Bonus - International Final

10.04.2015

Brief about International Final and what to do, if you do not want to fail.

The most important thing have already happened in your GMC career - you won the National Final and got a ticket to the International FInal. Also you got responsibility for the result and chance to become the best manager in the world. Time before the International Final should be used propely for preparation. In this case the most advantage have countries where National Final takes place as early as possible (for example, in Portugal final usually is held in November, so champion of Portugal has at least 5 months before International Final).

Carefully analyze your previous games, ask your competitors for help. Some countries have strong traditions to help their national champions, despite the rivalries and differences, in exchange for reports, experience or knowledge. In the end all sides will win, national champion get ability to perform better in the International Final, competitors increase its own level for next season.

International Final usually lasts for 5 days:

  1. Day 1 - Arrival of teams
  2. Day 2 - Excursions, draw for teams
  3. Day 3 - Semifinal
  4. Day 4 - Final, banquet, award ceremony
  5. Day 5 - Departure of teams

 

After settling in the hotel do not waste time shopping and sightseeing. You have a unique opportunity to become acquainted with future allies and rivals beforehand. You should understand that, as in professional sports, Global Management Challenge has TOP-teams, middle-teams and extras. Who is who you can see in world rating Global Management Challenge, which fairly accurately reflect the current situation:

  1. Default TOP-teams are teams from Russia, Ukraine, China and Poland. These countries have very competitive national selection and frankly weak teams simply do not have a chance to win there. Suffice it to say that over past 15 years (seasons from 1999 to 2013), only 4 times world champion became team not from specified countries. Under normal circumstances, these teams play a world title among each other and all the places in Top-3.
  2. Middle-teams are Slovakia, Czech Republic, Brazil, France, Portugal, Macau, Hong Kong. National champions are usually presented by fairly strong teams, which under certain circumstances can reach Top-3 and, in exceptional circumstances, even win Interneational Final.
  3. Extras - all the rest (no offense, just fact). Relatively young by GMC standards countries where this game has not yet been sufficiently disseminated or do not have critical mass of participants for qualitative step forward. Reaching the final stage of the International Final is an excellent result itself.

 

Over last seasons (starting in 2013), situation in the championship has changed. Now high-grade TOP-teams have only - Russia and asian teams (China, Macao, Hong Kong). Poland and Ukraine passed into the category of middle-teams after the change of generations. You can always see actual strength of each country in our World Global Management Challenge rating.

Now I must explain how and why you need make friends with foreign teams. If you have friendly team, you can use cooperative strategies. Cooperative strategy allows teams which play in the same group, coordinating their decisions or applying certain techniques, to get advantage over other teams and higher chance to win.

Negotiation with TOP-teams does not make sense, Maximum you can share your impressions about the hotel, weather and ask - how do you do. An alliance can only be concluded on favorable terms for the favorite in exchange for a couple of tips or management reports. Nevertheless, sometimes help received from favorite, management reports allow you to jump over your head and even win the International Final (Czech Republic in 2017 will not let me lie).

With middle-teams you can and should agree, at least to archive final stage together. Semifinal in International Final consists of 4 groups with 5-6 teams (depending on how many countries participate), 2 best teams go to the final stage. Help each other, you can at least exchange market information. As maximum - someone can sacrifice himself for an ally, if something goes wrong.

With extras negotiation and recruitment must be even before their arrival to the International Final. Website of every national championship can be found in the Internet. Contacts of team members can be found in social networks or in our group on facebook. Recruitment should be with respect, by the way you talk with national champion, so be polite.

Draw takes place in the evening. In alphabetical order (by country name in English), organizers call team captains on the stage. On the stage team captain wave national flag at the camera and pull the ball of one of four colors (red, blue, yellow, green) out of the bag, which defines a group, where his team will play tomorrow. If you have not managed to recruit allies yet, then do it on the draw ceremony, it is your last chance.

God bless you, if you do not play in one group with Russia, because it automatically reduces your chances to reach final stage by 50%. Russia - the only country that always plays in final.

Semifinal starts next morning. Huge plus of semifinals - two teams go out of the each group in final stage. Second place should be used as an opportunity to bring with you friendly team. If you are lucky enough to get into an easy group, take care about formation of desired composition of opponents in the final.

Reaching final is already an excellent achievement for many teams, you are unlikely get here again. Use whatever you have, use all known bugs of simulator, techniques, your goal is victory. Mindfulness, concentration, calmness, pressure, self-sacrifice, clear and precise decisions.

Won or lose - exchange contacts with all opponents, for you or your friends it will be be useful in future seasons. Good luck in the final!