Nationstates Olympic Games Discussion Thread

[Liventia]

Confirming the following defending champions, if entered, are exempt from qualifying for the 16th Winter Olympics. In team events like relays or doubles where only one team is entered, any team with at least one member of the defending champion team will be exempt (if a whole new team is entered, they will have to qualify on merit). In bobsleigh, the defending champion pilot (first name listed) will be exempt from qualifying. In luge doubles, if the defending champion team is split up, the higher-ranked entered team with at least one member of the defending champion team will be exempt.

ALPINE SKIING
Men’s Downhill: John Reigns (TAE)
Men’s SG: Batuhan Sapi (KWP)
Men’s GS: Paddy Fosh (TAE)
Men’s Slalom: Tamid ben Ebron (IOU)
Men’s Combined: Santteri Nuroamo (TKT)
Women’s DH: Jana Eichberg (STL)
Women’s SG: Karen Mells (KWP)
Women’s GS: Kelsey Brennan (CDG)
Women’s Slalom: Sophie Tremain (GUL)
Women’s Combined: Johanna Roarsbrand (TKT)
Mixed Team: Kieran Jenkins/Julian Mason/Emily Monahan/Meredith Jameson (KSK)

BIATHLON
Men’s Sprint: Alfred Schwartz (MAP)
Men’s Individual: James Makone (KRY)
Men’s Mass Start: James Makone (KRY)
Men’s Relay: Nicola Nude/Norbert Nude/Nathan Nackt/Desmond Desnudo (KGS)
Women’s Sprint: Johanne Massey-Mah (QUE)
Women’s Individual: Chrystie Klack (NWD)
Women’s Mass Start: Nina Mandaric (SRE)
Women’s Relay: Nina Mandaric/Ivana Mandaric/Olga Masterkova/Julia Tirimotic (SRE)
Mixed Relay: Daniel Burkhard/Jan Wulff/Nikoletta Pohl/Irma Kuhn (KWN)

BOBSLEIGH
Two-Man: Hayden Castle/James Castle (KWP)
Two-Woman: Louise Gardinier/Marilyn Johnston (NWD)
Four-Man: Brento Bodynii/Gireffi Bodynii/Quakii Estat/Exidii Motoqivic (VLT)

CROSS-COUNTRY
Men’s 15km: Evan Warner (TAE)
Men’s Skiathlon: Ralph Guerrero (MAP)
Men’s 50km: Valerian Larashenko (FLK)
Men’s Relay: Cameron Farmer/Shannon Lindsey/Christopher Phelps/Benny Davidson (MAP)
Men’s Ind Sprint: Pierre-Luc Berizeh (KSK)
Men’s Team Sprint: Jan Schultz/Alex Reynolds (NWD)
Women’s 10km: Kila Malia (VLT)
Women’s Skiathlon: Sarah Fuller (CDG)
Women’s 30km: Gabriella Whitman (CDG)
Women’s Relay: Janice MacDonald-Keon/Augustine Matthews/Agathe Byeon/Nathalie Sachtel-Howe (QUE)
Women’s Ind Sprint: Ifeta Avdic (MYT)
Women’s Team Sprint: Melissa Schumacher/Cecilie Jerabkova (STL)

CURLING
Men’s: Liventia (LEN)
Women’s: Britonisea (BRI)
Mixed Doubles: Cholé Dubois/Destry Grégoire (KSK)

FIGURE SKATING
Men’s: Þjóðvarður Henriksson (GRÆ)
Women’s: Jessica Carmichael (CDG)
Pairs: Franz Huger/Kate Huger (NWD)
Ice Dancing: Sam Alvarado/Cythnia Park (MAP)
Team Event: New Waldensia (NWD)*

FREESTYLE SKIING
Men’s Aerials: Ricky Molina (NWK)
Men’s Halfpipe: Sean Rossland-Gleaner (KSK)
Men’s Moguls: Willem Bakker (FLK)
Men’s Slopestyle: Ji Kang (CMT)
Men’s SX: Daniel Stamenov (KRY)
Women’s Aerials: Adele Mitchell (LEN)
Women’s Halfpipe: Ytilzia Waodooaro (VLT)
Women’s Moguls: Martha Pope (CMT)
Women’s Slopestyle: Chantelle Greene (KRY)
Women’s SX: Estoll Mnonzav (AKY)

ICE HOCKEY:
Men’s: Royal Kingdom of Quebec (QUE)
Women’s: Waisnor (WSN)
Gyatso-Kai, as World Cup of Hockey champions, would also receive a qualifying exemption if signed up.

