World Cup 90--RP Thread

by **Squidroidia** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 4:52 pm

The Inkopolis Times

BUSINESS

OUT OF GAS

Inklingcraft declares bankruptcy, automotive company now fully in the hands of the Squidroidian government

An eventuality that only took this long to get to, Spartansburg based automotive company Inklingcraft has filed for bankruptcy, unable to stop a financial bleeding that has affected all branches of the company. As a result, the Squidroidian government, still headed by Leader Higa Takanori even with rumors swirling of his health on the decline, has seized 100% ownership of the company and Squidroidia's largest auto maker is now fully private. At least 200 people were laid off of their jobs at the Spartansburg plant as a result.

The revelation comes as many eyes are glued to the home stretch of World Cup qualifying for the Squidroidian national team, with plenty of Inklingcraft ads, selling the Splattershot car and Kracken truck to millions of Squidroidians every time the Inklings play, plastered in the stadium and on television. With this, some of those ads will be cut from Squidroidian national team matches for the time being. The company will still be present in the stadium, but not to the extent that it usually was before the bankruptcy.

This whole ordeal stems from the Maroon IC badge and the failure of their Team Squidroidia effort for the IBA World Cup of Motorsport, with the motorsport division, also comprising of the Singularity NSSCRA Multiversal Cup team, working tirelessly on an entirely new open-wheeled car with Daryl Mizushima at the helm and marketing spending millions of Yen on a massive push to sell their cars overseas. But yet, as the World Cup of Motorsport never went underway, and with every passing week of not so much as a schedule coming out for the championship, the challenger sat dormant in its shop at Spartansburg, all that money wasted for an effort that never saw the light of day. That was the big strain that ultimately led Inklingcraft down the hole to bankruptcy, having never had a chance to expand overseas.

With the government at the helm, restructuring efforts have been taking place to help get the struggling automotive effort back on track. For at least one season, the Singularity team, with Shigeru Ishikawa driving the #40, has gone on hiatus, with Spartansburg Speedway confirmed not to seek a Multiversal Cup date, even with turnout high for the Round of 12 cutoff in the Chase for the Multiversal Cup. Effectively, the motorsport division has been reduced to a bare-bones skeleton crew, with no announcement of even a WGP2 team on the cards as the company gets out of its slump. Inklingcraft will still support local racing efforts, however, and it is unlikely that Daryl Mizushima will not compete in a 3rd WGPC season, as he is not affiliated with Inklingcraft.

For now, anyways, the company has decided to bet big on electric, with a gas-powered vehicle ban within the next 10 years imminent from the Squidroidian government. "An electric Splattershot for every 5 Squidroidians will go a long way in helping for a greener Squidroidia," says a company spokesperson. "Inklingcraft has been looking at electrifying its entire lineup of automobiles within the next 8 years, and efforts can include a push into an all-electric stock or open-wheeled car for the future. With rail and bus transport increasing, we feel like it's the step we have to take to recover this company."

Around the Dominion
SPORTS: Inklings in desperation mode ahead of Legalese WCQ tie
INKOPOLIS: Fire at local eatery blamed on "splat bomb"
LEISURE: Push into communal festivals explored by government
WORLD: Nyowani Kitara peace talks continue, finalization "imminent"

by **Kelssek** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 5:06 pm

Thamior was son of Ellawel and Elgador, of the line of Duilinar and the clan Liadon. As a youth he was known for his talent at sport, and trained to play football where his skill stood out among all. He would hang targets from the bough of a tree and practice for hours hitting them with a kicked ball from forty paces. In this way, when those born after the attempted invasion for loggers, as they called the humans who wished to reduce the great Syfirithin forests to logs, sought one of their own to live among them in the hope of uniting those nations in friendship, it was Thamior who had stood as the evident choice.

Bitter were the memories among many of the elders, however, who less than two centuries later were loath to trust in the good will of the human nations. So it was that Thamior’s ambition and those of his generation were perhaps premature, for they encountered tolerance and approval from some, but resentment and incomprehension from more. While always treated with kindness in the city of Burnaby where he had gone to live among the humans and won honours for the Burnaby team, after less than nine summers he had decided to go over sea to the land of Chromatika instead.

Also contentious were his membership on the representative team of the nation Kelssek, and more than once grief came upon him from those in Kelssek who regarded him with suspicion and were quick to fault any error that would inevitably occur. Resolved as Thamior had been to endure such slights, as a river over time wears away hard rocks, it came time when it seemed his goal, and that of his fellows, was no longer being furthered by his play. Most pertinent were those who began to speak of his presence as an injustice to others who lost a chance to play in the favoured position, and may never have the chance as elves might endure beyond human lifespans.

So it was that with regret Thamior gave up his place in the Kelssek team, even against the pleading and assurances from his fellow players that none held anger or envy against him. In concession he agreed that it would be wrong to leave before the conclusion of that cycle of the World Cup, and indeed Thamior's conscience spoke to the need to see this one task to the end. Indeed it was less the regard of the human nations that mattered but the conviction of elders in the Syfiritha, however false, that such envy existed. And they spoke ill of Thamior and his fellows, casting doubt upon their hopes of success, and discouraging more from seeking to further this mission of reconciliation, for that in truth was what it was. Thamior, as did others who soujourned among the peoples of Kelssek, indeed had often spoken of their ignorance of ill-feelings and destructive war, for they saw it a small matter no longer of serious concern or reason for hostility. It was among their own people, it seemed, that such missions were more necessary. But perhaps after some time it would be opportune to return.

by **Drawkland** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 5:19 pm

E X P E D I T I O N . . .

The previous day had gone by in what felt like the blink of an eye. Nicole Warren barely felt ready, but here she was, standing in an empty, secluded campground at the base of Valsum. It was the closest campsite to the mountain trail that you could access by car. The Great Mountain, or The Fiery Crux of Drawkland as it was sometimes called, seemed to stretch for miles over her head. Of course, she didn't need to climb all the way to its peak. The portal which would lead to TiSoFaH was contained deep in its catacombs, so all the party would have to do is locate the hidden entrance.

Nicole already knew where the hidden entrance was, thanks to her conversations with Iarocav. It was a concealed tunnel which used to be a vent in the volcano back when it was active. The mountain had laid dormant for thousands of years, though it wasn't rare to catch glimpses of magma deep in its innards. According to legend, when the volcano was active it was full of bubbling magma, which had a strange property where certain people could actually touch and swim in the stuff. This magma has long since been spewed or disappeared back into Sonnel's mantle, leaving an empty series of igneous caves where it used to be.

Cam and Sarah came up to Nicole. They'd just finished parking the car in a small wooden carport, where it would likely sit for some time. The journey into TiSoFaH could take months, if they even came back at all. Iarocav said that he believes time moves differently in TiSoFaH, but that didn't change the fact that they would be absent from Drawkland for awhile.

"Is the sun going to come up soon?" Sarah shivered. "It's a bit chilly out here."

"Weather report said it would be overcast until noon, so either way it won't get warm until we're already well up the mountainside." Nicole looked at the sky, gesturing to the light but full cloud cover.

"The others should be getting here relatively soon." Cam looked at her phone, which had a satellite attachment so she still had service. "They should all be here by sunrise."

"I'd hope they'll all be here by then, for their sake." Nicole replied firmly. "I meant it when I said I'd leave any stragglers behind."

"If a couple of them get sidetracked then it shouldn't be that big of a deal," Cam insisted. "You said we won't know what time it'll even be in TiSoFaH when we get there, so the time we leave here shouldn't matter if we're off by a few minutes."

"Getting eleven people to hike a difficult mountain trail isn't going to be easy. There's going to be some setbacks, and I don't want them to set us back so far that we run out of daylight and have to look for the entrance in the dark." Nicole sighed.

"I'm sure it'll be fine!" Sarah yawned, stretching her arms over her head. "Look, somebody's coming up the road now."

Sure enough, a tiny compact car rolled into the carport where Cam and Sarah had parked their car. Once it came to a stop, Andrew Arrowsword and Liam Penderyn emerged from the vehicle and waved as they grabbed their packs from the trunk.

"That is the tiniest car I've ever seen!" Sarah laughed as the boys walked up to them.

"It's the only car in the rental place where I could reach the pedals!" Andrew shot back, a little crossly. "And don't get me started on whatever system of measurement you guys use. I don't even know what speed I was going the whole time."

"It's good to see you guys!" Cam chuckled. "I know we all saw each other yesterday, but still!"

A few minutes later, an SUV trundled up the dirt road and parked in the carport. To the trio's dismay, Katie Madison and Allison Summer clambered out. As the growing group continued the small talk, the buzzing of a motorcycle grew louder. Jaxon Madison rolled up and stopped the bike at the end of the road. He untied his pack and equipment and joined the rest.

"You didn't park under the carport? What if it rains?" Katie asked as Jaxon set his pack down on the ground.

"That sack of crap is probably 20 miles away from dying for good. I was honestly going to hitch a ride with whoever comes back after this." The joke was lighthearted, but it was a subtle reminder that not everyone here would be returning. Being an immortal who'd braved this journey already, his ticket back was ensured, but his presence was a sobering reminder that none of the rest of the group knew exactly what was coming.

A little later, the sky started to brighten a little, though the clouds were still blanketing the sky.

"Where are the football guys?" Allison asked during a lull in conversation, and nobody had an answer.

Nicole checked her mechanical watch and shrugged. "Dunno. It's past sunrise though, so we should be getting on, with or without them."

"I don't think so." Jaxon replied sharply. "We're not going to leave anybody behind, especially this early. Take it from me."

"Yeah, Leo's my cousin. I don't want to leave without him," Cam added.

"Second cousin ..." Nicole muttered.

"I don't care, I'm not leaving if he's not here."

It proved to be fine, as the SUV carrying the three Grid Corps greats arrived a minute later.

"Sorry we're late!" Jack called out as he stepped out of the back seat. "Leo doesn't know how to take directions!"

"Maybe if you weren't such a backseat driver!" Leo shot back as he opened the trunk.

As the sky and sparse forest began to get brighter and the day commenced, the party set out from that campsite and legged it onto the trail that would slowly spiral up the mountainside. Nicole, Cam, Sarah, Andrew, Liam, Katie, Allison, Jack, Leo, Riley, and Jaxon made little small talk as they hiked. For all of them, it was hard to believe that they were actually finally on the journey that they'd planned for months.

The first setback came about two hours into the journey. As the group stopped for a quick water break and rest, Allison realized she had accidentally kept her phone in her pocket instead of leaving it in the car.

"Ugh! Can we just turn around so I can drop it off?" Allison pleaded.

"We don't have time." Nicole replied firmly. "We already might be having to find the cave entrance with lights."

"She's right," Jaxon added. "We don't want to be looking around when it's dark out, it's hard enough to locate in the daytime."

"But what about all my pictures and stuff? I can't take it to TiSoFaH!"

"Either upload it to the cloud or come to terms that you're losing it. We gotta get moving again."

The rest of the hike went without any major snags. Of course, with every member of this pseudo-fellowship being professional athletes, they were all in shape and able to make good time up the mountain. Even Nicole, who was easily the most stressed with this arrangement, was in good spirits.

Once they passed Founder's Rock, a very recognizable landmark on the trail, Nicole pulled the notebook out of her pack. She'd bought this notebook a couple years ago, when she first decided to take the quest. She knew there'd be a lot of information, too much to remember, and she was sure to take extensive notes when she spoke to Iarocav and read his writings on the subject. She'd even put tabs in to mark the pages she'd need for quick reference.

Nicole flipped to the tab labeled "1". The page was filled with notes about the Valsum hike with a couple diagrams. The next few pages contained information about the magma chamber and tunnels within the mountain.

"The entrance to the Valsum tunnels is located about a mile past Founder's Rock, on the main trail up the mountain." Nicole read aloud. "The location is on the west side of the mountain. At sundown, your shadow should be casting directly against the rock face."

"So what will we be looking for exactly?" Cam asked.

"Will we have to recite some magic incantation to open it?" Andrew asked with a grin.

