A special report on the nations who've won exactly two World Bowls
The World Bowl is approaching its 40th edition coming next cycle. Over the course of this storied tournament, hundreds of nations have competed for the ultimate gridiron glory of winning the World Bowl. Alas, there can only be one winner per cycle, and thus only 39 professional gridiron trophies have ever been awarded.
Over the course of World Bowl history, 25 nations have come home with the silverware, meaning the World Bowl has had a repeat champion 14 times. In these 14 times lie the escapades of the elite champions, nations who topped the footballing world not once, but twice ... or even more. The most dominant nation in World Bowl history is undoubtedly Allamunnic States, with their astounding 6 titles. Half of those were earned in a 5-cycle period from World Bowl XXIII to World Bowl XXVII. It's unlikely that any nation will be able to achieve such a feat again, unless the landscape of the World Bowl changes dramatically. Even then, the States have won over 15% of all contested World Bowls. Isn't that something?
In a distant second is Dancougar, the stalwart of the early World Bowls that undoubtedly was the First Dynasty on the gridiron. They took home 3 championships, including the first "World Bowl", but not long after their third title in World Bowl VI, they faded away into the annals of history. After Dancougar, there's an astounding seven nations who've taken home the glory twice ... and today, we'll be looking at these elite seven, and what their chances are at finally tying Dancougar, over 30 cycles from when they became the first to win three. As for Allamunnic States ... we'll talk about them some other time. Maybe when a few more people get to three titles.
For the purposes of this list, we'll be counting the Gridiron Football World Championships, which served as a primer for what would become the World Bowl. It's been colloquially known as "World Bowl 0," and there's a bit of division among historians on whether or not it counts. Unless you ask any historian from Taeshan, I'm sure they'd unanimously agree it counts.
We'll be listing nations in the order in which we believe they'll win their third championship, if ever. This'll mostly be based on their current rank, since that's the only indicator on how well a nation will do. Nobody can account for shock runs or lucky playoff draws or huge upsets, so we're going to ignore those in our predictions. After all, who would've predicted that Drawkland would win the World Bowl in only their third cycle?
Champions: World Bowl III, World Bowl XXI
Current Rank: N/A
Prediction: Never
Qazox were one of the powerhouses in the early history of the World Bowl. Like most tournaments in their infancy, the World Bowl was dominated by nations who'd participate every cycle. In the days when new championships begin, their future is uncertain, as is their place in the sporting world. Many nations don't know if they should bother training and sending out the best their nation could offer. Because of this, nations who do give the competition their all rise to prominence very quickly. Such was the story of Qazox. This isn't to say that there were no nations giving their best effort in the early Bowls, or that the titles from those days are cheapened, it is true that perhaps subpar squads could win titles with less trouble. After all, Qazox participated in nearly all the early World Bowls, but they didn't win another title until almost twenty cycles later in World Bowl XXI.
The nation of Qazox was much maligned through their history in the sporting world, from both infamous escapades in the World Cup and a very fluctuating reputation in other sports. Eventually, the straw broke the camel's back, and the nation resolved to resign their involvement in international sports for good. Once the second half of the Allamunnic dynasty came and went, Qazox was already a relic of the past. And while some nations like Newmanistan, Cassadaigua, Sarzonia, and Delaclava have returned from their sporting hiatus, there seems to be no signs of Qazox ever returning. Out of all seven two-time winners, Qazox is the only one that didn't participate in this current World Bowl. It's unlikely that Qazox will ever complete their World Bowl trifecta.
Champions: World Bowl XI, World Bowl XIV
Current Rank: UR
Prediction: World Bowl XLVII
The next two teams on the list are linked in many ways. Both Sarzonia and Delaclava recently returned from hiatuses in this World Bowl after being away from the sporting scene for many years. Both of these nations found their success and championships in the early 10s of World Bowl history, and both disappeared soon after. Not to mention, both teams had a pretty intense rivalry across multiple sports. In fact, the Stars and the Phoenixes faced off in the World Bowl championship twice, and split the series 1-1.
It's funny that both teams came back at the exact same time. This World Bowl XXXIX was Sarzonia's first World Bowl since World Bowl XXI, the won that Qazox took home. It's reasonable to suspect that a team like Sarzonia won't take very long to get back into the thick of things. Really, that can be expected from any of these squads, but Sarzonia are certainly no exception. The only reason they're so low on this list is because they are the only ones unranked besides Delaclava. They'll likely crack the Top 10 sometime after World Bowl XLI, and it won't be long before they're favorites to get a title.
Champions: World Bowl XIII, World Bowl XV
Current Rank: UR
Prediction: World Bowl XLVI
We already went over most of the history with Sarzonia and Delaclava in that last section, so there's not a whole lot to add here. They're not exactly the same though - Delaclava left the World Bowl and greater sporting scene much earlier than Sarzonia. Delaclava's last World Bowl entry before this one was World Bowl XVI, only one cycle removed from their second championship. One might wonder how history would be different had Delaclava stayed ... XVI was Allamunnic States' first title, and they repeated the Bowl after that. Maybe they wouldn't have become such a massive dynasty had their early history panned out a little differently thanks to nations like Delaclava.
