Wincott Cup

The Wincott Cup is a Hearts of Iron IV Micronational Championship created by the Commonwealth of Essexia for the Grand Unified Micronational members. It involves Essexia hosting an online game of Hearts of Iron IV every year, with the winner being able to claim the Wincott Cup as a title for their micronation.

Jack D of Essexia, the creator the Championship, hoped that the competition would bring the GUM micronations together, as well lovers of the HOI franchise.

The game is played non-competitively, however at the end of the game, the players would decide on a ranking for each player as well as any awards that players may have deserved.

Etymology

The Wincott Cup was named after a passive but strong supporter of Essexia's independence, whom helped craft the ideals of the micronation. The Parliament of Essexia felt the cup should be named after him as a sort of legacy, and as he was also a fan of the Paradox grand strategy video game series.

History

Originally, it was planned that Essexia would host the first cup game, and then the winner of the subsequent game would host the next one, and so on. However, Essexia won the first game, and Shenistan (the micronation which won the second game) did not host the third game, but rather Essexia did. As such, Essexia has always hosted the Wincott Cup.

2019

Essexia hosted the first Wincott Cup as they created the Championship, and wished to set an example, as well as create a learning experience. Their emblem featured the Paradox Interactive logo in front of a globe, set in a circle. The year of the cup, 2019, is inscribed at the bottom of the outer ring. The emblem was designed with Essexia's colours of Crimson red, black, and white, as featured on their flag. The date of the game was decided to be Saturday 22 June 2019. Essexia, Slavistonia, Somcow, and New Albion participated in the June 2019 game, with Tony Sweigart of Somcow and William I of New Albion leaving during the match. Emperor Terry (Essexia, Germany) and Lord Matthew (Essexia, USSR) came joint first place, with (New Albion, Romania) coming second, President Isaac (Salvistonia, Poland) third, Lord Jack (Essexia, Brazil) fourth and Crown Minister Elliot (Essexia, New Zealand) fifth. Overall the game was deemed a success, despite internet issues, and a later 2019 game was planned.

2019 Wincott Cup

Rank	Name	Micronation	Played as
1st	Emperor Terry	Essexia	Germany
1st	Matthew	Essexia	USSR
2nd	James McGill	New Albion	Romania
3rd	President Isaac	Slavistonia	Romania
4th	Jack D	Essexia	Brazil
5th	Crown Minister Elliot	Essexia	New Zealand
None	King William	New Albion	Hungary
None	Tony Sweigart	Somcow	Yugoslavia

2020

Earl Jack put forward the notion of conducting a second game on the 10th April 2020 for the next weekend. As such, the game was held on the 17th April 2020, again by Essexia, and was deemed a larger success than the previous one, with more participants and a clearer leaderboard. Matthew (Shenfield, USSR) came first place, followed by a combined force of commonwealth nations including Summers (Essexia, Australia), Finn (Essexia, New Zealand), Terry (Essexia, India), Jacob (Essexia, Canada) and James (Essexia, South Africa). In third place came Matthew (Essexia, USA), after which came Francis (Poplar Nerva, Czechoslovakia), Harrison (Essexia, Spain), Vincent (Arthurian Empire, Germany), Jack Dean (Poplar Nerva, Sweden), Avery (Cycoldia, France) and Christina (Cycoldia, UK). Other participants included Matthew (Lytera, Japan), Alex (Lytera, Hungary), Isak (Essexia, Venezuela), Ben (Essexia, Mexico), Adam (Virtual Dreamscape, Luxemburg) and Connor (Atovia, Italy). Multiple memes came out of the competition, things such as "Crater London" made due to the hold out of solely the city of London in the United Kingdom. Therefore, Awards were introduced to reward particularly memorable moments or actions.

2020 Wincott Cup

Rank	Name	Micronation	Played as	Award
1st	Matt	Shenistan	USSR
2nd	Ben S, Finn, Emperor Terry, Jacob M, James H	Essexia	Combined Commonwealth (Australia, New Zealand, India, Canada, South Africa	Best Nation Creation (For Communist Indian Northern Ireland)
3rd	Matthew	Essexia	USA
4th	Schrödinger	Poplar Nerva	Czechoslovakia	Spam (For Czech tank spam)
5th	Harry	Essexia	Spain
6th	Emperor Vincent	Arthuria	Germany
7th	Jack D	Poplar Nerva	Sweden
8th	Avery	Cycoldia	France
9th	Christina	Cycoldia	UK	Last Stand (For creating the Crater London Area)
None	Matt	Lytera	Japan
None	Amelia	Lytera	Hungary
None	Isak	Essexia	Venezuela
None	Ben H	Essexia	Mexico
None	Adam	Virtual Dreamscape	Luxemburg
None	Connor	Atovia	Italy

2021

Plans for a third-annual game began as early as January 2021, however lack of participants or planning led to continual requests by players to go unfulfilled. It was organised in December for the 30th, right before the end of the year. The event started at 18:00 UTC, and present for the game were Jacob and Finn for Essexia, Jack and Harry for Poplar Nerva, Matt for Shenistan, Ekaterina for Cycoldia and Amelia for Lytera. A number of others were unable to attend but had voiced interest. For the first time in the cup's history, a non-essexian was deemed the winner - Ekaterina of Cycoldia, playing as Germany. Amelia of Lytera received the Best Nation Creation award for creating a unified Poland-Romania-Hungary, whilst Finn of Essexia received the Last Stand award for returning from the brink of defeat in a brutal civil war to creating a pan-pacific alliance. The Spam award was not given out for lack of any appropriate recipients.

2021 Wincott Cup

Rank	Name	Micronation	Played as	Award
1st	Ekaterina	Cycoldia	Germany
2nd	Amelia	Lytera	Poland	Best Nation Creation (For Poland-Romania-Hungary)
3rd	Harry	Poplar Nerva	China
4th	Finn	Essexia	Japan	Last Stand (Bounced back from the brinks of utter defeat in a civil war to create a pan-pacific alliance)
4th	Jacob M	Essexia	Australia
5th	Jack D	Poplar Nerva	Finland
6th	Matt	Shenistan	France

2022

Following the late organisation of the 2021 Wincott Cup, Jack promised at the end of the game to organise the 2022 cup game for Easter or Summer 2022. Participants also repeated previous calls for multiple games per year, which was taken into consideration.

Winners

Date	Host	Winner	Logo
22 June 2019	Essexia (Jack)	Essexia (Emperor Terry and Lord Matthew joint 1st)
17 April 2020	Essexia (Lord Matthew	Shenfield (Autonomous province of Essexia)
30 December 2021	Essexia (Jack)	Cycoldia (Ekaterina as Germany)	TBD
July/August 2022	Essexia (Jack)	TBD	TBD