May in NAF Tournaments
Goodness me, May was some month. The big news applicable to NAF tournaments came thick and fast throughout; hopefully I’ll not forget any of it in this summary! First and foremost, as this blog is published, the Halfling Spike! is released. Get your sticky, jam covered hands on all of the new ‘Fling goodness and start enjoying at you next NAF event, if you’re so inclined and the TO is amenable. Early in the month, we learned from GW that Wood Elfs are next, so who knows what that will bring? Certainly some pretty minis, as previewed only yesterday.
Away from Spike! news, the first weekend of the month bought us the 2019 NAF Championship (more on this big one below), the internet has been awash with truth and rumours about Blood Bowl 3 (apparently the next title in the BB video game series) and the NAF World Cup team have been dropping bomb after bomb of news. I honestly don’t know if a tournament has ever been so effectively hyped, but as we’ll discover below, we now know more about, well, most things! I guess describing the WC just as a ‘tournament’ is doing a disservice to the sheer scale of the thing, and the comms really do match that size and gravitas. You still have time to join the Online NAF World Cup Warm-up 2019; this is some proper practice as you’ll face off against the full nine opponents in a proper dry run for Dornbirn. June shows no sign of slowing down; the Spike! Magazine major is underway near Vancouver right now (probably, depending on when you read these words), so it’s hardly a lazy beginning to summer!
May is always one of the premier months of NAF tournament action. We saw 60 events played in May this year (including five Sevens and a Dungeonbowl), and that number included both some traditional, huge hitters of the annual calendar and some up and coming events that are becoming ever more attractive for travelers. The NAFC apart, the May list is comprised of such big deals as the Tilean Team Cup 2019 in Italy, the Golden Tentacle 2019 in the US, PalinkaBowl 4 in Hungary, the up and coming Lusobowl II – Portuguese National in (surprise) Portugal… Honestly, I was spoiled for choice regarding asking for reports this month, but in the end I plumped for the NAFC for the perspective of new TO JimJimany, the Swedish Team Bowl as a lesser-hyped Tilean alternative and from New Zealand, the Capital Shield. Over to the TOs!
Reports
No better place to begin than one of the five annual majors. Some words from Jim and some images from assorted attendees (thanks!) below!
The NAFC is the spiritual successor of the “Bloodbowl” and is held in Nottingham a couple of miles away from Warhammer World. This year saw 190 coaches from across Europe play over 6 rounds; aiming to reach the final to be this years NAFC Champion.
The NAFC is fortunate enough to be directly supported by the NAF itself; so entrance includes free membership for the next year for new members and first access to each years membership gift. The venue is a very bright and spacious conference centre on the Nottingham University Campus with an onsite bar open all day. Entrants are also given access to a reduced rate at the attached hotel; so if you just fancy playing Blood Bowl and boardgames for a weekend there is no need to move 50 metres from the venue. Nottingham also has many nice bars and restaurants for those who fancy a night out in the city.
The NAFC is also proud to be supported so much by the NAF and the rest of the brilliant Blood Bowl community. This year there was:
- A team of 5 referees who gave up the chance to play to pull on the zebra shirt
- On site retailers from NAF members Tritex and Choi
- The fantastic Thrud stand
- Peter Knifton spending a day sketching
- TheTacklezone live streaming and commentating on a game each round
- Two Drunk Flings podcast recording events
- A fully painted team as a prize from excellent painted Spubbba
- A custom team of current & previous NAFC referees by the brilliant DarkDan
- Free Miniature for all attendees specially sculpted by Hungrytroll
After 5 tough rounds of Blood Bowl, we saw a final between between Jawa playing Lizardmen and previous winner KFoged playing Dark Elfs. I believe this was the first NAFC final to go to overtime, which saw Jawa lift the NAFC Champion Trophy after a 2-1 Victory. You can watch the final (and 5 other NAFC games) on “theTackleZone” You Tube! page.
Next year is the 10th anniversary of the NAF Championship. We are hoping to announce the dates very soon and would love to see as many people there as possible! Nottingham is in the middle of Britain so is very each to drive to, and is only a couple of hours from major airports in London and Manchester, along with a few smaller airports in the midlands. If you are considering travelling to the NAFC from mainland Europe (or further!?) then please feel free to email thenafchampionship.com or PM “Jimjimjimany” on Talkfantasyfootball.org and we will help you organize the best travel to the NAFC from where you live!
