Oh Christ, Farfadillis?
Wait a second, hear me out, he’s a nice guy.
Sort of.
Farfadillis is a very, very… special nation. There’s somewhat of a gap between the rich and the poor, even though the government is pretty centrist (it just happens that politics in Farfadillis is a joke). There are nine states: Ferdullaele, Frion, Induja, Pacifista, Shojercia, Shotomalpa, Karuvis, Puerto Farolero and the poorest, most despised, most avoided, most dangerous, Ruland. The Farf Department of Statistics is known for utterly exaggerating, though some of their statistics are not that far from reality (Like the statistic that says that there’s a 110% chance of you being shot if you’re in Ruland). Ruland is, however, the place where many good Farf footballers are born, such as Yurpá Mêndêlöíndçêl and Risko Kâí. Also, the names of the Rulandese are very difficult to type. The FFFF (Freisan Farf Freitball Francitian), the governing body for football, is known for being one of the least organized and most incompetent federations around the world.
Matches can and will be delayed by twelve hours without previous notice.
The national team is known throughout the world, even if they’re not particularly successful. They’re considered an up and rising team, having debuted in World Cup 60, sky-rocketing to the quarterfinals in just four World Cups. They’re now ranked 23rd in the world. They’re renowned for their insanely attacking style, and their abundance of midfielders and strikers, while defenders struggle to excel. Their most notable players are Friekder Dandalleion, who has been in two World Cup Ideal Elevens and an AO All-Star team, Ichi Tuzzio, Yurpá Mêndêlöíndçêl and Erfaon Lisdiren. Three of them play for Vilitan teams, with Mêndêlöíndçêl being the only exception, playing for Oyardo from Astograth, often renowned as the best player of that team (at least that’s what they say here in Farfadillis). Farf crowds can often get bored if your team is defensive, so expect aggressiveness from some of them if your team is boring. If your team is entertaining, however, expect the Farf crowd to cheer for you.
As a user, Farfadillis is frequently known as “that annoying Uruguayan who can’t take anything seriously”, “that guy that shouts 1950 at the Brazilians a lot”, or just Farf. He’s been in NS since February of 2012, joining NS Sport not long after. He will cut-off at around 11 pm GMT. Or whatever time Licen wants (probably 11pm GMT). He’s also on holidays (or, actually, will be very soon. Plus, you, the reader, are statistically not, so be jealous).
And the Licentian Isles? Sounds like a bit of a weirdo to me.
Oi, I’ll have less of that.
The Licentian Isles, as the name would suggest, are an island nation, in the south of Esportiva, separated from Apox by the Licentian Channel. The nation is made up of five inhabited islands, which make up four parishes, three of which, Montfort, Abingdon and Colesham, are on the main island, known as Licentiapacisterra (the original name for the nation), while St Bart’s Parish makes up the outlying islands.
The nation is ruled, as it has been for almost two centuries, by the de Montfort family. The current Grand Duke is Alasdair John, who was crowned after the death of his father, Luke Thomas II, while the four parishes are each ruled by a Duke, all of whom are sons of the Grand Duke. These positions are currently empty, as Alasdair John is childless. The Licentian Isles previously had an elected parliament; however, this was removed by Grand Duke Alasdair John, on the premise of a nation being stronger with a powerful, decision making leader.
The nation has a population of 5,754,786 people, ethnically made up of a mix of Latin peoples and Celts. The previous minority populations, mostly Uitbregener (or Cyborg Dutch) and Apoxian, were expelled by the recently crowned Grand Duke. The capital of the Licentian Isles is Montfort, where the royal family and parliament have been based for all of living memory. Other major cities are Colesham, Abingdon, Carrington and St Bart’s.
