Race Department World Cup Football Season 1

Welcome to Race Department World Cup Football Season 1

Here we will pit your favorite national teams against one another in a simple contest using the current World Cup formula. Teams will be divided into groups for round robin matches. Top teams will them move on to a knock-out stage where a champion will be crowned.

How to Participate

Sign up directly in the thread with your choice for a national team. First come, first served. After sign-ups are completed, teams will be divided into groups. Number of groups and size of groups will vary based on how many participants we have.

As moderator, I will open a private conversation with each participant where we can communicate orders, rule clarifications, or discuss local politics or the gastropub scene. But mainly this is for submitting your orders for game play, which is described in "Game Play" below.

Game Play Below

I will generate a random whole number from 1-8. It is your job to guess that number. That's it. The only rule is that you may not guess the same number twice in succession. The complete set of numbers will be generated before the group draw is conducted, so there should be no complaints of bias.

The distance your guess is from the random number will be the number of goals your team concedes to your opponent. So, it is in your best interest to guess very close! For the sake of realism, I will cap the score at 5 goals each.

If you fail to send in your choices, your team will lose 1-0 by default. If both players fail to send in choices, the match will end 0-0 and be counted as a loss for both teams.

If you know that you're going to be away from the game for an extended period, you are welcome to send me multiple rounds. Just make sure you label which selection goes with which match. This will help you avoid forfeiting a match.

Rankings

Each team will be awarded points in the round robin stage based on their performance: Win = 3, Draw = 1, and Loss = 0. Total points after the round robin stage will establish your ranking in the knock-out round.

Tie-breakers will be applied in the following order:
  1. Goal Difference
  2. Total Goals Scored
  3. Total Wins
  4. Head-to-Head Result among tied teams
If the result is still a draw, then the tied teams will play a final tie-breaker match.

Knock-Out Stage

Play will be as in the Round Robin stage with each participant providing a guess to the random number.

During the knock-out stage, draws will not be allowed (or practical). Participants will be asked for a second selection if their game ends in a draw. This will decide the winner of the penalty shoot-out.

Winners will progress through the tournament until a champion is crowned. Lose, and you're out. (I am also considering the idea of a double-elimination knock-out stage if this is favorable to the participants.)
 
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Can the correct number ever be the exact one that I'm not allowed to guess?
That is a very good question and a scenario I didn't think of. There are two answers to this question.

Yes
This will certainly be the easiest for me, as moderator, to deal with. I only need to check your guess is not the same as the previous guess. Since the numbers will be generated prior to the group draw, there is no guarantee of avoiding this situation, but also it will eliminate any bias you might perceive.

This will require a certain element of secrecy in the game. I had intended to show all players the results of each match, including the numbers guessed and the correct number. However, if I were to reveal each number, then you would know which numbers to avoid. A player would definitely be at a disadvantage if he could not pick a certain number and it happened to be the correct number. Also, your opponent could pick that number knowing you cannot.

No
This will be slightly more difficult for me to watch for. I will need to check that each number generated is NOT one chosen in the previous round. If it is, I will need to generate new numbers, which of course could lead to yet another match.

Whatever number you choose for one round cannot be the correct number the next round. That will effectively eliminate one of the numbers available for each player. So, instead of simply choosing 1-8, there will be two numbers that are not allowed because they were chosen by each player previously. To make this fair for all players, I will reveal the correct number along with the player's guess for every match. You will all know from this which numbers should not be used.

Verdict
There is, of course, my third answer, and the solution I have come up with to avoid all conflicts, confusion, and extra work for everyone. I will delete that rule. It will be easier to pick any number you like, and every number 1-8 will be eligible for use.
 
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