Season 7 Playoffs and Failoffs - Quarterfinals!

[IainC]

The playoffs are ready for the quarter finals so I've advanced that day to give everyone the opportunity to get their matches in. The first round was full of drama and there will be some crunching games in this round too.

Here are the matchups for the quarterfinals:





The deadline for these is measured from the end of the current day so you get an extra couple of days as a result of finishing early. Please play Playoff games by May 28th and Failoff games by 1st June.

Good luck to all of you!

[eldaec]

If Teleku's goddamn hippies can stir themselves from their pot induced funk long enough, the vermin are free pretty much all Saturday.

[Ruvaldt]

Let's go, rk.  When is good for you?

[Teleku]

Always with them negative waves Ramas!  Why can't you dig how beautiful and righteous this Saturday is?  If you just think positively about me showing up to play you on Saturday, then it will happen!

[rk47]

Let's go, rk.  When is good for you?

Let's delay this, our vibrations are getting nasty lest we deteriorate to the level of dumb beasts.

[Jasper]

Definitely looking forward to watching replays this round.  Some good matchups!

[Ruvaldt]

Let's delay this, our vibrations are getting nasty lest we deteriorate to the level of dumb beasts.

We can't stop here.  This is playoff country.

[rk47]

Bring it.

[eldaec]

Vermin - 3
Hippies - 2

Fewer touchdowns than I expected, in the first half a sequence of bizarre weather rolls meant bullshit was hard to get going, this was followed by an epic drive in the second half which Nuffle simply refused to let end.

The deciding TD was eventually scored when Blind Eddie lept dauntlessly into the centre of a hippy commune on the side of the pitch and pushed their ball carrying thrower off the pitch, allowing Neville the Nose to run in a clear pickup after the throw in.

Squeek McSqueekerson was finally killed, veteran of 39 matches, 23 armour breaks this season, 18 career knockouts, 11 career injuries, somehow earning zero SPP. He will be missed on the Ermine scrimmage line.


STATS

Vermin

D6 Chance : -9.75
Dodge : 16/21
Pass : 0/1
Catch : 5/10
Pickup : 6/11
GFI : 10/13
Leap : 6/9
Block : 11/20
Possession : 21%

Hippies

D6 Chance : -0.21
Dodge : 25/29
Pass : 3/4
Catch : 8/17
Pickup : 9/14
GFI : 11/14
Leap : 1/2
Block : 18/31
Possession : 63%

[Teleku]

Blah, funny match, but really hoped for something better.  Dice decided the entire thing.  Was nuffle fucked at every single turn, and player skill on either side had little to do with anything.  An all dice game.   

[Ulysees]

Insatiable 2 - The Minizilla's 1

Dice were not kind in this match and I couldn't take any of the Thralls off the board and when a crucial turnover before I could blitz Megrims cage let him break out and score on turn 4 things were definitely not going to plan. I kicked off and Megrim had left a weak cover through the midfield but strong defence on the wings (having played me before he knows my preferred sideline cage tactic) but this time I planned on making a 2 turn push straight up the middle and risk his Hypnotic gaze cage breaking for a quick reply score and the kickoff then gives perfect defence so instead of facing one thrall I get to face 2 vampires, FU nuffle and to make matters worse I get a quick turnover and Megrim scores a second to go into the second half 2-0 up.

Second half and it's a scrimmage down the left flank of the pitch, and with great use of hypnotic gave my cage is broken and Megrim gets possession of the ball but is very close to his own goal line and then nuffle switches favour and I get a break as a crucial blood lust roll fails which sets me up for sacking the carrier and scoring with 3 turns of the half remaining for me to try and force a draw and extra time. Then nuffle really kick Megrim in the nuts. The weather on the last kick off had changed to sweltering heat and since my injury dice were mostly failing I had only taken 1 player off the pitch so imagine my delight when including subs around half of Megrims team fail to wake up for the next drive while the only player I lost was my Kroxigor so it was 11 V 7 with Megrim to receive kickoff and I hit a perfect short kick which left Megrim in range for a blitz after he had taken his turn and eventually with re-roll I score the required POW but use the last of my re-rolls to achieve this so with 2 turns to go and 1 agi 4 block surehands skink in range of the pickup I am left with the job of just blocking a thrall clear of the ball to give me a nice pickup then hand off to another skink and run into score range and with 4 more bodies on the pitch just cover the skink so it cannot be blitzed to secure the tie and take the match to extra time - easy right? Wrong! Nuffle giveth and nuffle taketh away as I roll a skull on a single die block for my last but one turn and since I used a re-roll to secure the POW on the last turn that was the end of the match for me and Megrim goes through to the semi finals with a deserved 2-1 victory.

