15 Nations and a team of Mercenary Vikings met in the castle in Orebro in Sweden, along with a 90-person EurOpen tournament. The Nations were represented by 8 of the strongest players from each country, competing for the 11th Eurobowl, with experience ranging from England on 4 wins to Poland competing in their first Eurobowl. As well as the title, the highest finisher from Wales, Scotland and Hungary would win the right to host in 2018.
The first round match-up was drawn randomly on the Friday night, and highlights included Germany v Poland, Italy v France and Sweden v Vikings – a Germany-Poland game was chosen as the first match to be streamed with match commentary by CKnoor. Draws and standings were posted on thenaf.net all weekend for those following the results from around the world.
The scoring system was 1/0.5/0 per individual result, with a bonus 1/0.5/0 for the team result, so that if your team won 6-2 in games, you would get a result of 7-2. This proved critical as the final result had only half a point in it!
As you can see, England earned their 5th star after a final round match against the hosts, pictured above, and in their best ever performance Wales triumphed over Scotland and Hungary for hosting rights. All the EurOpen results can also be found on thenaf.net.
Eurobowl 12 will be in Portugal in October 2017, Eurobowl 13 will be in Wales in 2018, and then in 2019 there will be an World Cup, in a location yet to be decided. International Blood Bowl goes from strength to strength!