World Cup 2014
Welcome to the first Quarter Cap of Jim’s Tourney Series. This is guaranteed to be one of the most exciting and intense tournaments you have ever participated in, so I’m glad you’re here!! Welcome to your chance to get the 16th pick in the Grand Finale bracket!!!!!
Information about the Series as a whole is available here:http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=89&t=140939
Tourney signups for the series will be put on a short delay while this one is running, at least until it reaches the later phases, and we’ll start again moving from quick tournaments to slower ones over the course of the 2nd Quarter.
This tournament is designed to mirror the 2014 World Cup in all its glory: qualification and all. Each soccer team will have two home maps and a “suitcase” map. (all settings except speed are allowed) Each soccer game will consist of 4 1v1 matches played on the two home maps of the home team, the suitcase map of the road team, and one random map with mostly standard settings (though the spoils will not always be escalating, but will vary). You score 1 goal for each win on a map. A neutral site match in qualifying will consist of each team’s suitcase map and 2 random maps.
As in soccer standings, a win gets you 3 points, and a tie gets you 1 point. A “two leg match” is a home and home series of two players in which the winner is the player who scores more total goals over the two legs. If this is tied, a tiebreaker will be held consisting of a best of 3 random maps games using the 3 spoils settings least used in the first 8 games.
Now for the fun part: Countries!! Each player signs up as a country. You post your 3 maps in your sign-up post. At some point after you post to sign up and before games start I will record your CC score. All players will be given a FIFA ranking (Where the highest ranked player is #1, and so on) that will not change throughout the tournament. Each confederation (continent) does qualification a little differently, so choose carefully which country you want (if you care).
UEFA (Europe)
53 teams compete for 13 spots. The teams are divided into 6 pots of 9 teams by ranking (the top 9 are pot 1, and so on). Groups are drawn at random by selecting one team from each pot. One group will not have any Pot 6 player. You play each team in your group in a home game and in an away game, and the team with the most points (3 for a win, 1 for a tie) wins the group and qualifies automatically. The 8 best second place teams, not counting their results against the team which finished last in their group (if indeed there are 6, for the sake of fairness for the group which only had 5) are divided into two pots of 4 teams (by rank), and randomly paired one from each pot against each other. Each pairing will play a two-leg match and the winner reaches the cup.
CONMEBOL (South America)
There are 10 teams. Each team plays each other team home and away. The 4 teams with the most points (3 for a win, 1 for a tie) qualify for the Cup, and the 5th place team enters the intercontinental playoff against a team from AFC.
CAF (Africa)
52 total countries. The top 28 countries receive a bye to the group stage, while the remaining countries are divided into two pots (top half and bottom half). They are randomly paired against each other and play a two-leg match. The winners advance to the group stage, which has 40 teams. Those 40 teams are seeded into 4 pots of 10 (1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40) and drawn into 10 groups of 4 (one team from each pot per group), which play each other team in their group home and away. The ten group winners are split into two pots (top half and bottom half), randomly paired (one team from each pot) and play two leg matches. The winners of these two leg matches reach the Cup.
AFC (Asia)
There are 43 total countries. The top 5 countries receive a double bye, and the top 27 do not have to play in the first round. The lowest 16 teams are divided into two pots (top half and bottom half) by rank and are randomly paired one from each pot. Pairings play a two leg match, and the losers are out. The 8 winners and the 7 next lowest ranked teams are put into a pot 2, while teams 6 to 20 are put into a pot 1, where again they are randomly paired and play two-leg matches. The 20 surviving teams (5 double byes and 15 winners) are put into 5 groups of 4 teams each. In these groups, each team plays each other team home and away, and the top two teams advance. The final 10 teams are placed into two groups of 5, and again play each other team home and away. The top 2 in each group qualify for the Cup, and the third placed teams play a two-leg match against each other. The winner of that match enters the intercontinental playoff against a team from CONMEBOL.
CONCACAF (North America)
There are 35 total countries. The top 6 receive a double bye, and teams 7-25 receive a single bye. The 10 lowest ranked teams are paired up and play a two-leg match, the winners of which advance to the next round. Teams in this round are divided into 4 pots (Pot 4 = 7-12, Pot 5 = 13-18, Pot 6 = 19-24, Pot 7 = 25 and the 5 previous winners). 6 Groups of 4 are drawn (one team from each pot), and each team plays each other in their group home and away. The 6 group winners advance to what is known as “Pot 3”, and Pot 1 and 2 consist of teams 1-3 and 4-6 respectively. 1 team from each of the first two pots and 2 teams from Pot 3 form each of the three 3rd round groups. Each team plays each other team home and away, and the top 2 teams in each group advance to “the Hex”. The Hex consists of a single 6 team group in which each team plays each team home and away. The top 3 qualify for the Cup, and the 4th place team enters the intercontinental playoff against a team from OFC.
OFC (Oceania)
11 teams. The 4 lowest ranked teams play in a group of 4, each team playing each other team home and away. The winner of this group advances to the next round and joins the other 7 teams. These 8 teams are placed into two pots (top half and lower half by rank) and are randomly drawn into two groups of two teams from each pot, in which each team plays each other team home and away. The top two teams in each group advance to a 4 team final, which again consists of each team playing each other team home and away. The top team in this group qualifies for the cup, and the runner-up enters the intercontinental playoff against a team from CONCACAF.
Intercontinental playoff
The team entering the intercontinental playoff from OFC plays the team from CONCACAF in a two-leg match. The same occurs between the team from AFC and the team from CONMEBOL. The two winners qualify for the cup.
WORLD CUP!!!
The top 8 teams in the ranking are placed into Pot 1. Three other pots are created by grouping teams from the remaining 24 with preference for avoiding teams from the same continent. 8 groups are drawn, taking 1 from each pot. Each team plays each other team in their group in a 10 game neutral site match, featuring all 3 maps of each player and a random map on each of the 4 spoils options. The player who wins more games gets 3 points, and in a 5-5 tie each gets 1 point. The top two teams in each group advance to the knockout stage. In this stage, the 16 surviving teams play a single elimination tournament with the same format of 10 games per match. A tie will be broken by a repeat of the 4 random maps games, and a still tied game will enter a shootout of 5 random maps games (with the least used spoils option appearing twice). A 3rd place game will also be played. The winner of the final will win the tournament and be crowned the Quarter Cap 1 champion and get the 16th pick in the Grand Finale!
Tournament spreadsheet and list of countries available here : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtZG7daT-rW1dEtTdkt0bVVlNGdmSnNQVmZUOHNjS0E&hl=en_US#gid=0
