We're in the semifinals phase, which means only 2 ongoing matchups. In other words, not a lot to report on. But let's see.

France vs USA
3:1

Bbraw wins both his games while Phaeril wins one against the USA's selected champion, Octane.
Bonsai scores one for USA.

Switzerland vs Italy
2:2

Master of desaster wins one game and Muli goes 1:1, so 2 points for Switzerland.
Lepanto wins one game and Corsaro goes 1:1, so 2 points for Italy.
Looks like the closest matchup we've had in the knockouts yet.

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In other news, all the quarterfinal games have finished so we have the final results:

France vs Germany
7:6 (as a reminder, France was leading 6:1 at some point. Germans came very close to one epic comeback.)

USA vs Belgium
11:2

Switzerland vs East Asia
8:5

Italy vs Australia and New Zealand
9:4

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I'll end this update by copying the announcement I made on the official Discord server:

Looking at how things are going, it will be impossible to finish this event before Christmas.

I see multiple ways to handle it.
We could make a pause after semifinals and move the grand final into January.
Or we could modify the boot time for the final, for example 3d base + 7d banked.
Or perhaps allow vacations, or a combination of some of the above.

We still have time to decide. It would be cool if each of the remaining teams discussed it among their players to see what solution would suit them.

France wins another one and they lead 4:1 against USA.

By the way, since the updates have slowed down so much, I think maybe it's a good time to take suggestions for the next seasons?

Personally I feel that the new format was an improvement. I probably even had more fun this season, even though my team missed the quarterfinals, than in previous seasons where we finished top3.

Everyone is free to use this thread to say what they liked and disliked about this format. If you see any potential improvements, feel free to share :)

This format is terrific, I feel that all teams had something to play for regardless of their skill level! I definitely advocate for keeping the qualifier/group/knockout format.

We may want to consider reducing the auto-bids to the group stage, eliminating these entirely, or perhaps restricting them to “A” teams. The tournament is deep and it is not easy to advance out of qualifiers. It leaves a bad taste when teams bypass this stage on reputation rather than skill. This is amplified when the auto-bid is based on the reputation of players who may not even be playing in the current edition of NC.

France vs USA
7:1

Huge news! We know the first finalist. France beats USA in the semifinal.

Switzerland vs Italy
3:5

For the first time in this semifinal either side gets a 2-win advantage.
Might not look like much, but considering it's best of 7, Italians' remaining road to the final is only half as long as that of the Swiss.

bit stunned by the dang french... but there is always next season. USA was on fire, so tbh this just feels a bit unlucky ;)

France vs USA
9:2

The gap grows bigger. Stunning performance by the French.

Switzerland vs Italy
7:6

Switzerland advances to the final! This one was super close! In the end it came down to the champions' showdown on MME template - master of desaster vs Hergul - and mod was victorious.

Congratulations Switzerland, great fight Italy. This was Italy's best result ever. They reached top8 four times before, but top 4 is a record.


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The Grand Final, France vs Switzerland, will start shortly. After consulting with both teams, we agreed to add 2 weeks of additional banked time to account for the approaching Christmas season. This makes the boot time 2d base + 17d banked. Please keep in mind that base time stays at 2d. I would also advice against using all this time for picks, but that's up to the players.

France or Switzerland, who will win?
rakleader or master of desaster, who's gonna win the champions' game? They are both undefeated in the knockout round, but someone has to lose here!

Switzerland are the underdogs for sure, but they’ve exceeded expectations at every single stage. They absolutely demolished the qualifiers, then comfortably won the group of death in the Main Event, then took down two strong teams in the playoffs, in which I thought they were underdogs in both.

This doesn’t change my evaluation of their skills that much. MoD is undoubtedly the best player in the finals, but there’s a valid argument the next 6 are French. So why do I think the Swiss will win? Well I reckon their consistent over-performances have created a tsunami of momentum that will allow them to go blow for blow with France.

Prediction:
MoD will remain perfect. Rak will lose just one game this playoffs and it’ll be a decisive champions game. 7-6 to Switzerland!

SWI 4-9 FRA

switz 5 France 8 my prediction

We're almost 2 weeks into the final round.

The current score is:

France vs Switzerland
1:2

In the semifinal, master of desaster sealed his team's promotion by winning the deciding champions' game against Italy.
This time, the champions' game was one of the first ones to finish. Nevertheless, mod wins again! Rakleader loses his first game in the knockout round.

Mod's perfect run does in turn get spoiled by Phaeril who beat him on Biomes.

And Phaeril gets in turn beaten by Muli and we arrive at 1:2 for Switzerland.

As a reminder: this is the last matchup! The grand final. It's best-of-13; whichever team scores 7 wins becomes the champion of the 2024 edition! :)

Go Switzerland!

Rento is a very handsome gentleman.

Edited 12/31/2024 16:29:50

It is like the 2014 Davis cup in tennis - Roger Federer defeats the French in the final, almost on his own! Wawrinka was also playing then

France vs Switzerland
2:4

We have a nice circle of defeats:

rakleader defeated by master of desaster
master of desaster defeated by Phaeril
Phaeril defeated by Muli
Muli defeated by malakkan
malakkan defeated by master of desaster

and one odd out: Terence Kill defeating WxD

All in all, Switzerland is in a nice lead, but that's just 6 out of 13 games completed, so not even the halfway point.
Also, mod is out of games.

Automatix beats Bbraw, but loses to Fan.

France vs Switzerland
3:5

5 games remaining

Edited 1/3/2025 22:08:29

Fan defeats Terence Kill
WxD defeats Noctophilia

France vs Switzerland
5:5

3 games remaining

going to the wire !

congrats French team for winning, and good job on all teams who made it to final stage. also congrats on the teams who made it out of qualifier against the odds

France quickly win their 6th and 7th game in the final and it's over! They win Nations' Cup 2024. Congratulations!

Also congrats to Switzerland for grabbing the silver medal!
Congrats to everyone else respectively to the stage they reached and thanks everyone for playing!

Wow that was fast! Thought we'd get a final tiebreaker showdown. GG Frenchies!