2024 Captaincy election: Q&A thread

[Purplegoo]

How to vote: viewtopic.php?f=85&t=46975

Hi all,

Since we have two candidates for the position of 2024 TE captain, we will have an election according to the below timeline.

This thread is for your Q&A. Please post below and give our two candidates an examination before the voting opens next week. Good luck to both KFoged and PeteW.

Thanks!

Phil.

• 23rd Oct: Assuming 2+ candidates, Q&A begins
• 30th Oct: Voting begins
• 6th Nov: Voting ends, captain elected unless further rounds of voting are required (see the TE charter for details on instant run-off voting, in the event there are 3+ candidates)

[Purplegoo]

KFoged opening statement

Hi, my name is Kaare Foged, also known as Kfoged. I have played tabletop Blood Bowl for over 25 years and started playing NAF tabletop tournaments with the first World Cup in Nottingham. Since then I have played tournaments in a total of 17 countries and have some success in single events and more importantly being lucky enough to win great team tournaments like Lutece and UKTC.

I played my first EuroBowl in the English shirt last year after switching from Denmark, which I represented between 2012 and 2017. Why did I switch? For me, Blood Bowl is all about community and I have been very involved in the English tournament scene since I started playing tournaments and I have been living in England since 2016. I am a familiar face and name to many players across England, committed to the tournament scene and a regular attendee to events all over the country. I have also supported the Waterbowl League and Tournament in that time and am a part of the Tackle Zone team for their upcoming Teams Tournament.

I cannot promise to field the strongest, on paper, 8 coaches in England, but I can promise that I’m going to do my very best to field a team that are strong representatives for the community that I would be confident the community can throw their support behind.

I also have a slightly different vision of how I would like the TE captaincy to operate as I do not want to take on this responsibility entirely alone. I’m fully aware that the community is big and it’s a tall task to pick the team, so my first act as captain would be to select a vice captain. This individual would be an important part of the team selection process and would also most likely take up a role as a non playing or spare 9th player in the Team England EuroBowl team.

PeteW opening statement

Hello members of the English Blood Bowl community. Thank you in advance for reading my pitch for continuing as captain of Team England for Greece Eurobowl 2023. Many of you will know me already, as I try to be a friendly face at tournaments across England.

I was originally voted to be captain in the winter of 2019, for the 2020 EB. My mandate was to unite the fractured English community and pick a competitive team with members from both the north and south of the country, and also to extend Team England to include the EurOpen team and fully involve them. The team I picked was strong and experienced at BB 2016, and I was pleased that both aspects of my mandate were satisfied. Then covid hit, and we lost a couple of years of bloodbowl. During this time the rules changed, and so did people's lives. The community was very generous in allowing me to continue as captain, and I extended that to honouring the team picks (with one change due to life circumstances).

In reflection, the team wasn't as strong as it could of been, and our finish of 11th was uninspiring. Some of the team were underprepared, and as captain, I made the mistake of undervaluing the 'gimmicks' of star players, which proved to be a mistake in the 2020 ruleset.

I would love the opportunity to lead Team England again, and rectify those mistakes. My aim for Team England 2024 would be to involve some of the exciting new English players that have arrived on the scene. The 12-person Team England for 2024 will look very different from the 2020 line up. And I say "person", as the English blood bowl tournaments are no longer solely dominated by men, which is a great step forward for our hobby.

I also want to win! To do this we also need to take the best possible team, equipped with the best races, in the context of whatever the final ruleset allows. The trial ruleset currently in use on Fumbbl goes far further than any previous Eurobowl in attempting to make all races viable, and so a lot of thought needs to be given to what the metagame will look like, and which races will perform best in it.

I hope that there will be lots of questions and I look forward to engaging with them.

[Barney the Lurker]

Hi to both of you thanks for standing.

One of the things I've noticed is that since the internet has moved away from forums, different communities engagement seems to have become fragmented over a number of different platforms, Facebook, Discord, Reddit, etc.

