The Legalese and Free Republics Bid to Host World Cup 68

[Free Republics]

The Legalese and Free Republics Bid to Host World Cup 68

About the Free Republics
The Federation of Free Republics (FFR) is a vast federation of Republics, spanning 4 continents, that pride themselves on being, from their perspective, the freest nation in the multiverse. In most of the Free Republics, you are free to do almost anything, so long as you have the money to pay your own way. Laws do very greatly between Republics, so be sure to read up on the local laws before entering a Republic. Republics are forbidden from restricting a number of basic freedoms, such as the absolute freedom of speech, the right to carry open or concealed firearms in public and the right to due process. Laws do exist against crimes such as theft and murder and there are laws against non-consensual assault, but one should keep in mind that the Free Republics defines consent in a broad manner.

The security of any World Cup held in the Free Republics will be assured, as the Free Republics boasts the substantial military might that you would expect from an affluent nation with a population in the billions. The Navy of the Free Republics even styles itself as Republica's Navy: A Universal Force for Good, so they can be counted on to safeguard the security of the World Cup facilities.

On the pitch, the Free Republics have a tradition of excellence in soccer. Although Rule Theriault's teams are run more like a domestic club than a conventional National Team and therefore do not necessarily field the nation's best players, the Free Republics have already compiled an impressive record in international competition. They have competed in the last 3 World Cups, losing a playoff in World Cup 67 to New Sideburn. Had The Sarian not arrested both Theriault and team captain Kyle Bolton at halftime of a match in that country, allowing The Sarian to pull off a second half comeback after taking a 3 goal deficit into halftime, the Free Republics would have qualified for World Cup 67. In Cup of Harmony 59, the Free Republics made it deeper into the tournament than Saintland before falling on penalties to West Angola, in the quarterfinals. In the Di Bradini Cup, the Free Republics have set the standard for youth soccer excellence, having finished 2nd, 1st and 3rd in DBCs 27 through 29. While a less experienced than usual Republican U-21 team under-performed at this year's 30th DBC, that does not dim the glory of what the previous generation of Republican U-21s accomplished.

The FFR has previously hosted World Korfball Classic 3 and co-hosted Cup of Harmony 58 (with Falcus) and World Bowl XXII (with Saintland). World Bowl XXII used the "Holy Casaran" format and was the most successful World Bowl, in terms of quantity of posts in the threads used for RPs, rosters and results in the History of Modern NS Sports, even though it was shorter than a typical World Bowl. The FFR's neighbors at the North Pole have previously hosted the Saintland Triple Crown, Beach Cup IX, the 27th World Baseball Classic (with Maklohi Vai), the first edition of the UWCFA Gold Cup, which also used the Casaran format, the aforementioned World Bowl XXII and are currently hosting World Cup of Hockey 23, which is expected to conclude prior to the start of the IX Winter Olympics and well before the likely start date of Baptism of Fire 55, let alone World Cup 68 (OOC: Additionally, the user between Saintland and Free Republics scorinates the Confederations Cup, which is held between the BoF final and the draw for World Cup qualifying).

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 those of you that expected us to bid with the Casaran format again.

For qualifying, we will be using the conventional double round-robin group stage, with the hosts automatically qualifying for the World Cup. While the format will depend upon the final signup numbers, we would prefer to use groups of 6 or 8, if possible, providing for a qualifying that lasts either 10 or 14 days. Invariably, a playoff of some sort will be used.

With 180 signups (not counting the hosts), we would use 30 groups of 6. The top 2 finishers in each group would advance to a two round home-and-away playoff, which would be held under a double-chance system. The 30 group winners would be drawn against one another in the first round of the playoffs, with the winners qualifying for the World Cup. The 30 runners-up would also be drawn against one another in the first round, with the winners advancing to the second round of the playoffs and the losers being placed into consideration for a Cup of Harmony invitation. The 15 group winners that failed to qualify in the first round of the playoffs would face runners-up in the second round, with the winners qualifying for the World Cup. This means that a second or third seed would still have a realistic shot to qualify for the World Cup even if they drew Polar Islandstates as the top seed in their group, but importantly, the group winners would hold a sizable advantage, having a double-chance.

