Elephant Chess Cup 13 - Signup Thread (Closed)

[South Newlandia]

Overview:
This is the signup thread for the thirteenth Elephant Chess Cup, the longest-running chess competition on NationStates Sports. Once again, teams of 4 will compete against each other in rapid (15 minutes + 5 seconds per move) chess for the title. This is a Sports Roleplaying Event, and as such will be scorinated like any proper NSS competition. If you’re new and unfamiliar with how this type of tournament works, you can check out the Everything Thread for the twelfth ECC, won by The Kytler Peninsulae, 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. 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 Eshialand respectively, here and here.

Host bids will be put to vote for all signed up users that have previously roleplayed in ECC11 or 12. I also reserve the right to reject host bids should they not meet the standards expected; which are mainly to explain how they plan to run the event ICly and OOCly. The deadline for host bids to be submitted is May 16th, 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
No puppets will be permitted. Every user is only allowed to sign up a single nation.

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 (16):
1. South Newlandia
2. Eshialand
3. Choppyhausen
4. TJUN-ia
5. The Kytler Peninsulae
6. Valentine Z
7. Croblade
8. Barkhastan
9. Vonum
10. Raspotochje
11. Katzeburg
12. the Martian Independent Republic
13. City of Myrtle Beach
14. Pomachetti
15. Rechol
16. Safiloa

Host Bids (1):
Huygens Base, the Martian Independent Republic

[Eshialand]

first

[Choppyhausen]

in

[TJUN-ia]

Yes!

[The Kytler Peninsulae]

The most successful individual nation in ECC history will return. Still feels weird to have that as a distinction in anything...

[Valentine Z]

Ahhhh yesssss.

[Croblade]

here

[Andso Mangis]

In

[Barkhastan]

I would like to play.

[Vonum]

This is my formal expression of interest for this, once more!

[Srednjaci]

yes

[Raspotochje]

In

[Srednjaci]

yes

Srednjaci are out

[Katzeburg]

Let's do this!

[The Martian Independent Republic]

In.

[City of Myrtle Beach]

In, assuming I'm not too late

[South Newlandia]

Signups up to date. Still about three days left to jump in!

[Pomachetti]

Sure I’ll join

[Rechol]

Count me in

[The Martian Independent Republic]

ECCXIII Host Bid - Huygens Base, the Martian Independent Republic

Format
Under this bid, the first stage is similar to ECC8, with two pools of eight teams, each team playing every other team in their pool once. These pools will be drawn live, with the stipulation that the three participating former champions (Katzeburg, TJUN-ia, and the Kytler Peninsulae) will not all be drawn into the same group, to prevent a situation similar to what happened at ECC8.

The top three teams from each pool will advance to the Super Six stage, with half their points from the pool stage rolling over. Once again, each team will play every other team in their pool once. At the end of that stage, the top two teams will play to decide the champion, and 3rd and 4th will play for the bronze medal, with ties being decided in favor of the team with the higher finish in the Super Six stage.

Tiebreaks in both stages (after match points, of course) will first be head-to-head result, then board points, then Neustadtl Sonneborn-Berger score, then a coinflip (OOCly, a simulated head-to-head match with current bonuses)

Scheduling
ICly, this tournament will take place over four days, with the first four matches in the pool stage being played on Thursday, the remaining three on Friday, the first four matches of the Super Six stage being played on Saturday, and the remaining Super Six match and the final being played on Sunday. Match times would ICly be 10:30, 13:00, 15:30, and 18:00.

OOCly, cutoff windows would be between 19:00 and 21:00 UTC (15:00 and 17:00 EST) on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. I'm willing to be flexible with cutoffs most of the time (I certainly make use of flexible cutoffs pretty often myself), but the ones on Saturdays will be stricter (cutoffs likely being around 20:00) because I will have very limited ability to scorinate after that. Two matches would be scorinated per cutoff, with the exception of the first one, which will only have the first pool stage match, and the last two, which will have the last Super Six match and the final/3rd place match respectively.

IC info
The Martian Independent Republic is an Anaian nation (well, technically) known for the difficulty of traveling there (at a minimum, it requires two ferries, one to Aleirave and one from Aleirave to the MIR's Anaia holdings) with a population of just over 700,000, of which roughly 100,000 live in the second-largest base and bidding location, Huygens Base. Despite not being the chess center of Mars - that honor goes to tiny Borealis Base in the far north - it is home to half of the Martians that regularly compete abroad, and Borealis Base is already hosting the Candidates. Huygens Base is reachable via shuttle directly from the Anaian colony, being roughly a six-hour trip away.

