Deadline is 30th January, maybe 31st if you're lucky. On 31th the next round games will be created.

Also, I don't require everyone to send me their full lineups again, only if you made some changes :)

Yeah we did

Just spotted on the news and posting it here for MathWolf:

lol, I looked at it and it took me at least a minute before I realised what was missing. :-)
How could they forget their favourite neighbour, Denmark!

The standings in the Nations Cup so far:

UK B 2:8 USA A
The usA-team smacks down team B from the UK, with most usA players proving a size to big for their former rulers. Keep an eye on Lewis, the UK B player went 2:0, the only wins for UK B, and proved that he can throw a punch against one of the favorites! Is a promotion to UK A imminent for this rising star?

GER B 1:9 FRA A
FraAnce have also close to wrapped up their matchup against Germany B, with a healthy 9:1 lead so far. Stellar performances all over the board from the french, with the only questionmark being how large the win will be at the end. Is this team-up in the Nations Cup further evidence that Rakleader will indeed join FC once this CL has been finished?

AUS&NZ A 8:4 HEL
Without Bootophon, Aus and NZ A have come out of their first matchup with flying colours. A healthy 8:4 victory against Hellas. Summer, PurpleAnxiety and LND all came unscathed through this first round with 2:0 scores to their names.

CZE A 2:7 NL B
The Netherlands B team have just wrapped up a win against Czech A. The main scandal from this round is the fact that psykkoman hasnt played his games. If the rules are enforced this loss might look even worse for the Czech.

POL B 2:8 SWI
Another strong team, Switzerland, have also won their first round. With three of their players, MoD, Terrence Kill and Muli all gaining flawless scores this round (and iNsAne threatening to do the same) this team looks set for another smashing season in the Nations Cup.

USA D 8:4 POL D
The Americans of USD have edged one step closer to a respectable result in this season, with a strong win against Poland D. While the pressure on both of these teams are significantly lower than their earlier alphabetic counterparts, USA D has carried the winning spirit of Joe Biden into this matchup and came out victorious.

GER D 1:11 BEL
An astonishing 11:1 victory for the belgians against Germany D. After having argued about the belgian independence from the Netherlands in earlier forum posts, team Belgium have now also proven with their actions that they arent part of Germany either. Is this team from Belgium a dark horse in the Nations Cup?

IRL 10:2 FRA D
Meme Ireland beats France D 10:2. Please note that JEFF AND FSG LOST. Will Meme Ireland be disqualified in their campaign to prove there is a little irish devil in everyone, or will they fail in another way? An important note about this team is that all the players are notorious booters, and that they will surely fall short of glory once again.

Lets have a look at the rest of the Netherlands unfinished matchups:

UK A 6:3 NL A
AUS&NZ B 2:4 NL C
NL D 6:4 FIN

NL A cannot win against UK A, with UK A having ensured at least a draw, and requiring only one more win to run away victorious in what is perhaps the biggest matchup in round 1.

NL C is looking a bit healthier, with a strong 4:2 lead over the Beach boys from AUS&NZ B team. However, the men from down under still has a chance to turn this matchup around.

NL D has ensured at least a draw against Finland, but they need one of the 2 remaining games to turn in their favor to get the W.

What about the Nordic Teams?

USA B 1:2 NOR A
NOR B 1:5 CAN

NOR A is so far leading against USA B, but the matchup is both too close to call, and have too few games finished to announce a favorite.

The Canadians are however firm favorites to at least get 0.5 points from their matchup with Nordic B. They only need 1 win out of the last 6 to get the draw, or 2 wins to ensure the victory. The matchup is by no means finished, but as a betting man I would gladly put my coins on Team Canada picking up all points from the first round.

With both GER D and B having lost their first round, will this first round be a major upset for the germans?

GER A 2:2 USA C
GER C 2:5 SPA&POR

With the germans being famed for both their timeliness and precision, I for one am a bit shocked that their A team is stuck in a stalemate against USA C, with only 4 games finished. While they still remain one of the favorites for the Nations Cup title, this potential reality check might hurt the ambitions of this proud warzone nation.

