Elephant Chess Cup 10 - Discussion

[South Newlandia]

Overview:
This is the signup thread for the milestone tenth Elephant Chess Cup. Once again, teams of 4 will compete against each other in rapid (15 minutes + 5 seconds per move) chess for the title. If you’re new and unfamiliar with how this would work, you can check out the Everything Thread for the ninth ECC, won by Hapilopper, or send me a telegram!

Host bidding:
Like in the last few editions, host bidding will once again be open to the nations of the multiverse. Host bids will be open to all users that have previously roleplayed in an Elephant Chess Cup. Bidders are quite free in how exactly they intend to host the event, ICly and OOCly, and are encouraged to include all the important information in their host bid.
Be aware, however, that this can be a relatively complicated event; if you haven't hosted an event on NSS before, this might not be the ideal starting point. You can view the two most recent successful host bids (excluding those by South Newlandia), by The Kytler Peninsulae and Poafmersia respectively, here and here.

Host bids will be put to vote for all signed up users that have previously roleplayed in ECC8 or 9. I also reserve the right to reject host bids should they not meet the standards expected; which are to explain how they plan to run the event ICly and OOCly. The deadline for host bids to be submitted is September 28th, 22:00 UTC. Should no bids be submitted, or all bids be rejected during the vote, the tournament will take place in South Newlandia instead.

Puppet rules
You may sign up a secondary nation if you have previously roleplayed in an Elephant Chess Cup. The puppet arrangement will have to be declared by both the "master" and the "puppet". The ultimate inclusion of puppets is up to the host, however.

Roleplay
Chess knowledge is not required to participate in this competition. You are free to roleplay about whatever you want, and do not have to mention the results at all.


Feel free to sign up below, bid to host, or ask any questions.

Signups (24):
1. South Newlandia
2. Eshialand
3. Yesopalitha
4. Tero al Disco
5. Barkhastan
6. Crpostran
7. Valentine Z
8. The Kaisers Syndicates
9. The 14 Stars
10. TJUN-ia
11. Vonum
12. The Kytler Peninsulae
13. Vaishnavaria
14. Elejamie
15. The Martian Independent Republic
16. Schachland
17. Sky Reavers
18. Busoga Islands
19. Nightralia
20. Farfadillis
21. Natkr
22. Natanians and Nosts
23. Katzeburg
24. New South Yukon (Puppet of TMIR)

Host Bids (1):
Eshialand City

[Eshialand]

First!

I might threaten y'all with a host bid if my computer situation gets fixed soon-ish. No guarantees.

[Yesopalitha]

Yes

[Tero al Disco]

:thumbsup:

[Barkhastan]

1. d4

[Crpostran]

will try and RP this time lol

[Valentine Z]

Hmm... I might want to give it a shot. All right, let's get into it!

[The Kaisers Syndicates]

1. d4

2. d5

[The 14 Stars]

We are in

3rd place Hansair U18 World Cup 22

[TJUN-ia]

yes

[Hapilopper]

Question: Could Hapilopper, a land of drunks, idiots and rogues, really be the best chess nation in the multiverse two years in a row?

[Vonum]

Vonum will join! Just someone TG me when this starts!

[The Kytler Peninsulae]

scholars signup and it's the same but there's no title defense so it's not

[Vaishnavaria]

I will sign up

[Elejamie]

I've always wanted to give this a try but never got around to it because it kept coinciding with other tournaments that I wanted to take part in. Welp, time to finally give this a go!

[The Martian Independent Republic]

time for us to either lose miserably or win trying
but in reality we all know that there will be nothing but draws this tournament for the Spiders
in

[South Newlandia]

Signups are updated and still open! There's also about two weeks left to submit a host bid.

[Schachland]

Signups are updated and still open! There's also about two weeks left to submit a host bid.

Me, I'll try

However I don't want to give a puppet

[The Martian Independent Republic]

Preconfirming New South Yukon as a numbers puppet

[New South Yukon]

Preconfirming New South Yukon as a numbers puppet

Yep, signing up but autodropping if we get 20 non-puppet signups

[Sky Reavers]

Joining. Will try to win this time. Hope, I ain't too late.

[Eshialand]

Elephant Chess Cup X Host Bid
Eshialand City, Eshialand

Format Information
One of the ECC's great strengths is in its unique format, created by South Newlandia and carried on through the editions he's hosted ever since. That's right, you know it, you love it, it's the Super Six format.