Well played Megrim and good luck in the next round.

[Gruntle]

Celer's Chemical Elvers mangled the Nifty Helmet's in what we were hoping to be a brutal bath of elf blood but instead was much more mixed.

Choosing to receive, the high elves got a high kick, but for the only time in the game failed the free catch. They then took the initiative on the very first block of the game (on a blitz) smashed the ankle of a Chaos Warrior on the front-line (apothecary was willing to kill him instead, but we chose to have him limp on a little longer). In fact while the number of inflicted injuries was the same on both sides (3) the Chaos team with MB and Claw took the only real injuries of the match, besides the smashed ankle another chaos warrior recently returned to fold took got niggled (though Celer's chemical apothecary did draw a elf back from death to badly hurt status). Immediately on our turn we responded by badly hurting the blitzing elf, who was to be Celer's 1 turn MVP for starting off the game with a hard hit then taking one himself. Which this distracting little bit of elf fakery allowed Celer to score on his next (second) turn. So The Chemical Elvers took the lead 1-0 in typical run/pass/td style.

On the offense, the Helmets managed to badly injure another elf then recover the ball in their side and slowly move it towards the elfish goal. On turn eight and near their own goal-line, the elves managed to knock down the st 4 ball carrying goat, squirting the ball free but not recovering it themselves. With no rerolls, the Nifty Helmet's MVP for the match earned his accolades by scooping the ball up and running it in to score at the end of the half.

The second Half the elves kciked the ball and the goats recovered it. But then just like before, the Elves took out a chaos warrior with their first hit of the half (damaged back == niggling injury). And then after some moving the ball around the midfield, the ST4 ball carrying goat was pulled down but this time they took the ball too. A turn later the Chaos team managed to tackle it free and run it back to midfield again. Then the elves knocked down that ball carrier and with an elf to throw to near the chaos goal, the Elf thrower Escape Velocity scooped up the ball, but failed to dodge away from coverage, dropping it again where chaos could try for it. Right before overtime, Chaos blitzed away the coverage, grabbed the ball and ran it up to hand it off to their MVP who ran it in for the winning turn 16 score. (The final kickoff just let the elves vent some frustration by badly injuring a goat).

The picture stats:  The important non-picture stats  The Nifty Helmets came in with 290K of inducements, 1 wizard and a bribe were purchased. The wizard downed 2 of 3 elves with the fireball, and the Helmets never used their bribe (all stomps came to nothing in this game).

Celer played a strong game, and with just a lucky roll or two would've easily had the game beyond our low-scoring reach, but front-line-wrecking injuries aside we lucked out this time.

[Celer]

It was a really fun game, even though I lost!

My elves are a bit bashier than most, but losing a +STR elf in turn one and a Guard shortly after (and then another Guard getting surfed later) was tough to recover from.  The Chaos pretty much exerted their will on the first half, but somehow my elves held their own in the second.  We knocked the ball out once and scooped it up, but didn't manage to pass it to safety (probably my biggest mistake).  The second time we knocked it out, my thrower WITHOUT dodge was the one in range, and that's what did me in.  If that dodge was successful, I had a MV9 catcher ready to receive a quick pass, and 9 squares away another catcher ready to score.  We had a shot, can't ask for more than that!

Just happy I made it that far!

[eldaec]

Damn, I was hoping for another nice game with lots of friendly bullshit and nobody getting hurt. Instead looks like I'll be replacing half my team shortly....

[Megrim]

So how are we doing? One more game left to play?

[rk47]

I was looking forward to last weekend as a game. But I guess the time zone confused us, cause ruvaldt missed me for 2 weekend nights, and only contacted me on late Sunday night.

We should be OK for this weekend.
If First Ladies wish to concede this match, I'm OK with it though.

[Ruvaldt]

We should be able to get it played on my Thursday.  If not, there is the weekend, and I'll just play at whatever time is convenient for RK.

[rk47]

Yeah shd be plenty of time, just steam me in like 10 hrs from now if u see me online.
But I'm ok with a coin toss though. 

