April in NAF Tournaments
Here we are again! Somehow, a third of 2019 has already raced away and we’re steaming at full pace towards NAF major season (as nobody is yet calling it). May, June and July will host the NAF Championship, the Spike! Magazine and the Eucalyptus Bowl respectively, and finally the Chaos Cup arrives in September to round off our individual major year. If you haven’t yet booked travel to Nottingham, Vancouver, Sydney or Chicago (or Dusseldorf next year), you should get on that immediately. Speaking of the NAFC, if you are joining us for a properly big one next weekend, be aware that you can donate BB or other gaming equipment to Blocksfam, our charitable initiative. Jamie / ForceCommander (Blocksfam Supremo) has produced these rather snazzy patches, and if you donate in 2019 / 20, you will become the proud owner of one:
Not bad, eh? They’re even better than my awful photography lets on. All the more reason to come find me and give us your loot! For those that donated in 2018 / 19, the donation prize draw (a World Cup pitch is at stake!) is to take place and the winner publicised imminently.
April has not been too shabby. 46 more tournaments are in the books (including two Sevens and a Street Bowl) and you’ve been having fun all over the NAF world. We’ve got a couple of great tournament reports below from Spain and Austria, so let’s crack into the good stuff.
Reports
Firstly to a returning Austrian tournament with a famous old name, the Schnitzelbowl. As with so many tournaments at the moment, this year was all about Dornbirn prep. Over to Carsten to pick up the story.
Schnitzelbowl 2019 (aka Schnitzelbowl VIII)
After pausing for six years, the Schnitzelbowl finally returned as part of Vienna table-top masters (a multi-system event including X-Wing, Guildball, WH40 k and lots more).
With the upcoming NAF World Cup, the coaches could earn experience using the World Cup ruleset in a two-day tournament with 6 rounds. Round 1 and 2 were played with day 1, rounds 3 and 4 with day 2 and rounds 5 and 6 with day 3 rules. 18 brave coaches joined the Schnitzelbowl, gathering together from across South-Eastern Europe. We had 5 Czech coaches, 4 Hungarian, 2 Italian and 1 Slovakian, and they competed against locals to become the winner and get a wonderful trophy created by Old Castle Creations.
After the first four rounds, we had just one player (Dalibor, playing Humans with an interesting Karla von Kill build) with four victories and another with three wins (Smaug playing Chaos). So in the fifth match-up, these two played each other and Smaug was able to beat Dalibor. This meant that the last round table 1 and table 2 were the games that decided the championship.
In the end, Dalibor was beaten by BlackOrc’s High Elfs while Smaug was able to defeat Johniczech’s Bretonnians to be the eighth Schnitzelbowl winner.
Results overview:
First Place – Smaug (Chaos)
Second Place – Dalibor (Humans)
Third Place – Belentor (Necro)
Most TD – BlackOrc (High Elf) – 12 Touchdowns
Most CAS – Smaug (Chaos) – 21 CAS
Best Defence – Smaug (Chaos) – 3 conceded Touchdowns
Lovely stuff. Humans, Chaos and Necro doing well there, as I think we all suspect they may in Dornbirn. I believe I’m right in saying that the Schnitzelbowl frequents the same bar everyone was talking about at the Eurobowl a few years back (the one with the ‘Round the World‘ drinking challenge that would likely kill a fully grown elephant)? Anyway, good to have it back, and Vienna is clearly a lovely place to spend time. Here are some lovely images from the weekend.
I was drawn in by this tournament because of the (very relevant to this month, no spoilers…) Game of Thrones theme and the really strong advertising over in Spain. Not many tournaments have a promotional video, but the guys here have gone the extra mile in many ways. I was only talking last month about how tournament advertisement is fast becoming a multiple outlet / platform game, and these guys have nailed it. Anyway, as you may expect, this is one of the best reports I think we’ve had. Without further intro, over to Barbancho (well, to a famous commentary duo), who sent over this peach!
Jim (Vampire): – Good morning friends of the oval ball with spikes!
Bob (Ogre): – Good morning fellow POW and enemies of the Skull!
Jim: – We meet with all of you to offer you this special program of the OLD WORLD CUP III. Where we will see the great moments that the best players of Spain have offered us in this tournament in Fuenlabrada, Madrid.
Bob: – Crazy trainers who have given the best of themselves to get the Sword “Claw”, Jon Snow …
Jim: – O “Needle”, the Sword of Arya Stark for second place.
Bob: – And the King’s Hand brooch for the best Stunty equipment.
Jim: – Great awards. In addition, in the gift dice was the logo of the OLD WORLD CUP and three swords for being the third edition.
Bob: – Those pink polo guys have worked very hard and have prepared the competition like real masters, making their tournament already famous within the Spanish scene – and makes the sign of victory with their right hand.
