Blood Bowl Grand Tournament in Baltimore:

Skummy · Post by **Skummy** » Mon Mar 10, 2003 9:53 pm

The tournament took place in the Baltimore Convention Center, a beautiful building in the inner harbor. My league was able to take 6 people into the tournament, bringing Dwarves, Lizardmen, Orcs, Norse, Wood Elves and Skaven. None of us had been able to get any information on how the tournament was being run, so we assumed it would be a series of one-off games, and we modeled our teams to reflect this.

Our surprise was complete when the organizer annonced that we would essentially be playing in a mini-league, and would be rolling for money and gaining star player points. Since all six of us showed up with extremely low fan factors, we knew it would be a big challenge.

I coached a lizardman team named "Thesaurus." I was none too thrilled to draw a human opponent coached by the extremely nice John A. He managed to kill one of my sauruses on his first block of the game, and badly hurt one of my Skinks in the same turn. Despite the player disadvantage, and being hit by a 5 person pitch invasion, I managed to pull out ahead by a final score of 2-1.

My next opponent was a real pleasure to play against, and got my sportsmanship award for the tournament. Mark coached the Waashingstone Greenskinz, and coached them very well. Good winnings let me freebooted a saurus for the match, keeping me at 10 players. His piling on Black Orc took out my Kroxigor 4 turns into the game, but again my offence pulled me through to a second win - the rowdy orcish crowd pelted me with rocks twice in the game.

Four players made it to the final round undefeated, and I'm happy to say that one of them was another member of my league named Steve. He coached an Orc team against a tough Skaven opponent while I took on the New Orc Giants, another undefeated Orc team. Because of extremely lucky rolling on money, I was able to freeboot two more Saurii in my final game. Both of these matchups went into overtime, and were extremely close. Steve mananged to roll triple skulls after his Black Orc dodged out of a tackle zone to hit a Gutter Runner. He managed to pull his game out and finished undefeated. My Lizardmen were not so lucky with their ball handling and failed two different 3+ rolls that would have won them the game.

Mark was declared winner of the tournament with the tiebreakers, and everyone went home happy. The tournament was a blast! Thanks to everyone, and hopefully next year GW will double the size and keep the surprises to a minimum!

Skummy · Post by **Skummy** » Mon Mar 10, 2003 10:02 pm

Oh, I almost forgot to post some of the great quotes of the tournament:

"0-3 is better than being at work."

"Now I'm going to foul you every turn."

"Yeah, Blood Bowl's in there. Over by the little girl's restroom"

"Men have better spatial skills. Women have better speechal skills."

And a sample of the local flavor:

"Get your soda off my stand, @sshole!"

Poxous · Post by **Poxous** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 1:26 am

Four players made it to the final round undefeated, and I'm happy to say that one of them was another member of my league named Steve. He coached an Orc team against a tough Skaven opponent while I took on the New Orc Giants, another undefeated Orc team. Because of extremely lucky rolling on money, I was able to freeboot two more Saurii in my final game. Both of these matchups went into overtime, and were extremely close. Steve mananged to roll triple skulls after his Black Orc dodged out of a tackle zone to hit a Gutter Runner. He managed to pull his game out and finished undefeated. My Lizardmen were not so lucky with their ball handling and failed two different 3+ rolls that would have won them the game.

Mark was declared winner of the tournament with the tiebreakers, and everyone went home happy. The tournament was a blast! Thanks to everyone, and hopefully next year GW will double the size and keep the surprises to a minimum![/quote]

Mark? Todd!!! Anyhow, good game there by your lizardmen. If only that skink was not so slimey and could have picked up the ball!!! Thankful my Orcs and your dice won the day. I learned a lot playing your lizardman and had a blast. Now I have decide to go to Chi Town or not???

Deathwing · Post by **Deathwing** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 1:31 am

Sounds like a riot.

Always love to read about tournies.

Poxous · Post by **Poxous** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 6:45 am

I had fun. Tons of smack talking. BB is such fun. It might have been nice if GW told us the rules before had but...hey it all worked out to be a fun tournament.

BTW:

My team:
Thrower - picked up accurate after game two
Blitzer - picked up mighty blow after game 2
Blitzer
Blitzer
Black Orc
Black Orc
Black Orc
LineOrc
LineOrc
LineOrc
LineOrc
Troll
FF 5
2 rerolls

Lead the tournament TDs and CAS( second was orcs too!).

DaFoola · Post by **DaFoola** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 12:57 pm

That surprise format caught several of us off guard, I think. I discovered this fact just after my only catcher got killed early in the first game of the tournament.

The variety of teams was a real pleasure to see (almost as many elf teams as orcs and humans), and with a couple of exceptions (I think just Steve [who didn't have time] and myself [who hadn't painted in a while]), everyone's team looked spectacular. There were several really entertaining games - overtime matches, 6 skaven vs 6 high elves by the end of another, a 2-TD comeback. This was my first GT and it was a blast.

On another note, damn PBeM for making me a slack-ass about my turn marker. Got called for an Illegal Procedure in the first game, and then, showing signs of my not having eaten lunch prior to the tourney, promptly managed to draw more than one IP in the second game, one of which occured in overtime just as I was about to pick up a loose ball and make a run for it. Otherwise, might well have been 2-0 rather than 1-1 after 2 games. Naturally, I didn't fail to move that piece of cardstock $hit in game 3, but the Darkpool Eagles will be looking to redeem themselves if Steve and I have a chance to lock horns again.

Skummy · Post by **Skummy** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 1:37 pm

Gah! Yes, Todd won the the tournament! This is why I made notes of the player's names - and yet I *still* managed to screw it up!

Skummy · Post by **Skummy** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 2:14 pm

Pics are up!

http://www.games-workshop.com/news/us/e ... odels.1htm

Have to say that the pictures don't do Todd's troll justice. He's holding a bloody femur in his right hand, and it got cropped out of the frame.