S#4 Qualification Round! All info here.

[Falconeer]

Qualification Round!


Rules:
- The pairings have been sorted out of a hat. As per tradition, my cats supervised over the fairness of the operations.
- Each team will only face ONE opponent, but they will play against each other twice (So if you feel like it you can even play both games in one session).
- Whoever gets 2 wins, or 1 win and a tie, is through in the final pool of 32. In case of 1 win each, or 2 ties, regardless the scoring, there will be a third, tie breaking match. Due to the nature of the Feeder League, no overtime is possible. In case even the tiebreaker ends in a tie, there will be a coin toss since no other mean would be fairer given the nature of BB.

That is all.



Pairings/Schedule:

Dusematic vs. Ulysees
Merusk vs. Sjofn
Carnifex27 vs. Kail



vvv What now? Very important info! Read this carefully: vvv
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These 6 coaches have been (temporarily) kicked from the S#4 Main League so they can now join the f13 Feeder League. The matches will be organized between the coaches after they all joined the f13 Feeder League. I have to authorize the application but I'll be as quick as I can so please:

The 6 coaches involved in the Qualification Round! should now apply their teams to the f13 Feeder League (following the same instructions they used to apply for main League). The name you want to look for in the League Finder is: f13 MatchMaking Feeder League. There is no password.

Once you are in, or even before that, please contact your opponent as soon as possible and see if and when you can arrange the match.

All Qualification Games, including tie breakers, have to be played BEFORE May 9th. Any unplayed match will be disregarded, and decisions will be taken based on communication and other details by me, my cats and my dice.
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You can contact your opponent via PM here on the forum or by looking at the online friends in the Steam Group (that's possibly the best feature for actually meeting right before a game, considering the in-game interface sucks), or through email. I am going to send personal emails to you all sharing your opponent's contacts.


Let the qualifying slaughter begin!

[Falconeer]

Whoever is not in the f13 BloodBowler Steam Group MUST JOIN IT NOW. It temporarily doesn't need an invite. So, just join.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/f13bb

[Sjofn]

Message me here or on Steam, those are the bestest ways to reach me for this sort of nonsense.

[carnifex27]

Messaging me here well probably work best for me.  I'm one of those people that leaves steam on constantly, so just because it says I'm online doesn't mean I'm awake or at home.

[Sjofn]

Oh true, I leave Steam on all the time too. However, I don't sleep like a normal human, so it never hurts to send a message to check. 

[Ingmar]

Steam will say "away" if you're not actually there for a while, so if it says "online" you can usually be pretty sure the computer is at least actively being used.

[Falconeer]

Carnifex and Sjofn's applications have been accepted.

[Merusk]

I'll apply after work and get things done then.  I'm busy until Friday night/ Saturday morning as far as setting-up games goes.

[Sjofn]

That's fine, I'm in no rush. 

[dusematic]

Working late tonight.  Will join when I get home.


Also, what if your team gets hurts and stuff in qualifying?  Does the same team carryover to the league and are those teams that didn't have to qualify fresh? How does that work?  Also, what kind of cats will you be consulting with to make your rulings?  I don't trust a calico...

[Strazos]

The only way it would matter is if you had a positional player, a level'ed up lineman, or an extra (12th+) player get hurt more than just "Badly Hurt. "

The benefits should outweigh the risks in this case.

[Ingmar]

Also any of us from prior seasons who have 'miss next game' injuries and the like still have to deal with those in game 1 of the new season. I know proudft will be missing his Thro-Ra for his first game, for example.

[Kail]

I think I applied to the feeder league correctly.  Will PM carn when I get accepted, I'm free pretty much all week (except for a few hours).  Or just ping me on Steam, I'm generally near the computer when I'm logged on.

[Falconeer]

Kail accepted. And yes Dusematic, your injuries would carry over, but no one starts fresh as injuries our old teams got in the last game of S#3 are carrying over in the first of S#4. I have my best player out 

[Strazos]

I think that was my fault, right? 

[Celer]

Those who are 100% new to multiplayer, some notes:

- DO NOT attempt to save or load formations on kickoff.  This will likely cause a crash later in the game.
- Sometimes, you will be short a player for no apparent reason on kickoff.  If you're lucky, the mystery player will be deposited on the field for you after kickoff.
- There is no way to know how much money you will actually get after a game, other than it will probably not be what the game tells you.

[Strazos]

Also:

OT adds 3 turns directly to the clock, without any sort of stoppage, kick-off, or change in possession.

Consider yourselves advised. 

[dusematic]

Ulysses I can play this weekend.

