Power to the People! It’s time to focus on the true heroes of the world cup: the people of football. No ranks, no records, no history. The Baptism of Fire unites people in one tournament where all are equal. It’s time for the footballers of the world to unite. The Socialist Federations of Barunia and Mattijana present a bid for the 66th Baptism of Fire.
IC Info
Barunia is a socialist federation consisting of several large islands and one chain of smaller islands in the southern ocean. The federation consists of four states and one territory. The country has a little over 41 million people, with the largest city being the national capital of Porthaven. The nation was first colonised by the Spanish, and later the English, and the national culture has been heavily influenced by the two. In particular, the state of Tildos and the territory of the North Islands has a strong Spanish culture, and the majority of the people here speak both English and Spanish. The state of Marion has also been heavily influenced by Eastern European culture. The nation adopted democratic socialism in 1935, and this has led to the provision of free education, healthcare, and public transport services to citizens. Businesses are heavily regulated, but are not state-owned - rather, they are owned by the people who work in them. Barunia is a very tolerant society, and laws protect personal freedoms.
Groups will be spread out across the country, with teams playing on pitches used in Barunian World Cup games. Barunia has rather temperate weather, and temperatures remain above 0 degrees Celcius even in winter. Snow is unheard of, although rain is very common.
Mattijana is a large portion of North-west Esportiva with a significant, but proportionate population. It spans a fairly large range of climates with the far north a colder area, the central region temperate, the south Mediteranean and the South-East semi-desert. Petrovijanka, the capital city, is located almost exactly in the centre of the country at 214-232 metres above sea level. It has summer highs of around 28°C and lows of -5°C in the winter. There is a high level of sunshine for most of the year with precipitation mostly snowfall in the winter months. In terms of culture, the South and central areas are largely Slavic whilst Northern and Western areas are more Germanic. There is a small Arabic community in the South-East.
The official language is Mattijanan which is spoken by all. English and German are the most popular second languages. Due to Mattijanan only being spoken in Mattijana, the majority of people are bi-lingual.
There is no official religion.
Attitudes to drink and sex are fairly liberal whilst there is good gender, sexual and racial equality. Social mobility is also good and the rich earn only twice as much as the poorest.
The government generally follows more socialist policies meaning the tax rate is fairly high, but schools, hospitals and other public services are all well-funded and reasonably-priced. Taxes on large businesses are slightly higher than on small ones. The government building is the MattiStaja, which is situated on Staja square in the centre of Petrovijanka. All six regions have their own smaller congresses however.
Groups will be spread across the country, but will be city-based with existing stadiums in Petrovijanka, Burges, Revinka, Snezn and Puljanka planned for involvement.
OOC
Mattijana's most recent hosting experience comes in football in the form of the 20th (and most recent) Campianato Esportiva. In addition, Mattijana has hosted the most recent Field Hockey world cup as well as co-hosting the 8th T20 Cricket World Cup alongside Liventia. A Mattijanan WGPC team has been in the sport for the last two seasons with good levels of success. Mattijana has also been frequently involved in RPs in NSTT, Rugby 7s, handball and Cricket throughout the last two years. World Cup participation has been regular for around the last two years, as well as participation in the summer and winter Olympics.
Barunia joined the NS Sporting community in March 2013, just after World Cup 63 ended, and has been here ever since. He has participated in every World Cup since 64, as well as the Olympics, World Bowl, and tournaments in cricket, rugby, field hockey and calvinball. His biggest achievement to date has been winning the Di Bradini cup with his puppet Furellum, and making it to the final of the Cup of Harmony – twice.
Barunia hosted the Barunia Football Cup in his first month on NS Sports, and since then has hosted hosted the T20 World Cup III and ODI Challenge Cup (both Cricket), and the 2nd Calvinball Hobbes Trophy, which provided an interesting challenge, Calvinball being an unusual sport with unique scorination requirements. Most recently, he hosted the Celebration of Field Hockey, which involved two simultaneous tournaments.
Tournament
As both nations are Socialist Federations, we’ve gone with a socialism theme. Nations won’t need to be socialist to participate of course, but we hope it may act as a prompt for nations to talk a little about their own politics and current affairs. Our motto for this tournament will be “Power to the People.” We’ll be encouraging players to tell the stories of the people of football, be that the players, coaches, support staff, federation boss, or the supporters.
Scorination
Scorination will be done using xkoronate, with SQIS formula. The format will likely be 8 groups, although that may change if tournament numbers break down into a more logical number. Either way, the top 2 teams from each group will advance to a Round of 16, before going into quarterfinals, etc. Tiebreakers for the group stage will be Head-to-head points, Goal Difference, Goals For, Goals Against, Coin flip (RP bonus).