[willisterman]

Jasper, when do you want to ruin my semi-final chances?  Looks like you are GMT -8, I'm +1, so it'll probably need to be a weekend thing.  I'm free most of it, and it's a bank holiday Monday.  Let me know a good time for you :)

[satael]

Avaia, I'll be around this weekend if you have the time to play (since we have 8 hours time difference it might be hard to schedule the game during the week)

[IainC]

Failoff quarterfinal matches have been added to the OP as we are now playing those. Please note that the deadline is the 1st June. Play as soon as you can.

[Jasper]

I'm guessing that's "now" rather than "not"?

[IainC]

I'm guessing that's "now" rather than "not"?

Indeed, fixed.

[Jasper]

Jasper, when do you want to ruin my semi-final chances?  Looks like you are GMT -8, I'm +1, so it'll probably need to be a weekend thing.  I'm free most of it, and it's a bank holiday Monday.  Let me know a good time for you :)

Actually I'm just fine playing in the middle of the day, and this weekend and Monday look to be right out since it's a holiday in the US and I'm booked.

Most anytime after 9:00 PST (17:00 GMT) should work.  I could play right now even!

I tried finding you on Steam, but it says there's no Willisterman...

[Ruvaldt]

Knights 2 - 1 Ladies

Well, that ends my run.  I'm pretty happy getting to the quarters with a TV1000 team.  I expected to end up in the Failoffs, so this is gravy.  Another season and I think The Ladies will be a force to be reckoned with.  Eleanor Roosevelt needs block and break tackle.  After that she's golden.

I struggled all game with my MA limitations.  I chose to receive, and my drive started out pretty normally, but I rushed a bit around turn 4 and lost the ball.  After a flub on RK's ogre I managed to get an advantage deep in RK's territory and scored on my turn seven.  RK had two turns to score, and after my cursed blitz against his catcher he was able to do a hand-off and run...and then failed the gfi in the endzone, ending the first half 1-0.

The second half opened with RK scoring on, I think, his third round.  After that it was up to me to score the tie-breaker.  RK set up to his right side and had a great kick, which I was poorly prepared for.  The next three turns were made up of me struggling to retain the ball, but eventually failing to do so, and RK scored his second TD.  I had three turns to turn it around, and managed a great pass/handoff to Eleanor Roosevelt, along with a trot downfield, but RK was able to swarm me again and I was unable to score in the end.

It was a good game, and RK used all of his advantages with the humans.  I was absolutely unable to break his armor, and he had some great blocking dice.  Good luck to RK against Megrim.  That's going to be a fun match to watch.

[z22]

Prouft, when would you like to play?  My best days & times (I'm EST USA):
- Sunday evening (6pm+)
- Possible sometime this Monday (Memorial day), but I may have plans I'm currently unaware of, heh
- Tues or Thurs night: 7pm - 10pm
- Friday (31st): 10am - 4pm.
- Sunday (2nd): 11am - 9pm

[Megrim]

Knights 2 - 1 Ladies

Well, that ends my run.  I'm pretty happy getting to the quarters with a TV1000 team.  I expected to end up in the Failoffs, so this is gravy.  Another season and I think The Ladies will be a force to be reckoned with.  Eleanor Roosevelt needs block and break tackle.  After that she's golden.

I struggled all game with my MA limitations.  I chose to receive, and my drive started out pretty normally, but I rushed a bit around turn 4 and lost the ball.  After a flub on RK's ogre I managed to get an advantage deep in RK's territory and scored on my turn seven.  RK had two turns to score, and after my cursed blitz against his catcher he was able to do a hand-off and run...and then failed the gfi in the endzone, ending the first half 1-0.

The second half opened with RK scoring on, I think, his third round.  After that it was up to me to score the tie-breaker.  RK set up to his right side and had a great kick, which I was poorly prepared for.  The next three turns were made up of me struggling to retain the ball, but eventually failing to do so, and RK scored his second TD.  I had three turns to turn it around, and managed a great pass/handoff to Eleanor Roosevelt, along with a trot downfield, but RK was able to swarm me again and I was unable to score in the end.

It was a good game, and RK used all of his advantages with the humans.  I was absolutely unable to break his armor, and he had some great blocking dice.  Good luck to RK against Megrim.  That's going to be a fun match to watch.

Good effort, but why'd you choose to receive? I would have thought sticking to the 2-1 grind would have been the best option, given the teams and TV difference.