[Kail]

Carnifex and I are done:
First game was 2-0 Carnifex
Second game was a 1-1 tie

So, I got my ass kicked, but I learned some valuable lessons about Goblins (RULE 1: Never include 3 secret weapons in your starting lineup if you only have eleven players). Evidently, madness gripped me in the inducement screen and I took a second apothecary rather than any backup players.  The game was pretty much a slaughter, since I had such a poorly built team, half of whom got sent off at the first touchdown.  I one Troll got taken out to a pinched nerve, and a number of innocent goblins were massacred before the ravaging dinosaurs, who ended the half at 1-0.  The second half saw the goblins down half their team, and the dinosaurs scored again, trampling more goblins into kibble.  Actually, the tackle dice were crazy generous to me this game, seemingly constantly giving Carnifex red skulls, pushes, or stumbles (which are no problem for a team with so much dodge).  One block late game saw a both down result, with my goblin somehow badly injuring his saurus.  My second troll collapsed from the heat after the second touchdown, so I was pretty much out of scoring contention and tried to delay a third score, which saw a number of my goblins taken off.  At the end of the game, I was down to two players on the field, I believe: my pogoer Corpse Candidate, and a linegoblin, Speedbump.

Second game started off more favorably for the goblins, as I used my inducement money to buy a deeper bench.  After kicking off, I managed to wrest control of the ball away from the dinosaurs and my pogoer scored on the last turn of the first half, ending 1-0 in my favor.  Since I was recieving in the second half, I tried to hang on to the ball, but my goblin's inability to pick up the ball borked my positioning and I ended up losing control once the lizards broke through my lines.  They managed to run in a point to even out the score, but since I was recieving and had three turns to make another touchdown, I thought I might still be in contention.  Carn had his players all lined up at the line of scrimmage lusting after some green blood, so I bet the bank on The Ultimate Goblin Maneuver: the troll-launch.  Things went well at first, the throw was good, but the goblin landed badly, and my reroll fizzled due to him being a mercenary.  The ball was fairly deep and with only two turns left, there wasn't much to do but try to slow down his skinks to prevent a total loss, which I managed to pull off for once.  The game ended with one of the saurus trying another block on my goblin, getting a both down with no reroll, and badly injuring himself.

[carnifex27]

That is a much better write up than I could have done, so thank you Kail.  The first game was a lot closer than the score reflects, other than my terrible block dice I got super lucky.  I managed to give one of Kail's trolls a pretty bad injury (think it was a smashed ankle) in the first few rounds of the first game, which may have decided the series.  The second match was definitely close enough that he could very well have won if he'd had both trolls.  I also got 2 interceptions in the first game......one of them with a saurus!  Either one of those would have been goblin TDs without the interception.  Though if you're going to throw with a troll, expect to get intercepted by a saurus    If he'd been playing with his elves he likely would have destroyed me.  In summary, he was the better coach but I had the better team.

[Falconeer]

Nicely done!
Carnifex is the 30th team to join S#4, and thank you so much Kail for helping us making the League work.

[Modern Angel]

I love that someone took Goblins at all. :D

[Sky]

I took a second apothecary rather than any backup players bribes.

FIFY

Goblins are awesome, but you need you some serious bribes or roster depth. Chainsaw is easily my favorite player in the game.

[avaia]

Chainsaw dude is a definite game changer.  I considered switching to goblins just to fix play against That Other Necro Team's wolves.

[Falconeer]

Accepted two more applications. I think we only need Ulysees' now.

[Sjofn]

In the battle of the pantsless teams, I have emerged victorious. I've already forgotten the first game's score, I think they were both 2-0, a winner being me. The dice hated Merusk with the fire of a thousand blazing suns, which left his Amazons open to being punched in the face repeatedly by my Norse.

First match, one of my berserkers died even though I made the apothecary reroll so I am a little confused about that. All is well, though, I bought a new one. :P As is tradition, my little sub lineman in the second game was my MVP. 

[Ginaz]

First match, one of my berserkers died even though I made the apothecary reroll so I am a little confused about that. All is well, though, I bought a new one. :P As is tradition, my little sub lineman in the second game was my MVP.  

You have to choose which result to use after using the apothecary, it doesn't automatically default to the best result.  Or you might have gotten a REALLY shitty role and come up with only a dead player result.  Even though you won, at times Nuffle can still show us that we're at his mercy.

[Sjofn]

Oh, I see, it is STUPID and doesn't pick the OBVIOUSLY BETTER ONE, good to know. The first result was dead, the second was just badly hurt. >< The only other time I've had an apothecary roll, my choice was Dead or Dead, so it didn't even occur to me I had to pick one.

Well, live and learn. Or don't live, in this case.

[Ironwood]

That is good to know, since the same thing happened to one of my ratties ages ago.  Why on earth would it not default to 'not dead'??

[Sjofn]

I know, right? It's just another one of those things I am all WHY U WERK THIS WAY about, I guess.

[Ulysees]

Apologies for the delay. I have applied to the feeder league and sent Duse a PM - I am also available pretty much anytime this weekend so hit me up on steam and we will get out games done.

[Falconeer]

Well done everyone! Carnifex and Sjofn, remove yourself from the Feeder League and apply again for Season #4.

