Eurobowl report

The annual European clash of Nations.

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Da_Great_MC
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Eurobowl report

Post by Da_Great_MC »

Eurobowl Copenhagen report

The goal…

Team Belgium came to Copenhagen with one goal: hosting Eurobowl 2013. Three of our coaches (Driesfield, Sjapie and Magictobe) have been preparing a possible “Eurobowl Belgium” ever since the rule was implemented that the highest finishing nation that hasn’t hosted the event will get the opportunity to host it the next year. They’ve spent a lot of time looking for locations and considering all the organisational aspects…

Needless to say we were not too pleased when people were openly questioning this rule in Copenhagen, suggesting a clean sheet so all winning countries can get another shot at hosting Eurobowl. I think I can safely speak for the Belgian Blood Bowl community when I say that we do not support this suggestion.

The past…

Belgium’s had his quarrels in the past. Some rather unfriendly ones too. All of that culminated at Eurobowl Biarritz in 2010, where Team Belgium hired a freebooter while there were still Belgian players available… But those are old cows and we are grown people. When the dust settled down, we organised a sit together where every frustration was laid on the table and settled. Ever since, we have been moving forward and the only way is up.

The present…

The Belgium Blood Bowl Federation organises a yearly qualifying season for Eurobowl, starting in March, ending with the Belgian Championship. We aim to reward coaches that attend a lot of Belgian tournaments and do well there. The higher you finish, the more points you earn, your five highest scores count towards your points total. Bigger tournament (attendance and # rounds played) hand out more points. On top of that, you get bonus points for playing different teams, you can get an extra score for getting a result with a stunty team and you can add a ‘foreign’ score for a good finish at a tournament outside Belgium.

The qualifying system has had a two year (2009-2010) test run and was implemented for the first time to determine who qualified for Eurobowl Copenhagen. Currently we are already halfway the qualifying season for Eurobowl 2013. When the season ends, the top 6 coaches get first dips at securing themselves a spot at Team Belgium for the upcoming Eurobowl. Even though it’s still more than a half year away in March, those six coaches have to commit themselves at that point. If one or two coaches can’t / won’t make that commitment, the coaches that finished in 7th and 8th place are given the chance to take a spot on the team.

The six qualified members then deliberate and hand out two wild cards for the remaining two spots on the team, focussing on the races they want to play and the coaches they need to fill the gaps. With the team complete, a captain gets chosen, looking at his role from an organisational perspective (preparation, inscription, transport…). Last year this whole procedure didn’t take longer than two weeks and Team Belgium knew his formation before the end of March.

The qualifying system has proved his reliability and fairness so far and while some people had their doubts when it was first presented, we’ve heard very few negative comments ever since. On the contrary, we saw debates on international fora with people asking for a transparent selection procedure in every country. A lot of fingers were pointed in our direction and we are proud to be a frontrunner when it comes to this matter.

The team

The top six qualified players all accepted their spot on the team. Masterfit (Sean Van Osselaer) chose to play Undead, Driesfield (Dries Goutsmit) went with Norse, JJ (Jean-Jacques Bernkens aka “the captain”) took Skaven, Carloz (Karel Meuleman aka “the champ” because he’s the ruling Belgian champion) has been playing nothing but Lizardmen all career long, MagicTobe (Bart Verstuyft aka “tuberware”) stuck with his Orcs and I, Da Great MC (Mats Clays) got the Wood Elves.

We then handed the wild cards to Xod (Robbert Valkeneers) who is by far our best Amazon player and Sjapie (Christof Simons) who has been getting good results with Dwarves for many years. We had another candidate to play the Dwarf team, but the fact that Sjapie is a driving force in the Belgian Blood Bowl community tipped the scales in his favour.

The trip

Exactly twelve hours from my front door to the front door of our chalet in Copenhagen. It was a long and uneventful trip and we were very grateful for that, when we heard the other car got stuck in traffic and lost over three hours queuing in Germany.

My Wood Elves

Very few decisions had to be made. I tried the Thrower + Leader combination, I tried the apothecary and I gave the three RR option a quick thought but dismissed it without ever testing it. In the end I went with the Treeman + four Catcher roster, which has been serving me well in the past. After all, Eurobowl is not the right time to try out new tactics.

With only two RR’s, Sure Hands on a Catcher is always the first skill on my roster. When receiving I don’t want to use a RR picking up the ball, when kicking I want a reliable ball retriever once I manage to get the ball loose. A Sure Hands Catcher gets both jobs done.

The Strip Ball Wardancer is another no-brainer for me. Regular tournaments have a lot of different races, but at Eurobowl only the tier 1 races see a lot of play. Teams like Lizardmen, Chaos Dwarves, Orcs, Skaven and Wood Elves normally don’t have a Block + Sure Hands player, which gives you the opportunity to attack the ball carrier with a decent chance to either bring him down or at least get the ball scattering.

My third skill was Frenzy on the other Wardancer. When attacking, people sometimes give you the wide zones because they fear your crowd push potential. When you are playing the clock you can move the ball in the wide zone and punish opponents that try and get too close. When defending, the opposing team will try to avoid an all out flank attack because of the Frenzy Wardancer, when they attack trough the middle your Treeman gets to play along.

