World of Baseball: Alternate World: World Cup 2064

[CaptainObvious]

Original Universe thread: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...th-africa.html
Original Universe World Cup 2064 thread: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...world-cup.html



This universe began at the start of the 2064 season, when it split off from the "World of Baseball: South Africa" dynasty's universe. In this universe, the focus is not on the South Africa region, but the world as a whole. There may be some interesting information, but the story will be more about the international competitions and the teams that compete in them. For the most part, things will be very similar. The same names and faces are the same at the start, but the futures will likely diverge widely. Already, the 2064 draft class is a very different set of players, though their effects are still minimal as of yet.

Nation team rankings occurred before the season, so they remain the same as the other known universe until after the World Cup.



Play-Ins:
Panama and Best Korea both fell short of the minimum pro players mark, so Ecuador and Burundi automatically qualified for qualification.

Malaysia 2, Tunisia 0
Pakistan 2, Tanzania 1
Kazakhstan 2, Singapore 0
Paraguay 2, Sri Lanka 1
Wales 2, Mali 0
New Zealand 2, Angola 0
Israel 2, Northern Ireland 1
Mozambique 2, Papua New Guinea 0
Haiti 2, Hungary 1
Belarus 2. Saudi Arabia 0

Africa goes 1-4 in qualifying play-ins.


Qualifying draw:

[CaptainObvious]

World Cup Qualifying Round:

Rather than flying teams between various countries in the qualifying rounds, all games are played in various stadiums all over England to reduce overall travel costs. Games will still be played at the local time of the home teams, though, to allow the audiences to conveniently watch their teams' home games live.

Thanks to the recent advances in robotics (cybernetics?), a few pitchers on short squads have a temporary android simulation of themselves playing at a position in the field while the original pitches. This is a highly controversial experiment, but the cup committee says it is necessary to maintain a minimal quality of competition.



Day 1:
Every team has their ace going today, so this is the best day for potential big upsets. (Weaker teams tend to have no depth.)

Upsets:
#47 Zimbabwe 6, #1 China 3 (T Dukuzumuremyi throws a complete game and his artificial copy gets a 3-run double. Fans are calling for the banning of non-humans from the World Cup.)
#21 Iran 4, #3 Japan 1
#59 Bangladesh 3, #9 South Korea 1 (3 runs top of 9th with 2 out.)
#28 Ukraine 6, #4 England 2 (Hosts lose important first game against 3rd-seeded team in the group.)

Blowouts:
#37 Algeria 23, #60 Sudan 2
#5 Canada 62, #64 Puerto Rico 1 (0-0 through 4. Injury to PR starter in 3rd leads to a 36-run 7th. 19-run 9th. J Pagan: 7 IP, 45 H, 62 R, 45 ER, 27 BB, 351 pitches)

Other top seeds:
#2 USA 8, #42 Czech Republic 0 (1 hit)
#6 Italy 5, #43 Cuba 9
#7 Germany 6, #72 Ecuador 2
#8 South Africa 6, #29 Cameroon 0
#10 France 1, #23 Poland 0




Day 2:
After yesterday's Canada-Puerto Rico 62-1 incident and Robo-Dukuzumuremyi's clutch hit, rules for the next World Cup have been modified to increase the minimum roster size from 9 to a much larger number to be named later (likely 15, 18, or 25). Countries with at least 9 professional players but less than the minimum required players will be allowed/required to fill any shortages with amateurs. Despite their much lower quality of skill, it should hopefully avoid any 60-run more games and backlash against the new machine overlords.


Top seeds:
Even their #4/5 starters tend to be as good as most other teams' #1 starters, so no more upsets should happen until day 5/6, if at all.
#1 China 3, #34 Scotland 1
#2 USA 12, #53 Burkina Faso 1
#3 Japan 6, #44 Chile 1
#4 England 7, #62 Uganda 2
#5 Canada 25, #65 Philippines 1 (Canada is really making a case for increasing minimum roster sizes, making Philippines' starter throw 224 pitches.)
#6 Italy 8, #38 Austria 3
#7 Germany 7, #24 Domincan Republic 5
#8 South Africa 4, #33 Belgium 2
#9 South Korea 4, #12 Nigeria 2
#10 France 7, #69 Jamaica 0



Day 3:
#53 Burkina Faso 17, #50 Uruguay 10 (Another case for allowing amateurs in: both starters pitched to the 9th despite allowing 10. Uruguay was up 9-0 after 4.)
#72 Ecuador 15, #63 Uzbekistan 14 (Uzbekistan gets 8 in the 9th, but Ecuador's starter still gets the complete game win.)

