THE WORLD CUP - DAY 3

Interlude: Mind over Matter

As I described in the Day 2 post, the Saturday had been a tough day. Though the squad had begun to rally, I had not managed a single win, which was disappointing. To make matters worse, the last two rounds had been extremely draining. Round 5 had had the arguments and ref-calling by Manny's opponent that I had to manage as captain and translator, and Round 6 saw Goose playing vs a coach who, though a lovely guy, didn't really know the Snotling rules and was thoroughly confused by Goose's unconventional models. This led to constant requests for translation or clarification, which I gladly gave, but which put extra strain on my already overloaded brain. By the time we got on the bus back to Alicante I was completely done. I was irritated, scatterbrained, and probably not much fun to be around. I excused myself from my teammates and isolated myself from the world, Khruangbin on the headphones (thanks CptOats!) and let my mind wander.

I often think about the psychology of Blood Bowl. Skill is a factor, as are dice, but over a long series of games I think your state of mind becomes a huge deal. No matter how good you are, if you don't think you can win, or if you have stopped caring, you will not play well. You can luck into a win or a draw here and there but without that drive and that belief, you will not succeed. That, more than anything, was what I felt the difference was between my performance at COSH Teams and NAFC earlier this year. I was the same player, with the same skill level (and hangover!), and broadly had similar luck, but the state of mind was lightyears away. At COSH I was hungry for the win, as much for myself as for my teammates. Failure was not an option, so we did not fail. At NAFC, failure was inevitable from game 2, so of course it was a disaster. I realised my mind was in the same place as it had been at the NAFC, and I resolved to bring it back. I thought back to COSH Teams, remembering that feeling of invincibility during that clutch game vs TeamW. Then, when I'd had enough, I tidied up the room, packed up the things for tomorrow, had a shower, and went to sleep. Tomorrow would be a very, very different day.

Round 7: Tamarros

As the sun woke us up on the final day of the tournament, I could already feel the difference. Saturday had started with worry and disappointment. Sunday brought hope and a newfound drive to go out and smash the opposition. The squad was cautiously optimistic. Maybe we would get to 4-1-4. On my end, no cautiously about it - I would go home on a positive record, no matter what.

THE MATCHUPS:

Coach	Team	Coach	Team
Outkast	Underworld Denizens	suedking	Shambling Undead
Manuuelesantoro	Necromantic Horror	Ivan95	Dwarf
Tadhgy	Dwarf	JanSolo	Khorne
Torquemada	Elven Union	sergi_LPDL	Norse
mefspores	Wood Elf	Taznik	Skaven
GooseKnight	Snotlings	Soliteck	High Elf

Nuffle had heard me, and decided to throw me a bone - Norse! A team I knew inside out, and whose weaknesses should be easily exploitable by my elves. I set up my Blitzers near the sidelines as bait and, sure enough, it was swallowed hook, line and sinker. First Berserker gone after attempting to dodge out of a certain surf. The Norse recover the ball and attempt a breakthrough into my right flank, but as they advance they get compressed more and more towards the sidelines, my blodgestepers laughing at the Norse frenziers as they weave around and through them making a nuisance of themselves. Eventually, the ball is popped, and though it is momentarily caught by the Yhetee (a feat, my opponent tells me, that the beast achieved 4 times throughout the weekend!), soon enough the Onions have liberated it and put it far from harm's way for the 1-0.

Then came our offense. My plans to deploy a lightning Union long-play 2-turner fell apart slightly as the Norse rolled a Blitz, allowing the Yhetee to burst through my lines and position himself in the middle of my catchers, Disturbing Presence put a bit of a hold on the plan. Fortunately he had left it unsupported and a vicious block from my Blitzer sent it packing into the KO box. After that, it was a simple case of feint left with the catchers, draw attention, then send a lino off with the ball down the right side safely away from all Norse players for a 2-0. Or so I thought - "simple" is not a thing in Blood Bowl! Though the 2-0 could not be stopped at this point, I could also not stop him from stomping on my players, and before I could materialise the score my stacked catcher and one of my blitzers lay broken in the CAS box. That, plus a couple other removals from the first half, meant my defence was now perilously thin for the rest of the game. I figured I'd let him score quickly and keep my elves as intact as possible to help me hold onto the ball in the final drive. A blitz, favouring the Onions this time, did not especially help, and the Norse scored the 2-1 leaving themselves just 2 turns to turn me over and equalise. Fat chance, right? Well, Nuffle had one last surprise, as the third blitz of the game was rolled coupled with an extremely deep ball that left half of my already depleted team way out of position. The Norse surged forward, tagging my remaining elves and threatening the ball with both Valks. After an excruciating series of rolls, I manage to place the ball into the hands of my remaining Blitzer, nestled in an I-cage behind a feeble screen, and with the remaining Guard Ulf safely tagged. My opponent made a valiant attempt at the gauntlet, but fell at the first hurdle with a big fat 1 on the die. After a huge sigh of relief, I shook my opponent's hand, and silently thanked Nuffle for His grace.