Day two skills were Sidestep on two Catchers, I love hugging the sidelines with a sidestepping ball carrier and my defence is a lot more secure when they both defend a wide zone. You’d be surprised how few people dare to attack a Catcher with Sidestep next to the sidelines with a Frenzy Wardancer lurking around.

My double skill was Guard on the fourth Catcher. A Belgian saying goes “A mobile Guard player is worth his weight in gold.”. Getting that extra assist when and where you want it helps a big deal, both when kicking and receiving.

ROUND 1 vs SWEDEN

Sweden made its Eurobowl debut against us. All we knew about them was that they are regular fumbbl players that decided to attend Eurobowl because it was held so close.

Da Great MC vs lard (Wood Elves)

Lard played a 3RR roster. His First Eurobowl started with a Pitch Invasion that stunned a lot of his players due to my +2 Fame. I scored an early 1-0. He managed to get a quick 1-1 and then successfully attacked my ball carrier when I was stalling it out in the wide zone near his end zone. He got the ball loose, but I had too many players around the action and he never got the chance to pick it up. From that point on, I took care of his Strip Ball Wardancer and scored 2-1 in turn 8.

The second half saw lard scoring twice and me retaliating each time, resulting in a 4-3 final score after a game in which every offensive drive was completed successfully. I think I had a more reliable offense, only ever needing 2+ quick passes and hand-offs, while lard needed to make a 3+ short pass for every one of his touchdowns. But in the end it was all about clock managing and I did a better job there.

Final score: 4-3 (cas: 1-0)

Carloz was the only other Belgian who won his match. Dries lost vs Dark Elves, which is a very bad matchup for Norse, while Bart only got a draw vs Norse, which should normally be a great matchup for Orcs. Sean, Sjapie and Robbert also got a draw, while captain JJ’s Skaven were grinded towards a 1-2 defeat vs Chaos Dwarves.

BELGIUM vs SWEDEN: 4-4 (4,5 - 4,5 we split the bonus point for winning the whole match)

Not the result we wanted, but it was very important not to lose the opening game. Keeping spirits high during a seven round tournament is a big factor.

Meanwhile Sean traded his way towards a full set of star player cards. He found the only two missing cards when he looked through the collection of the Dutch. But they weren’t keen on trading them away, since they had them only once. So Sean offered them ten cards they didn’t have yet. After the deal was sealed the conversation went like this:

Dutch card trader: “so how many cards are you still missing after this trade?”
Sean: “How many do you think?”
Dutch card trader: “Oh.”

Dutchies, you gotta love them. That’s at least one competition we won.

ROUND 2 vs FRANCE

The “big six” (Denmark, Italy, France, Spain, Germany and England) had decided they would play each other in round one. I hadn’t heard about that decision prior to the tournament and it turned out I wasn’t the only one who got caught by surprise. Even England’s captain objected, but his complaint got dismissed.

It was a very strange ruling, I personally can’t see any argument to fix pairings, as a guided draw takes away a lot of the credibility of the competition, but we didn’t complain, because it meant we avoided a round 1 clash with a top country… anyway, here were the French.

Da Great MC vs FXIII (Chaos Dwarf)

I asked FXIII kindly to not use dice with a picture where the 6 should be. He refused and said he wanted to use his dice. As the organisation gave us the possibility to share dice, but didn’t give us any means to ban possible loaded dice, I shut up and got ready to play.

I am hereby not saying in any way that my opponent’s dice were loaded! He had pretty bad dice rolls against me, so I am actually convinced they were not. It’s just that, when I play a match and I see those pictures coming up, I start paying too much attention to the dice and it takes my focus away from the game. Which is a bad thing.

Chaos Dwarves are normally a very good match-up for Wood Elves, so I was confident. FXIII brought a Sure Hands Bull Centaur to try and stop the Strip Ball madness, but this meant his ball carrier didn’t have Block. If you want to dedicate a Chaos Dwarf team to beating Wood Elves you have to bring Sure Hands and, on top of that, a Mighty Blow Dwarf, but that makes you a lot weaker vs the bashing teams.

The game started in Blizzard. I received and launched an attack trough the middle, courtesy of his scrimmage biting the dust and his well protected wide zones. FXIII tried to go around my cage in an attempt to blitz my ball carrier, but he forgot all about the Blizzard and failed his second GFI, losing a RR in the process. He might have made a different play, instead of making the triple GFI attempt, had he remembered about the Blizzard, but that’s not my fault. I managed to stall a few turns and score in turn 4.

From there things went quickly downhill for FXIII. A failed pick-up cost him a second TD in turn 6. And when his Sure Hands Bull tried to rush towards an ultimate TD, my Frenzy Wardancer launched a half die blitz resulting in a pushback. The second 1 die block made the Bull Centaur crash and I got to pass the ball for a 3-0 lead at halftime.

