The Second CAFA Cup
Hosted by Krytenia
Hello, fellow Anaians, and welcome to the second edition of the CAFA Cup. Twenty-four sides will travel to our fair nation, sandwiched between the Ocean of Ayes and Lake Bekk (or Beck, to the locals), looking to succeed Aus-Ves-Nat and become the footballing Champions of Anaia.
Teams (24):
GROUP A
Krytenia
Legalese
Huayramarca
The Karodin Tetrarchy
Group B
Sienna Archipelago
Ko-oren
Mont Vert
Iskandervale
GROUP C
Savigliane
Audioslavia
Aleirave
Flavovespia
GROUP D
Pyazhnaya
Saltstead
Atheara
Mertagne
GROUP E
Aut-Ves-Nat
Independent Athletes from Quebec
Chromatika
Ginadjkrum
GROUP F
Yesopalitha
Starblaydia
Murderbum
Ochre Islands
Format
Six groups of four in single round-robin. Top two in each group will advance, alongside the four best third-placed teams. Teams will be seeded 1-16 for the knockout stages, with group winners 1-6, runners-up 7-12, and third placed sides 13-16 for a straight knockout bracket. Teams from the same group cannot meet in the round of sixteen.
Tiebreakers
Points, goal difference, H2H result, drawing of lots. In the case of a multi-way tie, tiebreakers will be applied (with the exception of lots) until at least part of the tie is broken; should teams still need to be separated, the tiebreakers will be re-applied from the beginning with just those teams. Lots will be drawn if all listed tiebreakers have been exhausted and ties are still not broken.
Schedule
Saturday 13 November: Group Stage Draw
Tuesday 16 November: Group Stage MD1 (1v4, 2v3)
Thursday 18 November: Group Stage MD2 (2v1, 4v3)
Saturday 20 November: Group Stage MD3 (3v1, 2v4)
Monday 22 November: Round of Sixteen
Wednesday 24 November: Quarter-finals
Friday 26 November: Semi-finals
Saturday 27 November: Third place play-off
Sunday 28 November: Final
Cutoff is at approximately 2200-2300 UTC on the above dates; for some of you that may mean the following day local time.
RP Bonus Reminders
This. Is. CAFA!
RPs measuring exactly 300 words will earn an extra 0.3 ranking points. (This will be halved if there is an obvious and non-entertaining cheat used to reach 300, such as cutting off mid sentence in a way that doesn't make me laugh.) RPs between 200-400 words will earn 0.15 ranking points so long as they, too, do not fall foul of the "obvious cheat" rule. Images are fine, but bear in mind if they are particularly wordy pictures, they will be counted towards the word count.
Matchday Challenges
Each day, there will be some thematic challenge. This could be to do with worldbuilding, it could be wordplay...it could be anything, really. Suggestions will be welcomed if a bid is successful. Meeting this challenge is worth an extra 0.2 ranking points.
Best of luck to all of our competitors.