#1 China 10, #26 Netherlands 0
#2 USA 11, New Zealand 1
#3 Japan 7, #13 Spain 0
#4 England 9, #11 Turkey 0
#5 Canada 12, #22 Egypt 5
#6 Italy 2, #25 Morocco 0
#7 Germany 1, #49 Sweden 0 (bases loaded walk in 7th)
#8 South Africa 14, #58 Romania 4
#9 South Korea 26, #54 Madagascar 1 (16-run 7th)
#10 France 6, #20 Colombia 0

Interesting things so far:
France still hasn't given up any runs despite already facing their 2 strongest challengers.
Canada is hitting .547.
Worst 3-0: #46 Peru, #51 Zambia (originally registered as "Zamiba", perhaps this confused opposing scouts?)
Best 0-3: #22 Egypt.



Day 4:
Games of interest:
#12 Nigeria 12, #54 Madagascar 0 (Nigeria #4 starter Musa Funga gets no-hitter, 1 BB, minimum batters faced.)
#11 Turkey 11, #46 Peru 1
#29 Cameroon 4, #51 Zambia 0
#39 Indonesia 2, #9 South Korea 1 (South Korea likely eliminated.)
#15 Argentina 3, #7 Germany 2
Israel 55, #47 Zimbabwe 7 (Zimbabwe runs out of pitcher, gives up 16, 18 in 8th+9th. Yuda Wamagunda: 19 IP, 527 pitches in 3 days.)
#22 Egypt 7, #64 Puerto Rico 3 (Grand Slam top of 10th.)

Other Top Seeds:
#1 China 6, #18 Mexico 3
#2 USA 6, #27 India 2. (USA can't hit India's starter, gets 2 bottom of 9th, 4 in 10th. Brawl with ejections in the 9th when first pitch after tying HR hits the batter.)
#3 Japan 8, #37 Algeria 6
#4 England 5, #57 Thailand 4 (England takes 25 outs to catch up from down 4-0.)
#5 Canada 13, #67 Taiwan 2
#6 Italy 5, #38 Australia 3
#8 South Africa 11, #67 Guatemala 7
#10 France 6, #52 Switzerland 3 (France gives up first runs of tournament, after 28 IP.)


Standings:

[CaptainObvious]

Day 5:
Several key games today. Half of the teams are practically eliminated by now.

Games between 3-1/4-0 teams:
Nigeria 7, Indonesia 2
England 8, Peru 0
Argentina 32, Ecuador 2
South Africa 2, Zambia 1
Venezuela 6, USA 5. (Last game of the day [3am local time], rain delay, blown saves on both sides, 10 innings.)


Other 3-1 or better teams:
China 13, Malaysia 1
Algeria 3, Iran 1 (first loss)
India 7, New Zealand 0
Brazil 17, Finland 1
Japan 14, Ethiopia 0
Mexico 7, Kenya 3
Italy 53, Burundi 3 (40-2 after 3)
France 8, Norway 0
Germany 35, DR Congo 2 (23 in last 2 innings)
Cameroon 6, Russia 5 (late comeback, walkoff HR)
Australia 20, Cuba 4
Ukraine 12, Uganda 1 (9 in the 9th)
Wales 11, Switzerland 3 (good news for 2nd-place teams)
Spain 25, Sudan 3
Dominican Republic 4, Serbia 0
Canada 11, Portugal 3
Taiwan 13, Puerto Rico 9

Ouch:
Bangladesh 64, Madagascar 10 (Bangladesh scoring per inning: 9,9,11,1,9,8,1,7,9 M Simai: 8 IP, 50 ER, 44 H, 28 BB, 366 pitches.)



Day 6:
Football season starts today again in England. This might have led to fights between the football fans and baseball fans over control of the television, but thankfully the home team has an afternoon game with pushover Paraguay. Also, it's 2064, and what is a television?
People in England are starting to get tired of the round-the-clock baseball.
A lot of bad matchups today. A lot of aces starting today. This could get ugly.

