Welcome Back My Little Crias,
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be hosted by the North American countries of Canada, The United States of America, and The United States of Mexico. This tournament will be the largest ever held with 48 countries battling for the right to be Champion of the World, and perhaps by default Champion of the Universe.
Your task is to pick wisely from the record breaking total of 104 matches and become the TSZAL 2026 FIFA World Cup Champion. There are many new surprises in store for this tournament, but we'll get to those all in due time.
For now you should check your email inboxes in hopes of finding your bracket. If you have not received one, please reach out to confirm your email address. Once you have received your bracket you can fill it out like you have done so with brackets before.
A brief message on two features to assist you in picking your matches. First and foremost, you no longer have to worry about breaking ties. A new system has been implemented by FIFA that goes through a series of tie breakers, culminating in a nation's FIFA ranking as the ultimate decider. No more will you have to make adjustments or pick a tie breaker after the fact. Just focus on entering your scores, because the bracket is programmed to sort through the rankings and break any ties that may arise.
Secondly, you will notice upon opening your bracket that in each match-up there is a number above the team names (Please see diagram below). This number is the Win Expectancy, a calculation used by the World Football Elo rankings to determine the predicted outcome of a match. The closer the number is to .500, the more likely a team is expected to draw. The closer to .000, the more likely a team is expected to lose. The closer to 1.000, the more likely a team is expected to win. In the example below Mexico's Win Expectancy of 0.924 means they are highly expected to win. South Africa's Win Expectancy of 0.076 means a draw would be considered an upset, and a win over Mexico one of the biggest upsets in World Cup History.
One final note about the brackets. Due to the fact that there are 12 Groups in this tournament, the playoffs will look vastly different for each competitor. The top two teams from each group advance to the Round of 32. They will be joined by the best 8 teams to finish in 3rd Place. Depending on which teams advance changes the draw for the Round of 32. We were unable to automate this process. As a result, once you finish picking scores for the Group Stage, please notify us so we may set up the Round of 32. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your cooperation.
The scoring system has been updated for this tournament, but we will save that news for another day. For now, focus on finding time for your brackets. All brackets must be handed in by Wednesday, June 10th at 11:59 pm or you will face a penalty. If anyone has any question, please reach out.
Best of Luck to All,
The Grand Salmon Alpaca