If elected as captain, what plans, if any, do you have to engage with as many communities to ensure that you can select from the largest player pool as possible?

[PurpleChest]

Assuming in some strange format you felt it might suit the tie break situation for the next round draw to ask an England player to lose their match up, would you? could you?

[Danny]

What metric would you use to determine who is a strong player? For example is it recent tournament wins or placings, past performances and longer term consistency, a more detailed delve into statistics, who you’re mates with (not my opinion, but the opinion of many from what I’ve heard people say), or something else?

[Wobert]

Which way around will you select a squad?

Look at the rule set first, decide the 8 most viable races and pick the best coaches for those teams?

Pick the best 8 coaches available and then select races around the coaches?

A bit of both?

Something wildly different?

[PeteW]

Four questions already - this is great. So pleased there is keen community involvement.

Barney
We have tried a few "official" locations for Team England over the years, but none are ideal, partially because the hobby spans generations and so there are different patterns of usage across the formats your describe. The Committee's current position is to keep TFF as the permanent record, but to engage with FB, X, Discord etc as much as we can to ensure that as many people are reached. The NAFC committee were also kind enough to give us space at the tournament to give a notice in person. Communications is very much a committee function, where the captain is one voice amongst five, but if elected I would continue to push for maximal reach, especially when advertising for players to put themselves forward.

PurpleChest
That's an interesting question! Quite frequently at team tournaments, especially the 8-person EuroBowl, team members are asked to make decisions that they might not make if it was a single player tournament. Those are usually "please keep the safe draw as that is what the team needs for the round" where the player may have wanted to push for a less likely win and would be happy to risk the draw. Or, "please push for a win at all costs, a draw isn't enough" when they would rather sit on a safe draw! I have never heard of a situation like the one you suggest, and I expect in practical terms it would be too difficult to accurately calculate the situation. Risking drawing a round seems unwise. Also, all of the nations' team are strong at EB, so an easier round isn't really a reality. As captain, I think I would push to win every round, and never plan to drop to a draw, even if that did potentially make for an easier final round. But I am happy to ask coaches to do the best for the team, and it is a requirement of joining TE that they are happy to be a team player.

Danny
Great question and one that every captain wrestles with each year! I would say that it is part art and part science. I will consider as much data as I can, but being aware that data needs to be used in context. I consider the following:
- Ranking (both NAF and Glicko) are a first vague indicator. If someone has sub 150 ranking for all races, they are unlikely to be a serious contender, but equally, I could probably find coaches with high NAF rankings who have got there by slogging their way through small tournaments.
- I would then look at their specific matches to see how they fare against recognised coaches, especially those who have played for EB teams of other nations. This is really useful data as you will play six tough matches, so understanding how people fare against top coaches is key.
- This year, looking at players records in BB2020 is important. We have more data now, and 2020 is a different game to 2016 and earlier versions. There is a big increase in fouling and the use of stars etc, which has shifted the meta.
- I would also consider character, from personal knowledge and from their application. Are they going to be a team player, or play selfishly?
- I wouldn't ever pick anyone just because they were a friend (or family - sorry Thomas). However, given that I have bee around for a while, and been to the bigger tournaments in the UK, I do know many of the top English coaches, and would call them friends. That being said, it is great for me to check the first page of English coaches on the NAF and spot three coaches who I don't know, or don't know very well. This is great for the English game, as we need newer faces breaking through and I look forward to them becoming friends.
- I would also consider the Eurobowl ruleset and think about what races might be the most competitive, and then have a rough idea of what races people might use as I selected them. If, for an unlikely example, I have 4 applications from people who had all only ever used the same race, then it would be unlikely for them all to be chosen. Perhaps if they expressed a determination to pick up a new race and use it exclusively for a year then I might be convinced to give them a go. Alternatively, there are other coaches who get great results with a variety of races and who I know would be able to turn their hand to almost anything. However, their NAF ranking may not be as high if they have not been focusing on one race.

As a said, I would consider as much data as I could whilst trying to pick the strongest team.