LUGE
Men’s: Gonzalo Fresno (SDM)
Women’s: J van H (KGS)
Doubles: Alex Kirlenko/Marie Davis (RZN)
Team Relay: Royal Kingdom of Quebec (QUE)*

NORDIC COMBINED
Men’s Ind NH/10km: Bastian Stahnke (STL)
Men’s Ind LH/10km: Archie Warren (MAP)
Men’s Team LH/4x5km: Antoine Girault/Alfie Forbes/Brendan Asquith/Robbie Bates (LEN)
Women’s Ind NH/5km: Olivia Conners (TAE)
Women’s Ind LH/5km: Gabriele Bohm (VAL)
Women’s Team Sprint NH/2x1.5km: the highest-rated entry from VLT will be exempt, as long as it features one of nkara Mozariva/Jrufavi Mookala/Miksi Inlavulfia/Hatarik Malaviak (VLT)

SHORT TRACK
Men’s 500m: Dylan Lowe (LEN)
Men’s 1000m: Michel Cormier-Welton (KSK)
Men’s 1500m: Lance Coppeler (NRK)
Men’s 5000m Relay: Nedzad Ostojic/Patrik Ranogajec/Goce Dimitrov/Dmitry Inozemtsev (MYT)
Women’s 500m: Eliza Turner (NWK)
Women’s 1000m: Ligea Giannopulus (DCS)
Women’s 1500m: Renata Chance (DAR)
Women’s 3000m Relay: Árnheiður Oliversdóttir/Nadja Gestursdóttir/Ótta Jonathansdóttir/Friðdís Linusdóttir (GRÆ)

SKELETON
Men’s: Jason Tillburry (BRI)
Women’s: Kaulana Spence (FLX)

SKI JUMPING
Men’s Ind NH: Amazore Tileafa (VLT)
Men’s Ind LH: Ernst Klængursson (GRÆ)
Men’s Team LH: Thomas Tannenberg/Oleg Korinek/Kvido Vasicek/Elias Hofle (STL)
Women’s Ind NH: Eleanor Cook (MAP)
Women’s Ind LH: Natalie Schwanthaler (STL)
Women’s Team LH: Kikila Lunara/Miksi Inlavuflia/Inkara Mozariva/Utavara Birdavil (VLT)

SNOWBOARD
Men’s Big Air: Arthur Pavlovich (WSN)
Men’s Halfpipe: Dario Peters (CMT)
Men’s PGS: Hubert Garza (MAP)
Men’s Slopestyle: Luvencio Sandoval (VAL)
Men’s SBX: Koriel Tuvuyscic (EQP)
Women’s Big Air: Gabriella Marroquín (SRT)
Women’s Halfpipe: Samantha De Veyra (RZN)
Women’s PGS: Evvie Alvarsson (NWD)
Women’s Slopestyle: Kylie Renassler (KSK)
Women’s SBX: Kaisa Widforss (TKT)

SPEED SKATING
Men’s 500m: Anatoly Rybakov (WSN)
Men’s 1000m: Alexander Gabrusevich (WSN)
Men’s 1500m: Roger Maurel (LCT)
Men’s 5000m: Leonid Glagolev (MYT)
Men’s 10000m: Jordan Malboy (KWP)
Men’s Mass Start: Percy Rhodes (MAP)
Men’s Team Pursuit: Ormuri Stjernberg/Michael Throckmorton/Jack Lingfield (TKT)
Women’s 500m: Natasa Mundili (XXO)
Women’s 1000m: Long Guanting (XXO)
Women’s 1500m: Alizée Clérico (SDM)
Women’s 3000m: Margot Hardanger (SDM)
Women’s 5000m: Eleonore Ott (DAR)
Women’s Mass Start: Margot Hardanger (SDM)
Women’s Team Pursuit: Tatyana Andersson/Nelly Vandenbergh/Andra Collins (TKT)

*Only if team has failed to qualify for event through individual qualification method on merit

It seems you switched hockey tournaments winners)

Thanks!

[StrayaRoos]

It seems you switched hockey tournaments winners)

Thanks!

and Hasn't Taeshan CTE'd?

[Krytenia]

Thanks!

and Hasn't Taeshan CTE'd?

"if entered"

[Liventia]

For clarity: the Women's Nordic Combined team sprint event will use a 2x4.5km cross-country ski, not 2x1.5km, due to a mis-labelling on the FIS website.

As people have already signed up (and downloaded the spreadsheet) with the incorrect 2x1.5km event name, that will remain the official sign-up event name. Scorination (and results) will be presented as 2x4.5km, rather than 2x1.5km.

[Liventia]

That concludes the XVI Olympic Winter Games.

I'm about to take a short holiday, so I will share all my sports scorination files for each event when I am back at the start of May.

[Huron League]

Thank you for everything!

[Waisnor]

Thanks for this games!)

[The Licentian Isles]

Great work Liv, thank you!

[Sarzonia]

Thanks LE!

Enjoy your well-deserved time off!

[The Cordian Isles]

Thanks for hosting!

[Srednjaci]

Liv, you did a really amazing job!
Sorry I couldn't RP last day, RL...
Thank you, I really enjoyed

[Quebec and Shingoryeo]

Thank you for an excellent Winter Olympics, Liv. Enjoy your holiday!