Spain and Portugal have a healthy 5:2 lead on Germany C, and the germans will need 5 wins in a row in order to get maximum points from this matchup.

Poland A and C are locked into two close games:

POL A 4:3 FRA B
POL C 3:4 ITA

PolAnd is currently leading 4:3 over France B, but both this and the Pol C 3:4 score vs Italy makes both games too close to call. With losses from the other two teams so far this round, the pride of the poles may be at risk should they fail to edge out a win in either of these two matchups.

Finally, lets have a look at the rest of the world:

S AME 6:3 CZE B
UK C 2:5 FRA C

South America seems to be winning their matchup against Czech Republic B, they only need a win in one of their 3 remaining games in order to ensure it. It is worth to note that all 6 wins have come from the same 3 players, so they might end up with a draw if the remaining players fail to uphold the standard set by their peers.

FranCe are agonisingly close to beating UK C, with their 5:2 lead, but the game isnt over yet. With desc and Niko both having 2 games left each, the french are depending on them winning at least one game if Johnnygoodboy manages to pull off a 2:0 score.

Excellent update Ralph! Thanks for doing it.

:O Germany not inspiring confidence.
Team Ireland may be a meme, but that doesn't meme we can't dream.
-5star 1/24/20201

Edited 1/24/2021 18:22:28

The second round starts tomorrow. The template is ME WR. https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=22552921
The pairs have been drawn:
USA A vs SPA&POR
USA B vs FRA A
GER A vs UK A
---
NOR A vs POL C
ITA vs FRA B
NL B vs USA D
CAN vs POL A
AUS&NZ-A vs SWI
---
FRA C vs USA C
S AME vs NL A
UK B vs BEL
GER C vs IRL
NL D vs GER B
---
NL C vs POL D
POL B vs HEL
NOR B vs CZE A
---
GER D vs AUS&NZ-B
FIN vs FRA D
UK C vs CZE B

Edited 1/30/2021 18:18:47

RULE CHANGE!
Was: unlimited subs until round 4, no subs after round 4.
Will be: unlimited subs until February 21st (=start of round 3), then max 2 subs per team every round.

Reasons:
1. Subs were added to deal with inactives and booters, not to allow optimizing teams every round depending on the next template. That's why I didnt want subs right before the final round. But people want to use it this way, so I'll accomodate. So the no-subs-after-round-4 limit is lifted.
2. I want to avoid scenarios where team A underperforms and then A players all go to B team because it has more points. Up until now it was a bit of a grey area.

Sorry for changing the rules mid-season.

Also I guess I could do another results update. It won't be written by Ralph this time but by myself, therefore lame, but still an update.

ROUND 1

UK B 3:9 USA A

Not much of a surprise here and not much to say, USA A quite easily beats UK's second team. One of their three losses come from a boot on picks.

UK A 9:3 NL A

Declared the most interesting matchup of the round, ended with a convincing win by UK over the Netherlands, the 5th ranked team of last season. UK definitely has what it takes to fight for top spots this time.

USA B 7:4 NOR A

Looked close at first, but ultimately Chazz Michael Michaels sealed the deal with his 2d17h average speed win over Nordics A. His second game is still ongoing.

GER C 4:8 SPA&POR

Spain and Portugal take revenge on the team they lost to last season, and with the same 8:4 result too!

GER B 1:11 FRA A

Similarily the silver medalists FRA A beats the team that beat them last time, making clear that they are aiming for the top place.

GER A 9:2 USA C

What started with a 2:0 lead for USA C turned into a 2:9 loss for them. No upset here.

AUS&NZ A 8:4 HEL
NOR B 3:8 CAN
CZE A 2:10 NL B
POL B 4:8 SWI
POL C 5:7 ITA
POL A 6:5 FRA B
USA D 8:4 POL D

I won't comment on every single game now, but the Polish games definitely deserve some attention here, with the two closest matches of the round. Italy manages to grab a full point here over Poland C, while POL A vs FRA B is still undecided. It's down to the last game, Fridge (POL) vs Tof (FRA). It's either a full win or a draw for Poland.