Should signup numbers reach 192 (not counting the hosts) we'll go with 24 groups of 8. Under this format, the top 3 in each group would advance to the playoffs, which would also use the same system and would also be home-and-away. The group winners would, once again, face off in the first round of the playoffs, with the 12 winners qualifying for the World Cup and the 12 losers advancing to the second round of the playoffs. Meanwhile, all of the second place teams would be drawn against a third place team, with the 24 winners advancing to the second round and the 24 losers being placed into consideration for the Cup of Harmony. The second round would, like the first round for the second and third placed teams, be seeded with the 12 group winners and the top 6 remaining second or third placed teams being seeded against the other 18 remaining teams. The 18 winners would qualify for the World Cup.

The exact format may differ depending upon the final numbers, but will generally look something like one of those possibilities, if possible. During the playoffs, there will be no group stage rematches.

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. 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
We will, generally, use the RL-approved FIFA tiebreaker rules. 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. Should we determine that uneven groups are necessary, and require a need to sort between teams from groups of uneven sizes, the results against the worst team in the larger groups would be dropped for purpose of the tiebreak, but otherwise follow the above provisions.

Anyways, looking forward to questions below.

[Gregoryisgodistan]

What does "cumulative in raw score but comparative in factor" mean?

[Legalese]

What does "cumulative in raw score but comparative in nature" mean?

It means that while writing the next great novel on MD1 will serve you well in the immediate and provide a good bonus throughout, you can't expect to just drop the pen that day and keep that same relative boost for the remainder of the competition.

[Vilita]

or, if you RP on MD1, and so does everyone else, you will have an RP bonus similar to everyone else.

If you stop RPing, and everyone else keeps RPing, your relative bonus is decreasing each day

[The Sarian]

or, if you RP on MD1, and so does everyone else, you will have an RP bonus similar to everyone else.

If you stop RPing, and everyone else keeps RPing, your relative bonus is decreasing each day

Won't that put pressure on someone to write a kickass RP everyday, when no-one will have time for that.

[Legalese]

or, if you RP on MD1, and so does everyone else, you will have an RP bonus similar to everyone else.

If you stop RPing, and everyone else keeps RPing, your relative bonus is decreasing each day

Won't that put pressure on someone to write a kickass RP everyday, when no-one will have time for that.

In a way, yes, but that's basically how it works in general: RPing both well and often puts you at the top of the bonus structure, followed by RPing well but less often, followed by RPing acceptably but often, and so on. My reply to Gregoryisgodistan was a bit simplistic, but the point I meant to make is that it's possible for a quality RP to resonate well throughout, but naturally, if others are doing the same, then frequency comes into play. As part of the bonus setup, it will be easier to attain the maximum RP bonus levels earlier than usual, but keeping at it will be difficult, as it should be.

[Vettrera]

or, if you RP on MD1, and so does everyone else, you will have an RP bonus similar to everyone else.

If you stop RPing, and everyone else keeps RPing, your relative bonus is decreasing each day

Won't that put pressure on someone to write a kickass RP everyday, when no-one will have time for that.

If the pressure's on everyone, there's really no pressure at all.

[The Sarian]

Won't that put pressure on someone to write a kickass RP everyday, when no-one will have time for that.

If the pressure's on everyone, there's really no pressure at all.

That quote is so working it's way into my managers team talk.

Question to bidders: What is the approximate time we can expect cut-offs (Obviously, no commitments)

Yes I did just ask a random question to justify this post

[Cassadaigua]

No objections. Except for that part about claiming the Free Republics has a tradition of excellence.

[San Jose Guayabal]

Why did you plan to reduce randomness? If that's the best thing of the issue, but in a serious topic, I suggest you to use a bonus system to encourage people to RP, and give good bonus to the people who make good RPing, and give a chance to post two or three every matchday.

[Saintland]

Why did you plan to reduce randomness? If that's the best thing of the issue, but in a serious topic, I suggest you to use a bonus system to encourage people to RP, and give good bonus to the people who make good RPing, and give a chance to post two or three every matchday.

The idea behind the changes to the scorinator is to reduce the number of upsets by low or unranked nations that sign up and then post neither a roster nor any RPs. The reason behind the use of the factored bonus system, which permits your full RP bonus to kick in earlier, is to provide the actively RPing teams on the lower end of the rankings with the same chances that they would normally have. I wouldn't have put forth 2 World Cup bids using this system unless I was confident that it would be fair in that regard.

