Mertagne & Huayramarca -- A World Cup 96 Bid

[Mertagne]

Logo inspired by the ‘96 AFC Asian Cup.
Mertagne and Huayramarca present a World Cup 96 bid

Mertagne and Huayramarca are bidding to host the 96th edition of the NationStates World Cup.

ABOUT US:
Mertagne is a nation that has, in recent history, hosted Baptisms of Fire 78, 79, and 80, Cup of Harmony 83, and CAFA Cup 5. In more ancient history, the user behind Mertagne hosted World Cup 66.
Mertagne is a constitutional republic located in Anaia that is famed for its lowlands, its rolling valleys, and its recent emergence from a bitter conflict with the nation to its south, Bostopia. You can read all the IC info you would like about Mertagne in this factbook entry.

Huayramarca is a nation that also has a prolific hosting history, including hosting Cup of Harmony 86, CAFA Cup 6, and, in more ancient history, the user behind Huayramarca hosted World Cup 70, 74 and 77, Cup of Harmony 63 and 65, and the Baptism of Fire 56.
Huayramarca is a plurinational republic located in Anaia that is well known for its pristine beaches, rainforests and home of the highest peaks of Anaia. More information can be found in this post.

FORMAT:
32 teams will enter the finals, including the two hosts.

Our current ideal format would be a double round robin involving fifteen groups, in which the 1st placed teams in each group qualify and the 2nd and 3rd placed teams enter a playoff to determine a qualification spot. This playoff would be single-legged and on neutral territory either in Huayramarca or Mertagne. In an effort to be accommodating to the number of potential signups we will get, we are also willing to work with a 20 group format.

Tiebreakers for qualifiers will be the following, in order:

• Points
• Goal difference
• Head-to-head points
• Head-to-head goal difference
• IC coinflip (you know the drill, we scorinate a match at a neutral venue using only RP bonus and no ties.)

In the event of a multi-way tie, tiebreakers will be applied until one team is eliminated, and then tiebreakers will be reapplied to the remaining teams.

Knockouts in the finals will be seeded so that that both hosts (if they progressed through the tournament) are kept on the opposite side of the bracket for as long as possible. The hosts will be placed into Pot 1 for the finals, with one host placed in Group A and the other into Group E. Knockouts for the Round of 16 will be seeded according to convention that you've seen in other NS World Cups (A1vD2, B1vC2, etc), with the bracket progressing from there.

Stadium happenings, now a staple of Mertagnian tournaments, will have a chance to occur in all finals matches where any nation does not have ‘Godmod other events’ set to N in their permissions. For those that don’t know what these are, they are a brief snippet of text that is provided after the scoreline to add some flavour to the match and a possible springboard for roleplays. They can safely be ignored and are essentially “opt-in” prompts that are specific to the match, and are a fun way for the hosts to engage with some ongoing storylines. For an example of these, see a single cutoff example here.

RP BONUS AND SCORINATION:
SQIS will be used for the World Cup Qualifiers, and NSFS will be used for the World Cup Finals. We like this distinction and are keen to see it continue. We will also be using additive style modifiers, with a range of -5 to +5. Users will be able to change their style mod once during the tournament, either by making this explicit in a roleplay or sending one of the hosts a telegram.

Two matchdays will be scorinated every 48 hours. The final matchday of the qualifiers will be scored in its own window, to encourage some suspense.

While Huayramarca and Mertagne are neighbours in Anaia, in the real world their time zones are quite different. However, through sheer grit and determination, the two nations have agreed on a unified cutoff time of between 00:00 and 01:00 UTC.

We would expect a nation with a low rank and max RP bonus to be able to compete with a nation with a high rank and no RP bonus by the end of qualifying. You don’t need to write a novella to receive a maximum RP bonus. We generally agree with the ideas shared by previous hosts of this tournament on what constitutes good RP. A roster bonus worth up to two matchday’s worth of RP bonus will be awarded to nations that post a roster. We will be introducing a roster penalty equal to 50% of rank for nations that have not rostered by the first cutoff of the tournament. This penalty will increase to 100% at the halfway mark of qualifying.

For the finals, a carryover bonus will be applied. This bonus will be equal to the sum of the two highest rated RPs that a nation has posted throughout the qualifiers.

Max Rank will be set each matchday equal to the highest rank a nation has achieved in the tournament so far.

