Equestar 1.1
Host Bid for the 68th Baptism of Fire
It all begins again, exactly where it finished.
i. Introduction:
This 68th edition of the Baptism of Fire, in the build up to the 81st World Cup, is on course to be one of the largest, if not the largest, in World Cup history. We've been boosted by the presence of the RLStates' 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, which has increased the level of football/soccer related interest beyond anything we've yet seen.
What all this means is that the Baptism of Fire for this edition is particularly important, as we likely have more debuting nations than ever before to bring into our community and impress with the Entertainment, Realism and Competition that we bring with the NSWC and its community. We believe we can do that, providing the RPing platform; being fair and generous with judging, help and assistance; posting in a regular, timely manner and without errors, in order to help hook as many new players as possible to sticking with us and continually growing the NSWC. Therefore, we present for EWCC approval: EqueStar 1.1, a bid for the 68th Baptism of Fire, in the 81st NationStates World Cup cycle.
You may remember Equestrian States and Starblaydia from the recent 80th World Cup, which went rather well by all accounts, and you can visit the below links for a refresher.
Useful Threads:
WC80 Roleplaying | WC80 Rosters | WC80 Results
EqueStar Host Bid | WC80 Sponsorships
ii. About the Co-Hosts:
The Pony Principality of Equestrian States
Equestrian States
The nation:
Known throughout the multiverse for its majority population of sapient equines, the Equestrian States is a diverse and advanced island nation located in southwestern Atlantian Oceania. Ruled by Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, the Equestrian States is a constitutional monarchy in name, though the Princess and the royal family hold considerably more political power than in most constitutional monarchies and thus play an active role in the country's government. Technologically, the nation is very advanced for one that only emerged from isolation a few decades ago, combining technology imported from its allies with magic to quickly modernize without the pollution seen in many countries which undergo rapid industrialization. Described by many as a pleasant utopia inhabited by a friendly and diverse population of numerous sapient species which happily welcomes foreigners, the Equestrian States is a natural host nation with an economy which thrives on tourism and sports.
The most popular sport in the Equestrian States is easily football, which is more commonly known as hoofball by the country's sapient ungulate locals, and the Equestrians have a respectable history of participation in the sport's premier international competitions. First appearing in the Baptism of Fire prior to World Cup 58, the Equestrian States has competed in every World Cup since, finally qualifying for the first time at the tournament's 64th edition. Over the course of the next four cycles, the Ponies quickly rose through the rankings, peaking at 15th following a second round appearance at World Cup 67. However, the next two years were not kind to the Equestrians as poor officiating and bad luck conspired to send the Ponies packing after the playoff stage two times. The Equestrian States returned to the World Cup for its 70th edition, qualifying as hosts and reaching the second round, the first of four straight qualifications. Since World Cup 74, however, the Ponies have languished in mediocrity, which was only recently revealed to have been the doing of the nation's resident "Lord of Chaos": Discord, who had placed the nation in a form of stasis seven years prior for his own amusement. Now, having returned fully to action in the World Cup, the Ponies seek to restore their once-powerful reputation as a top team, though there is still a long ways to go.
The user:
EQS can safely be considered one of the NS Sports community's veteran hosts, having helped host four World Cups (67, 70, 72 & 80), the 57th Cup of Harmony, and the 58th Baptism of Fire. Other major tournaments the user has hosted to completion include the ongoing AOCAF Cup, three editions of the World Baseball Classic (25, 29, 41), the 21st World Cup of Hockey, 25th World Bowl, and the 29th and 32nd Di Bradini Cups. The lesser-known tournaments hosted by the Equestrian States include Quidditch World Cup 5, Water Polo International Championships 3, Runner Cup 3, Market Cup VI, the Baptism of Water, and all four editions of the Equestria Cup.
The Protectorate of Starblaydia
Starblaydia
The nation:
Starblaydia is one of the oldest nations still playing in the World Cup, having debuted in World Cup 15. It also has one of the most successful national football teams in history, having won a joint record five World Championships, the last coming in World Cup 47, with their last Final appearance coming unexpectedly in World Cup 63. They have also won six AOCAF Cups from their north-eastern corner of the sporting superpower region of Atlantian Oceania, been victorious two Under-21 World Cups, and a number of other non-WCC affiliated tournaments such as the Olympics.
The Starblaydi Football Association has co-hosted World Cups 20, 40 and 80 all with great success, being notable for being stand out positive experiences for their participants. The SFA remains the only body in history to host and co-host all three WCC tournaments in a single cycle, as part of the ‘über bid’ for World Cup 40, with WC and CoH co-host Krytenia. The SFA also created the Di Bradini Cup, the now recognised successor to the Under 21 World Cup, and solo hosted a number of these tournaments It also hosted three Baptisms of Fire in total, for the 17th, 18th and 40th editions of the World Cup.
