Mega-Dueling Thread Redux

[Belac]

Since Areaofeffect seems to have vanished from the thread, I have a new idea.

If he doesn't return by Sunday evening, we are starting again, with a much less intensive moderation system. Below is a list of all players who expressed interest in the old thread. If you are still interested, or interested again, post in this thread.

Matchups:
I will randomly assign matchups for the first round. Matchups in subsequent rounds will be assigned on a rolling basis as games finish, so the winner of one game will play the winner of the next game to finish. EXCEPTION: If we don't get 32 or 64 players, 2nd-round byes will be awarded to the most impressive victories in the first round (and if the numbers still don't work out, 3rd-round byes will be awarded to the most impressive 2nd-round victories). Criteria would include speed of victory and use of weak nations (if you can take out Niefelheim with Bandar Log, say, you deserve a free pass to the 3rd round). I'm not sure how to determine this, and am open to suggestions. Because of this system, everyone who wants to will get to play.

Nation Selection:
Within each pairing, the 2 players choose nations by any system they can agree on. There will be no attempt to prevent players in separate pairings from using the same nations, as that is far too much work. In each round starting with the second, each player can choose from the nation they played in the previous round, the nation they defeated, the nation their opponent played, and the nation their opponent defeated. Once again, the two opponents will come up with a mutually-agreeable system for deciding which nations to play. (Note: This will produce, not an ever-expanding list of nations you can choose, but a steady rolling list of 4. Starting in the 3rd round, it's play it or lose it for your nation choices)

Options Selection, Maps, Mods, and Game Administration:
The opponents are responsible for all of these. Magic site frequency, research difficulty, resource/money/supply multiples, CBM or not...don't agree to something disadvantageous to your nation unless you're trying for a 2nd-round bye.

Interested Players:

This is a list of everyone who's expressed interest so far, in no particular order (the rows do not correspond to matchups)

01. Frozen Lama . . . . . . 02. Alpine Joe
03. Baalz . . . . . . . . . 04. WraithLord
05. WingedDog . . . . . . . 06. Nihil
07. Cidi. . . . . . . . . . 08. Meglobob
09. Psycho. . . . . . . . . 10. Stretch
11. Ink . . . . . . . . . . 12. chrispedersen
13. Trom. . . . . . . . . . 14. LDiCesare
15. Squirrelloid. . . . . . 16. llamabeast
17. yandav. . . . . . . . . 18. Bananadine
19. Belac . . . . . . . . . 20. Raiel
21. Aethyr. . . . . . . . . 22. thunderbird
23. KIM . . . . . . . . . . 24. slMagnvox
25. Jarkko. . . . . . . . . 26. Apsophos
27. AdmiralZhao . . . . . . 28. Lingchih
29. Swan. . . . . . . . . . 30. Stagger Lee
31. ghoul31 . . . . . . . . 32. Graeme Dice
33. zlefin. . . . . . . . . 34. Kheldron
35. Xanatos . . . . . . . . 36. shard
37. Sir_Dr_D. . . . . . . . 38. Hadrian_II
39. vfb . . . . . . . . . . 40. Sansanjuan
41. The_Vanishag. . . . . . 42. Lihaasa
43. Evilhomer