The World Cup Discussion Thread (OOC, Version IV)

[Graintfjall]

Yes. The first MD hasn't been scheduled yet, and likely won't be until the final week of the month.

[Graintfjall]

The results of the BoF mean that the pots are now sorted.

The draw will take place tonight at 2100PM UTC in #live-draw of the NSS server, posted to the forum after.

MD1 of the World Cup will be 27 June @ 2100 UTC.

[Commonwealth of Baker Park]

Due to circumstances beyond my control, namely internet is out, the final of the BOF will be delayed 24 hours. Apologies. I've only just discovered this in the last 20 minutes.

[Saint-Jean-Jacques-sur-Mer]

Both me and my puppet Ile de Richelieu needs a neutral ground for one game each due to extreme weather in both countries.

Matchday 20: Saint-Jean-Jacques-sur-Mer vs Valentine Z @ Terrain de baseball 1, Complexe sportif national [weather: 27 °C or 81 °F - Rainy: heavy tropical rainfalls occurring 5 days in a row starting 2 days before scheduled kickoff time. Match can't be played in SJJSM unless a 3 days delay]

Matchday 15: Île de Richelieu vs Ko-oren [expected weather: heavy snowstorm with blowing snow -6 °C or 21 °F]

Can one of the two hosts (Kelssek or Graintfjall) or maybe someone else have one of these games played in their nation?

[Graintfjall]

For scorination purposes, the games will still be considered "home", there's nothing we can do about that. If you'd like to say the games are being played in Græntfjall, though, you are free to.

[Dantopia]

Matchday 20: Saint-Jean-Jacques-sur-Mer vs Valentine Z @ Terrain de baseball 1, Complexe sportif national [weather: 27 °C or 81 °F - Rainy: heavy tropical rainfalls occurring 5 days in a row starting 2 days before scheduled kickoff time. Match can't be played in SJJSM unless a 3 days delay]

Can one of the two hosts (Kelssek or Graintfjall) or maybe someone else have one of these games played in their nation?

Dantopia could happily host the fellow Group 12 participants' game between Saint-Jean-Jacques-sur-Mer and Valentine Z at the Bank of Dantopia Stadium in Dartford, Dantopia if a different, more suitable venue cannot be found. The Dantopian national team have a bye in this matchday, so the stadium would be available to host a fixture.

Bank of Dantopia Stadium, Dartford, Dantopia

Owner: Dartford Devils PLC
Opened: 2017
Club Team(s): Dartford Devils F.C.
Capacity: 72,019
Field Size: 105.2m x 68.6m (115 yd × 75 yd)
Grass: Desso GrassMaster

Bank of Dantopia Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Dartford, Dantopia. It serves as the home of the Dartford Devils of the Dantopian Premier League. It is the second largest stadium by capacity in Dantopia. It was completed in 2017 and features a signature retractable roof design. The stadium is owned and operated by Dartford Devils PLC, the publicly limited company which owns and operates the football club of the same name.

[Graintfjall]

^ That'd be preferable. Perhaps Ile de Richelieu could see if a team with a bye on MD15 could host their game?

[Valentine Z]

Do pardon me if I'm wrong and do correct me - so from my understanding, Matchday 20: Saint-Jean-Jacques-sur-Mer vs Valentine Z will have to be played on somewhere else because the host country and stadium is suffering a very bad weather?

In any case, I am totally cool with it. ♥ Preferably, please do let me know of the final decisions on where this event will be held so that I can reflect this in my RPs. Other than that, again, I am 100% fine with this and has no qualms about a change in venue.

[Ceni]

While of course you are free to RP neutral sites being required to your heart's desire, there is also no unified schedule that you have to adhere to from an OOC standpoint, as literally every user has their own different calendar for noting what takes place when... so a "three days delay" ICly is not going to be an issue thanks to fluid time.

[Ko-oren]

While I might not have a bye on MD15, we can entirely selflessly host the MD15 fixture. There's nothing in it for us! Let me present my case in a forthcoming RP.

OOCly the match can be played in Ko-oren as well. I've been TGd about the matter and I'm fine with any outcome.

[Saint-Jean-Jacques et Burnham-on-Stove]

Sorry I didn't have much time to reply. I'll choose an IC host for both matchday 15 and 20 this weekend.

[Graintfjall]

With one million apologies, and this is wholly my fault, please press pause on any roleplays. It is possible there will have to be a rescorination of some of the posted results for MD2/3.

[Kelssek]

Matchdays 2 and 3 have just been re-simmed, edited into the original post.

