ZeekLTK
Well-Known Member
I'm always interested in coming up with new ways to have competitions/tournaments - that's one of the things I love about soccer, all the different stuff ranging from group stages, aggregates, knockout games, various league structures, different cups, pro/rel, etc. - and came up with something based on my high school tennis experience: challenge matches.
For those unfamiliar, tennis rosters go from 1st singles down to well, however many players there are (and same for doubles). However, only the top 4 spots actually play against other schools in the competitive matches. For example, our 1st singles would play against the other school's 1st singles, our 2nd doubles played against their 2nd doubles, etc. while 5th singles would have to play on JV, because they weren't high enough on the roster to play in a match. For the league matches, the winning team was the team who won the most individual matchups. So, if you swept singles and won 1 doubles game, you'd win the match 5-3.
How our team determined who would play in each spot was to have "challenge matches" throughout the season whereby you could challenge a spot above you in a full match (like you would play against another school) and if you won, you'd take the spot. For example, if you were 3rd singles, you could challenge 2nd singles to try to move up a spot, or you would have to defend your position against 4th singles. The spot you occupied by the time the next match came along is the spot you would play at against the other school. I was generally 2nd doubles, FWIW.
Anyways, I wanted to try that concept as a tournament in PES, with each nation as the "players" on each team. The 107 nations have been divided into 12 different teams and will have the top 8 play against each other in league competition. Teams were randomly drawn, based on seeding from previous tournament's I've held (9 World Cups + continental cups). This produced the following teams (teams listed based on seeding, highest seeds on top).
*PS: If anyone has suggestions for good team names, that might be better than just boring "Team 1 vs Team 2", etc. but I struggled to come up with any. For Team 6 I thought "Divine Right" would be a good name because of the 2006 Uruguay-Australia playoff plus a lot of the other countries are pretty religious. But I just couldn't come up with anything for the other teams that would be clever enough to be an interesting name and also apply to most of the nations on the team. So any suggestions are welcome.
The seeding was pretty accurate as far as distributing all the top teams pretty evenly. Although the #9 seeds are mostly new teams who simply don't have a history to be seeded, so it will be interesting to see how high they can climb.
I originally was just going to try to play as one team, but I decided it might be more interesting to have a whole slate of squads to try to build up. I selected teams who haven't been doing as well as I'd have hoped, so I'm going to try to find an ideal formation to use for them and make them more competitive in the future.
The teams I've selected are:
Norway - I actually haven't played a whole lot as Norway in this new game. It took 4 World Cups, but I finally had them set up "perfectly" in Winning Eleven 8. So "perfect" that I managed to win back-to-back World Cups with them. Since moving over to PES, I haven't spent as much time tweaking their roster and thus they have spent more time struggling to qualify rather than competing for World Cups, so I'm going to see if I can change that by focusing on them more here. As a former World Cup champion, Norway were one of the highest seeds, but have been placed on a team with Germany as the #2 spot, which means it'll take a lot of effort to hold that #1 position. Fortunately, there aren't a lot of other contenders on the team, meaning that Norway should be able to hold one of the top 2 spots for most of the tournament, and therefore will get a steady dose of difficult competition in the league matches against other team's top spots. Jamaica, Togo, Saudi Arabia, Iceland, Serbia, Venezuela, and Gabon round out the roster. I just hope we're able to compete against the other teams as a whole, as this seems to be one of the weakest teams in the tournament.
Mexico - Mexico have not been very competitive in PES. They struggle in qualifying, they failed to advance out of the group stage of the Gold Cup, and basically it's just not as much fun to play in CONCACAF with Mexico being the 5th or 6th best team (I'd say currently USA, Panama, Jamaica, Costa Rica, and maybe even Honduras are better than them in this game). So I'm going to try to fix that and make them more competitive. They start as a generous (IMO) 3 seed, on a tough team that features Brazil as top dog and rivals Costa Rica as a team to beat to advance. This group will be especially hard because Mozambique and Burkina Faso are both difficult sides to play against while Austria and Hungary are no slouches themselves. Oman rounds out the roster as potential whipping boys.
Ghana - Our World Cup rivals, Ghana has not really been a factor in PES, so I'm going to try to change that. All you need to know about their lack of performance is the fact that they start out at the #6 position. This will be a challenging roster to try to move up in, with very good squads such as Spain and Sweden perched at the top, yet Paraguay, Peru, and Switzerland will also be difficult to overthrow. Ghana should be favorites over lower seeds Latvia, El Savlador, and newly created Confederate States (consisting of American players with ties to the South) though.
