United States

The United States brings the biggest player pool in the world to almost any online game, and a culture that treats competition as a birthright. Before you meet the Stars and Stripes across the divide, here is the honest picture.

What the USA gets right

• It is the world’s innovation engine: Silicon Valley, most of the top-ranked universities and the largest research budget on the planet.
• The national park idea was invented here - Yellowstone in 1872 was the first national park anywhere, and 63 parks now protect landscapes from Denali to the Everglades.
• Space belongs to its resume: the only country to put people on the Moon, and home to the busiest private launch industry today.
• Its cultural exports - Hollywood, jazz, hip-hop, basketball - shape what the rest of the world watches, hears and plays.
• Service and convenience culture runs deep: if you want it open at 2 a.m., America probably has it open.

Where the USA struggles

• Healthcare is the most expensive in the world per person, and medical bills remain a leading cause of personal debt.
• It is the only wealthy country with no federally guaranteed paid vacation or parental leave.
• Outside a handful of metros, daily life depends on a car; public transport coverage is thin for a country this rich.
• Gun violence rates sit far above every peer nation, a gap no other wealthy democracy comes close to.
• The wealth gap is wide and visible: booming zip codes and struggling ones often sit minutes apart.

Half the arena wants to beat America. If you ARE America, the scoreboard above is yours to defend - pick a duel on the home page.