If you post more than 1 RP in a matchday, it will be treated as a single RP for purposes of bonus. Doing bonuses per RP instead of per MD would permit somebody who spams the RP thread with a large number of awful RPs in a single MD to obtain the same bonus as somebody who posts a single high quality RP.

Question to bidders: What is the approximate time we can expect cut-offs (Obviously, no commitments)

My cutoff time is likely to be around the same time as my World Bowl and WCoH cutoff times.

[San Jose Guayabal]

Why did you plan to reduce randomness? If that's the best thing of the issue, but in a serious topic, I suggest you to use a bonus system to encourage people to RP, and give good bonus to the people who make good RPing, and give a chance to post two or three every matchday.

The idea behind the changes to the scorinator is to reduce the number of upsets by low or unranked nations that sign up and then post neither a roster nor any RPs. The reason behind the use of the factored bonus system, which permits your full RP bonus to kick in earlier, is to provide the actively RPing teams on the lower end of the rankings with the same chances that they would normally have. I wouldn't have put forth 2 World Cup bids using this system unless I was confident that it would be fair in that regard.

If you post more than 1 RP in a matchday, it will be treated as a single RP for purposes of bonus. Doing bonuses per RP instead of per MD would permit somebody who spams the RP thread with a large number of awful RPs in a single MD to obtain the same bonus as somebody who posts a single high quality RP.

Thanks for your answer, good one and good luck.

[Sangti]

To Saintland/FFR: Why did you bid with FFR and not with Saintland? (You may answer both ICly and OOCly.)

[Free Republics]

To Saintland/FFR: Why did you bid with FFR and not with Saintland? (You may answer both ICly and OOCly.)

ICly: Because of the recent assassination of King Paulus XV. While King Petrus XX has said that WCoH 23 will go on, in the memory of his father, he has no desire for future host bids until the requisite ceremonies are held to make the succession official. Additionally, as mentioned in one of my RPs during World Cup 67 Qualifying, Saintland is ICly interpreting that recent amendment restricting who can make a World Cup bid as prohibiting a bid from them for World Cup 68.

OOCly: One reason was that I felt the need to make that IC change with Saintland, which I had been considering for months and which I finally decided to do during the Cup of Harmony several weeks ago. My WCoH bid was completely unplanned, but it happened and I decided not to change my ongoing IC plans involving Saintland. I made the decision to bid for World Cup 68 around a week into qualifying for the last World Cup and at that point, I made the decision to bid with Free Republics. After having bid for the previous World Cup with Saintland, I figured I'd bid with my other nation this time around.

[Liventia]

While I no longer intend to be involved with NS football, I do retain a vote – for one more cycle at least – for WC host.

Therefore, I have the following question.

What has made you not go for a Casaran-style qualifying tournament, given Legalese is an outspoken proponent of it?

And I have the following comment to make.

I'm uncomfortable with Free Republics suggesting in the WCoH discussion thread that this bid, essentially, is geared towards helping BoF nations qualify (which seems borne out in the RP bonus which has been described so far). Encouraging sustained RP is not, in itself, a bad thing. But telling people that if they RP well every day they will qualify is wrong, it has never been the point of NS Sport at all, and I would happily use my last vote against this bid if that is how this bid wishes to proceed.

[Buyan]

What does "cumulative in raw score but comparative in nature" mean?

It means that while writing the next great novel on MD1 will serve you well in the immediate and provide a good bonus throughout, you can't expect to just drop the pen that day and keep that same relative boost for the remainder of the competition.

And how does it differ from the (I think) usual 'add-on' bonus?
By which I mean, to whose advantage is that change (I suppose it's a change) made?

[Free Republics]

I'll take my best shot at answering the questions, although anything Legalese says takes precedence over anything I say:

It means that while writing the next great novel on MD1 will serve you well in the immediate and provide a good bonus throughout, you can't expect to just drop the pen that day and keep that same relative boost for the remainder of the competition.

And how does it differ from the (I think) usual 'add-on' bonus?
By which I mean, to whose advantage is that change (I suppose it's a change) made?

