Post 2014 MLPF World Cup Thread

[Archi the Atmomancer 564]

Crap, now I need to go and edit for grammar. I actually sent KelGrym all the links where I referenced any biblical verses or stories.

 

 

I've already made all the necessary edits for all the posts I could find. This is what I have so far, I hope it's up to scratch. If I've missed anything please let me know.

Book of Fabulosity.pdf

Edited July 15, 2014 by Archi the Atmomancer

[Luna 2,384]

Some of those Dear Princess Celestia letters/posts are long, I don't want to read through all of them...

 

Anyways!
Underachiever for me is of course, Cadance!

Edited July 15, 2014 by Cadance

[Pastel 7,627]

I've already made all the necessary edits for all the posts I could find. This is what I have so far, I hope it's up to scratch. If I've missed anything please let me know.

All hail Prophet @Jeric, our leader!

 

[Salty Sweetness 203]

to the derpy fan pages...

 

 XD ]

[Jeric 46,837]

All hail Prophet @Jeric, our leader!

 

 

Sherri and Terri are freaking me out! Make them stop.

[Archi the Atmomancer 564]

Sherri and Terri are freaking me out! Make them stop.

Hey, you're the one who started the cult, you brought this on yourself.

Edited July 15, 2014 by Archi the Atmomancer

[The JLmle 5,474]

Hey, you're the one who started the cult, you brought this on yourself.

We can now further the biblical reference! The Prophet of Fabulosity is a truly great and noble being; but his followers scare me! Lol

[Kel_Grym 1,917]

Oh look!

 

A wild bump appeared!

[paradoxical 1,735]

OOPs opened wrong window when posting Sorry.

Edited July 16, 2014 by paradoxical

[Jeric 46,837]

That crab ... it's a cyborg! They are adapting now?

 

*looks at the votes*

 

Scootaloo can't even win this.

Edited July 16, 2014 by Jeric

[Pastel 7,627]

Scootaloo can't even win this.

It's close though!

Come on people vote for Scootaloo!!

 

[Inactive01 5,298]

Well it's about time I began my World Cup self-evaluation! Here goes!

 

PART 1: THE WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

This was basically where the World Cup was born. I had to find a way to break down the 128 most prominent characters in the show into 32 qualifiers deserving to enter the main competition. One of the issues I had with March Madness was the fact there were so many background ponies who simply had no chance of progressing past the first round, which made the competition much less observable at its early stages. For example, an early stage game could pit Rainbow Dash and Ahuizotl, and we all probably know who would win in that round with near 100% certainty (Final result of Rainbow Dash vs Ahuizotl in World Cup Qualifying was 54-4). I felt that this issue played a role in the low vote turnouts during the early goings of March Madness. On average, there was approximately 30-40 votes/24 hours, which I felt was unacceptable at any point during a forum-wide voting competition. 

 

With that in mind, I decided to create a World Cup qualifying process where people could still vote, but instead of directly voting for the winner, they would vote for characters who would comprise the roster for the 2014 MLPF World Cup. The qualifying process resulted in the 32 character roster for the World Cup. I first needed the qualifying stages to fairly push the largest characters into the World Cup, while also providing an effective means for filtering the major background characters from the minor ones. In this regard, I felt the World Cup Qualifying Process did a good job of that, with the exception of Mayor Mare, Dinky Doo, and Angel, who should have been replaced by Bon Bon, Dr. Whooves, and Cheerilee.

 

Another aspect I wanted to discuss here was issues with the format. This was actually one of my biggest issues because we ended up having 16 groups to go through 7 match days which left a lot of people confused as to what was going on, even if you could think of the groups as divisions. The whole qualifying process took two months to complete, and people were already getting bored of it because characters were getting eliminated left and right with 3 matchdays to spare! Regarding this problem, I pondered that if we ran the World Cup in 2018, that I would find some way to have 5 characters per group instead so we would have a roster of 90 characters instead, since most of the characters are very obscure anyway. With the MLP roster set to expand however, that may not be the best of ideas because it doesn't properly consider all the characters who made at least one important appearance over the course of the show. With that in mind, I decided that perhaps we should have a preliminary knockout round where characters are randomly pitted against each other before the World Cup Qualifying groups were created. That way, we would eliminate the least notable characters and have a somewhat competitive World Cup qualifying where the top characters in each group would qualify for the World Cup.

 

Now... the characters. I briefly mentioned characters when I talked about format, but I felt bad that the World Cup Qualifying Stages began when it did because I excluded a lot of characters who would have made the Qualifying Rounds that much more interesting. Examples include Coco Pommel, Suri Polomare, The Mane-iac, and even Tirek! When the Qualifying stages began, none of us were aware that those characters existed in Season 4. Next time, the World Cup Qualifying Stages should begin the summer before the World Cup begins to ensure that we don't exclude any characters from the last completed season. I also have to say that I should have added more fan characters as well, or even OCs of famous bronies like The Living Tombstone's OC or Snowdrop. That too would have really made the Qualifying Stages that much more interesting.

 

Finally, my biggest issue of all. Many people weren't aware or ignored the facts of the Qualifying Stages. I'm not sure if I was partially to blame because of a lack of advertisement, or if it was just due to ignorance. It would have made the entire process that much more interesting and would have gotten people that much more excited about the World Cup so that turnout for both events would have skyrocketed. But that's just me. Maybe it wouldn't have changed much, but it certainly would have helped a lot more people understand the format for the event.

 

Coming up next... the World Cup Draw Evaluation! 

[Stellafera 3,836]

It's close though!

Come on people vote for Scootaloo!

