The one before the big one. Quite remarkably, I’m only two days away from sharing a space with over 1450 of you. The Dornbirn World Cup is finally here, and I know many of you have already crossed oceans and continents (and drained bank balances!) to descend upon Austria. More on the small matter of #NAFWC4 later (got to get that hashtag moving, team!), but first, let’s deal with September.
We’re still awaiting the imminent Lizardman release from our friends at GW, so all of the September tournament news was NAF flavoured. The variants review was finally delivered early on in the month, and already some of you are making use of the new Blood Bowling opportunities we’ve presented you with. In all, 60 tournaments were played this past month, including the first ever NAF Specialist event (report to follow!), five Sevens tournaments, a Streetbowl and a Dungeonbowl. September was also the final individual NAF major tournament month of 2019, and we have plenty of images from the Chaos Cup below. Congratulations to Sigmund Lamarr on his maiden major victory with Pro Elfs / Elven Union / delete as applicable!
Finally in September, we wrapped things up regarding the Annual Review consultation, thanks to all that participated there. The committee are now finalising arrangements for our 2020 guidelines and regulations, and you should expect delivery and a big noise to be made about this on November 1. More on that next month, but without further ado, let’s hear about you all enjoying yourselves with a couple of reports from the field(s)! If you fancy a wall of text sort of a report from my experience at the Geordie Bowl, head over to theTacklezone, where I take up far too much valuable internet space.
Reports
Two reports for you this month; first the Chaos Cup in Chicago (words from Jeffro are to be edited in later, I’ve cobbled something together from social media in the mean time), then the first NAF Specialist event, the Stunty Slam.
Here we go then! All of the images I can steal from the internet and some award winners from the big one in the US. First, your winner, Sigmund Lamarr posing spectacularly with the trophy:
Next, plenty of action shots, thanks to Jeffro’s Twitter mastery:
Looks a great new venue to me, as well as a fabulous logo this year and some wonderful prize support. Not bad at all, is it?
Awards:
Champion: siggyllama, Elves
Runner-up: Trefenwyd, Undead
3rd: frozenflame, Chaos Dwarfs
Other awards: check out the full listing on the NAF page! To Manchester now, where NAF Media guy Leipziger gets us up to date with the 12th Stunty Slam.
World Cup Focus
This is probably the last of these segments and my October blog will just be wall to wall World Cup news, views, reviews and interviews. The team have done (in my view) an absolutely phenomenal job with press conferences, Tweets, newsletters and various other forms of communication, so I doubt you need me to repeat anything here. What I would say, however, is that it’s worth you reviewing Torsten’s final instructions before you leave for Dornbirn, found in the most recent captain’s newsletter. Be sure to register at the venue on the Thursday (or provide details to Torsten as to why you’re not going to be there). Pack your Blocksfam donations and donate at the correct place. Check your passport. Pack 3 x boards per team (especially important that you bring size appropriate pitches for your miniatures). Bring your wallet for all of that booze / all of those purchase opportunities. I’m sure there is more advice, but you’re likely all way ahead of me! Most of all, prepare for nine games of raw, liquid Blood Bowl.
So many questions will have been answered one week from now. Who will emerge victorious from the big dance? Tripleskull has been making some predictions over on Facebook. Do you agree with his findings? How will your fantasy team get along? Where are the big first round games? Hellhound vs. Pilous is tasty. Turone V Lutece B looks good. There are plenty of other local derbies that whet the collective appetite. There is action everywhere. How many pints of beer will be consumed? Perhaps that’s one question too far, as it would be unwise to count!
I’m sure I won’t get to say hi to all of you, but to those that see me about the place, please come and say hello. For those that aren’t able to join us at the big one, follow the NAF Facebook and Twitter, keep looking for the #NAFWC4 hashtag and keep tuned into table one action on the WC Facebook page. It is going to be nothing short of mega.
Much, much more next month.
TD Notes
September was a ‘tick along’ month as we built up to Dornbirn, where a review was published, another was progressed, a few little, niggly (somewhat dull) background jobs were crossed off my list of things to do and I had a bit of a holiday. I have written plenty about the variants review / release in previous blogs, so I won’t bang on about that any further other than to thank the core team of Oli, JC, Rui, Nate and Garion once again for putting up with me and the quality of the work we released.
The team has been busy this month, as 65 of your tournaments have been approved, including two Sevens and three Specialist. In the Specialist camp, we so far have two Stunty only events and one where mixed races are extremely prominent. It’s good this new category is getting correct use already and there is a buzz around it; I like having as much BB as possible within the big NAF tent. No doubt plenty to say here in this section next month, as I’ll be seeing so many of you very soon it’ll be a spur to embark on new initiatives!
Why Didn’t I Think of That?
As both an online and a tabletop Blood Bowler, I like to keep my eye on new things in the internet area. While I’m not a Cyanider (no harm to those that are – I just never got on with it!), I thought this resurrection event was quite an interesting development. It’s a league-cum-tournament supported by our friends over at thetacklezone and some prominent personalities / streamers; utilising the resurrection format and the Dornbirn day two rules. I believe at time of writing there is the odd spot left, so if this interests you, give the guys a shout! While not my bag, this may be the thing that finally gets me into watching some of you play BB remotely, you never know!
Holiday Plans
We’re already up to February here. For which Valentine’s period tournaments is the World Cup a mere warm-up?!
Welsh Blood Bowl Championship 2020 1/2 Feb. I do mean to get to this one day. Newport hosts the Welsh national championship, and very good I’m told it is too.
Babarrapato Cup II 9 Feb. Some fun Spanish times to be had in Anoeta. Not the warmest part of Spain to spend a February day, but you can always go south after the BB!
Ogre-hio Open 2020 29 Feb. Ogre-themed Ohio action on a leap year. What is not to love?
Next time
No prizes for guessing that my next blog will be a heavy dose of Dornbirn. There will be masses of fallout from before I get around to blogging, but I’ll do my best to collate the best stuff and maybe offer something new as well.
The hype train is approaching its destination. Ladies, gentlemen, nerds… Let’s Blood Bowl. If I am slow to reply to your email or PM this next week, I hope you’ll forgive me. I’m going to be somewhat busy. 😉