Important Games (both teams in contention):
South Korea 17, Mozambique 3
Dominican Republic 68, Ecuador 2 (New high score! F Aguila: 10/10, 14 RBI)
Ukraine 15, Thailand 0 (Ukraine clinches 2nd, Thailand out)

Leaders:
India 16, Burkina Faso 3
USA 34, Uruguay 1
Venezeula 10, New Zealand 0
China 6, Kenya 4
Mexico 21, Zimbabwe 2
England 18, Paraguay 0
Canada 7, Finland 1
Nigeria 12, Pakistan 1
Iran 15, Chile 2
Japan 42, Sudan 1 (Sudan actually led. Then their pitcher took the mound.)
Spain 7, Senegal 1
South Africa 5, Russia 0
Italy 22, Slovakia 3
Argentina 13, DR Congo 2
Germany 16, Uzbekistan 0
France 5, Belarus 0 (1 hit)


Game Back:
Czech Republic 9, Ivory Coast 0
Israel 6, Malaysia 0 (Unranked Israel can get in if it beats China tomorrow.)
Scotland 2, Netherlands 0
Ghana 11, Peru 6 (11 innings, Peru out)
Turkey 11, Uganda 2
Egypt 4, Brazil 2 (Canada clinches)
Philippines 8, Taiwan 6 (Canada clinches)
Ireland 16, Bangladesh 1 (Bangladesh out)
Indonesia 21, Madagascar 1 (Madagascar is still terrible)
Ethiopia 3, Algeria 1 (extra innings, Algeria out)
Cameroon 24, Haiti 13 (Cameroon at least 2nd)
Australia 26, Burundi 4


No 1st-place teams lost today.




Day 7:
So, the way ties work:
1. Head to head.
2. Runs Allowed
3. +/-
4. Runs Allowed in games with tied teams
5. +/- in games with tied teams
6. tied.

2 3rd place teams qualify for the 2nd-place playins, too. Preference given to 2nd-place teams that had lost a tiebreaker for 2nd.


Important (both in competition):
Indonesia 14, Bangladesh 7 (Indonesia at least tied for 2nd)
South Korea 10, Ireland 0 (South Korea loses head-to-head with Indonesia)
Egypt 8, Taiwan 3 (Egypt 2nd on head-to-head if Canada beats Brazil)
China 5, Israel 2 (China clinches)
France 2, Wales 1 (France already clinched, Wales maybe 2nd on tiebreakers)
Dominican Republic 12, Argentina 3 (tied for 1st, Germany. DR in. ARG 2nd if Germany loses later.)
Belarus 6, Colombia 5 (both near 2nd. Belarus loses tiebreaker with Wales.)
Canada 5, Brazil 2 (Canada already clinched. Brazil ends in 4-way tie with Egypt, Portugal, Taiwan.)
Spain 3, Iran 0 (tied for 1st, Japan. Spain 2nd on tiebreaker, Iran 3rd)
Nigeria 13, Mozambique 3 (Clinches 1st. Indonesia 2nd, SKorea 3rd.)
India 3, Venezeula 1 (tied for 1st, USA. India 2nd, USA 1st on tiebreaker.)
Italy 2, Kazakhstan 1 (Italy 7-0. Kaz was already out on tiebreaker.)


Chance for 2nd:
Czech Republic 8, Burkina Faso 4 (Czech maybe 2nd on deep tiebreakers if USA + VEN lose)
Belgium 7, Cameroon 0 (Cameroon already clinched 2nd)
Australia 7, Austria 4 (Australia finishes 2nd)
Portugal 11, Philippines 2 (maybe 2nd on deep tiebreaker if Canada beats Brazil)
Turkey 12, Thailand 5 (doesn't matter, still 3rd)
Switzerland 15, Jamaica 4 (At least a 3-way tie for 2nd, maybe 4.)
Scotland 25, Malaysia 9 (Doesn't matter, couldn't win tiebreaker anyways.)
Poland 6, Norway 4 (4-way tie with Belarus, Switzerland, Wales)


Leaders:
Japan 6, Senegal 0 (Clinches at least 2nd, 1st if Spain beats Iran.)
England 5, Ghana 2 (11 innings. 2nd on tiebreaker to Ukraine)
Ukraine 9, Paraguay 8 (Clinches 1st on tiebreaker.)
South Africa 11, Haiti 4 (Clinches 1st)
Germany 12, Serbia 0 (Germany 1st, DR 2nd)
USA 16, Ivory Coast 1 (USA #1, India #2)
Mexico, Netherlands [score missing] (Didn't matter, Mexico 2nd on either tiebreaker.)