[Merusk]

To clarify when she says the dice hated me, at one point I counted 9 consecutive rolls of 1.  There were at least 7 turnovers where my first move caused a knock-down or fumble.  Not a single player earned enough SPPs to advance, much less be in a position to advance.  Apparently the universe has decided I have better things to do with my evenings from now until September.  v  v

[Strazos]

I thought you played in previous seasons?

[Ulysees]

Me and Dusematic just played our game(s).

First Tie

The Minizilla's 1 - Gold Sluggers 0

First time against human players for both myself and Dusematic (I have never played against a human opponent until now and Duse had only played once and by his own admission it didn't go well) so the chances of this being a high scoring game were remote however the game was played in a good spirit and I think nuffle smiled a little on me though it didn't seem he would to begin with.

The game begins and the toss occurs, I chose heads but must have lost since I wasn't presented with any option to kick or receive, it then moves into a setup phase and I assume I am kicking and set up my guard line accordingly only to find to my horror that I am receiving and have nothing in back field to receive it to - however the first clue that Nuffle was with me occurs when the ball goes out of play to award me a hand off so the setup actually worked well since now all my team are far advanced up the field.

I hand the ball to a skink and form a cage running up my right side of the field, a couple of turns progress but nothing remarkable happens except I manage to KO a dwarf that opens a channel on the right side of the pitch and seeing this I run my skink line up that side with only 1 Saurus guard and the ball carrier exposed I was looking to form a more solid defence line facing the dwarfs when my skink failed it's GFI roll and the subsequant reroll leaving my ball carrier wide open and the right side of the field fiarly well exposed.

Duse obliges by blitzing the ball carrier and scoring a Ko at some point to a skink who remains on the sidelines for the rest of the match and he forms his own cage moving down the middle of the field. A misunderstanding of how the dodge rule works causes Duse a turnover in a bad situation trying to cover the right side of his cage (thinking that dodge was a comparison of the 2 players agility as opposed to a base roll based on your own players agility) and from the resultant turn over he leaves his ball carrier exposed, I blitz the ball free then grab it with a skink and scurry into a corner on turn 6, nuffle smiles as i manage to KO the only guy who might have been able to cover and the last 2 turns are a punching match as I try and hurt as many of his players as possible before the half ends scoring a KO myself but losing a skink to badly hurt, I score on turn 8 and from the resultant kick off there is a pitch invasion that decimates my line up but since there is only 1 turn there is not much else Duse can do except try and hurt some more of my players which thankfully he doesn't manage to do.

The second half starts with a decent kick into the back of the field and a weird thing happens where Duse just lost his turn, I agreed to just let my go time out (so I could run and make a crafty drink) and when I return the ball is caged towards the middle of the field. I proceed to punch out as many dwarfs as possible and managing to BH one of his slayers but due to my bad positioning the only non marked defence I have on the right hand side of the field is a lone skink and realising this I try a GFI blitz with a re-roll to try and get someone marking the ball carrier, the GFI fails but recovers on the reroll but I then regret that becaue shis Slayer promptly puts my Saurus on his arse and things are not looking good as there are now only 2 skinks between a team of angry dwarfs and the touchline.

A Bliz badly hurrts one skink and the cage moves forward and I suffer another KO'd skink but with more lucky rolls on the attacking dice I free up a Saurus to help with the defnce line so I have a skink and a saurus holding the line but things are not looking good. in terms of stopping a score, then Duse unexpectedly over extends himself, setting himselfup to score on the next turn he use a GFI to move his ball carrier closer to the touchline but by doing so he leaves himself wide open with no defending players and this is where the high move of the lizardmen came into play to win me the match.

I punched out a dwarf to free one of my saurus's then with a re-roll in hand I made a GFI blitz on the ball carrier which succeeded, my last skink moves in and scoops up the ball making a mockery of their bad pickup skills that have screweed me over more times than I care to mention in single player. I knock over the only dwarf that can reach my skink but it takes 3 attempts to do it, each one pushing the dwarf closer to my skink and without realising it the final knockdown actually puts the dwarf in range for a stand up blitz on my unprotected skink which works for Duse and he KO's my last skink knocking the ball free. he recoveres the ball but now I have some defence back and I blitz the ball carrier causing a KO but with no skinks to pick the ball up and only 2 turns to go I am terrified of giving the ball away so close to the win so I just mark up the ball with a couple of saurus's and put any remaining saurus's next to his players.

Duse is unable to do anything now to recover the ball since my hits have put a lot of his players down but he tries a GFI blitz to open the ball withh his remianing slayer in turn 15 which would mean that he would have a chance of blitzing my last defensive saurus then grabbing the ball if he knocks him down however the slayers fails the GFI and then to the quiet snigger of Nuffle managed to badly hurt himself in the process. The final turn is more punching between lizards and dwarfs before the match concludes 1-0.

At least that's my recollection of the match :)

Duse decided to forfeit his second match thereby giving me a 2-0 win and progress to the league prpoer. - Yay!

Thank you to Dusematic for the game, I hope it was played in the right spirt of the league and was a nice introduction to online play.