95% games completed! 22 out of 24 participants of the next round are already decided.

Team : Pts | MP

Group A
NL A : 25 | 27 - first place
ANZ A: 22 | 24 - second place
FIN : 17 | 18 - third place
NOR C : -4 | -3 - fourth place

Group completed. The Dutch have secured the first place. Congrats!
In the duel between NC commentators, Texx triumphs over Min34 on the French Brawl template. They also get their Guiroma still ongoing. Yes, they did get matched agaist each other twice.

Group B
CAN A : 21 | 23 - first place
GER D : 17 | 20
BEL : 16 | 20
ITA D : 12 | 15 - fourth place

A lot has happened here!
Canadians not only qualified, but they already won the group!
ITA D on the other hand finish 4th. With 12 wins they are already the best scoring 4th placed team, and they still have 3 games left to play.
What's left is the fight for second place between GER D and BEL. It's very close with just a few games left. Every win or loss is a huge deal at this point.

Group C
ITA A : 30 | 30 - first place
NOR A : 22 | 24 - second place
CAN B : 11 | 13 - third place
POL C : 4.5 | 6.5 - fourth place

Group completed.

Group D
SWI : 33 | 35 - first place
ITA B| : 14 | 19
POL D : 12.5 |17.5
ANZ C : 4 | 6 - fourth place

Both ITA B and POL D keep winning games, but it's the Italians who hold on to their advantage. They still remain the only team in the group who won a game against the Swiss.

Group E
EAS : 31 | 31 - first place
USA C : 19 | 19 - second place
ANZ B : 12 | 12 - third place
UK C : 10 | 10 - fourth place

Group completed. ANZ B managed to keep their 3rd place. Congrats!

Group F
GER C | 17 | 19 - first place
NL B | 11 | 14 - second place
USA D | 5 | 6 - third place

Group completed. GER C finish first. Together with NOR B, they are the only non-A team to win their group. Nice!

Group G
NOR B | 14 | 15 - first place
IRL | 12 | 13 - second place
POL B | 7 | 7 - third place

Group completed. NOR B manage to defend their first place from Ireland.

Group H
CZE | 13 | 15 - first place
UK B | 11 | 12 - second place
ITA C | 8 | 9 - third place

Group completed.

Edited 8/1/2024 09:31:26

The draw for the next round is planned to take place on August 5th, around 8.30 pm CET.
Click here to see the countdown in your timezone: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/fight?p0=16&iso=20240805T2030&year=2024&month=8&day=5&hour=20&min=30&sec=0&msg=Nations'%20Cup%202024%20Draw&csz=1

Like usual, it will be streamed live on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/min34

The seeding of the top 4 brackets is already set.

1st bracket: FRA A, USA A, UK A, POL A
2nd bracket: USA B, GER A, FRA B, GER B
3rd bracket: SWI, EAS, ITA A, GER C
4th bracket: NL A, NOR B, CZE, CAN A
last bracket: IRL, NOR A, UK B, NL B, GER D/BEL, USA C, ANZ A, ITA B/POL D

The last bracket might be split into two if enough games complete in time.
Consult the spreadsheet for full info on the event: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1R7VDKXYN3ofo5xBkPQ_XOmcCCmb1W2w_kHXCO2qy_Xs/edit?usp=sharing

Hey Rento,
Could we potentially have an updated schedule for game creations? Thanks!

Sure! Although one of the qualifier groups is still not complete, so we might wait for them a bit longer.

But what's certain is that I won't start the rounds sooner than this:

Main Event round 1.......... August 8th.................. MME................... https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=34428419
Main Event round 2.......... August 19th............... Africa Ultima..... https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=34503219
Main Event round 3.......... August 30th............... Numenor........... https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=36737466
Main Event round 4.......... September 10th......... Volcano Island......... https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=25321256
Main Event round 5.......... September 21th....... Biomes................ https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=15635499
Quarterfinals....................... October 13th............... Numenor and Guiroma
Semifinals............................. October 3rd............. Volcano Island and French Brawl
Final........................................ November 24th........ MME and Biomes

Also I'd like to remind everyone that we're planning to do a Twitch stream in about 5 hours.

Edited 8/5/2024 13:13:51

We're live! https://www.twitch.tv/min34 Kickoff stream for the Nations Cup 2024! Come join us!

https://youtu.be/SLVBkXOJZ4Q?si=tX8dvmBaJsnxK0wB

Video is now available on YouTube as well!