Final standings:



1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers in qualifiers:

[CaptainObvious]

Wildcards:
The 10 2nd place and top 2 3rd place are randomly seeded to play each other. Winners qualify for the last 6 World Cup spots.

Mexico 12, India 3
These teams missing winning their groups on tiebreakers to #1/#2 ranked in the world. Mexico gets 9 in the 4th. #27 India eliminated with only losses to #2 USA, #18 Mexico.

Iran 4, Taiwan 3
#67 Taiwan was a surprise 2nd after winning a 4-way tie in head-to-head advantage.

England 9, South Korea 6
The only favorites who didn't win their groups. 12 innings. SK leaves bases loaded bottom 11th, 12th.

Cameroon 6, Indonesia 2
#39 Indonesia messed up #5 South Korea's chances earlier.

Wales 16, Dominican Republic 2.
Wales was unranked, got 2nd on 4-way tie. Dominican Republic out on losses to Germany, Wales.
Wales is suspected of cheating, as only a few of their players actually have any professional playing history. Especially suspicious are unknown veteran superstars SP Danny Lain, CL Lee Turvill, 1B Joel Kimber (ages 32, 34, 32).) [Translation: I messed up when creating the league and some fictional players were generated. I thought I managed to retire them all, but missed the ones on the play-in teams. Wales happened to get a lot of good ones. Israel also benefited greatly from this issue.]

Spain 2, Australia 1
Australia eliminated only on losses to #6 Italy, #13 Spain.




World Cup Groups:
6 games: 1 home+away with each team. Top 2 from each group advance.
Top 4 seeded to different groups, then next 5-8 are seeded. Then 9+10 are placed randomly. Then the 6 wildcards fill the other spots.

One easily noticeable difference from qualifying is that almost all of the teams left have full rosters and bullpens. Wales only has 2 SP and 19 players total, so they stick out.


Group A:
#10 France
#28 Ukraine
#21 Iran
#13 Spain

Probably the weakest group based on historic rankings, but they all have good pitching. They ranked 1st, 6th, 7th, 10th in RA overall in the main qualifying round. Spain and Iran both came out of group 6 (Spain won 3-0).
Only France has made it past group stage before.


Group B:
#6 Italy
#7 Germany
#18 Mexico
#4 England

Is this the group of death? Maybe in a different sport. Also, see group D. But this is close.


Group C:
#8 South Africa
#3 Japan
#12 Nigeria
#29 Cameroon

All 3 African teams ended up in the same group. South Africa and Cameroon were both in group 7 in qualifying (South Africa won, 6-0.) Probably the same old Japan + South Africa moving on.


Group D:
#5 Canada
#2 USA
#1 China
NR Wales

Something is wrong here.
How did this happen? China lost its first game to Zimbabwe, who ended up last in the group due to having only 3 pitchers. USA lost to Venezuela, who finished 4th after tiebreakers. Canada is the actual #1 seed of the group, having gone 7-0 and scoring 135 runs in 60 innings. Then there's Wales, the unranked team with a set of mysterious unknown veterans.

[CaptainObvious]

The best 16 teams in the world (or something like that) remain. Each team will play 3 games against each team in its group. Top 2 advance to the quarterfinals.

Day 1:
Nigeria 2, South Africa 0 (South Africa's first loss in 2064.)
Ukraine 1, Iran 0
Japan 3, Cameroon 1
Germany 2, Italy 1
Spain 2, France 1 (10 innings)
Canada 6, USA 0
China 4, Wales 1
England 4, Mexico 2 (11 innings)

Unlike in qualifying, everyone has good pitching here.


Day 2:
USA 1 CHN 6
GER 5 ENG 2
FRA 3 UKR 8
RSA 4 CAM 2
JPN 11 NGA 1
IRN 1 ESP 5
WAL 6 CAN 5 (Wales surprises the #1 qualifier. Almost a late comback from 6-1 in the 8th.)
ITA 3 MEX 1


Day 3:
CAN 2 CHN 3 (China gets 3 in the last 2 innings off Canada's bullpen.)
JPN 6 RSA 2
NGA 1 CAM 5
ESP 5 UKR 2
IRN 1 FRA 7
USA 9 WAL 2 (Wales doesn't have enough pitchers.)
ITA 2 ENG 8 (Grand slam bottom 7th.)
GER 0 MEX 5 (Super late game)

China and Japan are almost certainly going through. Only Iran is really out of it. 9 of 16 teams are 1-2.