We have the means to post RP statistics after every scorination window and will be doing so. These statistics include median and STDEV of all RPs graded. In the event a Cup of Harmony host wishes to access RP bonus data after the qualifiers, we are willing to share the data they need with them.

Hosts will not score any matches involving their puppets, and these matches will be scored by the other host. In the event any of these puppets make the World Cup finals, they will be locked into the side of the bracket that is being scorinated by the other host to ensure that this practice continues. In the event that it is impossible for either host to score a match, third-party scorination will be sought.

Any roleplays that are believed to be plagiarised or substantially written by text-based AI without proper credit will not be graded, and repeat offences may result in a reduction or a reset of all roleplay bonus gained during the tournament.

We look forward to answering any questions you have about this bid.

---

EDIT HISTORY:

• Clarified scorination policy on host puppets.
• Clarified that we would be running a double round robin for qualifiers.
• Updated cutoff time.
• Corrected unclear wording surrounding World Cup Finals knockout seedings.

[Huayramarca]

Taggity-tag as co-bidder.

[Graintfjall]

Bid seems fine so neither of these are dealbreaking questions but:

Two matchdays will be scorinated every 48 hours. The final matchday of the qualifiers will be scored in its own window, to encourage some suspense.

So, will the first matchday also be scored on its own? Or the halfway mark game, or the penultimate one? Double round robin means you'll have an even number of games so putting one game in its window means you'll need one other game on its own too.

Forgive me if this is stated in the bid but are you scoring (e.g.) groups 1-7 by Mert, 8-15 by Huay; or Mert scoring groups 1-15 for the first half, Huay scoring groups 1-15 for the second half?

[Huayramarca]

Bid seems fine so neither of these are dealbreaking questions but:

Two matchdays will be scorinated every 48 hours. The final matchday of the qualifiers will be scored in its own window, to encourage some suspense.

So, will the first matchday also be scored on its own? Or the halfway mark game, or the penultimate one? Double round robin means you'll have an even number of games so putting one game in its window means you'll need one other game on its own too.

Forgive me if this is stated in the bid but are you scoring (e.g.) groups 1-7 by Mert, 8-15 by Huay; or Mert scoring groups 1-15 for the first half, Huay scoring groups 1-15 for the second half?

For the first question: we will scorinate the first matchday on its own, the final one as well. The rest of the matchdays will go on a 2x48 as it has been usual for quite a bit.

No worries, for the scorinations we will take half of the groups for the entirety of the qualifier, always ensuring that any match of a puppet of us will not be scorinated by its master.

Edit: grammar.

[Independent Athletes from Quebec]

One thing:

Stadium happenings, now a staple of Mertagnian tournaments, will have a chance to occur in all finals matches where any nation does not have ‘Godmod other events’ set to N in their permissions. For those that don’t know what these are, they are a brief snippet of text that is provided after the scoreline to add some flavour to the match and a possible springboard for roleplays. They can safely be ignored and are essentially “opt-in” prompts that are specific to the match, and are a fun way for the hosts to engage with some ongoing storylines. For an example of these, see a single cutoff example here.

I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS.

and all of you know that.

Just being clear. Will this only apply to Mertagnian half, or or will it also take part in Huayramarcan half?

[Huayramarca]

One thing:

Stadium happenings, now a staple of Mertagnian tournaments, will have a chance to occur in all finals matches where any nation does not have ‘Godmod other events’ set to N in their permissions. For those that don’t know what these are, they are a brief snippet of text that is provided after the scoreline to add some flavour to the match and a possible springboard for roleplays. They can safely be ignored and are essentially “opt-in” prompts that are specific to the match, and are a fun way for the hosts to engage with some ongoing storylines. For an example of these, see a single cutoff example here.

I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS.

and all of you know that.

Just being clear. Will this only apply to Mertagnian half, or or will it also take part in Huayramarcan half?

It will also take part in the Huayramarcan half, with the same criterion as Mert specified.

[Independent Athletes from Quebec]

One thing:

I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS.

and all of you know that.

Just being clear. Will this only apply to Mertagnian half, or or will it also take part in Huayramarcan half?

It will also take part in the Huayramarcan half, with the same criterion as Mert specified.

Consider myself delighted to hear this, of course.

[Juvencus]

Our current ideal format would involve fifteen groups, in which the 1st placed teams in each group qualify and the 2nd and 3rd placed teams enter a playoff to determine a qualification spot. This playoff would be single-legged and on neutral territory either in Huayramarca or Mertagne. In an effort to be accommodating to the number of potential signups we will get, we are also willing to work with a 20 group format.

