Welcome to the November issue of the Tournament Director Blog, your prime destination for everything you need to know about NAF tournaments. Once again, we offer you not just the freshest updates from behind the curtain, but also essential information, previews of forthcoming events, and naturally, summaries of recently concluded exciting tournaments. For this month’s edition, our coverage includes Ogří Doupě Cubb, StrangleBowl, Rosenbowl and the Peking Autumn 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 Annual Review 2023
1.2 Nationals 2024
1.3 NAF elections
1.4 Tournament Series Update (by TSC Topas) - Report: Ogří Doupě Cubb (by Yaghul)
- Report: StrangleBowl (by Danny)
- Report: Rosenbowl II (by Elkantar)
- Report: Peking Autumn Bowl (by DrClaes)
- Outlook
1. NAF Chatter
1.1. Annual Review 2023
The NAF Annual Review has come to an end! As in previous years, it compiled discussions among international tournament staff and coordinators, covering a range of topics critical to the Blood Bowl community with the aim to enhance organization, inclusivity and transparency of tournament events worldwide. Key issues addressed included the definition and handling of “Specialist” tournaments, the future of Slann teams, managing tournament proximities, online NAF tournaments, and recording non-NAF matches. It also debated disciplinary actions, the World Cup voting process, a naming policy for coaches, and the ranking of squad tournaments. Other topics discussed included the need for a dedicated person for streaming advice, promoting diversity at events, and the implementation of identifiers like badges or armbands for NAF staff at large tournaments.
You can find a summary of all these discussions in the Annual Review 2023 PDF report. They will also impact the soon to be published NAF Rules for Tournaments 2024.
1.2 Nationals 2024
In an effort to ensure a fairer allocation of prestigious events and to provide equivalents to established Major tournaments, we had previously introduced NAF Nationals: glamorous tournaments that will have a higher impact on your ranking. The following countries fulfill the necessary criteria (100 or more active NAF members, a tournament with more than 50 participants, no Major):
Denmark
France
Italy
Poland
Scotland
Spain
Sweden
Wales
Avid readers will realize that Denmark, Scotland and Wales only this year joined this illustrious club and will have their first Nationals ever in 2024.
All but Poland have announced their tournaments for 2024. Mark your calendars, as they will be:
January 13th/14th: Welsh National Championship
January 27th/28th: Swedish National Championship (never won by Swedish nationals)
January 27th/28th: REVA
March 2nd/3rd: Mulligan’s Open
May 18th/19th: Arènes du Graoully
May 25th/26th: Tilean Team Cup
TBD: Danish Open
1.3 NAF elections
As you can see on the NAF staff page, two important events are coming up beginning of 2024: elections of both a new NAF president, and a new treasurer. More details such as timelines and procedures will be published soon. If you are considering running for one of the two positions, start planning your campaign!
1.4 Tournament Series Update (by TSC Topas)
With the support of Frank ‘n’ Stein, the NAF has re-animated its tournament series program starting this year. That means that tournament series that followed the few outlined requirements will benefit from receiving the newly designed NAF tournament series prizes for the top three players and also best Stunty.
In 2023, this holds true for twenty series on three continents, covering 15 countries (notable mention to the Ostermark Cup which spreads over four countries alone) including more than 200 tournaments. So Bloodbowlers, make sure to attend the remaining tournaments and bring home one of these lovely and prestigious awards.
Looking forward to 2024, Tournament Series Organizers (TSOs), please register your series as usual on the NAF Forum, ideally in December 2023 or at least a few weeks prior to the first tournament. Please note that the TSOs can decide to not hand out awards for best Stunty since Stunties are not the hard to play teams that they were previously, and which made them eligible for a special award. I also asked for the option to exclude Underworld Denizen from tournament series scoring, but the NAF committee shot that idea down without providing proper reasoning. Scandalous!
Anyway, all relevant information for TSOs can be found on the NAF site. If there are nonetheless open questions, please contact me (Topas via NAF Forum or naf_name@thenaf.net). The pins for 2023 will be sent in December to all Tournament Series Organizers, for them to distribute it to the respective winners.
