of spreadsheets), but you have the principle down.

[Kalalau]

Hmm, alright. That actually seems like something I can follow, but I will give it a try tomorrow to make sure. And I have no problems with spreadsheets. I get those things. In fact, if it weren't outside of NSCF procedure, and if I knew exactly how Xcoranate calculated those things, I'd have a go at just reverse engineering it to a spreadsheet. But I guess by NS standards, I am a bit old-school just based on my age (I know there are others and olders, and no, I don't care enough to get into a debate about how old people are; I just suffice with knowing I am older than the typical NS crowd).

[The Redvale]

While we're talking about hosting, I guess I should throw it out there that I'm interested in doing a conference. Some of you on IRC may have heard me talking about how I was kind of disappointed that I feel like I haven't really done anything on NSS, and hosting could help with that. I held off from volunteering when I first signed up because I wasn't sure if the schedule commitment would work but I'm pretty sure that it will now. I'd like to think that this would be a good starting point, because I'm already a big fan of the sport and the competition and I don't have a problem reading all of your posts, whether I'm hosting or not.

[Kalalau]

Alright. Thank you Osarius, as you explained this to me in a way I actually can understand. I have a couple more questions, and then I think I get enough to actually (really) volunteer to score a conference or two if desired.

The commissioner should provide the official ranks. You'll know they're the ones you're after because all the values will be under 7. Usually the #1 team has about 5.5-6 rank pts. I say this because I do provide a lot of different ranks, and I think I do have the actual NSCF rankings in a sheet somewhere, lol. To keep things simple and clear, only ranks the commissioner posts should be considered official, though.

Given this statement, and that the easiest way to add RP bonuses is to rank, what is an appropriate number to set as the maximum "skill" at the first screen?

The commissioner should provide the official ranks.

Does this only get entered once, at the beginning of the season?

[Valorem]

I feel bad about this since I participated in international recruiting after NSCF 15, but I burned out on NationStates a while ago. Probably won't be checking often enough to participate in NSCF 16.

[Cosumar]

I feel bad about this since I participated in international recruiting after NSCF 15, but I burned out on NationStates a while ago. Probably won't be checking often enough to participate in NSCF 16.

That's a shame, I was looking forward to seeing how Konigsberg did in its sophomore season. Once something fun becomes a chore, it's time for a break. But if you do change your mind, we'll probably still be looking for sign-ups for another couple days.

Alright. Thank you Osarius, as you explained this to me in a way I actually can understand. I have a couple more questions, and then I think I get enough to actually (really) volunteer to score a conference or two if desired.

The commissioner should provide the official ranks. You'll know they're the ones you're after because all the values will be under 7. Usually the #1 team has about 5.5-6 rank pts. I say this because I do provide a lot of different ranks, and I think I do have the actual NSCF rankings in a sheet somewhere, lol. To keep things simple and clear, only ranks the commissioner posts should be considered official, though.

Given this statement, and that the easiest way to add RP bonuses is to rank, what is an appropriate number to set as the maximum "skill" at the first screen?

The commissioner should provide the official ranks.

Does this only get entered once, at the beginning of the season?

1. At the start of the season, the max is usually just however many ranking points the #1 team has. Then, it adjusts over the course of the season as RP bonus is added each matchday.

2. Yes, you enter the raw ranks once, at the very beginning, and then adjust the bonus added as the competition progresses (accounting for degradation and the like as well). It's helpful to keep a simple spreadsheet on the side to keep straight all your assigned bonuses for each matchday and how they add onto the base rank/skill.

[Kalalau]

1. At the start of the season, the max is usually just however many ranking points the #1 team has. Then, it adjusts over the course of the season as RP bonus is added each matchday.

2. Yes, you enter the raw ranks once, at the very beginning, and then adjust the bonus added as the competition progresses (accounting for degradation and the like as well). It's helpful to keep a simple spreadsheet on the side to keep straight all your assigned bonuses for each matchday and how they add onto the base rank/skill.

Okay, I think I am there now. Thank you all for bearing with me on the Xcoranate turtorial tangent...These new-fangled programs will be the death of me (and by new-fangled, I mean its only been around for six years or so. Whatever happened to the Oregon Trail? Now that was a program I could understand, at least until I had to re-insert 5.25" floppy disk A.)

Speaking of things I understand, I'm there on spreadsheets. I was planning to keep one on the side anyway, so I am glad there is some precedent there since it will greatly help me.

[The Redvale]

So I think I have it figured out, but just for clarification, this would be the hosting method that i should use if I'm doing a conference?
1: Input the number one team's skill as the maximum
2: Write down RP bonuses and then add them to the skill section in the scorinator each MD.
3: Every three MDs, add up the last three bonuses and then cut them by half.

Anything I'm missing or anything else I need to know?

[Valorem]

I might rejoin. Was fine with NSCF when I was already burning out on NationStates itself. Problem is, I'm already doing a writing-required RP game on Reddit that's eating a lot of my free time. Another problem is that all the relevant files are on my old computer that I hate using.