by HairyPete
The months of advertising and forum posts were over. The rosters were in and checked. The last minute switch of players was resolved. The prizes and other give aways were packed. The lunch order was in. The cleaner had finished his rounds. The tables and chairs were set up ready. All was still.
The morning of Saturday 18th October had finally arrived…and so had ExeBowl.
32 coaches turned up to support the first ExeBowl tournament and they brought with them a good mix of races and rosters. 19 races were represented with only Slann, High Elf, Pro Elf, Ogre and Halfling not in attendance. The coaches were a good mix of new tournament players and experienced hands; 14 players were eligible for the ‘Rookie Wonder’ award for the highest ranked player with fewer than 5 NAF tournaments under their belt. Following recent changes to NAF sanctioning the coaches were playing for a NAF trophy, the first time that this would be awarded at a 3 game event, as well as prizes donated by Element Games. Coaches were also playing for ranking points for the 2015 South West Tournament Championship, with ExeBowl and other one day tournaments being added to the circuit for the new season.
The round one draw pitched two of the pre-tournament contenders – Hawk (Undead) and Sann0638 (Lizardmen) – against tournament rookies from the host Rygas Roughnecks Gaming Club, while the tournament’s only stunty team – Dreamcreator’s Goblins – was paired up with Glowworm’s Underworld. The coaches found their opponents, found a table and started to prepare the teams. The atmosphere in the room was the usual mix of excitement and nerves. Everyone starts the day hoping for the best, but knowing that in a 3 game event, 3 wins will be needed to take the title of Champion. The introductions and roster run downs were soon over and the room was filled with the familiar sound of rattling dice cups and rolling dice. Occasionally the background noise was interrupted by cries of joy or pain as Nuffle’s great plan unfolded.
First round wins were recorded by DavidO, Glowworm, Camsbell1514, Sann0638, CeeTee, Mawph, Nightwing, Rubick, Buggrit, SeriousCallersOnly, Hawca, Dionysian and Hawk. Lunch was delivered as the games came to an end and the stories of crazy dice, dare-devil plays and abject failure were told. The hunger for Blood Bowl meant lunch was quickly devoured and the coaches were eager to get round two underway. In the second round it was all to play for!
Buggrit’s Orcs faced off against Glowworm and his Underworld (who as all playing nearby came to find out had come armed with Claws). Sann0638 was hoping to take his knack of causing casualties from the first game into his second against the equally destructive Hawk. It was’t to be though and several head-in-hand moments ended in a 3-0 defeat. The lesson for all players is don’t fall over in front of a zombie, because he WILL foul you!
CeeTee’s Chaos Dwarves came out 2-0 winners against Hawca’s Dark Elves and in the battle of the Rygas club mates Camsbell1514’s Vampires overcame DavidO’s Skaven 2-0. Round two ended with 6 coaches on 2 wins – Glowworm, Hawk, CeeTee, Dionysian, Camsbell1514 and Mawph. Round 2 also saw a moment of sporting greatness from Canteloup as his coached his opponent JimAlbins to a game levelling one-turn touchdown to end the game 2-2. All this after Jim had taken the advice of some of the tournament regulars – “Kill the rat ogre!”.
Round 3 and the top 3 tables were playing for the positions – Hawk faced Glowworm, CeeTee faced Camsbell1514 and Dionysian’s Wood Elves faced Mawph’s Chaos Pact. With CAS and TD all factoring into the overall result actions in each of the next 16 turns would be vital to the outcome of the tournament. Merrick’s cry of “I’ve got no players left” meant that his result was the first in and Enderman was making big noises in his matchup against Canteloup – the Chaos team doing their best to kill anything vaguely ratlike and the skaven doing what they do and scoring with limited numbers.
As the day progressed the mood in the room had become more serious with each passing turn. One by one the results came in and kept a closely guarded secret as they were entered into Scor!. Players tried to work out their points total and find out how others had finished. As the tables were being cleared and teams packed away the final results came in the final standings calculated. The coaches gathered as the announcements were made and the results prepared.
The raffle prize of Impact! Miniatures gift certificates was won by Camsbell1514 who topped off a good day by taking home the ‘Rookie Wonder’ prize too. Most touchdowns (8) was won by JonathanC having come from nowhere to take it after a 5-0 win against the Goblins in the final round. The top ranked players overall also did well in racking up the casualties, but it was Enderman who took the prize thanks to his 7 in the final round. The Wooden Spoon was taken by Jaskiirl whose Vampires were taking part in their first tournament and the Stunty Champion went to Dreamscreator.
There was only one stunty team in the competition but Dreamscreator deserves special mention as he found out that he could make it only two days before the tournament when registration was closed and yet he was still happy to come down and help out uncertain if he was getting a game or not. Just another example of the fantastic Blood Bowl community that we have here in the South West.
At the top, CeeTee and Camsbell1514 played out a draw in the final match to put Rubick back into contention for the places following his 3-1 victory over Lunchmoney. After the tiebreakers were considered 5th was taken by Camsbell1514, 4th went to Rubick playing Humans (like Elves) and 3rd place went to CeeTee. Dionysian won his final game to end the day with 3 wins but it was only enough to take 2nd place. 1st place, and the title of ExeBowl Champion 2014, went to Hawk – his Undead team ending the day 3-0-0, scoring 7, conceding 0 in the process and racking up 17 casualties on the way. 
There will be many other stories to tell and hopefully the new tournament players enjoyed their first NAF tournament experience enough to try again. A massive thanks to all of the players for supporting a new tournament and for making the day easy to run and fun for all. ExeBowl will be back in 2015, hope to see you there.
Full results and pictures can be found on the History section of www.exebowl.co.uk
Awards
Champion: Hawk
Runner-up: Dionysian
3rd place: CeeTee
4th (International Glowworm): Rubick
Rookie Wonder: camsbell1514
Most CAS: Enderman (share the wealth)
Most TDs: jonathanc
Stunty Champion: dreamscreator
Wooden Spoon: jaskiirl