Wobert
Another great question, and it sort of follows on from the last one. The answer would be "a bit of both", but with more weighting given to the people, rather than their performance with particular races. However, racial use isn't totally irrelevant. Overall, I think I would rather see people with good results from a number of different races, or at least, a number of different playstyles. But also, there is a place for a play-type specialist.

[Purplegoo]

You both play plenty online. What significance, if any, does online play have in your selection thinking?

KFoged: Can you expand on the role of the VC? Are there to be additional responsibilities, beyond spreading the load of captaincy?

Pete: Interesting thoughts on the Malta result. What proportion of our final position was us being underprepared, and how much of it was just one of those Blood Bowl weekends?

Good luck, both of you.

[stewbacca]

Hi both,

In professional sports national teams often do things to try to help the next generation of players to come through. Things such as calling up players on the fringes to be around the squad, learn from them, train with them and share the experience of large tournaments. Other things include investing in the grass roots of the game so that younger players get good training at an early age.

Obviously Blood Bowl is very different to these professional sports, and the ideas above are much less practical. Do you have any ideas or plans to help improve the quality of players who aren't in the team, but potentially could be, other than the official TE Europen team?

[GreenskinPhil]

Hello Both,

Would there be any plans to expand further on the reasons behind selection for the team (& to echo others comments) give feedback to unsuccessful coaches so that they may have goals & criteria to aspire to moving forward?
As the competitive scene continues to expand it would be great to know why selections are made & for those who represent us English coaches to be celebrated accordingly. A diverse team which represents the expanding player base would be fantastic too for overall by in to the team.
In the absence of defined qualification criteria from data (whether by tournament or rating overall or by race) would the captains thoughts on who they selected & why be possible?

Thankyou in advance & good luck to you both!

[TheRake]

Hi guys

Pete mentioned that he felt that coaches in the 2022 team were underprepared. Of course it is primarily on the coach themself to ensure they are ready for an event, but if elected captain what plans do you have for ensuring the team you select remains prepared throughout the months leading up to the event? Will there be regular meet ups, active discussions or something else entirely?

Good luck to you both

[KFoged]

If elected as captain, what plans, if any, do you have to engage with as many communities to ensure that you can select from the largest player pool as possible?

It is a tall task for anyone to be involved everywhere and I don’t think it is realistic, but I do think the committee has done a lot already and the word is seemingly spreading wider than before! The main focus has to be the tabletop scene which is why having a Vice Captainwould help with accessing the various BB communities across England and with monitoring how players are getting on. but otherwise I’m sure that I can trust the community to also help each other by getting all our talent to put their names forward for the two teams (as I very much plan to keep the TE EurOpen team)..

Assuming in some strange format you felt it might suit the tie break situation for the next round draw to ask an England player to lose their match up, would you? could you?

It seems like a highly unlikely scenario and one I would hope never arrives in reality. For me personally a team tournament is all about the team and I would personally take an individual loss if that meant the team was more likely to win the whole tournament, but I would also respect that not all would be willing to go to that extent So yes I would put the scenero to them and respect their judgement, but I would never demand that someone throw a game.

What metric would you use to determine who is a strong player? For example is it recent tournament wins or placings, past performances and longer term consistency, a more detailed delve into statistics, who you’re mates with (not my opinion, but the opinion of many from what I’ve heard people say), or something else?

This is very much why my first action would be to find and appoint a vice captain that will share the big responsibility of picking the teams (with TE EurOpen team as I prefer to keep that concept running). The idea is to find a person in the community that is based/covers a different circle Ithan me, and who also has played plenty of team tournaments. It is important to note though that I would still be captain and would have the final say in selection as the community elected representative.

My personal first parameter can only be what my own eyes have seen, which is why my position as a very regular tournament attendee makes me a good captain pick. After that Iwould have to look at the coaches development and current trend as a whole picture. A willingness to share and help other people will be a softer parameter that would count highly for me on top of the players abilities on the pitch.