Starblaydi citizens have served as President of the World Cup Committee for seventeen of it's seventy-nine cycles, with the legendary Simeone Di Bradini, slightly less legendary Giovanni Lopez and Starblaydi cult hero Lex Panarii all taking the helm of the governing body in that time. Because we lke the idea of the next WC cycle beginning where the previous one ended, the opening match will be held at the 196,754 seater Stadii Di Bradini in Starblaydia's capital, Jhanna, the site of Brenecia's first World Championship in World Cup 80.
The user:
Star is an NS Sport veteran, and has been commended by the WA for his work in Sports Roleplaying - the first of the sports community to receive such an honour. He’s been elected President of the WCC on multiple occasions, and managed the transition of the community from the old Jolt forums to our shiny new ones in between World Cups 46 and 47. Star also wrote the NSWC Signups opening blurb and wrote or co-wrote many of the stickies and guides, including the WCC Constitution. He's hosted two highly regarded World Cups, and remains the only user to have hosted all three WCC tournaments in a single cycle, as well as dabbling in both Quidditch and Rugby Union hosting over the years.
iii. The Technical Bits:
Our chosen scorinator will be xkoranate 0.3.3, using the NSFS formula and xkoranate's additive style mods. The multiplicative style mods of NSFS tend to favor teams with higher style mods, we've found, increasing/reducing the margin of victory instead of just the number of goals scored - and that's not what we're after.
In terms of tiebreakers, we'll be using H2H as first tiebreaker over Goals Scored because of how xkoranate works, and so as to not encourage style mod inflation. By all means play with a Takilan +5 modifier, but don't feel that you have to go with something out of your team’s character just in order to get a game benefit as the group tables are sorted.
Tournament format: Based on the number of signups, we will have double-the-usual size knockout phase of a Round of 32 coming out of the Group Stages, and we'd prefer to work with 60 or 64 as the number of BoF Signups. We will make essentially any number fit at this point, but the simpler the better, with ideally no best second- or third-place teams having to go through, and certainly no play-off matches to decide qualifiers to the knockouts.
iv. Roleplay Encouragement:
The Baptism of Fire should be where RP matters the most, and our bonuses for RP will be hefty indeed, with appropriate maxpoints for each Matchday to ensure that RPing will be the key to victory, but without utterly dominating every match by ridiculous scorelines. In addition to the RP Bonus, which is of course a standard, we'll supply the usual cultural and stadium information to allow any of the competitors to really feel at home in either Equestrian States or Starblaydia, we're also planning on these proven, non-standard features to encourage the realm of roleplay so every nation has something to grasp on to as a hook to RP from:
MoneyMoneyMoney
The 80th World Cup invited sponsors from around the world, but this time the world-leading corporations of Equestrian States and Starblaydia will present their finest sponsorship and advert campaigns. because these will be the drinks, the hotels, the translation services, the banks and the sportswear manufacturers that the teams of the Baptism of Fire will be exposed to.
The Winningest XI
The best roleplayed players (not necessarily the most successful on the pitch) will form the Team of the Tournament, announced before the Final match, giving teams the opportunity to boast about their best players on the way in to the World Cup. Teams will be notified that they can nominate certain players they RP about, or hosts will pick some (possibly surprising) nominations themselves from the RPing
The Postie Always Delivers
Mass TGs, with stamps, to participants when the thread goes up (and, perhaps pre-MD1 depending on the levels of interaction from the players) to make sure everybody knows what's where and when. That's right, we've spent actual money on this game, and we're prepared to use it to make sure participation levels are as high as possible. Both hosts will, of course, be available on TG to answer any questions and give appropriate guidance when required.
v. Challenges
- Isn't this just a copy and paste of your World Cup 80 bid?
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. We've learned from some of the things we tried in World Cup 80 (both Sponsorships and Winningest XI were neat ideas, we think, but could have been pulled off in a slightly more effective manner - with a smaller tournament and more direct control over them, they should be better for this edition). We're switching the location of the Final to Equestrian States and bumping up the RP bonus, but otherwise this a successful, working team that knows what it's doing. - But you two are in hugely different timezones!
The timezone difference between us means we are rarely on at the same time. As two veteran and experienced hosts, however, we have no issues with trusting each other to take any vital decisions without needing to consult the other first. It also means there's little downtime if something needs to be decided quickly. We have google docs, we have Discord and Whatsapp to communicate through, so there should be no trouble with that either - there were no hiccups with communication in the 80th World Cup. - Where’s the junior partner?
Both of the other bids posted at this time have at least one partner who can be called 'junior'. We don't believe that this enormous field, so important to the growth of the game, should really be left to those with little to no first-hand knowledge of how to run a tournament of this size. This one has to be done right the first time and we believe there is little to no room for even the most basic errors. With two senior partners, we feel we have the experience, guidance and collective bags of tricks greater than a Senior/Junior combination would allow on the surface. No disrespect is intended to any of the other bidders, as they'd likely make fine hosts in most other circumstances, we just want to make sure that this one is done right first time, every time.
vi. Questions and Comments
Over to you, the NS Sports community at large and EWCC in particular, for any questions and comments you may have of us, we're happy to answer.