Day 4:
NGA 0 JPN 4 (2-hitter.)
WAL 3 CHN 4 (Runner steals 2nd, scores on double next pitch to end game.)
UKR 2 FRA 3
ESP 2 IRN 7
RSA 7 CAM 2
ITA 4 GER 5 (13th inning bases loaded walk)
MEX 8 ENG 9 (8-8 after 9. Bases loaded single in bottom of 14th.)
CAN 4 USA 3 (Bases loaded, 2 out, bottom of the 9th. 2 singles. Tying run thrown out at the plate.)


Day 5:
CAM 1 JPN 10 (Japan is running away with 1st.)
FRA 5 IRN 4 (4 in 9th, Iran out.)
ENG 3 GER 4 (11 innings. Germany advances.)
RSA 3 NGA 4
MEX 0 ITA 5
UKR 5 ESP 15 (5-0 1st, then Spain takes over.)
CHN 4 CAN 5
WAL 9 USA 25 (Wales clearly is out of their league at this point.)


Day 6:
RSA 4 JPN 0 (No-hitter by Masomakali, who went 12-2, 1.84 for Addis Ababa this season.)
UKR 5 IRN 1
CAM 0 NGA 6
MEX 1 GER 4
ENG 4 ITA 1
FRA 1 ESP 4
CAN 12 WAL 3 (3-1 Wales after 8. Turvill breaks down in 9th, gives up 7. Turns out he was a robot.)
CHN 3 USA 4 (China still 1st on tiebreakers at this point.)

Edwyn Schimel (GER) is the only player to reach base in every single game his team has played.


Standings after 6 of 9 games:

[CaptainObvious]

Day 7:
RSA 1 JPN 3 (early game)
FRA 4 UKR 2 (15 innings)
NGA 4 CAM 2
ITA 6 GER 1 (Schimmel 0-4, ends streak.)
IRN 1 ESP 6
CHN 6 WAL 1
MEX 4 ENG 6
CAN 0 USA 3 (late game)

At this point, some teams have clinched top 2 spots or can't place higher than 3rd.
Out: Iran, Mexico, Cameroon, Wales
In: Spain, Japan.


Day 8:
Ties reminder:
1. Head to head. (Solves everything but 3+-way ties.)
2. Runs Allowed
3. +/-
4. Runs Allowed in games with tied teams
5. +/- in games with tied teams
6. playoff

USA 2 CHN 1 (and now the group is messy)
JPN 2 NGA 5
UKR 6 IRN 5 (11)
CAM 2 RSA 6
ENG 1 ITA 3
ESP 2 FRA 4
WAL 5 CAN 11
GER 7 MEX 6

Out: South Africa (0-2 vs NGA), Italy (1-2 vs ENG), Ukraine (1-2 vs FRA)
In: Nigeria, Germany, England, France


Day 9:
Only group D has any top 2 spots left. USA advances with a win over Wales. Canada-China winner advances. USA loses tiebreaker to Canada (1-2), beats China (2-1)

CAM 3 JPN 23 (this was as ugly as the score)
IRN 5 FRA 4

NGA 5 RSA 2
ESP 4 UKR 7
ENG 1 GER 9
MEX 5 ITA 3

Llate games, both at 3am London time:
WAL 1 USA 12 (USA advances)
CHN 5 CAN 3 (2 on, 2 out bottom of 9th. China wins group [due to clerical error].)

If Canada had not lost to Wales on day 2, there would have been a 3-way tie at 6-3. On runs against, it would be #1 China, #2 Canada, #3 USA.


(Oops: I messed up the standings in group D when I did this a few months ago. USA should be 1st, China 2nd. Somehow I got their head-to-head records mixed up. This affected the quarterfinals placements.)
(Oops 2: Iran actually won 2 games, not 1. This doesn't matter as much.)

Final standings:

[CaptainObvious]

Game 1, 2064-09-07:
#2 USA 0, #3 JPN 1
This is the series the world will be watching. Home run by Motoichi Kokawa in the 6th.
(If the Group D standings had been handled correctly, this would be #1 China vs #3 Japan.)

#12 NGA 2, #1 CHN 3
2-run double by pinch hitter Jian-zhang Tsai in bottom of 8th.