Bolivia - Both new and pretty bad, Bolivia has never qualified to a WEFA World Cup and I don't see that changing any time soon unless they get some help. So I'm going to try to figure out what, if anything, can be done to make them more competitive in the already brutal CONMEBOL region. This will be a good way to work on that, as they start out in the #7 position on a roster that is fairly strong yet vulnerable. Congo DR, Bulgaria, Ireland, South Korea, and Senegal stand in the way on a potential path to the top against the very strong Netherlands. Qatar and Rio de Janeiro (like Confederates, a new team made up of players only from the state of Rio de Janeiro) will also have to be dealt with as well.
Guinea - A side that has never really been a force in Africa, Guinea will be a challenge for sure. Also starting at the #7 spot, Guinea seems to have a much harder time than Bolivia with England, Russia, and Turkey starting in the top three positions and then two unexpectedly good sides, Lithuania and Wales, just below them. Lithuania managed to win bronze at the Euro Cup and Wales has arguably their "golden generation" in this game, with players like Giggs and Bellamy still on the roster along with newer standouts like Ramsey and Bale. Canada, Iraq, and Zambia round out the group and mean that there won't be any easy games for us, that's for sure!
New Zealand - New Zealand are the lowest seeded team that I've selected, starting out at the #8 spot on their roster. The Kiwis haven't done very well in the few qualifying campaigns they have taken part in, so I'm going to try to figure out what's wrong with them. Immediate rivals Indonesia, Guadeloupe, and Trinidad & Tobago will help ease us into what could be a very difficult climb with the likes of Argentina, Portugal, Chile, Tunisia, and Slovenia sitting much higher on the roster.
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Table of Contents
Bolivia (Team 1)
-Week 1 Challenge Matches [1-1 v Congo DR | 1-1 v Rio de Janeiro | 3-2 v Congo DR | 2-1 v Bulgaria]
-Week 1 League Match [0-0 v Colombia | 5-0 v Team 9]
-Week 2 Challenge Matches [2-3 v South Korea | 3-0 v Bulgaria | 1-1 v Senegal | 2-1 v Rio de Janeiro]
-Week 2 League Match [3-3 v Mexico | 5-0 v Team 7]
-Week 3 Challenge Matches [2-1 v Ireland | 2-0 v Senegal | 1-0 v South Korea]
-Week 3 League Match [3-2 v Uruguay | 7-1 v Team 6]
-Week 4 Challenge Matches [0-1 v Netherlands | 1-1 v Senegal | 2-3 v Netherlands]
-Week 4 League Match [0-3 v Belgium | 3-4 v Team 8]
-Week 5 Challenge Matches [2-1 v Ireland | 2-2 v Netherlands]
-Week 5 League Match [0-1 v New Zealand | 1-4 v Team 5]
-Week 6 Challenge Matches [3-3 v Ireland | 1-3 v Netherlands]
Norway (Team 4)
-Week 1 Challenge Matches [BYE | 3-2 v Germany | BYE | 1-1 v Germany]
-Week 1 League Match [0-1 v Sweden | 1-3 v Team 12]
-Week 2 Challenge Matches [BYE | 1-1 v Germany | BYE | 1-0 v Germany]
-Week 2 League Match [2-2 v England | 2-4 v Team 10]
-Week 3 Challenge Matches [BYE | 3-2 v Germany | BYE]
-Week 3 League Match [1-1 v Cameroon | 4-1 v Team 2]
-Week 4 Challenge Matches [2-3 v Germany | 2-0 v Togo | 3-0 v Germany]
-Week 4 League Match [1-1 v France | 2-3 v Team 11]
-Week 5 Challenge Matches [BYE | 3-2 v Serbia]
-Week 5 League Match [1-0 v Greece | 4-2 v Team 6]
-Week 6 Challenge Matches [BYE | 0-2 v Germany]
New Zealand (Team 5)
-Week 1 Challenge Matches [3-2 v Indonesia | 1-0 v Guadeloupe | 2-1 v Tunisia | 0-1 v Slovenia]
