when does the FOFC III Cup start?

[cthomer5000]

next week? this week?

should I schedule a friendly this week or not?

[Coffee Warlord]

Schedule a friendly for this week. We've got people still in the US Cup. (Including me!)

Odds are we'll be done this week.

[Blade6119]

No way, that ML team is goin down to the BLADE BOMBERS!!!!

[DataKing]

Someone may want to double-check this, but I am pretty sure that we will need to start FOFC Cup III on May 14th. That gives us 10 weeks, with the FOFC Cup Final being held on July 16th. Here are the dates that I have worked out for the end of the season:

July 6th - Last league matches of the season.
July 9th - FOFC Cup Semifinals
July 13th - Qualification/Relegation Matches
July 16th - FOFC Cup Final
July 20th - Off Sunday (no matches)
July 23rd - Beginning of U.S. Open Cup (and other national cups)
July 27th - First league match of Hattrick Season 20

Does someone want to double-check this?

[dacman]

May 14 -- Group play week 1
May 21 -- Group play week 2
May 28 -- Group play week 3
June 4 -- Group play week 4
June 11 -- Group play week 5
June 18 -- Round of 32
June 25 -- Round of 16
July 2 -- Quarterfinals
July 9 -- Semifinals
July 16 -- Final
July 23 -- Season 20 country cups, round 1

Yep, looks right to me.

[HornedFrog Purple]

Yes you guys are dead on. We can start May 14th at the latest. I miscalculated as May 7th earlier. Sorry about that, we might start then anyways after tomorrow's results.

I will post a thread Wednesday night or Thursday morning whether to schedule a friendly or we start the cup like I did last week.

[DataKing]

Personally, I like the idea of starting on the 14th. That way, whichever two teams are in the finals can play their starters without being concerned with losing training (since the Wednesday match is the only match that week anyway unless you have a qualifier).

Just my two cents.

[lytic]

and the people still in the cup on the 14th do what? move over for someone else? win just because?

It is unlikely, however possible, that a team could still be there.

[DataKing]

I think we'd have to find a replacement, should any teams still be in the U.S. Open Cup at that point.

[Brillig]

Or they could take a walkover loss for the first week of the FOFC cup... Any team in week 7 of the US Open Cup should have a decent chance of making it out of group play even with a 1-loss handicap - they'd probably be the #1 or #2 seed in the group, and would essentially have to sweep the #3-#6 to guarantee advancing. (Not that they couldn't advance without the sweep, that's just for a guaranteed result).

I think in the end it should be left up to the individual owner whether to bow out or continue with the handicap...

Of course, if someone opts in and then actually wins in week 7 of the US Open Cup... *shrug*

[Alf]

Brillig's point makes sense to me.

[FrogMan]

and to me too...

FM

[vex]

Yeah, to me too.

[DataKing]

If we went with the walk-over, then there is the issue of what the "score" should be for that walkover. In group play, goal differential could very well determine whether or not a team advances.

If memory serves, this became an issue in the last Hattrick World Cup. Something happened with India's team, and Poland was awarded a 5-0 walkover which advanced them to the next round. The five free goals that Poland was awarded (which is extremely rare in World Cup play unless your name is Sweden) basically screwed Mexico (I think) out of a shot at advancement.

So what would be a "fair" score to award? 3-nil? 2-nil? And does the team lucky enough to draw a team still in the U.S. Open Cup really deserve a free win, against a team they would presumably lose to? Doesn't that penalize the other members of the same group?

Just some things to consider.

[McSweeny]

i think 2-0 is about right

[Airhog]

I think they should get a win, and no goals, or a draw and 3 goals. A draw might be more fair to the people that dont get too play a walkover game.

[Brillig]

The score for a walkover is an interesting problem - but one we're going to have to address anyway. With this many teams, it seems like a virtual guarantee that at least one game will be missed.

Perhaps I'm a pessimist ;)

Anyway, I think a 3-0 win is probably about right, scoring being pretty high in HT. Another option would be to average the game scores for the group, either for the week in question or for the whole of group play, and use that as the "walkover game score". The only problem with that is that the score would change dynamically each week...

