Hi everyone I just want to start off by saying that no matter what happens with this inevitably some of you won't be happy with the decision(s) made but I'm going to do my best to mitigate that, hence the creation of this thread. (also shoutout to Amaranth who is NOT the host so DONT bother him but he's been very helpful to me already with hosting so thank you to him).
Let's cut to the chase: every year for World Cup there are people that want to sign up but have a hard time finding the numbers to play for their own countries. This means they get "stuck" playing for conglomerate teams like Rest of the World. In an ideal world, everyone gets to play for their own country but in reality this just doesn't work. So we have to make adjustments, including making conglomerate teams. However, team Rest of the World doesn't feel as good as more regional teams, so...
Here are some of the concerns that have already been brought to my attention/other possibilities that I've thought of even though signups have only been up for like four hours (lol), along with my personal opinions on them.
Team Spain + Portugal:
To be blunt, this combo team existing is not consistent with other eligibility rulings that have been made over the years. From what I understand it was formed because neither country had enough signups to field a whole team by themselves and they wanted to join forces so it was allowed. I don't think this was done out of malice in order to form a team that can compete for the title, but everyone knows that Spain + Portugal combined is a very good team, which is probably why people complain about it (in addition to it being inconsistent with other eligibility rulings).
My gut reaction is that our Spanish and Portuguese friends should split up, and just bolster recruiting efforts in order to fill out their rosters. If neither country truly can field a roster, MAYBE they can stick together. However, a different solution could be that they become a part of a bigger conglomerate team that is more consistent with eligibility rulings like Oceania. This would keep them together which would probably make them happy, and be more fair with other geographic rulings. More on this in the following sentences though.
European Conglomerate Teams:
A proposal that I've heard that I think kind of makes sense is instead of having a "Rest of the World" team, that we probably have enough European players without country teams to form "Team Northern Europe" and "Team Southern Europe." So like for example, if you're from Sweden you play for Northern Europe, if you're from Greece, you play for Southern Europe. As said before, I think that this is more consistent with other geographic teams like Team Asia or Team Oceania, and prevents people from being like "well I'm not actually from the country but I speak x language and live in an adjacent country so I should get to play for them." There's so many cases of this and enough European players that I think two general European teams (one Northern, one Southern) would be fair in this scenario.
France, Germany, Italy, and UK all have the signups, so they stay separate of course. If necessary, Spain/Portugal get lumped in with team Southern Europe (though as I said, I would prefer these teams to recruit and be their own country teams). I think this is a pretty good solution.
United States Teams:
Last year, we had team Northeast and Team Rest of US. Similar to the Spain/Portugal situation, I think that if the other three regions (Midwest, South, West) REALLY try, they can probably recruit enough people so that we can once again have four US teams. If that's not possible, I will grumble about it but we can do Team ROUS again. I know ROUS was cool last year and they made the finals but really it would be better to split things regionally IMO.
Team Latin America:
There's been interest expressed in forming Team Latin America this year. Yay! I think we can all agree that this is better than having a team Rest of the World if team LatAm is able to form. I'm sure I'm going to sound like a broken record, but having individual teams like Brazil and Argentina that we've had before would be ideal, and then from there we can get others from Latin American countries to form team LatAm.
Team Asia/Indian Players:
Team Asia intends to form this year. Yay! No issues there. China obviously remains separate because they're most likely going to get enough players to form their own country team. From what I assume, Team Asia will probably grab players from India. I think it would be cool and doable if India had its own team though, similar to how Brazil and Argentina have had teams in the past. Try and do your best to recruit, etc. So I would encourage Indian players to band together and form their own team, but if not, you should have Team Asia to go to.
African Players:
Having a Team Africa like we do Team Oceania would be sick. This one is tough though because from what I understand, even if we give Africa a whole continent team they might still have a tough time getting the numbers for a team. With all of the above pointing to an elimination of team Rest of World... do we think it's fair/good to have the conglomerate team be "Team Southern Europe/Africa"? I feel like there's no real elegant solution to this problem so I'm all ears.
---
With all that said, I think this is how I would LIKE to split things up. This is not the final decision obviously, which is why this is a discussion thread, but here's the proposal.
Individual Country Teams:
Argentina (if possible)
Brazil (if possible)
Canada
China
France
Germany
India (if possible)
Italy
Mexico
Portugal (if possible)
Spain (if possible)
United Kingdom
US Northeast
US Midwest (if possible)
US South (if possible)
US West (if possible)
USSR
Conglomerate Teams:
Asia (includes India if necessary)
Northern Europe
Southern Europe + Africa (includes Spain/Portugal if necessary)
Latin America (includes Argentina and Brazil if necessary)
Oceania
Teams that could form depending on how this discussion thread shakes out:
Rest of US (includes any combination of Midwest, South, West if they're unable to form)
Rest of World (includes Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Africa if they're unable to form)
---
Okay thank you for your time and happy discussing. And keep recruiting and signing up. Hell yeah we love World Cup.