Jim: – In addition to raffling fields of Blood Bowl, Funkos of Game of Thrones, dice, a bust of a professionally painted Wardancer, miniatures and even a wooden sword that would be for the winner of the last table of Round 4.
Bob: – Tremendous!!! And he clenches his teeth hard, showing the lack of someone.
Jim: – In addition they put all the fields of the tournament, which symbolize the best Old World stadiums and surroundings, with some unique rules from Round 2.
Bob: – Being very light in the first stages and something harder and fun as they get closer to the latter.
Jim: – Even players from several places far from Magritta (Madrid) have come to participate in this great event. Being finally 52 players.
Bob: – They even fed a salmon patty with cheese! And open his eyes and mouth with surprise.
Jim: – They were great in every detail.
Bob: – And the competition became intense, since the great level of the NAF players, made each pass, each tackle, each dodge was important and fundamental to the aspirations of these authentic “monsters” of fantastic football. And because some of them are not very handsome – and he smiles back at the camera.
Jim: – The level was extraordinarily high, and several players who are in the top NAF jumped in the first tables trying to prove themselves the best.
Bob: – And in the end, in Round 4, eight players had chances to win the tournament.
Jim: – SIR MAYANS, LOBERAS, PANZER68, CORVEUS, ASGAIR, LORD ARIOCH, EU4RICO and FRAN MUTADO.
Bob: – Impressive that last round full of tension, touchdowns and varied verbiage!
Jim: – But finally it was PANZER68, with his Humans “Middenheim SteamTanks”, the only one of the tournament to win the four matches. He took, with a huge defense, the Sword of Jon Snow, getting to be the winner of the OLD WORLD CUP III.
Bob: – The veteran player and coach Panzer68 was the best, both with the POWs and giving advice how to play the rivals, since during the games he is lecturing his opponents. A true master in this tackle.
Jim: – After so many years playing this he deserves to win in a big tournament.
The two commentators applaud vigorously.
Jim: – Here we have the Boys of Pink, the Fuentarada Bowl, gifting with nobility …
Bob: – The one needed to name Lord to Panzer68 -interrupts the Ogre.
Jim: – … the prize for the first place in this pink competition.
Bob: – To thank all the Fuentarada Bowl, with BARBANCHO, TROLOE, FRAN MUTADO, LORD ARIOCH, ADRIEN OGROLY and DOSEIK all their great work and all the work, of so many months preparing all the details to make this tournament a celebration of fantastic medieval!
Jim: – A great job, rewarded with this final report by Cabalvision and the NAF for all the viewers of the old world.
Bob: – Oh yeah!!!
Jim: – Without further ado, we bid farewell to this Special Program of the OLD WORLD CUP III, thanking the NAF for all its support for raising awareness of this unparalleled tournament.
Bob: – A hug Jim and kisses for the Ogres!
Jim: – A greeting friend Bob and we’ll see you at OLD WORLD CUP IV.
They say goodbye while the sports music reaches the end of the program. They comment on the great show that is offered in this competition, while the cameras of the goblins run from one place to another pursued by the producer Troll, who has suddenly gone hungry. The noisy public screams with joy that animate Bob while the director, a Dwarf Matatroll, screams in anger at himself in the face of so much chaos.
Don’t worry. If I ask you if you’d mind forwarding me a tournament report, I don’t expect it to be that long, detailed or in character not in your first language. But if someone is going to go to all that effort, it all goes in with all of our thanks!
World Cup Focus
When the dust settled at the start of the month, the final numbers looked incredible. 1433 coaches from 38 countries across 6 continents will be meeting and celebrating the great game in Dornbirn (I guess actual numbers are TBC, dropouts are possible!). A quite magnificent effort, although Antarctica need to pull their fingers out, frankly. Via all of the usual outlets, further nitty gritty detail is slowly being drip-fed to the community; I recommend following the NAFWC Twitter feed to never miss a beat. The profiles for the Thornspear Valleyshockers (the WC Underworld team) are coming thick and fast, but remember! You can only purchase these minis via pre-order. If you want this limited edition team and are yet to get your order in, get your squad captain to e-mail the WC organiser team (worldcup4@sbbm-turniere.com). It doesn’t look like you’ll be able to buy the minis over the weekend, so get yourself organised now. For those of you paid up, the next important date for your diary is August 16th. That’s the date where your roster has to be submitted. Don’t say you’ve not had fair warning, get testing, testing, testing!
