Welcome to the June edition of the Tournament Director Blog, your source for all things NAF tournament-related. We keep you informed about the latest happenings behind the scenes, share relevant content, offer a glimpse into upcoming events, and, of course, provide reports on recent exciting tournaments. In this month’s edition, we’ll be covering as many as five events: HammaBowl, Lutece Bowl, Speedbowl, Maule Bowl and Pálinka Bowl.
As always, 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
- NAF Chatter
1.1 World Cup Update
1.2 Scoring Systems in Tournaments
1.3 Race Statistics - Report: HammaBowl (by Cubefarmer)
- Report: Lutece Bowl (by Davouille)
- Report: Speedbowl (by Lunchmoney)
- Report: Maule Bowl (by poolky)
- Report: Pálinka Bowl (by Daniel/GFIP)
- Outlook
1. NAF Chatter
1.1. World Cup Update
Less than three months until the fifth NAF World Cup in Alicante! By now you all should have formed your squads and fixed your members. July 2nd is the last date to make any changes to the composition of the squads. Of course, life happens, and sometimes coaches drop out. Ulvardar and his team are doing their best to help out in these cases and fill up incomplete squads. Best is to head to the World Cup section of the NAF discord, if you are in need of assistance.
The next important deadline is July 17th. Until then, all coaches will have to complete and finalize their rosters. Afterwards, all that is left for you to do is lean back and relax and pray that the employees of your travel company of choice don’t decide to go on strike when the time is there.
1.2 Scoring Systems in Tournaments
Traditionally, the way how victory points in Blood Bowl tournaments are being collected has been quite diverse. A lot of more experienced hosts favour 2/1/0 points for wins, draws and losses. The 3/1/0 scoring system can be found quite often as well. And occasionally we encounter more exotic systems like 7/3/0, 65/25/0 or 2π/e/i. One might argue how much a win should be weighted versus a well-earned draw. But in the end, these scoring systems typically deliver very similar results. Coaches that win all their matches tend to win the whole tournament.
Now, a good number of hosts like to spice things up and introduce bonus points. Diversity is great, and the NAF fully supports that. But sometimes these scoring system can skew the outcome dramatically. Depending on your point of view, Blood Bowl is either a dice game influenced by skill and expertise, or a strategic game heavily influenced by dice. When good dice meet inexperienced players, the results can be dramatic, and a single match massacring rookie Halflings might result in so many bonus points that other coaches facing battle-hardened Dwarves and Orc veterans will have a hard time to catch up with.
Organizers should keep this in mind when designing their rulesets. All of this is nothing new, and coaches familiar with the ancient scripts might remember the words Purplegoo once etched in his stone tablet:
We all attend BB events to have a laugh, meet friends and have fun, no-one spends time and money travelling to win first and foremost. That is a given, and I wanted to get in before anyone else did. However, these things are ‘tournaments’, so something as trivial as getting the scoring system that determines final placings right should be pretty easy, and isn’t really an area for flair or innovation. Keep it simple and correct.
Blood Bowl is not football. A win should not be valued more highly than double a tie. We have no spectators to please (Jimmy Hill be damned), and the mechanics of our strategy game are often not suited to pressing for a win over a tie if behind at the half (for instance). Indeed, scoring systems that value a win as more valuable than two ties can very easily encourage coaches to play badly, which is counter intuitive.
Bonus points are a plague. Again, rewarding poor play (pushing for 3-0 at the expense of consolidating a victory) or rewarding a good Swiss draw twice (woo! I’ve drawn 16 Snotlings, I’ll win. Woo! Not only will I win, I will collect loads of bonus points equivalent to a whole tie, when those two guys playing out a fantastically coached 0-0 will just get a bad draw’s worth of points) is the sort of thing that shouldn’t happen.
