Father’s Day in Germany. Beer, Sunshine and Grilling out. It can’t get better? Of course it can! Add 16 Blood Bowl Coaches, arriving with all different races, coming from four different countries (France, Germany, Switzerland and USA) and one even driving 600km one-way to join the annual Big Boys Battle at beautiful Lake Constance. Mountains, Lake, and a playground for the kids….erm, sorry the fathers to play their beloved Game of Blood Bowl, including tons of bonus points.
The first game was played under nice weather conditions by a special rule of the tournament, only disturbed by a sea-quake where all players bounced one square on the pitch whenever Nuffle tried to change the weather. Fun Fact: this game was the only game for the Khemri team to play in nice weather, all the other games he played in pouring rain! The Ogres,the Halflings and the Underworld team were among the team who won their games, with the Halflings causing 5 casualties (3 of them clear kills), only being topped by the Undead who were part of a 7:4 CAS slaughter-fest against the Goblins. That game set the tone for the rest of the tourney.
The second game had tons of fan and assistant coach interaction. While on some pitches Ogre fans decided to join the playing action, on other pitches the assistant coaches were unhappy with their players performances and decided to teach their protégés a lesson. While some assistant coaches prepared their players for the next game by fouling their opponents every turn until the ref had enough, some other coaches provided blocking support for their team. Again, the Halflings and the Undead were emerging as winners in their respective games. Only joined by the High Elves as the only other team to start with 2 wins.
The third game is traditionally the most brutal one. Bribes were handed out to all teams right from the start. While the humans apparently hadn’t had enough cash to “convince” the ref that the Underworld goblin in the KO-Box was just faking unconsciousness and the poor Human lineman was just a victim of blatantly inaccurate and false accusations, the Amazons were less lady-like and gave the boot nine times without being seen by the ref – the ref claimed they had really two good “arguments” and he had a really good sight onto the action….well, he had a good sight, but not on what he claimed 😉 …anyway the Battle between the two top teams (Halflings and Undead) ended in a tie (the foul quota was in favor of the Undead with 6:2 non-spotted fouls, despite the Sneaky-Git/Dirty-Player-Halfling). The all deciding (basically also the tourney) was a greedy play by the Undead. They were in the lead 1-0 when the last turn begun. There was a ghoul in scoring range and another ghoul (with Block) had the ball in his hands. Instead of getting away, Leon decided to throw a long pass over the head of the AG4 halfing. Of course we all know what happened: Interception, Throw team-mate, a clear landing and one GFI and the game was tied!
The last game of the tourney had two finals in parallel. Four teams had a change to win it all. Kithor’s Underworld and Leon’s Undead were on table 1, where Jokaero’s Ogers and Strider’s Halflings were playing at table 2, also playing the Stunty-Cup final. The games were intense, no players were given a break. Kithor went ahead in his game and it looked like Skitter Stab-Stab was carrying his team to another great victory, when Nuffles desire for blood struck with a badly timed 1 RR 1 for the Underworld. That gave the Undead a chance the get back into the game and at the end tied the game. On the “Stunty-table” the tempers flared high, one player after another left the pitch with some kind of injury. The ball changed possession almost every turn, Snotlings had the red in their eyes, while the halflings uses their forks and knives not to dismember their broilers, but their opponents. Trees and Ogres were running and fighting and at the end somehow a small little git named “Chranz” showed the world why he was the team captain of his team and presented the pig-bladder in the endzone to the roaring crowd.
At the end of the day, Strider could not defend his title, but his Halflings were ranked on a highly respected 4th place. But for the second year in a row, the title and the stunty-cup award were given to a very convincing Ogre team. Jokaero claimed both for his “Schwingerkönige”-Team with 3 hard fought wins and one draw. Milo and his Amazons ended up with the most kills award (4 kills over five other teams with 3 kills each, making it the most deadly BiBoBa-tournament so far) and the most non-spotted fouls in round 3. Pepe and his Lizardmen won the Double Skulls “award” and Skitter Stab-Stab, coached by Kithor, proved to the world again why he is a star player when claiming the Best Player award.
55 Burgers were all eaten up, 63 beer bottles were emptied, dozens of empty apple juice and water bottles were collected, only a few salads bowl contained some few left-overs, Milo’s Peanut-butter-Crispies were again a hit among the coaches and the organizer thanked everybody for coming again for 12 hours of fun and declared the games closed and called upon the youth of the world to assemble again in 4 years… oh sorry, wrong script!