Handball World Cup 24 - Signup Thread (CLOSED)

[Natanians and Nosts]

In...

[Ardengard]

Signing up

[Sylestone]

HWC 24 Bid: Quebec & Shingoryeo and Sylestone

Introduction

After little thought and even less consideration, Quebecois Handball Federation (QHF) and Sylestone Handball Association of Teams (SHAT) present their bid to host the 24th Handball World Cup.

OOC Information

The user behind Quebec and Shingoryeo has hosted or cohosted a wide range of competitions including 2 World Cups, 2 BoFs, 2 CoHs, 3 IBCs, 5 WCoHs, 2 World Bowls, sections of qualification rounds of XI Summer Olympics, an AOCAF and a CR.

In the past year, he has successfully hosted or cohosted the World Cup of Hockey 40, Volleyball World Expo XI and XII, Rugby Union World Cup 30 (with Ko-oren), and several conferences of the NSCF and NSCAA competitions. He is currently the Commissioner of the NationStates College Football (NSCF), and is also in charge of organising international competitions for both domestic handball and volleyball.

The user behind Sylestone has hosted a multitude of competitions, although not anywhere near as many as their cohost. His most significant outings to date have been hosting a Baptism of Fire and a Cup of Harmony, alongside a WLC, two ARWCs and the inaugural EspoT20. He is also the president of the Aussie Rules World Cup (ARWC) and is an organiser of domestic cricket.

IC Information

Located in Northwestern Anaia, Quebec and Shingoryeo is a nation known for its environment, rich cultural diversity and claims one of its region's most educated and cultured population. Led by Her Imperial Majesty, Christine II, the country is a semi-constitutional monarchy, with both the royalty and the democracy playing a huge role in Quebecois politics. With a high HDI rating and affluent economy, Quebec and Shingoryeo is an advanced nation with long years of peace and stability within the nation, while still allowing for societal and economic progress over the course of its history. With a beautiful environment, advanced economy, state-of-art infrastructure and love of sports, Quebec and Shingoryeo is your place to go for your once-in-a-lifetime voyage that welcomes every traveler with smile and cheer.

Handball is widely considered to be the most popular summer indoor sport in Quebec and Shingoryeo. With relatively lower cost of entry and membership compared to its primary rivals in field hockey, it is played by many people across different socioeconomic demographics in all parts of the country. The Quebecois professional pyramid presents three tiers, with the dualsex, 12-team Ligue-Boreale being the highest tier, and the Coupe de la Reine also serves as the Cup for all eligible professional and collegiate clubs. After three decades of no full-strength teams playing internationally due to constant lockouts between the QHF and the QHPA, the Quebecois Handball Federation hopes the opportunity to cohost this HWC, the second time in the federation history, will improve the sport’s standings.

Sylestone is a tropical island nation located in western Esportiva, well-known for its thriving environment and tourism industry. It has relatively high scientific advancement and technology, with little crime throughout the nation, although not unknown. The nation is home to roughly 30 million people and encompasses roughly 700 kilometres square, with its main cities including the capital, Avondale, Chamberley on the western shores, Betham, Cleorough, the treetop city of Pesfield and the almighty city of Sentient Objects, Kirkham. The nation is well-known for its dense rainforests and bright yellow beaches, as well as its inland desert and the Cable Alps in the east, all essential destinations for the everyday tourists. As a result, its climate could not be more different than their Quebecois counterparts.

Handball is not an incredibly popular sport in Sylestone, with most of the population preferring to follow cricket, football or Australian Rules football. However, it still has its fair share of supporters, enough to provide a lively atmosphere in every stadium. Beach handball is just as popular as typical handball (known as indoor handball), where each region has teams that fight it out throughout the dry season, before the victors from each region travel to Chamberley for the finals, held in the latter stages of the dry season. Indoor Handball is just as popular, but is played on a more professional basis, with twelve different teams playing each other in a double round-robin for a number of seasons now. Through this HWC, the SHAT will be looking to build upon the nation’s indoor handball fanbase as they seek to put it up there among the nation’s top few sports.

Scorination and RP Bonus

Scorination will be done in the latest version of xkoranate on the handball function. As with the RL regulations per IHF, we will be adhering to 2-1-0 point format with 2 points for the win, a point for the draw, and no point for a loss.

The current HWC rankings, which have tabulated results from only the previous HWC, will be used for seeding purposes, and be divided into an equivalent of a matchday’s worth of RP bonus. Due to the relatively infrequent nature of HWCs up to this point, we feel that this is the best way to encourage more roleplays.

RPs will be scored on an unstated but generous scale, with the grading criteria based around how creative and how well written they are, which means that the length of an RP isn't a be all and end all. RP bonus will serve as a significant factor in the scorination. They will be cumulative, all the way through.

Rosters will also be graded and shall be equivalent to a matchday, with the same criteria being used as the RPs. There will also be bonus RP opportunities (that you can ignore if you want) next to some of the scorinated matches, which many of you have already experienced through most competitions that both users have hosted in the past.

Finally, the new trend for “no roster, no rank” shall be in place here. This is to ensure every RPer is able to have their optimum experience and thus emphasising the importance of rostering to every participant. While rank may not play a huge role due to a generous roleplay bonus, it will be adequate enough that without a roster, it is unlikely you will be able to make it to the knockouts of the proposed format, no matter how large it is.

Cutoff and Timeframe

Currently, thoughts are that we would like to aim for at least having the first group stage, if not the second, as World Cup Qualifiers wound down before the Cup of Harmony. This means that there may likely be a fair bit of time between the posting of the everything thread and the first matchday, providing more than adequate time for people to roster and thus retain their previous rank.

