World Cup/Baptism of Fire Signups • Host Bid • World Cup Discussion Thread
Valladares Info • Chromatika Info
Welcome to the seventy-third edition of the Baptism of Fire, brought to you by the Asociación Valladar de Fútbol and the Chromatik Football Federation! This tournament marks the beginning of the eighty-sixth cycle of the NationStates World Cup, where we will be welcoming 36 nations that are about to compete in their first WCC competition ever!
This prestigious competition is one of three competitions making up the World Cup cycle, along with the World Cup and the Cup of Harmony (which is an invitational tournament for nations that fail to make it to the WC proper), and entry into it is reserved to nations that have not entered the World Cup before, and as such, do not have a KPB ranking (i.e. NS Sports equivalent of the FIFA rankings) or nations that, having had a KPB rank at some point in time, have not entered the BoF before and their KPB points have reset to zero. Therefore, this competition is where those teams gain their first KPB points and begin their long road to World Cup success, making the BoF a very important warming-up for the World Cup.
Given the unique nature of the Baptism of Fire, being the only WCC competition with all entrants lacking any rank points, all 36 teams that will be travelling to the sporting regions of Rushmore and Atlantian Oceania will start on an equal footing and therefore will have the same odds to go on to win the competition. However, there are two determining factors that will help you fulfill that goal: the first one is called roleplay (or RP). RP well and RP often and your chances to win will certainly increase! The other one is none other than luck, because in NS Sports things won't always go your way, and Margaret, NS Sports' unofficial Goddess of Randomness will be constantly visiting us looking for people to reward or punish (yes, that too) as she deems appropriate.
This thread will be the place where you should post everything in-character (IC) related to the tournament, that is, your rosters and roleplays, and also the place where the hosts will be posting their nation info, stadiums, and of course, the results. Out-of-character notes, comments, observations, etc (including tags and placeholders of any sort) should not be posted here and should instead go to the World Cup Discussion Thread (linked above) or to the hosts via either telegram or direct message on Discord. Both hosts can be found on the #nssport server on Discord as Val|WI#9447 (Valladares) and GeminiLightning#8783 (Chromatika).
Format
This Baptism of Fire edition will feature 36 participants, which will be split into six groups of six teams each. All matches in the competition will take place in the host nations, with three groups being played in Valladares and the other three in Chromatika. In the group stage, teams will play each one of their group rivals once, for a total of five group stage matches per team. The group standings will be sorted by points, overall goal differential, H2H, RP bonus (ICly to be known as "drawing of lots"), and if needed, an actual drawing of lots. At the end of the group stage, the top two teams from each group along with the four best third-placed teams will advance to the round of 16 and play a single-elimination tournament all the way through the semi-finals; from there, the losers will play for third place and a set of shiny bronze medals, while the winners will lock horns with the championship at stake.
The first matchday will take place on the late evening of Thursday, August 13th in the Americas (early morning of Friday 14th in Europe), with scorination every day thereon. On each matchday, an RP cutoff will be posted, indicating that RPs posted after that point will not count towards RP bonus calculation of that matchday, but for the following one instead. Said RP bonus is calculated based on whether you RPed or not and the quality of your RPs. You may RP more than once per scorination day, but please note that all of your RPs between cutoffs will be counted as a single one for the purposes of bonus calculation. Scores will be generated with a program called scorinator, which takes into account that bonus and generates random numbers and turns it into scores, determining who wins, who ties, and who loses, and by what score. The scorinator to be used in this tournament will be xkoranate, with the NSFS formula.
Group Draw (Groups A to C to be played in Valladares; Groups D to F to be played in Chromatika)
Group A
Savigliane
Pripet Socialist Republic
Praeceptia
Lovisa
Iles Rogieres
Pluvia and the Saxean Isles
Group B
Wymondham
Tikariot
Eurasies
Kencana
Free Republic of Hong Kong
Graintfjall
Group C
Ihilthracna
The holy junta
Overseas Territories of Sylestone
Hwiccemark
Staypuftonia
Southwest Eastnorth
Group D
Pemecutan
Fluvannia
Woryand
Unimon
Glazgo
Squidroidia
Group E
Rangers FC
Mathuvan Union
Netop
The Gothanita Isles
TOTEL
Southern Palm Islands
Group F
NorraLesse
Se Vende Skooma
Tioguldos
Quebecois Acadiana
Liberal Democratic Socialist States
Megistos
Tournament Schedule
Groups A-C will be scorinated by Valladares between 10:00-12:00 pm COT (03:00-05:00 am UTC). Groups D-F will be scorinated by Chromatika between 9:00-11:00 pm PDT (04:00-06:00 am UTC). All dates below are UTC.
Group Stage
The number corresponds to the order in which each team is listed in their group.
Friday, August 14th: Matchday 1 - 1v6, 2v5, 3v4
Saturday, August 15th: Matchday 2 - 6v4, 5v3, 1v2
Sunday, August 16th: Matchday 3 - 2v6, 3v1, 4v5
Monday, August 17th: Matchday 4 - 6v5, 1v4, 2v3
Tuesday, August 18th: Matchday 5 - 3v6, 4v2, 5v1
Wednesday, August 19th: Off day
Knockout Stage
The number pairings correspond to the seeding of each team after the group stage.
Thursday, August 20th: Round of 16 - 1v16, 2v15, 3v14, 4v13, 5v12, 6v11, 7v10, 8v9
Friday, August 21st: Quarter-finals
Saturday, August 22nd: Semi-finals
Sunday, August 23rd: Third Place Play-off and Final
New to NS Sports? Here are some tips for you.
