Nations Cup 2012

The Nations Cup 2012 is a competition between 28 teams from around the world. Each team will be grouped into a round robin with three other teams. Sixteen teams comprising the first and second-place finishers of each group, the third-placed team in group A, and the best third-placed team of groups D through G, will qualify for the elimination stage. Each match consists of nine games:
 * four 1v1 games, played on the 1v1 Strategic template
 * two 2v2 games, played on the 2v2 Strategic template
 * two 3v3 games, played on the 3v3 Europe template
 * one 5v5 or 7v7 game, played on the 5v5 or 7v7 European Borders templates

1v1 and 2v2 victories are worth one point each, while 3v3 wins score two points and 5v5 or 7v7 wins score three.

Round 1 began on July 1 and Round 2 on July 16. Eight teams withdrew after round 1; their results were discarded. All group stage games not finished by September 30 will be adjudicated - see below.

Group Stage
''The standings show the number of wins gained in each type of game for each team, followed by their total score. 1v1 and 2v2 wins = 1 point; 3v3 wins = 2 points; 5v5 or 7v7 wins = 3 points. Results against teams that withdrew are not included.''

Tiebreaking procedure
If two or more teams are equal on points upon completion of the group matches, the following criteria will be applied to determine the rankings:
 * 1) Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
 * 2) Fewer number of players booted from games in progress plus players forfeited for failing to join games;
 * 3) Higher number of points obtained in all 5v5 and 7v7 games;
 * 4) Higher number of points obtained in all 3v3 games;
 * 5) Higher number of points obtained in all 2v2 games;
 * 6) Higher number of points obtained in all 1v1 games;
 * 7) Drawing of lots.

Adjudication procedure
Games that have not finished by September 30, 11:59 pm EDT (October 1, 6:59 am in GMT) will be adjudicated using the following procedure:
 * 1) For each of the last eight turns, find the slowest player on each team for that turn. Do this also for the current turn which hasn't been played yet: any player that hasn't moved yet is automatically the slowest player on the team and is assigned the time since the last turn happened.
 * 2) On each turn, compare the times those two players took to move. No penalty is applied that turn if they both moved within 24 hours. If the slower player (A) used more than 24 hours while the faster player (B) used less than 24 hours, player A's team is penalized for every hour after 24 hours that player A took to move. If both players used more than 24 hours then player A's team is penalized for every hour he took after player B moved.
 * 3) Add up the penalties for both teams and take the difference to get the total penalty in hours (P) for the slower team.
 * 4) If P > 48 hours then that team's adjudicated score is (1 - (P - 48) / 640) * (income * 2 + number of total armies). For the faster team no penalty is applied and their score is simply (income * 2 + number of total armies). If P < 48 hours then no penalty is applied to either team - the second formula is used for both teams.