#4 ENG 8, #13 ESP 2
6 in top 8th off bullpen.

#10 FRA 2, #7 GER 1
Scholze's (Chicago) first earned runs allowed since the start of qualifying. Also first loss. Go ahead run on solo HR by pitch hit for starter Lemoine (Johannesburg).


Game 2:
USA 3 JPN 4 (10)
Solo HR by backup 1B Sen Miura to lead off the 10th. 3.2 scoreless by MR Masuda (Tohoku) in a tie game.

NGA 4 CHN 5 (16)
Nigeria led 4-0 in the 5th, then China started scoring. Unearned run to end it off unlucky 0-2 Siad Rutu (Algiers). 5 perfects innings from winner Yue-Jiu Hsieh. Bullpens: 18.2 IP, 0 ER.

FRA 2 GER 1
Go-ahead run scores top 8th on a bad pick-off with runners on corners.

ENG 5 ESP 3 (10)
2-run HR top 10th off Pablo Garcia (Antwerp) (0-2, 7 ER, 3 IP).



Game 3:
Every series is 2-0.

CHN 4 NGA 2
Nigeria out.

GER 2 FRA 1
All runs early. Third 2-1 road win in a row in this series.

ESP 0 ENG 4
1-hitter by Sebastian Maw (Donetsk). Minimum batters faced. Spain out.

JPN 0 USA 3
3am start time and an hour rain delay right after USA takes 3-0 lead in bottom 6th. Game finishes after sunrise.


Game 4:
GER 1 FRA 3
France gets 2 off Scherich (Anzhi) in the 8th, giving him his second loss. Germany out.

JPN 0 USA 1
Steve George (Texas) and Toshiki Maeda (Vancouver) combine for another 1-0 pitchers' duel. Run scored on 2 doubles in the 4th. Series goes to game 5.



Game 5:
USA at JPN
Last game between these starters went 10 innings. SP Lawerence (Vancouver) scores the first run in the 3rd. Jason Hopkins and Ben Mason get their third straight Holds and Saves and USA comes back from down 2-0 in the series to eliminate Japan on 3 straight shutouts.
USA 2 JPN 0


3 of the 4 group winners lost in the quarterfinals. None of these were big upsets, though.

[CaptainObvious]

Semifinals:

Game 1:
FRA 1 CHN 3
France with 10 hits but only scores 1. 2-run walkoff HR by Chua chay Ling (CF Shanghai) off closer Casanova (SP Miami)

ENG 6 USA 4
These midnight games need to stop. This is especially bad because the host team is involved. A full 9 hours of previews after the France-China game. Most of the runs come after 2am in the 8th. David Hendry (Celtic) 4 for 4, 2-run HR.

Game 2:
FRA 7 CHN 3
Game was back-and-forth early. Then China had a few defensive errors leading to 3 in the 6th and 2 in the 8th, all unearned. #7 hitter Dubreuil (2B Toulouse) had a big game (3-4, 3B, 2 R, 3 RBI).

ENG 2 USA 8
This one was never really close. SP Jeremy Hampton (Columbus) had a 2-run single and allowed only 2 in 7 innings.


Game 3:
Both series 1-1.

CHN 4 FRA 7
France gets 3, 2 in 7th, 8th. China loads the bases and gets 3 in the top of the 9th, but tying run strikes out. 1st out of the inning was on L Dan thrown out trying for a triple.

USA 8 ENG 9 (12)
8-8 after 8. At least 1 run in each of the first 8 innings, but never by both teams. PH Meaker (CF Vienna) with a walkoff single.


Game 4:
CHN 7 FRA 5
Lemoine has a bad start, but France almost comes back to make it 6-5 in the 5th. China's bullpen holds. SP Cai (Shenzhen) doesn't have a great game, but knocking out the opposing pitcher yourself with an RBI single helps.

USA 1 ENG 2
Dane Pew on fire and gets the walkoff single. 7-11, 2HR, 4RBI last 2 games. CL Romero with his second loss in the series.


Game 5:
CHN 3 FRA 2
3-run HR by Chua-Kah Zhang (Yomiuri) in 7th and the bullpen holds again.

USA 2 ENG 4
USA starts Ben Mason, hero of the quarterfinal series. It does not go well. Martin Fay (Texas) 3-0 in the playoffs now. No more midnight baseball, USA out.
Host England into the finals for the second time.

