Basically think of it as a fake World Cup for different Veeky Forums boards. Each board makes a team, the teams play each other in Pro Evolution Soccer, and the best teams move forward into the knockouts until one board rises above the rest.
Boards create a 23-man roster based on board culture and memes, and molds their team to look and play like their board - Veeky Forums has a roster mostly consisting of cryto/finance captained by Martin Shkreli, based off of a poll we did on the board before the Spring cup.
There are basically two "tiers" of teams - in Winter/Summer, the top 32 teams play in the Elite cups, while Spring and Autumn play host to the Babbies, where teams hope to advance to the Elite level.
>How does Veeky Forums play into this?
To put it nicely, we haven't really been all that good. Veeky Forums played in 3 Babby Cups without really doing anything, and actually had to play in a qualifier to even get to play in the last Babby Cup.
After a few draws and some decent wins against teams like /gif/ and Veeky Forums, Veeky Forums has the chance to play in an Elite Cup for the first time ever. It's not going to be easy, though - we'll have to play a few powerhouse teams, including /m/, the team that won the Babby Cup (and stomped on us) a few months ago.
The cup takes three weekends, with the "Group Stages" taking place this Friday/Saturday/Sunday and next Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Each team plays 3 matches in their groups, with Veeky Forums scheduled to play these matches:
August 6th (Saturday), 19:30 UTC (3:30 PM EDT): vs. /tv/ August 12th (Friday), 19:30 UTC (3:30 PM EDT): vs. /m/ August 14th (Sunday, 19:30 UTC (3:30 PM EDT): vs. [s4s]
These times are probably going to change, since we'll be the 6th match each day - expect the match to start anywhere between 3:30 and 4:30 EDT each day.
The top two teams from that group will play in the knockouts on August 20th/21st. Hopefully we'll get to that point, and see where things go from there.
>Is this as dumb as it looks?
Yup. It's corny as all hell and some people take it way too seriously. /sp/ treats it like a religion, some boards take it way too seriously, and there are some teams that have small armies of managers and testers that try to make their teams SLIGHTLY better than others.
The way I see it, it's a fun little event that might introduce some casual viewers/fans to Veeky Forums as a board - if it gets a few people to browse and post or get involved, it's a cool bonus. It's a little silly to take "people pretending to play soccer on a video game" seriously, but it's also cool to get people interested and involved on Veeky Forums and learn a little bit about other boards.
The links below should have everything you need to know about the Veeky Forums team and the actual cup schedule. I'll be here to answer any questions obviously, and to try to keep things a little hyped for the match this weekend.
I've never understood how these cups work. Both teams are computer-controlled, aren't they? So isn't it just RNG?
Jace Thompson
You could make a team that was stupid and didn't make sense, and you'd get your ass kicked. But if you made a really really good team, you up your chances to - maybe like 60-65% chance of winning?
Like I said, the concept of "Let's get 15 people playing fake sports games so we have a slightly better chance of winning" doesn't make a ton of sense to me. But something got put together that was decently made - if it doesn't win, it'll at least be a lot of fun to watch.
Jacob Hernandez
Okay, but how does it work? How are teams made or put together? To what extent does it make sense to say that a team is "good" rather than "lucky?"
Eli Powell
If your team wins, they're good. If the other team wins, they're lucky :)
Teams are made/put together (hopefully) based on the board's input, and not just some guy telling everyone who he thinks should be on the team. Veeky Forums had a roster poll a few months ago and got about 50 results:
Obviously it's all open to peoples' input, so feel free to make any suggestions - we'll play /tv/ on Saturday and then two games next week.
Jordan Collins
fuk yeah i love the cup!
Joshua Gonzalez
What I meant was >You could make a team that was stupid and didn't make sense, and you'd get your ass kicked. But if you made a really really good team, you up your chances to - maybe like 60-65% chance of winning? What do you mean by this? What are you doing when you "make" a team? Is there an RPG-like stat allocation thing for creating players?
Owen Harris
I don't expect you to win, but just do alright. Don't embarrass us, man. And have fun doing it.
Asher Allen
It's mostly about what positions and how players play on the field. Most players are going to have the same stats, but each team gets 2 "Gold" and 2 "Silver" players - guys who are stronger/faster/better than other teams.
Veeky Forums plays a high-risk high-reward formation with a bunch of guys up front - just like it should be, honestly.
Josiah Stewart
I guess that makes sense. I don't care about sportsball so I didn't know there was that kind of variety in formations.
David Cooper
Oh my god, is that this weekend? I'm an avid fan and support Veeky Forums, /gd/, and Veeky Forums. Knock em dead, Duke.
Joseph Cook
Veeky Forums won the last cup, so they're going to play first (in about 4 hours) if you're looking for them.
Jaxon Russell
I got my Kerning ready. So hype. Can Noko-Bro be a (worst) player for losing everyone money?
Christian Cook
So nobody actually plays?
Oliver Edwards
All AI controlled.
Grayson Kelly
>Boards create a 23-man roster based on board culture and memes,
Don't forget to bring your kneepads, folks.
Ayden Peterson
Only the best kneepads for this semen slurping sport.
i wish the commentators weren't american their accents are so annoying
please get a spanish or british commentator
Landon Campbell
Match day, folks. Veeky Forums plays /tv/ in the 6th match of the day - it's listed as 3:30 PM EDT, but expect it closer to 4:30 based on yesterday's schedule.
There's a British guy that seems to like commentating Veeky Forums matches and did 3 of the 4 last year. Hopefully he's around.
Adam Roberts
It seems like I missed it, how it was?
Benjamin Wood
No, no, it's actually starting in the next 2-3 minutes.
Couldn't hold on to it, guys. It's a shame, but that how it goes sometimes - the game's got momentum swings, and /tv/ was in a position with their position change to take advantage of it.
Next match is going to be Friday around the same time vs. /m/. We're in an alright position, and there was a lot to like about that match, but hopefully there'll be a better result next weekend.