AUS&NZ B 4:8 NL C
GER D 1:11 BEL
NL D 8:4 FIN
UK C 4:8 FRA C
IRL 10:2 FRA D
S AME 9:3 CZE B

All the wins here are pretty decisive, especially from teams Ireland, Belgium and South America, all newcomers to the competition. It will be super interesting to see how well they do later on.

ROUND 2

USA A 5:5 SPA&POR
USA B 1:6 FRA A
GER A 5:4 UK A

NOR A 3:2 POL C
ITA 1:3 FRA B
NL B 4:4 USA D
CAN 4:4 POL A
AUS&NZ A 3:4 SWI

FRA C 2:3 USA C
S AME 4:4 NL A
UK B 3:5 BEL
GER C 1:5 IRL
NL D 3:4 GER B

NL C 6:5 POL D
POL B 7:1 HEL
NOR B 2:4 CZE A

GER D 3:4 AUS&NZ B
FIN 1:3 FRA D
UK C 4:3 CZE B

What's here to say, almost every match is very close and interesting. Sometimes it makes it a surprise, sometimes not.
USA A's 5:5 result against Spain and Portugal most people will call a surprise already, even though every result is still possible here. It's mostly up to the Spanish player Gyca since he plays in the both remaining games. Whichever team loses in the end, they put up a good fight.
The only fully decided match here is POL B 7:1 HEL.
Some other matches that appear close to being decided are USA B 1:6 FRA A and GER C 1:5 IRL.
NL C 6:5 POL D is in this limbo where it's a close match but at the same time it's almost decided as well.

I guess that's it for now!

Bump.

Standings update?

Round 3 update:

Last season's gold and silver medalists, Germany and France, are battling it out this round, currently 5:1 for Germany.
These nations are also fighting over who has a more impressive D, but we can't judge until they show us everything they've got, as the current 5:4 result can go either way.

All the other information can be found on the sheet which I update daily: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aIf2fmJF3saG5JKaRF9bgncvlmJ8WpwIntCzGFflXSk/edit#gid=312064543

I'd love to add cool forum updates as well, like the one Ralph did, but I simply don't have time. So I apologize for that.
If someone is willing to comment here on the results from time to time, that would be great!

Standings after round 2 (strat ME):

Rank	Team		Score	W-L
1	France A	3	20-4
2	Germany A	3	17-6
3	USA A	        3	16-8
4	Switzerland	2.5	16-8
5	USA D	        2.5	15-8
6	Belgium	        2	19-5
7	Ireland	        2	18-5
8	France C	2	15-9
8	Netherlands C	2	15-9
8	Nordic A	2	15-9
11	UK A	        2	13-10
12	Spain and Por	2	13-11
13	USA B	        2	10-14
14	Germany B	2	8-16
15	Canada        	(2)	12-10
15	Poland A	(2)	12-10
15	France B	(2)	12-10
18	Italy	        (2)	11-11
19	Netherlands A	(2)	9-14
20	Netherlands B	1.5	14-9
20	Poland B	1.5	14-9
22	Aus and NZ A	1.5	12-12
23	Czech Rep A	1.5	9-15
24	South America	(1.5)	14-9
25	Netherlands D	1	13-11
26	Aus and NZ B	1	12-12
26	UK C	        1	12-12
28	UK B	        1	7-17
29	Germany C	1	7-16
30	USA C	        1	6-17
31	Finland        	0.75	11-13
32	Nordic B	0.5	9-15
32	Poland D	0.5	9-15
34	Poland C	0.5	7-17
35	Hellas	        0.5	5-18
36	France D        0.25	7-17
37	Czech Rep B	0	7-17
38	Germany D	0	5-19

This table does not yet include results from round 3 (French Brawl).
The top 3 of last season: Germany, France and USA are taking the top 3 spots here again.
The strongest challenger for the podium appears to be Switzerland, currently in 4th place.
Amazing performance so far by USA D and their surprising 5 place! (Spoiler: they will not hold to it after French Brawl games as they already lost that round).
At 6th and 7th we have the newcomers Belgium and Ireland, while the top 10 closes with the C teams from France and Netherlands. Interesting mix.

Some teams have their (score) in brackets. That's because their Strat ME matches are still going on! Italy vs France B, Canada vs Poland A and South America vs Netherlands A - each team from this pair will ultimately finish with 0.5 point less than currently in the table. Who will it be? We'll see.