So, 2024 is right around the corner. Let’s top the 2023 numbers!
2. Report: Ogří Doupě Cubb (by Yaghul)
Back from the tournament in Prague. What an amazing weekend! There were three tournaments on that weekend I’d have loved to participate in. Due to private matters, I wasn’t even sure if I could make it to one at all. Three days before the tournaments, I decided it will be Prague, just a 2.5 h drive from Leipzig, Germany – not 7h to Freiburg to Block-Forest-Bowl, or 7h to Klingen-Con in Remscheid.
Despite short notice, the tournament organizer Grom was very friendly to create a spot for me, although the registration already ended a week earlier. I might have been lucky that I was the reason, why he could also participate at the tournament…
So, I got up at Saturday 5 am, after I’ve been to a birthday party on Friday night. Drove to Prague, found parking – not that easy and even the locals don’t drive in Prague – and arrived at the location 30 min early. The tournament was held at the local gaming store Ogří Doupě and took place in a community gym along with a Warhammer Underworld and Kill Team event.
And some people say BB coaches are never seen at a gym! 
Top table livestream
There were 26 participants from Poland, Czech Republic and Germany at the tournament. We had four games on Saturday and two games on Sunday. Very comfortable for people with a long ride back home, but very exhausting on Saturday. The top table was broadcasted on YouTube.
We went to a nice restaurant Saturday night, had some beers and enjoyed the great Czech food along with some stories about recent tournaments and other things. Grom mentioned that the first Prague Bowl was held in 2017, so there is quite a young and growing community there. It was my second time in Prague, and we had also met at other tournaments and of course at the World Cup. I’ll definitely come back – maybe to the Spring Open in February next year.
The tournament itself was run with Tourplay, first time for me, but definitively a helpful tool for all the organizers. The participants enter their own results and everyone can follow it during the matches online.
Misiozaurus from Poland won the tournament with Chaos Renegades. Runner up, also with Chaos Renegades, with the same setup, and also from Poland, was Sneakiers. The third place, and also best Czech player, won Waschik with Undead. Most touchdowns went to Wolfhound and most casualties also to Sneakiers. Congratulations!
Thanks to Grom and Coewolf for running the tournament and to Ogří Doupě for hosting it! See you on the pitch!
3. Report: StrangleBowl (by Danny)
On the 21st of October, we held the fourth instalment of StrangleBowl, a one-day tournament held in tropical Leicester, England. With 100 tickets sold (within 35 minutes!), it promised to be one of the, if not the, largest one-day tournaments around!
StrangleBowl has always been focused on a lighthearted, narrative side to Blood Bowl, which has evolved and grown over time. We started with a custom Star Player, “The Champ”, who was based on a famous local coach who had recently won the Leicester Blood Bowl league. The lore has, of course, been vastly embellished and exaggerated over time. He’s simultaneously the most dangerous man in Blood Bowl and also, well, a bit rubbish. In terms of gameplay, he’s a star player who has the “Strangle” skill (pretty much stab with Mighty Blow) and who plays for both teams, swapping at half-time. We had 50 fully painted The Champ models ready for the coaches, courtesy of the lovely paulwill2303, who tirelessly painted all the 3D prints we could throw at him!
For the third StrangleBowl, The Champ was updated for BB2020 and toned down a bit in terms of skills, and for StrangleBowl 4, we introduced a new character: Lord Stranglehands. He is an ancient Lustrian star-player-turned-deity who now watches games from above and sometimes can’t help but interfere! The “Prayers to Nuffle” table was replaced with the “Prayers to Lord Stranglehands” table. This featured some fairly innocuous events like changing the weather, up to a player gaining the Strangle skill for the whole game!