I was dreaming about wearing the most TD cape at that point, having scored seven in one and a half game, but my opponent received in second half and never tried to go for a quick score, which meant I never got a decent chance to score more TD’s. I popped the ball loose once, but it scattered in the wrong direction. In the end my opponent grinded himself to a 3-1 in turn 16. I even won the casualty count!

Final score: 3-1 (cas: 2-0)

Sjapie lost his match, Bart got a draw and all the others won, resulting in a crushing victory over the French. This launched us to the top of the standings and I urged Sean to take some pictures of the leader board while it lasted.

BELGIUM vs FRANCE: 6,5-1,5 (7,5 - 1,5)

Lunch was more than ok. I had a salami/mozzarella sandwich and it tasted extra good after beating the French. While we were eating, one of the French pointed his camera at me, asking me to share a comment on the round. I told him we had given the French something to chew on for the next year…

Crazy thing, knowing the final results.

ROUND 3 vs DENMARK

Finding your team on top of the rankings (we were in second place if I remember correctly) means you’ll get tough opponents who will try and give you a hard time. The Danish might be our hosts, but they were not planning on handing out points as a welcome present.

Da Great MC v Niebling (Undead)

There are two decisions to make when playing Undead at Eurobowl. You either play 4 Ghouls, adding extra speed and agility but reducing your roster to twelve players, or you play three Ghouls on a thirteen player roster. Second decision is who you give Guard to. You either give it to a Wight, who will have an easier time protecting your cage, or you give it to a Mummy, who is more likely to stand his ground in a bashing matchup, but can also get marked out of the game more easily.

Niebling went for the anti bashing options: thirteen players, three Ghouls, Guard on a Mummy. Good news for an ambitious Wood Elf coach like me. His third skill was Frenzy on a Wight, which meant he had only one Blodger. More good news.

Niebling received and caged his ball in a wide zone. He blocked my Treeman with his Mummy and chose to spend a RR on a double ‘both down’ result. I thought that was strange, since his ball was already protected. Nuffle shared my feeling and rewarded Niebling with a double skulls and a stunned Mummy. Next turn I leaped into the Undead cage and got the ball loose…

… and that’s when Nuffle decided to change sides …

… the ball made an unlucky scatter and my Sure Hands Catcher couldn’t reach it. My Strip Ball Wardancer got escorted into the crowd and the blodge Ghoul picked up the ball and went hiding in the back.

I got an easy 2D blitz with Frenzy on the ball carrier, the Ghoul was facing a crowd push and I had some Catchers waiting to pick up the thrown in ball. Life was still looking good, but my Wardancer failed his leap twice and my Catcher marking the ball carrier got pushed into the crowd. “The Great Escape.” Directed by Niebling.

Anyways, the ball was out of reach. I got to retaliate with a crowd push, but decided to dodge a Catcher into safety First. This resulted in a double one and the first half was completely over: 0-1 at halftime.

Second half I set up a flank attack, which was easily stopped by Niebling. So I went back to the scrimmage, handed the ball to another Catcher and went for a change of flanks. But I miscounted and one of his Ghouls managed a dodge, two GFI’s and found a clear pow. I was frustrated about the first half, played incautiously and got punished for it. I still had a chance to pick up the ball on a 3+, hand it over on a 3+ and dodge away for an equalizer, but I failed picking up the ball. It all went downhill from there…

Final score: 0-2 (cas: 2-1)

I don’t agree with Niebling’s skills, I certainly don’t agree with the decisions he made during his first two turns, but once those two turns had passed, he was simple the better coach at our table. I got unlucky at the start of the game and let my emotions influence my game play. A well deserved loss. Niebling went on to an individual second place finish.

While I was suffering against the Undead, Sean’s Undead were absolutely destroying Kfoged’s Dark Elves, clearing the pitch by turn 13. Some crazy dice rolls were made over there. At my other side Carloz lost a tight game vs Fisherking’s Wood Elves, but he did what he could in this absolute nightmare matchup.

BELGIUM vs DENMARK: 3-5 (3-6)

We knew a loss was probably coming sooner or later. And 3-5 wasn’t such a bad result. On to the next one. But first we had dinner. Some great pasta/pesto, good bread, Danish meatballs, roast beef and tomatoes buffet. The Danish did a superb catering job!

ROUND 4 vs GERMANY

Last round of Day 1. With the extra skills kicking in, I felt more confident. Man, did I welcome those sidestepping Catchers! We knew we had to get a decent result vs Germany, it would make Saturday night a much more enjoyable time.

Da Great MC vs Flix (Dark Elves)

In my heart I am a true Dark Elf player. I won my first tournaments playing Dark Elves and there is not another team I am so familiar with. To my eternal shame I have never played them at any Eurobowl or World Cup. There have been times when one of my team mates was playing them. There have also been times when I thought the skill set favoured Wood Elves and Norse over Dark Elves. When the rules set for this Eurobowl was announced and Dark Elves were tier 2, I was going to play them for sure. But then they were moved to tier 1 - where they belong - and I went back to playing Wood Elves. Still, there have been a lot of those large tournaments where I went home thinking I could have probably had more fun and/or a better result playing Dark Elves.