Fun tourney so far. Looking forward to the next challenges. TY to the organisers :D

Who is playing who each round, and how many games?

We're planning to go with the exact schedule from 5 posts above.
If any team wants to make any sub before the next games, I need to know ASAP.

Main Event round 1.......... August 8th.................. MME................... https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=34428419
Main Event round 2.......... August 19th............... Africa Ultima..... https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=34503219
Main Event round 3.......... August 30th............... Numenor........... https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=36737466
Main Event round 4.......... September 10th......... Volcano Island......... https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=25321256
Main Event round 5.......... September 21th....... Biomes................ https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=15635499
Quarterfinals....................... October 13th............... Numenor and Guiroma
Semifinals............................. October 3rd............. Volcano Island and French Brawl
Final........................................ November 24th........ MME and Biomes

The groups look like this:


The numbers on the left side of the group table are seeding brackets. These are also used to decide the schedule.

The first round will look this way:

1-5 (FRA A vs IRL)
2-3 (GER B vs EAS)
4-6 (NOR B vs ITA B)

Groups B, C, and D will have the same matchups respectively.

Full schedule:

Round 1
1-5
2-3
4-6

Round 2
1-6
2-4
3-5

Round 3
1-3
2-6
4-5

Round 4
1-2
3-4
5-6

Round 5
1-4
2-5
3-6

Each round, every team plays 12 games.
That's 2 games per player in a full 6-player team.
Or 3 games per player in a 4-player team.

Groups B and D are completed. Only 3 games are left in the entire qualifiers and they don't influence anything anymore.

Team : Pts | Max Points

Group B
CAN A : 22 | 23 - first place
BEL : 18 | 19 - second place
GER D : 18 | 18 - third place
ITA D : 13 | 13 - fourth place

In the end, Belgium manages to qualify at the cost of Germany's D team. Congratulations! That was fun to follow.
Belgium, being an A team, has priority over the D team if they both end with 18 points.
The direct head-to-head doesn't matter, but just to underline how close this duel was, I'll let you know that it's a 6:6 draw.

Also worth noting is that TheKai from ITA D managed to get a perfect 6-0 win record. There were more players who managed to do so, but all of them played for teams that won their respective groups. TheKai is a very clear exception. Impressive!

Group D
SWI : 34 | 34 - first place
ITA B : 17 | 18 - second place
POL D : 13.5 | 15.5 - third place
ANZ C : 4 | 5 - fourth place

It's decided! ITA B win the second promotion spot!
It was very close, but their second win over Switzerland sealed the deal. They remain the only team who managed to beat any of Swiss players, although POL D also came close on a few occasions.

In the end, the D teams provided lots of entertainment, even if none of them managed to qualify. Thanks for playing! Hope to see you next time.

Over 50% of first round games are finished.
The next round will start within the next 24 hours. The template is Africa Ultima (which is totally DIFFERENT from Elitist Africa)
Example game: https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=34503219

Let's see what happened so far.

Comparing points scored to max points would give barely any information, it's still too early. So in this overview I'll focus on matchups alone.

Group A

France A vs Ireland
3:4
The French were considered clear favourites to win this group, and by some they were even favourites to win the whole 2024 Nations' Cup. Seeing them behind Ireland is very surprising. Even more so when they got 2 free points from Irish non-joins. The result is only 1:4 in games actually played.

Germany B vs East and South Asia
2:3
We're only in the 1st round, but looking at names alone, this has potential to be the matchup that decides the 2nd promotion spot. Although after checking out FRA A vs IRL, it looks like the group is much more open than it seemed.
Anyway, this one looks like a close fight.

Nordics B vs Italy B
7:1
NOR B is killing it. Not really surprising. They have only 4 players, but all 4 are very strong. I could see them having the highest win rate in the entire group, at the cost of eating some penalty points for missing players. As we see, it's a valid strategy.
Actually, the matchups that favour NOR B the most are the direct ones against their strongest opponents. So, not this one. Their time to shine will be against teams that realistically fight for promotion. So the fact that they are doing so well here really bodes well for them.

Sucks for ITA B. Just after putting heavy effort into qualifying, they get destroyed like that. But if they don't lose their morale, the next rounds should be easier, on paper.

Group B

UK A vs Nordics A
2:2
This one is a draw so far, but it's still early.
I'm sure that the defending champions, UK A, wouldn't be satisfied with a draw here.