And there was more to be thankful for! All but two of our squad had won, meaning we were taking the second squad win of the tournament, putting us on 2-1-4. The dream remained alive! Even better, since we'd started early, Outkast had been able to get in before the queue formed and grab food for all of us, and I did the same for beer. Spirits were at an all time high and surely nothing could bring us down!

Round 8: Bahía Dice

Um, well, about that...

THE MATCHUPS:

Coach	Team	Coach	Team
Outkast	Underworld Denizens	Lucovik	Skaven
Manuuelesantoro	Necromantic Horror	Abruv	Wood Elf
Tadhgy	Dwarf	J.a.m	Dwarf
Torquemada	Elven Union	chicobowl	Underworld Denizens
Mefspores	Wood Elf	Indeviduo	Shambling Undead
GooseKnight	Snotling	Jandradesa	Imperial Nobility

A rough set of matchups all round, and I was facing Underworld again. Not Morg, thankfully, but Varag - arguably an even more dangerous roster, and one that I'd lost to before! Less annoying to play against, for sure, but far more capable in my opinion if handled by a good coach. I could feel the negativity bubbling up from the Morg matchup on the first day, but the mental reset of the previous night kicked in, and willpower won over defeatism. I deputised Mefspores as temporary captain and gave instructions to the team not to bother me for any reason short of risk to life, made my way to the table and set up. My Union reroll markers were stowed away and replaced by NAF shields. Game. On. My opponent arrived early, so we got the game underway a good 30-40 minutes before the official starting time (which would later prove to be a great idea, as we ran the game nearly to the end of the clock!). He chose to kick, as expected, and I went for the tried and true aggressive stall. While my linos kept his linerats busy in the midfield, and my thrower held the ball safely in my backfield (meticulously counting the squares to the nearest player every turn!), the Blitzers and Catchers danced around my opponent's half, threatening first the left flank, then the right. Varag was always 7 squares away from anything valuable, tempting my opponent to rush. Meanwhile, since all four of my scoring threats had block, they were hammering into his Snotlings thinning them down as they deftly escaped taking any damage themselves. Eventually the ball came forward, and in his attempts to stop its advance left the GR exposed once too many, getting it KOd for his trouble. After a couple more turns of screen and stall, the Blitzer ran it in for the 1-0 in turn 8. The obligatory TTM attempt came dangerously close, but the Goblin failed the landing and we re-racked for the second half.

The Gutter Runner failed both KO rolls, leaving the UW offence somewhat lacking. Still, Varag is Varag, and when my opponent got the ball to him turn 1, I steeled myself for the gruelling half ahead. Clearly resigned to a draw, he advanced slowly, covering him constantly and not giving me so much as a 2d uphill on the brute. I methodically worked on separating his team, first isolating his troll, then smashing his weaker pieces, applying constant pressure to the Varagcage to force it to keep moving, and taking any chance I got. Turns became eternal, both of us conscious that any wrong move would be the end of the game. I see an opportunity, but the always-a-pain-in-the-ass Snotlings refuse to go down and keep tying my players up. Still, a 2d uphill gets rolled on Varag. Skull + Push - no good, reroll into double push. Better, puts him right next to a couple elves and deep into the scrum. His position is critical now - forced to dodge with Varag to get the ball safe. The dodge works, but Varag ends up in a dangerous place, open for a 2d uphill which would put him back into a delicate position. The dice go in the cup. The cup goes down. Deep breath. Cup goes up.

Varag is down. Armour is broken, too, but at this point that's just insult to injury. Ball ends up surrounded by Elves, and though my opponent manages to get a Snotling onto the ball, recovery is not happening. The ball goes out of the pitch, coming back near the half-way line. A lineman easily recovers, rushes downfield and attempts a throw into nowhere. The throw fumbles, but the ball is still far enough away that the UW side cannot recover it. Game Over.

I genuinely felt bad for my opponent - it must have felt like terrible luck to lose the game that way. The more I thought about it though, the more I realised that even without a double pow (which, after all, is only a 1/9 chance, same as failing a 3+ dodge with dodge!), it would have been very unlikely for him to pull that off unless I rolled a skull and got removed. Not impossible, of course, but with his rerolls depleted, no Gutter Runner and no easy way out of the Elf swarm he was relying on highrolling his way out. In any case, the mighty UW had fallen, and the Onions stood victorious. As did the squad - Tadhgy and Outcast had won their own games, and a draw from Mefspores rounded us out to a solid 3-1-2 for the round, putting us 1 win away from a break-even result of 4-1-4.

Round 9 - Alfea Stone Heads

At last, the final round. The GooseBumps had fought their way through 8 tough matches, every one of us tasting both victory and defeat, and now only one game remained. Over in the top tables, the roar of French celebrations could be heard as the top two squads, COCORIPOW and Azes, realised that it was a mathematical certainty that the prize was going home to France with one or the other. Meanwhile, we were caught flat-footed by the draw announcement, and rushed to our tables as the clock started ticking over round 1, barely having a chance to check out the opponents' rosters on the way.