What we're doing is probably somewhat similar to a degrading bonus, except that anybody who keeps RPing at the same level will maintain their current bonus. If somebody earns 15 KPB points worth of bonus when the bonus fully kicks in and continues RPing at the same quality for the rest of qualifying, they will retain their 15 point bonus. If they cut back their RPing in the second half of qualifying, their bonus will decrease, as it would with a degrading bonus. The difference is that their bonus will not decrease if they continue RPing at the same level.

The bonus is somewhat larger, with the intent of offsetting the change in scorinator. The idea is to increase both rank and RP, at the expense of randomness. This is intended to disadvantage those that sign up and CTE and advantage everybody else.

While I no longer intend to be involved with NS football, I do retain a vote – for one more cycle at least – for WC host.

Therefore, I have the following question.

What has made you not go for a Casaran-style qualifying tournament, given Legalese is an outspoken proponent of it?

And I have the following comment to make.

I'm uncomfortable with Free Republics suggesting in the WCoH discussion thread that this bid, essentially, is geared towards helping BoF nations qualify (which seems borne out in the RP bonus which has been described so far). Encouraging sustained RP is not, in itself, a bad thing. But telling people that if they RP well every day they will qualify is wrong, it has never been the point of NS Sport at all, and I would happily use my last vote against this bid if that is how this bid wishes to proceed.

I didn't intend to guarantee that they will qualify if they RP well. Its impossible to guarantee that anybody will qualify and I would never, intentionally, promise something that I know cannot be delivered upon. There's no guarantee that somebody won't end up in a group like Group 17 from last World Cup (just ask Felix or Pasarga what that can do to your chances of qualification). There's no intent to change an actively RPing BoF nation's qualification chances, either for better or worse and I'm confident that Legalese will choose an appropriate bonus scale. A less random scorinator would, without offsetting changes to the RP bonus, worsen that nation's chances. My post in the WCoH discussion thread was intended to encourage Lzherusskia to RP on a regular basis during World Cup qualifying. If I didn't believe that anybody had a chance of, at least, coming close to qualification with a little luck and strong RPing, in a typical World Cup qualifying, I wouldn't have said that.

While I am also a proponent of the use of the Casaran format in World Cup qualifying, I didn't want the format to, once again, overshadow Legalese's work on the scorinator and the RP bonus, as it did last time.

[Vilita]

I don't mean to come off as rude here but just reading your last response I want to see if they can be interpreted differently than the way I am reading them:

....I'll take my best shot at answering the questions, although anything Legalese says takes precedence over anything I say:....

....There's no intent to change an actively RPing BoF nation's qualification chances, either for better or worse and I'm confident that Legalese will choose an appropriate bonus scale.....

....While I am also a proponent of the use of the Casaran format in World Cup qualifying, I didn't want the format to, once again, overshadow Legalese's work on the scorinator and the RP bonus, as it did last time.....

What exactly is your role in this host bid? Should we all just wait for Legalese to come back and answer questions, or ask him directly instead?

If something were to happen such that Legalese would be unable to complete his share of the scorinating, would you be able to finish the job on your own?

I understand the whole senior/junior thing and clearly you are taking the role of the junior here. But you guys have bid for, I don't know if it's 3 straight world cups or 3 in the last 10 or whatever it is, together, so you should be getting pretty familiar with it and with the methods that the two of you will be using to scorinate. At what point are you going to be able to speak on behalf of the bid?


Don't mean to offend, just want some clarification here. Thanks!

[Free Republics]

I don't mean to come off as rude here but just reading your last response I want to see if they can be interpreted differently than the way I am reading them:

....I'll take my best shot at answering the questions, although anything Legalese says takes precedence over anything I say:....

....There's no intent to change an actively RPing BoF nation's qualification chances, either for better or worse and I'm confident that Legalese will choose an appropriate bonus scale.....

....While I am also a proponent of the use of the Casaran format in World Cup qualifying, I didn't want the format to, once again, overshadow Legalese's work on the scorinator and the RP bonus, as it did last time.....

What exactly is your role in this host bid? Should we all just wait for Legalese to come back and answer questions, or ask him directly instead?

If something were to happen such that Legalese would be unable to complete his share of the scorinating, would you be able to finish the job on your own?