[lytic]

I think it should be a draw... why penalize a team because they are doing good things in the US Open Cup?

[FrogMan]

Originally posted by lytic
I think it should be a draw... why penalize a team because they are doing good things in the US Open Cup?

This makes even more sense now that you think about it. Why penalize them?

I would vote for a 0-0 draw, not that anybody has called for a vote. Forget my "me too" post of before :)

FM

[FrogMan]

dola to add to lytic: looks like getting off percocet helped you clear your thoughts a little :D

FM

[lytic]

woohoo! oh wait... bummer dood, I was havin' fun maaaaaan.

[NAIWF]

I think a 0-0 draw makes sense too, especially if I get the advantage of not having to play (lose to) one of those heavyweights ;)

[Airhog]

hmm now that I think about it, a 0-0 draw sounds pretty reasonable

[HornedFrog Purple]

I'm still feeling like garbage so sorry I havent been here. I think the 0-0 draw for a walkover sounds reasonable. Any objections?

[Brillig]

Originally posted by lytic
I think it should be a draw... why penalize a team because they are doing good things in the US Open Cup?

The only problem I have with that is that it might be unfair to the opponent of the team that's still in the US Open Cup...

I guess the same argument could be made - why should a team be penalized because their first opponent in the FOFC Cup is still in the US Open Cup?

[Nyarlahotep]

Originally posted by Brillig
The only problem I have with that is that it might be unfair to the opponent of the team that's still in the US Open Cup...

I guess the same argument could be made - why should a team be penalized because their first opponent in the FOFC Cup is still in the US Open Cup?


Yeah, but giving that one team a free ride is penalizing the other teams in the group that have to actually play a team that made it that far into the US Open Cup.

[AccardoOutfit29]

A 0-0 draw sounds like a very good and reasonable plan.

[FrogMan]

I read Nyarl's and Brillig's points and all I'm thinking of is that there'll always be one side that feels he is penalized mroe than the other.

A walkover loss, let's say 3-0, is a big penalty for a team that is trying its hardest to advance in a National Cup. That's one side of the argument.

On the other side, if we go with the 0-0 tie, yes we may be taking away from a team a possible win, but we also take away a possible loss to a team that has proven in the National Cup that it can win games. This, to me is a lesser penalty than the walkover loss.

That's how I reasoned it and that's why I said I thought the 0-0 loss was better...

FM

[lytic]

Think about this... if a team is still in the US Open Cup, then they are probably pretty good... So the team getting the 0-0 tie is probably getting off easy.

I could be wrong there, but that's just my thought process on the other side of the coin.

[FrogMan]

lytic, you just summarized my whole thought process. Sure I could have said it better in French, but then what would have been the point :D

FM

[lytic]

on va a la plage!

[lytic]

***ooooh and I'm not your twin so don't even start with that!***

[FrogMan]

Originally posted by lytic
on va a la plage!

Quand tu veux mon homme! But the beach is really kind frisky around here these days :D

He, he, I hope you didn't take too many years of French lessons for that sentence ;)

FM

[NAIWF]

What do we do about challenges for next week?

[Nyarlahotep]

Wait until the post telling us what to do goes up.

[lytic]

I took a few years of it, but that was several years ago. It's fading... I can read it and hear it better than I can speak it now.

[Nyarlahotep]

C'est ne vrais pas.

[FrogMan]

Originally posted by Nyarlahotep
C'est ne vrais pas.

ROFL :D

Nyarl, looks like you might have flunked a few classes :)

The right way to say what I think you're trying to say would be "Ce n'est pas vrai", although I don't understand why you're sayins that "It's not true" :D

FM

[Nyarlahotep]

Stupid free translation. I never took any classes. I guess it shows.

[FrogMan]

oh, should have guessed it was an online translater. Very funny game is to take a very simple sentence, translate it to a language (anyone) and then take it and translate it back to the original language... Some hilarious results :D

FM

[Nyarlahotep]

Hehe.