[Quebec and Shingoryeo]

PRESCOTT, ELECTRUM and TWIN CITIES, QUEBEC & SHINGORYEO
Candidate Cities for the Games of the XVI Olympiad

The Royal Quebecois Olympic Committee and the Electrum Olympic Council are officially submitting their bid to co-host the Games of the XVI Olympiad.

Candidate City Information

Prescott Information
The Electrum Olympic Council has submitted the city of Prescott for consideration. In the past, Prescott, Electrum's second largest city, has hosted the XI to XIII Winter Olympics. Prescott has a rather temperate climate in the summer with the various ski slopes melting away to reveal superb mountainous tracks amongst the redwood trees. During the Summer, Prescott has a different sort of natural beauty compared to what it's usually known for in the Winter. Due to its location, Prescott is at a higher altitude than typical Olympic host cities, which will affect conditions in a wide variety of outdoor sports, including athletics.

Because Prescott is an inland city, sailing events will be held at the sailing host city of the Games of the XV Olympiad, Port Grenville. Some events are held on the slopes of Mt. Buckley, around an hour's drive from Prescott and Redford Lake/Toolmalook is three+ hour's drive north-west from Prescott.

Twin Cities Information
After decades of deliberation, and the successful running of the qualification tournaments of the XVI Winter Olympics and the Games of the XI Olympiad held across the nation, the Royal Quebecois Olympic Committee has internally decided to approve Twin Cities' application for the right to co-bid for the Games of the XVI Olympiad. Led by Twin Cities mayor Irene Kweon Binnington, the bid has support from the Royal Quebecois Olympic Chairwoman, three-time Olympian Arlene Lafontaine, and the current RQOC vice-chair Pierre Youngblood, who has agreed to chair the Quebecois section of the Bid Team.

Founded by earliest Koreanophone and Anglophone settlers who had moved into the mouth of the Mengwes Bay from the Grinshem Sea in the early-mid 1400s, Twin Cities is a dynamic, cosmopolitan city located in Quebecois East Coast. The greater city's namesake comes from the two cities of Habpo and Saint John, whose amalgamation with smaller municipalities had occurred a decade ago and with successful results.
Marked by the Downtown core that retains great parts of buildings and structures from the 1700s and the 1800s, Twin Cities is famous for its charm as a city that historically played a significant role in Quebecois history. The so-called 'Piraeus of Calania' refuses to live into the past, however, as it has long evolved into a city of innovations over the last 50 years, with the area maintaining the highest number of schools per capita in Quebec and high numbers of technology and business professionals who have started their businesses. With rows of parks, libraries, museums and playgrounds all over the city's centre core, the city continues to bring great promise for decades to come.

The Mengwes Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operates a 114-station subway and commuter rail system within and outside of city borders, with ticket holders, and athletes and officials with accreditations given free access to the transit system during the Olympic Games. Ticket Holders to the surfing events at Rimini Beach in Exbury, 70km southwest just next to the Quebec-Semarland border, will receive free travel between Exbury and Twin Cities (station: Saint John Central on the Daehakro Cluster). Twin Cities International Airport (TCY/TCIA) will be lifting its overnight curfew for the duration of the Olympiad. The MBTA will be providing direct access to all three clusters via Blue Line, with the airport loop serving the airport’s both domestic and international terminals.

Venue Information

Prescott

Prescott city cluster
Northcote Oval - ceremonies, rugby sevens, athletics, football finals
Edison Square - archery, skateboarding, speed climbing, BMX freestyle
Landry's Arena - track cycling
Monument to Pacifism Centre - shooting
National Electrum University, Prescott - tennis (outdoor hard courts)
Prescott Racecourse - equestrian, modern pentathlon
Redford Lake/Toolmalook - rowing, sprint canoeing
The Ice Palace (next to Edison Square) - tennis show court (hall A), boxing (hall B), karate, taekwondo, boccia (hall C), goalball (hall D)
Whitewater Canoe Course - slalom canoeing

Outside of Prescott
Kingsford Farm Country Club - golf
Mt. Buckley National Park - road cycling, mountain biking, BMX racing
TBA venues in Electrum - football group stage
Blackstone Marina (in Port Grenville) - sailing

Twin Cities

Downtown Cluster
Ellington Park - Baseball, Softball
101st Regiment Armoury - Weightlifting, Gymnastics (Rhythmic)
Habpo Commons - Aquatics (Marathon Swimming), Beach Volleyball, Triathlon
Habpo Convention Centre - Fencing, Judo, MPC, Table Tennis, Wrestling
KD Centre - Gymnastics (Artistic and Trampoline), Basketball (Finals)

Daehakro Cluster*
Skylight Arena - Basketball (Team)
Rudy and Alma Greenbaum Centre - Badminton
Yongma College Aquatics Centre - Aquatics (Swimming, Diving, Artistic Swimming)
* Yongma College, Acadie Institute of Technology (universities), Beaudoin and Calvert Colleges (community colleges), combined have several side arenas that will be used for the course of basketball, handball and volleyball group stage.

