INDEPENDENT ASSOCIATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP 14
BELNEGAU
Discussion Thread | Host Bid | Signups | IAC Rankings | IAC 13 | Guide to Sports Roleplaying
Hello and welcome to the 14th Independent Associations Championship in Belnegau! This small, medieval principality hopes to provide an unforgettable experience for football teams from across the multiverse.
At the time of this post, we have 37 eligible, non-CTE signups, including 4 puppets. Unfortunately, this falls awkwardly between two possible formats. In the interest of trying to finish the IAC prior to the start of World Cup Qualifying, we will not wait indefinitely for more signups. The group draw will take place at approximately 6:00pm EST (11:00pm UTC) tomorrow (today for some of you), Thursday December, 16th (about 18 hours from this post). If the tournament receives three more eligible signups prior to that time, we will proceed with 40 nations in eight groups of five. The top two teams from each group will advance to the round of 16. If not, and the total remains above 36 but below 40, the most recently signed up puppet(s) will be excluded, and the tournament will proceed with 36 nations in six groups of six. The top two teams in each group, plus the four best third place teams will advance.
Groups:
Group A:
HUElavia
Abanhfleft
Muralos
Magnecia
New Lustania and the Algarves
Berdeng Bundok
Group B:
Poafmersia
Juvencus
Annyeong Oppa
Omerica
United States of Great America
Eshialand
Group C:
Sajnur
Saterun
Sannyamathland
Cakranegara
TJUN-ia
Montana Verde
Group D:
Garbelia
The 14 Stars
Kriegiersien
Almuzahara
Squidroidia
Kingdom of Atlantia
Group E:
Space
Belnegau
Adab
Britonisea
Kohnhead
Drawkland
Group F:
Silver Beach
Reçueçn
New Zhengguo
Indusse
Trolleborg
United Adaikes
Group Stage Fixtures:
MD1: 1v6, 2v5, 3v4
MD2: 6v4, 5v3, 1v2
MD3: 2v6, 3v1, 4v5
MD4: 6v5, 1v4, 2v3
MD5: 3v6, 4v2, 5v1
Round of 16 Matchups:
M01: A1 v B2
M02: D1 v T2
M03: E2 v F2
M04: C1 v T3
M05: F1 v T4
M06: A2 v C2
M07: E1 v T1
M08: B1 v D2
Planned Schedule:
RP cutoff window will be between 11pm and 12am EST (4am to 5am UTC)
Group Draw: Wednesday December 16th EST
MD1: Saturday December 18th EST/Sunday December 19th UTC
MD2: Sunday December 19th EST/Monday December 20th UTC
MD3: Monday December 20th EST/Tuesday December 21st UTC
MD4: Tuesday December 21st EST/Wednesday December 22nd UTC
MD5: Wednesday December 22nd EST/ Thursday December 23rd UTC
Round of 16: Friday December 24th EST/Saturday December 25th UTC
Quarterfinal: Monday December 27th EST/Tuesday December 28th UTC
Semifinal: Wednesday December 29th EST/Thursday December 30th UTC
Final/3PPO: Saturday January 1st EST/Sunday January 2nd UTC
RP Rubric:
As the phrase “quality over quantity” is impossibly vague, I wanted to provide some guidelines of what I look for in an RP:
Length: It’s hard to write something of much substance with only a few sentences. Not impossible, but hard. Most high-scoring RPs will consist of at least 2-3 paragraphs. They will spend enough time on their themes or ideas to develop them. They will describe characters and settings in more vivid detail than lower scoring RPs. With that said, I don’t want anyone to feel they need to crank out a novella for every scorination. If you write enough to get your point across, you’ll be fine.Please keep in mind that while good RPs will often have these traits, they need not necessarily have all of them. There are plenty of very well-executed match reports, for instance, that might not score particularly high on creativity, but do so well at everything else as to make up for that. A post representing an online news post may use formatting extensively to mimic the appearance of a news website, while a narrative post may have no need. There are many paths to a high RP bonus. One thing which will not factor into RP bonus is interaction with RP prompts. They will be given to help provide ideas to write about, but will be purely optional.
Prose: This is tricky, especially considering that many in this community have a first language other than English. Your work certainly does not need to be highly polished, ready-to-publish writing. That said, higher scoring RPs will, in general, avoid repetitive sentence structure and vocabulary. They will make better use of transitions to aid the flow of narratives and ideas. When using dialogue, it will be clear who is speaking, and to whom.
Relevance: Higher scoring RPs will almost always have something to do with the tournament taking place. This may mean they address match events directly, or merely allude to them. This may also mean that they involve characters who are participants in the tourney, or they may find some other way to tie-in. (I personally am very bad about not following this point)
Formatting: This point has particular bearing on rosters, but can apply to RPs as well. While not the be-all end-all of RPing, making a post that looks nice and makes use of either forum code or images for visual organization can often be difficult, or at least time consuming. While extensive formatting may also prove largely unnecessary for some posts, it does represent an investment of time and effort which will be taken into account.
Creativity: It’s why we’re all here, isn’t it? Higher scoring RPs will bring that extra something special. This may mean compelling character studies, or zany and hilarious turns of events. It may mean writing poetry in place of the more traditional prose. It may mean not presenting writing at all, but producing an image or video for your RP instead. It may mean something that I haven’t even thought to include in this list. As the unofficial history of NS Sports proclaims, craziness is encouraged.
Rosters:
All participants are strongly encouraged to post a roster. As stated in the host bid, any nation which does not post a roster prior to the RP cutoff for matchday 1 will not receive its rank bonus until it has posted a roster. You may name as many or as few players to your roster as you wish. If you’re looking for inspiration, I’d encourage you to take a look through the [url]Roster Thread[/url] from the last World Cup to see what some others have done. The only hard and fast requirement for your roster is that you include a permissions box as follows:
RP PERMISSIONSGodmodding, for those not familiar with the term, refers to RPing events that are beyond the bounds of what could realistically be expected to occur in a normal football match. If your star striker scores all four goals in absurdly talented fashion, this is not godmodding. If space aliens abduct the opposing team and your side kicks four goals into an empty net, this is godmodding. You may also include a style modifier for your team. This is a value between -5 and 5 that indicates how your team plays. -5 is maximally defensive, while 5 is maximally attacking. Any nation whose roster that does not include a style modifier will be assumed to want a neutral style modifier of 0.
If my opponent roleplays first, they may:
Choose my starting lineup: Y/N
Choose my goalscorers: Y/N
Godmod scoring events: Y/N
RP injuries to my players: Y/N
Godmod injuries to my players: Y/N
Hand out yellow cards to my players: Y/N
Hand out red cards to my players: Y/N
Godmod other events: Y/N
Venues and other IC information to follow!
You may begin posting rosters and RPs. Please do not reserve posts for rosters.
Changelog:
Edit 1: 12/16/21 Added Groups and Pots, deleted now irrelevant references to proposed 40-team format, added changelog.
Edit 2: 12/16/21 Corrected Group Stage Fixture list
Edit 3: 12/21/21 Added Roster Links for rosters posted up to MD3 Cutoff
Edit 4: 12/24/21 Amended matchday schedule as per this post.