[rk47]

RK had two turns to score, and after my cursed blitz against his catcher he was able to do a hand-off and run...and then failed the gfi in the endzone, ending the first half 1-0.

You forgot the Lightning scroll fizzle.  

[proudft]

Prouft, when would you like to play?  My best days & times (I'm EST USA):
- Sunday evening (6pm+)
- Possible sometime this Monday (Memorial day), but I may have plans I'm currently unaware of, heh
- Tues or Thurs night: 7pm - 10pm
- Friday (31st): 10am - 4pm.
- Sunday (2nd): 11am - 9pm

Many of those times will work - log onto Steam and I will friend/beep at you when I see you.

[IainC]

Playoff day has been advanced. As the Playoffs and Failoffs are now on different schedules, I'll split them into separate threads. This thread continues to be about the Failoff Quarterfinals and, when those games are done I'll make a separate thread for the Failoff Semis.

[Ruvaldt]

Good effort, but why'd you choose to receive? I would have thought sticking to the 2-1 grind would have been the best option, given the teams and TV difference.

I've had a hard time scoring in the first half when not receiving with this team.  Usually if I kick off in the first half I either keep the score tied at zero or give up a point without scoring myself.  I've tended to receive, wear down the other team, score at the end of the half, and then face a weakened opponent in the second half who often has a hard time scoring due to a numbers disadvantage, or if they do it's a quick score that I'm able to respond to over the next six turns.  This tactic has worked pretty well all season, including my last match against drogg.

For inducements I had 250 so I picked up a wizard and a bribe.  The fouls didn't do anything, and the lightning bolt fizzled.  Ultimately the loss was my own fault though.  Yes, there was a pitch invasion which hurt me when I received in the middle of the second half, but I didn't properly set up my positioning and I should've known better.  I won't make that mistake again.

[IainC]

Watching the replay, it's also due to the fact that RK47 had 12 players on the pitch for the whole of the second half.

This is a thing that people are going to have to keep an eye out for. If this happens then you must move one player (owning coach's choice) back to an endzone corner and not move or act with him at all for the rest of the drive. The bug seems to happen after a drive when you've substituted one of your default starting players off, had a KO and then the KO'd player comes back. I suspect that the game tries to give you your normal starting lineup and then also adds in recovered KOs on top of that without any kind of sanity check.

[Ruvaldt]

Ah, that makes sense.  Yeah, it felt like a swarm of bees was attacking me.  I couldn't place my 11th player in the first half either, but the game randomly placed him on the field once I finished lining up so I didn't mind.

I had a ripe opportunity in the second half, too...I just didn't manage to pick up the ball.  Gah, it was perfect.

[willisterman]

Jasper, when do you want to ruin my semi-final chances?  Looks like you are GMT -8, I'm +1, so it'll probably need to be a weekend thing.  I'm free most of it, and it's a bank holiday Monday.  Let me know a good time for you :)

Actually I'm just fine playing in the middle of the day, and this weekend and Monday look to be right out since it's a holiday in the US and I'm booked.

Most anytime after 9:00 PST (17:00 GMT) should work.  I could play right now even!

I tried finding you on Steam, but it says there's no Willisterman...

Odd.

Sent you a friend request.  I'm good until I'd had a drink at some point tonight :p

Otherwise that kinda time Wed will be the earliest I think then, as I'm off to a wedding Tuesday.

[Jasper]

No idea what was up with that, although I've seen steam do that from time to time.

Anyway, Understone Raiders 3 - Keep Rollin 0.

The Dwarves received and the Raiders got a bit greedy and boxed in on their defense, so Rollin plowed forward to the endzone, stopping short of an uncontested TD to stall for time and give the Raiders less time to score in return.  The Raiders were able to knock the ball out of the back of the endzone though, then recover it midfield and run it out of reach for a TD.  Score 1 - 0 at the half.

The second half Rollin got a blitz, but the Raiders were just barely able to stave off their onslaught and stuff the ball down the left flank for a score with ~4 turns left in the game.  In the ensuing kickoff the Dwarves had trouble picking up the ball, so there was a scrum followed by a Dwarf recovery and errant long pass deep into Raider territory.  The Raiders were just able to block free a receiver then scoop up the ball for a pass and TD as the clock ran down.

[Edit] Just about every drive willisterman was hosed by only having 10 players to place, then having the game place his 11th for him.  I'd seen this bug before, but never so often.  Wish I knew what triggers it. :-/