I’d been working myself up for the EurOpen for weeks beforehand. Actually, probably months is more accurate. You see the prospect of travelling abroad for a Blood Bowl tournament is something that adds that little bit extra to the standard fare. Half the fun is the trip there, the camaraderie and the experiences shared with old friends and new.
This time it was even more important, because this was the EuroBowl and the EurOpen and my 
first appearance at either. Now, I’d hoped to make Team England of course, but that was a long shot and when it didn’t come off I had committed to making the EurOpen come what may. This time around it was in Vienna – a city and country (Austria obviously) I’d never visited. You don’t see much of a city you go to play a Blood Bowl tournament in mind, unless you go early for sightseeing, but I was still looking forward to it.
This tournament has a special feel to it. Strangely enough the EurOpen feels much less pressured than a regular event as most of the individuals are checking back with their national teams as they cheer them on in the EuroBowl. That was the case for me at least, so I was unsure what to expect from the EurOpen.
As it turned out, it was six excellent games of Blood Bowl played against six guys I had never met before. Once you get past the fact that they all speak great English and my German, Swedish, Norwegian and Hungarian was pretty ropey, it is always good fun playing new opponents and seeing new play styles. I also like to follow my opponents’ results throughout the rest of the event, and it was good fun to share a beer with a couple of them and lament bad rolls or lucky escapes.
My only downside to the running of the EurOpen was the logistics of 24 of us in three or four separate rooms. As a result the atmosphere amongst us “EurOpeners” was less than it could have been, with the top two tables some distance from the rest of the pack. That said, it’s a wonderful thing to travel abroad to play this game we all enjoy and nobody is short of conversation!
I swapped team shirts with one of my opponents, Brio, as many at the EuroBowl do and I hope to bump into my adversaries – Ronald, Brio, Christian, Brecj (apologies for spelling), Dave and Diego again at future EuroBowls or EurOpens. So for those of us not lucky enough to get the 
nod from our respective nations, I would urge you to give the EurOpen serious thought, if only to try and take some points of Azzroag, the eventual winner with 6 straight wins – in the background in the picture to the right.
The national teams go out of their way to include their EurOpeners in the whole experience, so you can share in the tension on the top tables even if you can’t affect the result yourself. At the very least, you’ll make some new friends and learn how to say ****** double skulls in other languages!