At the previous StrangleBowl, we’d faced many challenges, especially with our previous venue cancelling on us at the last minute, and finding an affordable and suitable venue for 100 people isn’t easy! Whilst we managed to get through it, it was massively stressful for us, and we also had issues with the Score software on the day, leading to an award being given to the wrong person. Although this was sorted out immediately, the culmination of months of work ended on a real downer for the TOs. This did mean, though, that StrangleBowl 4 was a chance to put this right and end on a high!
Coach area – roster 
Coach area – dashboard 
Coach area – game results
We set out to address the challenges faced before, and as we were now familiar with the venue, we worked out a new layout and plan to utilise this better. This worked really well, and we expanded the tables to accommodate 100 coaches (up from 90) and had a dedicated food hall, which was a great boon for the Always Hungry coaches.
We addressed the software issue by becoming less reliant on Score. Whilst we still used this for the pairings, that was all. We wanted to keep Score in the mix, as it also functioned as an offline backup in case of issues with the internet or cloud, but all results were moved over to a new online solution written for StrangleBowl 4. This was a massive time saver for us in terms of organisation. We created a roster creator (much like the brilliant bbtc.pl) for coaches, which validated everything for us and made it easier for coaches to create drafts and submit their rosters with a few clicks. Coaches could also “Check in” online, which meant we didn’t need a registration phase on the day.
Most importantly, coaches could submit their results online, which saved all the data entry side of using Score – this meant that each round could be recorded and drawn within a minute or so. Unlike TourPlay, which requires having a phone or device present for the whole game and events recorded as they happened, we opted for a simple form which just recorded TDs and casualties. Oh, and, of course, the very important Strangles and Fouls.
Having an online solution meant we could hook this up to other things, so it was possible to put the current award leaders and standings on the big TV as soon as the round ended and straight onto the StrangleBowl website once the event ended. We had a live dashboard that showed the TOs the live standings and award winners as the games were submitted, which was fun to track – it would probably be nice if everyone could see this, but it might influence games a bit too much!
Round one, fight!
Of course, there was also some Blood Bowl played on the day! So after the now traditional ridiculous introduction (which this year featured a recording of The Champ announcing he couldn’t be there, and so the day was cancelled – before Lord Stranglehands and his acolyte bodyguards, adorned in pink habits, of course, rushed in to save the day), we were straight onto round 1! Unfortunately, the UK, particularly the Midlands, had seen some freak flooding, which meant many people sadly couldn’t make the journey, so we ran with 90 coaches instead of the planned 100 – maybe next year we’ll get into triple digits!
We hadn’t envisaged the amended “Prayers…” table would make a massive difference. Still, krathman casually rolled an eight for Prayers on the first kick-off of the game and gained another Strangler – recording nine Strangles that game! Strangles also give bonus points, so this was a huge boon. At the end of the round, after an impressive showing, arkillian was in the lead, scoring almost maximum bonus points with a 4-0 (4-0) victory, including two Strangles.
The main hall then went quiet as most people shuffled off to each the copious amounts of sandwiches, wraps, pizza and cake in the dining hall. A few huddled around the TV, poring over the round one leaders, and Tables 1/2, hosting the Best Painted entrants, were popular towards the end of lunch. On that note, there were some fantastic entries this year, but darksoul pipped the other artists to the post with his brilliant Elf Union team, which is stunning!
Round two swiftly followed, and people were starting to concentrate on their Blood Bowl now, with everyone well-fed and caffeinated. We have two spot prizes per round, and the winners can choose either a prize or a Mystery Ticket. This round, paulwill2303 won the spot prize (managing a successful 2-dice uphill!) within seconds and promptly turned down a beautiful set of Charlie Victor Bribe coins, opting instead for a Mystery ticket. Previous attendants would have known this wasn’t a smart move, with StrangleBowl 3 seeing coaches turn down a host of beautiful prizes for; illuminous duct tape, a pink extension lead and a decorative parrot. Unfortunately for Paul, he ended up with an inflatable crab!
