Cassadaigua & The Babbage Islands: Cup of Harmony 45 Bid

[Cassadaigua]

CUP OF HARMONY
45

THE BABBAGE ISLANDS - CASSADAIGUA
Official Hosting Bid

About the nations

The Babbage Islands and Cassadaigua are both located within the region of One Big Island and have been faithful contributors to the NS Sports community in many different sports. Within the World Cup, both nations have steadily moved into the top five in the rankings. Cassadaigua won two of the last three Cups, and The Babbage Islands have two semifinal appearances over the same span. The nations have frequently interacted with one another in their roleplays across these sporting competitions and have served together as president and vice-president for the World Bowl committee in gridiron. This should create a very smooth running of the tournament between us if we are chosen to co-host this tournament.

The Babbage Islands take pride in their national record of civil liberties and political freedoms. English and Esperanto both hold official language status, and a diverse array of languages and subcultures flourish in the seven islands. The nation's stadiums have a rich history of hosting big time events capped by the co-hosting of World Cup 49. Its sports-crazed fans are excited to welcome the fans of other nations.

Cassadaigua is a unique nation based on its matriarchal style. If you are not already familiar with the nation, the best way to understand it is to take the gender stereotypes that you commonly know in today's world, and reverse them. Therefore nations competing in Cassadaigua will have a unique RP opportunity if they wish to go that route.

Experience

The bulk of the experience comes from The Babbage Islands, who has hosted 20 international tournaments to date. These tournaments include World Cup 49, World Bowl 8, and World Baseball Classic 15. All of these were efficiently run tournaments. His experience also includes the running of the Svoboda Cup and The Big Shiny Trophy, football/soccer tournaments which are innovative in their structure.

Cassadaigua is not a complete hosting rookie. She has hosted World Lacrosse Championships 7 as well as the recent Queens Cup, a football/soccer tournament that used NSFS 3.0.1, and these went smoothly. We also reiterate the strong history of prior collaboration between the nations, making for an ideal mentor-student situation.

Scorination and RP bonus

NSFS 3.0.1 will be used. RP bonus will be given with preference to quality over quantity. Cumulative RP bonus will be in effect. Style bonuses will range from +3 (maximum offense) to -3 (maximum defense).

Invitations

All World Cup 53 non-qualifiers that have posted a roster, provided at least one RP, and continued to exist will be invited to the tournament. It is understood that people’s roleplaying time may have been limited during qualifying. So if this amount of effort was given to contribute, then the nation will be welcomed into the Cup of Harmony without any additional scrutiny towards potential nations.

Format

Eight qualifying groups of as equal size as possible will be used, with single round robin qualifying two teams from each group for a 16-player knockout bracket. Teams will be drawn into balanced qualifying groups using the pot system based on the most recent KPB ranks available. Should there be fewer than 32 entrants we reserve the right to adjust the number of groups and number of qualifiers per group to allow for the best possible event.

When teams are tied the first tiebreaker will be head-to-head result, followed by goal difference, number of wins, goals scored, and if still needed a playoff game.

[Somewhereistonia]

Is there any reason why you are using 3 and -3 as the maximum style modifiers rather than 5 and -5?

[Rejistania]

Just a question from an interested host in the times of yore, not even as a host of a rivalling bid: How do you create an RP-bonus which rewards quality over quantity while remaining unbiased? I do not want to imply that you intentionally discriminate against one side, I want to rule out unconscious bias and personal preferences.

Oh, and may the best bid win, even if the majority decides that this is yours.

[Pretty Awesome Persons]

I support this bid, but I would also like to know why -3 and +3 are the maximum style modifiers

[Unitopolis]

I am a fan of the quality over quantity RP bonus system; I've seen too many long, dull useless conversations take up half a page, when some people write concise but entertaining RP's. And as for the bias, you can still tell a good RP even if it's not written in the style you like, you can always tell when a lot of effort has gone in to a really good RP and Cass is a big-enough girl (maturity-wise ) to dish out a fair bonus imo.

[The Babbage Islands]

Just a question from an interested host in the times of yore, not even as a host of a rivalling bid: How do you create an RP-bonus which rewards quality over quantity while remaining unbiased? I do not want to imply that you intentionally discriminate against one side, I want to rule out unconscious bias and personal preferences.

Oh, and may the best bid win, even if the majority decides that this is yours.

There are a couple of ways to do this. As an example, and not saying that this is the way Cass and I will do it, I used a five-tier system in my Big Shiny Trophy with an announced maximum of 5 RP bonus per match. Since the bonus was per match, multiple posts for the same match were evaluated as one -- raw quantity did not help. Further, I set the standards at a maximum of 10% of competitors receiving a 5, up to 30% receiving a 4 or 5, up to 60% receiving 3, 4 or 5, and no limit on 2's. A 1 was reserved for cases where I felt the post was clearly just to get something posted.

