Well, based on allllll of the responses I've gotten about who wants to be a captain (/sarcasm) and what I've heard from quite a few players, it seems there isn't much interest to play in this Riker Cup. I can understand some discouragement from it ending the same way each of the last ~4 years. So, as a player, I'd like to propose an alternative plan:
There would be, like the Riker Cup, a best-of-3, winner-take-all 10v10 match. However, the teams wouldn't be based on region. Whoever wants to play in these matches can sign up, whether they're from North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, or wherever, and whether they are active or haven't played in years.
Here comes the fun part: we go all fantasy football draft (don't worry if you don't know what this means) on this thing. There would be 2 team captains and we can host a live draft on a replay server or somewhere where the captains draft their players in order 1 by 1 from the sign-up pool until each team has 14 players (starters + alternates). We can make each captain be 'on the clock' for 45 seconds max to make his or her selection. Once the teams are formed, we can have the best-of-3 matches a week or two later.
The two captains should probably be of similar caliber, so teams don't start off uneven, and they should be active enough to recognize the players and their respective value. Other than that, I have no idea how to decide on 2 out of the whole league.
One major advantage of this is it'd be extremely competitive, something that people think the Riker Cup hasn't been in a while), as it'd theoretically be even teams.
One disadvantage is it takes out the fight-for-your-continent pride behind the match (but how much pride is there in Europe trying to defend Lebanon anyway
)
As for the name, I'm partial to The GU League All-Star Game, but that's not that important.
Thoughts?