The Cenian Football Association and The Drawkian International Sporting Council present a bid for World Cup 79.
About the Bidders
The Republic of Ceni is a tiny speck of land just off the coast of Electrum in the Terranean area of Rushmore, close to New Gelderland, Electrum, and Eura. Its major city and capital is Cenial, and other major cities include New Oxford and City Centre, but a good portion of Ceni is covered with one huge agglomeration of cities. Its economy is a service-based economy, especially financial services and trade, with major contributions by pharmaceuticals, research and development, technology (biotech, information technology, and green technology especially), and real estate. A good part of its energy comes from wind turbines, solar power, and tidal power, and Ceni is known for its eco-friendly populace and green atmosphere. Several major Rushmori firms are based in the Cenial business district, including Air Terranea, Telluric Pharmaceuticals, Solar Solutions, Pharos Media Group, Cavalier Brewpubs, and the world-wide Cityscapes architecture company, as well as a number of smaller green tech companies. Many of these companies serve the large Euran market, which is quite close by, exporting high-tech, high-expertise products, and maintaining a trade surplus with one of the world's largest economies. Cenial International Airport is a hub for Air Terranea, which flies to almost 300 destinations throughout the world, and New Oxford International Airport adds to Ceni's international air transport capacity. Ferry services also link Ceni with Eura and Electrum. On the culture scene, Cenial is widely regarded as a highly cultured and diverse city, with large Avaerilonian, Euran, Electrumite, Hispanic, Endemian, Asian, and other populations, and it supports a vibrant food and arts scene. Football-wise, Ceni has 'enjoyed' a long spell of poor results in World Cup competitions, dating from World Cup 67 and Baptism of Fire 54, before finally qualifying for the World Cup in World Cup 73, where they notched their first World Cup win, over Free Republics. They qualified for World Cup 74 and 75 but had disappointing results, with a 1-4-4 record in three World Cup group stages. Finally, they reached the quarterfinals in World Cup 76, which they hosted with Electrum, but went downhill afterwards, dropping out in the group stage in World Cup 77 and failing to qualify in World Cup 78. While football is only the second-most popular sport in Ceni, behind tennis, its popularity is growing, and its league is burgeoning and gaining more followers and revenue every year. The Cenian FA hopes that the World Cup will finally revitalize the currently sputtering national team and bring more attention to the country and its football program.
The Interstellar Empire of Drawkland, unlike Ceni, is a massive nation encompassing an entire continent on the planet of Sonnel. It’s not bordered by any nations, unless you count the various smaller island nations surrounding it in its area on the globe. A nation much higher advanced than your average nation, Drawkland is peppered with megacities and urban centers, but still contains vast swaths of breathtaking wilderness. Because of its huge advancements in technology, Drawkland’s economy operates a lot through hi-tech manufacturing, arms and consumer vehicle manufacturing, as well as having a massive tourism market. While it’s not the green energy haven that Ceni is, it’s by no means a pollutant to its planet. One of the hallmarks of Drawkland’s huge web of a highway system are the wind turbines that line them, or the solar farms one can see while driving through the mid-south deserts. Another thing Drawkland prides itself on is the network of transportation which encompasses its territory. The aforementioned highway system is only a drop in the bucket compared to the train tracks around the nation, the passenger jets and airships floating high above, and the boats which ferry down all rivers, big and small, through the nation. And that’s not even talking about the spaceworthy vessels which fly in and out of the atmosphere every minute, or the secondary highways floating a couple hundred feet above the normal ones. Drawkland surely represents the whole of its planet, Sonnel, both in a political and cultural sense, as many current nations were originally founded by Drawkian-descended people and colonies. But another way it represents its planet is in sporting, where it’s the premier multiversal sports national team package. To say nothing of their victories and mediocrities outside of the World Cup, Drawkland has absolutely made a splash. Despite only being in the tournament for 2 cycles, they made 3rd place in their Baptism of Fire, and qualified for the World Cup twice in a row, making them 2/2 in qualification attempts. Now, their cumulative record in the group stage maybe only be 1-1-4 for now, but there’s no denying that they’re soon to be a powerhouse at the multiverse’s highest stage. DISC, Drawkland’s all sports association, hopes that hosting a World Cup will not only skyrocket national fan interest further, but also hopefully propel the team to a better showing in the actual tournament.
Scorination and RP bonus
Scorination will be conducted through the SQIS module on xkoranate with xkoranate-style (additive) style modifiers (based entirely upon host preference, as usual).
Tiebreakers will be as follows, both in qualifying groups and in finals groups:
Points
Overall goal difference
Head-to-head points
Head-to-head goal difference
Wins
Coin flip (OOCly: RP bonus)
RP bonus, although the scale will not be revealed, will be generous and cumulative to facilitate a tournament where RPing is highly encouraged. It will carry over from the qualifiers to the finals with a degradation of ⅝ (i.e. in the finals, qualifiers bonus will be worth ⅜ of what it was in the qualifiers). We decided on this number because we wanted a more competitive finals tournament, yet we felt that perhaps a 50% carryover was a little too high. Precedent for the carryover can be seen with WCs 64 and 78 (and arguments for and against can be seen in those threads).
Format
Although numbers will not be known in advance, we hope to get a World Cup qualifying of any multiple of 15 to avoid the need for playoffs (based on last cycle’s numbers, probably around a final signup count of 137 - making of 15 groups of 9), although this is, again, determined by the actual number of signups. At this point, we anticipate Ceni scorinating 8 qualifying groups and Drawkland scorinating 7 qualifying groups, with Drawkland scoring the group of Kel Assuk (Ceni’s puppet) and Ceni scoring the group of The Isles of Avon (Drawkland’s puppet) in the interests of transparency.
We anticipate a traditional World Cup finals of 32 nations - not the new 48 team format proposed by the RL FIFA, with the traditional division of hosting duties.
Previous Hosting Experience
Ceni has hosted events under five nations - Racao, Kel Assuk, Costa de Ouro, New Gelderland, and this one. As Racao, he has hosted the Port Louis Rugby Sevens events. As Kel Assuk, he hosted the 3rd Independents Cup with Spaam. As Costa de Ouro, he has hosted the 13th Handball World Cup, the 6th Volleyball World Expo, 1st Fencing Grand Prix, and 3 Astyrian Series of tennis. As New Gelderland, he has co-hosted the Games of the X Olympiad with Electrum and the 23rd Copa Rushmori. Finally, as Ceni, he hosted World Cup 76 with Electrum, the 63rd Cup of Harmony with San Jose Guayabal, the 20th International Basketball Championships, 5 editions of the Cenian Open, and 3 editions of the International Tennis Trophy. He has also hosted numerous smaller tennis tournaments with both Costa de Ouro and Ceni, and is the current President of the NationStates Tennis Tour, maintaining its rankings.
Drawkland has only ever hosted events as himself. This isn’t to say he isn’t used to co-hosting - that actually makes up the main part of his portfolio. In order, he’s hosted World Bowl XXIX alongside Frenline Delpha, International Basketball Championships 21 with Royal Kingdom of Quebec, as well as hosting multiple conferences in multiple editions of the NSCF and NSCAA recently. He hosted Handball World Cup 18 and the International Cups of 7ball 1 and 2 solo, as well as various drum corps competitions. Most recently and impressively, he’s co-hosted Baptism of Fire 65 with Spaam, and Cup of Harmony 70 with Eshan. In addition to this, he’s currently serving as the President of the International Basketball Organization, and is the rank-keeper for the IBC.
Questions?
The floor is open for any questions you may have.