Hope to see you in 2020! Jimjimany & the NAFC Team (you can see a photo library created by Lunchmoney here, a write-up from Twelfman here and one from Wotfudboy here).
I had a blast this year, as I took Goblins and unleashed as many gimmicks as I could on my poor opposition. Read about my experiences here. Huge congratulations to Jawa and his Lizardmen for taking the NAFC crown this year, and commiserations to KFoged who missed out on yet another major. Kare regained his ELO top spot with a strong performance, so it wasn’t all bad! Next, to the land down under and Shteve0.
This year saw the sixth annual iteration of the Capital Shield in Wellington, New Zealand, a two day tournament that uses an innovative moving tier system based on races performances in the previous two years’ worth of NZ events. The theme this time round saw players of all teams able to select one mutation from a skill access based list, and a prize awarded for the best custom model, and attendees did not disappoint with some fantastic conversions on show, from Trolls sporting Claws, Ogres with Tentacles and even a Horns Pro Elf Blitzer turning up to represent teams!
9 squads of 3 coaches representing Swedish cities faced off against each other during the weekend of the 18th – 19th of May in Örebro, Sweden. The tournament is the first in this incarnation, but is related to the Stockbowl Team Cup that ran in 2015 and 2016. The heritage from Stockbowl Team Cup is the pairing system which sets the tone of the tournament. Each squad consisted of three Blood Bowl teams build as described in the World Cup rules (#nafwc2019). The squads were paired against each other with a Swiss system but the individual pairing within the squad is then decided by the team captain.
With team captain gets to choose? Each team has a level coupled to them and the captain with the squads with the highest total level get to choose the three match ups. This level system made the competing squads to go for different tactics; some took teams with low level and didn’t care what coach who got paired up against whom, like squad “Supernova Spectaculars” from Stockholm who played Undead, Lizardmen and Humans; other squads took teams of a higher level and wanted to pick their match ups, like squad “Rannanjärvi lever!” from the city of Örebro that played Slann, Chaos and Chaos Dwarf.
The tournament became a tense competition between the squads and when the sixth and last round started, four teams had a good shoot to win the tournament. The squad “Flipping (edited by ‘Goo!) Åmålers!” (coaches Badpublicity w. Underworld, Pete w. Chaos and Madvig w. Nurgle) outperformed the other squads and won on tiebreaker before squad “Skittufft å Skräckinjagande” (coaches Grumplekins w. Undead, Mikethemachine w. Humans and Razta w. Elf).
The tournament also rewarded individual performance with prizes for the best Stunty team (won by brocCooLi playing for the ‘Fling nation), for most CAS (won by Pete – 22 CAS w. chaos) and for most TD:s (won by Skuld – 10 TD w. Elf).
The tournament also had a new coach on the block-prize for the best coach who had played under 5 NAF-tournaments prior to this one (won by Grumplekins W:3/D:2/L:1) and a prize to the worse coach from the city of Gothenburg (won by brocCooLi).
The only prize that wasn’t claimed is a challenge prize that travels from tournament to tournament in the Swedish blood bowl-scene until someone claims it. As it wasn’t claimed this tournament, the TOs added a model to it and Pete also added the box with GW-dice he won. What do you have to do to claim the prize? You must roll a Quad-Pow, and it isn’t that often we swedes use our team re-rolls on a double pow from a two-die block. The prize now contains some dice, two complete teams and some other Blood Bowl related odds and ends like miniatures and socks…
Even thou this was the first time this tournament was held the plans for a team tournament 2020 in Örebro is already in the making. For information about dates and rules or just to follow the vibrant Swedish blood bowl community please visit the forums on www.Swebba.se where different plans to win the World Cup 2019 are made, almost every day.
Representing the Swedish Blood Bowl Alliance,
signing out, TO:s Lard and Kaju
World Cup Focus
I trailed above that May has been a big month for World Cup comms, and I was not kidding. This month, we learned:
- The final number of attendees is 1447, bolstered at the last minute by two teams of students from the Caterham and Eltham schools in the UK
- We have been shown the menu and (most of us) have learned what spatzle is as a result
- The skill marking system and parts have been revealed
- We will have more space than originally planned, hooray!
- The Thornspear Valleyshockers are in production
- We’re getting pear balls! You can have them painted on the weekend for a fee if you so choose
Crikey, it never ends! Check out the WC Twitter feed for the goods on all of those topics.
