The FIFA Project - a four-year cycle of international competition

[bjh909]

Hey everyone. With the World Cup, and a new FIFA World Cup video game, I've felt inspired to bring back an old project I was doing but never got very far with. Since I decided I don't have time or energy to invest in a yearly FIFA game, hopefully sticking with just the WC game will help. Anyway... here's the synopsis.

I will be simming (CPU vs CPU) an entire four-year cycle of FIFA international competitions, culminating with the FIFA World Cup, using the WC 2014 Brazil game. Yes, this includes all continental tournaments (EURO, Gold Cup, Copa America, etc), qualifiers, and even the AFC regional tournaments (SAFF, WAFF, etc). Not only will one cycle conclude with a World Cup champion, but also a Confederations Cup champion, which was made up from actual winners of the continental tournaments of that cycle.

It's a lot of games. A lot. So I won't be spamming this thread with results. I have created a wiki page to track all of my results, and give some semblance of organization to the project:

http://fifaproject.wikia.com/

I update as I sim games, and when a round/matchday is complete, I'll post here. So many games makes it tough to write full descriptions, but I track the goal scorers on the site, and will include some points of interest in the round in my updates.

The site is still a work in progress, and I'm building the pages in the order they are coming up. There is currently a calendar page which shows the order I'm simming in. It's close to, if not exactly, the actual FIFA international calendar.

Some other odds and ends:
- I'm using an Elo rating rather than the FIFA ranking, and I am calculating these as games are completed. (Gotta love Excel.) Everyone starts with their real points total at the end of the 2014 World Cup (which means I still have 4 teams to update, the finalists and 3rd place teams).
- I am doing an actual seeded draw for all tournaments that require one. I am using my Elo ranking to seed teams instead of the FIFA one, but I am keeping it as close to the actual cutoff time as the actual draw.
- The only thing that's carrying over right now are red cards. Counting yellows gets a bit much for this project, but sending offs are less frequent and easier.
- No friendlies. There's plenty already.
- Any other info, including how I handle two-legged ties, is on the main page of the wikia.

Any other questions, happy to answer! Hope you guys find this as interesting as I do.

[bigjdotcom01]

Interesting concept, I like it!

[jromero120]

Definitely looking forward to this!

[bjh909]

Hey all,

I've been on vacation, and so I haven't been able to advance the project at all since last week. But I've been chipping away at the website, even if the pages don't have any teams listed yet because there's been no draws. So I might as well throw in some notes of what I *have* done so far:

Currently Playing: Africa Cup of Nations Third Round Qualifying
I'll include this in every update, as it is listed on the wiki's main page, so anyone can check out and see what page will be updated. I'll keep the posts limited to ends of rounds or major developments/updates.

Africa Cup of Nations Qualifying (Link)
We are up to the third and final round of qualifying for the Y1C1 Africa Cup of Nations. 32 teams remain, with the top two teams from each of the 8 groups advancing to the final stage. Here are some interesting notes from qualifying so far:

• A few upsets in the second round of qualifying. The highest ranked team to be eliminated is 19th ranked in CAF team Togo. They fell to Swaziland via the away goals rule, after two draws, the second being a 2-2 home draw that doomed them.
• The other higher ranked team to not make it to the group stage also comes on the heels of a surprise team. Kenya, ranked 21st in CAF, fell to the only team from the first qualifying round still alive: the tiny island nation of Comoros. Comoros have been doing it with defense, only allowing one goal in both rounds of qualifying.
• Lowly-ranked Chad upset Tanzania to also earn a spot in the groups.
• The draw for the third round (group stage) was made prior to knowing the 16 teams from the second round. Winners 1-8 were placed in pot 3, while Winners 9-16 were put in pot 4. This created some interesting groups, with Egypt & Morocco paired in Group C, and South Africa & Tunisia together in Group H. However, the true "group of death" in qualifying comes in Group F. Ivory Coast and Cape Verde are joined by Angola and DR Congo, as the top-ranked African nation is joined by the 14th, 20th, and 21st.

Y1C1 Copa America Draw (Link)
The Y1C1 Copa America draw was made using the Elo ratings from the start of the cycle. The top teams, Argentina, Colombia, and Brazil, each were appropriately drawn into groups of the first letter of their names. Invitees Mexico and the United States join the fray this time, and I will most likely use two of the three NAFU teams (US, Mexico, Canada) to fill these slots in the future.

The US have the best possible draw possible, falling into Colombia's group with Ecuador and Venezuela, arguably the weakest teams from Pot 2 and Pot 3. A draw like that could feasibly see them advance beyond the group stage, something that has eluded them in past appearances.

Mexico did not fare so well, drawn into a stacked group with Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Two groups will have 3 teams advance to the knockout stage, but will the powerhouses in this group hammer one another to the point that the third-place team won't have performed well enough?

In addition, the AFF Suzuki Cup group stage draw was made, which will take place after its qualifying round is complete. You can find that on the AFC Regional Tournaments page.

I'm back tomorrow, sad to leave the beach, but ready to get some more games simmed this week.

[lionden_56]

This is both insanely ambitious and insanely cool at the same time. I look forward to reading the updates.

[pfeifere1]

The depth and detail of this project is unreal. Can't wait to see this really hit the ground running.

I like this first update of what you have done so far. Will you keep these updates to go along with your main site? I think we'd all like that.

Good luck!

[bjh909]

Quote: Originally Posted by pfeifere1

The depth and detail of this project is unreal. Can't wait to see this really hit the ground running. I like this first update of what you have done so far. Will you keep these updates to go along with your main site? I think we'd all like that. Good luck!

Thanks for the kind words, all. I'll definitely use them to keep the project going, even when I get distracted by shiny new games, haha.

To be honest, the site is mostly for my own record-keeping. It's way easier and more versatile than a spreadsheet, which I used to keep everything in. My spreadsheet just has results, ranking calcs, and macros to do the draws.

But as far as updates go, they'll go here, while the site will just have the results like it currently does. I'll do more updates in here, mostly when rounds end or when a new tournament/round begins.

[bjh909]

Just completed: Africa Cup of Nations Qualifying - Third Round Matchday 2 of 6
Not much to report from the two matchdays. No real surprises from any results, as the top seeded teams are leading the groups.

Currently playing: European Championship Qualifying - Matchday 1

Check out the groups that have been drawn for the Euro. Will report on any important results.

Sorry for the small update, but wanted to keep the thread alive with site updates that are happening as I'm simming.