My ideal format chooses to follow in this tradition rather than break from it. I will aim for an even number of sign-ups, and split everyone into two groups, which will play a round robin format. The top 3 teams in each group will go on to play in the Super Six, which will be a smaller round robin group played after the main competition. First and second in the Super Six will play in the ECC Final, while, in a notable break from past editions, third and fourth will contest a third-place playoff.

However, this ECC already has more confirmed signups than the last, and I do not wish to leave anyone out; at the same time, I recognize that this format doesn't really scale well, especially with only six teams making it to the Super Six. If we hit 24 teams, then I will abandon the Super Six format and move to a more conventional format which will play nicer with the larger number of signups. Super Six is scrapped for numbers concerns, and while I think a double group stage format has life in it yet, it's not with me. I'll be pursuing the more conventional group stage -> knockouts format as described below.

Ideally, in terms of formats, I'd like to aim for signup numbers of 21 (3 groups of 7), 24 (4 groups of 6), 25 (5 groups of 5), 28 (4 groups of 7), or 30 (5 groups of 6). If the numbers get larger than this I will of course accommodate for that and keep this thread updated with whatever options I'm pursuing/aiming for. Here are how knockouts would work for each of these numbers:

For 3 groups of 7, the top 4 in each group would move to the playoffs, with 1st in each group and the best 2nd place going straight to the quarterfinals.
Should we have 4 groups of 6, top 1 in each group gets seeded to the quarterfinals while 2nd and 3rd play in the round of 12.
With 5 groups of 5, number 1 in each group, as well as the best 2nd place team, are seeded to the quarterfinals. The other four 2nd place teams play in the round of 10.
4 groups of 7 would be my cutoff for having a round of 16. 4 in each group go to the round of 16 here.
With 5 groups of 6, top 3 in each group and the best 4th placer go to the round of 16.

All knockouts will be seeded, with the following tiebreaks: Group position (for comparing between groups only) -> Game points -> Board points -> H2H points -> IC coinflip (scorinated game) -> OOC coinflip. There will be no reseeding after the round of 10/12 for those formats which do not have a complete 16 team bracket. These same tiebreakers will also be used in the Super Six format, for the curious (minus group position which isn't relevant). The knockout rounds themselves will be handled as in ECC VIII, being double-legged aggregate score (both legs being on the same OOC cutoff), to give each player on each team the opportunity to play white and black. If teams are tied on aggregate score after both legs, a blitz tiebreaker will be played (OOCly: the blitz tiebreaker will just be a rescore). Should this be tied 2-2, higher-seeded team advances.

ICly, four MDs will be played each day, as in all prior editions of the ECC. More information on their timing will become available once signups have closed and we know which format we're dealing with.

OOC Hosting Info
While I may never have hosted anything on NSS in the past, I have plenty of experience working with xkoranate for 3PSing other competitions/friendlies, including in the 8th edition of this very competition. I plan to use the SNL chess formula, as is standard, and ranks will not be a factor in this tournament, as they have never been before and I have no plans to introduce them.

There will be various incentives for getting your roster in early, with a roster automatically giving 1.5 MDs of max RP bonus if and only if it is posted before I cut off round 1. If it's posted late, then that bonus will degrade to 1 MD's worth of max RP bonus. As well, the roster will be graded as an RP separate from any pre-MD1 RPing, eligible for its own separate bonus. All of these roster bonuses are in lieu of a rosterless penalty since... we can't exactly dock rank that doesn't exist. (All of this is taken from Poafmersia's ECC V bid, whose system I particularly like.)

RP grading will be generous, with no knowledge of the game itself assumed. Creativity is key, and creativity doesn't necessarily require being good at chess! If you don't have to be Ronaldo to write a good World Cup RP, you don't have to be Magnus to write a good ECC RP. Talk about your players, your nation, anything you feel like! If it's creative, I'll probably give you very good bonus. (As always, creativity >>> length!! A longer RP is not necessarily a better one.)

Max rank, at all times, will be set to pre-MD1 roster bonus + maximum possible RP bonus after all cutoffs. Eshialand will not receive any form of hosting bonus.

In the pursuit of fairness, I will endeavor to have all of my nation's group stage scorinations observed by a neutral 3rd party, either outside the group or ideally, outside the competition. Additionally, all knockout rounds involving Eshialand will be third-party scorinated, ideally by someone outside the tournament. This is a hard rule for me.

