So, our 5 options are:

icthalian - Pandapocalypse
Sophie T - UK Unicorns
mrrich - Catford Greyhounds
Cameron - Newbury Nighthawks
jaigy - Shilbottle Colliers

Think the vote will be fairly split but I suspect I know who will get the job.

Very tough decision.

Balancing the lengthier experience of Cameron and Mrrich against the higher level of current activity from Icthalian. The other two applicants aren't too shabby either.

Don't need a round robin tournament; the population will pick who they think is best suited based on previously shown skill/ability/time in the game, interactions on the forums etc (more active = good).

All a round robin would do is put the decision on a RNG and tell you nothing about the skill of the manager in question (as you'd have to give everyone the same team to make that aspect fair). At that stage you may as well assign everyone a number on a dice and roll it once.

And just to throw another spanner in your idea (which others have also said previously I think); what do you do if 20 people decide to apply? Postpone the world cup whilst they do a round robin to find out who the manager is?

Dan22 wrote: You play the games over 1 week 2-3 games per day, morning, afternoon and night time Simple really How come you have not applied again this year paulo? Well whom ever wins i wish them good luck. Can you only apply for a spare national team vacancy if you have applied for the main job and not got it btw? or can anyone apply after the selections have been made? And if you apply who do you apply to?

I had a go last year. If I had won the whole thing I may have applied again to see if I could repeat it, but alas that wasn't the case so letting others take a turn. I'll apply again in a few seasons probably.

Once the NT managers have been assigned after the voting there are usually some spare teams without managers. Those are up for grabs, first come first served. You just contact the admins using the contact us button at the bottom right once the assignments have been made

The National Team Manager Applicants next cup games are as follows:

Boston Blackhawks vs icthalian - Pandapocalypse 
Newbury Nighthawks vs Red Dragons (Bot Team)
Shilbottle Colliers vs Les Knights Bear's (Bot Team)
Catford Greyhounds vs  Sophie T UK Unicorns (Both Managers have applied for the NT UK Job)

Who wants to predict the winners of these cup games?

If Catford Beat The UK Unicorns then that shows they are more established, if the UK Unicorns beats Catford then the Unicorns should be Considered above them? As both managers have applied for the NT job. The Unicorns have a less established squad but anything is possible in GI. I see this as a battle of the National Team Managers. May the best man win or woman lol

Boston Blackhawks vs icthalian - Pandapocalypse. Both teams are even i would say? Pandapocalypse is a more established team and has been on Gi Longer, i believe he also has some NT experience previously. If he beats the Blackhawks i think he should be considered as a strong candidate. If he loses then maybe not so much?.

Newbury Nighthawks vs Red Dragons (Bot Team). This is a formality for the Nighthawks who will win this easily. This manager is in the highest division and is probably the favourite.

Shilbottle Colliers vs Les Knights Bear's (Bot Team) This is a formality for the Colliers also who will also win this easily. This manager is the newest to GI but maybe the most fascinating. He has played for 2 seasons and has gained promotion in 2 seasons. He has just moved into the 3rd division where last week he beat a previously undefeated team. He is always online and is always tinkering and changing his teams. I think this guy would do really well as a National Team manager and think in maybe 1-2 more seasons no one will maybe disagree with this. This guy is the wild card of the group but one i would love to see in the National Team job.