Tournament Director Blog February 2023

And we are back! The year 2023 is not as fresh anymore, but there was one resolution that I had in case I was officially elected as Tournament Director: bringing back the monthly Tournament Director Blog that our beloved Purplegoo had been publishing during his reign. As back then, the idea of this blog is to keep you updated about things that are going on behind the scenes, highlight interesting tournament-relevant content, give an outlook on upcoming events, and, most importantly, publish reports on a few recent tournaments. In this month’s edition, these are REVA Bowl in Spain, the Swedish Nationals Team Championship, the Waterbowl, and the Eurovision Death Contest Deathbowl tournament (featuring a downloadable Deathbowl pitch for printing)!

Importantly, if you want to contribute any content to this blog (e.g. a report of a recent tournament you visited or ran), reach out! Contact info are available on our NAF staff site.

Content

1. NAF Chatter
   1.1 Recent Elections
   1.2 20-year anniversary of the first recorded match
   1.3 Nationals 2023
   1.4 Improvements to the tournament submission process
2. Report: REVA Bowl (by Volkajo)
3. Report: Swedish National Championship (by crazywibe and chatGPT)
4. Report: Waterbowl (by Volkajo)
5. Report: Eurovision Death Contest (by Stimme)
6. Outlook

1. NAF Chatter

1.1. Recent Elections

The NAF committee (as shown here on our NAF staff site) consists of four elected positions that are each standing for election every two years. Both the League Director and the Tournament Director seats have now found new owners, with Megamind and myself, respectively. If you are interested in the background of both candidates and the campaign promises they made to win over the masses, head over to our forum and look into Stimme’s Q&A and Megamind’s Q&A.

1.2 20-year anniversary of the first NAF match

It would have probably gone unnoticed for a a while, if it wasn’t due to our diligent data cruncher Sann0638 – but in February 2023 we are celebrating the 20th birthday of the first ever recorded NAF match! Or I should better say, the 20th birthday of the first ever NAF recording. The (I must assume) glorious match between Rekrap’s Norse and Lutha_Harex’ High Elves ended with a 3-2 for the Norse.

The match was already played in October at the Spiky Open Cup 2002 in Reading (UK), which was eventually won by Sputnik’s Lizardmen, but didn’t make it into the database until February 2003. However, the older ones among you will remember how it was back then in 2002, when everybody was still connecting through 28.8kbps modems. It was completely normal for an upload to take four months.

Who would have thought back then how many more recorded matches would follow. Since February 2003, more than 336’000 additional matches have found their way into the NAF database!

1.3 Nationals 2023

The NAF recently introduced Nationals – tournaments that aim to provide nations with a large community but no Major with a prestigious event. At the moment, France, Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden fulfill the required criteria. With Poland adding Beach Bowl (yes, Poland has a beach as well, Alicante!), all countries now have announced (or already hosted) their chosen tournaments:

France – Bowl des Neiges (February 4th and 5th)
Italy – Fulginium Bowl 15 (March 4th and 5th)
Poland – Beach Bowl 6 (July 29th and 30th)
Spain – Bilbali Teams Cup (July 15th and 16th)
Sweden – Swedish National Championship (January 28th and 29th)

1.4 Improvements to the tournament submission process

Whoever submitted a NAF tournament for approval is probably familiar with the NAF approval guidelines. Once an entry is submitted for approval, a team of volunteers reviews the ruleset, depending on the country. These volunteers are
– Driesfield (UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands)
– Gaixo (Americas)
– Hachablanca (Spain, Portugal)
– Matte8 (Italy, Malta)
– Rabid_Bogscum (Australia)
– Shteve0 (New Zealand)
– Stimme (Northern and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa)
– Twyllenimor (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)
A criticism in the past has been that approval times were sometimes lengthy, with no good feedback if a submission was successful and is being looked at. From the approver’s side, the issue was that we would receive no notification if and when a tournament was submitted and basically had to login once in a while to check if there are any new tournaments. We have improved on this now. Whenever a host submits a tournament, they and the responsible approver will receive an email notification with the tournament details and the possibility of a direct contact. Similarly, whenever a tournament has been approved, a notification email goes out to inform the host about the updated status. While we were at it, we also cleaned up the the submission form and removed some outdated and confusing entries. As we are working to renew and remodel the website, more changes will come in the future!