Jaxon chuckled. "Unless it's changed since I did it, it should be easy to slip through. It's just a hole in the ground that you drop down through. The only reason it's 'hidden' is because it's above eye level in a big crop of rocks."

"That's WAY less mystical than I imagined ..." Sarah huffed.

"Yeah, it will take a little bit of climbing, but we should be fine," Nicole confirmed.

About twenty minutes later, the group slowed their pace at Nicole's request. The sun had started to sink, and the sky was starting to turn orange on the horizon. It was hard to tell with the sun there, but if they had a telescope they would've been able to see the Raikennax skyline, at the very edge of the horizon.

The group started looking to their left at the rocky mountain wall. Pretty much all of them had no clue what they were looking for, except for Jaxon Madison.

"We're getting really close. I think I'm starting to recognize the surroundings."

"All this stuff looks the same," complained Riley. "How can you recognize any of this?"

"Have you ever been hiking before?" Jaxon asked. "I end up recognizing trail crossings and specific clearings from trails I went on many years before. It just happens."

"Must be the immortal brain kicking in," Sarah said to herself.

"Not necessarily true," Cam replied to Sarah. "I've had the same thing happen when I went hiking on a trail with my parents that I'd been on as a kid."

"Oh, I think we're here!" Jaxon called out suddenly, and the group quickly gravitated towards him. Nicole pulled out a photograph she had clipped in her notebook. She held it up to the section of wall Jaxon was pointing at, and nodded.

"This has to be it. You can tell by that big reddish stripe." Nicole replaced the photo in her notebook, and pulled a couple small lamps from her pack.

"Alright, I'll climb up to where the entrance is and help everybody up and in." Jaxon stretched a bit, then clambered up the rock face. "It can only fit a couple people up here, so we'll have to go one by one. Who's first?"

Up first came Grid Corps running back Jack Hoy. He climbed up the small cliff easily, and slipped out of view once he got to the top.

"Damn, it's dark as shit in here!" Jack called out of the cave.

"Did you bring a light?" Jaxon asked.

"Yeah but it's in my pack and I can't see anything."

"Okay, everybody get your flashlights or lanterns ready before going in," Nicole instructed. "If you brought a flashlight or electric lantern that's fine, but it's not gonna work once we get to TiSoFaH."

One by one, the group scaled the rocks and slipped into the entrance. Andrew and Liam, being humans from Ceni, needed a little bit of a boost to reach the handholds, but they made it up fine. Nicole was the last to go up, and Jaxon slipped into the tunnel after her.

With everybody having their lights on, the tunnel was filled with an eerie white and gold glow. Nicole had her notebook open to the next page, which featured a complex web of squiggly lines and labels.

"Alright, I have the path written down here." Nicole traced the route with her finger. "It should be easy to traverse these empty tunnels, none of the paths we'll be taking get particularly tight."

"How do these tunnels work again?" Liam spoke up as the group began to move, following Nicole's lead.

"According to Drawkian lore," Andrew explained, "the Drawkian leaders fell into a tunnel on this mountain when they were meeting to found the nation. When they explored the tunnels they came across a large chamber half filled with magma, which they discovered was enchanted and didn't actually harm them. Later, Iarocav was exploring the magma chamber by swimming and found that various magma tunnels stretching into the volcano contained portals to other realms. I assume when the volcano went dormant, the portals remained without need to swim through magic magma to get to them."

"Dude, did you buy a Drawkian history book?" Sarah asked incredulously. "I know you didn't have to take any Drawkian History classes in school."

"I might have ..." Andrew replied sheepishly. "I must admit, I was enthralled after the Brobdingnag trip."

"Oh yeah, that time with dad," Sarah recalled. "That was certainly an interesting trip."

The group made it through the igneous caverns without much incident. When they came across a large, dome-like area presumed to be the old magma chamber, they stopped for dinner. They continued on, deeper and lower into the belly of the beast. There was a bit more small talk, perhaps to stave off the eeriness of being in such a tight and dark place. For many of them, this was the most isolated and strange place they'd ever been.

After what felt like hours, Nicole slowed down. The rest of the group shuffled to a stop and looked at her intently. In front of them was a fork in the path.

"I'm ... not sure which way to go." Nicole's voice barely concealed her slight panic. "Both of these paths end in a portal shortly, but my writing is smudged at the bottom of the page and I can't tell what it says. I don't remember."

The group fell into a hush, until Jaxon stepped forward. He was holding something in his hand.

"We'll go left." Jaxon announced. "You'll know it's the right one if the portal glows with a slightly red hue."

The relief on Nicole's face was apparent when she turned to Jaxon. "Did you remember all that?"

Jaxon grinned and showed what was in his hand. It was a keyring, filled with a small stack of laminated paper no bigger than business cards.

"You're not the only one who has notes."

As the group walked down into the final cavern, the aforementioned red glow became apparent, and some people turned their lights out.

They came to the end of the tunnel, and the portal was there. It was vaguely circular, with wavering edges and a liquid-like surface. They crowded around it, and everybody began putting their assorted items back into their packs.

"Alright, we'll just calmly walk through in single file. On the other side there will be a flat stone platform," Nicole read from her notebook. "Hold your breath when you walk through, or else your lungs might act up."

"And make sure you're not holding hands or anything. Hands to yourself," Jaxon added.

Quietly, the group lined up as instructed. Nicole was in the front, and Jaxon all the way in the back.

"Okay ... Go!" Nicole said, and they all moved forward.

One by one, they all exited their universe for the first time. Jaxon lagged back a moment, making sure they hadn't left anybody behind, then he stepped forward, and returned to the realm he'd traversed so long ago.

by **Montana Verde** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 6:22 pm

Montaña de Gnomos – 1 (0)
Lundstram (75’ o.g.), Berglund (85’)

Montaña Verde – 3 (0)
Dolfo; Zalladen, Arquímedes, Magdalena, Justin; Santángel; Emma (46’) (71’ Valentinha ), Primitivo, Julia Varela (56’ Kristjana (82’)); Verónica Ximena, Osito (41’) (61’ Naomí Berrocal )

Bollonich – 1 (1)
Burns (45+2’)

Montaña Verde – 0 (0)
Dolfo; Zalladen, Arquímedes, Jairo, Juderías (76’ Kristjana ); Ana-Ximena; Emma, Primitivo (88’ Valentinha ), Julia Varela; Indiano (59’ Verónica Ximena ), Osito

The Condors produced one of their best display of fútbol to claim a famous away win in Montaña de Gnomos – and yet, summing up a campaign of frustrating inconsistency, shivered their way to a limpid defeat at Bollonich on the second leg of their away trip.

The first match saw Verónica Ximena return to the side, Santángel start in place of Ana-Ximena, and Jairo miss out with a toe injury that left Dolfo to take up the captain’s arm-band once more. Santángel more than justified his inclusion with solid play at both ends, defending staunchly and distributing the ball well on the break. He, Primitivo and Julia Varela teamed up wonderfully in midfield with a ‘triángulo’ offense. It produced, to open the second half, a goal of sumptuous quality, the best the Condors have put together this season, with five one-touch passes from a run by Justin concluding in an assist for Osito as Emma swooped in from the right wing to blast the ball home. Further goals followed, Lundstram turning a Valentinha corner into his own goal, and Kristjana hitting a one-time stunner to capitalise on a rebound from Emma’s cross. Berglund thumped away some frustrations with a late consolation goal after Dolfo’s scrambled save fell nicely for him, but it was too little too late.

Whatever jubilations followed the Verdean victory, they were swiftly chilled off by the Pavolan cold. It was almost as though a different team entirely stepped off the plane in Bollonich. There were some changes – Jairo was fit again, and Ana-Ximena returned after Santángel aggravated his groin again – while Indiano was given a start ahead of Verónica Ximena and Juderías preferred to Justin, who was not 100% game fit owing to… whatever body part he’d injured this time. But the exciting midfield combo of Emma, Primitivo and Julia Varela, as did team leaders Dolfo, Arquímedes and Osito. Not that it mattered. Bollonich controlled the game virtually from the whistle – they had a goal scratched off for a marginal off-side after 90 seconds, and had to wait for added time at the end of the first half to rectify the error as left-back Burns shed Zalladen and slammed in from 20 yards out, but deserved the win.

The result leaves the Condors with a mathematical possibility of reaching the World Cup, but they are in practical terms now merely fighting to avoid finish lower than their fifth place seeding – they currently lie seventh. With tough games against Delaclava, Estorvipa y Estorpiva and Græntfjall to come, results may be hard to come by. But a return to the attractive, fluent fútbol they briefly proved themselves capable of would be almost more welcome.

by **Oberour Ar Moro** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 6:37 pm

The Dragoons of Oberour Ar Moro are travelling to Jinja City, Banija to face the Kadongo Kamu, and we here at New Game have been preparing our game preview. But while doing our research we came across a stat that made us rub our eyes in surprise: Oberour Ar Moro has more competitive matches against Banija at the senior level than against any other nation.

Seriously! This match will be the sixth time Banjia and Oberour Ar Moro have met in competitive matches, and the seventh time overall. Oberour Ar Moro has competed against Omerica seven times already, but only five of those matches were competitive.

This all comes as a surprise to us. What could account for this beyond dumb luck? Banija call Atlantian Oceania home, while Oberour Ar Moro hang their hats in Rushmore. By the way: The most common Rushmori opponent of the Dragoons? The Fillies of Cassadaigua.

So, this thought percolated through the office until the question arose: Does this make the Banija National Team a capital-R Rival to Oberour Ar Moro?

Readers, this truly made us embrace debate in the office. Anything is better than actually doing work. But we digress. Ultimately, to answer that question we have to answer other questions.

First, what makes a sporting rival? We came up with multiple, non-exclusive, possibilities. The first, the one that brought this topic up is number of times two teams have played against each other. It could be geographic proximity. Perhaps two teams with large, intense fanbases will develop rivalries when pit head-to-head. It could be two teams having to go through each other over and over to succeed or be tripped up in the effort. There are the rivalries that are more than rivalries, the ones that represent religious, cultural, or political divides.

The second question that must be ask is what does a rivalry look like at the national football level? We racked our brains and asked around to determine existing or historical World Cup rivalries. And there are quite a few. The swirling Audioslavia/Starblaydia/Krytenia free-for-all is the modern exemplar. If you're footballing historian you might consider The Holy Empire v Candelaria & Marquez or Polar Island States v Sargossa. How about the modern-day rivalries (in no particular order) Nephara v Brenecia, Chromatika v Cosumar, Tinhampton v Cassadaigua, Tumbra v South Newlandia (the so-called "Eagle-Elephant Derby"), Tikariot v Græntfjall, Hapilopper v Southwest Eastnorth, HUElavia v TJUN-ia, Farfadillis v Valanora, among many others?

Finally, what does a rivalry feel like? Ask the Cyrene Bay fan in the office about how he feels when it is Patrons match day. They describe that little bit extra of excitement, the little extra of nerves, the desire to see through the day and know a good result means the other side goes home unhappy. The RC le Especier fan longs to see their Lions take on Celeritas in a match that in its own way is about culture beyond consumerism. The Vigueur Massalia fan (there is one! We know, we were shocked too) loves knowing that a win means that Massalia City chairman Alar de Colommiers will spend the next 24-48 hours fuming.

So is Banija Oberour Ar Moro's footballing rival? Ultimately, we decided the answer is no. The two nations continuously bumping into each other can only be chalked up to coincidence. Oberour Ar Moro haven't been impatiently waiting for this match, as any match against a higher ranked side in any tournament would generate something close to the same feeling in the Dominion. Banija certainly hasn't circled either Oberour Ar Moro matchday on the calender. The results, three wins for Banija, one win for Oberour Ar Moro, and one draw in competitive matches, aren't going to inspire much intensity. Though the Dragoons single win did come on the road at a time Banija were the number one team in the world. But the stakes in that game were almost nil, as Banija was well on their way to first place in the group and Oberour Ar Moro were already eliminated.

