World Cup 87 qualification

World Cup 87 qualification was a series of games to determine the 30 teams that will join hosts Ethane and Taeshan at the World Cup 87 finals. The qualifying group stage attracted special interest due to the return of Unofficial World Championship titleholders Al Qurija, putting the original "belt" back into circulation alongside the "interim belt" held by Baker Park.

Format
The qualification structure is as follows:
 * Group stage: The 190 qualifying entrants were divided into 19 groups of ten teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The 19 group winners and three best group runners-up directly qualified for the World Cup finals, while the 16 remaining runners-up advanced to the play-offs.
 * Play-offs: The 16 teams group runners-up who failed to qualify directly were paired into 8 two-legged playoff ties. The winners of each tie qualified for the World Cup finals.

Tiebreakers
In the group stage, the ranking of teams in each group was based on the following criteria:
 * 1) Points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss);
 * 2) Points in matches between tied teams;
 * 3)  in matches between tied teams;
 * 4) Overall goal difference;
 * 5) Drawing of lots (OOC: cumulative roleplay bonus).

The same criteria were applied to rank the group runners-up, which determined the three directly-qualified runners-up and the seeding for the playoffs.

Seeding
Teams were seeded into one of ten pots according to the KPB ranking system, updated as of the end of the 74th Baptism of Fire; ties between teams with the same rank were broken by the order in which the tied teams registered for the tournament, with the first team(s) to register seeded highest. Teams will be drawn consecutively into Groups 1 to 19, with the positions of each team in their group (for the purposes of determining the match schedules in each group) determined by a computerised draw after the conclusion of the draw ceremony.

Playoffs
The sixteen group runners-up that did not qualify directly were paired into eight two-legged playoff ties by the serpentine method (i.e. the best runners-up play the worst runners-up, the second-best runners-up play the second-worst runners-up, etc.). The lower-ranked team in each tie played the first leg at home.

Teams in green qualified for the World Cup; teams in yellow were invited to Cup of Harmony 79.


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