The footballing associations of Qasden and Anthor are proud to present
their bid for Baptism of Fire LXVI!
The Kingdom of Anthor is a constitutional monarchy consisting of some two hundred million souls within the borders of Atlantian Oceania; headed by her King, Samuel III, and her duly elected Prime Minister, Thomas Dalen, the average Anthoran of the better part of two decades has been able to enjoy freedom, peace and comfort; with the levels of all three of those, as well as the standards of living rising at large paces in more recent years, thanks to modern innovations created in Anthoran labs or across the multiverse, and brought into daily life by the Anthoran businessman or entrepreneur.
The Kingdom itself prides itself on it's relative safety and freedoms, though the two are usually carefully balanced. If the Baptism of Fire was to come to Anthor, visitors, fans and tourists alike would most likely arrive in one of the three major southern cities who prove to be the hubs of travel and commerce across the Kingdom, Tharsius, Engleton or Redmont. Tharsius is the largest city in the empire, home to some nine million citizens and residents, with a further million and a half in the outlying unincorporated suburbs, towns, villages and settlements. Furthermore, it is also the provincial capital of the Redayne Province and as such features numerous important businesses and government functions, as well as a highly developed infrastructure including a region-class airport, public transportation with options as varied as metro, inner and outer-city trains, trams and buses. Engleton and Redmont are about half of the size of Tharsius, but offer just as reliable options and services for visiting denziens, as well as scenic countryside views that are favorites at every post card shop.
Thanks to recent economic success, though slow at first, the Anthoran pound is on pace with most other currencies, or close enough that visitors would get equal or near-equal value in their exchange of their native monetary amounts, and some banks will even cover any money you may have lost, depending on which company it is. Additionally, hotels are usually more styled on offering larger options and packages, at a far cheaper price; the standard package usually includes free room service, access to the hotel's shuttle service and facilities, as well as other similar perks.
Association football is the most popular sport within the Kingdom, with tens of millions of fans and hundreds of teams, the Kingdom has a four-tier pyramid structure for domestic leagues that include over 112 teams, and is also host to the Royal Football Association, which officially oversees hundreds of amateur, semi-amateur and semi-professional clubs all across the Kingdom. Although Tharsius itself has no football clubs within the domestic pyramid, Redmont is home to the Rauret Reds, a League 2 club, and just fifteen minutes north of Tharsius is the magnificent Hutton Stadium, which is the home for the Hawick Royale, a historic club who were champions all throughout the last four decades and have continued that success and competitive edge into the current times. Engleton also has a club, the Onceiu FC who are also a League 2 and who play in the largest League 2 stadium, and a number of lower division clubs.
Consult with your foreign affairs department now before booking a flight, or the closest Anthoran embassy. A bit in the outskirts of town and not close to either? Contact us at (18)100-541-8171, or visit us at experienceanthor.gov.ath for quick, easy help and advice for your visit to Anthor.
The Principality of Qasden is a sport-loving metropolis located in the southwestern portion of Atlantian Oceania. Under the authorities of Prince Franz-Pierre and PM Rees Häther, who govern from the capital, Turkish Van City (better known as T.V. City), the 'pality maintains relatively well relations with fellow regional nations. The economy is mostly entertainment and tourism-driven, while information and hospitality come close behind.
Citizens of Qasden enjoy frolicking amongst the streets of cities such as T.V. City, Port Harston, Taxson, Qad City, and so on. When it comes to sports, however, things start to get real. Nearly every Qasdonian plays or enthusiastically watches some form of sport, with athletic programs such as Association Football, Basketball, and Tennis leading the nation in popularity. The 'pality is home to many wonderful venues, such as the Royal T.V. Stadium, an all-around mecca for Qad sports, located in the heart of T.V. City. Citizens enjoy these friendly competitions in an almost eternal spring-like weather, with glorious rainy days and gloomy sunny days making up the usual forecasts. Certain places in Qasden, like the mountainous southwestern cities of Fyre and Destiny, experience more of an early spring and autumn pattern, with snow falling at least once every other month. Trains and planes are the best ways to travel between each of the venues, and stray cats on public vehicles are heavily common (so be aware of that, people with cat allergies).