 

Reasons Why Scootaloo vs Celestia Was The Most Intense Group Stage Match:

 

People are literally still campaigning for Scootaloo after the World Cup ended

[RainbowDashiscool 306]

Dear Princess Celestia,

 

I had fun at voting in the pony world cups it's really fun and cool.

 

-Sent by Felicia

 

 

(This was cool) 

[Guest]

Dear Princess Celestia,

 

Will Scootaloo be allowed to return from the moon in time for Season 5?

[The JLmle 5,474]

That crab ... it's a cyborg! They are adapting now?

 

*looks at the votes*

 

Scootaloo can't even win this.

Yay! Scootaloo is winning the 

Most entertaining World Cup Group Stage Match

Category! (also, bump)

[Inactive01 5,298]

WORLD CUP EVALUATION: PART II -> THE 2014 MLPF WORLD CUP DRAW

 

Now that I already talked about the World Cup Qualification Process, I now want to talk about the World Cup Draw! As a recap, it was an event where I got to randomly place characters into the 8 groups you saw for the Group Stages. If you don't understand how the World Cup Draw format would operate, then watch this video start at the 20th minute:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q36eOEz2Hs

 

One of the things I loved about the World Cup draw was that it was really unpredictable which character would face which. As a recap, here are the basic rules of the World Cup Draw. The basic gist is that each group would have one character from each pot out of the pool you see below. The only other rule is that the characters who faced each other in Qualifying could not face each other again in the Group Stages. For example, since Pinkie Pie and Octavia faced off in qualifying, they could not be in the same group. 

 

 

The one thing I loved the most about performing the draw is the sheer randomness of the groups. There were many different possible combinations for World Cup matches. We could have seen a royal showdown where Luna, Celestia, Discord, and Sunset Shimmer were in the same group. We could have had a Mane 6 game at the Group Stages, and we could have had a whole slew of "rival" games, such as Vinyl Scratch vs Octavia, or a CMC battle between Sweetie Belle and Applebloom! 

 

However, there was so much more planned for this event. The biggest of these was a livestream that streamed the World Cup draw for the entire forums to see. I would have begun with a World Cup theme like the one below and have used Youtube to perform the stream. I would have then introduced you all to the World Cup Draw and the Group Stages as a tutorial for the format. Then I have drawn out the names of all the characters, leaving you all in suspense as to who was facing who and which matches you were looking forward to the most.  I was planning to do the draw in May, but the biggest problem was the lack of momentum heading into the World Cup since people would have been into the busiest month of school. That's why the World Cup Draw was scrapped. I found that very unfortunate because it would have been epic to see all you guys reacting to the World Cup Draw based on who your favourite pony was. You'd be like the head coaches in the FIFA World Cup Draw who groaned or smiled at the results. 

 

 

Well, that's the most of what I have to say about the World Cup Draw. Up next, the lead up to the World Cup!

[Solid 1,326]

*This post has been removed by the original poster due to double posting*

Edited July 21, 2014 by Solid Scorpion

[IridscentNionios 1,420]

Fluttershy lost... This is depressing...

 

I do not appreciate double posting even if its in 2 different threads. And no it's not depressing at all.

[Mr. Mustang 647]

Eh, I'm gonna hold off voting on these 'till next year's MLPF World Cup. Mainly 'cause I joined the Forums near the end of everything. Its like joining WWII AFTER the Normandy Invasion happened.

 

Least I got to participate in the World Cup's Battle of the Bulge (Twilight vs Fluttershy). Wow that match was intense.

Edited July 20, 2014 by Mustang D

[Inactive01 5,298]

Welcome back to the post-MLPF World Cup thread, where I now get to present to you all the rest of the awards for the 2014 MLPF World Cup!

 

So, here goes!

 

Most entertaining team

 

 

RARITY

 

 

 

The Overachiever

 

 

 

 

 

The underachiever

 

 

 

 

 

Fair Poster Award

 

 

@Pinkamena-Pills

 

 

 

Most Entertaining World Cup Match

 

 

Scootaloo vs Princess Celestia

 

 

 

Golden Mouse

 

 

@Pinkamena-Pills

 

 

 

 

World Cup's Best Moment

 

 

The EPIC RAP BATTLE!!!!!!

 

 

 

Best Princess Celestia Letter...

 

 

I GOTTA READ EM! I'LL AWARD THIS SOMETIME THIS WEEK!

 

 

 

I can't believe people don't read here! A lot of people already said numerous times that this tournament would happen once EVERY 4 YEARS.

[Pastel 7,627]

Wow @Pinkamena-Pills actually won 2 awards! He should get an award for that.

[Guest]

Well done Pinkamena-Pills on your treble of awards and congratulations to Team Rarity

Finally, good going to everyone who participated and contributed in this World Cup!

[Jeric 46,837]

Four things.

 

 

Awesome job and well done @Pinkamena-Pills.

 

Scootaloo vs Celestia was amazing. (yep this is coming) SCOOOOOTALOOOOOO

 

  KelGrym, Banul, and Pinkamena-Pills really deserve the Rhyme Battle award. It was a Herculean effort to not laugh while I was working

 

  Go Team Rarity! There was no way we could have done it without our coach Ghostie leading the whole team. Special thanks go to other FC members that supported Rares and her backers.

 

 

Special thanks to @Obsidian Sky for making this post specially fabulous.

[Kel_Grym 1,917]

@Pinkamena-Pills definitely deserves the golden mouse.

 

I can't say much about Scootaloo vs Celestia, since I wasn't there, but I'm sure it was terrible.

 

I am giddy that the best moment of the Cup was the Epic Rap Battle, but I can't take all credit for that.

 

Didn't really see much of the Rarity stuff in the early beginning, but sure wish I did.

 

Great job, everyone!