Banija does have quite a bit to play for in this forthcoming match, however. Banija and Brenecia are in a dogfight for automatic qualification out of Group 17. In World Cup 89 qualification, Banija finished third in their group and failed to qualify for the World Cup. The Kadongo Kamu do not want to finish second in Group 17 and risk the World Cup playoffs. The Dragoons could play spoiler with a victory at the Kingsgarden. A surprising upset in their home stadium does not a rivalry make, but all rivalries start somewhere.

by **Farfadillis** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 6:42 pm

The Kamikaze

A site dedicated to Farf football
National Team Section
Youth watch: our best U18 prospects
submitted just now

I might very well be one of the most well-traveled people in all of Farfadillis: I like to go watch S-FPL games throughout the island, as well as Farf Lower Leagues games, and I do my best to keep an eye on the regional youth leagues whenever they are actually existent. I've been to every nation in Farfadillis—save for Karinthia because why would I?—and I've been to every place worth calling a city. What's more, I do this more or less regularly, and have done so for decades. I toned it down during the anarchy years, sure, but the point is I've been around for a long while. I probably have a much more encyclopedic knowledge of the young Farves coming through the youth system than anyone else in the country (from what I gather, even the biggest clubs tend to cast a relatively narrow net in terms of Farf scouting, limiting themselves to their own nations plus adjacent areas). As such, it's about time I reviewed what the far future looks like for la Vherderoja. I haven't done it in a while, after all! Don't go into this piece expecting me to claim we'll be winning the World Cup a couple of times with this next generation of players, because that's far from the case. However, there's plenty to work with! A solid eight-out-of-ten generation, potentially. Without further ado, let's break things down by position (bear in mind that when I categorize players by their chances to be capped, I am not considering the other players who play in the same position, just trying to give you a general idea of the player's potential relative to the usual capped Farf):

GOALKEEPERS

POTENTIALLY WORLD-CLASS:

Tusales de Lovandá — GK — Age 17 —

Ausharmuj Marusi

—

A Ferdullaelan of Indujan ancestry, much like World Cup 84 hero Lojes de Sájajo (forever immortalized by heading away from goal a Vilitan winner in the last play of extra time). As many good memories as that piece of trivia might make us relive, though, what's most important here is that Tusales looks like a brilliant prospect: he's tall, he's agile and he's got the inherent sense of timing needed to be a great sweeper keeper. Don't count on it, but he could be our best goalkeeper since Calogero Metz.
LIKELY TO BE CAPPED:

Miklós Basset — GK — Age 18 —

René Skaé

—

René Skaé have an impeccable youth academy. They produce good-to-great players in pretty much every position. Miklós falls somewhere in the middle there: he's not just good, but he's not quite great. A bit on the short side for a goalkeeper, he makes up for it by having an astonishing jumping range. Grékaszerű is the nickname his teammates have given him. It means "frog-like". Make of that what you will. His one true weakness, which he will surely improve on, is that he's not that great at coming out of his line, especially when (maybe not) catching crosses.
POTENTIAL TO BE CAPPED:

Régulo Ramos Rivas — GK — Age 18 —

La Nueva Avenida

—

Like Tusales, but shorter and faster. Also, slightly more technical, but that's not that important. The Faroleran really shines when his team plays über-offensively, which is not a bad thing if you want to one day be la Vherderoja's starting goalkeeper. For my money, he's not quite as good as the other two here, but they're all close enough in terms of potential that anything can happen.

DEFENDERS

FUTURE STAR:

Tôsgo Türrângel — CB — Age 16 —

Mâ Âlâmëómë

—

Mâ Âlâmëómë, of course, produce world-class players non-stop. It is hardly a surprise, therefore, that they have someone as talented as Tôsgo Türrângel in their youth squad. The kid is not as fast as one would expect from a Farf (but is also most definitely not slow), but compensates for it by being tall, strong, explosive and, most importantly, very good at reading the game. He rarely has to make sliding tackles because of this, and when he does it's usually because of someone else's fuck-up. He's genuinely average on the ball, but that's pretty secondary when he is already so good at defending. Short of some nasty injury, he should be a starter for the NT one day and likely even a key player.
POTENTIALLY WORLD-CLASS:

Dragomir Matijevic — CB — Age 18 —

Aspel

—

I'm assuming absolutely nobody save for the most football-crazed fans will have heard of Dragomir, but he is, in my honest opinion, genuinely very impressive. He's a starter for a solid Silver League club. He's massive. He's fast. He's good on the ball. The only downside is he can be very rash sometimes—yellow and red cards are hardly unheard of for him. He's not quite Tôsgo, sure, but he looks like he could be a fantastic substitute or, cagafuegos forbid, partner for the Rulandese.
LIKELY TO BE CAPPED:

Rôbé Wîjkár — RB — Age 18 —

Dí Maozöxê

—

I don't quite buy into the hype here, at least not as much as some others. Unlike most other players on this list, Rôbé probably needs no introduction: he's recently broken into Dí Maozöxê's starting eleven aged eighteen. The thing is, yes, he almost seems like a cyborg. Fast, tall-ish, strong-ish, fantastic work rate, doesn't get tired... yeah, we all know that. However, you have to watch out for this kind of thing when evaluating young players. He's so precocious precisely because his skillset relies so much on his physical attributes. Strip that from him and you get an ok player at best. Certainly, he could be a lot smarter when choosing when to bomb forward. Still, purely as a workhorse he already looks like he could be a good option for the national team, in a position in which we sometimes lack decent players entirely.

Josué Degaray — LB — Age 18 —

La Nueva Avenida

—

Exquisitely technical, it's almost a shame that Degaray is a wing-back. He could definitely make it anywhere up front and be exactly as good, or perhaps even better. Still, it's almost a shame, but not actually a shame, because good cagafuegos we really need some left-backs and this guy is one! Very fast and nimble, although on the short side and quite easy to bully off the ball, Josué, just like Rôbé, could afford to be a bit smarter. Nonetheless, he looks like a probable future starter for the NT, even if only because he's a left-back.

Auguste Szibácz — LB — Age 18 —

René Skaé

—

A left-footed Rôbé Wîjkár, only dumb as bricks, not quite as cyborg-y, and somewhat more technical. One of Degaray and him should turn out good, so we're probably safe-ish in this position (which is shocking, to be honest). The one problem with Auguste is that he is supposedly quite injury-prone, so we will have to watch out for that.
UNLIKELY TO BE CAPPED:

László Gérard — RB — Age 18 —

René Skaé

—

As I said, René Skaé just churn out good players. László is just one of many. He's almost an exact copy of Josué Degaray, only taller, slower, which does not work to his advantage as a wing-back, and also a bit worse overall. Nonetheless, he could be a good option for depth since, yes, again, we always lack depth in this position. At any rate, René Skaé are probably set in both flanks for a long time, as far as full-backs are concerned.
WILL BE CAPPED ONLY IF THINGS GO WRONG:

Lídôr Rônçö — CB — Age 18 —

Rülândéá Kôstä

—

A total brute. A mammoth of a centerback who will tower over most—if not all—non-Chromatik, non-half-Satyr opposition. He's... okay on the ball, actually, especially when you consider his size. However, he is predictably slow and decidedly dumb as bricks. Like, seriously, Rülândéá Kôstä just have a knack for producing dumb centerbacks like Pìgülôçô, apparently. Still, there's no doubt that there's something to work with here, and that if things don't go the way we want them to Lídôr could wind up a piece—not an important one, but a piece nonetheless—of our NT's future.

MIDFIELDERS

POTENTIALLY WORLD-CLASS:

Pîyár Voís — CM — Age 18 —

Dí Maozöxê

—

A box-to-box midfielder in the mold of Çí Xôrí, only he popped up at Dí Maozöxê instead of Mâ Âlâmëómë. Ok, he won't turn out as good as Ígnîgo, sure, but he's still the same kind of player, which I should stress is vital for us to have: one that can run the entire match and still look sharp towards the end, with skill to spare and a knack for making something happen, even. He needs to bulk up before he can reach his potential, sure, and that might be why most people in the know don't agree with me on his potential to be a world-beater, but trust me here: this guy is good good.
LIKELY TO BE CAPPED:

Ervin Zsosz — TK — Age 18 —

Kingsbury United

—

Another one where most disagree with me. I've actually known about Ervin since he was sixteen and playing in the Szoirsian amateur leagues—he was, of course, head and shoulders above the competition—because I just happened to be scouting in Szoirsia when he took off. A few years later, a Tumbran club with a good eye snapped him up. He hasn't broken into the first team yet, but I know what I saw in Szoirsia: this guy is a very good takilante in the making. He has everything he needs for it, only really lacking in height, which is hardly essential for the role. Thank cagafuegos everyone and their mother idolizes rue Cazade in Szoirsia, because otherwise we'd have an even worse dearth of takilantes.
POTENTIAL TO BE CAPPED:

Lüí Lîço — DM — Age 18 —

Mâ Âlâmëómë

—

As unimposing as a midfielder can get, yes, but Lîço makes up for it with impeccable technique and vision. He's fantastic at controlling the tempo and not half bad defensively—he's got a particular knack for interceptions, in fact. If he had, say, Wîjkár's physique, he'd be the Next Big Thing. Alas, he's emaciated and pocket-sized. Still, just his sheer talent makes him one of the players I'm most likely to be wrong about. There has to be a reason he's already in Mâ Âlâmëómë's senior squad, after all.
UNLIKELY TO BE CAPPED:

Humberto Negroncolón — CM — Age 18 —

La Nueva Avenida

—

Negroncolón is very talented but happens to play in a role that I really hope we don't use much in the future. He's much like Ziczi in that he's above-average (for his age, of course) in everything except for his work rate and endurance, which are pretty bad, and his playmaking abilities, which are really good. He's a smart player with great vision and a knack for controlling the tempo of the game, but he's not quite as good at it as he needs to be to become a regular for the national team, in my opinion.

Fêrisko Wísnèvüs — OM — Age 18 —

Dí Maozöxê

—

A very precocious midfielder who oozes talent like only a select few can but, on the other hand, can't be arsed to move his ass even a little bit. He's not tall or strong and doesn't run, so how can he even feature here? Well, he is that good when he gets the ball. He's not even particularly smart with it, but his dribbling is mesmerizing and the passes he can pull off will be raising many eyebrows for years to come. Much like Lîço in that it is a huge shame that so much talent had to be concentrated on such an otherwise poor player.
WILL BE CAPPED ONLY IF THINGS GO WRONG:

Tiburcio Lüè — OM — Age 18 —

Avenida Principal

—

Half-Faroleran, half-Rulandese. You don't see that very often, though they have become less rare sight as of late. Tiburcio is a typical attacking midfielder that is laser-focused on playmaking. He really shines at it, but also has the dribbling skills necessary to make those breathtaking defense-splitting passes easier to pull off. He's also willing to put in a shift when pressing. However, he's getting nowhere if he doesn't bulk up, and he's only been getting thinner since I first spotted him aged fifteen so... yeah, chuck this one in the "why are you so good but so bad" bin, too.
WILL BE CAPPED ONLY IF I EAT CROW:

Lázár Kosztolányi — DM — Age 18 —

René Skaé

—

A deep-lying playmaker that many believe has a good chance of making the national team in the future. That's really the only reason I'm including him here: to make it clear I don't think he's all that good. He's slow and lacking in defensive ability. Sure, he's a fantastic passer of the ball. His vision, in particular, is stunning. However, the last thing we need is a defensive midfielder who is not that good at defending. Maybe he could have a better future if he moves to center-midfield or maybe even offensive midfield. Otherwise, though? He's just not that good.

Lêyêló Jáánsêlà — TK — Age 15 —

Rülândéá Kôstä

—

Some time ago I talked at length about our need for a good takilante. I mentioned I'd been hearing rumors of the next coming of Faragó fucking rue Cazade in Lìbêrêtè. Well, I've watched him play now. Five times, to be exact. He is, unfortunately, at best a future solid squad player for Rülândéá Kôstä, though they clearly have not wised up to this. I'll explain why I'm going against the grain here: Lêyêló is extremely physically-gifted for his age. Seriously, it's astonishing. He is much better than any fifteen-year-old in Farfadillis right now, I suspect. However, he has one enormous downside: he's not that good when he has the ball. He can't get much more physically terrifying than this, and the other aspects of his game are very average, so expect him to completely stagnate. It is very unfortunate; I was really hoping to see the next rue Cazade when I made the trek to Lìbêrêtê.

