Nation Clash: by my count, Sweden wins

The rulesHow points are scored

Nation Clash combines two tournaments. Players in Saturday's Nation Clash tournament and players on Day 2 of the Regional Championship both score for their country. At the end, each country's points are divided by its number of players: the highest average wins, not the biggest team. A country needs at least 5 players to be ranked. I covered the full rules in this article.

The standingsAll 28 countries after Saturday

16.1Sweden's average: 177 points divided by 11 players

Slovakia

13.5

Finland

13.4

Italy, 15th

10.9

Another 12 countries have fewer than 5 players and aren't ranked.

Why it's overNobody can catch Sweden

Sweden has nobody in either Top 8 on Sunday, so they stay at 16.1. But the points still on the table are small next to their lead. Canada has CB Vekx3r in the Nation Clash Top 8: if he wins the quarterfinal, semifinal and final, that's 28 points and Canada climbs to 14.6. Greece, with isolator12, would reach 14.1. The United States has six players across the two Top 8s, but even winning everything they couldn't go past 13.8: there are 59 of them, and the points are split across everyone.

Sweden has no stars, just a team with no weak spots. Eight of the eleven play under the SHAM team tag. Three finished 7-1 (SHAM Yooric, SHAM Niklas and SHAM Fel), nine won at least 5 of 8 matches, and nobody won fewer than 3.

The surpriseGermany plays at home and sits 25th

The biggest team is Germany: 647 players, almost a third of the field. But with an average, everyone who came just for fun counts too, and Germany is 25th at 8.5. That's exactly what the organizers wanted: France, with 350 players, is 21st, while the top of the table is full of countries with 6 to 11 players.

Italy15th, and three Italian medals

Italy brought 129 players: 120 in the Nation Clash tournament and 9 on Day 2 of the Regional Championship. At 10.9 it sits mid-table, between the Czech Republic (11.0) and Austria (10.1).

Each country awards a medal to the three players who score the most points for it. If my numbers are right, Italy's three are:

• nicolino: 8 wins out of 8 in the Nation Clash, 24 points, and in the Top 8 on Sunday;
• C4lcioSF: 7-1, 21 points;
• Gutshot: 7-1, 21 points.

At the Regional Championship the best Italian is darkchri99: 9-3 and 9th place, one step from the Top 8. On Day 2 he won 4 of 6 matches, which is 16 points for Italy: not enough for a medal.

SundayThe Nation Clash tournament Top 8

The Nation Clash tournament also has an individual winner, who takes home the Ekko with the CHAMPION stamp. After 8 rounds there are seven players at 8-0 and one at 7-0-1. The Top 8 starts on Sunday at 10:00 CET.

Sources: Nation Clash rules on Riftbound Organized Play; results from the official locator, Nation Clash and Regional Championship. I calculated the country standings myself from the data at 00:50 CET on Sunday, November 8.