Cutoffs for Quebec & Shingoryeo are planned to be occurring late night East Asian time (midday/early afternoon UTC), while cutoffs for Sylestone will likely occur at late afternoon Australian eastern time (early morning UTC).

Format

At this moment, we have 26 signups. Assuming there will be at least 30 signups, there are several possible options available. In this case, however, we will be running with the assumption that the planned field size is 36 teams. If there are bigger or smaller number of signups by the time of the cutoff, there will be adjustments made to accommodate the change:

The below sets out a format with 36 teams:

- First Group Stage - 36 teams: 6 groups of 6 teams under a single round robin format. There will be daily scorination for this section of the cutoff.
- Second Group Stage - 24 teams: The top 4 teams from each group will qualify for the second group, and again be divided into 4 groups of 6 teams. There will be daily scorination for this section of the cutoff.
- Knockout Rounds - 8 teams: Top 2 teams from each group will qualify for the quarterfinals, and the single-elimination bracket will be played. There will be 9th-16th placement playoffs to determine final rankings.

All matches will be played in Quebec and Shingoryeo, and Sylestone. Both cohosts will be placed as the top seed for the first group stage and if they qualify, the second group stage as well.

Tiebreakers

The tiebreakers work according to this order:
- Points
- H2H Points
- H2H Goal Differential
- H2H Goals For
- Goal Difference
- Goals For

Questions

Be sure to ask any questions you have regarding this bid and your potential cohosts.

[Bollonich]

With a bid up, I will now be setting up a host bid deadline.

Please get your bids in by 9th September, Thursday 10:30 am UTC.

[Hebitaka]

We shall play again!

[Praxedes]

Praxedes is in aswell ofcourse

[Kykid8]

Can one of my GE&T storefronts sponsor the event?

[Lisander]

Can one of my GE&T storefronts sponsor the event?

I suggest you get in touch privately with the nations behind the host bid, since it could be easier to sort it.

[Equestrian States]

In.

[Bollonich]

Can one of my GE&T storefronts sponsor the event?

Solely dependent on the users behind the winning bid so follow what Lisander said and get in touch with the current bidders in private.

[Annyeong Oppa]

In to rip some nametags

[Bollonich]

Reminder that there are ~25 hours left for any host bids to be made following the conclusion of which I'll open voting.

[Ethane]

I'll enter.

[Bollonich]

Hello, Host bidding for the 24th Handball World Cup is now closed and host voting is open!

There is one bid to choose from along with the option to re-open bidding.

Sylestone and Quebec and Shingoryeo
Reopen Bidding

All votes are to be telegrammed to Castlelobruxo by 15th September, Wednesday 10:30 am UTC.

[The 14 Stars]

If its still possible i wish to join aswell,

I sadly could not finish the world cup of soccer earlier due to one of my family members suddenly passing away so that is to the community why my sudden dissapearance was a thing.
I am now back and im ready to get back into things.

[Castlelobruxo]

So the host vote had now reached its conclusion. In total 2 votes were received.

Quebec and Shingoryeo and Sylestone - 2
Re-open bidding - 0

Thus, the reins of the 24th Handball World Cup are handed over to your hosts.

[Sarzonia]

This is usually the time where I would withdraw from a tournament if I had an issue with the host bid that got voted in.

This will NOT be that post. I'm not withdrawing.

I wanted to say as (apparently) one of the two who voted for the bid that I did so with full confidence in both hosts after RPing in tournaments both of them hosted. I also wanted to note that when Sylestone placed a hosting bid and didn't have the breath of experience he has now, I expressed concerns about lack of experience back then. The maturity of his response to my concerns was enough to convince me that he would do well as a host. His subsequent experiences make me even more confident now.

Let's rock.

[Ethane]

Alright, apologies that I've been absent; it's been a long summer (graduating, holiday, finding a job, covid etc). So thanks to Bollonich for setting this all up and getting the ball rolling on the HWC. Much appreciated. I didn't vote (been ill/not on NS/forgot), but I of course wholeheartedly endorse this bid too - Quebec is a reliable and great host from my experience. Syle was also an absolute pleasure to host with previously too. I look forward to this HWC and promise (promise that I'll do some RPing this time.

[Sylestone]

Alright, thanks for voting us in!
With a quick double-check, we appear to have 32 signups, which works for us. Plan is for eight groups of four going into four groups of five for the second group stage. Therefore, signups are officially closed.

snip

Having you say this means a lot, thank you!

[Quebec and Shingoryeo]

So there is a minor error on my half of the groups in regards to pots.

While marked as unranked, Lisander is indeed ranked 19th on the HWC rankings, which briefly raised a problem since a ranked, Pot 2 nation somehow ended up on Pot 4.

This error was something that neither my cohost nor myself have noticed. To rectify this problem, and to minimise the number of teams that have to move, a three-way move has been performed:

• Lisander will move from B4 to A2
• To minimise group changes, Kriegiersien has been moved from A2 to A3 as one of two lowest-ranked pot 2 nations
• Terradiu will then move from A3 to A4, and Hallikshire will move from A4 to B4. As neither has yet to roster, this should not change much.

Thanks to Lisander for pointing this out in advance, especially as his nation is on my scheduled OOC half of HWC. Once again, my apologies for not detecting this earlier, but sooner is better than later. Let's rock!

NOTE: The first group stage will be home-and-away, while the second group stage and knockout rounds will be held in Sylestone and Quebec and Shingoryeo.