Welcome, nations and states! It's that time of year again! Yes, one of the three or four -- It's time for another edition of the NationStates World Bowl (the 38th), the premier international competition for Gridiron Football (also known as American football), an evolution of rugby football played primarily in North America in various forms.
This here thread will primarily serve two purposes: players can sign up for World Bowl participation (and sign-ups will be tallied in this post), and prospective hosts can submit bids to host the competition. I am tentatively setting the following cut-off dates, to be adjusted if necessary:
Host Bid Cutoff Date: Sunday, January 19th, 2020 at 11:35 PM EST
Host Vote Cutoff Date: Thursday, January 23rd, 2020 at 11:59 PM EST.
Sign-Up Cutoff Date: TBD by eventual host.
On to the meat of this thing.
1) Sign-Ups
To sign up for the World Bowl, simply post in this thread stating your intention to participate. If you roleplay under a name different from your NationStates account name, please make a note of that in your post. Typically (although this is left to host discretion) nations that Cease-To-Exist (CTE) prior to the start of competition are removed from the sign-up lists; if your nation CTE's prior to the beginning of competition, you are advised to check on the status of your sign-up and, if necessary, sign back up.
1B) Puppet Policy
Nations which have previously participated in the World Bowl are permitted to submit a second nation for participation as a puppet. To sign up a puppet nation, simply post a sign-up post with that nation as you would normally for a main nation, and note that you are signing up a puppet. Please note which main nation/account it is a puppet of. After this, post a confirmation with your main account/nation. Please note that, in the event that main nations wish to sign-up after a hard sign-up limit is reached, puppet nations are the first nations to be booted from sign-ups (apart from CTE'd nations) to make room for mains. Please also note that any additional puppet policy is at the discretion of the host.
2) Hosting
As with other NS Sport events, the World Bowl requires a host. The host is selected from among nations that submit a host bid. The host is selected from among the bids by a simple majority vote of the World Bowl Committee -- that's nations that have submitted a roster in at least two consecutive World Bowls, and then not allowed their membership to lapse (due to inactivity in the World Bowl).
2B) What is a hosting bid?
Good question! A host bid is a summary by a prospective host about how they intend to run the competition. There's certain points of information that are essential for any good hosting bid; we have no hard requirements, but people will ask you about this information if you don't include it off the bat.
First off, you need to include scorination information -- how are you going to generate scores for the competition's matches? Most people use a scorinator, a modified random number generator that can be weighted to incorporate team rank and roleplay bonus. There's a few good ones out there: there's no reason you can't use any given scorinator that produces results appropriate to gridiron football, but there's a good chance you'll need to at least explain your choice, so make sure you know how to use the scorinator you choose and understand its advantages and drawbacks on some level.
Second, how do you intend to format the competition? How are matches going to be scheduled, how will a champion be decided, and so on? Typically speaking, what this refers to is how you're going to generate the schedule, how many games everyone will play, and who gets to move on to the "post-season"/elimination rounds.
Third, describe why you're qualified to be a host of a major NationStates Sports competition. If you'd be a first-time host, feel free to submit a bid. That said, typically-speaking, it's preferred that those attempting to host the World Bowl have at least some kind of hosting experience, even with a small competition. It's a big job.
Fourth, and this is more optional than the others, feel free to include some in-character information about the host nation and its bid. You can write most of the bid in-character, if you'd like, or you can keep the whole thing out-of-character. That's up to you.
If it would help you to look at past winning host bids:
- World Bowl XXXV
- World Bowl XXXIII
- World Bowl XXXVII
3) Norms and Traditions
Typically-speaking, the World Bowl has utilized IFAF overtime rules (you might also know these as "college overtime" rules), in which each team has an opportunity to score from a certain distance out from the endzone, and play continues until one team fails to score. You may, if you have the means to scorinate it appropriately, use the modified sudden-death overtime rules utilized by the American National Football League (NFL), but if you intend to do this, please make note of it in your host bid in advance.
In addition, typically speaking, the competition has been formatted using a group stage (in which matches are played in a round-robin or double round-robin), followed by a playoff/elimination round (usually four rounds - a Round of 16, Quarterfinal, Semifinal, and Final/3rd Place Game). Typically, the groups are created using pots, which are created using rankings to create groups with teams across the spectrum of the rankings (i.e., the first pot has the top-8 ranked teams in the World Bowl, the second pot has the next eight, and so on). Again, you are not required by any means to follow this format, but you are asked to make a note of it in your host bid if you are planning on diverging from this norm.
4) Other Useful Information and Resources]
A) On the game itself:
Here, we use the version most commonly seen in the United States of America -- that is, 11 players on each side, 60 minute games (divided into four 15-minute quarters), etc, etc. If you're looking for a quick primer on the sport, Wikipedia has a good family of articles on the sport. IFAF/college overtime is the norm (as touched on above). If you're curious about the strategy of gridiron football, I encourage you to explore those articles, as well; I have personally found them quite informative, and they tend to be well-written, as such things go.
B) On the World Bowl:
There are rankings! You can tell where teams are, generally-speaking, relative to one another, based on their past results. These rankings are used to help weight the scorinators (see above under Hosting), but they are not the end-all, be-all: a good roleplayer can improve their fortunes rapidly, so don't get discouraged.
You can see the most current rankings, courtesy of Drawkland, right here.
Thank you for bearing with me through all that information and text. And now, without further ado, our sign-ups!
Registered Participants: (48+2*/48)
1. Allamunnic States
2. Main Nation Ministry
3. Equestrian States
4. Terre Septentrionale
5. Free Republics
6. Geektopia
7. HUElavia
8. Taeshan
9. Jaspec
10. Drawkland
11. Banija
12. Pius Desurongcrandis
13. Christos
14. Abanhfleft
15. Trans-Dniesters (as Pridnestrovia) (puppet of Abanhfleft)
16. Ahrida
17. Hapilopper
18. Ko-oren
19. Cosumar
20. The Sarian
21. Saint Kanye
22. The Greater Nordics
23. The Transmondian Commonwealth of New England
24. East Lemyone
25. Xanneria
26. Melbergia - CEASED TO EXIST
27. Newmanistan
28. Ranoria
29. BOLGANO
30. Champagne Socialist Sharifistan
31. United States of Devonta
32. Kaboomlandia
33. TJUN-ia
34. Inner AginanaUsordia
35. Sarzonia - WITHDRAWN
36. Lisander
37. St Saratoga
38. Vangaziland
39. -Anthor-
40. Lushansk
41. Mushroom Kingdoms and Republics
42. Nurkama
43. Resarkia
44. Cassadaigua
45. La Montevideo
46. Karditan
47. Cardo
48. Smyth (puppet of Xanneria)
49. Space
50. Tomure
*= One nation on this list has ceased to exist, and another has withdrawn from signups. Therefore, both signups are no longer valid.
Host Bids:
1. Free Republics
Link to World Bowl XXXVIII IC Thread