-Week 1 League Match [3-1 v Austria | 2-4 v Team 7]
-Week 2 Challenge Matches [3-1 v Guadeloupe | 5-2 v Trinidad & Tobago | 3-2 v Slovenia | 5-1 v Chile]
-Week 2 League Match [3-3 v Slovakia | 4-1 v Team 11]
-Week 3 Challenge Matches [1-1 v Portugal | 3-0 v Trinidad & Tobago | 3-0 v Portugal]
-Week 3 League Match [2-2 v Czech Republic | 4-0 v Team 3]
-Week 4 Challenge Matches [2-2 v Argentina | 2-2 v Portugal | 2-2 v Argentina]
-Week 4 League Match [3-1 v Spain | 4-1 v Team 12]
-Week 5 Challenge Matches [1-0 v Chile | 3-3 v Argentina]
-Week 5 League Match [1-0 v Bolivia | 4-1 v Team 1]
-Week 6 Challenge Matches [0-3 v Portugal | 0-1 v Chile]
Mexico (Team 7)
-Week 1 Challenge Matches [0-1 v Costa Rica | 5-1 v Hungary | 1-2 v Costa Rica | 0-4 v Mozambique]
-Week 1 League Match [2-0 v Trinidad & Tobago | 4-2 v Team 5]
-Week 2 Challenge Matches [1-2 v Hungary | 3-0 v Burkina Faso | 0-2 v Hungary | 3-2 v Burkina Faso]
-Week 2 League Match [3-3 v Bolivia | 0-5 v Team 1]
-Week 3 Challenge Matches [4-1 v Costa Rica | 1-1 v Hungary | 1-1 v Costa Rica]
-Week 3 League Match [1-0 v Paraguay | 2-4 v Team 12]
-Week 4 Challenge Matches [3-0 v Hungary | 1-2 v Mozambique | 2-0 v Hungary]
-Week 4 League Match [2-0 v Egypt | 5-1 v Team 6]
-Week 5 Challenge Matches [0-1 v Mozambique | 1-0 v Hungary]
-Week 5 League Match [2-0 v South Africa | 5-1 v Team 11]
-Week 6 Challenge Matches [2-3 v Mozambique | 1-5 v Burkina Faso]
Guinea (Team 10)
-Week 1 Challenge Matches [2-0 v Canada | 2-1 v Lithuania | 3-1 v Wales | 3-1 v Russia]
-Week 1 League Match [2-3 v Mali | 3-3 v Team 2]
-Week 2 Challenge Matches [3-3 v Turkey | 5-0 v Russia | 0-4 v Turkey | 0-0 v Russia]
-Week 2 League Match [2-1 v Serbia | 4-2 v Team 4]
-Week 3 Challenge Matches [3-3 v Turkey | 1-0 v Russia | 1-0 v Turkey]
-Week 3 League Match [1-3 v Nigeria | 3-4 v Team 8]
-Week 4 Challenge Matches [0-2 v England | 1-2 v Turkey | 1-0 v Russia]
-Week 4 League Match [2-1 v Sao Paulo | 5-1 v Team 3]
-Week 5 Challenge Matches [3-1 v Turkey | 1-1 v England]
-Week 5 League Match [4-1 v Ghana | 1-6 v Team 12]
-Week 6 Challenge Matches [1-4 v Russia | 3-1 v Turkey]
Ghana (Team 12)
-Week 1 Challenge Matches [1-2 v Latvia | 2-2 v Confederacy | 2-0 v Latvia | 2-0 v Switzerland]
-Week 1 League Match [6-1 v Serbia | 3-1 v Team 4]
-Week 2 Challenge Matches [3-2 v Peru | 3-2 v Paraguay | 3-0 v Spain | 5-2 v Sweden]
-Week 2 League Match [2-3 v Uruguay | 5-2 v Team 6]
-Week 3 Challenge Matches [BYE | 2-2 v Spain | BYE]
-Week 3 League Match [2-3 v Brazil | 4-2 v Team 7]
-Week 4 Challenge Matches [1-1 v Spain | BYE | 3-0 v Spain]
-Week 4 League Match [0-0 v Argentina | 1-4 v Team 5]
-Week 5 Challenge Matches [BYE | 1-2 v Spain]
-Week 5 League Match [1-4 v Guinea | 6-1 v Team 10]
-Week 6 Challenge Matches [4-1 v Sweden | 1-0 v Spain]
League Standings
-Week One
-Week Two
-Week Three
-Week Four
-Week Five
For those unfamiliar, tennis rosters go from 1st singles down to well, however many players there are (and same for doubles). However, only the top 4 spots actually play against other schools in the competitive matches. For example, our 1st singles would play against the other school's 1st singles, our 2nd doubles played against their 2nd doubles, etc. while 5th singles would have to play on JV, because they weren't high enough on the roster to play in a match. For the league matches, the winning team was the team who won the most individual matchups. So, if you swept singles and won 1 doubles game, you'd win the match 5-3.