With this system a person could earn more in one matchday than a mediocre competitor might earn in two-plus matchdays: again, quality over quantity.

It is impossible to have any RP bonus at all without judges' preferences entering into it. All we or anyone else can do can do is try. I know that when Newmanistan and I hosted WC 49, we coordinated before the first kickoff on such topics as expected averages for RP bonuses in the aggregate and what a 2.0 (maximum) post looked like. Cass and I are ironing out this sort of detail now. By structuring our bonus expectations in advance, we limit the possible impact of subconscious factors.

I support this bid, but I would also like to know why -3 and +3 are the maximum style modifiers

Because I'm not yet completely satisfied with the results generated when allowing +5/-5. That was an issue from prior NSFS 2 discussions, and I'm still weighing the performance of NSFS 3 in that regard.

[Sarzonia]

I've taken part in tournaments run by both Cassadaigua and The Babbage Islands, and I feel confident that both players would do well if chosen as the CoH hosts.

Cassadaigua's debut hosting performance with WLC 7 was so outstanding that I'd almost use the term "exceedingly" to describe it.

[Qazox]

Only fair to ask this here as well.

Since I basically claimed that the first of Cassadaigua's titles was illegitimate and due to that there might be bias against me, Would there be any problem with having TBI scorinate my matches?

While I know that Arch will most likely rule similarly here, I do not want to be seen as being biased myself by not asking the question in both bid threads.

[The Babbage Islands]

Only fair to ask this here as well.

Since I basically claimed that the first of Cassadaigua's titles was illegitimate and due to that there might be bias against me, Would there be any problem with having TBI scorinate my matches?

While I know that Arch will most likely rule similarly here, I do not want to be seen as being biased myself by not asking the question in both bid threads.

I don't feel that Arch "ruled" on this; he had his player cap on rather than his moderator's cap. In general, the way a host conducts an event is not the province of moderation as long as the general rules applicable to all NS activity are followed.

That said, I think it would be bad precedent to allow any player to select between co-hosts for scorination. In fact, it could even present the appearance of collusion and bias in the opposite direction. ("Qazox and Babbage cut a deal." That sort of thing.) So when it comes to who scorinates whom, we'll let the dice fall as they may should we be selected.

[The Archregimancy]

Only fair to ask this here as well.

Since I basically claimed that the first of Cassadaigua's titles was illegitimate and due to that there might be bias against me, Would there be any problem with having TBI scorinate my matches?

While I know that Arch will most likely rule similarly here, I do not want to be seen as being biased myself by not asking the question in both bid threads.

I don't feel that Arch "ruled" on this; he had his player cap on rather than his moderator's cap. In general, the way a host conducts an event is not the province of moderation as long as the general rules applicable to all NS activity are followed.

That is entirely correct.

However, since I put my tuppence in for the other thread....

Since Qazox cannot presumably be accusing Cassadaigua of personal bias in a tournament scorinated by third parties, with no involvement from Cassadaigua, then I can't see why it would be a problem for Cassadaigua to scorinate Qazox matches. Qazox is presumably not accusing Cassadaigua of bias, only the WC50 hosts.

In any case, the same issues I noted in the other thread are relevant here: that Cass and TBI would seriously damage their chances of ever hosting another WCC event - and unleash hell in the WCDT - if they were to engage in bias, that they are both fully aware of this, and I don't for a second believe that either of them would be inclined to do so anyway.

I also note that Qazox's post above is strongly implying that, as co-host of the tournament in question (as AIF), I was personally engaging in scorination bias against him, an argument I don't mean to drag up here except to note that Qazox presumably therefore also believes I am biased against him, and that any opinion I have on the issue is - from his perspective - potentially coloured in that light.

That said, I think it would be bad precedent to allow any player to select between co-hosts for scorination. In fact, it could even present the appearance of collusion and bias in the opposite direction. ("Qazox and Babbage cut a deal." That sort of thing.) So when it comes to who scorinates whom, we'll let the dice fall as they may should we be selected.

An eminently sensible policy.

I reiterate that I no longer vote for WCC-sanctioned event host votes so as to avoid accusations of modly bias, and that nothing I have written here or in the other bid thread should be read as an endorsement of either.

[Cassadaigua]

Even though the question has been answered by TBI and Arch, I want to respond here also. Qazox, I am surprised that you would even bring this up because you apologized to me for it soon after, I told you I accepted the apology and that it was done with. In the WBC discussion thread I even defended you and spoke against your impeachment.

But to clear things up, I would not be biased against you or anyone else if we are chosen as co-hosts. In what would be my first major hosting of an event, the last thing I want to do is make anyone think that I could not be trusted.

[The Archregimancy]

I just want to note that Qazox has offered me an unqualified apology via TG regarding potential claims of bias, and while I won't breach confidentiality by revealing the contents of that TG, as far as I'm concerned the matter is settled.