Switzerland vs Germany A
4:1
Looks fantastic for Switzerland! After destroying the qualifiers, they have a great start into the main phase! Although it's in some part thanks to two non-joins from the Germans.
Really unlucky for the Germans too. This could be the worst matchup for things like that.

USA C vs Netherlands A
6:3
The quickest match so far! And the result is interesting too. USA C were considered a clear outsider and the favourite for the last place. What we're seeing so far is that the groups are much more open than most people imagined. This is getting interesting already!

Group C

USA A vs Australia and New Zealand A
3:1
Still too early to say much. USA A leads so far.

Germany C vs France B
5:3
The C team who steamrolled their group vs a team who skipped the qualifiers thanks to great results in previous editions. It's 4:2 in games completed and 1:1 in boots.

Netherlands B vs Canada A
6:1
Canada did better in the qualifiers than the NL B did, so this result comes as a great surprise to me. It's not even close. Many surprises in the first round already.

Group D

UK B vs Poland A
1:5
POL A is a team that is never the favourite, yet always performs well. Now they got into the top seeding bracket, so they are expected to perform. And so far, they deliver.
Although they get 1 penalty point for a missing player.

USA B vs Italy A
2:6
USA B is plagued by boots, giving away 4 free wins. Thankfully, Johnny Silverhand joins USA B from the next round on to save the day.
But you know, both these teams will try to qualify. These 4 games could hurt in the future.

Czech Republic vs Belgium
0:4
Czechs qualified comfortably. Belgium qualified by a hair's width. And yet we have 4:0 for the Belgians.
A surprisingly bad start for CZE. And they have only 5 players as well, so that's a penalty point. Meaning, they have negative score so far.

Next round matchups!

ITA B vs FRA A
NOR B vs GER B
IRL vs EAS

USA C vs UK A
NL A vs GER A
SWI vs NOR A

USA A vs NL B
FRA B vs CAN A
GER C vs ANZ A

POL A vs BEL
USA B vs CZE
UK B vs ITA A

Substitutions for the next round!

matrixtch fills the empty spot in POL A. He played for POL D in the qualifiers, with a 4:3 win record. But it's a jump from D to A. How will this turn out? At the very least, Poles won't get penalty points anymore.

Johnny Silverhand replaces Emu Pub in USA B. Emu went missing in action, and Johnny was on USA B's starting lineup anyway. So I guess, after some delay, everything is finally as intended?

Saleen147 fills the spot after Johnny Silverhand in USA C. After his good performance in the qualifiers (3:1 for USA D), Saleen gets his chance to play again! Congrats on your promotion.

Go Team NL!

Belgium only team still undefeated in the main tournament so far at 7-0.
Who would have predicted that? (definitely NOT me!)
Let's see if we can lose the remaining 53 games. :-)

The next round will probably start on Monday. Template is Numenor: https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=36737466

A good chunk of 1st and 2nd round games are already finished. In total we are at 24% completion of this group phase.

And Belgium is the only team still undefeated so far at 11-0. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Team | pts | max

Group A
EAS | 9 | 53
GER B | 7 | 54
NOR B | 7 | 52
IRL | 7 | 50
FRA A | 6 | 56
ITA B | 1 | 50

The top 5 are very close, with ITA B having trouble keeping up.
FRA A had a rough start, but they went 3-0 since the last update.
IRL is the opposite: they had a fantastic start, but are at a 5 loss streak at the moment.
EAS has most points scored, while GER B have a good balance of points scored and max points.
NOR B is also in a good spot, since their penalties for missing playes are applied in advance. They actually have the most wins in this group (11).

Group B
UK A | 8 | 56
SWI | 8 | 54
USA C | 8 | 53
NOR A | 6 | 54
NL A | 6 | 52
GER A | 4 | 51

USA C was supposed to be the outsider here, but it's actually GER A who are last both in points scored and max points.
USA C are doing absolutely fine, scoring against some top hitters of this group, they manage to keep up.
Overall it's the most balanced group so far, and by far.

Group C
CAN A | 13 | 53
USA A | 12 | 59
GER C | 11 | 54
NL B | 6 | 50
ANZ A | 4 | 50
FRA B | 4 | 44

Here we have a clear gap between top 3 and bottom 3.
CAN A is the surprising leader in points scored. They actually lost their first 6 games, then they went on a 12 game winning streak, and a 1-1 after that. wtf
USA A with just 1 win fewer, but only 1 loss total so far, they look like more and more like favourites to win this group.
GER C are keeping up with the top, while NL B and ANZ A are having a bit of trouble.
In the last place we have FRA B. On top of that, they lose a player after this round, so they will start getting some penalty points if they don't find a replacement.