I understand the whole senior/junior thing and clearly you are taking the role of the junior here. But you guys have bid for, I don't know if it's 3 straight world cups or 3 in the last 10 or whatever it is, together, so you should be getting pretty familiar with it and with the methods that the two of you will be using to scorinate. At what point are you going to be able to speak on behalf of the bid?


Don't mean to offend, just want some clarification here. Thanks!

I wrote up most of the bid this time around (which is our second bid, not our third) and I've definitely contributed plenty of my own ideas to the bid. Given that I have already said something today that was misinterpreted, I chose to be extra cautious in answering. Since I haven't seen the bonus scale that we'll be using for this World Cup yet (although I have seen the one we would have used for the last World Cup), I can't answer with certainty on what the scale will look like until I see it.

If Legalese were unable to finish his part, I would definitely be able to step in and host the World Cup to its conclusion, by myself. That debacle on the WCDT last month actually gives me confidence that I can conclude the World Cup successfully. Even though I had a misunderstanding regarding the Casaran scheduling rules, I spent every waking hour for 2 days scorinating that mess making the same mistake consistently, using spreadsheets to perform the necessary sorts. Just the experience of making the mistake there helped immensely with the World Bowl. Since I am very familiar with the format being used, I would have no problem finishing the World Cup, even in the absence of my co-host. Even if I were to be left in that situation without the modified scorinator file or the bonus spreadsheet, I'd be able to either recreate them to the best of my ability or, as a last resort, use the unmodified SQIS with a cumulative RP bonus.

[Free Republics]

Having discussed this with Legalese yesterday over TG, I'm going to announce our intentions regarding signups.

If our bid is chosen, we will re-open the signup thread until the conclusion of the BoF.

In the event that the number of signups (excluding both hosts) is evenly divisible by 6 when the BoF concludes, we'll lock the field and go with groups of 6, with the exception of 192 (194 counting hosts), in which case we'll go with the 24 groups of 8 format described in the original bid post.

Otherwise, we'll go with groups of 8, with some groups of 7 as needed to avoid having to cut anybody from the World Cup.

Either way, the playoff format will look somewhat similar to what is described in the original bid post (meaning top 3 advance out of groups of 8 or top 2 out of groups of 6).

[Astograth]

Have you considered the problems posed by having Goals Scored as the second most important tiebreaker after Goal Difference, specifically that it unreasonably favours using the highest possible style modifier to the extent that not doing so could be a significant handicap?

[Legalese]

Sorry folks, I just spent the last twelve hours driving back here, so brain's a little addled at the moment. I'll get to most of the questions (including the RP Bonus, which I can best describe as ascending in nature, cumulative but comparative in growth, and reasonably generous, though with a healthy respect for rank) later, but I will address one that I can do now without too much issue:

Have you considered the problems posed by having Goals Scored as the second most important tiebreaker after Goal Difference, specifically that it unreasonably favours using the highest possible style modifier to the extent that not doing so could be a significant handicap?

I have, yes, and my feeling on it is simple: it is, frankly, realistic. Different styles of play create different results, but it is general practice to reward teams that score more often (and depending on the competition, more often when on the road) if they are otherwise equal on points and goal difference. If teams want to play for the third tiebreaker in their style modifier choice, that is their prerogative, though as the style mod has generally been more attacking than not, I somehow do not think that most folks will choose their mind over a tiebreaker that is possible, but not exactly probable in terms of its use.

[Gregoryisgodistan]

How will you deal with the revelation that the user behind New Koln entered three nations in the World Cup in violation of puppet rules? Will you allow none, one, or two to participate?

[Legalese]

How will you deal with the revelation that the user behind New Koln entered three nations in the World Cup in violation of puppet rules? Will you allow none, one, or two to participate?

If this bid is selected, New Koln's two puppets are definitely out, as it's my position that if you can't follow the rules on puppets, you certainly shouldn't be allowed to keep them in the competition. We will take into advisement whether to accept New Koln's entry, in light of this information. As noted in the DT, the only official sanction for such a thing is removal of WCC (and EWCC, though not an issue in this case) membership until the user is granted reinstatement by vote; that said, as we have discretion on this issue, we will use it if deemed appropriate.

EDIT: After some thought, we have decided that we will not accept the entry of New Koln as well. His pattern of behavior, combined with this recent revelation, provides just the scenario where host discretion is appropriate to apply, and we will use it as such.