This is the 12th edition of the World Cup of Hockey, the international community's premier international ice hockey competition. It is the second time Quintessence of Dust has hosted the competition: the 11th WCoH was also held here, which saw Cassadaigua win their first title.
This post contains some information about the tournament, but you should probably re-check this at a couple of points, as there will be significant edits.
If you are not participating in the tournament or you wish to make an out of character comment, please confine this to this thread or contact Quintessence of Dust by telegram. If you have not yet signed up and would like to, there is still time. The cutoff for signups is Friday 4 at 1200 UTC: to signup, you must post in this thread.
Posting your team
It is a good idea to post a team roster as soon as you can. This roster is a list of players on your team. A very basic roster is simply a list of your players. If you want to give your opponents more information, you could include:
- managers and coaching staff;
- which domestic clubs your players play for;
- a picture of your kit (appropriately cropped);
- mini bios of your players such as age, size, goals in domestic competition, previous WCoH experience;
- info about your team and ice hockey in your country.
Please note: posting a roster should not considered a chore. There is RP bonus available for good rosters (reduced if it is a copy/paste of previous entries) and providing more information about your team will help make other players' RPing more interactive.
As examples, here are the rosters of the four semifinalists from the 11th World Cup of Hockey, which show a range of styles and levels of detail: Sarzonia · Cassadaigua · Newmanistan · Dancougar.
Your roster should also contain any important information for your opponents. In particular, you should specify your RP permissions. This is an indication of the liberties opponents may take when roleplaying games or reacting to roleplays about your team. A permissions box should like something like this:
If my opponent RPs first, they may:
Choose my scorers: Y/N
Penalise my players: Y/N
Eject my players: Y/N
Injure my players: Y/N
Godmod scoring: Y/N
Godmod injuries: Y/N
Godmod other events: Y/N
To "godmod" is, in sports roleplaying terms, generally considered to make up something extremely unlikely or fantastical. This could range from having your goaltender score an unassisted hat trick, to having your god of thunder smite the opponents' left wing.
Other common RP permissions include whether or not your players get into fights, and which lines/powerplay units your players are assigned to. Your opponents will also have posted RP permissions and you must adhere to them.
Your roster should also specify your style modifier. This is an integer between -5 and +5 that shows how attacking your team is. A +5 team is very attacking, and should in theory score and concede many goals. A -5 is a very defensive team and should see few goals at either end. There is no inherent advantage to any style modifier, and goals for/goals against will not be used as determinants in tiebreakers.
Roleplaying
There is a daily RP bonus. All roleplays posted within the cycle will be counted together; in theory, one high quality bonus earns a higher bonus than a couple of iffy ones. The RP bonus increases the chances of your team winning; as always, RP does not guarantee results. However, teams - even unranked ones - that RPed consistently did better during WCoH11, and all four semifinalists had posted RPs throughout the competition. As well as all that, World Cup of Hockey roleplaying can be a lot of fun.
There are many different ways to roleplay. You can look over the WCoH11 thread for a general sense. RPs have included narrative stories, blog posts by team members or fans, news articles, match reports, or player profiles. Your RPs do not have to focus on the match itself: they could discuss the culture of ice hockey in your country, an injury to a player, an off-the-ice incident, or your experiences of being in Quintessence of Dust.
Additionally, the tournament is being sponsored by the Moo Maid Milk Conglomerate; food, in particular dairy products, is one theme of the competition. I will post information about Quintessence of Dust and the cities your teams will be in, but you are welcome to ask for additional information (particularly as my Wiki pages are rather out of date).
Rules
(The following does not actually reflect any change in scorination, but if you're interested in that sort of thing can be mentioned in RPs.)
The previous World Cup of Hockey saw a few conflicts between Quintessence of Dust's standard domestic ice hockey rules and international standards. In an effort to fortify their chances of winning an Olympic hosting bid in the future, the QHF has now changed several of Quintessence of Dust's rules to comply with international standards.
Group stage games may end in a tie. Playoff games will go to sudden death overtime in the event of a tie, followed by a shootout if necessary.
There is no goalkeeper trapezoid on Quodite rinks. Some international observers believe Quodite referees assess obstruction penalties less severely than their international counterparts. Cross-checking is not an automatic penalty in the HHL, though referees have been asked to give out minors during this tournament after complaints last time. Large numbers of Quodite players routinely test positive for amphetamines and the QHF does little to address this situation.
17 June - Play-in round
A - Euroslavia v Sibirsky
B - Taeshan v The Babbage Islands
18 June - Round of 16
1 - Plutoni v Taeshan
2 - Cassadaigua v Sibirsky
3 - Newmanistan v Secristan
4 - Valanora v Sorthern Northland
5 - Kelssek v Qazox
6 - Toyur v Quintessence of Dust
7 - Teinohikira v Tocrowkia
8 - Sarzonia v The Fanboyists
19 June - Quarterfinals
α - Plutoni v The Fanboyists @ The National Stadium of Sports, Highmark City
β - Cassadaigua v Tocrowkia @ The Eli F. Baker Memorial Arena, Zyarn
γ - Newmanistan v Toyur @ Hljómalind, New Cleethorpes
δ - Valanora v Kelssek @ The Teapot Dome, Joeport
20 June - Semifinals
>_> - Plutoni v Valanora @ The Northern Astrodome, Greschmeier
<_< - Cassadaigua v Toyur @ Bracket Park, Toonmar
21 June - Finals
Final - Plutoni v Toyur @ Finntasia, Kynythin
3PPO - Valanora v Cassadaigua @ Cuboid Square, High Jessieville