Olympic Park Cluster
Olympic Village
Two Rivers Stadium - Ceremonies, Gridiron Football, Lacrosse
National Hockey Centre - Hockey
Mipo Aquatics Centre - Aquatics (Water Polo)
National Steelworkers Union Centre - Handball
The Gazebo at Mipojoseon - Volleyball (Indoor)
Homebush Green - Basketball (3x3)

Outside of Clusters:
Rimini Beach, Exbury - Surfing
Preliminary round and group stage matches in Men's Baseball, Women's Softball, Men's and Women's American Football, and Men's and Women's Lacrosse are held across Quebec and Shingoryeo.

There will be three clusters - Downtown, Daehakro (translated to English as College Boulevard) and Olympic Park - with the clusters located from each other by a 5-10 minute ride on the Twin Cities Subway.

Built around the pre-existing Mipojoseon Sports Complex and the Two Rivers Stadium, 54,000-seater which will be expanded to 70,000 to host ceremonies and gridiron demonstration events, the Olympic Park cluster will be located in the southern half of Mipo district east of Downtown and southeast of Daehakro. Built on former grounds of Mipojoseon Shipyards, whose operations moved to the east end of the city six years ago, the Olympic Park already incorporates preexisting arenas and an aquatic centre used by multi-sport Mipojoseon Athletic Club. Most of the additions made there will be on the southern half of the district, where the Olympic Village, the National Hockey Centre (NHC) with four fields, and an urban park where 3x3 basketball events will be held. Following the conclusion of the Olympics, the Olympic Village will be converted into low-price student and low-income housing options.

On the other side of the Alexandre IV Bridge features the bustling Downtown cluster. Facing the shipyards on the banks of Tartanmouth River, the Habpo Convention Centre and KD Gardens are linked to each other and three hotels by a walkway, and have long hosted endless international conventions, expositions and conventions. The Gardens and six halls of the HCC will hold Fencing, Judo, Table Tennis and Wrestling events. The HCC will also host the Media and Press Centre (MPC) for the duration of the Olympics with those accredited given accommodation on hotels linked to the HCC by a walkway.

On the other side of Downtown, facing the Daehakro Cluster, stands 101st Regiment Armoury and Ellington Park. Former home of the 101st Regiment that used to provide firefighting services within the city borders, it will play host to weightlifting and rhythmic gymnastics. Just 500m away from it stands legendary Ellington Park. Currently the second-oldest baseball stadium in all of Quebec with its built date of 1924, it is currently the home to QBO team Twin Cities Green Sox and play host to the playoff stage matches of both baseball and softball events.

Located between them stands the Twin Cities' oldest designated park, the Habpo Commons. The Habpo Commons will play host to marathon swimming, triathlon and beach volleyball on one half and host a wide variety of concerts on the other half. It has been agreed between the QBC, the RQOC and the Twin Cities, that should this bid proceed, some concerts and events from the QBC Proms will be performed at the Commons and the Mengwes Opera House from July to September, with other artists welcome to perform concerts and engagements of it over the course of the Olympics as well.

Finally, the third cluster located four to five kilometres away is the Daehakro (College Boulevard) cluster. A collegiate cluster consisting of three universities and two community colleges, it is known for super-old brick buildings, walkways with lots of trees, a wide range of eateries, cafes and not to mention overpriced student housing options. Swimming and diving will be held at the Yongma College Aquatic Centre, while basketball matches will take place in various arenas across Muhak National University, centred by the multipurpose Skylight Arena that is used by the university's basketball and (ice) hockey teams. Badminton will take place at the Rudy and Alma Greenbaum Centre on Acadie Institute of Technology's campus. In addition to aforementioned arenas, group stage matches in basketball, handball and volleyball will be played in various arenas across the cluster.

OOC Details

Experience

Electrum has hosted a variety of events and is the current President and organiser of the NationStates Tennis Tour. The most relevant hosting experience for this bid is co-hosting the Games of the X Olympiad with New Gelderland and hosting the Games of the XV Olympiad. Electrum has also hosted the XI, XII and XIII Winter Olympics.

Quebec and Shingoryeo has hosted and cohosted a variety of events including the World Cup 73 and 77, 2 Baptisms of Fire, 2 Cups of Harmony, 6 World Cups of Hockey, 4 International Basketball Championships and 2 World Bowls, on top of dozens other tournaments he has hosted. Quebec has also assisted in hosting qualifier competitions for the XVI Winter Olympics and the Games of the XI Olympiad. At the moment, he is currently the Commissioner and organiser of the NationStates College Football and the International Volleyball Federation, and oversees the operations of domestic handball and volleyball.

Scorination Details

All events will be scorinated on the latest version of xkoranate, with any updated files developed and used for this Olympics to be made available at the conclusion of the Olympics. Fortunately, many files have already been updated back in Electrum’s hosting of the XV Olympiad.

As with the XV Olympiad, all events on the extended list will be played. Eighteen scorination days are expected.