Let's cut to the chase: every year for World Cup there are people that want to sign up but have a hard time finding the numbers to play for their own countries. This means they get "stuck" playing for conglomerate teams like Rest of the World. In an ideal world, everyone gets to play for their own country but in reality this just doesn't work. So we have to make adjustments, including making conglomerate teams. However, team Rest of the World doesn't feel as good as more regional teams, so...
Here are some of the concerns that have already been brought to my attention/other possibilities that I've thought of even though signups have only been up for like four hours (lol), along with my personal opinions on them.
Team Spain + Portugal:
To be blunt, this combo team existing is not consistent with other eligibility rulings that have been made over the years. From what I understand it was formed because neither country had enough signups to field a whole team by themselves and they wanted to join forces so it was allowed. I don't think this was done out of malice in order to form a team that can compete for the title, but everyone knows that Spain + Portugal combined is a very good team, which is probably why people complain about it (in addition to it being inconsistent with other eligibility rulings).
My gut reaction is that our Spanish and Portuguese friends should split up, and just bolster recruiting efforts in order to fill out their rosters. If neither country truly can field a roster, MAYBE they can stick together. However, a different solution could be that they become a part of a bigger conglomerate team that is more consistent with eligibility rulings like Oceania. This would keep them together which would probably make them happy, and be more fair with other geographic rulings. More on this in the following sentences though.
European Conglomerate Teams:
A proposal that I've heard that I think kind of makes sense is instead of having a "Rest of the World" team, that we probably have enough European players without country teams to form "Team Northern Europe" and "Team Southern Europe." So like for example, if you're from Sweden you play for Northern Europe, if you're from Greece, you play for Southern Europe. As said before, I think that this is more consistent with other geographic teams like Team Asia or Team Oceania, and prevents people from being like "well I'm not actually from the country but I speak x language and live in an adjacent country so I should get to play for them." There's so many cases of this and enough European players that I think two general European teams (one Northern, one Southern) would be fair in this scenario.
France, Germany, Italy, and UK all have the signups, so they stay separate of course. If necessary, Spain/Portugal get lumped in with team Southern Europe (though as I said, I would prefer these teams to recruit and be their own country teams). I think this is a pretty good solution.
United States Teams:
Last year, we had team Northeast and Team Rest of US. Similar to the Spain/Portugal situation, I think that if the other three regions (Midwest, South, West) REALLY try, they can probably recruit enough people so that we can once again have four US teams. If that's not possible, I will grumble about it but we can do Team ROUS again. I know ROUS was cool last year and they made the finals but really it would be better to split things regionally IMO.
Team Latin America:
There's been interest expressed in forming Team Latin America this year. Yay! I think we can all agree that this is better than having a team Rest of the World if team LatAm is able to form. I'm sure I'm going to sound like a broken record, but having individual teams like Brazil and Argentina that we've had before would be ideal, and then from there we can get others from Latin American countries to form team LatAm.
Team Asia/Indian Players:
Team Asia intends to form this year. Yay! No issues there. China obviously remains separate because they're most likely going to get enough players to form their own country team. From what I assume, Team Asia will probably grab players from India. I think it would be cool and doable if India had its own team though, similar to how Brazil and Argentina have had teams in the past. Try and do your best to recruit, etc. So I would encourage Indian players to band together and form their own team, but if not, you should have Team Asia to go to.
African Players:
Having a Team Africa like we do Team Oceania would be sick. This one is tough though because from what I understand, even if we give Africa a whole continent team they might still have a tough time getting the numbers for a team. With all of the above pointing to an elimination of team Rest of World... do we think it's fair/good to have the conglomerate team be "Team Southern Europe/Africa"? I feel like there's no real elegant solution to this problem so I'm all ears.
---
With all that said, I think this is how I would LIKE to split things up. This is not the final decision obviously, which is why this is a discussion thread, but here's the proposal.
Individual Country Teams:
Argentina (if possible)
Brazil (if possible)
Canada
China
France
Germany
India (if possible)
Italy
Mexico
Portugal (if possible)
Spain (if possible)
United Kingdom
US Northeast
US Midwest (if possible)
US South (if possible)
US West (if possible)
USSR
Conglomerate Teams:
Asia (includes India if necessary)
Northern Europe
Southern Europe + Africa (includes Spain/Portugal if necessary)
Latin America (includes Argentina and Brazil if necessary)
Oceania
Teams that could form depending on how this discussion thread shakes out:
Rest of US (includes any combination of Midwest, South, West if they're unable to form)
Rest of World (includes Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Africa if they're unable to form)
---
Okay thank you for your time and happy discussing. And keep recruiting and signing up. Hell yeah we love World Cup.
