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#71

Gaming HQ / Re: Europa Universalis V confi...

Last post by Syt - December 08, 2025, 03:48:17 PM

Pinned by @OneProudBavarian
@OneProudBavarian
5 hours ago
EU5's patches have been chaotic and incredibly poorly communicated. As a conclusion, EU5 in December has just as many completely broken situations and International organisations as in November. This has to change..

#72

Off the Record / Re: Football (Soccer) Thread

Last post by mongers - December 08, 2025, 03:47:40 PM

Cut the teams down to 32 in 8 groups of four, only the top two go forward to the knockout games.


All the losers of the group stage get to go home with a prize, a random Nobel prize of some description, simples. 

#73

Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread

Last post by mongers - December 08, 2025, 03:43:32 PM

'Jay Kelly' Excellent sympathetic performance from Adam Sandler, whom I don't usual like, as the right hand man to an aging movie legend played against type by George Clooney.

I liked it a lot, and for a change the 'making of' feature is worth a viewing to see some of the studio crafting magic.

#74

Off the Record / Re: Football (Soccer) Thread

Last post by Josquius - December 08, 2025, 03:42:26 PM

I wonder whether the seeds like the groups for giving them some semi serious games to get in the swing of things.
Certainly the players domestic clubs could do without those games

Have extra knockout rounds for lower seeds at the start and more teams get the chance to actually go to the world Cup.
Nice for them and I'm sure for fifa as well in drawing more eyes to the tournament.

#75

Off the Record / Re: Football (Soccer) Thread

Last post by Valmy - December 08, 2025, 03:32:34 PM

Understandable.  Double elimination until they get down to 16 would still be an interesting alternative.

Do it like the College Baseball playoffs!

16 double elimination four team playoff brackets.

8 best two out of three series.

2 double elimination four team playoff brackets

One best two out of three series for the championship.

The only downside is...nobody knows whether the championship will be won in game 2 or game 3.

#76

Off the Record / Re: The EU thread

Last post by garbon - December 08, 2025, 03:08:23 PM

Not surprisingly the equality trust says the UK isnt great on income inequality and worse on wealth inequality.

https://equalitytrust.org.uk/scale-economic-inequality-uk/

#77

Off the Record / Re: Football (Soccer) Thread

Last post by Baron von Schtinkenbutt - December 08, 2025, 03:05:55 PM

Understandable.  Double elimination until they get down to 16 would still be an interesting alternative.

#78

Off the Record / Re: The China Thread

Last post by Baron von Schtinkenbutt - December 08, 2025, 02:58:00 PM

and in the process they're destroying the economies of all their enemies. The plan is clear to see

That would be murder-suicide.  The economies of their enemies are the only thing keeping them going right now.

#79

Off the Record / Re: Football (Soccer) Thread

Last post by Norgy - December 08, 2025, 02:54:22 PM

Alternately, FIFA could expand the field to 64, drop the group stage entirely, and structure the tournament as one large single-elimination bracket, similar to the way the NCAA basketball tournaments are structured.  The biggest problem is that they would need some means of ranking all the teams in the field in order to properly construct the bracket.

It's too radical a change to actually happen, but it would be interesting.

The group stage is really a post-war thing. The worst was probably Spain '82 with two group stages. FIFA already has the FIFA ranking system for seeding, so it would not be that much of an issue except what frunk mentions. Nobody wants to go home after a single game.

#80

Off the Record / Re: The EU thread

Last post by Tamas - December 08, 2025, 02:51:20 PM

Ah yes I missed that as well. A key distinction.