Four demonstration sports will be played. Gridiron Football (IFAF rules) and Lacrosse will be played on the Quebecois side. Gridiron football will be scorinated with the SQIS-WBXXXI file, the latest file that has been applied with IFAF rules, while lacrosse will be used with the default file. The paralympic sports of Boccia and Goalball will be played in Prescott with newly created files. No other demonstration event will be run.

PRESCOTT - 189 medal events and 9 demonstration events
Ceremonies
Archery - 5
Athletics - 49
Boxing - 16
Canoeing - 16
Cycling - 22
Equestrian - 6
Football - 2
Golf - 2
Karate - 8
Modern Pentathlon - 2
Rowing - 14
Rugby Sevens - 2
Sailing - 11
Skateboarding - 4
Speed Climbing - 2
Shooting - 15
Taekwondo - 8
Tennis - 5
Boccia (demonstration) - 7
Goalball (demonstration) - 2

TWIN CITIES - 166 medal events and 4 demonstration events
Ceremonies
Aquatics - 52
Badminton - 5
Baseball-Softball - 2
Basketball - 4
Fencing - 12
Gymnastics - 20
Handball - 2
Hockey - 2
Judo - 15
Surfing - 2
Table Tennis - 5
Triathlon - 3
Volleyball - 4
Weightlifting - 14
Wrestling - 24
Gridiron Football (Demonstration) - 2
Field Lacrosse (Demonstration) - 2

As with the past Olympic Games, the MMAB system will be used to discourage min-maxing. Following model, having been used for the last two summer Olympiads, will be applied:

1–30 entries: Full MMAB for any STDEV
31–80 entries: Full MMAB for STDEV of 35 or less
81–175 entries: Full MMAB for STDEV of 30 or less
176–300 entries: Full MMAB for STDEV of 25 or less
301+ entries: Full MMAB for STDEV of 20 or less

The roleplay bonus will be weighed by MMAB (20%), roster grade (5%), non-degrading cumulative roleplay score (35%), degrading cumulative roleplay score (40%). RP bonus on the degrading cumulative roleplay score, will never be degraded to zero. By establishing both degrading and non-degrading cumulative roleplay scores, the RP bonus is designed to reward quality and the consistency of quality itself.

The maximum entry limit will be 600 entries and 2 delegations, meaning a single country or an unified team, per user. Unified teams can be submitted on the condition that all nations in the unified team are separate nations on NationStates. The average skill of all athletes submitted by a delegation can be no more than 50. The average skill of all athletes submitted to medal events only can be no more than 50. Roleplays for one delegation will not provide a bonus to any other delegation, but roleplays by any nation in a unified team will count for all unified team members.

For the purposes of the "Rules regarding withdrawing a nation from an NS Sport RP", a nation is considered to have signed up when their entry is accepted by either cohost. Both cohosts will be adding the entries immediately upon accepting them. If nations wish to withdraw, their roleplay bonus will be set to zero without any other intervention. The same procedure is used should a nation cease to exist during the Olympics.

Provisional Schedule

June 4 - Start Signups (or earlier)
July 20 - Indicative Start Date

We intend to begin the Olympics in mid-late July, with competition running for around three and a half weeks to a month. As with the XV OIympiad, numerous off-days will be built into the scorination schedule to take into account potential RL contingencies.

There will be only one RP cutoff per scorination day, with Quebec and Shingoryeo cutting off the first around 21:30-22:30 EDT each day. Following the posting of scorination windows, Quebec and Shingoryeo will be the first host to scorinate his events, with Electrum to scorinate approximately half a day after. This is because both scorinators will only be able to scorinate in night hours of their respective time zones, so this measure is selected to reduce confusion.

In the event this bid leads to a successful Summer Olympics, Electrum would take up the role of Olympic Council President.

Final Comments

As always, we are open to questions about this bid. We are also welcome to adjust the bid as needed. Deepest thanks to legendary Mr. Thun, also known as Kita-Hinode/USI/NSI/Matthewsiania, for designing of this wonderful logo.

[Electrum]

I confirm that I am a part of this bid.

[Liventia]

How will artistic gymnastics be handled in terms of qualification for the team final?

Why will you award RP bonus to non-RPing members of unified teams on the basis of their fellow delegation mates RPing – assuming these members have different trigrammes?

---

NS Olympic Council Vice-Presidential announcement:
With the receipt of a bid for the Games of the XVI Olympiad, the host bid deadline is officially set for 27 May 2022 to allow for a week of voting ahead of the bid's indicated signup start date.

[Banija]

Will there be Qualification ran for events like we did for this year's Winter Olympiad? If so, which events would have them?

Also, glad to see Quebec join the small group of Olympic hosts. This bid has my enthusiastic support

[Kirungabi]

Love the bid, and I'm quite excited!

My question is, will single users with multiple nations be able to field unified teams, or does the requirement that "all nations in the unified team are separate nations" imply that they must also be separate people?