FORWARDS

FUTURE STARS:

Gër Îkrîvsá — RW — Age 17 —

Mâ Âlâmëómë

—

Arguably the best of the bunch—it's definitely between him and Türrângel. Mâ Âlâmëómë are clearly spoiled for talent at the moment. Gër is a very pacey winger with enthralling dribbling and a knack for the unexpected. He can make anything happen. He's also not half bad in front of goal, which makes me think he could double as a striker very easily. Overall, a gem of a player and a natural successor for Tôsgo Alxíkí, who he seems to want to emulate if we go by his playstyle.

Dénes Robineau — ST — Age 17 —

René Skaé

—

The best-kept secret in Szoirsia is, without a doubt, Dénes Robineau. He's seventeen and already in the senior squad, but you just don't hear about him. This is, I assume, because he's only ever played in the chaotic Szoirsian youth leagues, so nobody knows just how good he is. What's more, René Skaé probably don't want to have foreign clubs circling like vultures, at least not yet. Well, sorry René Skaé, but here it goes: Dénes looks like a future world-beater. Not quite on Gër's level, sure, but he's got it all: technique, pace, strength, finishing, aerial presence, off-the-ball skills... sure, he's not quite captivatingly good at all of these things, but he will no doubt become a fantastic forward.
POTENTIALLY WORLD-CLASS:

Bence Boissonade — RW — Age 18 —

René Skaé

—

Yet another player that has a frustrating amount of talent that he can't quite use to its fullest potential because he is severely lacking in other areas. In Boissonade's case, he's actually very, very fast too. The problem, it turns out, is that he is brutally unintelligent, both on and off the pitch. Sure, he'll dribble past two or three players, but half the time nothing will come of it because he did something dumb like head for the corner flag in the process. Nonetheless, unlike with Lîço, Wísnèvüs and Lüè, he is just too good to not grow into a fantastic player despite his glaring flaws. Plus, unlike them, he does have his blinding pace going for him.
POTENTIAL TO BE CAPPED:

Râínêrí Gúrzý — LW — Age 18 —

Dí Maozöxê

—

An all-rounder much like Robineau, but not quite as good. This still lands him in Dí Maozöxê's senior squad aged eighteen, mind. Fortunately for him, he can differentiate himself by being a bit better at dribbling and considerably worse at finishing, which makes him an ideal inside forward (who is heavily encouraged to be selfless when the opportunity arises). He could turn out really good—even world-class with some luck—but don't expect more than a serviceable NT sub and you won't be disappointed.

Têrçêr Avoya — LW — Age 18 —

La Nueva Avenida

—

Yes, that's another half-Faroleran, half-Rulandese player. The Faroleran clubs have clearly changed their approach to recruitment: the Faroleran frontier with Ruland has plenty of unexploited talent. Têrçêr exemplifies this: he is very much like Boissonade in that he is astonishingly talented with the ball at his feet and has pace to spare. A big difference, however, is that he is one hundred percent left-footed. He is, however, every bit as stupid. Since he isn't quite as talented as his Szoirsian counterpart, I'd say he's only a potential NTer, not a potential world-class player.
UNLIKELY TO BE CAPPED:

Jôs Sürréo — ST — Age 17 —

Dí Maozöxê

—

Ok, this is my final "Trust me, dude" tirade. I am once again going to go against the hype here. Jôs is good, yes, but he's probably not good enough to become a Farf international and he's definitely not good enough to become the player some people seem to think he is bound to become. He's too short and weak to be a good striker with how defenders are nowadays. Sure, he's agile—extraordinarily so, in fact—but that just doesn't make up for that fact. He's a good dribbler and a good passer of the ball, too, but Xíxì Êns he is not, and that's more or less what he'd have to be to make it with his frame (ok, maybe just 80% of Xíxì Êns' talent would suffice) because, well, he pretty much has Xíxì Êns' exact frame.

SUMMARIZING

Ruland still reigns supreme, of course, but Szoirsia has only been getting better at producing talented players. This is just the U18 footballers that I've personally seen play: there could very well be a few more slipping through the cracks, especially if they are from Induja, which seems to produce good footballers but has no good clubs to recruit them. Overall, this is a very talented batch, even though most of them were even born in the same year! The future looks exciting, even though I seem to disagree with almost everyone when it comes to which players make it look exciting. Only time will tell how much of a visionary I am... or how blind, I guess. If If I'm stupidly off the mark with any of these players, I sure hope it's because we'll have even more world-class players at our disposal, not fewer...

As for the different areas of the pitch: the forwards look deadly, as usual, the goalkeepers look solid, the defense looks bizarrely talented for whatever reason and the midfield worries me a bit. It does feel like our midfield woes might stretch at least five more years into the future, but, with some luck, we'll have better midfielders coming through in the 14-16 age group, which I certainly haven't seen enough of to lose all hope. Seriously, though, clubs other than Dí Maozöxê should focus more on producing midfielders.

FIN

by **Vdara** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 6:45 pm

And Now: A Prediction Of MD14 - brought to you by the Vdar-O-Matic!

by **Cabo Azure** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 6:52 pm

Metherwoll 1-0 Cabo Azure
Pos. Name 
GK   Antunes
LB   Branco
RB   de Lima
CB   Mendes
CB   Moniz
RM   Ferreira
LM   Serra
CM   Alves
CF   Montenegro
LW   Silveira
RW   Carriço
A profoundly uninteresting match, notable only for putting the final nail in the coffin of Cabo Azure's qualification hopes. Though only the most optimistic Cabo Azure fans had any serious hope of qualifying this cycle, it is disappointing to see the Macaricas go out so early and on such an uninspired note. Metherwoll's one goal was scored by (need we even say it?) SEEEEEEEEEEEBOOOOOOOO, ten minutes into the first half, after which all fight appeared to go out of the Azurean side. At least Jamie's mum's tea was as good as advertised.

Lathamford 0-1 Cabo Azure
Pos. Name 
GK   Antunes
LB   Branco
RB   de Lima
CB   Mendes
CB   Moniz
RM   Ferreira
LM   Serra
CM   Alves
CF   Montenegro
LW   Silveira
RW   Carriço (off 76')

RW Gouveia (on 76') (goal 81')
Another 1-0 result for the Macaricas, though they were on the right side of this one, and a continuation of their exceptional performance on the road, at least compared to home. Another pattern continued; Vasco Gouveia coming on late and scoring a decisive goal. If he starts the following match with a lackluster performance, history will have repeated itself at least twice for the young striker.

Requiem for a Queen, pt 5

Popular history divides the Azurean resistance into two opposing camps: the “Royalists”, who supported reinstating the Azurean monarchy with Abby on the throne, and the “Republicans”, who supported replacing the autocratic government with a parliamentary democracy. These labels fail to capture the nuance of public opinion, which in reality included a number of different points of view, all with one thing in common; the ruling government, known as the Gang of Seven, had to go.

Despite her being deeply involved in Azurean politics through her membership in the “Maritime Mafia”, the informal think tank at the center of the Azurean resistance, Abby Fonseca’s royal blood was not common knowledge. Many in Cabo Azure assumed Princess Abigail remained in exile in Concord Heights, Cassadaigua, where she had spent most of her girlhood in an elite boarding school, and Abby and her circle did little to dissuade them. Her children were raised in complete ignorance of their lineage, though her middle child, Alexandra, would later claim to have discerned her mother’s identity in adolescence.

Though she leaned more liberal than most, Abby was at her core a Royalist. This surprised those who knew her true identity, since as Princess Abigail she was known to eschew court life, hence her going to school in Cassadaigua. As the daughter of the beloved King Reinaldo I, Abby appreciated the symbolic power of the monarchy and its ability to effect change in the kingdom. Her support for reinstating the monarchy put her at odds with many in the Resistance, including her husband, Dr. Luis. Their political disagreements, as well as arguments over whether to reveal to young Manuel his heritage, led to the couple’s divorce in 1994, when Abby was pregnant with their third child.

Despite their differences, Luis and Abby maintained a close professional relationship in their academic and political work, before and after their divorce. Following the failure of the 1983 constitutional convention, Abby took a sabbatical, ostensibly to give birth and care for her first child, the future King Manuel. In fact, while she did care for Manuel, she also took a more active role in the resistance during her year-long absence from teaching, working on long-term strategies to force the Gang of Seven to the negotiating table in earnest.

by **Barunia** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 6:54 pm

Swan Song

In the lead up to the World Cup 88, Neville clearly remembered having a good feeling about this campaign. He was optimistic that the team would do well. Everything just felt right in training, and the team were getting along well. Everything seemed to be heading in the right direction for the Suns.

After three games, everything was going well. They had 11 goals to their name, and Taylor had only let in two. Huge wins of 6-1 against Delaclava and 4-0 against Txakhaxi had the team excited. Neville could feel the optimism he had creep into the dressing room. It was a wonderful sight to see, to see the light in their eyes, and hear the hope in their voices, rather than bitterness. It was a great time.

Then the wheels fell off the bus.

A 4-0 drubbing by Ko-oren trashed Barunia’s impressive goal difference, followed by another loss. A win on Matchday 6 was a welcome relief, and at this point, there was still hope in the dressing room. After all, losses are to be expected in any campaign. But what followed next destroyed all hope.

The Suns would register 4 losses and a draw over the next 5 games, having to wait until matchday 12 to get their next win. It was their fourth win of the campaign, and they would only pick up one more, on matchday 16. Their final record for the 18-game competition was 5 wins, 5 draws, and 8 losses. The result saw Barunia finish 7th, their worst performance since they first made it to a world cup.

The last game was at Memorial Stadium. Neville remembered seeing the statue of Joric Ruskin as the team bus went past. It brought to mind the conversation he’d had years prior, about the legacy of captains. Would this campaign, this disaster, be his legacy? Neville wondered what the repercussions would be. However, it was not on his neck that the axe would fall. Less than 72 hours after the final whistle blew on yet another draw, Rafael Barrios had his contract torn up. The Sargossan was out of a job, and the Barunians were in need of a coach.

The need for a coach was immediate, too. Surprisingly, a Cup of Harmony invite was incoming, and the invite had been accepted before the position was filled. In fact, the team touched down in Græntfjall without any clear indication of who their coach would be. It was so rushed, when the NFB made the announcement that Liesel McLelland had the job, she was already on a plane, rushing to join the team. That was also the first time Neville and the players heard about it; there was no notice by the NFB to the players. McLelland went straight from the airport to the pitch and started coaching.

“Just play football” was McLelland’s mantra to the team, and it worked. From that first game, a 4-0 win against the host nation, the Suns changed. Neville could see it, feel it. This was what they wanted, what they needed. A coach who could work with decades of Barunian football conditioning, not against it. McLelland was a breath of fresh air.

He hadn’t known it then, but this would be Neville’s last tournament as captain. A quarter-final finish was a good way to bow out, he thought. Let that be his legacy.

by **Metherwoll** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 6:57 pm

haw haw haw we drew a game wi bren-irn bru that’s proper patter that is
didny beat them though
did beat other folk!
ye love tae see it.

by **South Newlandia** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 7:00 pm

And that’s going to do it. At home, the Elephants are defeated, a narrow 0-1 loss against Juvencus, decided by an own goal of Barnaby Hastings in the 76th minute. The games in the second half of qualifying are the high-stakes games, you never want to lose those, but South Newlandia will be taking the L here despite a great performance by Trischuk in goal and a good tactical plan authored by Wolverine, managing to hold the 39th-ranked Juvencus side to no goals of their own. With the loss, South Newlandia is now seven points behind Pasarga, who also still have a game in hand, with four Elephants’ games left to play. If anyone had any faint hopes of the Elephants qualifying in their debut cycle, those hopes should be just about evaporated now. This is matchday 21 of the World Cup Qualifying for World Cup 85, Juvencus at South Newlandia!