For the nostalgia friendly, I mentioned last month that I’d look back to the first WC this month in this space. While I didn’t attend and no memories were forthcoming (perhaps too much beer was drunk to retain too many memories, I remember being told that the tournament drank the Warhammer World bar dry!), I have been able to piece together some details from the internet and various anecdotes told in various bars over the years.
Firstly, the details. The first WC took place on the long weekend of 19-21 October in 2007 at Warhammer World and the White Hart pub in Nottingham. Back in those days, this was probably a bloody risky proposition and I suppose no-one knew quite how successful it would be. With that in mind, 273 attendees from across the NAF world is a really super-healthy attendance. I get the feeling it was a bit like 1960’s football World Cups, in that no-one knew who was good or what the opposing teams were capable of! Who is this Pele chap, anyway?! These days we know that there are numerous French teams that could emerge victorious in Dornbirn, but in 2007, I think it’s fair to say that at that time, eventual winners Les Azes were not well known, at least in the UK.
The format of the first WC was a little odd to 2019 eyes, in that the Friday was an individual draw before teams came together in the way we now see as standard come day 2. The skill package was pretty simple, and I read Orcs were much more popular than they might be now (and were top pick overall), reflecting the meta shift over time. These photos show how well the new idea went down and, of course, the idea has since gone from strength to strength.
Results:
Winners – Les Azes (France) / Individual – Planlos (Germany)
Les Azes were MarcoGianni, Mistery, Boeufbowl, GrosBenDesBois, Nicodaz and Jeff, possibly not in that order!
Second – Aros Super Stars (Denmark)
Third – FBB (France)
Topper of runner-up team Aros Super Stars getting the first of three World Cup runner-up awards, there. Perhaps this is finally his year, who knows?! Next time in old school corner (as no-one is calling it), Amsterdam.
TD Notes
May was my least active month since I became TD last January, primarily because of a new arrival in the Purplegoo household. Have no fear, however, as I don’t think I’ve been particularly missed! Oventa and Dries have been dealing with the majority of your tournament submissions, and we sanctioned a 35 Blood Bowl, 4 Sevens and 1 Beach Bowl tournament across the month between us. All of the projects I’ve previously mentioned in this space and some more besides have been ticking along in the background, and I’m sure I’ll have more to say on those next time as I get back up to speed on all things NAF. I’ll skip the ‘Why didn’t I think of that’ section that normally appears below this time, mainly because I’ve not been looking at many rulespacks, but also, there is a lot in the tournament reports this month that cover this base!
The one weekend this month I did do some ‘work’ (I mean – it’s not really work!) is at the NAFC. Firstly, the generosity of NAF members continues to surprise and amaze. I must have collected over £500 of kit for Blocksfam, and I’ll be boxing that up and shipping to Jamie very soon. Next, the new NAF gift was available for the first time, and helping distribute that with Lycos and Yogi as members renewed with or joined the NAF was good fun. The gift went down well in the room and encouraged members to renew nice and early; I know Massimo was pleased. I saw some less favourable reviews on social media the week after the tournament and while all feedback is fair enough, you can never please all of the people all of the time. I suppose I’d say wait until you get one in the flesh to judge for yourself, I know my Goblins quite enjoyed spending a Gaixo every time the referee wanted rid of Fungus. 😉
I’ve been asked a few times about the ELO rankings page and why that looks slightly different now (a coloured bar now sits at the top of the page). We’ll talk more about this when we have completed the work, but don’t worry, all is well. We know that the games database is perhaps our biggest and most important service or offering to the membership, and we’re taking the time to ensure this is maintained and kept in tip-top working order. Like all things (or people!) of a certain age, a bit of maintenance was required, and the new view is simply a result of that.
Holiday Plans
This section is already talking about October. How is that even a thing?! Let’s see what goodies the database has for us.
NAF World Cup IV. 3-6 Oct. I’m putting this here so that Torsten doesn’t tell me off. But you were aware of this one, right? 😉
StrangleBowl 2 26 Oct. It is possible (probable?) that this will be the biggest NAF one-dayer ever staged. And it’s in my home town! Those things absolutely get you a mention here.
Rocky Mountain Ringers Rebellion III 26 Oct. US big gun Bryan Tew hosts a well liked series of tournaments in his neck of the woods. Worth checking out, especially with the ‘ringer’ gimmick.
Next Time
I’m taking a month off in June, but when I return in July, we’ll have Spike! goodness, and as much other summer fun as you can shake a stick at.