Group D
BEL | 11 | 60
ITA A | 9 | 56
USA B | 9 | 52
POL A | 7 | 55
UK B | 2 | 49
CZE | 0 | 44

If you ask me, Belgium leading this group with perfect score is the biggest surprise in this tournament so far. And with Canada topping group C, it makes you wonder if their qualifying group, where they played together with GER D and ITA D, was in fact the group of death?
ITA A in the second place, with USA B and POL A right behind them.
Then there's a pretty huge gap to the 5th and 6th place, UK B and CZE.
CZE have scored 2 wins so far, but they also got 2 penalty points for missing a player, which balance out at 0 points.

Next round matchups!
FRA A vs EAS
GER B vs ITA B
NOR B vs IRL

UK A vs SWI
GER A vs USA C
NL A vs NOR A

USA A vs GER C
FRA B vs NL B
CAN A vs ANZ A

POL A vs ITA A
USA B vs BEL
CZE vs UK B

Substitutions for the next round! (you can still message me with new ones, until I create the games)

WxD from FRA A and malakkan from FRA B switch places!
In addition to that, Zev from FRA B gets subbed out and can't be replaced due to sub limit, until Round 4.
Seraph replaces Kerratul in ANZ A.
TheBelgian replaces Princess Leia in BEL.
lineal 2012 finally makes an appearence for POL A. matrixtch, being a valuable temporary substitution, goes back to the bench for now.

See you later!

Wow perfect score by Belgium, I am a little jealous :p

That being said USA C is doing bombastic, and B and A are doing the work they’re supposed to do. It’s nice recovery from the qualifier

Quick info: we're running a bit behind the schedule. The next round will likely start over the next weekend, around 14th or so.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Actually, we just hit 40% group phase completion, so maybe it's time for a proper update.

Team | pts | max

Group A
FRA A | 18 | 52
EAS | 17 | 51
NOR B | 12 | 48
GER B | 10 | 47
IRL | 10 | 44
ITA B | 2 | 37

On first glance, it seems that teams from France and Asia are clearly pulling ahead and fighting for 1st place. Good for them, but it would be a mistake to underestimate the other teams. The thing is, that the FRA A vs EAS matchup has only just began in round 3, so these two teams are bound to lose points to each other. And who can benefit the most from this?

NOR B has it all in their hands, since they will fight the top 2 directly in the next 2 rounds. Good results will see them through to the quarterfinals.

IRL is the opposite. They have the hardest part behind them, in theory. So they could still grab a lot of points from beating the lower ranked teams. In theory. Although they should probably start with sorting out their boot problems first.

And if NOR B and IRL are still in the race, then GER B is definitely still in the race as well. After all, not even half the games have been completed yet.

Same probably can't be said about ITA B. With 2 wins and 23 losses, finishing above the last place already looks like a challenge. Well, they had their share of fun already in the qualifiers, I hope. Their fight for qualification against POL D was fun to follow.

Group B
USA C | 15 | 49
SWI | 14 | 51
NOR A | 11 | 50
UK A | 10 | 49
GER A | 10 | 46
NL A | 8 | 47

Group B is the group where all predictions go to trash. Champions from previous editions, UK A and GER A are currently in the lower bottom, while at the top we have USA C, which was predicted by both streamers and myself to finish last.
Well to be fair, the differences in scores are so tiny that everything can still happen here. Definitely the most balanced group of all. It's a shame that only 2 will qualify.

Group C
USA A | 19 | 56
CAN A | 16 | 49
GER C | 13 | 48
ANZ A | 10 | 45
NL B | 8 | 47
FRA B | 6 | 41

USA A are steamrolling this group with their 19-4 record. They are definitely among the favourites for gold this season.

In second place we have the Canadians. I'm still not sure whether it's a surprise or not. I doubt that at signups many people would expect them to reach the quarterfinals, but the Canadians don't care and just do the job.

Right behind them, in 3rd place, we have GER C. Interestingly, they are doing best out of all the German teams. Both on team level (they're the only one with the positive W-L record) and on individual level. When sorting GER players by win rate, the top 3 places are taken by Pavluski, Sepp and Dreamworker all from GER C! They share only 1 loss among them, and 23 wins! Impressive! Fourth place is taken by Arsene Wenger, and only in 5th place we have a representative of GER A in form of alexclusive.