A long introduction, only to explain how I knew this matchup inside out, even though I have mostly been sitting on the other side of the table. Flix had given Leader to his Runner, he made himself two wrodge (wrestle + dodge) Witch Elves and topped that with two blodging Blitzers and a guarding Blitzer. I would never take a Runner, because he is very vulnerable and his only purpose is to take the Leader skill, which I think you don’t need. Just get yourself enough blodging Blitzers and the team should be stable enough to get along just fine with two RR’s.

Flix received and I made him score an early 0-1. He then opted to go and hide into a zone defence, never allowing me to move beyond the scrimmage line. I was very happy to not engage in contact with my AV8 counterparts, exchanging a blitz action each turn. When I set up a decoy flank attack in turn 6, Flix sent all his positional to that flank. I had to make a hand off to a sidestepping Catcher who bolted towards the other flank and hugged the sidelines where the Dark Elves couldn’t reach him anymore. Some unexpected bad German defending there! Halftime score was 1-1 after a very good half for my team. I really felt I was in control of the game. #Da_Great_MC #EurobowlRound4 #driverseat

Second half saw me receiving and I tried to set up the same scenario: I hid my ball carrier in a cage behind my Treeman, setting up blitz actions in the wide zones, where my sidestepping Catchers were ruling the pitch. After four or five turns Flix finally made a move. He made a 4+ dodge in my cage, getting him a 2D blitz on my ball carrier and knocking him down. But I had kept enough players around my cage, so he couldn’t just steal the ball away. We had a scrum for ball possession and it looked like I was going to end up on the good side when I made a turn 15 short pass towards an unreachable sidestepping Catcher in scoring position. But I couldn’t find a 3+ and the inaccurate pass scattered towards my guarding Catcher, that was supposed to protect the sidestepper. My team mates cheered on me for having such a lucky scatter, but the cheering quickly disappeared when they saw the 3D blitz action taking my Catcher down. To make matters worse, the ball scattered towards his blodging Blitzer. In my final turn I had to make two 3+ dodges to strip the ball from that Blitzer and hopefully run it in for a 2-1 victory. But my turn ended on the very first 3+ dodge and Flix didn’t fail his hand off + quick pass, ending the game in a 1-2 defeat.

Final score: 1-2 (cas: 1-2)

I knew this was a bad matchup, Dark Elves are the better bashing team (higher AV, more Block, more ST..), they can score as easily as Wood Elves and they can cage much better than their woodie counterparts. I never got the feeling that Flix knew how to take advantage of his races superiority, but in the end he walked away with the win. And that’s the only thing that counts. Blood Bowl can be so cruel!

And even more cruelty was upon us. Bart was preparing a turn 16 Orc touchdown vs Pro Elves which would secure us a 4,5 - 3,5 win over Germany. So Sean came over, tapped him on the shoulder and told him how important it was for him to bring the game home. Then Xod walked by, asking about the situation. People told him about the deciding turn 16 that was about to begin, they told him about the point that was at stake for defeating Germany... Bart overheard it all and he chocked. I’ve seen it happen to him before: an important turn 16 + a lot of people around the table = blackout. So he just did what he always does when not seeing the solution: he started rolling block dice. He couldn’t find the clear pows he needed, the sidestepping Pro Elf Blitzers blocked every escape route and in the end he had to try some crazy 6+ dodge, which promptly failed. I’ve seen him choke and still bring in the result, but not this time.

BELGIUM vs GERMANY: 4-4 (4,5 - 4,5)

So we all tried to cheer up Bart after the dramatic end of his match. And what better way to do this than paying a visit to KFC’s? We don’t have a single KFC in Belgium, Copenhagen has three. Life is not fair. So we entered and Sean ordered a “24” for each coach. It turned out this was a bucket with 24 fried hot wings... a bucket for each person.

We made ourselves comfortable on the terrace of our chalet, eating chicken and handing it out to the other guys of the Belgian team. Sharing food is easy when you have too much. We looked back on the first day of competition. We found ourselves still in a great position to reach the podium, there was a very big gap between us and the other aspiring Eurobowl 2013 organisers. Sjapie (0-1-3) and Bart (0-2-2) got more than their fair share of hugs and encouragements while Sean and Carloz were applauded on for wearing most casualty cape and most points cape during the day. Life was good and team spirit was very high.

At that point I was very tired, so I went to sleep around midnight. The other guys decided to throw a party at our terrace, inviting just about every other Eurobowl team. A lot of booze was had, drunk people were eating cold chicken wings and smoking cigars, other drunk people fell asleep in our bathroom, lucky people were trying to make out, losing their purse in the process, other people tried to sing which ended up in a lot of noise making... When I woke up at 7:15 and overviewed the chaos that used to be our terrace I decided it must have been a great party. Which was later confirmed to me by most Belgians who had all tried to go to sleep at some point, but miserably failed because of the noise. I am a professional DJ. I have a bad left ear. I sleep very well.

ROUND 5 vs FINLAND

Sunday morning and the Fins were awaiting us. Finland was making its Eurobowl debut. And we were about to milk them for as many points as humanly possible. It’s always good to have a plan.

