The Legalese and Saintland Bid to Host World Cup 67
About Saintland
Saintland is an island kingdom located in the polar portion of World Changers. Founded in 966 AD, Saintland has been governed by the same Royal Family ever since. The Church of Saintland is an international Church which traces itself back to the Church founded by St. Petrus, the rock upon which Iesus Christus built His Church. Saintland is home to an estimated 600 thousand people and is known internationally as an example of what a nation should be.
On the pitch, Saintland has a world-class National Team, currently ranked 30th in the world by the gold standard of rankings, the KPB rankings. A qualifier for the last World Cup, Saintland has the distinction of having been drawn into the same groups as the last 3 World Cup champions and the most recent Cup of Harmony champion. Saintland is also the current holder of the Strongnesse Trophy and the 2-time defending unofficial champion of the World Changers region.
Saintland has previously hosted 3 international competitions. Those include the Saintland Triple Crown, the 9th edition of the Beach Cup and the 27th edition of the World Baseball Classic (co-hosted with Maklohi Vai). Saintland will be hosting the upcoming UWCFA Gold Cup and, between the BoF and the World Cup draw, the new Confederations Cup (details TBA).
Saintland's closest neighbor, the Free Republics, hosted the 3rd edition of the World Korfball Classic and, with Falcus, the most recent edition of the Cup of Harmony.
About Legalese
Legalese is a nation originating from the hallowed North East of Atlantian Oceania. Formed nearly three centuries ago by a confluence of three tribes, the nation’s early rise was stunted by apathy, political collapse, and the eventual occupation by Starblaydi forces in what would become known to the world as Operation Galactica. After the war, the pieces of the Legal society started to return, focused on the concept of service and joint commitment to survival. On the pitch, this has taken shape with the performance of the Legalese National Team, who have become a semi-regular presence in the World Cup. Their organizational abilities have also been well-known, having hosted two AOCAFs, two Cups of Harmony, six Baptisms of Fire, and a World Cup (OOC: also, an additional CoH and WC as Novapsolu). The nations of the world have spent some good times in Legalese, and the Federation of Association Football looks to welcome them back.
Format
The World Cup Finals will follow the traditional 32-team format, with all of the usual accoutrements, but we all knew that, right? What you’re really after is the qualifying format, and we won’t fail to disappoint.
There will be two parts to qualifying. The entire field will start out in a 10-round Casaran phase. A seeded draw will determine the opening round of matches, with all remaining matches assigned by results, pairing teams on roughly equal footing in the standings against each other. In short, it’s like a triple-elimination tournament, except with draws and everybody still playing for the full stretch. For more details, check the spoiler:
After ten matchdays, teams will be sorted one last time by the previously-mentioned order, with the top sixty advancing to the next phase. Should there be teams below the 60th spot that are level on points with the team in 60th, then all teams equal on points will participate in a two-leg interphase playoff to determine advancement.
The second phase will look a little more familiar. Teams will be drawn into fifteen groups of four, and play a double round-robin (home and away), with the top two from each group advancing to the finals. At this point, the standard tiebreakers will kick in, as posted below.
Scorination & RP Bonus
We will be using xkoranate, with a slightly tweaked version of the SQIS formula, designed to reduce randomness. To balance things out, we will be using an RP bonus that is cumulative in raw score, but comparative in factor, and quite generous. Based on the factors we will be using, the bonus should kick in early, but continued RPing will be required to maintain the high bonus throughout qualifying, with both phases being considered as a single RPing unit for bonus calculation. During the Finals, the bonus will be adjusted accordingly to compensate for the shorter length, however a small carryover in raw score will occur. Style modifiers will be the standard -5 to +5, with the positive modifiers indicating a focus on attack, and the negative as a focus on defence.
Tiebreakers
For the Casaran stage, we will be using a simplified sort order to avoid unnecessary scheduling delays. The sort order will be points, wins and finally current rank+RP bonus. All teams that are even on points, at the end of the Casaran stage, with the 60th team will advance to a playoff to produce a field of exactly 60.
After the Casaran stage, we will, generally, use the RL-approved FIFA tiebreaker rules for the non-Casaran portion. Those are goal difference, goals scored, HTH points, HTH GD, HTH goals scored and HTH away goals (for 2-way ties in the qualifying group stage). If still tied, we'll do a neutral site tiebreaker playoff.
So in summary, what we have here is a slightly different and unorthodox offering, but what we feel is an interesting and manageable approach to dealing with a massive amount of entrants, while keeping qualifying interesting and entertaining. And with two committed hosts ready to tackle it, we think this can be a cup everyone will remember - for good reasons, that is.
Anyways, looking forward to questions below.