Coach	Team	Coach	Team
Outkast	Underworld Denizens	Fagio	Underworld Denizens
Tadhgy	Dwarf	Guidonius	Lizardmen
Torquemada	Elven Union	mathiastoss	Shambling Undead
Manuuelesantoro	Necromantic Horror	MegaPikaKeroro	Chaos Dwarf
Mefspores	Wood Elf	Ferpa	Dwarf
GooseKnight	Snotling	BUTTINHO	Amazon

Shambling, not too bad a matchup. Not too dangerous if you can keep your team alive and the Ghouls in check. My opponent seemed equally unconcerned with my Elves - almost dismissive? I decided to play into that. Having lost the kick-off and been nominated to receive, I set up what looked like a quick-score offense, but a frail one. My opponent read it as such, and dutifully set up to block my advance... and ending up with his tackle wight in danger of getting surfed (I swear, sidestep surfbait never gets old!). Though the wight never ends up going off the pitch, it does go down, and with his only tackle stuck in the left flank sideline I have ample space to send my entire team down the other sideline and form a 3-layer screen between my carrier and the entire Undead team. At this, I could see my opponent's expression visibly change from "Ah great, some chump I can easily smash" to "Oh shit, this guy knows what he's doing".

His play got better, too. Now focused on applying pressure, he does a good job of forcing the rolls, and though I manage to stall him quite handily, by turn 7 I have lost a couple elves and a string of failures leaves me out of rerolls. Though the ball is reasonably safe, he has 2 rerolls left and can easily put his tackler next to my carrier, so I decide to not risk it and go for the score. A couple ball handling failures from the Undead and it looks like he's out, but turn 8 he pulls off a remarkable play where his wight makes 3x 4+ dodges and 2 rushes to push one of my players into a T, which he then uses to push his Ghoul 1 square down towards the end zone, hand off, rush rush, score, all on no rerolls. Impressive of him to see the move. Also somewhat bullshit, but coming off of a 2d uphill double pow win I won't complain ;).

1-1, and his half now. Not the worst situation in the world - yes, advantage is to him, but I still have 10 elves on the pitch, I still have my positionals, and he's not the fastest team in the world. Maybe we can do someth... oh wait, he's CASed my entire LoS turn 1. Thanks, Nuffle!

But I'm fucked if I'm going to let this go now. I've come this far, and the Onions aren't going to just lay down and let him score. For the next 7 turns, my elves let loose a campaign of terror that sees my opponent's expression once again change from relief (and some pity!) to abject fear. Turn after turn, the Blitzers fearlessly charge into the cage as their line-elf brothers and sisters strategically base the tackler and the mummies to stop them coming to relieve the carrier. The Onions force block-less hit after block-less hit, steadily draining their foes of rerolls, giving their lives to slow the undead just one more turn. Soon, the Undead have no more rerolls, and have lost 2 zombies (1 to the ref!) while the elves are hanging on by a thread with a grand total of 6 players left alive. Every player is engaged, with every turn that they remain on their feet a blessing from Nuffle that they use to its fullest extent to make their foes' unlife hell.

Soon, it is my turn 7. Our opponent's Ghoul is 8 away, with no chainpushes available to save it from the GFI. He is free, I can easily get someone in to change that but my opponent can get dozens of dice to free it up again. I can try and put a screen in front of him, force him to roll more, but I just don't have enough elves. Maybe I can chainpush the Ghoul backwards? No, that won't work. But I can chainpush him forwards, closer to the end zone... and into a 2D block. No rerolls - if this is not a pow, I've just helped him score by saving him a GFI. It is a pow. Ball bounces onto my Catcher, who does the catchy thing. He's already gone, so I can't move the ball away, but I can protect it, kind of. Mummies get based, Blitzer goes in to gum his players up. He eventually does manage to pop the ball, but by this point every player that could have scored has been activated. Game Over.

Words cannot describe how I felt after that game. I must have told everyone around me the epic tale of how 6 elves (or 5, or 4, the number shrank with every telling) held out against an unstoppable Undead juggernaut, holding the draw against all odds. And a good thing, too, as the squad had just been dealt its worst defeat of the tournament with a 0-2-4 result. Even the mighty Outkast managed to just about scrape a draw against a Morgworld roster (and, after this game, he truly understood my hatred for it!). The Onions' last stand made what would have otherwise been a disappointing end to a mediocre performance into an epic tale to be remembered, and all I could think of once we had left the tables and met up with my friends from other teams was how I couldn't wait to rack'em up and go again. The final result of 3-1-5 was not the 4-1-4 we'd been gunning for that day, but the fact that we were even in the running for a 4-1-4 after our disastrous start was in itself an accomplishment. Not a single one of our players had ever played internationally, and none of us had been playing on tabletop for more than a year. We went out every night, drank as much as we wanted, ate delicious food, slept next to nothing, and still came a hair's breadth from the top half of the table. I think we can all take pride in that!

Final Standings:

Player	Wins	Draws	Losses	Ranking
Outkast	7	1	1	30th
Torquemada	4	2	3	829th
Tadhgy	4	1	4	1052nd
Manuuelesantoro	3	3	3	1592nd
Mefspores	1	2	6	2136th
GooseKnight	1	0	8	2205th
Squad Overall:	3	1	5	293rd