Da Great MC vs Pera (Dwarves)

Don’t ask me why or how, but I had never played against a dwarf team before. I had never met them in my 27 tournament games with Wood Elves. And the only practice session which Sjapie and I were both scheduled to attend got cancelled last minute. But I had played against Dwarves often enough with other teams, so I knew what they were about.

Pera brought 4 guarding Longbeards and a Runner with Block, which is important against Wood Elves. I didn’t write down his sixth skill. I decided my best plan would be to try and make him go to the wide zone and set up some crowd pushes.

The game started in absolute disaster. Pera knocked down a Lineman, knocked out another Lineman and his Troll Slayers knocked down my Treeman. This left my Frenzy Wardancer exposed to a blitz and he was Dead & Injured on turn 1! I had already lost my most important player before getting my first turn. Ouch.

My Treeman managed to get back on his feet, only to get knocked down again on turn 3. He failed getting up for the remainder of the half. Another Lineman and my guarding Catcher were KO’d early in the half. Pera had the ball tucked away safe with his block Runner in a cage full of guarding Longbeards. I set up a zone defence, made a blitz with my remaining Wardancer every turn and tried to move all my guys out of contact. Pera didn’t move his cage forward all half, even though he was up five players. When his seventh turn ended, he didn’t have a single player in scoring position. He had the opportunity to take the lead, but he didn’t go for it. Strange.

Second half saw me start with eight players. Pera only put one player in each wide zone, so I didn’t have too many difficulties scoring on turn 10. My last player returned from the KO box and I had nine players to defend my lead.

Pera went for a flank attack, keeping his ball carrier in a cage. The critical moment came when he left me an opening to get an easy 2D blitz on his Runner. I brought in my guarding Catcher and my Wardancer knocked the Runner down. The ball scattered on one of his Longbeards who promptly produced the 6 he needed to catch the scattering ball. I had used three players to attack the ball but they were out of position now and my remaining players couldn’t stop the cage from moving forward. When turn 15 ended, only two Dwarf players were in scoring position, the ball carrier not being one of them. So I brought as many players back as possible, but I lost my RR early in the turn and the second or third dodge went wrong. I still had a decent defence, but Pera did what he had to do: he blitzed away one of my players, made a 4+ hand off, a 4+ dodge, a3+ dodge and two GFI’s, hereby ending the game in a draw.

Final score: 1-1 (cas: 0-2)

I was disappointed, because I felt I deserved a win here. But it was a good game. I was chewing on the game, trying to see if I could have done anything different that last turn. In the end I had to accept that my opponent made the right decisions, saw what his best chance was and went for it. I had a chat with Pera after the game. He turned out to be a really great guy, which made losing points to him less painful. After the tournament, when a lot of players were exchanging shirts, he was the first one that came to mind, but he was twice as big as I am, so in the end I decided to keep my own shirt.

We were winning the round but not as easily as we had planned. Sean had defeated yet another elf team, putting him firmly in the lead of the race for most casualties. Bart was cursing all game long, but he saw his bad luck ending in turns 15 and 16 when he succeeded a whole series of ‘do or die’ rolls to bring in an unexpected draw. Good for his morale.

BELGIUM vs FINLAND: 5-3 (6-3)

It felt good winning the round, even though we didn’t get the margin we had hoped for. The Fins might have been Eurobowl rookies, but they knew how to play the game. So we had peace with the result. And my second mozzarella/salami sandwich of the weekend was already calling out to me.

ROUND 6 vs ENGLAND

I always like playing the English, they always bring a squad of good players, most of whom we know, because they attend Brassbowl every year. They aren’t too noisy during the games, unlike some of the southern competitors and their sportsmanship is unmatched.

Da Great MC vs Geggster (Orcs)

Flashback to Brassbowl 2005, my very first tournament. I played Geggster in round 5 and his Orcs handed my Chaos Dwarves a crushing defeat. Ever since, I believe him to be one of the best players in the world and he has backed up my statement with some fantastic results and achievements. On top of that, he’s just a very nice opponent.

Orcs are a good matchup for Wood Elves, especially if they don’t have a Thrower with Block or a Blitzer with Sure Hands. They don’t have a lot of Mighty Blow, even fewer Tackle and their players lack speed and agility to reposition against Wood Elves. Geggster played a 2RR roster allowing him to bring an Apothecary. He gave Leader to his Thrower, Tackle to a Blitzer, Block to his Troll and made three guarding Blitzers.

The first half was defined by the Orc’s inability to remove my players. Geggster received, got the ball in a cage, rolled double skulls with his tackle Blitzer who got stunned. By the time he got back on his feet, Geggster had changed flanks and his key player never reached the action until it was too late.

My sidestepping Catchers locked down the wide zone completely, forcing Geggster to make a run through the middle where my Frenzy Wardancer quickly got the Thrower down. I retrieved the ball and handed it to a Wardancer. Geggster failed a Dodge and couldn’t stop me from scoring 1-0 in turn 8.