The people of the Licentian Isles are sports-mad. The Sixty-Seventh World Cup, following the Fifty-Fourth Baptism of Fire, will be the ninth in which the Licentian Isles have competed, under three different names (Licentiapacisterra from WCs 59-64, the Licentian Islands in WC65, and the Licentian Isles in WC66). The Cyan-and-Gold, as the national team is known colloquially, have qualified for three World Cups, failing to get out of the group stage in each one. The Licentian Isles were the home of many quality players in the past, including Alex Gardiner-Stewart, Jack Kerr and Logan Moran. The current crop of stars includes Nate Parkinson, Ruaraidh Donaldson (known as the Lion of Abingdon) and Alex Keir. They have previously won two tournaments, both of which were the Campionato Esportiva, in its third and eighth editions.
OOCly, the Licentian Isles, previously known as Licentiapacisterra, and also known as Licen, TLI, or “that annoying Scottish git in the corner”, has been a regular on NS Sports for almost eighteen months, regularly participating in tournaments for that time, aside of a small hiatus earlier this year, and has been on NS since December 2011. As he is in the UK, his cutoffs would be likely to come at 11pm GMT, though that will be confirmed closer to the time.
EXPERIENCE! I DEMAND EXPERIENCE FOR THE EXPERIENCE GOD!
Alright, chill out, we’re getting to it...
Farfadillis
AOCAF Cup 38
Campionato Esportiva 5
Copa Rushmori 16
U-15 World Cups 1 and 4
The Licentian Isles
Quidditch World Cup 4
Campionato Esportiva 2 (with Cyborg Holland)
Campionato di Atletica Esportiva
Baptism of Fire 49 (with Aguazul)
Cup of Harmony 56 (with Apox)
World Lacrosse Championships 16
What do you intend to use to scorinate? Dice?
Nope, we would be using the most recent version of Xkoranate, with the SQIS formula.
What kind of bonuses do you intend to use to reward people that roleplay well (See: Performance-Enhancing Drugs)?
We would prefer not to reveal the scale here. However, RPs will be judged on a flexible scale (by flexible, we mean scores such as 0.4, 1.52 and 1.234 are all possibilities, even if too stupidly detailed to actually be taken seriously). RP will be judged on creativity and effort, with quality over quantity. That being said, while you don't need to write War and Peace to gain a high bonus, two lines of RP will not cut it.
How do you intend to set out this tournament? Please tell me it isn’t the Casaran again…
It is not, though we did consider it. Anyway, we are planning on 8 groups of x nations, if the number of nations allow it. Otherwise, we’ll have to work our way around it. We do have a contingency that allows for 9 groups of x nations, and then play-offs with the worst-ranked second placed teams, but we would prefer a multiple of 8.
What about style modifiers?
They’ll go from -5 to 5. They’ll be additive. That’s about it really.
Do you intend to encourage RP during this tournament with any incentives?
Affirmative. Farfadillis will frequently include details about his federation’s complex way of making everything run as not smoothly as possible. He might or might not do something like he did last Copa Rushmori (cards for players). No promises, and it’s not like it incentives a lot of RPing.
The Licentian Isles intends to include short snippets of roleplay at cutoff time. These could take into account previous RPs from competitors, or could be inclusive RPing ideas, to encourage RPing based on the rather strange situation in his nation.
Finally, as has become almost traditional in the Baptism of Fire, there will be an ideal XI announced, made up of players from the nations involved in the tournament. Nations may want to indicate the players they would like included (only their players, though), but we won’t take just that into consideration. The ideal XI will then go on to play an exhibition match against first the Cyan and Gold and then La Vherderoja. The money made will be donated to the fascist Licentian monarch’s project to reduce poverty and hunger, (and definitely not a war in the Inevitable Syndicate; no sir) in the first case, and will be burned accidentally by the incompetent functionaries of the FFFF in the second. The football will be quality, though.
We may or may not attempt to buy members of the ideal XI (or other players, maybe). This depends on whether UG and Asto are alright with this or not. It was their idea, after all. All credit goes to them if we do go with that. Our leagues aren’t as prestigious, though, but they’re fairly prestigious anyway. And they’re RPed. Don’t forget that.
Lastly, why should we trust you with our young’uns?
You shouldn’t. You really, really shouldn’t.
Any other questions?
Why are you asking us? Ask them!
Yes, there is a lot of incredibly bad jokes in this bid. I apologise sincerely if anyone is offended by our terrible sense of humour.