Currently in 4th we have Australia and New Zealand. I say 'currently' because I do actually expect them to climb up. They have an interesting schedule, starting with the strongest opponents, in particular with USA A first round. Then, while the top teams will be fighting among themselves, ANZ A will have a chance to improve their score against the lower ranked teams.

Then we have NL B. Although their score is basically identical to that of ANZ A, in their case I'm somehow not as optimistic. Maybe it's just my personal bias or something? I don't know. Prove me wrong, NL B!

In last we have FRA B. While they are definitely not the weakest of all the 24 teams in this stage, their results are probably the most disappointing. Based on previous seasons they got 7th seed, so they were one of the favourites to reach quarterfinals. 21th place, which they currently more or less hold now, is exactly where FRA C would be expected to be, if they signed up.
France has a huge playerbase, so this result is surprising, but does it matter? Not in the slightest! If their A team brings home a medal, who's gonna care about FRA B not doing that well?

Group D
BEL | 18 | 54
ITA A | 17 | 55
USA B | 12 | 48
POL A | 11 | 50
UK B | 4 | 40
CZE | 3 | 40
​
The Belgians did let go of their perfect record, but they are not letting go of the first place! First they demolished the Czech Republic, now they are standing their ground against POL A and USA B, beating them both in direct games so far. Looking great for them!

As a reminder, GER D barely missed qualification, finishing with the exact same record as Belgians. Does it mean that if they qualified, GER D would be leading in their group as well? Which of the German teams is actually the strongest, I wonder?

ITA A is basically on the same level, with 1 win less, but also 1 loss less than BEL.

In third we have USA B. I can only assume that the B stands for Boot, since they managed to score 7 of these in just three rounds. It's honestly impressive in a way. They only got 5 normal losses on top of that, and in total they have a balanced 12-12 win-loss record.

Poland A has 1 point less than USA B, but 2 more max points, so are they really behind the Americans? Anyway, their situation is looking very average. Despite a strong 9:3 start in the first round, they got barely any wins after that. And their schedule forces them to start scoring now! Their games against BEL are halfway done, games against ITA have started, and they get USA B next round. These are all their direct opponents for promotion.

UK B and CZE will likely end up fighting for 5th place.

That's the update. Thanks for reading.

NL B might prove you wrong...we played USA (big loss, yes) and CAN (7-5 victory) in round 1 and 2...so we have all our close opponents coming up!

The next round will start soon. The template is Volcano Island.

Team | pts | max

Group A
FRA A | 22 | 51
EAS | 18 | 47
NOR B | 15 | 46
GER B | 13 | 46
IRL | 12 | 42
ITA B | 2 | 34

FRA A vs GER B
EAS vs NOR B
IRL vs ITA B

Group B
USA C | 18 | 45
GER A | 17 | 44
SWI | 16 | 48
UK A | 14 | 46
NOR A | 13 | 48
NL A | 9 | 42

UK A vs GER A
SWI vs NL A
NOR A vs USA C

Group C
USA A | 23 | 54
NL B | 18 | 46
CAN A | 17 | 49
GER C | 15 | 45
ANZ A | 10 | 42
FRA B | 6 | 33

USA A vs FRA B
GER C vs CAN A
ANZ A vs NL B

Group D
ITA A | 21 | 54
BEL | 21 | 52
USA B | 14 | 45
POL A | 13 | 46
CZE | 8 | 37
UK B | 6 | 35
​
POL A vs USA B
ITA A vs CZE
UK B vs BEL
​
----

Group phase is at 48,9% completion.
Not much has changed in Group A, but the 4th round matchups are very interesting. We'll see if FRA A and EAS will defend their promotion spots from the challengers.
Group B is still way too close to call.
One major developement is NL B grabbing the 2nd place in Group C, pushing CAN down to third.
Meanwhile in Group D, for the first time Belgium lost their 1st place. At the moment it's ITA A sitting on top.

Group C Update

This is one of the more interesting groups and I thought I’d lay it all out for the players and dozens of spectators around the world.