2. Report: REVA Bowl (by Volkajo)

Spoiler alert: REVA ist a very special tournament. If you attend for the first time, my personal advice is: just like with doing a lot of other things for the first time, it is best to not worry and just go with the flow. The tournament venue is a bit outside of Valencia, with – to be honest – not much going on around it. The tournament is held at a hotel / restaurant that is exclusively about Blood Bowl this weekend. Ideally you play, sleep, eat and drink at La Carreta. Breakfast is just what you need, lunch (good, traditional Spanish food) is included and you have cheap dinner options. Did I mention that beer is free the entire weekend? Yes, you heard it correctly: FREE BEER all weekend, which obviously sets a certain tone – and that tone is a loud one.

The tournament kicks off Friday night. You can arrange your game one, the “teto”, in advance and play whenever you like. You just need to be done in the morning. And the locals use that time. Some games don‘t kick off before 2am. Sadly this year my scheduled opponents had to drop out so the organizers offered to find an opponent for me. At midnight I got called up via the horrible noisy speakers and met my opponent. Apologies, dear reader, I forgot to mention I was using Underworld with Varag, I‘m a filthy person. My opponent had Khorne, very nice guy and we had a good game, which I won. I stayed up a bit longer and watched some games before I went to my room where my elderly travel companions, Trondur and PeterD, were already fast asleep. Due to not drinking anymore I got up early and enjoyed a bit of the Spanish sun. I ran into my mate Steven, a Scotsman who used to live in Berlin and now moved to Valencia, and a few other people I knew. So everybody who did not play round 1 on Friday night was playing now. Which made the start of the day a lot less hectic.

We made it the German / English / Andorran / Ladonian tradition to play our games outside by the pool, which my next two opponents agreed upon – thanks again! Most Spanish coaches don‘t speak English all too well but make up for it by being excellent hosts, and the combination of sign language and a mixture of multiple languages usually works.

I got a draw and a win against Khorne and something else, which was nice. For game three we moved back inside and I got dorfs. Still managed to steal the win, followed by another win (diced the pants off my dark elf opponent) in game 5, which we decided to play at nighttime, only leaving one more game on Sunday after late breakfast. Saturday night was great. Because of the spread-out schedule for game 5 you get to hang out with people, drink, chat, watch some games, roam around or just chill.
Out of 300ish coaches I ended up on table 4 against someone who played his very first table top tournament – with Wood Elves! After a few turns I realized he wasn‘t a rookie and he confessed he had a couple of thousand games on BB2. He went very aggressive, and on the third cage dive everything worked and the elves stole the ball, lobbed it down the field and scored. I managed to score back, but after he started the 2nd half scoring in two and getting a time out, a draw was the maximum I could get.

I think I finished 8th overall but honestly, the result at REVA is secondary. Don‘t get me wrong, there are fantastic coaches around, but as Santo, the main organizer put it: “REVA is not a tournament, it is a social event”. We ended the weekend with a night out in Valencia which is always nice. Just roaming those streets in non-tourist season feels calming yet beautiful. Some great restaurants and bars are easily found and it‘s 100% worth extending your trip to check out the city. For anybody who has never been to REVA/Spain: Go! If the World Cup is anything like this tournament (and it will be since some of the organizers are the same) you will see how much fun it is to play in Spain. The people are great, the food is fantastic, the hospitality is unprecedented. Yes, it is loud, chaotic and a little bit messy, but if you follow my opening analogy and go with the flow you will have a blast!

3. Report: Swedish National Championship (by crazywibe and chatGPT)

The Swedish National Championship was the first tournament in Sweden that was held as one of the newly formed Nationals. Here is crazywibe’s summary of the event!

Last month, the first ever Swedish championship in Blood Bowl was decided, the organizer was Sala analoga spelförening, and 84 of the best players from Sweden and Finland were present. Packed in the main hall of “Folkets hus”, dice were rolled and pieces were moved across playing fields. A total of 28 teams were fighting for the title of in the Swedish champion. Behind the event stands the Sala analogue game association with Frederick Wibe, Jimmy Karlsson and Joel Thungren at the head.

It started in 2021 with us getting money to organize a bigger tournament. Then the pandemic got in the way, but this summer we got the idea to aim really high and arrange a Svenska Mästerskapet (Swedish Championship, SM). At first the thoughts were like: is it even possible? “SM doesn’t feel like something you start, but it turned out that it went really well”, says Frederick Wibe, smiling.

With support from the municipality, the first ever Swedish Championship was bigger than anyone dared to hope, but they also reveal that they had a small lifeline if interest turned out to be cold. “We planned for approximately 40 participants, but we got more than double that. We called it SM (Swedish Championship) with the ulterior motive that if there are no participants from outside, we can just say that it stands for the Sala Championship, but then there were many people who were interested”, says Jimmy Karlsson.