[Kelssek]

Unified teams are when multiple users submit one delegation. By definition they are separate people. In the situation you seem to be suggesting of one user with multiple nations, frankly, I would encourage you to submit two of them as two delegations. Presumably your multiple nations are separate countries. What IC reason would they have to operate as the same country in the Olympics?

If you submit your multiple puppets such that they compete as a single entity, then you're not really submitting a unified team but rather a delegation that is RPed as a multi-national one. There's no rule against that, although I would urge you to keep to one NOC code (and I do enforce such a rule when I'm hosting). As a host, I dislike people mixing NOC codes within the same delegation because it's an added administrative complication and can easily lead to bonus and scorination errors, but that may just be me.

[Quebec and Shingoryeo]

First round of answers are made.

How will artistic gymnastics be handled in terms of qualification for the team final?

Team scores will be the sum of their top three scores in each apparatus, with top 8 teams qualifying to the final.

Will there be Qualification ran for events like we did for this year's Winter Olympiad? If so, which events would have them?

Also, glad to see Quebec join the small group of Olympic hosts. This bid has my enthusiastic support

Thank you for this question. It's something that came up very early into the process and one that both Electrum and I agreed right on the spot.

A short answer to that is no, there will be no qualification stage run for events for Games of the XVI Olympiad if our bid wins.

Various reasons exist behind this - likelihood of smaller number of signups than XIV/XV, logistics (one guy's in eastern NA, other eastern Australia), and both cohosts' RL circumstances requiring certain off-days well in advance (ETM) and needing to finish before the final week of August (me).

If I do ever bid solo on a summer or winter Olympics in very distant future, however, qualifications will be on agenda. Don't take my word for it though.

Why will you award RP bonus to non-RPing members of unified teams on the basis of their fellow delegation mates RPing – assuming these members have different trigrammes?

The bidding team's line of thought is to give people the greatest choice possible in how they want to RP. This means it gives people the choice of either entering the same unified team with the same trigram or different trigram. Under one scenario they wouldn't be penalised for not RPing as they are in the same trigram, under other they would. In our bid, these scenarios are the same.

My question is, will single users with multiple nations be able to field unified teams, or does the requirement that "all nations in the unified team are separate nations" imply that they must also be separate people?

Can you be more specific on this, Aboveland? Is this based on hypotheticals or a possibility that Aboveland, Nykipiflugpuu and Kirungabi will all be signing up as one delegation?

I may be asking this specifically since you posted it as Kirungabi and not Aboveland, but Kelssek is raising very good points here. Combined delegations do cause a lot of pain on arse.

[Kelssek]

Separate post, as a question to the hosts.

The roleplay bonus will be weighed by MMAB (20%), roster grade (5%), non-degrading cumulative roleplay score (35%), degrading cumulative roleplay score (40%). RP bonus on the degrading cumulative roleplay score, will never be degraded to zero. By establishing both degrading and non-degrading cumulative roleplay scores, the RP bonus is designed to reward quality and the consistency of quality itself.

1) I'm confused by this. Presumably, a non-degrading component is going to be an overall score for RP over the whole Olympics, while the degrading score is for recent RP. How could the latter never be zero? Why should it not reach zero at some point?

2) What is needed to get the full 5% roster score?

3) If someone were unable to RP the first half of the Games, would they be disadvantaged compared to someone unable to RP the second half, assuming both had the same quality of RP?

4) Do the hosts regard RP focusing only on competitions and events of equal quality to RP that emphasizes stories and characters? What would different genres have to do to be considered of equal or greater quality?

As a comment on reservations about the hosts that don't go as far as campaigning against the bid. Not so long ago I caused upset because of an RP I regarded as fairly innocuous but which Q&S did not see the same way (my POV of what happened). As a result I've been hesitant to have further IC interaction, but this will be unavoidable in an Olympic setting where characters are all in that place.

It makes no sense for me to say "you can't object to how people interpret your nation or penalize them for doing so". Because there are cases where that is necessary and justified, and it wouldn't be possible to check that anyway. Instead I want to assert that such defensive and prickly responses can't be the norm, and please seek clarification and discussion over such things before assuming the worst of what people are RPing.

[Quebec and Shingoryeo]

Couple of answers for now. More will come on a separate post.

4) Do the hosts regard RP focusing only on competitions and events of equal quality to RP that emphasizes stories and characters? What would different genres have to do to be considered of equal or greater quality?