Second half saw me receiving, I still had ten players at that point. I launched a flank attack, Geggster’s tackle Blitzer rolled snake eyes making a GFI and was promptly knocked out, at which point Geggster used his apothecary to keep him on the pitch. But the turnover bought le all the time I needed to stall a few turns and run in the 2-0 on turn 12. The Orcs went for a quick passing play but it failed, effectively ending the game there and then. The Wood Elf MVP went to the Orcs tackle Blitzer.

Final score: 2-0 (cas: 0-1)

Sean drew his match, knocking him out of competition for the individual overall win. Bart won his first match of the tournament against Lycos. Always nice to take the President’s scalp. Things were looking bright for Team Belgium, we were standing our ground against yet another top nation.

Sjapies Dwarves had the ball in a cage and he was grinding towards his first well deserved victory which would end the confrontation 4,5-3,5 in our favour when the Amazon player pulled this stunt: dodge on a 6+, roll a half die block against the blodging ball carrier and finding a double pow. When the ball scattered out of the cage towards the Amazons, a sure win was turned around in a sure defeat. And 5,5 points became 3,5 points. Now that was a crushing blow.

BELGIUM vs ENGLAND: 3,5-4,5 (3,5-5,5)

The loss knocked us out of the race for the medals. We were sitting in sixth place. Austria, who had been competing in the back of the field all tournament long produced a big win vs Finland (if I recall correctly) and all of a sudden they were breathing in our necks, only one point behind us in the standings.

To make matters worse, we were paired up and had to play third ranked Italy while Austria was paired down and got to play bottom team Wales. We felt doom impending on us.

ROUND 7 vs ITALY

Flashback to Bologna 2007, my first Eurobowl where we made a great run. We defeated Scotland, Hungary, Germany and France leading the competition all tournament long when we faced Italy in the last round. We needed at least a 3,5-4,5 loss to keep them behind us and claim a surprise victory, bringing the Eurobowl trophy to Belgium. And losing 3,5-4,5 was just what we did... only to see Spain crush England (7-1 if I remember right) and steal away our title. Silver never tasted so bitter.

Da Great MC vs Roller (Dwarves)

Roller had cut a Troll Slayer and the fourth RR to make room for an Apothecary. He had four guarding Longbeards, a Mighty Blow Troll Slayer and a Dodge Runner. The apothecary is probably a very good idea against a lot of the bashing teams out there, but I was happy to see only one Troll Slayer.

I won the toss, chose to receive and launched a flank attack, only to see Roller set up a great defensive play, pushing my Frenzy Wardancer into the crowd and totally blocking every route towards the end zone. I knew Roller was good, but I hadn’t seen that turn coming. I had to make four dodge rolls and a 1 die blitz with a Lineman to escape out of the situation. But when my short pass succeeded, I changed flanks and ran in a turn 3 score.

Things looked even better when I rolled Perfect Defence (my first of the tournament) and Roller failed to pick up the ball. I went for a quick decider, but failed the 4+ pick up with my Sure Hands Runner. Roller saw his bad luck come to an end: he made the 4+ pick up, dodged away, handed off the ball to his other Runner and ran it forward. I had already spent both RR’s and couldn’t muster enough defence to stop him from equalizing at halftime.

Until that point Roller had played the perfect game. But when I crowd pushed his Troll Slayer and it was a casualty, he decided not to use his apothecary because the first result was bad. I think that was his only mistake, not trying to save his most important player when receiving second half against Wood Elves.

Anyway, second half was all Roller: two Lineman were Dead & Injured, the other two Linemen were KO’d and didn’t return, meaning I had only seven players to kick off the second half. Roller quickly removed a Wardancer and a Catcher, my Treeman got rooted on his first turn and I couldn’t put up a fight. The Dwarves ran in their second touchdown in turn 16. My OTS attempt ended in a Perfect Defense, giving Roller a well deserved win and the pitch mat we were playing on.

Final score: 1-2 (cas: 0-2)

My team mates didn’t fare much better. I was the fifth player to finish my game and we were down zero to five. Bart pulled out his second win, beating Farina, he was to only one to take home a pitch. Xod and Dries both drew their game but they lost the pitch on tiebreakers.

BELGIUM vs ITALY: 2-6 (2-7)

Meanwhile Austria had drawn their round against Wales. Not a big result for them, but enough to finish above us. Our team was sitting at a table, all eight coaches together, and it was dawning on us that we had missed our goal. Eurobowl 2013 was not coming to Belgium.

Seven unhappy faces, even in defeat we were still a team. Only Bart was all smiles and cheers because he had won his last two games and took home a Eurobowl pitch. Even though I was happy for him, that was not the time to give his personal result priority and I told him so. So he tried and put up a sad face. Dinner was ok, but we didn’t enjoy it like we should have. That night nobody felt like another trip to KFC’s.

When prize ceremony rolled around the French were crowned Eurobowl winners. Their round 2 defeat against us knocked them down the rankings, allowing them to score some easy points against some of the weaker teams. But in the end they gave Denmark a 7-1 whopping in the final round, making their victory a well deserved one. Felicitations!