The three main organizers had rough days during the tournament, especially Frederick who after a dropout had to jump into one of the competing teams.
“I was ‘forced’ to stand up so that they wouldn’t have to withdraw. It was just putting on a team jersey and playing as hard as I could, it was great fun”, says Frederick Wibe.

Despite the name Blood Bowl, it’s not all that bloody serious, at least not when it’s finished playing.
“It is very friendly and nice, people are usually in a very good mood after the matches, the worst thing that happens is that people sometimes curse the dice”, says Jimmy Karlsson.

The Blood Bowl Championship is just the first major competition for the Sala analog gaming association, which is already planning more. “There are other figure games we want to get here and play competitions in and who knows, maybe it will be a Nordic championship next time.” They also tell us that Sala is a strategic place for national competitions, it is well located and it is a neutral playing field. There are some rivalries between bigger cities but no one holds a grudge against Sala.

Vem vann då titeln Swedish Champions? The Finnish team” Upperlig Service Team” with Aleksi Meuronen, Aku Sonninen, Petrus Artimo from Finland, with 5 wins and no loss.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While the organizers were still fine-tuning their report, I asked a friendly AI to write me a ballad of how the winning team performed in their upset win over their fellow neighbours:

In the city of Sala, on a cold winter’s night,
Three Finnish coaches were ready to fight.
Tonalt with his Orcs, AleksiMeuronen with Dark Elves,
And brutopatia with Lizardmen, ready to excel.

Their opponents were many, mostly Swedish coaches with skill,
But the Finnish trio had a plan and were determined to fulfill.
The Orcs’ brute strength and the Elves’ speed and agility,
Combined with the Lizardmen’s cunning, made a winning strategy.

The first game was tough, but Tonalt’s Orcs held their own,
And Aleksi’s Dark Elves maneuvered with finesse shown.
Brutopatia’s Lizardmen kept the opposing team at bay,
And together, they secured their first victory that day.

The next games were challenging, but the Finnish team stood strong,
Their teamwork and skills unmatched, proving themselves as lifelong.
With each game, their confidence grew, and their strategy refined,
And their opponents struggled to keep up, left behind.

The final game was a test of their endurance and might,
Against a strong Swedish team, who were ready to fight.
But Tonalt, Aleksi, and brutopatia had come too far,
And with their combined efforts, they shone like a star.

The game ended with a roar of triumph and pride,
As the Finnish coaches lifted the trophy high, side by side.
Tonalt with his Orcs, AleksiMeuronen with Dark Elves,
And brutopatia with Lizardmen, a team of winners themselves.

The Swedish championship of Blood Bowl had been claimed,
By the Finnish coaches, whose skills and teamwork were famed.
And the memory of their victory would forever be told,
In the city of Sala, where their story was bold.

4. Report: Waterbowl (by Volkajo)

The Waterbowl in Manchester is always on my schedule. They do have a very active league with some top notch coaches, so you will find high level Blood Bowl at most tables.
The venue is the local games store Element, who are always fantastic hosts. You can get reasonably priced snacks and drinks with them or at one of the many shops in the area. Also a few decent pubs within walking distance.

Sadly there were quite a few drop outs so we “only” ended up at 100 players while 136 spots were actually taken leading up to the tournament. Maybe this is a good opportunity to remind people to tell the TO as early as possible if you can’t make it. It is almost impossible to find last minute replacements whereas months in advance other coaches will happily take your spot.
While the man in charge, the lovely Leipziger, is usually playing the tournament, his brilliant admin team, Barney, Sizzler, KFoged and a few others, keep the event running very smoothly (this year there wasn’t even a redraw!).
They run their traditional rule set, so you will encounter rosters different from your common WC/Euro meta. The legendary Purplegoo took the title with his Lizardmen, followed by a few Orcs, Undead, Dark elves and Skaven.

I managed to submarine to my second Waterbowl stunty cup in a row after playing three very strong coaches on day one. It was pretty much the last dice roll of the tournament when my friend Thulean, who played top tables with his snotlings all weekend, snaked into a loss.

If you are looking for six games of gold Blood Bowl at a perfectly organized tournament with some of the world’s best coaches, Waterbowl is where it’s at.

5. Report: Eurovision Death Contest (by Stimme)

Deathbowl, sweet Deathbowl. Have you sometimes laid awake at night, thinking of how cool it would be to have a match lasting longer than a mere 2.5h, and a way to not only battle one, but three opponents simultaneously? Look no further, as Deathbowl scratches that itch! Four coaches play on one pitch featuring two balls, with every team trying to score touchdowns by reaching the endzone on the other side of the pitch.