Which way around will you select a squad?

Gosh that is a big question and even bigger with the very flexible rules for next year's EuroBowl. It does have to be a bit of both, but in my experience most talented coaches are also more than able to play at least a few different races. I expect that it is possible with the very flexible rules to find a good fit for everyone on the team, playing to their individual strengths without forcing them to take a team they are uncomfortable with.

[cornish]

Firstly, thank you both for standing up to Captain Team England. I wish you both the best of luck this week and ultimately in Greece in 2024!

Kaare mentions the importance of community and not necessarily picking the strongest teams ‘on paper’.

Pete also talks about involving the ‘exciting new players that have arrived on the scene’ and that TE24 will look very different from TE20.

1. Like others I’m keen to understand how you might both select a team for both Eurobowl and Europen that the country can truly get behind, support and cheer on as we should for our Country?

2. Unfortunately, I don’t personally feel I’ve had much investment in TE during the decade I’ve been playing and am keen for you to explore the idea of wider engagement. Therefore, following on from my first question how do you plan to generate a fan base and inspire new and old coaches to strive to be one of your 8+4 elite now, or for a TE pick in the future?

3. I’m interpreting that you are both still expecting self nominations and wondered why you don’t feel able to select players from the population based on the abundance of performance data available to us, but also your own familiarity with the tabletop competitive tournament scene and the strong coaches across the country?

4. I also presume as a Captain you are expecting to play? Have you considered a performance based selection principle for all 12 members of the Teams, meaning that you could have a non-playing role. I do recognise in both your circumstances you would both likely achieve selection on merit!

5. What do you hope your legacy as TE Captain will be?

Recognising some similar themes in my questions I am happy for you to incorporate replies in other responses or address it later in the week once more questions have come in rather than keep recovering old ground. Equally, if you feel you’ve already addressed me adequately elsewhere I appreciate this.

[PeteW]

Wow - so many questions!

You both play plenty online. What significance, if any, does online play have in your selection thinking?
Pete: Interesting thoughts on the Malta result. What proportion of our final position was us being underprepared, and how much of it was just one of those Blood Bowl weekends?

1. Interesting. I don't think I did look on Fumbbl when selecting for the last Eurobowl. I might have vaguely looked at the NAF online tournaments, but that was back in 2019 and there weren't so many, or so widely played. This time round I probably would look at them a bit more, but with a huge pinch of salt, as I know some coaches don't take them as seriously, or use them as an opportunity to test, or go crazy with odd rosters. I do confess that I have never played BB2 or BB3, so when selecting I will be asking coaches to tell me if they have experience there and whether that is impressive or not! If elected, I would need to do some work talking to informed people to get a decent appraisal of that.
2. A fair comment, and I didn't come across as being too harsh on the team. Perhaps 2 or 3 coaches were unprepared personally. I think our team group think was stuck in the past and resistant to much-needed challenge. A couple tried, but were dismissed by the main. But yes, there were quite a few 'moments' where results swung against us. So perhaps we were unlucky in Malta overall. But after all those wins, maybe we deserved a loss!

Do you have any ideas or plans to help improve the quality of players who aren't in the team, but potentially could be, other than the official TE Europen team?

That's an interesting question, and I think one for the committee, more than the captain. The committee has just published a super newsletter which kind of answers this question and points coaches towards top tournaments gives reports of experiences. But actively training coaches is hard work and takes time. I would recommend that aspiring coaches watch some of the top streamers, or spectate on fumbbl in addition to getting to the top tournaments.

Would there be any plans to expand further on the reasons behind selection for the team (& to echo others comments) give feedback to unsuccessful coaches so that they may have goals & criteria to aspire to moving forward?
As the competitive scene continues to expand it would be great to know why selections are made & for those who represent us English coaches to be celebrated accordingly. A diverse team which represents the expanding player base would be fantastic too for overall by in to the team.
In the absence of defined qualification criteria from data (whether by tournament or rating overall or by race) would the captains thoughts on who they selected & why be possible?