Sean took home the title for Most Violent Player, a superb personal success! He got to play against four Wood Elf teams and rolled crazy against his Dark Elf opponent. This might have helped just a little bit. But we were all very happy for him, even though he didn’t buy the beers.

In the end we finished in ninth place with 31 points. Not only the Austrians (32,5 points), but also the Swedes (32 points) managed to catch us. The fact that we had to battle France, Denmark, Germany, England and Italy while they got to earn their points against Scotland, Wales, Holland and Switzerland doesn’t make it feel like a just result. The Swiss pairing system is commonly accepted, I believe it to be the best system available. But this weekend it was very cruel to us.

The trip home

We woke up very early Monday morning and left our chalet at 6:30 am. The breakfast buffet on the Rodby-Puttgarden ferry was an amazing highlight! Exactly twelve hours later Sean dropped me off at my front door after a long and uneventful trip, which we were grateful for.

Afterthoughts

Eurobowl Copenhagen is in the books. I would like to thank the organizers for hosting a great tournament. They managed to find a good location, provided us a nice place to stay during the tournament and served us very tasteful food. Thank you Team Denmark!

I would also like to thank all my team mates for a great time. We might not have reached our goal, but we battled it out against the top countries all weekend long, which was an amazing experience. In the end they turned out to be a little stronger and more consistent than us, which is the difference between fifth place and ninth place. There is still a gap we need to close.

But some of our coaches brought back very nice results, especially Sean, Carloz and Dries deserve an honourable mention for posting a positive result! And Captain JJ fulfilled his role with great devotion, we didn’t have to worry about anything, JJ made sure everything was arranged for us. Thank you Captain!!

I also want to address some words to Sjapie, who had a horrible result with six losses and a draw. We chose to give you a wild card and I still think that was the right decision. You proved to be a very good team mate, being very loyal and helping us to keep the team spirit high even though that must have been difficult for you, not being able to contribute to the team’s point total must have felt really bad. Sometimes you get a streak of good fortune, sometimes Nuffle decides it’s not your weekend, no matter what you try. Don’t worry, you will be back. Keep your head up, I am sure you’ll get your revenge in Austria. And when that happens we will be there, cheering you on.

My own result was very mediocre: three wins, a draw and three losses. I didn’t face a single Lizardmen team, which I believe to be an auto-win, but I also managed to avoid all the Norse squads, the team I think is my bane. So all in all I can’t really complain there.

Bad luck? Maybe a little against Niebling’s Undead, Flix’ Dark Elves and Pena’s Dwarves. But I also got lucky against FXIII’s Chaos Dwarves and Geggster’s Orcs. Maybe, If I had gotten a little luckier in the difficult matchups and a little less lucky in the good matchups, I might have gotten a better result. It’s not about the good rolls, it’s all about when to produce them.

So now there’s nothing left for us but to take home the things we experienced, learn from the mistakes we have made and try and copy the good plays we saw some of our opponents pull off. That way we can only return as a stronger team!

Thank you for reading my report. I know it’s a long one. Leaving a comment would make me very happy.

I hope to see all of you at a Belgian tournament or in Austria next year!


- Da Great MC -

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Re: Eurobowl report

Post by Don__Vito »

Really nice read, thanks for taking the time to write it up.

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Re: Eurobowl report

Post by driesfield »

The game vs Germany's Kithor was hilarious when I blocked my own Ulfwerner whom I had mistaken for one of his werewolves.

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Re: Eurobowl report

Post by Tripleskull »

Great report.

I think any change to the rules for orcanizing the Eurobowl need to be given thorough thought. Maybe getting to host without winning should be restricted to countries that have participated at least some number of times, say three times?

Il let it be up to the captains where and when they want to take this discussion thought.

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Re: Eurobowl report

Post by Afroman »

Great Reading!

A report like this from other countries would be greatly appreciated!

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Re: Eurobowl report

Post by Darkson »

Very nice round up.

Seems every EB one good player has a nightmare. Geoff (podfrey) went 0-1-5, or something liked that, in 2010?

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Re: Eurobowl report

Post by Hangus »

I don't know who The England player who pulled this 6+ dodge / half dice combo was but it certainly wasn't me and I used amazons and I played for England and I played against Dwarves. Getting facts right might make this very interesting match report even better.

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Down with this sort of thing....
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Re: Eurobowl report

Post by Da_Great_MC »

Hi Hangus, Sjapie told me this was the way it happened. So I trusted his words.

He may have dramatised the way the game got turned around. I didn't see it happen, so I can't confirm either way.

Congratulations on your win and the final fourth place. We'll meet in Austria :evil:

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Re: Eurobowl report

Post by Hangus »

It was a great against Sjapie (a highlight because he is a top bloke) I think he was traumatised because he was in control of the game, although not guaranteed a TD, and his luck deserted him.

