Invitation Criteria
The absolute minimum criteria will be:
- Posted a roster for the World Cup by MD9.
- RPed at least twice during the first half (MD1–9) and at least twice during the second half (MD10–18).
- Accepts invitation by posting a roster.
Format & Scorination
Dependent on final numbers, of course.
- Base format: single round robin groups of equal size, leading to a single elimination (+3PPO) bracket.
- In the case of a 32 team competition the bracket will begin at the Ro16; in the case of a 64 team competition at the Ro32.
- Otherwise, the single elimination bracket will begin with a play-in or "Round of 24" stage: byes for the top 8 teams, to meet the winners of 9v24, 10v23 etc. in the Ro16.
- Actual group sizes will be arranged based on the number but the preference is for smaller groups. If the full 64 teams are invited, 16x4 groups will be used. (The top 8 group winners earning byes in the Ro24, the next 16 teams playing one another.)
- The bracket will be structured such that all teams stay in the same country for the play-in round through to the semi-finals. There may be some teams moving between group stage and play-in stage, and obviously for the final (to be held in Krytenia) and 3PPO (to be held in Græntfjall).
- One MD every 48 hours.
- If possible the aim is to have the tournament concurrent with the World Cup proper, with scorination staggered to off-days (e.g. if NSWC is on Monday, CoH is on Tuesday, NSWC on Wednesday, etc.).
- NSFS, additive mods ± 5.
- RP bonus available every cutoff (even, in the event of odd group sizes, on bye days), plus a roster bonus. No roster penalties. Well, not being allowed into the tournament is a roster penalty, I guess.
- Tiebreakers: group position, points, GD, H2H results, H2H GD, IC coin-flip [OOC scorinated game]
- Co-hosts scorinate each other’s games (inc. puppets).
RP aspects
Information will be provided about the host nations and stadiums.
Fitting the "Frostier Cup" theme, the tournament will take place during the Græntfjaller winter (some stadiums have domes, some heated pitches, some are just bollock-witheringly cold). However, as it is -- thanks to the quirks of interregional geography -- summer in Krytenia, the reward for teams winning their way to the final will be a much warmer venue to compete for the grand prize.
Although both countries have election storylines planned these will not feature as part of the hosting. (I did so a little bit during IBC30 and in hindsight it was a mistake, not everyone enjoys political commentary intruding on their sportsball!)
At the end of a long WC campaign, many people are tired and their RP ideas spent, so to provide additional inspiration a small optional prompt will be posted each day. On the Græntfjaller side, we have chosen to interpret the "Harmony" theme somewhat literally and the prompts will be of a musical nature e.g. "Blues: what is the lowest point in your NT history?". These are to stress optional and max RP bonus is still available for those who ignore them and RP their own stuff.
Finally, there will be a tournament-long Goal of the Tournament competition, ending before the semifinals (reaching the semifinals is reward enough!). Each user can submit one goal, however they interpret that: a snippet of radio commentary, a description from a match report, a fan's eye account, the scorer of said goal's emotions as it goes in. A shortlist will be selected and a voting element included to decide it. Again, those choosing to refrain from participating in this will not be penalized and full RP bonus is otherwise available.
Experience
Both of us have hosted a couple tournaments before.
Questions/comments welcome.