After round two, charliebanks had moved into the lead, and I remember telling him it was in the bag, which was met with disbelief from Steve, who didn’t seem too confident with his efforts so far. As the round progressed and we watched the live scores roll in, it was incredibly close, with 5-6 coaches in a position to win the event! This was great to see as having so many coaches in a three-day event could leave it coming down to tiebreakers, but fortunately, the bonus point system held up, and after a late draw on table two, charliebanks had held on with three wins and a great haul of bonus points!
Award ceremony 
Best Outfit – MightyRig 
First Place – charliebanks 
Best Painted – darksoul 
Glittering awards
We then moved on to the awards, and this year, we’d finally worked out the lighting at the venue, so we had a much better ambience to award the winners our shiny new trophies to the accompaniment of the finest music the 80s had to offer. A highlight was MightyRig accepting the Best Outfit ward to rapturous applause with his hand-made spectacular He-Man outfit! We finished with a raffle, where two lucky coaches had a dice off to choose between a casualty dice or the last limited edition Charlie Victor Thick Skull XL case! In true StrangleBowl style, the roll-off winner had to select a Mystery Ticket and, of course, won the casualty dice, leaving a very happy loser walking off with the Charlie Victor case!
Final standings and more photos (and more fluff, for anyone interested in the lore) are up on the StrangleBowl website at https://www.stranglebowl.uk – thanks again to everyone who came and made it a brilliant day!
4. Report: Rosenbowl II (by Elkantar)
On the twenty-first day of October, so clear,
The third Rosenbowl of the year did appear.
With twenty-four coaches in fights,
Seeking touchdowns, casualties, and heights,
They battled for trophies, with cheer and cheer.
In the mix of teams, a balance was found,
With Lizardmen and Khorne mostly around.
Four times the former, thrice the latter,
But no Undead or Dark Elves to chatter,
A diverse lineup on the battleground.
Tschirgant with Slann, a triumph did claim,
Three victories to his well-earned fame.
R.P. with Wood Elves took second in stride,
And Oventa the same, standing side by side,
On Tourplay you can find every game.
Most CAS went to Sami, Chaos Chosen’s pride,
And Biggels with Ogres, won’t be denied.
The Best Stunty trophy he did snatch,
Showing Ogres can be quite the match,
In the field where the strong and cunning collide.
Poor Jotamolon, at the bottom, did land,
Yet with gifts, he left, dice and tray in hand.
A Sydney Bowl Dice Cup, a trade from the Cup,
A reminder that sometimes luck is up,
But camaraderie in defeat is grand.
A special prize was given, quite neat,
To “derTrainer”, whose performance was sweet.
Fourth place, but Best Newcomer, quite a feat,
In a tournament where the elite meet.
Till next year, when again we shall greet!
5. Peking Autumn Bowl (by DrClaes)
Online legend DrClaes’ first attendance of a real-life stereo 3D tournament was first published in his Fumbbl blog.
After five years and “a few” games on Fumbbl, I finally got my act together and attended my first tabletop tournament, the Peking Autumn Bowl Tournament of Chaos in Norrköping, Sweden. It was a small tournament held in a town some 250 km from where I live, and most of the attendees were local and veteran NAF players.
Two day tournament, 3 + 2 games. Random pairings without repeats for the first 4 games, then Swiss for the final round.
The tournament rule pack was interesting and a refreshing change from “Vanilla” rules. Everything was themed around the Chaos gods. Only 14 rosters were allowed, and coaches had to choose a Chaos god to be affiliated with (including Chaos Undivided and the Horned Rat). Not all choices of gods were available to all rosters. Depending on the choice of Chaos god, different special rules were in play. TV was 1250, with 3 tiers of skill points. No skill stacking. Some star players were available and cost 4 SP to hire.
I took ogres, favored of Khorne. Special rule for Khorne was that once per turn, if an opponent becomes Seriously Injured or Dead for any reason, the Khorne team gets an extra reroll to use during the current drive.
I decided on three ogres (two with Block), one Punter with Leader, 11 gnoblars (one with Sneaky git), and Morg to make 16!
I brought my Fumbbl Dice for good luck!