WCQ85MD22: The Kytler Peninsulae 0–0 South Newlandia
WCQ85MD23: South Newlandia 2–2 Kuriko
WCQ85MD24: Pangurstan 1–2 South Newlandia
WCQ85MD25: South Newlandia 1–0 Mavinet
WCQ85MD26: Bye

WCQ86MD10: Port Ember 2–2 South Newlandia
WCQ86MD11: Southern Palm Islands 0–0 South Newlandia
WCQ86MD12: South Newlandia 3–1 Tikariot
WCQ86MD13: Filindostan 0–0 South Newlandia
WCQ86MD14: South Newlandia 4–0 Se Vende Skooma
WCQ86MD15: Natanians and Nosts 1–1 South Newlandia
WCQ86MD16: South Newlandia 0–0 TJUN-ia
WCQ86MD17: Union Europae 2–5 South Newlandia
WCQ86MD18: South Newlandia 1–1 Mriin

WCQ87MD10: South Newlandia 2–0 Hampton Island
WCQ87MD11: Pasarga 1–2 South Newlandia
WCQ87MD12: South Newlandia 1–0 Garifunya
WCQ87MD13: Valladares 2–3 South Newlandia
WCQ87MD14: South Newlandia 1–0 Bluecliff League
WCQ87MD15: Regmotto 0–2 South Newlandia
WCQ87MD16: South Newlandia 0–0 The Gothanita Isles
WCQ87MD17: U-Koro 2–3 South Newlandia
WCQ87MD18: South Newlandia 4–0 Tumbra

WCQ88MD10: Himebaugh 0–3 South Newlandia
WCQ88MD11: South Newlandia 2–1 Muralos
WCQ88MD12: Sahuarita 3–3 South Newlandia
WCQ88MD13: South Newlandia 1–0 Natanians and Nosts
WCQ88MD14: Bigtopian Isles 0–2 South Newlandia
WCQ88MD15: South Newlandia 1–0 Ranoria
WCQ88MD16: Xanneria 1–1 South Newlandia
WCQ88MD17: Eura 1–2 South Newlandia
WCQ88MD18: South Newlandia 2–0 Qasden

WCQ89: hosted

WCQ90MD08: Gatchingerrak Union 2–3 South Newlandia
WCQ90MD09: Lisander 4–4 South Newlandia

33 second-half qualifying games. 21 wins. 12 draws. Almost a decade. No losses.

We’re in the last seconds of the qualifying match for World Cup 90 between Eshialand and South Newlandia here at the Stadium of Friendship, and Eshialand is still up 3-2 thanks to a late goal by Carroll. Mikhail Trischuk holds the ball, he didn’t have a good day today, conceding three goals to put the Elephants on the back foot. The Owls have been looking good defensively, and if they can hold on for just another minute or so, they’ll be taking three points on the road from the top seeds. Barker to Marcus Young, who had scored the equalizer earlier, but Meilling is there, Young back to Green. The Elephants have to hope for some magic here, possibly from Reid Gomez, the wunderkind who overcame Alexander Kolek for the early score to give the Elephants the lead. Levy in possession, tries to get it to Gomez, but LaPlante is all over that, ball is cleared, and that’s going to do it! The Owls win, and the Elephants have now officially lost sight of the group-leading Zwangzug. Robert Wolverine will need to get cooking soon, with a crucial road game in Yuezhou and a tough home match against Zwangzug on the horizon.

by **Eraman** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 7:24 pm

Part 1 | Part 2

The Melayuans
Part 3

by Prof. Dr. Mustari Bumi

According to the previous discussion, we already understand that the term Melayuan is applied to every inhabitant of the archipelago and even foreign merchants who embrace the Melayuan customs. And when the Samudera Kingdom replaced Meilawati Empire in Melayuan political power, the Samuderan custom began to be considered as the Melayuan custom.

However, if Samuderan custom is the Melayuan custom, what about the other Melayuan tribes in Southern Palm Islands, Pemecutan and Eraman who did not convert to Watu Telu and don't follow the Samuderan customs?

On the Sripalan Melayuan

The aftermath of the fall of the Sripala Empire was not as smooth as its western neighbor, the Meilawati Empire who was swiftly succeeded by the Samudera kingdom. The empire based in the Palm Islands was shattered into lots of smaller kingdoms.

The Tegeh Kori Kingdom was established in the Giri island in what is now Pemecutan, driving the Palmyrans who dominated the Sripalan politics out of the island. Seven warring petty kingdoms were established in the Krama island in what is now Eraman. A sultanate was established in what is now Sharktail. The same thing happened in almost every island in the northern part of the Palm Islands leaving the Palmyran who came as Indusse merchants centuries before to the southern part of the islands.

The archipelago which was once free for its people to move from island to island is now blocked because of the new borders between the islands. This makes the Melayuan community in the former Sripala territory divided into small tribes.

The Girian and the Mandaran in what is now Pemecutan retained their Dharma religion which they adopted from the Palmyran and developed their own identity in their small pocket of the world. The Sharktailian who is the closest to Samudera adopted Watu Telu and began to be Samuderanized. The Eramanians who were busy fighting wars among themselves were divided with some retaining their Dharma religion while a minority especially along the Samuderan border converted to Watu Telu.

So, if Melayuan is so flexible that it is not bounded by race or religion, what is Melayuan?

by **South Newlandia** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 7:35 pm

by **Valanora** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 7:44 pm

What does success at the youth level actually mean? It is not a question that is commonly thought of, much less asked around the Eternal Empire, as youth tournaments have not been in fashion for several decades now. Despite having been crowned champions of the Di Bradini Cup on multiple occasions and eventually becoming hosts to the competition on a permanent basis, youth football has often been an afterthought in the collective conscious of the minds of those who follow the sport in the Eternal Empire. Youth sport in general is seen as a very odd sort of process, one that is needed for potential prospects to be molded into the players that they will eventually become when they hit adulthood, but the attention to that level of competition has been almost entirely lacking. There is no formal youth league for the various academies of the clubs from across the Empire to partake in, unlike what is seen as the standard in many other nations and leagues, where academies will often have their own leagues, be it regional or by the senior team divisions, as well as championships. The Rising Stars Cup in the IFCF is a tournament for those champions.

The irony then comes that recently that the Raynor City United youth team was a victor in that competition and has seen some moderate success in other editions as well. If you also factor in the NSCF and NSCAA, where student athletes take part in these competitions and where Vanorian talent has been shown to be quite formidable in recent editions, it really starts to become something of an enigma of how Vanorian youth teams can be so successful when on the surface there seems to be almost no interest in those very teams. Is there some sort of crack in the code that is being overlooked that has allowed teams from the Empire to flourish where in the face of all things that they should be faltering and merely part of the chasing pack and not among the contenders? Or is there something that is just beyond the surface that would very clearly explain with sound logic and reason as to why Vanorian youth teams are able to find success when the infrastructure is seemingly not in existence for them to do so?

As with most things, the answer is somewhere more in the middle than to one extreme or the other and it is something that is obvious for all to see if they were to take a moment and assess the situation fully. That is the prevalent academy system across multiple sports that has sprung up through the Empire over the last two centuries, where youth prospects are taught not only the sport in which they are most talented in but are also given a full education, as if they were in a primary education facility. In gridiron, the Magnus Academy is renowned within the ranks of the supporters of the sport here in the Empire of being the very best institution for any prospect looking to make their way to the big time schools to play at and you can see it with the link that the academy has with Raynor University and Mar Sara Tech, with both schools having captured an NSCF title in the last two decades. In football, all the clubs have their own academies but there is none that really lives up to the reputation or the products of the Night Academy in Raynor City, the unofficial academy of Raynor City United. National team product Barrientos from United is one of the more recent graduates who has made a name for himself, but there are dozens if not over a hundred at this point the long history of the academy.

These institutions and the dedication that they have for their specific sport are the very backbone of the development of youth athletes in the Empire and while the focus of the casual fans as well as the media might not shine much light on these facilities, they are the key to Vanorian success in the past, present, and the future. Will we see the Vanorian model become popular in other nations? It is difficult to tell, other nations do have their own academies, but evaluating their standards and comparing them to our own is a very difficult and subjective process. So long as these youth athletes are given their best opportunities to succeed and are treated fairly, there really is no right or wrong answer to the way an academy operates. Nonetheless, it would be quite the interesting research project to see how the differing takes on how an academy should be run results in the short and long term success of those who come and go through the doors of the facilities, if there is perhaps one way that may be more advantageous than the others.

by **Squornshelan Remnant States** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 7:44 pm

The Kids Really Aren't All Right
Episode 5: In which nearly Everyone is named Teuku

"Nik, I don't think we're going to make it to the last match either."

"Why not Arvi? All we have to do is take the ferry across to Santraginus and then a bus to the stadium."

"Ferry service is canceled. Mount Yanar is erupting and the ash cloud is drifting over the Straights."

"Mount Yanar?"

"One of the volcanoes down in Sivolvia I guess."

"Man, that sucks. I hope everyone there is ok."

"Yeah me too. Feels kinda bad to complain about only making it to two matches when people are dealing with something like that."

"We almost made three. If it weren't for that gang of Interblag ultras that chased us in Lutenblag."

"Bunch of assholes. Would've been a crap match to watch though."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Well, maybe there'll be a playoff match we can make it to."

"Yeah, probably, unless something really weird happens."

"Speaking of weird, the only two matches we made it to are the team's only two draws so far. That's kind of weird isn't it?"

"And the one we almost made was a loss, maybe we're bad luck for the team?"

"Nah, just Maggie being strange."

"Just who?"

"No one, hey pass me that rubber chicken, would you?"

Matchday 10:
SWE 2-4 SRS

Scoring:
SRS: Hashemi 22'; Petrov 32', 70'; Yonte 51';

Lineup:
SRS: Shimski; V. Harkhan, W. Harkhan, Buczvarov, Achthoven; Tabur, Hashemi; Naqvi (Bondarov 61'), Takala (Arslan 75'), Yonte, Petrov (Marrish 88')

Matchday 11:
SRS 0–1 SDG

Scoring:
SRS: none

Lineups:
SRS: Shimski; V. Harkhan, W. Harkhan, Buczvarov, Achthoven; Tabur (Damnagoras 80'), Hashemi; Naqvi, Takala (Zazagan 64'), Yonte, Petrov (Chmela 86')

Schedule and Results

FRND: SOL 3-4 SRS @ King Anthony Stadium (cap. 77,300), Branwen, SOL

MD1:  RWS 2-3 SRS @ Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy
MD2:  KAN 2-0 SRS @ Empress Masumi Stadium (cap. 90,000), KAN
MD3:  SRS 2-2 SWE @ Olympiastad (cap. 47,550), Arkintoofle, Megabrantis, SRS
MD4:  SDG 1-2 SRS @ Stadium Persekutuan (cap. 40,000), Kambang, SDG
MD5:  SRS 2-1 TSA @ Vogsphere Arena (cap. 90,000), Vogsphere, Vogsphere Urban District, SRS
MD6:  CHA 0-1 SRS @ Old Town Park (cap. 68,000), Billboard, CHA
MD7:  SRS 2-0 STR @ Estflanarena (cap. 31,200), Zarss, East Flania, SRS
MD8:  SRS 3-0 RWS @ Henkmar Field (cap. 29,850), Brasta, Sivolvia, SRS
MD9:  SRS 1-1 KAN @ Bridger Lane (cap. 72,406), Damogran, Algolia, SRS
MD10: SWE 2-4 SRS @ Pride of Virginia Stadium (cap. Yes, it probably has one, looks pretty big), Virginia, SWE
MD11: SRS 0-1 SDG @ The Lutenstaad (cap. 75,000), Lutenblag, Molvania, SRS
MD12: TSA  v  SRS @ TBA, TSA
MD13: SRS  v  CHA @ Admiral Cherenkov Stadium (cap. 71,200), Santraginus, Santraginus Urban District, SRS
MD14: STR  v  SRS @ Pale Football Stadium (cap. 60,000), STR

by **Wrecker** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 8:03 pm

THE END OF WRECKERIA – PART VIII

Beecher’s Supermarket, 28th Street, Halsted
A few days after World Cup 90 Qualifier Match 11: Wreckeria 3-4 Omerica
There was something that needed to be said about the human cost of the Wreckerian financial crisis. Not only was the Wreckerian government struggling to pay their bills, but so were average Wreckerians. Wreckerians who already had to deal with the burden of looking at a war-torn landscape on a daily basis, but now Wreckerians who were finding the price of groceries ticking ever so slowly up, if you could find what you were looking for. At Beecher’s, a local supermarket in south Halsted, the pain could be seen on the shelves.