History buffs will know that the first Deathbowl tournaments were developed in the vast spaces of Canada with its large tables, where indigenous tribes and first settlers were looking for ways to semi-peacefully resolve their conflicts. Since then, the game has evolved a lot. Initial rules would ask for a reset every time a touchdown was scored (similar to regular Blood Bowl). This could be horribly annoying when your Nurgle team was happily strolling down the field with the ball, approaching the endzone, and your Skaven neighbour would always score right before you. Nowadays, the game is continuous, which not only reduces the downtime, but also gives less agile and slower teams a chance to score. As, ironically, Deathbowl, was often dominated by less bashy races such as Elves and Skaven.

• 

• 

The annual Eurovision Death Contest took place in January in Hamburg, the first time after the pandemic break. The ruleset (available here as a compact PDF) is very similar to the Canadian original, with four coaches aiming to score most touchdowns and receiving some bonus points for casualties. When it is their turn, each coach has three and a half minutes to block, run, foul and curse their luck. A game typically lasts 4h. To comfortably squeeze four games into a weekend and still allow participants to travel home on Sunday (or recover from the exhaustion), we are playing two and a half games on Saturday (taking a snapshot of the board at the end of Saturday) and then play the remainder of the tournament on Sunday.

Ideally, there should be a multiple of four coaches playing at a Deathbowl tournament. It’s not very economic and sometimes even impossible to have up to three coaches on standby to fill up the numbers. For that reason, I usually bring a number of extra teams. If we are lacking three coaches to fill all tables, I will simply not play. If we are lacking two coaches, I will make myself comfortable at the bottom table and will play two teams against each other. At the last tournament in 2019, it was Tomb Kings vs Goblins – out of competition, but still trying to win and interfere with the other two coaches sitting at the same table. This year’s iteration saw High Elves and Nurgle interlocked in an eternal battle. If we are lacking just one coach – well, that is somewhat challenging and you might have to call up a friend at 8AM on Saturday morning and convince them to ditch their brunch plans and concert tickets and show up at your tournament instead.

The 2023 Eurovision Death Contest saw a rather small number of participants, but a great diversity of races. In the end, Minotaurus’ dirty Amazons took home the winner trophy in an epic showdown at the top table. They also scored most touchdowns (seven in total, while allowing four). A close second place went to Gronov with Black Orcs. Most casualties (19 in total) went to Troublemaker’s Undead.

If I had to bring up one thing I like the most about Deathbowl, I would name the shared experience. We all have had matches where we got utterly diced. But it’s much more bearable if you have two fellow coaches at the same table experiencing the same trauma! On the other hand, your outrageously lucky (or maybe smart) play will leave not only one, but three opponents stunned!

Once you play your first match of Deathbowl, you will realize that it is actually way less chaotic (and brutal) than one would think, as you rarely significantly interact and interfere with all opponents at the same time. It even allows for some – lo and behold – strategies!

If you are interested in trying a game of Deathbowl and don’t want to draw a pitch on your kitchen table: I have made the official Eurovision Death Contest available as a lossless 6000×6000 pixel PNG file here on the NAF site (65 MB file). You can get it printed by one of the many online services, e.g. as a vinyl banner. I have done that in a format of 79 cm x79 cm, which still fits the majority of tables around here (typically 80 cm wide). At this print size, the squares are not as large as on the official GW pitches, but larger than on the pre-BB2020 pitches. It’s still cozy when a cluster forms between two Chaos Renegade teams, Ogres and Tomb Kings, but will otherwise accommodate also newer, larger miniatures quite well.

6. Outlook

If you haven’t made plans yet for the coming weekend and are spontaneous: the German Major, The Dungeonbowl, and the newly coined Italian National, Fulginium Bowl 15, are being held on the coming weekend of March 3rd! They will be followed by another large and traditional tournament, the UKTC, which takes place on the first weekend of April in York.

As many as 75 tournaments in 21 different countries have been submitted for the month of March, including events in Chile, Uruguay and Hungary! Way too many to list all of them, but of course you can find them all in the listing in our members area. Among them are are classics like magictobe’s 24h Turncoat Max in Belgium, Valdric’s multiple Stupor Bowl events in the US or the fifteenth iteration of Rugbowl in France.

Unless you have been living under a thrown rock (a pre-BB2020 pun for the elderly among you!), you will for sure have learned that Blood Bowl 3, Cyanide’s video game adaption, has finally been released! A lot of table top coaches are looking into it now, let’s see what their feedback will be!