Cuba wins the Acclaimed Music forum's World Music Cup! The managerless team was in control for the entire match and defeated finalist Mali by a score of 7-3. Argentina prevailed 5-4 over Germany for third place thanks to a second-half comeback. In the fifth-place match, France erased an early deficit to defeat Japan in convincing fashion, 8-2. Lastly, in the seventh-place match, Brazil was dominant throughout, despite Belgium adding a few late goals to make them match more respectable, winning 8-2.
Final Placement Standings:
1. Cuba
2. Mali
3. Argentina
4. Germany
5. France
6. Japan
7. Brazil
8. Belgium
As I said in the championship match thread, a big thank you to everyone who voted and submitted songs (regardless of how many rounds you participated in or how many songs you submitted). We averaged about 10 voters per round during the group stage and 12 during the knockout stage. I know these numbers are modest compared to other forum games; however, I think enough people participated to make the World Music Cup consistently interesting.
Even though I am satisfied with how the game turned out, there's always room for improvement. I do not expect this game to ever be as popular as some of the others, but would nevertheless like to increase participation for next time if possible. To this end, I hope that those who participated this time (and, perhaps even more so, those who did not) could offer suggestions and comments about what worked well and what did not, and what could be changed to make the game better I do not expect a consensus to be reached on any one idea, but still hope for a fruitful discussion.
I plan on hosting the next edition in summer 2018 in tandem with the FIFA World Cup if possible (of course our game takes about a month longer). If there's enough interest, I could also do a smaller continental tournament sometime in 2017 primarily as a means of testing out these new suggestions.
World Music Cup: Wrap-up and Suggestions
Re: World Music Cup: Wrap-up and Suggestions
Some initial thoughts
Make each nation use at minimum one traditional--strictly defined (i.e., no trace of pop/rock influence whatsoever)–-folk song. These songs were nearly uniformly crushed in this edition. So perhaps a designated round in the group stage where each nation must use one of these would be a good idea?
What to do with classical music? When used, pre-modern classical destroyed its competition. I'm thinking that Western Classical has no place in this tournament. More avant-garde leaning modern classical seems fine though, as it did not perform noticeably better or worse than average.
How to handle managerless 'dummy-teams'? Despite a 'dummy-team' winning the tournament, I am not especially satisfied with how they worked. At the same time, it is unlikely that enough people would ever volunteer to have a proper 32-team tournament. I am thinking of allowing all users to submit songs for each nominated nation (limited to maybe three songs per member per nation). This way, managers just have to set the order they want their nation's songs to appear and/or which ones to remove if they have more than eight songs. One could easily manage a team without having submitted any songs for it and without any knowledge of that nation's music. Hopefully, this will encourage more people to manage a team or, alternately, make it easier for one person to manage multiple teams. I also think that no one should be allowed to manage a team that they managed last time.
Related to the above, team nominations would have to be changed slightly. I considered just using the teams that appear in the next FIFA World Cup, but then remembered that the real World Cup lacks much in the way of geographic diversity. Instead, I propose a nominating process where a person suggests a team or two for inclusion. Note that this will be before managers are assigned so people do not necessarily have to manage teams that they nominate.
A few more discussion points:
How satisfied were you with how anglosphere nations like England and the United States were handled? Neither advanced, but neither finished in last place in their groups either. Was limiting them to only traditional folk songs too strict? If so, what is a better way to have them (assuming they get nominated again) in the tournament without having them dominate the game?
For the group stage, did you like the pick-two-of-four-songs format or would you rather have head-to-head matchups?
Please share your thoughts on the above with me and some of you own as well if you have any. Thanks a final time to everyone who participated!
Make each nation use at minimum one traditional--strictly defined (i.e., no trace of pop/rock influence whatsoever)–-folk song. These songs were nearly uniformly crushed in this edition. So perhaps a designated round in the group stage where each nation must use one of these would be a good idea?
What to do with classical music? When used, pre-modern classical destroyed its competition. I'm thinking that Western Classical has no place in this tournament. More avant-garde leaning modern classical seems fine though, as it did not perform noticeably better or worse than average.
