Basketball World Cup

The Basketball World Cup (Pacitalian: Copa Internazionale di Baschetaboli) is an annual international tournament of basketball, currently hosted by Pacitalia and Sarzonia. Currently in its fifth edition, the tournament traditionally has 16 participants (including most of the top nations in the world) and play takes place in both hosting nations.

Procedure

How nations qualify

Nations who participate in an incumbent tournament are automatically invited or welcome to return to defend their result in the next edition. However, all nations must sign up on the introductory topic to take part in the tournament, ensuring that every nation that wants to participate has a chance at entry. Once there are sixteen nations signed up, the hosts may take two to four nations as reserves in case an original participant must withdraw.

Sorting of groups

The sixteen nations are then sorted into four groups of four. Traditionally the two groups in Sarzonia are referred to as Division S1 and Division S2, together forming the Sarzonian Region, and the two in Pacitalia as Divizione P1 and Divizione P2, forming the Pacitalian Region. To ensure honest results, the player behind Pacitalia scorinates the results of the Sarzonian Region, and the player behind Sarzonia scorinates the Pacitalian Region. The top five nations in the world are given seed numbers, but only the top four get their own group.

Round-robin

Immediately the 16 squads enter a round-robin of six games - a squad plays only its divisional opponents, and twice each. Unlike football tournaments like the World Cup of Football where the top two teams of each group qualify to advance to the knockouts, the advancing squads in this tournament are based on their overall position among the sixteen. Therefore, the top eight overall squads advance to the knockouts, the remaining squads are eliminated from further play.

Playoffs

The quarter-final matrix is played between the eight teams that advanced from the round-robin. The victorious team knocks the losing team out and advances to the semi-finals. The matrix for the quarterfinals is as follows: 1v8, 2v7, 3v6, 4v5. In the semifinals, the remaining four squads follow the same procedure and the matrix is 1v4, 2v3. The two winning teams move onto the final and the winning team becomes champion. The losing teams play a third-place playoff round to determine the standings.

Finishing

1st, 2nd and 3rd place are awarded as Gold, Silver and Bronze.

How the hosts scorinate

The hosts use a RP and ranking bonus which influences the scorination. Nations who post an excellent RP earn the most possible points, and this helps them achieve a more favourable result in their upcoming game. Nations who do not RP do not lose points but they do not get the bonus that an RPing nation does. Ranking bonuses are given to the seeded nations to ensure score realism.

Rankings

The rankings for the top five seeds are determined based on their cumulative play. The last cup weighs the most in the mathematical average used to determine rankings. As of BWC5, the top five teams in the world are:

1. Harlesburg
2. Liverpool England
3. Vilita
4. Sarzonia
5. Pacitalia

Past winners, 2nd place and 3rd place

** - placings from second cup carried over because third cup did not complete due to political instability in the host nation, Aquiliana.