The beer aisle was barren. Lettuce was lesser than it had been. The meat was missing. You could say ‘salud’ to the seafood. And you had just a good chance of finding a good steak as Southwest Eastnorth had of finding a qualifying victory. The point was, alliterations and unwarranted cheap shots aside, Wreckeria’s supply chain had been badly disrupted by the financial crisis. The reason? As Wreckeria’s government kept borrowing money to try to stay afloat, it wound up devaluing the Wreckerian simoleon against exchange rates of other currency, such as the NS Dollar or the Hapiloppian Dollar. Markets were finding it harder to pick up inventory of items, and people were finding it harder to afford them.

And President Arnold Martin, having made the mistake of going to Beecher’s on a Wednesday night to pick up some groceries, got to see it first hand. And Wreckerians of all types and all parties, having gone to Beecher’s for the same thing, realized Arnold was there and gave him their full brunt of their frustration.

They didn’t care who was responsible. They didn’t care if it was a True Wreckerian or a Party of Pride problem. They didn’t care about any kind of party split anymore. They wanted to be able to get something to eat without the Wreckerian simoleon being devalued further, without their paycheck seemingly getting smaller and smaller.

One Wreckerian grabbed Arnold by the wrist. She was a spirited old lady, looking like she had been around since before the start of the Wreckerian Civil War.

“I want to show you this, sir!” the lady snapped, dragging Arnold to the produce aisle. “You see this? Look at the potatoes. This is shit. I’ve been buying these potatoes for so long and now they’re three times as expensive as they were last month!”

“Ma’am, I understand…”

“DO YOU? You in your glass tower in the middle of Halsted running this country? I bet you have people shop for you,” the lady spit out. “You don’t know a damn thing. None of you government types know a damn thing. And you’ve screwed us all over.”

“Ma’am, we’re trying to fix this problem…”

“And you think a football team that can’t do jack shit against, who did we face, Omerica? You think they’ll magically solve all our problems?”

“Ma’am, the Wreckerian national team is doing great work,” Arnold tried to reason. “They just plain got beat. Omerica is a great side as well.”

“Hmmpf. Yet we’re all supposed to see them as our saviors. They’re nothing. They’re not buying my groceries. They’re not putting food on my table. I just want to be able to afford my food, Mr. President. I don’t care about anything else right now. You do what you have to do to help that happen.”

“Ma’am, believe me, we’re trying. And we’re trying to do what we can to do that and keep our national identity.”

“OUR NATIONAL IDENTITY?!” the woman screamed. It was obvious that Arnold had just set her off. “Let me tell you what our national identity is, Mr. President. Our national identity for as long as I’ve known it, as long as any of these people have known it, has been war. We’ve been fighting each other for so god damn long. What’s across the street from here?”

“Ma’am…”

“RUINS,” the woman continued. “RUINS. One of those sides bombed that place and any time we have to go get food we have to look at RUINS. That’s our national identity. So spare me with your ‘Rah Rah Wreckeria’ bullshit. Honestly? If it means we can go about living our normal lives again, I wouldn’t mind if we all became Hapilopper. If it means we can come here and not wonder if this god damn place is empty, not wonder if this god damn place is gonna jerk us around because groceries are five times more expensive than they were a month ago, hell, you’ve got a bunch of people pissed because nobody can find a decent cold beer around here.”

“Ma’am, I can assure you…”

“NOTHING,” the woman interrupted. “You can assure me nothing. I guarantee you, if Hapilopper could fix our problems, they’re gonna fix our problems. Because maybe we can get back to living our lives the way we wished they were. I see people in Hapilopper City on a summer night, having the time of their lives, enjoying a decent evening out on their back porches, listening to their music, and it makes me sad, because that could have been us. Instead, we had to live our lives in fear because we weren’t sure if we were gonna get bombed again.”

Arnold realized there was nothing he could say to make this woman feel better, but maybe if she could just vent and let it out, it might help. It might help him, too. He didn’t get to listen to enough of these concerns from Wreckerians just like this elderly lady. And more importantly? She was right. No matter how good Wreckeria’s football team could be, they were still a football team. They weren’t going to resolve this nation’s financial crisis, no matter how many goals they scored, and no matter how proud they made their fellow countrymen.

“Mr. Martin, I lost both my parents to the civil war,” the woman continued. “I lost most of my friends. I don’t know how I’ve kept going here. I could barely afford to move away. I wanted to leave for Hapilopper and now it just seems like it’s too late. Nowadays, I see everyone so excited for this football team. Oh, they’re leading their group. Oh, they’re such good ballplayers. Oh, they’re going to the World Cup. When’s the next shoe gonna drop?”

Arnold shrugged.

“I mean, god damn it, it seems like the other shoe always drops, too. It always does. I remember the team we sent out to that World Cup so many years ago. They looked so good. They were going to do so well, but then the war started and that one player got abducted. The other shoe dropped. I know it sounds terrible, Mr. Martin, but I’m just waiting for us all to come crashing down to earth, and I’m… you know?”

“I’m trying to not make that other shoe drop,” Arnold said. “In some form or fashion, so we can all get back to a life that looks like it’s normal.”

“Right,” the woman said. “You think we all know what normal is. It may be for you, but I’ve never known normal. You don’t get it. You don’t fucking get it.”

The elderly woman stormed away, feeling like everything she had said had gone in one ear and straight out the other. But Arnold stared back to her, thinking about everything she had said. She had a point. Maybe just giving up and letting Hapilopper take over was the best course of action. It wasn’t the most pleasant idea, nor was it the most palatable to him, but maybe he just had to do it. So Arnold walked off without picking up anything and decided to give his counterpart to the east, William Mathis, a phone call.

“Mr. Mathis?” Arnold asked. “Yes, this is Arnold Martin. We need to talk.”

by **Natanians and Nosts** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 8:06 pm

Natanians and Nosts received Barunia for the World Cup Qulifiers,at a full Stadion Nacional.The singer Aina Aika Aida sang the national anthemn.
The team of Márcus Ion Mutu began the match with a good scoring opportunity with Niels Numídio North,but John Taylor didn't allow the score to be opened at the seventh minute.Eight minutes later,John Taylor's compatriot,Richard Hall,scored for Barunia.Five minutes later,Niels Numídio North headed the ball straight into the goal in a corner to tie the games' score.João Cravelha received a long cross from Laço Tralto to score Natanians and Nosts' second goal.The referee gave three minutes of stoppage time.At the forty-seventh minute,José Espalheira scored Natanians and Nosts' third goal after a pass from Rato Ret.
On the third minute,Barunia scored its second goal with Neville Swan to diminish the difference.At the tenth minute Barunia near scored its third goal,again Neville Swan,but Daniel Whitcliffe made an amazing deffence to secure Natanians and Nosts's advantage.On the twentieth minute of the second period,Caeso Júlio Probus stole the ball from Louise Cartwright still in Natanians and Nosts' half,ran for about fifty metres and gave a nice shot that almost got in!At the fortieth minute,after a confusion made by Barunia's deffence,Numa Nínio North,who replaced Niels Numídio North two minutes earlier,caught the ball and gave no chance to the goalkeeper,making Natanians and Nosts 4x2 Barunia.
Next match,Natanians and Nosts will face IAQ on the antepaenultimate round of the qualifiers.

by **StrayaRoos** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 8:07 pm

SBC Sports ✓

@SBCSports
Breaking News! Gareth Hazard has been Spotted at an Fast Food restaurant in Pale ahead of the Final World Cup 90 Qualifiers and has been omitted from the Squad #Burgergate He’s Been Replaced by Alex Keane

#Burgergate : #WC90 : #Hazard13

by **Turori** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 8:12 pm

Eels Threatened but Survive Tough Group 3 Matches

Eels Park, Eelandii, Turori :: While the Turori National Team was busy struggling to a narrow 1-0 victory on the road against 311th ranked Winnebogan, they would finally receive some welcome news in the results of their opponents as Drawkland would be held 1-1 in the Karodin Tetrarchy. The dropped points for the Kick Corps would finally break the deadlock at the Top of the Group 3 Table and for the first time give Turori full control of their own destiny in their quest to qualify for World Cup 90. Turori's victory in Winnebogan had little in the form of action. Top scorer Nua'oma Aikiki scored the games only goal in the 21st minute and it was one of the few quality chances that either side could claim in an ultra defensive matchup that was played largely within 20 yards of the center circle.

After a tour of Turori through the first half of the campaign, the Eels finally returned home to Eels Park in Eelandii for their penultimate home game of the campaign, hosting the always tricky Saint Eleanor. The Eleanorian's were the team that Turori struggled most with during the first half of the campaign being held through to beyond the hour mark before finally getting the lone goal from Loala Inkabu that decided the match.

Inkabu would not be in the starting lineup for the Eels at home against Saint Eleanor nor would be top scorer Nua'oma Aikiki and it was a decision that some may have been questioning as the first half came to a close with no goals for either side. Turori would make one change at half time with youngster Lumlao Noauryua coming on in place of Cuoabaza Orani'aoa who had picked up a knock in the first half and the coaching staff decided to make the switch out of an abundance of caution.

The match would finally get its key moment just before the hour mark when Turori would earn a mildly controversial penalty kick when Kala'a Yuliizala was adjudged to have been impeded by John Parkinson even as the ball appeared to be destined to be on its way out of play. Veteran midfielder Daliora Toru'u made no mistake from the spot to give Turori the lead and turn the match around. With the goal in hand a three points in site, the Turori National Coaching Staff would slow things down with a pair of substitutions over the next ten minutes, first introducing Kinabo Telioa in place of Biliki Rona'atu'i then, less than ten minutes later, bringing top scorer Nua'oma Aikiki on in place of Tulaki Rauogba in order to cause problems for the Saint Eleanor defenders and to ensure the opponents couldn't fully abandon the defense in their search for an equalizer. As Saint Eleanor continued to press, however, Aikiki would ultimately make them pay, being fed through by Lati'ala Giaoka in the 82nd minute before slotting past John Bailey and putting the result beyond doubt, securing the win for Turori and maintaining the Eels two points advantage over Drawkland atop the Group 3 table.

 Turori [1] - [0] Winnebogan
				
	GOALS:	Turori 	:: 21' Nua'oma Aikiki              		
	STATS:	Turori 	:: Possession: 54%:: Shots: 3:: Corners: 4	Winnebogan 	:: Possession: 46%:: Shots: 1:: Corners: 1
	Lineup:	[GK] Timaala Hualtia, [D.] Amakli Inuro'o, [D.] Biliki Rona'atu'i, [D.] Planio’o Nrujsa, [D.]  Moumouni Verre'elali, [ML]  Daliora Toru'u, [MC] Cuoabaza Orani’aoa, [MC]  Lati'ala Giaoka, [MR]  Tulaki Rauogba, [FC] Nua'oma Aikiki, [FC] Turakia Diijelhma			
	Bench:	[FC] Kala'a Yuliizala, [FC] Lutara Makakio, [M] Naraiza Ruaplal, [M] Kinabo Telioa, [U ] Bvalis Amaanara, [D] H’munao Cagomia, [GK] Derizi Amatopa

 Turori [2] - [0] Saint Eleanor
				
	GOALS:	Turori 	:: 58' Daliora Toru'u:: 82' Nua'oma Aikiki             		
	STATS:	Turori 	:: Possession: 57%:: Shots: 5:: Corners: 3	Saint Eleanor 	:: Possession: 43%:: Shots: 2:: Corners: 4
	Lineup:	[GK] Derizi Amatopa, [D.] Moumouni Verre'elali, [D.] Planio’o Nrujsa, [D.] Karek Edgeli, [D.]  Biliki Rona'atu'i, [ML]  Cuoabaza Orani’aoa, [MC] Lati'ala Giaoka, [MC]  Daliora Toru'u, [MR]  Tulaki Rauogba, [FC] Turakia Diijelhma, [FC] Kala'a Yuliizala			
	Bench:	[FC] Loala Inkabu, [FC] Nua'oma Aikiki, [M] Kinabo Telioa, [M] Lumlao Noauryua, [U ] H’munao Cagomia, [D] Amakli Inuro'o, [GK] Timaala Hualtia

TURORI NATIONAL ✓

@TuroriNat
Back-to-Back Shutouts as #Eels maintain two point advantage over Drawkland in Group 3 Follow the Story Here...