Prior to the beginning of summer 2016, the user behind Qasden had strolled around NS for a year and a half, blindly unknown of the world of forums. After finally discovering it, he created the 'pality to avoid prejudice in his main country's no-forum region. After working with scorinators a bit and researching some of NSS's past events, Qasden finally said "screw it" and began his scorinating career just a few weeks after discovering NS Sports.
First there was the Qasden Open, a small and easily forgettable archery tournament that became inspiration to the development of NSAO, or the NationStates Archery Open. After a few association football friendlies here and there, Qasden co-hosted the fifth Maple Leaf Bowl, a Canadian football tournament, alongside Kep (now known as Kebec). Afterwards, not really any other tournaments were hosted in Qasden, other than maybe a few guest clubs for the domestic Prince's Cup soccer tournament. He did, however, scorinate games for Runner Cup 7 (for Falatulu), Northwestern Cup 2 (for Savalen), the Mercedinian Open (for Mercedini), the IAC (for Bonesea), WBC 38 (for Newmanistan), and more, along with the pre-discussed friendlies. This does not even mention the domestic leagues and tournaments of the Qailpyme Sporting Alliance. Back into his groove, Qasden hosted the 26th World Lacrosse Championships, the 23rd International Basketball Championships (with Abaja), NSAO2, and most recently, the 6th AO Hockey Championships
The user behind Anthor broke onto the NSSport scene in 2010, mostly limiting his activity to the World Cup of Hockey as the “Mohawk Clans’, and other ice hockey related events. His foray into NSS didn’t really bloom until Anthor came onto the scene in early 2016, and since then he’s cohosted the Quidditch World Cup with Spaam, as well as hosting the 33rd edition of the WCoH by himself. In addition to this, he also runs and maintains domestic football, hockey and baseball leagues which are scorinated semi-frequently.
The Group Stages will feature a single round robin schedule, so that each team in each group plays each other once. The preferable range of competing delegations lay between 28 & 48, as displayed below—
•28- 7 Groups of 4 - Top 2 + Top 2 best 3rd Place Finishers advance.
•30- 6 Groups of 5 - Top 2 + Top 4 best 3rd Place Finishers advance.
•32- 8 groups of 4 - Top 2 advance.
•36- 6 groups of 6 - Top 2 + Top 4 3rd place Finishers advance.
•40- 8 groups of 5 - Top 2 advance.
•48- 12 groups of 4 - Top 1 + Top 4 2nd placers advance.
All even group formats will be divided up between Anthor and Qasden into halves, while odd formats shall be discussed between us. If the amount of BoF players falls short or extends beyond this list, another format shall be created if needed. For the knockout rounds of the second phase, 8-group formats will follow the A1vB2-style. Other formats shall have the advancees seeded accordingly to the tiebreakers listed below. Qasden’s cutoff times should be expected between 2200-2300 (10-11pm) CST, while Anthor’s cutoff time block rangers between 2300-0000 (11pm-12am) CST.
Scorinating is the key concept of hosting events of such large scale. For the duration of the tournament, both hosts will be using xkorinate’s NSFS3 feature. At the end of the tourney’s first phase, should any groups or seedings have ties, the following list of tiebreakers shall be brought into order—
-Points
-Goal Difference
-H2H Goal Difference
-Goals For
-Drawing of Lots (in extreme cases)
RP Bonuses will be handed out to those who post rosters and RP, and will be cumulative throughout the tournament. Each bonus will have generous benefits to their receivers.
Thank you all for reading our plans for the next generation of WC legends. If you have any ?’s, comments, and/or concerns, please feel free to ask below or contact Anthor or I via telegram, irc, or discord.