As junior cobidder, I think that loose RP guidelines made by Electrum, the senior cobidder of the competition and most recent summer host, makes it more or less clear on what to expect:

Roleplay marking can be pretty subjective, but here are some of the things which would help you in scoring highly:

• Quality > quantity - a roleplay that can make me laugh or feel emotional or has good sporting analysis/research (especially for more obscure sports), graphics, characterisation, world building will be marked more highly. Feel free to experiment and be creative.
• Try and roleplay events about or related to the Olympics or its athletes in some way.
• Use all the information provided to provide details: where applicable, refer to team rosters, IC info, sponsorship info, other people's roleplays, etc.
• Respect people's roleplay permissions (usually people post them on the roster thread) -- this includes not godmodding if it's not allowed and being consistent with what other people have roleplayed first.
• Don't give me a list of results -- I scored them! Instead, give information that I don't know. Fill in the blanks and provide context behind the scores. How did the athletes feel? What moves did they do? How did they win or lose? Why did they perform above/below expectations?
• Don't expect to always win. Remember that having a high skill athlete and/or a good roleplay only increases but does not guarantee the chances of a medal.
• Don't tag posts to edit in roleplays later. Once I see a post on the thread, I will mark it. If you have anything new to add, do so in a new post and it will be counted.

Of course quality has been, is and will always be important. But the relevance to the competition or an Olympic sport does too, and same goes with how well can you use what's given to you. I'd say even more so on the Olympics than World Cup Qualifying, another competition where this kind of debate pops up a lot - the sheer volume of results (and one can argue IC information) we get on the Olympics can be daunting at times but also offers even more possibilities. That's something that I have particularly looked for when grading RPs for this Winter Olympic qualifiers, and feel no different on this occasion.

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As a comment on reservations about the hosts that don't go as far as campaigning against the bid. Not so long ago I caused upset because of an RP I regarded as fairly innocuous but which Q&S did not see the same way (my POV of what happened). As a result I've been hesitant to have further IC interaction, but this will be unavoidable in an Olympic setting where characters are all in that place.

It makes no sense for me to say "you can't object to how people interpret your nation or penalize them for doing so". Because there are cases where that is necessary and justified, and it wouldn't be possible to check that anyway. Instead I want to assert that such defensive and prickly responses can't be the norm, and please seek clarification and discussion over such things before assuming the worst of what people are RPing.

I believe that this likely originated from a minor misunderstanding between two sides where things IC translated into something OOC on my part, and myself not finding time to respond to said query, especially as I was shuffling RL responsibilities at the time. So I apologise if the lack of OOC clarification/response at the time may have come off as something else - that was not the slightest of intentions. That said, what I will say for sure is that your comment was noted at the time, and that both me and Ko-oren, cohost of the said RUWC of concern, can confirm on that it did not affect grading of the tournament. Why would it?

In more recent times I have continued to maintain my flexibility in regards to collaborative RPing. You are welcome to ask those active on NSCF, NSCAA, VWE/IVF and most recently NSSCRA (though as a puppet and not my main), on my interest to foster, maintain and encourage worldbuilding and character development through interactive roleplay. I've also given back extensive, constructive feedback on people's long-form storylines, those specific, adjacent or even slightly outside of sports they cover (usually they were very much within though), most notably and recently on Tumbra's Defender Meets Midfielder. Many have involved characters, locations and matches involving my characters or locations and I have provided what was needed on IC information and even suggested people to further extend their storylines.

On technical side of collaboration, I have helped several up-and-coming NationStates College Football hosts by helping them out on the ins-and-outs of the NSCF operations, which involve juggling conferences, different hours and a fascinating seeding-standing formula (OSPI), by providing them guidance. Due to the intricate, RP-intensive nature of the competition, it is imperative for the competition to have consistent pool of cohosts, and I have always been first on the line to help out those in need when making their first steps into scorination.

The same goes to those of other competitions who I was extremely happy to work and cohost with, from Sylestone (HWC 24) to Bollonich (IBC 33) on top of my NSCF involvements. Those up and coming, relatively new to college football, or with peculiar interest to certain sports, have benefited from this, and I too have learned more as a (co-)host and organiser even in the past year or so since. I expect my stance not to change as junior co-bidder taking on this task under Electrum as senior co-bidder.

I hope this addresses your OOC concerns.

[Kelssek]

Ko-oren, cohost of the said RUWC of concern, can confirm on that it did not affect grading of the tournament. Why would it?

I discussed it with Ko-oren to my satisfaction at the time and I did not mean to imply that I ever suspected this was the case.

I think I am reassured that participants can freely RP about (what I presume will be) a key setting for this Olympics, and that is all I was really looking for in any response there.

I want to push on 1) and 2) however. There is something I'm not understanding about how the degrading-over-time score cannot reach zero.

Also, the criteria for roster bonus would seem pretty easy to specify. Will I get 5% if I supply a few names in every team event? (that's all an opponent needs, which is the key reason for roster penalties, so that's a viable criteria) Do I miss out if I don't have jersey graphics?

[Liventia]

Why will you award RP bonus to non-RPing members of unified teams on the basis of their fellow delegation mates RPing – assuming these members have different trigrammes?

The bidding team's line of thought is to give people the greatest choice possible in how they want to RP. This means it gives people the choice of either entering the same unified team with the same trigram or different trigram. Under one scenario they wouldn't be penalised for not RPing as they are in the same trigram, under other they would. In our bid, these scenarios are the same.

I'm not understanding here.