Standings
1. USA A (28-6, 1 game in hand)
2. CAN A (19-16)
3. NL B (19-16)
4. GER C (17-18)
5. ANZ A (14-19, 2 games in hand)
6. FRA B (7-29)

USA A
R1: 9-3 vs ANZ on MME
R2: 10-2 vs NL on Africa
R3: 7-1 vs GER on Numenor, 4 to play
R4: 2-0 vs FRA on Volcano, 10 to play
R5: 0-0 vs CAN on Biomes, 12 to play

The favourite of the group has lived up to their billing. They've already locked up convincing match wins in their first three rounds and face a rapidly unravelling France team in Round 4. An upcoming Americas derby versus an underrated Canada team has the potential to slow this behemoth down but with a 9.5 game edge, this is the only team in the tournament who can realistically already start thinking about knockout play. Keep an eye on Group D where another US team has the potential to sneak into 2nd and set up a banger quarterfinal match.

Canada A
R1: 5-7 vs NL on MME
R2: 9-3 vs FRA on Africa
R3: 4-4 vs ANZ on Numenor, 4 to play
R4: 1-2 vs GER on Volcano, 9 to play
R5: 0-0 vs US on Biomes, 12 to play

The Canadian roster looked fantastic in qualifiers but has hit a few speed bumps in a tough group C. Realistically, there are four teams battling for 2nd place in this group and Canada simply hasn't shown enough against their peers: losing to NL in Round 1, finding themselves in tight fights with ANZ and GER in Rounds 3 and 4, and failing to capitalize on a poor France team. Canada do temporarily find themselves in 2nd, but with 12 games against the US still to play they will really need to pull something special to keep pace in the second half of group play.

Netherlands B
R1: 7-5 vs Canada on MME
R2: 2-10 vs US on Africa
R3: 10-0 vs France on Numenor, 2 to play
R4: 0-1 vs ANZ on Volcano, 11 to play
R5: 0-0 vs GER on Biomes, 12 to play

Netherlands, take a bow. It's really hard for a B team to make it out of the group stage in such a strong event. As a B team you have, at best, the 7th best player in your country going up against the top players in the world - you're playing with one hand tied behind your back. At the time of writing, every single B and C team is below .500 except for the US C team and the NL B team. Not to diminished the incredible efforts of the US C team, but doing this with a population of 18 million and a player base a fraction of the size is nothing less than incredible. This team have a long road ahead of them, including equaling the score against ANZ and taking on the board game crazed Germans on an INSS template, but they're firmly in the fight with 25 games left.

Germany C
R1: 8-4 vs France on MME
R2: 6-6 vs ANZ on Africa
R3: 1-7 vs US on Numenor, 4 to play
R4: 2-1 vs CAN on Volcano, 9 to play
R5: 0-0 vs NL on Biomes, 12 to play

Germany find themselves in the bottom half of the group with more than half the games played. They were unfortunate to catch France in R1 before their Western neighbours imploded and surely would have liked to achieve more in their first round. But the schedule is lining up nicely for this team to sneak in and claim the 2nd spot. The US is mostly in the rear view mirror and Germany will control their own destiny with games against the two teams they need to catch. They're already making headway with a 2-1 lead over Canada in Round 4. Shout out to team ace Pavluski who is a ridiculous 9-0 between qualifiers and group stage games. Oh, and everything I said about Netherlands being a B team? This is a C team by the way.

ANZ A
R1: 3-9 vs US on MME
R2: 6-6 vs Germany on Africa
R3: 4-4 vs Canada on Numenor, 4 to play
R4: 1-0 vs NL on Volcano, 11 to play
R5: 0-0 vs France on Biomes, 12 to play

This was a trendy dark horse pick who now find themselves five games below .500, 2 games back of 4th place Germany and 4 games back of Canada and NL. It's over, right? Well… not so fast. To advance out of this group ANZ needed to hold serve with the US, keep up with Canada/Germany/NL, and pummel France to oblivion. What have they done? They've had the best result against the US of any team, they've matched each of Germany/Canada/NL, and they'll take on a mentally broken France in Round 5. This is all according to plan. Don't call it a comeback, this team is arguably playing the second-best Warlight in the group.

France
R1: 4-8 vs Germany on MME
R2: 3-9 vs Canada on Africa
R3: 0-10 vs NL on Numenor, 2 to play
R4: 0-2 vs US on Volcano, 10 to play
R5: 0-0 vs ANZ on Biomes, 12 to play

It would be an understatement to say France are trending in the wrong direction. Rounds have gone from bad to worse and a matchup with the US is not what the doctor ordered for France. This was a QF team from last year who bypassed qualifiers on the strength of multiple years of strong performances. They won't be so fortunate for the next installment. France will finish in last in the group, but have a chance to salvage their tournament in the last two rounds.

Edited 9/18/2024 15:14:47