Whatever, that's all in the past anyway. Like we said earlier, both Delaclava and Sarzonia are newly back in the World Bowl, and they'll be back on their elite winning ways soon enough. Delaclava gets the edge on Sarzonia because they made the playoffs this edition while Sarzonia didn't. This means Delaclava will be just a little bit ahead of Sarzonia rank and success wise, and that'll be the edge that theoretically gets them title number three before Sarzonia.
Champions: World Bowl VIII, World Bowl XXII
Current Rank: 11th
Prediction: World Bowl XLIII
Cassadaigua, similar to Delaclava and Sarzonia, came back from a hiatus. The difference is that they've been back for long enough that they've once again turned into a stalwart in the upper echelons of international sport. Hell, they barely fell short of winning yet another World Baseball Classic title last cycle here in Drawkland. And if you think their winning of two titles in the World Bowl wasn't impressive enough, they've won two titles in every "Big 5" tournament except for the International Basketball Championships, where they only have one title.
However, as far as having three titles, Cassadaigua has only achieved this in the World Baseball Classic. So they're basically total noobs! Try winning three of everything, you bastards! Their ascent to making the World Bowl Top 10 is nearly complete, and depending on their playoff run, could be confirmed at the end of this cycle. Once they're up there, they could be in striking distance at any moment. There's still many nations vying for the Bowl though, and especially a trio of two-timers further ahead on the race.
Champions: World Bowl 0, World Bowl XXXIV
Current Rank: 7th
Prediction: World Bowl XLII
Taeshan is a nation as old, if not older, than all the nations preceding them on this list. Unlike them though, the Taeshanis have been participating on-and-off in the World Bowl since before it was called the World Bowl. It was just recently that they returned to being a dominant squad though, and they've made the most of it. Their second title came nearly out of nowhere in World Bowl XXXIV, over thirty cycles removed from their first title win, in World Bowl "0". Since then, they've constantly threatening to make another championship run.
Their defensive mindset is killer to many lesser and greater squads, and not unlike the next team on our list. The only reason they're not listed in second is because our next time has more "recent" success, as well as being ranked just a tad higher. They could easily flip-flop though, especially pending our current Bowl's playoffs.
Champions: World Bowl XXVI, World Bowl XXXVII
Current Rank: 6th
Prediction: World Bowl XLI
Speaking of powerful defensive squads, look no further than Ko-oren. The Dragonflies are not quite as old a team as the other nations on this list, but that is by no means a knock on their skill. Their first win was in between Allamunnic States' last two wins, so credit them with helping break up their dynasty to not be quite so ridiculous. They remained one of the class of World Bowl since then, but they couldn't necessarily get the pieces together to be dominating in this time.
Ko-oren finally broke through to claim their second title in the recent World Bowl XXXVII, and taking the number one ranking in the process. In the quirky format of the following World Bowl XXXVIII, they did not thrive. They didn't even advance beyond the first group stage, which stopped their chance of a repeat win, and dropping them way back down into sixth. Their momentum was shot, but at least they bounced back this Bowl. Obviously, the playoff results will be most important, but it's certainly enough to think they'll be able to get Number Three soon enough.
Champions: World Bowl XXX, World Bowl XXXV
Current Rank: 2nd
Prediction: World Bowl XL
Finally, the last team on the list is yours truly, who happens to be the youngest nation competing. Even the second-youngest competitor of the two-time winners, Ko-oren, had already won their first title a couple cycles before Drawkland entered the fray. Still, you can't deny how the Drawkians shot into the World Bowl scene really quickly. They debuted XXVIII, co-hosted XXIX, and then won World Bowl XXX. Unfortunately for the Grid Corps, the next few cycles were hallmarked with almost being good enough to make their second title, which finally came in World Bowl XXXV. Of course, they promptly almost won two more Bowls, XXXVI and XXXVIII.
They top this list thanks to the fact that they've competed in a World Bowl championship most recently, and are currently ranked 2nd. It's not outlandish to think they'll be competing for this World Bowl championship, but it's also not outlandish to think they'll fall short again and add another final loss to make Drawkland one step closer to becoming the Audioslavia of the World Bowl (for those counting at home, we've got two wins and two losses - only five more final losses to go!). We've predicted a win in World Bowl XL, both because we don't want to jinx our current run, and because we won XXX and XXXV ... so logically, we'll win XL since it's in the five-Bowl interval.
Really though, any of these teams have the talent and the luck to win the World Bowl not once, but twice. Any of these teams are within striking distance of a title at any time ... so Dancougar will likely have some company very soon. Allamunnic States though ... well, let's just hope we can stop them from winning seven titles before one of us can get to three. Good luck in the playoffs, everyone!