A reminder from me here on NAF rules and the ongoing Spike! Journal releases. Regular readers will know that the changes accepted into the NAF documents last November are now mandatory. Releases between then and November ’19 are at TO discretion before we next review. The WC team (as ‘TO’s’) took the decision to not welcome the interim changes at the WC. For example, aspiring Halfling coaches, this means not using the new positionals. This is an understandable decision. What happens if a Spike! drops between roster submission and the tournament? For a tournament of 1400+ people, how much time do new changes need before the whole field have absorbed them? Three months? Six? For a tournament of this size, the team have made a sensible decision here to mark the goalposts very early, and I’m sure you’ll all join me in understanding and supporting them. Undead and Halflings (and whatever comes next) will be as they were in November 2018 in Dornbirn.
Next month in this space, we’ll start getting all nostalgic about World Cups past, beginning with the first WC that took place in 2007 at Warhammer World. If you have any memories you’d like to share, please get them over to me!
TD Notes
April was a busy sanctioning month (as ever!), and we ticked off 47 of your tournaments including seven Sevens (nice!) and a Dungeonbowl. It is particularly pleasing to be working with some new friends in Mexico as we try and get only the second ever Mexican NAF tournament onto the calendar. Hola amigos! We are always here to help new groups, so if this is you, come and talk to me. Included in the Blood Bowl number is the Spike! Magazine 2019 major (1-2 June in Vancouver, go go go!).
Some staff news to report this month: in Poland, Shawass and Domingo have traded places, and Domingo is back to being NC / NTO and Shawass RC / RTO. I’m glad that we have the room to switch things around as real life dictates, and NAF BB looks to be steadily growing in Poland with the help of these diligent staffers.
Since my last blog, we had a few bites when we advertised for .pdf wranglers to join our team. Welcome to Oliver, Rui and JC, who are currently getting their heads around what we need from them. We’ve already updated a typo in the NAF Tournament Team List and we’re moving on to delivery of the Team List with background and the updated Variant rulespacks I spoke about here last month. A note on the Team List; if your tournament rulespack references this document, you might want to check your link. Sometimes when new versions are uploaded, the link address changes. Apologies for any inconvenience caused, but it’s important to get this stuff right! The new .pdf team have been really receptive and have hit the ground running; I’m excited to share with you the quality documents they look to be producing when they’re ready.
Other than these items, it’s been a busy month helping with tournament uploads, answering questions and generally keeping things ticking over. Hopefully we’ll have some shiny new deliverables to talk about next month!
Why Didn’t I think of That?
One subversion of the norm that comes up every so often is players losing skills as tournaments progress. We all know the standard form; either you begin a tournament with all of the skills you’ll see over 3, 4 or 6 games or you gain new skills following each game or overnight. When dealing with MOLINS DE BOWL ´19 in Spain, I was reminded that the opposite can happen. Both Molins and the Geordiebowl in the UK (as well as a few tournaments besides!) have historically operated on the basis that you lose skills as you go along. This can lead to fun team building; do I need two Leader Throwers? What other skills are so important that I have to ‘defend’ them? Does it matter if the skill loss is random or determined by my opponents, how does that effect my choices? I’m sure that the two Strip Ball Wardancer build is slightly less powerful in an environment where the first two opponents are going to make it zero Strip Ball! At Molins this year, there is a fun mechanic where your opponent selects the skill you lose, but you can hold a veto over that choice provided you meet certain conditions. It just adds another level of complexity and nuance to roster building, and who doesn’t love that?
Finally this month, one thing they do excellently in NA that we are slowly catching up to in Europe is the Friday night variant tournament. You travel to a normal Blood Bowl tournament (one or two days), but on the Friday before play, why not have a fun little Sevens side event, for instance? Thor is providing this at the NAFC (thread here, still time to sign-up!) and it’s the sort of thing I expect to go from strength to strength as time goes on and as variants continue to gain popularity. Be more North American! We average 4-5 variant tournaments per month at the moment with 8 this month being a high spot. It’s exciting to see where this will go.
Holiday Plans
September is traditionally a great month. We know that the Chaos Cup will be held in Chicago, but it’s not yet in the database, so three other goodies for you:
London GT II- Amorica Vase 13-15 Sep. Remember the supplementary variant thing from above? At the GT this year, Lyonster is putting on Sevens, BB and Deathbowl on Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively. Not half a bad multi-tournament weekender!
Triple Skull Team Cup 2019 “All You Need Is Skull” 21/22 Sep. The Triple Skull Team Cup always gets a decent turnout in Italy, so well worth a trip to Modena to enjoy late sun and that Italian food.
Crossroads Clash 28/29 Sep. Another on the BB + Variant theme: this time BB on the Saturday and Dungeonbowl on the Sunday. New York state is your destination.
Next Time
The plan is all of the usual stuff with a big focus on the NAF Championship, including a report on how my Goblins get on over at theTacklezone. I may be a little late since the end of my May is stacked, but it will arrive eventually!