Round 2 matchups:

USA A 7:5 SPA&POR
Maybe the most interesting match of the round. USA A was the big favourite here, but SPA&POR quickly gained the 3:0 lead, which then turned into 5:3 lead, but then USA A finished with 4 straight wins and won it 7:5. Nevertheless a great fight by Spain and Portugal, certainly got their time in the spotlight.

USA B 3:9 FRA A
A convincing win by France, just as one should expect from the top spot contestant.

GER A 8:4 UK A
Next to USA A vs SPA&POR, this matchup got the most attention. Two great teams playing each other. It was close all the way until 5:4 for Germany, after which they won their remaining games to finish 8:4. A great spectacle.

NOR A 10:2 POL C
That's just unfair.

ITA 5:6 FRA B
One of the unfinished matchups. A very close one.

NL B 4:7 USA D
A big surprise to most people, USA's D team beats NL B and this is what grants them 5th place after round 2, as they are still without a loss.

CAN 4:6 POL A
Second unfinished matchup, this one is a tough one for Canada as they need to win both games to get the draw here.

AUS&NZ A 4:8 SWI
This was quite even at the start, but ultimately SWI finishes with a good 8-4 win, fighting alone against two countries at once.

FRA C 7:4 USA C
Having beaten UK C first round, now the French beat USA C. Will they finish as the highest ranked C team this season? We will C.

S AME 5:6 NL A
A very tough draw for both teams, perhaps a bit unlucky to be matched so early. Netherlands secured half a point and the last game will decide, which team will get the other half.

UK B 4:8 BEL
Good performance by Belgium so far, beating a strong B team without bigger problems, propelling them into 6th place.

GER C 3:8 IRL
The same could be said about Ireland here, just another solid win.

NL D 5:7 GER B
A surprisingly close match here. Last season GER B finished 4th (or 1st, depending on how you look at A/B teams), while NL C and D weren't even participating. Still a point is a point and it goes to the favourites, Germany B.

The remaining lower ranked matchups, I won't commentate on a single one from here on:

NL C 7:5 POL D
POL B 10:1 HEL
NOR B 5:7 CZE A
GER D 4:8 AUS&NZ B
FIN 6:5 FRA D
UK C 8:4 CZE B

Okay maybe Finland vs France D deserves special attention. It's a finished matchup which ended with 6:5. Finland won 7 games, but they only fielded 5 players, which gives a penalty point. And since this kind of matchup can't finish in a draw, a close win like we have here grants 0.75 point to the winner (FInland) and 0.25 to the loser (France D).

That's all about round 2 for now. I hope the remaining games finish soon. Round 3 (French Brawl) has been going on for some time already, while round 4 (Malvia) starts in about a week, on 14th March.
So, if someone wants to make some subs for Malvia, you have this one week to inform me :)
See you soon.

I said "See you soon", and I really did mean soon! I'll talk about round 3 results now.
Before that however, I need to mention that just as I posted the round 2 summary, the Italy vs France B matchup finished (with France win), so the results I posted are already a bit out of date! And this is why I don't usually do summaries of unfinished rounds, ladies and gentlemen.

As always, for the most accurate and daily updated results, please check the spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aIf2fmJF3saG5JKaRF9bgncvlmJ8WpwIntCzGFflXSk/edit#gid=312064543
You can play with the tabs at the bottom to find the info you're looking for.

So now round 3 - French Brawl:

UK A 5:4 USA A
First of all, this matchup shouldn't have happened. UK A should've gotten an easier opponent if only they (A) played faster against Germany the previous round or (B) some Germany player didnt wait a week with joining his games. Every Brit is free in choosing whom to blame. Though on the other hand difficult matchups are more fun, certainly for spectators!
So UK gets their third hardcore opponent in a row, and although they appear to have an edge here with 5:4, since the games are light fog we can spy a bit and see that winning anything might be tough for UK, but certainly nothing is set in stone here.

GER A 7:2 FRA A
So far Germany demolishes France and they secure the win. 7:2 could always turn into 7:5 though, which wouldn't look so bad. And let's remember from last season, three-way draws can happen and every single game could count in the end! Certainly not game over for France yet.

