EYBBL 7’s Autumn Cup I - Revenge of the Crowd

Our league has naturally evolved to host a series of themed tournaments throughout the seasonal calendar.

The Autumn Cup was something we’d anticipated for a while - Halloween being a favorite holiday for many of us, we all eagerly waited to see what the genius behind the Snotling Spring Cup could come up with this time, and boy we were not disappointed.

In the spirit of the holiday, a lot of the coaches decided to throw the meta-chasing caution to the wind, and run the spookiest team they could muster, displaying all the variants of the undead teams Blood Bowl had to offer, apart from Tomb Kings (thank Nuffle).

To nobody’s surprise, I ran my Eagles (Elven Union) team, based purely on the fact that, with my current schedule, there was no way I could get another team painted up and ready in time for the tournament… and, in all honesty, I wanted another punt at a tournament win before I give my pointy-eared boys a break, and they offered the best odds of lifting the trophy, with their Elven shenanigans.

THE RULES

The tournament followed our most-used format (4 games, 600k to draft your team, skills tiered accordingly).

We arrived full of anticipation to find a number of bags next to the pitches. In those bags were 12 plastic pumpkins - each with a number, or the letter “Z”, corresponding to a table of effects. The trick (pun intended - you’ll see in a minute), was in the fact that at the start of every turn, the coach drew out a pumpkin and was either blessed with a gift from Nuffle himself (a Treat), or cursed by a decaying corpse of a long-expired Blood Bowl fan rising from the ground to either grab the ball or one of their unfortunate players (a Trick).

I was pretty excited by this - it made the games different enough to offer that spooky flavor, without being game-breaking.

GAME 1

I drew up against Shambling Undead. I subscribe to the philosophy that in 7’s, most undead teams can be dealt with, providing the ball carriers are taken care of, and the murder pieces are avoided. In the case of Shambling Undead, I knew I had to crush the Ghoul and avoid the Mummies - the rest would be a regular game of elf-ball.

It promised to be a great start to the day - the coach opposite me couldn’t be nicer; introduced himself as a newbie to the game, but being the meta-chasing sweat in a tournament setting, I couldn’t bring myself to pull my punches. Having said that, I didn’t want to be obnoxious either, and smash him to bits on his first competitive outing.

The Eathen Eagles lining up against the oncoming hordes of Undead

I’ve been burned by complacency and overconfidence when playing new coaches before, so I opted for a conservative game, being too unsure to be hyper-aggressive and too reserved to risk the ball being snatched.

We ended in a timid 1-0 to my elves, with 2 casualties to me. My opponent played an incredibly layered and careful game of Blood Bowl, and I’m sure with some experience in a league will be pretty damn unstoppable in the future.

The pumpkins made the game quite chaotic - this was the start of the shenanigans I would experience for the rest of the day. I ended up gaining extra re-rolls to the point where I had 3 in the bank; the zombies were popping up all over the place, tagging ball carriers and, at one point, creating a mass of players that made retrieving my dropped ball near impossible. But with some turn management, we pulled it off.

4 points in the bag - decent start.

GAME 2

I came up against a Necromantic Horrors team - the plan in my mind was similar to the last game, though I knew my opponent was much more experienced and there was also the added complication of the Werewolf that could eat through my Elves’ armor like it was made from paper (which it is).

I ended up pulling off a cheeky play by surfing their ball carrier and, followed by a couple of sacks, we finished at a respectable 4-1 to the Eagles, complete with 2 passes and 2 completions by my Thrower.

GAME 3

Having 4 touchdowns and a bonus point to boot from the last game, I was pretty confident in securing a top 3 slot, maybe even making a bid for most touchdowns.

That was until I found out I was drawn against my good mate Cam. Whenever we play each other, we tend to go through periods of one of us absolutely dominating the other, before the luck swings the other way and the hammer falls on the winner.

This is a match-up we saw in the Summer Cup as well - Cam with his Norse, against my elven Union. Both rosters optimized, both coaches very familiar with the teams so it was a peak game all around. The Summer Cup fixture ended in a 1-1 draw, so we were both playing hard for the win.

I’d lie if I said I wasn’t dreading the game - Cam’s an exceptionally good player and his Norse team is fine-tuned for murder, particularly when it comes to my poorly armored, squishy elves. Plus, I battered that team the week before using Underworld Denizens, which I’m sure he’s still salty about. (Cam, if you’re reading this - it doesn’t matter if it was the dice, a battering is still a battering ;))

So we kicked off, and the game was a rough one - it looked like he had it in the bag with an early removal of one of my players. If memory serves me right, towards the end of the game I was defending with 5 players to his 8. That early touchdown looked like it wasn’t enough when, in the second half, I managed to pop the ball out from his carrier placed on the sideline, having the crowd bounce it about before punting it into his half. As luck (or my alpha-level tactics) would have it, I had a catcher free and in the distance to run in and snatch the ball, threatening another 1-1 finish with a handful of turns to go.

I wasn’t meant to be though, and try as I might, Cam’s Blitz came off, he dodged my cover, the dice did their job and the Catcher was sacked without anyone nearby within scoring distance.

1-0 was the finish, and it could’ve been anyone’s game - this time it was his.

Any Raiders fans out there? Didn't think so.

GAME 4

With Cam taking the round 3 win, going 3-0-0, and putting me on 2 wins, 1 loss I knew the tournament win was unlikely unless he fumbled his next game, which I felt was unlikely too.

I drew an Ogre team, commandeered by my good pal Steve, and I came into it scratching my head. Steve’s a solid player, and the unpredictability of Ogres being able to punt and throw their Gnoblars in the same turn meant that, if the dice came off - and the chances were they would, I could be fighting an uphill battle against multiple one-turn touchdowns.

And that proved to be the case as Steve nailed one in early, equalizing my touchdown and leaving me to manage my remaining 4 turns, a.) hoping he doesn’t sack my carrier, and b.) leaving me to maneuver in such a way as to deny him an opportunity to get another touchdown in before the end of the half, as he was receiving in the next.

So, I did what any sensible coach would and deployed deep with 4 players, covering all of the end-zone in tackle zones, leaving my two Blitzers and Catcher to do the killing. After all, if there’s no Gnoblars, there’s no threat.

At some point though, the wheels fell off for the Ogres, with the final score showing 3-1 to the Elves, with 3 casualties caused on top of that. The 3-point win, with 2 bonus points (for 3+ touchdowns and casualties), rescued me from the boundaries of mid-table, putting me in a tidy 2nd place, ahead of James the Wondering Troll, by 1 point. (Sorry, mate).

IT'S BEHIND YOU!

The tournament was a great time. The pumpkins did their job, providing some much-needed boosts in tricky situations and causing sufficient chaos with the zombies popping up out of nowhere, but at no point did it feel like they were skewing the game heavily to one side. At the end of the day, if you drew a “Trick” pumpkin - too bad, that’s how it goes sometimes.

When you get notoriously hounded by crappy dice rolls (as all Blood Bowl coaches do), drawing an unfavorable, Strength 2 zombie doesn’t feel like a nail through your boot.

Next on the calendar will be the Winter Cup, sometime in January, and I’m sure I speak for everyone in the league when I say we can’t wait to see what our resident tournament designer comes out with this time.

Until the next one!

D.S.