Game 1: Vs Norse linemen + Borak and two bribes (!). Opponent played a strong game, taking out gnoblars and ogres left and right. Ogre crew was down to 3 big fellows on pitch after only a few turns and struggled. Borak was an absolute beast, and stayed on until turn 14. Ogres struggled to break the Norseman armor, and opponent had a deep bench with two linemen and a boar.
Game 2: Vs Chaos Pact. Morg was outstanding, ogres were well behaved, and opponent was down numbers in the second half. Ogres pulled off a 2-1 win.
Game 3: Vs Skaven with a rat ogre and 7 (!) rerolls and Leader (!). Ogres pulled off another win and absolutely brutalized the rats. Rogre was casualtied early on, leaving the rats severely short of strength. In the end, ogres carried the ball with Morg and walked the ball down the pitch. Rats kept throwing 2-die uphill blocks to try to stop him, failing every time. In the end, they made a wall of rats in front of him, but he blitzed out (2 die block to push, 4+ dodge, 3+ dodge) for the game winning touchdown.
Game 4: Vs a well built Chorf team with a mino. Chorfs played a strong game and were frighteningly difficult to remove, even with Morg doing some heavy lifting. Eventually ended up a 1-1 draw. Chorfs were favored of Slaanesh, granting all players Sprint and those with built-in Sprint got Extra Arms.
Game 5: Vs fellow Ogres with Grombrindea, Papa Skullbones (random mutations on some players), and a blessing of Tzeentch which granted a “contingency dice” rolled openly at the start of each drive, which could be substituted for any single dice roll made by the Tzeentch player during the drive (after seeing the result of the first roll). Eventually a hard-fought 1-1 draw.
Bottom line was a 2/2/1 record and fifth place out of 12 (a couple of players only played 3 or 4 games). Ogres were stoked, as was I.
Takeaways:
This was a very positive experience, and I will make sure to go to more tournaments on tabletop. Prior to the day, I had not played a complete game of tabletop in my life, so a lot of the mechanical parts of the game were new to me (turning the models back and forth to show which had been activated, using tokens to show prone/stunned big guys, keeping track of the turn counter and rerolls manually, et cetera). Thanks to the years of practice on Fumbbl, I was still able to keep up with the tournament pacing, and the gameplay as such was similar enough. It helped that I did not face a lot of Guard and had none myself, as seeing complex scrums without the benefit of player markings (as on Fumbbl) would be a little challenging.
The sense of community and camaraderie was everything I had heard about and hoped for. Everyone was super chill, noone took the gameplay very seriously, and some competent blood bowl was played.
I made sure to be extra clear about my dice rolls (“you have armor 8+, I have mighty blow. I got through without mighty blow, now rolling for injury”), mostly to be sure we were in agreement. Same with my block dice.
Fumbbl Dice were a big plus for me personally, as I was never unsure of the symbols during my own dice rolls.
My middle aged eyesight and lack of familiarity presented some challenges in seeing text written on skill rings. For my own teams, will make sure the skill/positional marking is super clear and high contrast for visibility.
Things I need to get a hold of for future tabletop play: tokens / markers would be nice, for everything from the turn and reroll counters to Stunned/Prone markers when I’m playing with big dudes. A good notebook to keep notes of games in as a journal of the tournament. A dice tower (I saw some fine examples).
Morg was outstanding, as expected. As for my roster, I would probably have been better off taking two Guard ogres instead of one of the Block ogres. It would have been possible to swap out the two rerolls for a vanilla ogre, but the added liability of more Bonehead rolls to fail and more big guys without Block, would probably not have helped.
6. Outlook
Despite the holidays, December awaits us with 76 tournaments in 18 different countries – some of them not even Christmas themed. Jingle Bowl, once rescued from the ruins of Detroit to the safe haven that is Canada, returns one more time. Krampusbowl, feared by misbehaving kids and goblins alike, takes place in Vienna. And the NAF Live! Snowdown happens online on Fumbbl. And finally, as the very last NAF tournament of this year, TCB’s Punk Cup sends 2023 into the gutter.