ITA 10:1 USA D
USA D doesnt manage to defend their 5th place. A superb win for Italy.

SPA&POR 2:7 SWI
Another great win for Switzerland, giving them access to the top 3 after this round, possibly even 2nd place if USA stumbles against UK. It will be super interesting to see how they fare against the top teams.

NL C 2:7 FRA B
France B were the favourites here and they didnt disappoint. As with all teams finishing with 3 points after 3 rounds, it opens the possibility to challenge the top team for the title if they can keep it up. Will they avenge France A's loss against Germany? It certainly would be fun.

GER B 2:4 CAN
A solid lead for Canada, but still too early to say more.

S AME 2:2 IRL
Now that's a spicy one, especially for those who follow clan drama. Also two newcomers to this competition. South America chooses to accept a penalty point, in return being able to field their top players on 3 spots. It could've very well been worth it, with Juan already scoring 2 wins. We will see, at the moment it's the slowest matchup of the round, with both teams seemingly taking it seriously.

USA C 4:4 NL A
NL A doesnt have a great season so far. First a tough, perhaps unlucky matchup against UK, then another tough matchup against South America (which they can still win, but barely), and another close one in round 3. Even though on paper USA C isn't the team they should be struggling against, great performances by Stales and ChrisCMU, scoring 2 wins each, put the Dutch in a tough spot. Not much room for error anymore, or for boots. Luckily Farah is done with his games already.

USA B 5:1 NL B
A great result so far for USA B. People don't pay that much attention to the B teams, but they could be the kingmakers. And USA B certanly has the skill to eliminate many A teams from fighting for the podium.

BEL 2:6 POL A
Belgium had fantastic 2 rounds, but Polish A team might be just outside their reach. Or maybe it's just a single bad round and they will bounce back? We'll see.
Poland still holds to their chances to fight for 1st place, with most of the competition already behind us, so that's nice.

FRA C 3:6 NOR A
NOR A is a similar story to POL A - they need this win if they want to fight for the title, and so far it looks like they will deliver. France C might have seen like an easy opponent, but with 3 wins scored already they are certainly putting up a fight.

The remaining matchups:
AUS&NZ A 1:4 GER C
NOR B 6:3 NL D
POL B 3:6 CZE A
UK B 5:6 AUS&NZ B
UK C 2:6 POL D
GER D 5:5 FRA D
FIN 3:4 POL C
HEL 5:5 CZE B

A lot of these are mostly done already. Some being very close, like UK B vs AUS&NZ B which depends on the last single game, others not so much. GER D 5:5 FRA D is certainly a fun one to follow, considering that their A teams are fighting this round as well.

I guess that's all from me.
If someone is interesting in making these updates, feel free to contact me. Otherwise you're stuck with my lame and irregular ones.

See you next week, hopefully.

I'm not sure if there's a better way to do the provisional standings and maybe we just accept things being out of whack in the early rounds, but USA B is 5 spots behind Nor A after two rounds despite beating Nor A in round 1. The difference? Our round 1 win got us a matchup with France A where we took a beating, while Nor A's loss got them a matchup with Pol C who they beat with ease.

Maybe an in group head to head would be better even though most teams in most groups will be 0-0 at this point. I'm not running the competition so feel free to disregard my sour grapes entirely.

Yes a head to head would be better and head to head is the tiebreaker that will be used in the final ranking. Thing is, the results are changing all the time, so the head-to-head will be changing just as frequently. For example, UK A has 2 points, while NL A could potentially get 2 points, or they could get 1.5. Should I take their direct match into consideration?

TLDR: applying head-to-head tiebrakers only makes sense if all games of the round are finished. It's also less work for me :)

any chance that we make something national but with teams instead of individual?
And of course I am not talking about fully strategical templates.
Noobs like me should have a chance.

I for one support MWs fight against the Dutch, and hope that a US backed invasion of the dutchies is imminent.

Well:

USA D beat NL B
USA C beat NL A
USA B beat NL B

Safe to say the invasion was a success. We support Belgium!

if you need someone to fill slots I am available