For the last Eurobowl, I did give detailed feedback to all who applied. It was by email, rather than a phone call, as I feared getting 40 applications and not having the time to phone everyone. I recommended personal strategies for each of them. For successful coaches, I think that each captain has, by tradition, given a short line of text to introduce each coach, and a longer paragraph for any new coaches. I continued that tradition and would do so again.

Pete mentioned that he felt that coaches in the 2022 team were underprepared. Of course it is primarily on the coach themself to ensure they are ready for an event, but if elected captain what plans do you have for ensuring the team you select remains prepared throughout the months leading up to the event? Will there be regular meet ups, active discussions or something else entirely?

Another super question. The main problem with the last EB was that it followed Covid, and so there hadn't been the time and opportunities for many related reasons. Also, the BB2020 rules were relatively new, which added to the problem. And in comparison to some of our mainland friends, we had only had one official training sessions, whereas I believe other nations had many. If elected, I will be making involvement in any NAF fumbbl tournament with EB rules mandatory to practice with their race in the ruleset. I will also try to arrange at least two training sessions, and potentially a wider event as a EB warm up NAF ranked tournament where other coaches can try their hand against the Team England 12. We had a very active Whatsapp group last time, which we will have again, where rosters and observations were liberally shared.

1. Like others I’m keen to understand how you might both select a team for both Eurobowl and Europen that the country can truly get behind, support and cheer on as we should for our Country?
2. Unfortunately, I don’t personally feel I’ve had much investment in TE during the decade I’ve been playing and am keen for you to explore the idea of wider engagement. Therefore, following on from my first question how do you plan to generate a fan base and inspire new and old coaches to strive to be one of your 8+4 elite now, or for a TE pick in the future?
3. I’m interpreting that you are both still expecting self nominations and wondered why you don’t feel able to select players from the population based on the abundance of performance data available to us, but also your own familiarity with the tabletop competitive tournament scene and the strong coaches across the country?
4. I also presume as a Captain you are expecting to play? Have you considered a performance based selection principle for all 12 members of the Teams, meaning that you could have a non-playing role. I do recognise in both your circumstances you would both likely achieve selection on merit!
5. What do you hope your legacy as TE Captain will be?

I think there has been a view that Team England is an established clique, and that there is no way in from the outside. Although that view may persist in a few corners, I hope that my team picks last time indicated that the team was open to anyone. I was only first picked in 2018, so I am relatively new to TE myself. With that perception hopefully (mostly) shattered, I hope that the posts around FB, Discord etc will encourage people to look and see, and hopefully apply. If you don't mind me spinning it back to you - why didn't you feel that invested, and what could have past captains have done differently? I remember in years gone by checking FB for the Team England updates and following their progress. It was exciting for me. As mentioned above, the Committee are doing great work to publicise, promote and involve others.
3. Yes I will pick myself to play if elected. There is a lot of work (and stress) in being captain, and part of the reward is playing. If needed I will justify that pick, but I hope that I don't get forced to! There is data, but the data is made more complex by context. We could create some arbitrary goals like other nations do, eg. top English coach at the NAFC, top over 6 defined events, best win %, but those may not give the best team. Over the years, the committee (not the captain) has preferred a more flexible selection process, rather than a fixed one. The winner of the NAFC may not be the best coach, and just had a lucky run, and therefore not be a good pick. If you declare certain events to be qualifying events, then coaches feel forced to take their best races, rather than go for enjoyment. I usually only get to do 6 tournaments per year, and I love playing with Goblins and Black Orcs, both for the challenge, and for the different tactical subspace that they inhabit. I don't want to play my Dark Elves at two thirds of the events I go to, but if that was what I had to do to maximise my TE selection, then I may do that. Likewise, the Team England committee has not wanted to potentially detract from English coaches tournaments.
4. See above - I think I answered it.
5. Legacy! Ideally a win, but I would also like a continuation of my previous mission to continually involve a wider spectrum of coaches, whilst retaining a competitive team - see my intro.