This was necessary because of the realization by Graint when setting up for the next scorination after I'd done this one that a large number of participants were missing their RP bonus. Like most (if not all) WC hosts we calculate RP bonus by applying it to the skill modifier in xkoranate, which is put into a shared Google doc that generates an xml file to import into xkoranate. For some technical reason, an entire group of RP bonus scores (everyone on page 4 of the RP thread, to be exact) apparently didn't sync to the Google Sheets cloud after I put them in. We decided the fairest resolution was to entirely re-sim the affected matchdays 2 and 3.

I apologize for this error and any inconvenience this has caused.

[Independent Athletes from Quebec]

Thanks to both Kelssek and Graintfjall for their transparency and prompt response to what had happened. Respect goes our way for acting readily and as needed.

Will next cutoff be happening on Saturday the 1st? It's a minor change so no problem really, but just making sure.

Also just remembered that it's Canada Day lol.

[Nephara]

Minor things always go wrong in the first sections of qualifying. When they don't, it probably just means they aren't caught. Of course, my new results are worse than my old results, so my life is ruined for the next 44 hours or so. But we'll all have forgotten about this by the end.

[Graintfjall]

Replying to queb: Fair question.

No, I'm not going to put back cutoff for MD3; it will be at 2100 UTC. While I'm sure some people lost some RPing time, it was less than 6 hours from cutoff being posted to revised results being posted, everyone still has 42 hours in which to RP for the revised results. I will mark Krytenia and Dod Rava's RPs based on the original results (if that's relevant) so they don't lose out, and if anyone RPs clearly having failed to notice the updated results I will grade their RP based on the original results, but otherwise, putting back the cutoff would affect the RP window for future cutoffs.

[Independent Athletes from Quebec]

Good decision for sure. Thank you!

[Alasdair I Frosticus]

Yikes...

Apologies for missing the start of the tournament. Really busy in RL. Have roster prepared and ready to go, and will get it posted later today (1 July) UK time.

[Graintfjall]

No, I'm not going to put back cutoff for MD3; it will be at 2100 UTC.

disregard that i suck cocks

I'd completely forgotten we have an engagement this evening that means I doubt I will be back around cutoff time. Therefore I'm going to declare cutoff is put back by 2 hours (I know, we're WILD at the Graint house) to 2300 UTC.

[Alasdair I Frosticus]

Yikes...

Apologies for missing the start of the tournament. Really busy in RL. Have roster prepared and ready to go, and will get it posted later today (1 July) UK time.

Roster up.

Again, apologies for the lateness.

[Saint-Jean-Jacques-sur-Mer]

Ok some updates about the matches requiring a neutral site.

Île de Richelieu on matchday 15 vs Ko-oren: I prefer not in Ko-oren because I'm suppose to be the home team. I prefer a neutral venue.

Saint-Jean-Jacques vs Valentine Z on matchday 20 will be played at Bank of Dantopia Stadium in Dantopia.

[Trolleborg]

Ok some updates about the matches requiring a neutral site.

Île de Richelieu on matchday 15 vs Ko-oren: I prefer not in Ko-oren because I'm suppose to be the home team. I prefer a neutral venue.

Saint-Jean-Jacques vs Valentine Z on matchday 20 will be played at Bank of Dantopia Stadium in Dantopia.

For MD15 we offer 1st December Stadium in Trolleborg as a venue. Photo and short history can be found in my roster, I have a story lines which elaborate experience of being here as a spectator and official person and provide link to them on demand.

[Dantopia]

Saint-Jean-Jacques vs Valentine Z on matchday 20 will be played at Bank of Dantopia Stadium in Dantopia.

If you require anything from me, let me know.

[Ochre Islands]

Apologies for the late roster, but here it is

[Tumbra]

It's been a while since this topic has come up for discussion, but after a while of mulling it over, I've come to the following solution that should dilute the pool of active nations a bit, allowing for more inactive nations to get into the Hall of Fame:

For a nation to be considered as active for Hall of Fame consideration that cycle, they must have posted a roster by Matchday 1 of the World Cup finals.

I believe that posting a roster is the basic minimum of what can be considered "activity." This criteria is also more lenient than the current criteria to gain, or re-gain World Cup Committee membership.

Please leave your comments below. I am undecided on whether there should be additional things like point minimums to enter the Hall of Fame (leaning against, for this would close off potential Hall of Fame entries for long-gone nations forever, which I am personally against), or whether, as Strike suggested a while back, we skip two cycles to make up for the two additional inductees that were put into the Hall of Fame a while back (slightly more ambivalent, as I would prefer we have inductees every cycle). I am leaning towards no changes to the SRS entrance criteria apart from the bolded statement above.