The Octagon Hotel - so named for its oddly shaped plot of land, and widely regarded as one of the best hotels in Mars - would be playing host to the competitors, a 10 minute tram ride on the 2 from the shuttleport. With 368 rooms across 8 floors, it will be entirely set aside for hosting this competition during the four days it is being held. The chess would be played in the main hall of the hotel on the second floor, with a cordoned off spectator area. Matches will also be streamed with a 5-minute delay on 64squares.mir, the country's chess website.

OOC info
This would be my first time hosting any event in NSS, but I do have some experience with xkoranate, having done 3rd party scorination for various friendlies. In addition, I have been involved with the chess side of NSS since ECC8. As standard, I plan to be using the SNL formula, without incorporating ranks.

Rosters would be given 1.5 MDs' worth of max bonus if posted prior to the first cutoff and 1 MD's worth if posted afterwards, also being graded as RPs. This is identical to ECC10's system. RP bonus other than that would be 30% based on most recent RP, 30% on best RP, and 40% on average RP across all cutoffs. Maxrank would be the maximum achievable bonus at any given time, which is 2.5.

I plan to be generous in grading, with no expectation of chess knowledge - or, even, that the roleplay is about chess. You could write about your nation's spaghetti trees, and if it's creative enough and well-written, it would get a good bonus. On that note, creativity is much more important than length - more words does not mean better writing.

Neither AI images nor AI-generated text will be permitted for this tournament, with bonus immediately being zeroed. The one exception is AI translations of text, where the text will also need to be posted in its original language.

The only form of host bonus that the MIR will receive for this tournament is that I will be grading the host info as a RP, but it will be limited to half of normal max RP bonus. Any Super Six matches including the MIR (if they make it there) will be scorinated by a third party, as well as the final/third place match if the MIR makes it there.

---

Any and all IC and OOC questions are appreciated.

[South Newlandia]

Thank you to the Martian Independent Republic for their Host Bid, which has been added to the OP.

We have reached the host bid deadline. Eligible voters (Users signed up for ECC13 that have roleplayed in either ECC11 or 12, or both) will receive a telegram with voting instructions very soon*. The vote will be open for 72 hours, and will be cut short if a majority of voters votes for either option.

Signups will be waitlisted from now on, and will be at the discretion of the eventual host.

*if you believe you should have received a telegram to vote, but have not, please reach out to me

[The Martian Independent Republic]

Minor update - if my bid is accepted, the cutoffs on Thursday, June 4th, and Saturday, June 6th, will be delayed to Friday, June 5th, and Sunday, June 7th, respectively. This is because I will have an all-day commitment on the 4th and I don't want there to be only 24 hours between cutoffs.
This would make the cutoffs as follows:

Saturday, May 23rd - pool phase match 1
Tuesday, May 26th - pool phase matches 2 & 3
Thursday, May 28th - pool phase matches 4 & 5
Saturday, May 30th - pool phase matches 6 & 7
Tuesday, June 2nd - Super Six matches 1 & 2
Friday, June 5th - Super Six matches 3 & 4
Sunday, June 7th - Super Six match 5
Tuesday, June 9th - Final/3rd place match

Cutoff would be between 1900 and 2100 UTC for every window, and I would be able to extend that if necessary on italicized dates.

[Safiloa]

Safiloa would like to participate, and asks for forgiveness for not applying earlier. Our single underwater internet cable was chewed up by some crabs, and we lost contact with the rest of the world for a few weeks.

[South Newlandia]

The vote will be open for 72 hours, and will be cut short if a majority of voters votes for either option.

Signups will be waitlisted from now on, and will be at the discretion of the eventual host.

As promised, I'm cutting off the voting early. There were 6 votes in favour of the Martian bids, with no votes against. The Martian Independent Republic is therefore awarded the hosting rights for ECC13. All decisions regarding the tournament, including the final list of participants, is handed over to them.

[The Martian Independent Republic]

Considering the precedent in ECC12, after careful consideration, I have chosen to reject the signup from Andso Mangis. As such, Safiloa is accepted. Signups are now closed, with the following list of nations competing:
1. South Newlandia
2. Eshialand
3. Choppyhausen
4. TJUN-ia
5. The Kytler Peninsulae
6. Valentine Z
7. Croblade
8. Safiloa
9. Barkhastan
10. Vonum
11. Raspotochje
12. Katzeburg
13. the Martian Independent Republic
14. City of Myrtle Beach
15. Pomachetti
16. Rechol