[KFoged]

You both play plenty online. What significance, if any, does online play have in your selection thinking?

KFoged: Can you expand on the role of the VC? Are there to be additional responsibilities, beyond spreading the load of captaincy?

I think the online play scene adds another layer to the dataset, when you are evaluating a coach, but this is a tabletop event and there are already rules about minimum play. So yes I will take it into account, but nothing more than that.

The idea with the VC was first and foremost to change the team selection from a lone wolf responsibility into a cooperative task ideally with a person from another circle than me, so we can challenge each other's ideas and pick a competitive team the community can support. When it comes to EuroBowl itself my intention is that the VC would become a 9th player in case of any issues (i have played a man down both at the UKTC and World Cup due to illness and I do not want to be in that spot with TE) and a non-playing coach that can help keep the bigger picture of the matchup and overall standing. With that in mind the person I pick would likely not be in contention for the main Eurobowl 8, but would need to be a very competent individual to help the team in a worst case scenario.

Obviously Blood Bowl is very different to these professional sports, and the ideas above are much less practical. Do you have any ideas or plans to help improve the quality of players who aren't in the team, but potentially could be, other than the official TE Europen team?

A lot of what I do within the community is very much already with the focus of trying to make everyone better! I have been saying for years “that I would rather lose a good game than win a bad game”. This is why I…
Was Streaming under pandemic,
Created and ran my resurrection league (TackleZone Star Division) on Blood Bowl 2.
Created my vodcast series “One & Done” about 1 turning
Often cannot stop myself from “coaching” people I’m playing against.

Hopefully any one selected on TE would be just as willing to help out and spread their knowledge around to the people on the EurOpen squad but also more widely to people that just want to get better. I hope we can do both open (and more closed) events that can help push our community forward because currently we are behind some of the other big European countries like France in terms of strength in depth

Would there be any plans to expand further on the reasons behind selection for the team (& to echo others comments) give feedback to unsuccessful coaches so that they may have goals & criteria to aspire to moving forward?
As the competitive scene continues to expand it would be great to know why selections are made & for those who represent us English coaches to be celebrated accordingly. A diverse team which represents the expanding player base would be fantastic too for overall by in to the team.
In the absence of defined qualification criteria from data (whether by tournament or rating overall or by race) would the captains thoughts on who they selected & why be possible?

First of all I’m coming from a nation (Denmark) where most the spot is decided using a coach ranking system and by your yearly high in the qualification period, but personally don’t see that as either the best way to put the best team together or an effective way of creating a team that isa good representation of the community. It does offer a very straightforward way of qualifying, but it also makes it a numbers game and you can game the system. There are always difficulties, for example using ranking gives an advantage to the players already on top, but a yearly qualification system using a series of tournaments (like Scotland?) should reflect the current strength but lacks the ability to look at old results.

I do think having a captain/committee picking the team gives the best options for having the right team, but it does put a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of the captain and naturally can result in perceptions of bias. Again, this is exactly why I want someone as a Vice Captain within this process to make sure we get a wider take on the selection even if the final word would be my as the captain. I would love to give feedback to everyone putting their name forward if they are interested to hear it and I’m always open for questions and friendly games (within limits of course) with people who want to pick my brain.

Pete mentioned that he felt that coaches in the 2022 team were underprepared. Of course it is primarily on the coach themself to ensure they are ready for an event, but if elected captain what plans do you have for ensuring the team you select remains prepared throughout the months leading up to the event? Will there be regular meet ups, active discussions or something else entirely?

In my answer to Stewbacca I’m touching very much on this, a big personal reason for me to run for this role is to give back to the community that has given me so many good memories over the years! I will do my best to host/facilitate both open and more closed events to do my part to drive the group learning and understanding forward. We are stronger as a group than as individuals, and Team England Blood Bowl is VERY different from playing in our different local/online leagues. So yes, yes and yes I would love to have regular events if the community commitment is there to get involved.