I would like to express my honest opinion here, little though it may matter.
The debate with the small nations teams has been going on since the NW release as far as I remember. The fact is; There are very few countries that CAN NOT field 10 people for a match. Will that 10 man team be good? No definitely not. But it will be a
National team. People should play as that, not try to find ways to be super competitive. If every minor nation brought their team that, admittedly, cannot compete with the "Big-Ones" the tourney would became more true, more unique. Take for example the Gibraltar national football team. They never really hope for victories, but they do go to play. They DO play with what they have.
That is what we have been doing with the Greek team for years. We play as we can, we never had more than 2-3 really good players at a time (myself not really being one) but we tried and gave a fight.
Now, I am not judging the Host's opinion here, nor do I try to alter it, this is why I waited for the end of the sign ups to post. I am just trying to raise a point about the difference between the desire to
Try and win and the desire to just see the
Victory. Which both are acceptable approaches.
I really wish we could see more, currently looking, honest attempts like this years' Serbjan or Bellarussian teams. Both try to field their Nations team instead of just trying to find a couple of old Veterans to mix with a neighbouring country. Which is also almost the case with Ireland this year. I don't want to insult anyone, but this debate has pretty much transformed into a joke. I do understand though that the situation between countries that are so linked together (Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales) can be tricky. I think that the decision to make players with dual citizenship pick a permanent team once and for all is the best possible, as long as it is done clearly and impartially.
Finally, yeah, I definitely understand that people want to have a chance at winning. That is something completely understandable. I just don't
personally sympathise with the merge or cheat (fake national identity, which has happened A LOT in the past) approach.
Call me a Greek in debt and disagree, I'll get it