Cup of Harmony for World Cup 80 Host Bid
Rogue 72 is a Cup of Harmony for World Cup 80 bid. Due to the lateness of the bid; at time of initial posting it is a solo bid. The User behind Vilita have previously hosted the Cup of Harmony with no co-host as well as other identically sized competitions such as the Eagles Cup and AOCAF solo and this is not forseen as an issue. If a suitable junior partner should arise prior to the initiation of the voting process the bid may be amended to include shared responsibility with a junior partner. The bid will proceed with or without the addition of a co-host. We will be using the Cup of Harmony 61 Scorination system which itself is a variant of the World Cup 31 scorination system which originated in Antiquity. A single-match web based version of the scorinator is posted in the Scorinators thread. IC match locations will be announced with the official RP thread and may include locations within the realm of the user behind Vilita, any potential co-host or other as was done during CoH53.
Hosting Experience:
Q&ACup of Harmony XIV
AOCAF II
Baptism of Fire Cup PXVI
Colony Cup 1.1
Baptism of Fire Cup PXVII
World Cup XVII
Baptism of Fire Cup PXVII
Baptism of Fire Cup PXIX
World Cup XIX
Baptism of Fire Cup PXX
AO Hockey Championships I
Baptism of Fire Cup PXXI
Baptism of Fire Cup PXXII
World Cup XXII
Nationstates Surf Tour
Baptism of Fire Cup PXXIII
Baptism of Fire Cup PXXIV
Baptism of Fire Cup PXXV
World Cup XXXI
Cup of Harmony XXVI
Nationstates Grand Prix II
AO Hockey Championships IV
Nationstates Grand Prix III
Nationstates Grand Prix IV
Cup of Harmony LVIII
U-21 World Cup 47 (DBC 26)
World Cup LIX
AOCAF 36 ::
Cup of Harmony LXI
World Cup LXIII
Eagle's Cup V ::
AOCAF 50 ::
Eagle's Cup VI ::
AO Hockey Championships V
Eagle's Cup VII ::
+ Other less noteworthy events
Q: Why a (potentially) Solo Bid?
A: Because the theoretical deadline for host bids is in a day or so, its best to get the bid up early to allow any questions etc.
Q: Is a Solo Bid even allowed?
A: Yes.
Q: Has anyone ever solo-hosted a WCC tournament before?
A: Yes. I have twice previously solo-hosted the Cup of Harmony as has Valanora. 11 other users have solo-hosted the competition once for a total of 15 times this tournament has been solo-hosted.
Q: So other than that whats different about this bid?
A: Lets start with whats the same:
Number of Participants:
32 Nations will be accepted and a standard format will be used. There is the possibility that this number will grow if warranted (We have no intention of leaving out deserving nations). However, the number will not shrink below 32.
Mimicking the format of the World Cup itself works well from a scheduling perspective and provides prospective hosts the ideal amount of training towards a future World Cup Finals host bid. I don't otherwise intend to encourage this to change.
Projected Format:
Group Stage - 32 Teams
Knockout Stage (Single Elimination) - 16 Teams
Teams will be split into two regions of 16, with those on either side of the bracket remaining on that side of the bracket until the final. There will be a single round robin with the top 2 advancing in each group.
Other Details:
Criteria of inclusion:
As typical, the invitees will be based on Roleplay contributions to the World Cup 80 Roleplay thread. However, 5 invitations will be 'tagged' as the following:
1) A Former Cup of Harmony Champion
2) A Former Baptism of Fire Cup Champion
3) A Former World Cup Champion
4) The nation Highest in the KPB Rankings that has missed the World Cup and otherwise meets criteria for entry
5) The nation that most narrowly missed the World Cup based on the World Cup 80 hosts tiebreaking procedure or the closest playoff defet, and otherwise meets criteria for entry
This would largely be pomp and circumstance and is more of an IC Tool that folks can use to describe how they got their 'invitation'
The official Inclusion criteria as defined by the WCC Constitution are as follows:
The conditions for entry into the Cup of Harmony are:
i) A nation must have signed up for the corresponding World Cup in the appropriate Signup Thread
ii) That nation must have failed to qualify for that World Cup, given the conditions set by the hosts.
iii) That nation must have posted at least one roleplay in the appropriate RP thread during the corresponding World Cup
iv) That nation must also have indicated a desire to play in the Cup of Harmony in response to a host invitation.
In short: in the end it is still and RP based invite tournament which means you have to be active enough to have contributed to WC80, received an Invitation to the CoH and accepted it.
Group Stage Tie-breakers:
1) Head to Head
2) RP Bonus
3) Goal Difference
4) Goals Scored
5) Wins
6) KpB Ranking Points
Effectively, if two nations are level on 4 points in the group stage, and they also drew their one head to head match, whichever nation had up to that point accrued the highest total RP bonus will advance. ICly this will be explained as the advancing nation having won a coin flip, with Heads being Callum Banda and Tails being a Cocoabo. Goal Differential is somewhat of a random variable over a 2 match sample size (As this scenario can only exist if at least one match is a draw) and this is an RP based tournament so it makes sense to use it if trying something different.
RP Bonus Grading:
-KPB Rankings will be updated prior to the start of the competition, based on performance in the WCQ. Therefore, all nations will start afresh in their RP Bonus.
-There will be an RP Bonus for roster, then RP Bonus for each matchday (including Pre MD-1) of the competition.
-Nations will have the option of denoting their WC Roster as still applicable for the CoH, but they must do so in an RP and most also notify the host with a direct link to the roster from the WC80 Roster Thread. Rosters will be graded on completeness, detail, presence of visuals and accuracy.
-- The entire tournament will be hosted in the host countries so do not post stadium info. Any roster posted in the CoH RP thread with stadium information for the posting nation will not receive any credit for that portion of their contribution unless it is explained what relevance it has to their CoH Roster.
-Each RP will be graded in 5 different Categories, and you can earn points in each of those categories up to the total RP - so there may be multiple paths towards a maximum bonus whether you are a skilled poet, Professional Thesis Writer or Graphic artist (for example).
RP Bonus Application in the scorinator:
-RP Bonus will degrade slightly throughout the competition. An RP Posted prior to MD1 may be worth 10 points when MD1 is scorinated. An RP posted between MD1 and MD2 may be worth 10 points when MD2 is scorinated, while the RP previously posted before MD1 contributes up to 9 points on MD2 and will continue to degrade (8 points on Md3, 7 points in Ro16, 6 points in QF, 5 points in SF and so in) from that point. Roster bonus is counted separately and does not degrade. This is a reward for posting a roster (and thereby, a penalty for not contributing or denoting a roster - something that is critical to your opponents ability to RP your match)
-RP bonus will be applied not solely as an additive to a nations KPB Ranking points, but as a ratio-based determination of how many scoring chances a nation will have during the calculation. Effectively it means that a high RPing team will be earning more chances to score a goal than a low RPing team. It also means the 'max rank' effect does not get 'exponentially' bloated by having a single nation with a much larger KPB than all the other participants and that nation is also one of the top RPing nations as the two factors are more independent from each other opposed to explicitly mashed into a single variable.
Schedule:
Voting Schedule, timely acceptance of invitations and with cooperation from the WC hosts permitting, the intent would be to scorinate each CoH matchday during the prior corresponding non-scorination day of the World Cup. IE: CoH MD2 would take place on the offday following WC MD1 and preceding WC MD2. If voting is already completed, Conditional CoH Invitations will be sent out during/prior to the WCQ Playoffs with a few spots held back for the conclusion of the playoff rounds in case enough teams advance that we haven't filled out the field yet.