EFLANE: Ethane & Eastfield Lodge's Official Bid for the 69th Baptism of Fire.
The football delegations of Ethane and Eastfield Lodge would like to announce their intention to bid for the 69th Baptism of Fire together. Below is the documentation required for the bidding process. We hope this reaches you in good health, and that everything required to lodge a bid is below. We can't wait to hear back from you about the result of our bid.
69th Baptism of Fire Host Bid
Name: Ethane
National Information: Ethane is a nation of about 15 million people located in North-West Esportiva. Much of the population lives in urban areas, particularly New Sarum (the capital and seat of Government) and Swanmouth. However, there are a number of smaller towns and cities, and there are some people living in the rural parts of the nation as well. Ethane has a strong economy primarily driven by the technology sector, although the nation's sports, media production, and developing weaponry industries also symbolise the great success of the Ethanian economic system.
The nation tends to be fairly centrist politically, although often swings between conservative and liberal parties. There has been an increase in radicalisation in recent years, driven by social tensions and new legislation, which has driven extreme parties such as the Ethanian Morality Party and the GreenerEthane party. Historically, Ethane has been a religious nation but moved towards secularism; recent changes are starting to see the reverse of that process.
The nation is well known for many things, including its multiple sporting appearances in the likes of the World Baseball Classic, and the World Cup, and its performances in the Worldvision Song Contest and the World Hit Festival. However, it also holds a number of tranquil national treasures, such as the Isle of Lowe providing a serene, natural beauty with a variety of mountains and lakes, and the two sets of mountain ranges in the centre of Ethane with the wondrous countryside surrounding it. Additionally, surrounding Ethane are a number of smaller islands which provide amazing natural habitats and beautiful holiday sites focused on nature and beaches. However, the main beach and nightlife scene is in New Sarum and Letson; both are located along the south coast.
Bidder Information: The user behind Ethane has been a relatively regular participant in this forum since September 2016, well-known for their recent run of qualifications for the World Cup and their involvement in the World Baseball Classic. However, I also participate in a number of other sports across the forum as well, such as cricket, the WGPC, and basketball to name most of them.
I am no stranger to hosting large sporting events, with a range of different sports and tournaments in my hosting resume. I have hosted sports stretching from Gaelic Football to handball, hockey to tennis. In terms of larger events, I have hosted the 30th World Bowl, the 22nd International Basketball Championships, the 69th Cup of Harmony, and the 71st Cup of Harmony.
I have taken a break from hosting recently other than my domestic league, but am looking to get back into hosting some larger events again. As a user, I am also established within the forum community, having previously had the role of Vice-President of the International Basketball Organisation and WA Delegate of Esportiva. I also run my own leagues, The Explosive Leagues, with 3 tiers.
Name: Eastfield Lodge
National Information: The Imperial Commonwealth of Eastfield Lodge is a vast conglomerate of nations and states that resides almost entirely in a separate dimension to the reality you all know and all - a bubble universe would be an apt description (the why is a long story). The one bit of the country that lies in the normal dimension is a tiny island in the northern Rushmore seas, which serves as a transport hub for travel across the region by conventional transport, and for travel to the Imperial Commonwealth via Void Ship.
The history of the country is long and complex, but the key overview is that it is a very socialist Muslim constitutional monarchy, with a noted reputation as being one of the nicest places to visit in the entirety of the known multiverse - the most recent WA census puts the Imperial Commonwealth in the top 100 nations in several measures such as Safety, Compliance/freedom from crime, Tourism, Weather, Compassion, Niceness and Environmental Beauty, amongst several others; most of which are also ranked as the best in the Rushmore region.
Bidder Information: The user behind Eastfield Lodge has been a semi-regular fixture on this sub-forum for nearly ten years, and is probably most well-known for being extremely poor at qualifying for the World Cup - 31 failures in 33 attempts, including 21 in a row from World Cups 55 to 77. In a more relevant sport, there has been a a bit more success in the field of motorsport, finishing as runners-up in consecutive NationStates Grand Prix championships, before being involved in the World Grand Prix Championship for the past four seasons.
Despite being on the forum for so long, my hosting experience is a bit thin on the ground. I did host a few competitions in my early years, including the 4th Market Cup. More recently however, I have hosted the 12th Beach Cup, the 8th International Firestorm Cup, the 27th Copa Rushmori (along with Pasarga) and then the inaugural WGP2 season most recently. However, I had have plenty of experience with using scorinators, having scorinated 38 seasons of a domestic football league.
Bid Information:
Methodology: We will be using the xkoranate 0.3.3 scorinator with the NSFS formula, and additive style mods (-5 to +5). RP bonus will be cumulative, focusing on encouraging quality roleplaying; therefore prioritising quality over quantity.
Format: Dependent on sign-up numbers. However, based on potential numbers with estimations, here are some rough ideas of how we might format the tournament (note these are subject to change). Double round-robin would only be used if there were 4 teams or less in a group; unlikely but very possible. We are also able to work with less ideal numbers as well, but these are not detailed below.
32 - 8 groups of 4
36 - 6 groups of 6
40 - 8 groups of 5
Tiebreakers: Points -> H2H Points -> H2H Goal Difference -> Goal Difference -> Playoff.
Supporting Newcomers: An important part of the Baptism of Fire is encouraging and welcoming new nations into the nationstates sporting community. We fully believe that first impressions are important when it comes to participating in a community and making friends and connections, and so we want this tournament to be a great first impression for them. That is why if we host we will enact a number of measures to make that first impression.
We will ensure they feel welcomed by ensuring there is clear advice on NS Sports roleplaying available in the opening post.
We will telegram the nations individually, welcoming them to NS Sports and the Baptism of Fire, and telling them a bit about the tournament and other events on the forums.
We will provide a number of RP prompts to help facilitate roleplaying. These will not provide any extra bonus, but are there only as a way to encourage ideas and to give the new nations a sense of what they could write about.
We will do a 'Team of the Tournament', where nations will be able to submit their players to be part of a 'Best XI' of the tournament, which will be based on performance as well as the writing surrounding the team and the characters.
We will follow up with the nations after the tournament, encouraging them for the start of the World Cup, as well as highlighting other opportunities to get involved in the NS Sports forums and places they can go if they need any help or advice.
Thank you for considering our bid. If there's any questions, criticisms, concerns, or anything else you want to say about the bid, take it away.