Bonus Points are easily dismissed with a wave of the hand as just a bit of fun, but all too often they impact tournament results more than they should. Rather than adding transparency, we are too commonly left in a situation where the proper tournament winner on 5/1/0 is awaiting a handshake, only for the guy on 4/2/0 (or worse) that killed everything to become the shock winner, to the surprise of everyone following the top tables. Whilst no-one goes home and punches a wall, everyone looks at each other and says ‘well, that’s a bit crap, sorry buddy. See you in a month or so?’ and the winner is left ashen faced. It’s perverse that we go out of our way at tournaments to crown incorrect winners. Nothing in a rulespack is really sacred; skills packages, tiering systems, gold to spend should be, and are, all up for grabs. But intuitively, the scoring system should be the one thing that is bloody sacred. Bonus points for sendings off, indeed.
2/1/0 + strength of schedule tie breakers is very slowly creeping in as ‘standard’ at both flagship events and some smaller tournaments. Like democracy, it’s not perfect, but it’s the best system we’ve got by some distance. I can accept 1000/500/0 with a point or two for TDs and CAS if you must, but why meddle with something so simple and elegant?
1.3 Race statistics
We have covered race performances and in-depth analyses such as Sann0638′ NAF report and Sven Drakenspear recent blog post in the May issue. I would like to point you towards another source of information, where you can quickly check how all races are doing on an annual basis: the NAF database statistics page. It’s the perfect source to impress others with trivia like the name of the second-best performing race in 2015.
2. Report: HammaBowl (by Cubefarmer)
This year’s HammaBowl in Hamburg marked the sixth installment, attracting a staggering 72 coaches competing for prizes, fame, glory – and the coveted wooden spoon, which, to be honest, always steals the spotlight at this tournament.
We had quite an international crowd this year, including a group from Denmark (thanks for joining us again, guys), as well as players from the US, Italy, Greece, and Norway, all of whom were based in Germany. Competing in six games over two days, they made this the largest field we’ve had so far and one of the biggest tournaments in Germany, something we are incredibly proud of. The event took place at the “Horner Rennbahn” youth hostel for the second time, and despite the coaches being spread across two rooms, everything ran smoothly.
On Day 1, Vito, Braze77, and Sprinter took the lead with three solid wins and six points, closely pursued by several other coaches. PeterD established a comfortable lead in Casualties, amassing an impressive 13 casualties in his first game alone. Around 30 coaches joined us for dinner on the first day, and we enjoyed steaks, beer, and the opportunity to meet new faces in the Blood Bowl circus.
Day 2 began early, but almost everyone was on time to kick off game 4. The atmosphere in the smaller room, where the higher-ranked tables played, grew even more intense. Hamburg treated us to one of its finest weekends weather-wise, allowing us all to enjoy some fresh air and sunshine during the breaks. Volkajo and Pedda even took the opportunity to toss the spiked football back and forth (don’t worry, it was rubber, so no blood involved).
Round 5 had a special twist this year as we incorporated lunch directly into the game. Coaches had the freedom to decide when they wanted to take a break during the match to eat, and then resumed play afterward. I highly recommend this approach for any tournament that has the chance to do so. It made game 5 more relaxed and gave everyone the opportunity to get to know their opponents a bit more over lunch.
Start of round 6 had Sprinter in the lead, closely followed by eight coaches just one point behind. The new scoring system (2-1-0) worked perfectly, creating intense competition right until the end of the tournament. In a fitting matchup, Jaqra from Denmark faced Sprinter in the final round, reminiscent of their countries’ clash in the EuroBowl, where Germany and Denmark also battled it out!
However, this time the outcome was reversed, with Sprinter’s Dark Elves triumphing over Jaqra’s Lizardmen with a score of 2-1 in touchdowns, granting Sprinter the overall victory of this year’s HammaBowl! Stimme with Skaven secured the runner-up position. Special mentions go to PeterD, who maintained his lead in injuries throughout the tournament, inflicting a total of 36 casualties, as well as Finn, who earned the title of Most Entertaining, which should be renamed “Most Endured” considering he suffered a whopping 45 (!) casualties against to claim the prize!