Game 6:
FRA 2 CHN 3
France needs to beat #1 China on the road twice. 2-run HR by Ling in 3rd.
France loads the bases with no out top 8 down 3-1, scores only 1. China has the same bottom 8, scores 0. Doesn't matter, China still wins.

[CaptainObvious]

Finals:
#1 China vs #4 England (host). See 2054 finals. Most of the players are different after 10 years, though.
Both teams needed to win 6 straight in qualifying after losing on day 1.

England didn't win either of its groups, but still knocked out Turkey, South Korea, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and USA to get here.
China knocked out Netherlands, Canada, Wales, Nigeria, and France.

Game 1:
ENG 4 CHN 6
3-run pinch hit HR by See-tong Mo (Dongguan) bottom 8 to go up 6-3. England gets tying run at 1st, 1 out, but Nao (Miami) gets his 4th save in 6 days. Pew with 2 HRs.

Game 2:
ENG 1 CHN 2
Ying-Hua Mar (Yokohama) (.450, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 1.237 OPS in 14 World Cup games) injures himself going to 3rd on an RBI double in the 1st. Louis strikes out 13. Nao with the save in 5 straight games for China.


England gets to bat last for 3 games now.

Game 3:
CHN 2 ENG 4
3 unearned runs bottom of 1st, then Maw shuts down China.

Game 4:
CHN 2 ENG 7
Tied until the bullpens came on in the 7th. Jing-Yu Dai (London) gives up 4 in the 7th.

Game 5:
CHN 3 ENG 8
Blenkinsopp (London) with a grand slam in the 3rd and Pew with his 7th HR in the playoffs, 4th of the series.
Home team has won all 5 games.

Game 6:
Last day of September.
ENG 4 CHN 6
Pew with a 2-run HR in the 1st. China comes back with 6 in the 4th. Bullpen holds, another save for Nao.

Game 7:
Only 1 game in October. It's World Cup Finals, Game 7. Host team away against the #1 team, so that's pretty good.
Maw vs Cai.

China loads the bases with 3 walks in the 1st but doesn't score. RBI groundout top of 5th to break the tie. Cai scores the tying run in the bottom of the inning on a 2-run single.
Pew with a 1-out triple in the 8th, but can't score. Zhang with a solo HR in the bottom of the inning.
England throws its bench at Nao in the 9th, but only get a runner to 2nd.
China 3, England 1


Just like 10 years ago, China beats England in the finals.
Pew ended up with .529, 5 HR, 9 RBI in the finals.
China didn't really hit well, but scored when they needed to. Only 2 starters hit over .200 in the series (Zhang: .261, Huie: .235) and no one had more than 4 RBIs.

MVP: Li-Ren Nao. 4 IP, 9 K, 4 SV. Near perfect, other than the homerun he gave up to Pew as his first batter faced in game 1.

[dynaboyj]

I think this is really cool. I loved dward's original writeup and you definitely put in a lot of amazing improvements with the national team rankings. I feel like you should have let more teams into the World Cup, however--sixteen isn't very much when 80 teams are vying for a spot. I also feel like maybe the qualification should have been done by region as closely as possible, just because I think it's kind of cooler if the teams don't play across continents until the Cup.

[CaptainObvious]

I tried to keep the rules for this World Cup as similar to the original universe as I could.

The switch from regional qualification to general open qualification happened for the first time during this season, so I didn't want to throw that out first time through. I like the reasoning behind it: teams already compete enough within their region in the Continental Cup. It theoretically lets the actual best teams qualify (aside from unlucky group draws). Plus it avoids the issue of having to make controversial decisions on how many qualifiers should come from each region:
FIFA World Cup qualification - Qualification spots by continent


As for expanding the number of teams, I'm looking at FIFA's history as an example of when to expand. They went from 16 to 24 teams once there were around 100-110 countries trying to qualify. Then they went from 24 to 32 when they hit 150+. Now they're talking about maybe going to 40 when there are over 200 teams. So expansion seems to happen once less than 1/6 of all teams qualify. In 2064, we had 16 of 90 teams qualify. Once there are another maybe 10 more teams, we should expand to 24. Maybe 2068, but more likely 2072. Although, I guess I could change it so that countries can enter international play with fewer than 9 professional players, since I'm already planning on generating crappy amateurs to fill rosters with 9 to [??] players next time. This would greatly expand the number of countries capable of competing.
FIFA World Cup qualification - Qualification competition entrants over time