The WSFC Square Pegs

The WSFC is comprised of 16 nations (or confederations) that compete for the title of world champion. These confederations are made up of the players born within the geographical bounds of their territory. Canadians play for Canada. Belgians play for Benelux. So the international competition goes - but what happens when a player is born outside of the defined geographical borders? Where do these square pegs end up if they cannot fit in the WSFC's round hole? Who are these people?

Well, for starters, I think these players have been largely ignored historically. I believe this has been the case based on the current portal structure in place. When creating a player, nationality is decided by the user and the user's decision is then placed into a WSFC bucket based on the approver's discretion. Any player birthplace that does not fit in the current WSFC scheme is labeled "other." Here is the failure of the SSL Portal. There is nowhere these "Other" players are listed within the portal except on the 'Organizations' page. WSFC managers need to manually dig through each organization page to find any players that have slipped through the cracks. With the infrequency of this happening, I doubt many managers do this regularly. Additionally, if created players are sorted into the predetermined WSFC buckets, a WSFC manager need only go to their WSFC confederation tab to see their new crop of recruits.

This phenomenon was recently brought to my attention, so I decided to do that work for all of you. There are currently three non-retired players that are not assigned to a WSFC nation. Two are active, one is inactive. The portal did not allow me any easy way to glean retired players for this list.

1. Roger Roger - 1230 TPE - ST - S20 - @By-Tor

Roger Roger was created on Geonosis of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Not being of Earth, he does not fit into any WSFC nation and has largely gone unnoticed on the international scope due to the reasons above. One of the dynamic duo strikers of CD Tenochtitlan, Roger Roger is earning well and still a few seasons off his peak.

2. Bartholomew Twinkletoes - 1182 TPE - GK - S18 - @lock180

Bartholomew Twinkletoes is the starting goalkeeper of CF Catalunya in the SSL. Interestingly, they do not have a specified birthplace. Their nationality is N/A, which leads us to believe they left the section blank when creating the player. Inactive over the past few months, Twinkletoes is set to remain at 1182 TPE for the foreseeable future.

3. Nico Lam - 661 TPE - RAM - S23 - @Zucker

Nico Lam, a midfielder for AF Masques Sacrés, was born in Hong Kong. Interestingly, they were assigned to "Other" nationality instead of Asia. I'm not sure if this is an error or if they defined a different birthplace on the creation form. Currently 8th in their draft class, Lam is a hot commodity for potential WSFC nations.

Since there are only three of them, they unfortunately can't form their own WSFC confederation, but I'm sure would be happy to join an existing one. I would also bet that SSL head office is more keen on keeping player creations within the current scope of the WSFC than encouraging far-flung birthplace ideas.

What do you think? Should there be a bidding war for these players to join the WSFC? Should they be left out because of their status as "Other?"

Cheers