Thank you all for attending, and I hope to see each and every one of you, along with even more coaches, next year at HammaBowl VII.
3. Report: Lutece Bowl (by Davouille)
Lutece Bowl, which typically doesn’t occur during a World Cup year, made an exception this time! The Lutece organizers seized the opportunity to adopt the World Cup ruleset and allow squads to practice their team spirit. Yes, Lutece is a squad tournament and saw this year 180 participants in 36 teams of 5 coaches each, eagerly rolling dice and shouting at every casualty.
Location-wise, the tournament is held in the small city of Breches, situated approximately 2.5 to 3 hours’ drive south of Paris, near the city of Tours. It is nestled amidst the countryside, offering ample space for tents. While there isn’t much to do in Breches besides playing Blood Bowl, extending your stay allows you to combine the event with visits to the castles and vineyards of the Loire Valley. Blood Bowl matches take place outside under a large porch roof, providing a taste of summer vacations.
In addition to the Blood Bowl matches, there is also a Mölky competition organized, and the food is excellent with a colossal barbecue prepared by a fantastic crew!
The Blood Bowl tournament follows the format of a squads of 5 coaches event, featuring 5 double Swiss rounds, and adhering to the Alicante World Cup ruleset. Naturally, the Lutece Bowl’s unique touches are still present. Each round, the team captain must assign an additional skill to each squad member from a provided list, which changes every round. These skills include negative traits or unusual abilities such as Fumblerooskie or Cannoneer (don’t expect another Mighty Blow; my Shambling Undead zombies received quite more either Bonehead or Secret Weapon).
The field of competitors was undeniably of high quality. Top teams like COCORIPOW (holders of the Malta EurOpen title) and CHIMERA were in attendance, alongside AZES, PILOUS, LGBT, BRUTES, and many others.
(Bibi, Olivierdulac, Samdulac, Bourpif, Karaak)
(Sebotouno, Lord Bojo, Helborg, Tulkas, Chavrouze)
(Grosnain, Zahiko, Straume, Justicium, Harti)
4. Report: Speedbowl (by Lunchmoney)
Many moons ago, back in the age of LRB4, my local league played at our GW store. We would rock up around 6, play 3 league matches, and help close the store down by half 9 before going for a pint. And then, in 2008, we found out about tournaments, and something called The NAF…
SpeedBowl is how all BB tournaments should be played.
– Kfoged
We started to go to these wonderful, and at the time mysterious, events and were shocked to find coaches taking 2 HOURS (and sometimes longer) to play a match! This was totally alien to us.
Speedbowl is great- high octane, full adrenaline bloodbowl with no room for error!
– Thor87
I took an interest in running events myself and after a few I launched the Speedbowl tourney!
The core concept is make everyone play at the pace my league mates and I play at naturally: 2-minute turns, and if your timer hits zero your turn is over.
I’d encourage any player from expert to beginner, to experience the SpeedBowl variant. It really helps to remove hesitation from your game, forcing a fast pace with instinctive decision making. Players will come away with a little extra confidence once back under standard conditions.
– Gurgeh
I’ve run several Speedbowls now (including a Deathclock variant where you have 30 minutes total time each to play your match, and if your timer hits zero you lose), and I have enjoyed each one. The screams and cries of frustration when a BEEPBEEPBEEP rings out across the hall is like a prayer unto Nuffle!
Blood Bowl is a game that can frustrate me whilst I wait for my opponents to take their turn. SpeedBowl corrects this. They only have 2 minutes no matter how difficult the puzzle is on their turn. Will be doing more events like this.
– BB-Sprout
This summer I ran the 10th edition of Speedbowl; previously we played 5 matches across the day but this time I upped it to 6. After 5 straight wins, bb_nut was set to win the day but fatboyslimming stopped the 6/0/0 in impressive style – and they also finished first, which is in the spirit of Speedbowl.
It’s like taking a glimpse inside Lunchmoney’s head which, like Speedbowl, will leave you drained!