Sound bid that has my thumbs up but I have a question. Since a top 2 automatic qualification would give the necessary amount of teams needed, how did you conclude that a playoff is the better option?

[Mertagne]

Our current ideal format would involve fifteen groups, in which the 1st placed teams in each group qualify and the 2nd and 3rd placed teams enter a playoff to determine a qualification spot. This playoff would be single-legged and on neutral territory either in Huayramarca or Mertagne. In an effort to be accommodating to the number of potential signups we will get, we are also willing to work with a 20 group format.

Sound bid that has my thumbs up but I have a question. Since a top 2 automatic qualification would give the necessary amount of teams needed, how did you conclude that a playoff is the better option?

Hi Juve, thanks for the question. World Cup 94 had a similar system and feedback for that was positive from what I can garner (even if I did get slapped by Valanora in the playoff). It also keeps the groups a bit more competitive right down to that final matchday, which can be a fun encouragement for roleplays. I certainly remember my close battle with Acastanha for that playoff spot in the qualifiers for 94, and hopefully if we're lucky enough to host this time around we create some similar situations for other nations that are on the up and up.

[Juvencus]

Our current ideal format would involve fifteen groups, in which the 1st placed teams in each group qualify and the 2nd and 3rd placed teams enter a playoff to determine a qualification spot. This playoff would be single-legged and on neutral territory either in Huayramarca or Mertagne. In an effort to be accommodating to the number of potential signups we will get, we are also willing to work with a 20 group format.

Sound bid that has my thumbs up but I have a question. Since a top 2 automatic qualification would give the necessary amount of teams needed, how did you conclude that a playoff is the better option?

Hi Juve, thanks for the question. World Cup 94 had a similar system and feedback for that was positive from what I can garner (even if I did get slapped by Valanora in the playoff). It also keeps the groups a bit more competitive right down to that final matchday, which can be a fun encouragement for roleplays. I certainly remember my close battle with Acastanha for that playoff spot in the qualifiers for 94, and hopefully if we're lucky enough to host this time around we create some similar situations for other nations that are on the up and up.

Thanks so much for the answer. This will really provide some solid engagement and I am all up for it!

[PotatoFarmers]

Why the choice of GD before H2H for the tiebreakers? Also, given the use of NSFS for the finals, what will be used as the max rank for each scorination?

[Mertagne]

Why the choice of GD before H2H for the tiebreakers? Also, given the use of NSFS for the finals, what will be used as the max rank for each scorination?

Hi Poaf, thanks for the questions.

To answer your first question, aside from 'vibes' and 'it's how the last three have done it', prioritising goal difference over head-to-head in these tiebreakers lets one take one's performance over the whole round robin into account. We want every match to feel important and feel this is a good way of doing so.

To answer your second question, we'll be continuing the process in setting max rank equal to the highest rank a nation has achieved in the tournament so far across the entire tournament. This number will change between the qualifiers and the finals, due to updated ranks and the reset/carryover of RP bonus.

[Milchama]

Going to ask the same thing to all bids:

Why 32 teams as compared to another number for qualifiers such as 40 or 48?

[Yue Zhou]

We would expect a nation with a low rank and max RP bonus to be able to compete with a nation with a high rank and no RP bonus by the end of qualifying.

Would you be willing to elaborate on what range of values you expect maximum RP bonus for a single matchday to be worth? Does "compete with" mean a low-ranked nation with max bonus can expect to reach parity with a high rank, no bonus nation by the end of qualifying, or is there a different threshold you're using to determine what your max bonus will be?

[Mertagne]

Going to ask the same thing to all bids:
Why 32 teams as compared to another number for qualifiers such as 40 or 48?

Thanks for your question, Milchama. We haven't seen much of an appetite for larger qualifiers just yet - while we're open to the possibility in the future, we don't think now is the right time.

Would you be willing to elaborate on what range of values you expect maximum RP bonus for a single matchday to be worth? Does "compete with" mean a low-ranked nation with max bonus can expect to reach parity with a high rank, no bonus nation by the end of qualifying, or is there a different threshold you're using to determine what your max bonus will be?