How our team determined who would play in each spot was to have "challenge matches" throughout the season whereby you could challenge a spot above you in a full match (like you would play against another school) and if you won, you'd take the spot. For example, if you were 3rd singles, you could challenge 2nd singles to try to move up a spot, or you would have to defend your position against 4th singles. The spot you occupied by the time the next match came along is the spot you would play at against the other school. I was generally 2nd doubles, FWIW.
Anyways, I wanted to try that concept as a tournament in PES, with each nation as the "players" on each team. The 107 nations have been divided into 12 different teams and will have the top 8 play against each other in league competition. Teams were randomly drawn, based on seeding from previous tournament's I've held (9 World Cups + continental cups). This produced the following teams (teams listed based on seeding, highest seeds on top).
*PS: If anyone has suggestions for good team names, that might be better than just boring "Team 1 vs Team 2", etc. but I struggled to come up with any. For Team 6 I thought "Divine Right" would be a good name because of the 2006 Uruguay-Australia playoff plus a lot of the other countries are pretty religious. But I just couldn't come up with anything for the other teams that would be clever enough to be an interesting name and also apply to most of the nations on the team. So any suggestions are welcome.
The seeding was pretty accurate as far as distributing all the top teams pretty evenly. Although the #9 seeds are mostly new teams who simply don't have a history to be seeded, so it will be interesting to see how high they can climb.
I originally was just going to try to play as one team, but I decided it might be more interesting to have a whole slate of squads to try to build up. I selected teams who haven't been doing as well as I'd have hoped, so I'm going to try to find an ideal formation to use for them and make them more competitive in the future.
The teams I've selected are:
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Table of Contents
Bolivia (Team 1)
-Week 1 Challenge Matches [1-1 v Congo DR | 1-1 v Rio de Janeiro | 3-2 v Congo DR | 2-1 v Bulgaria]
-Week 1 League Match [0-0 v Colombia | 5-0 v Team 9]
-Week 2 Challenge Matches [2-3 v South Korea | 3-0 v Bulgaria | 1-1 v Senegal | 2-1 v Rio de Janeiro]
-Week 2 League Match [3-3 v Mexico | 5-0 v Team 7]
-Week 3 Challenge Matches [2-1 v Ireland | 2-0 v Senegal | 1-0 v South Korea]
-Week 3 League Match [3-2 v Uruguay | 7-1 v Team 6]
-Week 4 Challenge Matches [0-1 v Netherlands | 1-1 v Senegal | 2-3 v Netherlands]
-Week 4 League Match [0-3 v Belgium | 3-4 v Team 8]
-Week 5 Challenge Matches [2-1 v Ireland | 2-2 v Netherlands]
-Week 5 League Match [0-1 v New Zealand | 1-4 v Team 5]
-Week 6 Challenge Matches [3-3 v Ireland | 1-3 v Netherlands]
Norway (Team 4)
-Week 1 Challenge Matches [BYE | 3-2 v Germany | BYE | 1-1 v Germany]
-Week 1 League Match [0-1 v Sweden | 1-3 v Team 12]
-Week 2 Challenge Matches [BYE | 1-1 v Germany | BYE | 1-0 v Germany]
-Week 2 League Match [2-2 v England | 2-4 v Team 10]
-Week 3 Challenge Matches [BYE | 3-2 v Germany | BYE]
-Week 3 League Match [1-1 v Cameroon | 4-1 v Team 2]