#WC90Q - #TURvSEL - #EelsPark

by **Darmen** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 8:13 pm

Might As Well Flip A Coin
Group 10 Provides No Certainties - Anyone Can Still Advance

JOHNHO - The streets of Johnho are already abuzz as the anticipation for Monday evening's final Darmeni home qualifier grows evermore palpable. Visitors Jeruselem will need to prepare themselves for the potentially hostile atmosphere at the Stadio Rushmore as Darmen attempts to qualify for its ninth World Cup.

Alternatively, Darmen could choke against last placed The Gothanita Isles on Friday evening, making the match in Johnho even more important and causing all of Darmen to prepare itself for the inevitable heartache of elimination from qualification contention.

Just two points separate fourth placed Darmen from the top spot and unlikely group leaders Kyzhurkistan. And, while unlikely, its not impossible for Darmen to lose all three of its remaining matches and end up at the bottom of the Group 10 table. While Alberich Goldschmidt's All Greens would certainly have preferred to have already won the group, it would seem that every nation involved in Group 10 is in much the same position: wishing they had dominated but too inconsistent to have actually done so.

All three of the remaining matches of the qualification campaign are extremely important for the All Greens, with no team likely to have clinched their final position in the table until the final matchday in March. Goldschmidt and the All Greens had better hope they don't slip up as the curtains close, or it'll be one more cycle of misery for Darmeni fans across the country.

by **Huayramarca** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 8:19 pm

1985 Elections: How Huayramarcan Elections and Institutions Work?

Written by: Irina Aramburú
15/03/1985 – Last Update 9:00 P.M.

The Huayramarcan election of this year has, without any room for doubt, raised some expectation not only in Huayramarca but, also in some Anaian nations, as this is the first national election happening in one of those nations since the Foxchester Agreement came to birth and sealed the destiny of the region. There’re a lot people that are interested in how the Huayramarcan system works, their balances and checks and some particularities that may help for a better understanding of it, this part of the somewhat extreme anti-Anaian rhetoric of some candidates and the keen interest of others.

The situation described above is, perhaps, the main interest behind the creation of this report in order to introduce you, dear reader, to the world of Huayramarcan politics and its functioning, as this is a key to understand what’s on the stakes for the upcoming elections in three weeks.

First of all, let’s start with some overall specifics: The Huayramarcan Government is composed by three different branches: executive, judiciary and legislative; those three acts as checks and balances in the game of delicate use of power, something we had to learn by force due to our stormy past of people thirsty for power and constant abuses of it. The executive and legislative branch have a period of four years since taking the oath, both powers are elected by popular vote in a General Election, such as the one we are about to have.

The executive and legislative branches work in a system that is known here as a “first-tier election” which means that people elect their representatives. Why elections are divided in tiers? Why is this important? Because there are three tiers of elections in Huayramarca, we already featured the first-tier, then there’s a second-tier election, made by people’s representatives (Members of Parliament or the President) for another institution. An example of this is the Supreme Court, the judges are selected from a pool of competitors that self-postulate to the National Assembly and participate in a process with four steps that ensure that only the top judges can make it to the Supreme Court.

The terms of election of the supreme court lasts for nine-years (9) since taking the oath of their charges, this in an attempt to see a lack of dependency of the current government powers. The next election of this kind is in four years, specifically in 1989 and will be done for the assembly elected after this one. This means that if current elections are important, the following ones will be even more important as those involve, indirectly, the election of Supreme Court representatives, hence, a key for governance and stability for the elected leader by that moment.

The third-tier elections are made by the Supreme Court in order to elect the Attorney General and the Ombudsman of Huayramarca, their tenure last for 5 years and may be renewed by the Supreme Court if they consider that their job is up to the settled standards by the institution. In resume, the election of MPs and President can have a snowball-like effect for different institutions in Huayramarca and affect, positively or negatively, to the democratic process and even core decisions for the nation.

Returning back to the matter, the two powers that concern us the most, the executive and legislative branches are always elected in the same day of elections, but in different ballots and methods in order to ensure that there’s always room for balances and checks between those two institutions, forcing them to negotiate coalitions or act bills in order to keep dialogue flowing. The President branch is always elected in a direct vote that will force to have a winner in an absolute majority fashion, this means that if a candidate is unable to reach 50% + a vote for the General Election, a ballotage will be required to select a winner and the president of Huayramarca for the following four years.

During the last years, there hasn’t been need to perform any kind of ballotage as the candidates have been able to achieve an absolute majority in the first round of elections. We shall consider that the trend is different this time, as the opinion polls show that there’s no candidate even close to achieve a 30% of the vote share, everyone is fluctuating between 17% and 25%, hence making this actually unpredictable by the fact that many candidates are so close to each other that the technical margin of error can make them go from first to fourth or vice versa. This is a clear indicator that we will require a ballotage in order to elect a president, this run-off will require the participation of the two most voted candidates in the first round.

The second round is also the definitive one of the processes, as it requires an absolute majority to elect a president. This kind of situation is though to boost participation from people, in order to bolster the level of participation and the importance of the election for the system and the nation. After the election is done, the winner takes presidency and has three months in order to sort out transition details for their cabinet and the outgoing one. This situation forces the outgoing and upcoming president to avoid hiding sensitive information that may affect his process of decision-taking or required background for their first days of power.

The process for the presidential elections also requires certain background to achieve victory, it’s not the kind of process that you might inscriber in a party and run for it like that, there are some requirements in order to be even a candidate for this, those are the following ones:

Huayramarcan by birth or son of Huayramarcan parents.
Thirty years old as minimum.
Not being active in the military or any religious association.
Clean criminal record.
Having proven literacy and ninth grade of studies at least.

If this criterion is met, you can take part of a Primary Election in any political party of Huayramarca or run as an independent if you have enough resources to collect, at least 300,000 signatures from people across the nation that might back-up your agenda for the nation. As of now, everybody has used the political party road to achieve presidency. There are some situations, such as Armando Jamarara, who opted to create a political party by collecting signatures across the Yungas and Coastal departments in order to meet the threshold required by the Supreme Elections Committee (SEC).

The independent road is actually complicated due to the traditions of Huayramarcans, they are always used to trust organisations rather than individuals trying to follow an ideal or agenda, this is why independent candidates are a rarity or almost non-existent, as their chances to collect the signatures are scarce to say the least. The Primaries work differently to the presidential elections, as those require a single majority in order to elect a candidate to represent the party for the General Elections.

The National Assembly, the second entity of the Huayramarcan checks and balances system that relies on popular vote for elections has a quite complicated and turbulent history that has led it to its current situation. Since the 1900s, Huayramarcan governors considered that there was need of a consultant body with social representation to handle out the process of decision-making, helping to reduce the workload from the president and providing more efficient processes for lawfare and stability in the nation. That’s why in 1905 was born the first concept of a National Assembly, acting as a second-tier entity as the president appointed citizens to help in the most important matters of the nation, such as laws that approved rubber extraction and helped to foster communities, especially indigenous ones in the nation.

As everything in life, this wasn’t a situation exempt of flaws, as Ricardo Hinojosa proved in 1912, the dictator decided to select family and friends into the assembly, in order to have complete reign of the decisions of Huayramarca by using the institution as a puppet instead of a ballast to limit his power-grabbing obsession. The bloody coup of 1914 led to severe reforms by the time to the assembly, such as the distribution of the country in 200 constituencies that should allocate equal quantities of people to ensure a better representation. The lack of proper methodologies to capture data from people, lack of means of transportations to cover the extensive distances that Huayramarca has, even traversing the Sierra posed severe logistic challenges that tried to be defeated but failed.

Those challenges opened an unexpected door for corruption in the shape of gerrymandering, for those who don’t know what’s that, let me explain it easily: The constituencies were drawn in a way that favoured the ruling parties by concentrating their followers in one entity in order to maximise the number of MPs won in each election. The ancient Liberal Party and the still alive Conservative Party always ensured majority governments by doing this practice, which lasted for at least 40 years until 1955, where the period of dictatorships started in Huayramarca.

That infamous period has all the characteristics of a dictatorship since the first second, as Rutilio Mamani decided to abolish the parliament in 1956 by imposing a Military Junta that lasted for twenty years, during that period Huayramarca didn’t have a proper representative system working until the now deceased Hugo Mina betrayed the Military Junta and ordered a group of gangsters to kill them all during a meeting in order to take power. Mina also didn’t show any sign of interest in forming a “real assembly”, as he formed a fake one in order to show the world that “Huayramarca could now boast serious institutions that ensured democracy for the people.” Lies, lies and more lies.

Known as “The Circus”, the short lived Asamblea Plurinacional lasted only two years and featured the Conservative Party and four more satellite parties, this in an attempt to avoid showing that the project was a mimicking and a continuation of the assassinated junta. As the 1980 revolution came, the current government decided to create what we known as the National Assembly, a serious institution with 200 MPs as the old ones featured back in the 1900-1910s.

People might wonder about how the constituency system works now, if it’s the same old system of gerrymandering or if actual changes have been made to the system. The answer is that changes have been made in order to turn Huayramarca into a country that can boast a functional democracy, as the constituencies are in reality municipalities formed with different criterions such as the following ones:

Zones with a settlement of at least 100,000 inhabitants.
Historical dependence from villas or sparsely populated zones to the main settlement.

This criterion has made the constituency building process something based in historical communication and commercial dynamics, rather than a process of just drawing lines across a map or even deliberately doing it in order to make sure that a party has majority in a zone to optimise results for a party. Each municipality has an MP and a major that, often, coordinate themselves in order to promote initiatives and social demands to the parliament in order to provide acknowledgment from the government to those, this may boost the possibility for those demands to be solved.

The current system uses a first-past-the-post system, this means that the candidate with the most votes will win the election, no matter how. This is a stark difference from the format used in the Presidential Elections, as this requires a single election in every circumstance unless there’s a tie in the voting, which is highly unlikely to happen; although, the SEC has taken some considerations in regards of this, as they have had implemented a by-election system to solve this kind of situations, the protocol means that elections will be repeated in case of a tie, death or impeachment of an MP due to issues related to justice or breaches against the Behaviour Code of the National Assembly.

For being an MP, there’s no need of primaries, as the parties tend to select people based on local leadership and offer them the chance to compete for a riding in the National Assembly. This is an attempt to foster closer relationships from the parties to those people in different places in the nation.

How the branches coordinate among themselves? There are different ways that can make each of those entities coordinate among themselves for different purposes, some of those are the ones we said before in the section of tiered elections and others may imply agreements in order to pass acts or different situations.

The most common situation is the presentation of laws in the National Assembly, where the MPs might vote an act and the Executive has to provide written approval to it in order to be published in the Gaceta Huayramarquina a.k.a. the Official Gazette of the Government to publish laws and important information on the government’s day-to-day activities. In case the president doesn’t approve the act, the National Assembly has to overcome the veto by complying with suggestions made by the Executive or voting in a single majority to run over the veto. In case the Executive wants to challenge, can go into a legal process with the Supreme Court in order to let them provide legal feedback that must be complied by both sides.

The second situation is when the president suggests a law to be considered by the Assembly, this proposal has to be listened in a series or debates and can be dismissed if not approved in a second debate, there’s no possibility for a legal challenge from any part if dismissed. Despite this situation, the president has the possibility to ask for feedback in case of being dismissed, in order to ask his legal team to make changes to fulfill the demands asked by the MPs, once approved can be published in the Gaceta in order to make it public.