Thanks for the question, Yue. I don't want to give you numbers but I think a modicum of transparency is important. 'Compete with' in this case does mean parity in actual rank in the scorinator. I'm not going to give the mathematics away but I'm sure at this point it can be inferred (to help people with that, remember that our roster bonus is 2 matchday's worth of RP bonus, and as such would be included, and to help people with that less, I'm not revealing what we class as a 'high rank' or a 'low rank' nation). Also remember that in the finals we'll be doing a bonus reset with carryover.

[Farfadillis]

Disclaimer: this post is not to be taken as a personal attack, and I've already informed the hosts in private that I'd be asking about this. I understand it's a touchy subject but it's still one that should be brought up.

Huayramarca, as San José Guayabal, was involved in what was, until last October, the biggest scandal in NS Sports history. Besides a few technical mishaps like not applying home advantage (could happen to anyone), there was statistically conclusive evidence that either something massively contrived had happened, or that Huayra had tampered with results during qualifying. These were not particularly important results, for the record, but tampering is tampering, and what went down then cast into new light other results Huayra scorinated, most notably (in my personal opinion) his scorination of editions 15 through 23 of the CEdC, editions in which teams from San José Guayabal did astonishingly well despite lacking a good rank and the league not being particularly well-RPd (I am going off memory here and am more than happy to be corrected on both of these accounts; but these would be strange results even if SJG had been highly-ranked since they were regularly going up against Buyan, Brenecia and, most notably, Nephara). I could go into more detail but I genuinely think this is enough to raise questions and bringing up any further evidence both rubs salt into still open wounds and ropes in people unrelated to this bid.

So, having said all of this, even considering I get along really well with Huay and consider him a valuable member of the community: why should I (and, indeed, the community) trust them with something as important as the generation of scores for the World Cup, especially considering we got blindsided in this regard not even four months ago with Vil?

On a strictly personal note, I'd like to at least have some guarantees from the hosts to ensure integrity should the bid win. If you don't mind a suggestion, regardless of your answer to the previous question: could it be possible, for example, for Mert to be a witness to Huay's scorinations, so we can be sure everything's in order? It's something as simple as a private Discord call and a little bit of screensharing and would, from my point of view at least, essentially solve the problem.

As a comparatively extremely minor thing: what do you mean by the play-offs mirroring real life? There's only been one case of a co-hosted WC in real life so far, and the seeding for the round of sixteen was actually quite whacky and unlike anything we've ever done on NSS as far as I know. NSWCs usually split the WC in half, unlike real life. Do you mean you'll be following that format, with nations having to play in Mertagne one day, then in Huayramarca the other? I'm fine with any of these options, for the record, but I'm curious to know what exactly is meant by this.

The rest of the bid is super solid as far as I'm concerned.

[Mertagne]

-as above-

Thanks for your question, Farf. (I can confirm the disclaimer, I was informed about this topic prior to posting). I'm sure your comments are shared by others so I'm happy to respond to this.

From a personal standpoint, I was aware when going into this bid of the events that transpired in World Cup 77. I wasn't an active member of this community at the time so I had to a bit of research once this was brought to my attention in the context of the bid but I do understand that the events were quite controversial. It's also my understanding that Huay, as San José Guayabal, co-operated fully with any investigations and that a conclusion was quite swiftly reached.

Seven years is quite a long time to do a lot of growing and understanding, as I'm sure we all have in that time. I think that Huay has grown a lot as a roleplayer and a member of this community, and their more recent hosting efforts have been quite successful (such as CAFA 6 and Cup of Harmony 86). I feel that these more recent tournaments more relevantly speak to his current experience as a host, and I would wish for voters to judge our bid on those merits rather than mistakes of the past. I've certainly made mistakes in the past too, albeit perhaps more minor - this time if we do win the bid I promise not to randomise the groups by accident just before MD1 after I've already posted fixtures.

Ultimately, picking a tournament host is an exercise in trust as well as analysing the technical details of the bid. I didn't choose to host with Huay on a whim - I am placing my trust in him based on recent conduct that I have seen since returning to NSS and I know that together if this bid is successful we can run a strong tournament. If you (the community) can also place that trust in him, or at least trust my judgement, then I believe you can justify voting for this bid. I know it might seem like my attention to detail is lacking sometimes (especially if you've seen my litany of typos in the discord and in RPs), but I believe those that have hosted with me know that I take this kind of thing seriously and will be actively looking to mitigate against any errors or any issues that arise during the tournament. To that end, I am happy to reassure the community that I will be keeping a close eye on the details, and that certainly can mean being a witness to all scorinations - I think that's a good idea. I'm an advocate for that sort of behaviour anyway - I regularly practice the concept of 'pair programming' and think it's a great way to work.