-Week 4 Challenge Matches [2-3 v Germany | 2-0 v Togo | 3-0 v Germany]
-Week 4 League Match [1-1 v France | 2-3 v Team 11]
-Week 5 Challenge Matches [BYE | 3-2 v Serbia]
-Week 5 League Match [1-0 v Greece | 4-2 v Team 6]
-Week 6 Challenge Matches [BYE | 0-2 v Germany]
New Zealand (Team 5)
-Week 1 Challenge Matches [3-2 v Indonesia | 1-0 v Guadeloupe | 2-1 v Tunisia | 0-1 v Slovenia]
-Week 1 League Match [3-1 v Austria | 2-4 v Team 7]
-Week 2 Challenge Matches [3-1 v Guadeloupe | 5-2 v Trinidad & Tobago | 3-2 v Slovenia | 5-1 v Chile]
-Week 2 League Match [3-3 v Slovakia | 4-1 v Team 11]
-Week 3 Challenge Matches [1-1 v Portugal | 3-0 v Trinidad & Tobago | 3-0 v Portugal]
-Week 3 League Match [2-2 v Czech Republic | 4-0 v Team 3]
-Week 4 Challenge Matches [2-2 v Argentina | 2-2 v Portugal | 2-2 v Argentina]
-Week 4 League Match [3-1 v Spain | 4-1 v Team 12]
-Week 5 Challenge Matches [1-0 v Chile | 3-3 v Argentina]
-Week 5 League Match [1-0 v Bolivia | 4-1 v Team 1]
-Week 6 Challenge Matches [0-3 v Portugal | 0-1 v Chile]
Mexico (Team 7)
-Week 1 Challenge Matches [0-1 v Costa Rica | 5-1 v Hungary | 1-2 v Costa Rica | 0-4 v Mozambique]
-Week 1 League Match [2-0 v Trinidad & Tobago | 4-2 v Team 5]
-Week 2 Challenge Matches [1-2 v Hungary | 3-0 v Burkina Faso | 0-2 v Hungary | 3-2 v Burkina Faso]
-Week 2 League Match [3-3 v Bolivia | 0-5 v Team 1]
-Week 3 Challenge Matches [4-1 v Costa Rica | 1-1 v Hungary | 1-1 v Costa Rica]
-Week 3 League Match [1-0 v Paraguay | 2-4 v Team 12]
-Week 4 Challenge Matches [3-0 v Hungary | 1-2 v Mozambique | 2-0 v Hungary]
-Week 4 League Match [2-0 v Egypt | 5-1 v Team 6]
-Week 5 Challenge Matches [0-1 v Mozambique | 1-0 v Hungary]
-Week 5 League Match [2-0 v South Africa | 5-1 v Team 11]
-Week 6 Challenge Matches [2-3 v Mozambique | 1-5 v Burkina Faso]
Guinea (Team 10)
-Week 1 Challenge Matches [2-0 v Canada | 2-1 v Lithuania | 3-1 v Wales | 3-1 v Russia]
-Week 1 League Match [2-3 v Mali | 3-3 v Team 2]
-Week 2 Challenge Matches [3-3 v Turkey | 5-0 v Russia | 0-4 v Turkey | 0-0 v Russia]
-Week 2 League Match [2-1 v Serbia | 4-2 v Team 4]
-Week 3 Challenge Matches [3-3 v Turkey | 1-0 v Russia | 1-0 v Turkey]
-Week 3 League Match [1-3 v Nigeria | 3-4 v Team 8]
-Week 4 Challenge Matches [0-2 v England | 1-2 v Turkey | 1-0 v Russia]
-Week 4 League Match [2-1 v Sao Paulo | 5-1 v Team 3]
-Week 5 Challenge Matches [3-1 v Turkey | 1-1 v England]
-Week 5 League Match [4-1 v Ghana | 1-6 v Team 12]
-Week 6 Challenge Matches [1-4 v Russia | 3-1 v Turkey]
Ghana (Team 12)
-Week 1 Challenge Matches [1-2 v Latvia | 2-2 v Confederacy | 2-0 v Latvia | 2-0 v Switzerland]
-Week 1 League Match [6-1 v Serbia | 3-1 v Team 4]
-Week 2 Challenge Matches [3-2 v Peru | 3-2 v Paraguay | 3-0 v Spain | 5-2 v Sweden]
-Week 2 League Match [2-3 v Uruguay | 5-2 v Team 6]
-Week 3 Challenge Matches [BYE | 2-2 v Spain | BYE]
-Week 3 League Match [2-3 v Brazil | 4-2 v Team 7]
-Week 4 Challenge Matches [1-1 v Spain | BYE | 3-0 v Spain]
-Week 4 League Match [0-0 v Argentina | 1-4 v Team 5]
-Week 5 Challenge Matches [BYE | 1-2 v Spain]
-Week 5 League Match [1-4 v Guinea | 6-1 v Team 10]
-Week 6 Challenge Matches [4-1 v Sweden | 1-0 v Spain]
League Standings
-Week One
-Week Two
-Week Three
-Week Four
-Week Five
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