How to handle managerless 'dummy-teams'? Despite a 'dummy-team' winning the tournament, I am not especially satisfied with how they worked. At the same time, it is unlikely that enough people would ever volunteer to have a proper 32-team tournament. I am thinking of allowing all users to submit songs for each nominated nation (limited to maybe three songs per member per nation). This way, managers just have to set the order they want their nation's songs to appear and/or which ones to remove if they have more than eight songs. One could easily manage a team without having submitted any songs for it and without any knowledge of that nation's music. Hopefully, this will encourage more people to manage a team or, alternately, make it easier for one person to manage multiple teams. I also think that no one should be allowed to manage a team that they managed last time.
Related to the above, team nominations would have to be changed slightly. I considered just using the teams that appear in the next FIFA World Cup, but then remembered that the real World Cup lacks much in the way of geographic diversity. Instead, I propose a nominating process where a person suggests a team or two for inclusion. Note that this will be before managers are assigned so people do not necessarily have to manage teams that they nominate.
A few more discussion points:
How satisfied were you with how anglosphere nations like England and the United States were handled? Neither advanced, but neither finished in last place in their groups either. Was limiting them to only traditional folk songs too strict? If so, what is a better way to have them (assuming they get nominated again) in the tournament without having them dominate the game?
For the group stage, did you like the pick-two-of-four-songs format or would you rather have head-to-head matchups?
Please share your thoughts on the above with me and some of you own as well if you have any. Thanks a final time to everyone who participated!
Re: World Music Cup: Wrap-up and Suggestions
Before all Jeff... a huge thanks.
This was fun and I really appreciate the whole tournament. A little bit of fresh air, alittle palce for something else than the Beatles and Dylan.
For the rules:
Classical: I'm for not use at all classical music or film music.
Anglosphere countries : I don't see why they have specific rules. The same rules for all the countries seems fair...
...At the same time, I'm for not use at all artists that appear on AM (rank or bubbling under) to avoid Beatles or Dylan...or Gainsbourg
Like I said all the time, we have millions of songs by thousands of unknown musicians for make our choices outside the most well known.
And, it's personnal, but I really prefer when the singers sing on their own language. Even if spiritualized, for example, perfectly explain why it's not a big deal, I found it's a pity.
For the "traditionnal" "folk" songs. Frankly, I have no idear how to distinguish a traditional song that a non traditionnal song on Mali or Japan or Brazil...even in France, what is traditionnal? For me, it's the chanson genre. I have put at least three of them and they all have been appreciated. If it is, the majority of the songs offered in the previous game were traditional songs, no? A difficult point.
For the rest, I have no specific opinions, I found the game very pleasant like it is.
This was fun and I really appreciate the whole tournament. A little bit of fresh air, alittle palce for something else than the Beatles and Dylan.
For the rules:
Classical: I'm for not use at all classical music or film music.
Anglosphere countries : I don't see why they have specific rules. The same rules for all the countries seems fair...
...At the same time, I'm for not use at all artists that appear on AM (rank or bubbling under) to avoid Beatles or Dylan...or Gainsbourg
Like I said all the time, we have millions of songs by thousands of unknown musicians for make our choices outside the most well known.And, it's personnal, but I really prefer when the singers sing on their own language. Even if spiritualized, for example, perfectly explain why it's not a big deal, I found it's a pity.
For the "traditionnal" "folk" songs. Frankly, I have no idear how to distinguish a traditional song that a non traditionnal song on Mali or Japan or Brazil...even in France, what is traditionnal? For me, it's the chanson genre. I have put at least three of them and they all have been appreciated. If it is, the majority of the songs offered in the previous game were traditional songs, no? A difficult point.
For the rest, I have no specific opinions, I found the game very pleasant like it is.
-
bonnielaurel
- Keep On Movin'
- Posts: 1665
- Joined: Wed Feb 20, 2013 2:48 pm
Re: World Music Cup: Wrap-up and Suggestions
Thanks, Jeff,
It was a great game to discover music from countries that are usually underexposed. Maybe Romain's idea of not including artists on AM isn't bad. It would exclude Fela Kuti for Nigeria, but it would solve the dilemma of the Anglosphere countries. I think there should be a focus on music that represents the country's tradition, but without making the rules too strict.
Of course this game is much bigger than the FIFA World Cup, and there's less corruption involved!
It was a great game to discover music from countries that are usually underexposed. Maybe Romain's idea of not including artists on AM isn't bad. It would exclude Fela Kuti for Nigeria, but it would solve the dilemma of the Anglosphere countries. I think there should be a focus on music that represents the country's tradition, but without making the rules too strict.
Of course this game is much bigger than the FIFA World Cup, and there's less corruption involved!