Those are the most usual situations of interaction among the core entities of democracy in Huayramarca, which basically describes 90% of situations that may involve law approval and the entire process behind the election of MPs and President. Hope it helps!

by **Pasarga** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 8:22 pm

"Same result, different international weekend. It is the same thing over and over again since the fourth matchday, the team has completely lost the ability to string wins together and the form at home has become so completely abysmal, it is almost as if the team instead is preferring to be on the road rather than the confines of the pro Wanderer crowd that is the Stade de Torgos. I can hardly believe my eyes the last few times that the side has played in national ground, they look like they are absolutely deathly afraid of not coming up with a result, they are so scared of losing that instead of being able to chase the three points, they confine themselves to being merely content with the one. It has completely come up to bite them in the ass as we enter the last three games."

"It almost feels as if something has shaken their confidence in themselves after they were playing so well in the first half of the campaign, one bad result has cascaded into multiple bad results and the sort of dropped points that looked to have been a thing of the past after the start that the team had to the campaign. Right when it looked like the manager might have actually got the squad to believe in the system and played their way out of the hot seat, this second half of the campaign has put them right back there with the Wanderers once again losing the grip that they had at the top of the table. All the hope and praise about an undefeated campaign can go out the window if the Wanderers are going to have to play in the playoff and who knows how that is going to fair with the team seemingly completely incapable of currently winning games in the Stade de Torgos."

"Yeah, the undefeated record means absolutely nothing right now, it is a fools sort of record and gold that looks all shiny and impressive until you start to examine it closely and realize it is all a big lie. Poafmersia has lost games, they absolutely were hammered when they visited Torgos, and yet they are the team that is at the top of the table right now and likely is going to come away with the qualification spot with the way that the form table seems to indicate. The worst part is that the Wanderers still have their trip to Poafmersia, which is the very last game of the campaign and yet they could be completely locked out of any hope of pulling a third rescue of a qualification in four attempts if the form table continues the way that it has been for the last five matches. Poafmersia has hit the absolute vein of form at the most opportune time while the Wanderers have for the second time this cycle squandered away what looked to be a solid lead at the top of the table and are now two points adrift with three to matches left in this campaign, barring any additional matches for playoffs."

"It is completely and utterly puzzling as the Wanderers have been the superior team in every single metric bar the one that matters the most, points in the table. It is the sort of statistics that drive us fans and the staff absolutely bonkers, as there is no obvious place where you can say that the team is failing and needs to do better. They are allowing only a solitary goal a game on average but scoring three times a game on average, yet they have only six wins and five draws to show for those impressive statistics. A perfect end with three wins from three still gets them the qualification spot, but you can not have the confidence or belief that the team will do it or that Poafmersia will start to drop points when they have seemingly hit the very best form of the cycle. Stranger things have happened but the outlook definitely looks bleak for the lads and lasses in the red and green, I do not know if I can bare to watch the two matches this weekend feeling the way I feel about the fortunes of the team and all that is on the line with these two games."

works? · by **Abanhfleft** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 8:28 pm

From the diary of Ashley Jaxson

Penalty kicks. Bloody penalty kicks.

That's how Pasarga managed to beat us this time. It wasn't because of anything that we did, or because of something we didn't do. Although I'm prepared to swear on my own life that the Pasargan goalkeeper was moving off of their line way before I had even moved to take the kick. I should have been allowed to retake that kick. But no. Pasarga must defeat Abanhfleft in the Round of 16 of the Di Bradini Cup, no matter the circumstances. Now I understand why everyone else is so pessimistic when it's them we're playing.

Gosh, I'm seriously at a loss for words right now. I seriously and legitimately don't know what to do now. I knew being pessimistic about this game wouldn't work so I thought I'd try and change things around a little bit by thinking positive, but clearly that didn't work out as well. So what's left for me to do now? Are we really doomed to always lose to Pasarga in the Round of 16? Sounds like a curse that someone could have put on us. Might need to get some sort of witch doctor to rid us of this curse if it's true. I'm just about ready to grasp at the nearest available straw. That's how devastating this has been for the whole team. And I doubt the Pasargans even actually care that much about us. To them, we're just another team to beat.

You-know-who and I talked a little bit again after the game. He said that our first conversation got him thinking as well, and that maybe it was to do something different. Now I wasn't expecting that at all. Then again, after seeing him play against Pasarga, it actually makes a whole lot more sense. It really looked like he was actually putting in the effort and not just "playing for the cameras." This time we talked about future plans. It started off with the whole "I hope the senior team calls me up despite losing to Pasarga," then it went to plans for the immediate future. Yeah, he actually asked me out. Not on a date, but just a little walk around town to look at the sights of Valanora for the last time as an under-21 player. Because we both know that the next time the DBC comes around, neither of us will be eligible. But you know what we're still going to be eligible for after two years? Booing Pasarga. Yeah, I'm still probably not gonna be over it two years later. Heck, this whole country's still hung up over a loss that happened a decade ago. I think we're just naturally salty people, the Flefts. And the salt won't stop flowing until something changes, and we all know that's not going to happen.

  HAPILOPPER 1 - 0 ABANHFLEFT 
MOON (90+3')

                DISPERTAG 5 - 7 ABANHFLEFT                
MONRÓS SALDAÑA (19', 63')       WOODWARD (6')
  SOLÍS SUÁREZ (39', 88')       KELLERMAN (30', 33', 71')
MALDONADO FERNÁNDEZ (76')       RUSEV (42')
                                McGINNIS (80', 90+4')

STARTING ELEVEN VS. RHUBARBTON & ZETA REKA AND HUGELTALDOM
GK: Bronwyn Churchill
DF: Christina Singleterry, Christy Shepley, Skye Ereve, Georgine Baum
MF: Trinidad Kleist, Cecily Segovia
Sohaila Magomedova, Prudence Woodward, Claudia Roos
FW: Kelly McGinnis

by **Eshialand** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 8:29 pm

Jinxes Aren't Real
South Newlandia 2-3 Eshialand
Eshialand 5-3 Lisander

Some months ago...
"Now, history appears to be on the Owls' side on this one; two of South Newlandia's favorite sports are chess and baseball, and both of those sports played host to a South Newlandia-Eshialand match that made Elephants fans a little less amused than when they walked in that day."
"How is this supposed to make me feel better?"
"With our luck, we pull off at least one draw and make South Newlandian crowds a little unamused about the endeavor."
"Dreamer... nothin' but a dreamer... There's one for all the Chartistanis in the audience!"

Some months later...

"And MacDougall gets it to Harran, he bangs it right out to Carroll, she shoots, SHE SCORES!!! The Owls take the lead in the eighty-fourth!!!"
"Now Josh, don't jinx this, don't jinx this..."
"It looks like South Newlandian fans may just leave the Stadium of Friendship disappointed after all, just like I said those--"
"No!!! Josh!!! What are you doing????"
"Karsten, Karsten Karsten Karsten... just look. Look at what's happening. This won't end ba--"
"ARE YOU SERIOUSLY KIDDING ME??? SHUT UP, DON'T RUIN THIS!!!!!"
"But, I have stats to sha--"
"NO MORE STATS PLEASE, CAN'T YOU WAIT???? GOOD MAGGIE, GET A GRIP!!!!"
"Pot calling the kettle unhinged."

As 2 minutes of stoppage time are announced, Coach Morgan receives a call on his cell phone, and, in his disbelief, he doesn't hesitate to pick it up. "Hello?"
"So, whatever happened to that 6-2 loss to Zwangzug? You've put that behind you rather quickly..."
"King William! Heh heh, yeah, uh..."
"Do you have anything to say about it?"
"Look who thinks he's a journalist now..."
"Heh heh, I've been interviewed my fair share of times, I guess I've picked up some of that voice... anyway, what made this match different?"
"Uh..."

The Coach paused for a second as he thought about what really was different. This was the same starting 11, the same coaching decisions, the same everything... what could be different?

Then, as the match entered its final sixty seconds, Melissa Carey looked back at the bench, just for a brief second, and the coach saw it. He saw that fire in her eyes, the one that carried this team through so many matches, but was just missing in so many others, including the previous one. Tonight, it was there. It was there.

"I guess we're just a different team today, Will. That's all I can really say."

"AND THEY'VE DONE IT! THEY'VE BLOODY WELL DONE IT!!!"
"So I can talk again?"
"Yes Josh, yes! Talk again!"
"Well, what I was trying to say was that... well, I've heard something from the South Newlandian news booth... you know how long it's been since South Newlandia lost a second half qualifying game?"
"No?"
"Almost five years."
"That isn't that long for them...
"Karsten... I mean five Eshian years."
"What?"
"They did it, Karsten. They did it."

South Newlandia - 2 (Gomez 8'; Young 51')
Eshialand - 3 (Carey 19'; Harran 28'; Carroll 84')

Eshialand - 5 (Meilling 7', 68'; Harran 24'; Longfield 73'; MacDougall 87')
Lisander - 3 (REDACTED 15'; REDACTED 33', 81')

by **Schima Bas** » Fri Jan 28, 2022 8:43 pm

Match Reports
MD 10: Polkopia @ Fusili Park, Alquierdi (24,000). 2-1, Polkopia
‘12 Maksim Pašin
‘23 Akili Granada
‘59 Yakoby Kosyo

MD 11: @ Mertagne, Dannin City Stadium, Dannin (85,750). 2-1, Mertagne
‘39 Jan Moustafa
‘40 Fabian Thundhart
‘62 Dani Emdelbia

Light fading for Basian qualifying hopes after two losses sour chances

Since the end of matchday seven, the Golden Crescent has lost 3 games and only found three points in one fixture, MD 9’s away match versus Acceptably Normal. With losses to both of the teams ahead of them in Group 8’s table, Cassadaigua and Polkopia, it seems as if the chances of seeing the Basians progress are slim to none.

Manager Gaio Grecio attributes the recent negative results to excellent tactical play by opposing managers.

“Our entire midfield threat has been shut down since the halfway point in qualifying,” Grecio said. “Bisma is still recovering from a knock he took in the match in Cassadaigua, and that physicality has not yet returned. I think opposing managers saw what worked for us in the first half and made adjustments. I’m looking at some alterations we can make heading into the final matches to solve the problems we've had thus far.”

It’s true that the Golden Crescent midfield has been missing some of the fire that made it so effective at finding results in the first games of the group. Add on top of that a drop in midfield possession time, and the 4-4-2 structure of Grecio has struggled to be as offensively potent as it once was.

The defense has also been more porous, allowing 2 goals per match since matchday seven, an increase from the 1.29 goals allowed per game the Basians had at the half. While this may seem like a frustrating development, it’s important to note that the only game that’s really been out of reach was the meeting with the Dagans, which saw a stellar opposing offense tear up the defensive unit, in a 4-0 loss, the worst of the tournament for the Basians.

Defensive captain Avery Cloutier, who impressed with stellar domestic performances to earn his national team cap, said that he had been putting in extra time to build cohesion with some of the back-up players.

“It’s important to not only have stellar starters that understand what their role is in our scheme, defensively and in transition, but also to reach out to the bench players that don’t see as many minutes. That’s my focus right now, regardless of the qualifying results. We’re a team that’s building for the future, and I want to make sure I’m doing all I can to assist our manager.”

Upcoming lineups
MD 12: Reçueçn @ Basian Sports Complex, Ourelasia (40,000)

Lucas Lefebvre,
Orgasni Azizi, Yann Alam, Gilles Bertrand, Jerust King,
Raaji Attar, Bisma Shehadeh, Mukarram el-Muhammad, (C) Araft Sergeant,
Akili Granada, Bassel Adel

MD 13: @ Electrum, Olympic Stadium (100,000)

Tebrum Bourreau,
Volfango Di Lello, Avery Cloutier, Gilles Bertrand, Khuld Montemayor,
(C) Makin Moghaddam, Abaddon Ghanem, Mukarram el-Muhammad, Leonard Charbonneau,
Bassel Adel, Casildo Hana

World Cup 90--RP Thread

Expedition, Episode 2

WC90 MD10-11

Burgergate Episode I:The Beginnings

WC90Q MD11/12

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