First of all, if you are new to the NS Sports forum, you really should read the Guide to Sports Roleplaying. This guide presents you a general idea on what to do and how tournaments in NS Sports work. In case you have any additional questions, feel free to ask on the Discussion Thread (again, linked above) or send one of the hosts a telegram.
Now that you have already taken that step, you should start thinking in a roster for your team. A roster is -in its simplest form- a list of the 11 players in your starting lineup, their positions, manager/head coach, and also the players in your bench or reserves. Some participants often include some other information aimed at enriching the RPing experience and opportunities, for example, additional information on their players, coaching staff, their backgrounds, clubs, style of play, strenghts and weaknesses and anything else deemed to be of interest or anything you want others to know about your team. There is no limit regarding the number of players you can include in your roster, and there's no gender- or species-based restriction of any sort, either, with several past World Cup champions and other established nations currently competing or having competed with all-male, all-female, mixed-gender teams, teams comprised by monks, and also teams made up of elves, sentient bears and ponies, among several others.
Next up, you may want to include a style modifier for your team in your roster. A style modifier is a number ranging from -5 to +5 which will be input into the scorinator and will also serve to give others an idea of your style of play. Teams with negative style modifiers tend to be more defense-focused and will concede (on average) fewer goals at the cost of having more trouble at scoring goals. On the other hand, if your team is more offense-focused, then you should choose a positive style mod. Teams that play offensively tend to score more goals on average...but also tend to concede more goals in return. For those of you who would rather a more balanced style, a neutral style mod of 0 is also available. Teams will also be assigned a style mod of 0 if they don't state a style modifier.
Okay, so you already have a list of players and have chosen a style mod for your team. Good. Now pay attention to this part, because this is one of the most important things to include in your roster as it will have an effect on your opponents' RPs. Ladies and gentlemen, now we present to you the RP Permissions Box:
My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my goalscorers: Yes/No
Godmod scoring events: Yes/No
RP injuries to my players: Yes/No
Godmod injuries to my players: Yes/No
Hand out yellow cards to my players: Yes/No
Hand out red cards to my players: Yes/No
Godmod other events: Yes/No
The box above will be the tool enabling you to tell your opponents what you are willing to allow them to do, as well as what you are not allowing them to do. Please copy and paste it somewhere into your roster indicating your preferences as well as any restrictions for every option. Now let's review the meaning of each of these options:
Choose my goalscorers allows your opponents to choose which player(s) score your team's goal(s), should they RP the match before you do. Almost everyone allows this option since the most common form of roleplay in this forum is the traditional match summary/report, and it would be really difficult to write one of those without identifying the goalscorers. Godmod scoring events enables your opponents to RP goals that are scored in an unrealistic way or not likely to happen in reality.
The RP injuries to my players option is pretty self-explanatory: it allows your opponents to injure your players. However, most participants who allow others to injure their players will also set restrictions on the severity and causes of those injuries, thus retaining some extent of control on how badly injured their player is and future consequences and impacts of that injury on their teams. Just like "Godmod scoring events" for unlikely/unrealistic goals, Godmod injuries to my players refers to your opponents RPing injuries on your players but caused in less common and/or unrealistic ways. This option is generally used for more drastic injuries than those of the standard injury option, ranging from rendering your players unable to play the remainder of the tournament, ending their careers, or even killing them. That causes this option to be restricted by most players.
Yellow cards and red cards are an important part of the game, as yellow cards are handed out to players who aren't following the rules of the game as a warning, with red cards being handed out either after a second yellow card or as a result of a particularly severe violation of the rules or unsportsmanlike behaviour. Those players that are shown a red card are sent off the field, forcing their team to continue the remainder of the match with less players. Basically, if you choose "yes" to any or both of those options, you are allowing your opponents to enact such disciplinary actions against your players in their RPs. However, you can also set limits on the number of those cards if your players are less prone to carrying out actions that cause them to be booked and/or sent off.
Finally, Godmod other events refers to other unrealistic and/or unlikely events not related with goals or injuries. This can include from severe weather conditions, events by fans in the stands, to the opening of a portal to another dimension at the center of the pitch in the middle of the match. There are several things that can fall into this option, therefore you might deem it appropriate to set some limits for your opponents.
While the tournament advances and scores are posted, you can post roleplays (RPs), which can take on several different forms including but no restricted to: a summary or story of the match itself or part of it, your team's pre-game preparations, post-game celebrations, and so on. In addition to this, they can also be stories entirely unrelated to the match - current events in your country, politics, historical background, anything you want. These can take on the form of newspaper articles, play-by-play commentary, personal narratives, inner monologues, poetry, or any other form you could imagine or feel like doing. The only requirements are to respect the RP permissions of your opponent, and abide by the generated scores, as well as whatever facts about the match your opponent has already established (if they have RPed first).
Not only can you RP in isolation, you are also free to seek opportunities to work together with other players, even with your opponents. You may have already an idea or know exactly how you're going to RP, or maybe you have no idea yet. RP prompts will be made available throughout this particular tournament to give players possible ideas on how to build their stories, and you will be free to follow them or not. You must bear in mind that they are only intended to serve as a help or guide for you to RP, and no additional RP bonus reward or punishment will be handed out for following them or not. RP in NS Sport is a rewarding collaborative pursuit, and perhaps you will be inspired and get ideas from seeing how your fellow players RP. Regardless, the higher the quality of your RP, the better your chances of winning will be. No outcomes are guaranteed, but by giving it your best effort, you can hope to win more than you lose sooner than later.
Feel free to ask any questions in case you have them, either by TG, Discord or in the World Cup Discussion Thread. That said, we hope you enjoy this once in a lifetime tournament and welcome to the Wonderful World of the NS World Cup!