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Re: Eurobowl report

Post by Niebling »

I don’t agree with Niebling’s skills, I certainly don’t agree with the decisions he made during his first two turns, but once those two turns had passed, he was simple the better coach at our table. I got unlucky at the start of the game and let my emotions influence my game play. A well deserved loss. Niebling went on to an individual second place finish.
Whats wrong with my skills? :) I really would love your input, I debated for a looong time on a danish forum how to go about it.
A guard mummy is a must for me
Also a Blk Ghoul is hard not to have at first
The frenzy was debated a lot, but overall its a game winner, it sure won our game ;) But I know many like Joe does not like it... but so far I am happy with the skill choice.

About my first two turns, when I rerolled the double bothdown vs your Tree my ball was not 100% protected, their was a hole in my cage at the back, and if you had jumped in to strip the ball it would be a bit empty spot for the ball to bounce. The plan was to move a freed player their if your tree went down, the RR might have been a bit early, but when playing WE any turnover usely means they will take momentum and then your in trouble. Also it was my guard mummy your tree was hugging and I reallyed wanted him free so that I could get him near the cage.

It sounds like you dont agree on that I made the cage close to the side line? if so we have to disagree, that was by design. When playing WE the only way to win (unless you dice rape) is to force the WE coach to commit his wardancer, and then hope that in the following turn you can either punish the WD with a surf and recover the ball again. Its not perfect, but vs WE you dont have many other options, and this is also why I have a frenzy payer, so that when my cage is at the side (close to the side I did not place it right up at the side) you can come in and start the surf party :)

Good read!! wish I could do the same for my matches :)

And ill never support a reset of the host rights.

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Re: Eurobowl report

Post by Da_Great_MC »

What's wrong with your skills? There is nothing wrong about them, I may have written this too harsh. It's just that we made other choices.

Block on a Ghoul is obvious. We had two on day 1.

Guard on a Mummy is a matter of taste. We put guard on both Wights (day 1 - day 2), because we felt that a Mummy could be marked away from the action far too easy. Which suited Sean just fine as he got to play five games against elf teams. But I can follow you there, against Dwarves and Orcs it's probably better on a Mummy.

Taking Frenzy on the Wight is what we disagree on. I believe in Frenzy, but I think Wights are not mobile enough (both AG and MA) to take full advantage of the skill. On top of that, I think you need as much Block & Guard as possible. Undead is not a team for fancy play, they should focus on what they are good at and take as many skills as possible to support that game plan.

Our game plan was: cage up, perform a three die blitz with a Mummy in front of the cage every turn. Move the cage behind that Mummy. It worked pretty well, but so did your game plan, looking at the results.

---

Now ... on to the turn 1 RR. You had both Mummies and a Zombie next to my Treeman. But the first Mummy and the Zombie had already moved. I understand how you hoped to knock down my Treeman, who would then continue to fail getting up, but I would never spend a RR in that situation. Especially since you could choose 'both down', which would free the Mummy that was still standing and the Zombie if I failed getting up the Treeman.

About the 'cage in the wide zone tactic': I only attacked your cage because I saw a chance of getting away with the ball. Otherwise I would have never gone for it. Even now, looking back at how it eventually played out, I still would have made the same decision. Strip Ball guy was three squares away from the sidelines after he had blitzed the ball carrier and Frenzy Wardancer was waiting to retaliate an eventual crowd push.

But then you left your ball carrying Ghoul unprotected (behind your cage) so I had no choice but to target him. Succeeding that blitz would have almost certainly led to a Wood Elf touchdown (barring snake eyes), but I failed the leap even with a RR...

Stupid part of the match was that the first half ended when I failed that leap. All the snake eyes and double skulls that followed, was just Nuffle rubbing it in.

I think you deserved the win, because I played very bad second half. But the game would have been completely different if I had gotten even remotely average rolls in the first two turns.

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Re: Eurobowl report

Post by Northernknight »

Da_Great_MC wrote:Eurobowl Copenhagen report


The fact that we had to battle France, Denmark, Germany, England and Italy while they got to earn their points against Scotland, Wales, Holland and Switzerland doesn’t make it feel like a just result.
Whoa there, bit harsh I feel. We took 2 points off the Danish and 3 off the Germans. It was only a very late TD by Austria for them to avoid a defeat in the final round. We played the French as well (well, Dave did lol )

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Re: Eurobowl report

Post by Pipey »

Just like to say - when Belgium do host EB I expect it will be truly awesome. You are a fantastic community and won't disappoint!! :)

Great report. More of the same please everyone.

Bad luck Christof. Everyone has a bad tourney. The Podfrey example is a good one. You'll bounce back!

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Re: Eurobowl report

Post by lauth81 »

Hangus wrote:I don't know who The England player who pulled this 6+ dodge / half dice combo was but it certainly wasn't me and I used amazons and I played for England and I played against Dwarves. Getting facts right might make this very interesting match report even better.
Indigo (freebooting for the Dutch) pulled a stunt like this in his game vs myself in turn 8 2nd half giving him a draw instaed of a loss. Don't know if that's the one you're talking about though.

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Re: Eurobowl report

Post by Thadrin »

Sjapje is one of the best guys in Blood Bowl and a damn good Dwarf player. I'm genuinely flabbergasted to learn he had such a poor weekend. He definitely "had a Porrit".

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