– deetee
Even at twice the pace matches are still played in the right way, and I have found all coaches over the years have always accepted their fate that sometimes they would just time out.
Speedbowl? Never heard of that. Now, please leave my property, before I call the police. No, you cannot use my name!
– anonymous
5. Maule Bowl (by poolky)
Maule Bowl II marks the first team event organized by the Netblitz Association, bringing coaches from various regions to our charming village of Maule. In this edition, 16 teams, consisting of 3 coaches each, participated in a 5-match tournament held on Saturday and Sunday, following the Alicante World Cup ruleset.
While most team tournaments match their squad members using a Swiss system, Maule Bowl takes a different approach. Firstly, the stronger team has the privilege of selecting whether they will be designated as team A or team B. Then both team captains set aside one roster. Now Captain A presents a roster proposal. Captain B decides which roster will face off against the one put forth by Captain A. Finally, the two concealed rosters go head-to-head in competition.
As a token of participation, everyone received a miniature of Aedarian, one of the custom Netblitz Team members. Each tournament, we create a player in honor of our members.
Every team fought tooth and nail to ascend to Table One and contend for the prestigious title of Maule Kings. By the end of Saturday, four teams held a record of 2 wins, 1 draw, and 0 losses, making the final outcome unpredictable. Sunday became the decisive day for showcasing the most talented coaches.
We would like to extend our congratulations to The Brute from Nantes, who emerged as the champions of the tournament. They prevailed not only due to their skill but also thanks to their remarkable outfits and the awesome warcry that resonated every time they scored a touchdown (Turlututu! Chapeaus pointus!). Additionally, they secured the painting award and the most touchdowns scored award. What an exceptional team!
Our sponsor, Alain Padel, Undertaker of Maule, came up with a brilliant idea to gift each coach of the winning team a team of Undead/Khemri/Necromantic. Additionally, three wooden spoons were awarded to the last-placed team, while Nauth received a team of Waia Game High Elves for his beautifully painted Skaven team.
We can’t wait to prepare for Maule Bowl III with more coaches and epic matches (and beer)!
6. Pálinka Bowl (by Daniel/GFIP)
Running since 2016, this year’s Pálinka Bowl in Budapest was the largest event Blood Bowl event Hungary has seen so far. As the country gears up to host the Eurobowl in 2025, Pálinka Bowl exemplifies the nation’s passion for the game. One notable aspect of this tournament is the association with Pálinka, a traditional fruit spirit or fruit brandy originating from the Carpathian Basin, dating back to the Middle Ages. As a part of the esteemed Ostermark Cup series, Pálinka Bowl attracted nearly 60 coaches from various regions, eager to demonstrate their skills on the field, following the rules of the Alicante World Cup.
Daniel from Go For It Painting has composed impressions of city and tournament in this youtube video.
7. Outlook
Summer is here in the Northern hemisphere, and despite the warm weather, the tournament scene remains vibrant. Our health-conscious coaches understand that aside from sun lotion, the best protection against dangerous UV is staying indoors and immersing themselves in the world of Blood Bowl. A total of 74 tournaments have been submitted for the month of July. While the US are still enjoying June, coaches attending Sydney’s Eucalyptus Bowl will be the first ones to kick-off July. The Spanish Bilbali Teams Cup will surely draw many participants. And among various exotic seaside locations, the 10th Atlantic Coast Charity in Chesapeake (USA) and the sixth Beach Bowl in Gdańsk (Poland) are taking place.
Coaches that enjoy playing Blood Bowl variants such as Street Bowl, Beach Bowl or Fruit Bowl will surely have already noticed the announcement by Games Workshop that another official variant is about to be released: Gutter Bowl, “the vicious little brother of Blood Bowl“, promises “a brand new way of playing Nuffle’s great game with its own unique spin.” Rules are not published yet, but hosts have already asked for the possibility to host the first ever NAF approved Gutter Bowl tournament. The NAF will, in all likelihood, add Gutter Bowl to the database as it becomes available.