Take an example from the Winter Games. Multiple users, with different trigrammes, submitted a unified delegation with an overarching trigramme.
Under your proposal, would – for example – an RP by KWP award RP bonus to non-RPing ATA, both of whom are in the same RCN unified team?
If so, why? Note this is not a question as to whether an RP by KWP would award RP bonus to the RCN delegation, applying to entries with the RCN trigramme.

Any bid that professes to award RP bonus to a non-RPing entry is not one I can support.

[Electrum]

I want to push on 1) and 2) however. There is something I'm not understanding about how the degrading-over-time score cannot reach zero.

Also, the criteria for roster bonus would seem pretty easy to specify. Will I get 5% if I supply a few names in every team event? (that's all an opponent needs, which is the key reason for roster penalties, so that's a viable criteria) Do I miss out if I don't have jersey graphics?

1) So on a technical level how our degrading mechanic would work is that after each day, the 'score' for each roleplay is multiplied by 0.75 (just an example degrading factor). The number never technically reaches zero if you keep multiplying by 0.75. Of course this heavily weights recent roleplays while older roleplays still contribute, just at a vastly smaller extent.

2) A full list of players in each team is sufficient for 5%. Alternatively a list of players for some sports (i.e. the events where the nation expects they will be competitive at) combined with some judge's names/flavour info/kit designs/etc. would also be sufficient for 5%.

3) To some extent but not by a lot. Of course RPing in the first half will net you a higher score in the 'non-degrading cumulative roleplay score' component later on but the relationship is not linear and is designed to be easy to catch up i.e. a person RPing for the first time on Day 10 will not get a tenth (instead they will get vastly more) of the bonus in this component compared to someone who has RPed every day and decided to stop by Day 10. Also I note that the overwhelming majority of people RP in the first half and burn out in the second half -- there are very few people who pick up RPing by the time the Olympics are half done.

Take an example from the Winter Games. Multiple users, with different trigrammes, submitted a unified delegation with an overarching trigramme.
Under your proposal, would – for example – an RP by KWP award RP bonus to non-RPing ATA, both of whom are in the same RCN unified team?
If so, why? Note this is not a question as to whether an RP by KWP would award RP bonus to the RCN delegation, applying to entries with the RCN trigramme.

Any bid that professes to award RP bonus to a non-RPing entry is not one I can support.

This is a matter of different philosophies. I tend to have a more lenient approach to unified teams so that people can roleplay in whatever manner that suits their style. I understand it was practice in old Olympics that players could submit unified teams even if they had the same user -- on the proviso that each nation is a different nation on NationStates and the amount of nations is reasonable -- I've continued with this approach for XV and XVI for example. Anyways back to this, there are three reasons why I think this is fine:

• If you are wanting to RP with several other people in the same entry you can either submit a delegation with the same trigram or submit a unified team with different trigrams. In one scenario if one person doesn't roleplay they still get the bonus regardless because another player would have RPed and they would have had the same bonus because they have the same trigram. In another scenario if they are part of the unified team with different trigrams they don't get the bonus. The situations are functionally identical but the outcome is different. That strikes to me as a bit unfair and in any case implementing this rule is easily circumventable in a hard to police way, i.e. by attributing to everyone when submitting a RP. Because I lean towards including unified teams, this restriction has been removed.
• It is administratively easier (and less potential for errors) to track one set of bonuses for a unified team compared to having different bonuses for different nations in the same unified team.
• For the process we plan to use, the only real, time-consuming complication associated with unified teams is the medal tally, which doesn't take that long to tally up and which I can help Quebec with.

[Liventia]

This is a matter of different philosophies. I tend to have a more lenient approach to unified teams so that people can roleplay in whatever manner that suits their style. I understand it was practice in old Olympics that players could submit unified teams even if they had the same user -- on the proviso that each nation is a different nation on NationStates and the amount of nations is reasonable -- I've continued with this approach for XV and XVI for example. Anyways back to this, there are three reasons why I think this is fine:

• If you are wanting to RP with several other people in the same entry you can either submit a delegation with the same trigram or submit a unified team with different trigrams. In one scenario if one person doesn't roleplay they still get the bonus regardless because another player would have RPed and they would have had the same bonus because they have the same trigram. In another scenario if they are part of the unified team with different trigrams they don't get the bonus. The situations are functionally identical but the outcome is different. That strikes to me as a bit unfair and in any case implementing this rule is easily circumventable in a hard to police way, i.e. by attributing to everyone when submitting a RP. Because I lean towards including unified teams, this restriction has been removed.
• It is administratively easier (and less potential for errors) to track one set of bonuses for a unified team compared to having different bonuses for different nations in the same unified team.
• For the process we plan to use, the only real, time-consuming complication associated with unified teams is the medal tally, which doesn't take that long to tally up and which I can help Quebec with.

Thanks for the clarification. It's not a philosophy I support and I won't be voting for the bid, but thank you for clearing up my doubts surrounding the issue.