After discussing a solution with Huay, we've agreed to meet in the middle so that we're both awake at the same time for scorinations so that this can be facilitated. This new, unified cutoff time will be between 00:00 - 01:00 UTC. This will also be updated in the bid. You will be getting 'wants to go to bed' Mert for this (hey, just like World Cup 66), so as a result I will say emphatically now that there is a very low chance for cutoff extensions for roleplayers unless myself or Huay need more time for admin.

---

As for your technical question surrounding the bid - what we intended by this was that we would keep the seeding for the knockouts in the finals separated (with Groups A-D in one side of the bracket and Groups E-H on the other) so that the hosts wouldn't meet each other until the finals if they got there, just like you've seen in many NS World Cups before. I thought from memory/trivia that the RLStates World Cup 2002 did this but I was straight up wrong - I will be rectifying the wording in the bid accordingly. We could have used clearer wording there, and I'm sorry about that. Based on this, we'll be putting Mertagne in Group A or E and vice versa for Huayramarca - we haven't decided on IC stuff like venues yet so I don't yet know which way around we'll be doing this. Nations that enter the World Cup finals will be playing all of their matches in a single country with the exception of the final and the 3PPO, one of which will be in Mertagne, one of which will be in Huayramarca.

[Huayramarca]

-snip-

As an introductory note: I'm well aware that Farf didn't intended this as an attack, I'm also aware that this would appear again since the bid idea came to mind, henceforth, I will gladly answer this and any other questions that may arise, as everybody has the right to know that all guarantees can be provided for an event like this, and also the right to access information and cast votes with al the information available.

I'll be sincere. This has happened seven (7) years ago, enough time for me to reflect of what happened not only NS-wise but RL-wise as many things have happened during that period to make me avoid committing the mistakes of the past. When I came here back, during the pandemic, I wanted to do two things: 1. Have fun, 2. Clean my slate through hard work and commitment. That's the reason of why I came with this nation, that's why I wanted to use all what I have learned in the past to have a 180° style change with the past, to do some worldbuilding and spend time having fun (which I didn't understood how to have it back then). Considering my original commitment, desire, and for the respect to this communnity, I can say that I won't commit the same mistake again, no, specially if I have found a co-host that, knowing it all, decided to trust me in this project.

Said changes have been reflected not only in the words I have written above, but it's something I have showed through hosting the Cup of Harmony 86, the CAFA 6, and my actions during the four years past my return; said events have been proof that I will not commit treason against the confidence of you all. I won't extend more in those events I have hosted recently, I leave this to those who voted during those elections, those who took part of them, and those who followed them up to take a decision on how they were run.

As the World Cup is the World Cup, the biggest event apart of the Olympics, my word isn't enough to guarantee a properly run event, and that's why I can confirm how we agreed with Mertagne to change our proposed cut-off times and unify them to 0:00-01:00 a.m. UTC. In this way, everybody will have extra guarantee that Mertagne will be monitoring through a Discord Call (parallel to a pair programming duty) my scorination process, that everything will be running smoothly, and ensuring that RP bonus will remain as it uses to be in every World Cup, secret (except for the statistics we have mentioned in the OP that will be disclosed).

If there are more questions, we will be glad to answer them!

[Tumbra]

Why the choice to scorinate first and last MDs separately, and subsequently increase the number of cutoffs?

If the WCQs end up with an odd number of teams per group, will the first and last cutoffs have 2 MDs scorinated together instead of 1 MD, to avoid having a team having absolutely no way to influence results on the final cutoff?

[Mertagne]

Why the choice to scorinate first and last MDs separately, and subsequently increase the number of cutoffs?

We liked the idea of isolating the final matchday as it gave a bit more suspense to teams that weren't locked in to either qualifying or not. We find that sort of thing exciting.

If the WCQs end up with an odd number of teams per group, will the first and last cutoffs have 2 MDs scorinated together instead of 1 MD, to avoid having a team having absolutely no way to influence results on the final cutoff?

Yes, this is a flaw that we would like to avoid. It goes from being exciting and an inspiration for roleplay to being a bit rubbish if you've no way to influence your own results. If we have an odd number of teams per group, we'll keep to a more rigid 2/48 structure.