I haven't decided on exact cutoff window timing yet, but I will aim to cut off on Friday, Sunday, and Tuesday each week, giving a minimum of 48 hours between each scorination. (Why avoid Thursdays like this? To be honest, I'm playing in my hometown's IRL equivalent of the ECC, and I need that day of the week free.)

IC Hosting Info
Eshialand City has opened a brand new hotel, the Waterview, right near the beach, and it's opening just in time for the ECC! The nation's capital has long been the home base for everything sports in Eshialand, hosting all but a few of the nation's WCQ home matches as well as all of the matches for the WBC, and now, it's ready to welcome participants from all nations for its first major international competition!

Eshialand City used to be a car-choked city in the days before Eshian unification, but recent efforts have improved local transit to the point where cars are absolutely no longer necessary. Getting from Penrose airport to the heart of downtown is a single 30 minute high-speed subway, and once you're there, you're just steps from anything you'd ever need in town. Feel free to shoot me a DM or a TG to ask about other amenities you'd wish to RP about (seriously, unprompted worldbuilding is not my strong suit >w>).

As for the hotel itself, it's a new state-operated venture, contrary to the capitalistic enterprises of the earlier years. With over 400 rooms and a spacious ballroom designed for hosting events much like the ECC, it's more than ready for an event of this caliber. The Eshian Tourism Board, who are running the hotel at this time, have gone to great lengths to ensure that some of the best chefs in the country will be on-call for the event, as well as triple-checking to ensure that no bedbugs get into the facility this time around.

With Internet now being restored to the whole of Eshialand following last year's major scare, all matches will be available online to spectate at Zwischenzug.esh, the nation's largest chess website, who will be sponsoring the event alongside the Tourism Board. Although there was a fair amount of skepticism surrounding having a corporate sponsor in the hotel that was supposed to usher in a new era of democratic socialism, most of it died down when they reassured everyone that they had nothing to gain from this event other than advertising chess itself to millions.

---

If anyone has any extra questions about this bid, please feel free to ask! As it will be my first time hosting anything here on NSS, there are bound to be a lot of questions and I will be ready to answer them.

[The Martian Independent Republic]

[spoiler=for ease of reading]

Elephant Chess Cup X Host Bid
Eshialand City, Eshialand

Format Information
One of the ECC's great strengths is in its unique format, created by South Newlandia and carried on through the editions he's hosted ever since. That's right, you know it, you love it, it's the Super Six format.

My ideal format chooses to follow in this tradition rather than break from it. I will aim for an even number of sign-ups, and split everyone into two groups, which will play a round robin format. The top 3 teams in each group will go on to play in the Super Six, which will be a smaller round robin group played after the main competition. First and second in the Super Six will play in the ECC Final, while, in a notable break from past editions, third and fourth will contest a third-place playoff.

However, this ECC already has more confirmed signups than the last, and I do not wish to leave anyone out; at the same time, I recognize that this format doesn't really scale well, especially with only six teams making it to the Super Six. If we hit 24 teams, then I will abandon the Super Six format and move to a more conventional format which will play nicer with the larger number of signups.

Ideally, we'd aim for 24 (4 groups of 6), 25 (5 groups of 5), 28 (4 groups of 7), or 30 (5 groups of 6). If the numbers get larger than this I will of course accommodate for that and keep this thread updated with whatever options I'm pursuing/aiming for. Here are how knockouts would work for each of these numbers:

What's your plan for 20 signups, as looks likely or even possible? 30% is quite a low number for playoffs in the ECC (historic range is 33-40%, with ECC5 being as high as 50%), and KP ran 20 with a 8-team knockout (the only reason it went not great was because one of the groups barely had four rostered teams compared to at least nine from the other), and that one had one of the most exciting qualification battles I've seen in an ECC. Usually, ones this low end up with a lot of deserving teams missing out, and an eight-team knockout seems better.

[Eshialand]

To answer the above question (not quoting because their spoiler broke and I don't wanna make more of a mess of things)

While my bid does say I'd like to go for the Super Six format with <24 signups, I agree on another look at it that 30% is pretty yikes. Heck, maybe it should've even been abandoned last time around with 18. If there's a consensus that going for a more traditional format would be better, it would be 4 groups of 5 with a round of 12, with advancement being the same as with 4 groups of 6.

[Busoga Islands]

Let's try it