Tournament Director blog – Oct. ’20

A slightly belated welcome, one and all, to October / the start of November in NAF tournaments!

At some point this month, the new edition of our beloved game will arrive. We don’t know exactly when yet, only that it’s coming! I am fielding a large number of request regarding the NAF position on this, our planned direction on that and what is coming the other, and the response remains the same. I know we’re all excited, impatient, worried, even, but the NAF will publish what we hope will be direct, concise advice as soon after release day as possible. Yes, we have all seen leaked rules, but as those following this closely will realise, there are things we don’t yet know. Will there be a Teams of Legend document? A day one supplement? An errata..? Until we have all of the information, speculating on an exact direction isn’t the wisest course. Please trust me when I say: we’re on it.

Away from GW news, the tournament landscape remains extremely difficult in many places. A low in tournaments hitting the database this month (sub 20) probably reflects our collective confidence in the world around us at the moment, and I know many of you are having a hard time with more important matters than Blood Bowl. Please, stay safe until the situation improves. We continue to operate online to keep you busy; a record 364 coaches have signed up to do battle in the latest FUMBBL tournament, and the second BB2 extravaganza will continue throughout November.

Tabletop BB isn’t impossible everywhere at the moment, and our Oceanic friends are making the most of their relatively positive situation and playing BB! Please find a report below from Linus regarding Nuffle’s Bash at the Beach over in Oz. Pictures by Vimes, and stolen with thanks!

 

Report

Nuffles Bash at the Beach

The inaugural Nuffle’s Bash at the Beach took place on the 10th of October in Sydney, Australia. 8 competitors from around NSW made the trip to finally play some Blood Bowl in 2020. Blood Bowl in Australia had been dormant since COVID first hit, making this the event to compete at, especially with the new rules about to arrive; this gave players the opportunity to enjoy the old rules one last time. The tournament began at 9 am with all players excited to finally play. Round one saw Goblins, Chaos, Nurgle, Humans and Vampires do battle, as well as the debut of the newest team on the block, the Old World Alliance. The event ran for 4 rounds and finished with Rabid_Bogscum (NAF VP) winning the event. There were very close matches and no body lost every game. Overall, for uncertain times we saw some certain fun. Awards included First, Second, Third, Most TDs, Most Casualties, Knock Out King, Surf Champion, Stunty Jug and Best Painted. Photos were taken by the talented Vimes.

I promise I’ve not only included this because the VP won it; it’s a happy coincidence! It’s just nice to hear about BB being played anywhere right now, so I was delighted Linus could write me some words to include here. Pictures below!

 

TD Notes

I won’t delay you for too long with this section. While we are unable to speak openly yet, of course, preparations are taking place behind the scenes regarding the arrival of BB2020. Otherwise, the TD workload has somewhat eased with fewer tournaments taking place, for which I’m grateful!

One thing we have completed since I last wrote is the latest addition to the global staff team. Over in Lithuania, Waglis has been coordinating getting gifts to the community, organising a team for the Eurobowl, and generally asking us lots of questions about how best to interface local coaches with the NAF. As the number of tournaments in Lithuania is only set to increase, it made perfect sense to ask him to formally become our NTO. People commonly ask the best way for the NAF to grow or reach new geographies, and this is it. Passionate, motivated people that we can help to make their local scene better. Only through the people on the ground can we sustainably bring people into the big tent. I commonly read all sorts of excellent ideas about how the NAF can interface with the membership (both new and old), but in my experience, the local, live touch cannot be beaten.

Finally, I was able to attend my first NTO meeting last month. As those that read this stuff will know, we have taken to holding a drop-in session for NTOs before NAF committee meetings, where questions and concerns can be put to us directly. We were only able to give a little notice this time which impacted attendance somewhat, but even so, I enjoyed the conversation and I think this is a really good thing for us to be doing.

 

Holiday plans

To continue our optimistic look at 2021 in the NAF database, what about May and June 2021?

Brewhouse Bowl 6 (pack) 15/16 May – Grant continues to host the Brewhouse Bowl over in Canadia; certainly a good looking one to rock up to, eh?

Granite Bowl IV 30/31 May – North of the wall Blood Bowl fare here; probably one of Scotland’s bigger events these days.

XIX Luccini Summer Cup 202117/18 June – It’s tough to imagine a holiday in Tuscany with some BB thrown in at the moment, isn’t it? No. It isn’t. Drool.

 

Next time

It’s unlikely I’ll blog again in 2020, what with all of the new ed. work to complete. So, until we speak again, stay safe and happy Blood Bowling if you can Blood Bowl. at the moment!