It’s not a lot of people in the cafeteria at the Crimson Cascade compound by the Pool as Hertha and Günther arrives. Since it’s off-season, there are mostly staff and players in the cafeteria, although some hardcore fans can be seen. The Saints corner is easily recognized by it’s drapery in the team’s yellow and black tartan pattern, but there are no Saints there right now, as the team is on a recruitment drive of the regional colleges. Our favourite journalists find themselves a table by the large panorama windows showing the field, while waiting for the coaches of the Crimson Cascade. The draft picks are shown live on a part of the wall, courtesy of the CabalVision mages. Only two picks remains to be made.

They haven’t stayed for long before a waiter pops up with two CarroBurger’s, putting one in front of each of the journalists. “Uhm”, Günther says. “I do not think I want a Burger. Do you have hot dogs?” The waiter suddenly looks nervous. “Ah, I’ll get the cook.” Hertha tucks into her burger while looking at Günther. “Uhm. Do you think that was a smart move?” Günther shrugs.
A short while later, an irate Halfling arrives with a big apron and an even bigger ladle. It’s Giselbert, the main cook of the cafeteria, and he seems upset. “Are you the one who did not want my Burger?” He shouts in a shrilly voice, glaring at Günther. “Well”, Günther answers. “To be honest, I rather want a hot dog.” Giselbert becomes even more agitated. “It’s MY cafeteria, and if you come here to eat, you eat MY CarroBurgers.” He shouts at Günther and punctuates each word by absentmindedly slapping the ladle in the tomato vegetarian sauce of the Burger, splashing drops of tomato sauce all over the table, his own apron and Günther’s jacket. “If you do not like it, you do NOT EAT! Am I understood?” A big splash with the ladle sends a torrent of sauce onto Günther’s already messy jacket, but Günther stoically answers: “Perfectly, Sir!” Apparently satisfied, Giselbert disappears. Günther tries to save his jacket by dabbing at it with a pair of tissues. It has little effect, other than making Hertha fight to refrain from laughing. “A feisty little one, that halfling!”, Günther says and gives up saving the jacket. He grins at Hertha. “Luckily, I come prepared”. He puts his hand into his backpack and triumphantly brings up a hot dog. A bit banged up, it doesn’t exactly look like a luxury meal. “All I need is to put some of this sauce on top, and I’ll be fine.” Hertha grins back. “Yeah. Just make sure Giselbert doesn’t see you eating that!”

Finishing off the food, the two reporters looked interestedly down at the stadium, were linos and blitzers from the team were practising scimmage situations. And then, just in time, Inga and Cody appeared with team captain Nadja Kümmel in tow. The three Crimson shirts took their place around the table, and Inga nodded apologetically. “Sorry it took some time.” She smiled. “I trust you were well taken care of by the staff here, though!”

An ouch escaped Günther’s mouth as Hertha kicked his leg under the table. He groaned and rubbed his leg while Hertha smiled back to Inga. “Of course. Your staff is always courteous and takes the best care of us. Isn’t that right, Günther?” Günther mumbled something that might have been taken for a yes. Of course it could also very well have been something altogether different...

Hertha: “So, Inga, lets start with you telling us what you think of the team’s performance in season 6.”
Inga: “I must say the team really impressed me. We started out this season as the third worst team in terms of team value, barely ahead of the Griffins and way below league average. Raw recruits, hardly anyone with experience and few skills. And then it got worse, as Cody here had to hand in the towel after two matches, and we lost Freija in week 4 and Kristin and Sigismund in week 7. But the newcomers did well and the new team captain, Nadja…” she nods to the tall, lean catcher “… did a great job at building cohesion. So at the end we ended up with 12 points, 4 more than I had predicted, and we had draws against Universe, a play-off team and against the Grizzlies, the superbowl runner-up. And of course the win against the Vikings that put paid to their play-off hopes. A very good season, given the starting point we had.“

Cody: “Yeah. And let me just add some statistics to this. At the end of the regular season, we are at third place in the league when it comes to casualties caused and fouls made, and we have a shared 4th place with Patriots and Gunners when it comes to conversion rate. If that’s not impressive for a team as raw and untested as ours. I do not know what is!”

Günther: (nods) “What about individual players, Inga?”

Inga: “I think just about everyone achieved better than they could have dreamed of when season started. Even so, there are four players that deserves special mentioning. Goode, of course, is the king of the league this season. He has 26 casualties, more than anyone else in regular season, and is third in the league in both conversion rate and number of blocks. 26 casualties is more than one and a half per match! He also causes a lot of KO’s and even if he only gets his player knocked down, chances are that another of our top performers this year, young Lexer, will be there with her boot and send the player off. She was second in the league in fouls this season, and even got herself a Von Kassel Bronze medal. Together these two players created numerical advantages in almost every game we played this season. Then we have Kippenberger. Like Lexer, he is a local player groomed within the CCC organization, and he bloomed this season. He is a true versatile player who can do anything, pass the ball, score touchdowns and cause casualties. This blitzer type has become a trademark of the SHC North, with Amaro and Ertz for the Grizzlies leading the way. It’s no Finally, we have of course Nadja, who had to take over as team captain, and needed a couple of games to adjust to that, but did a great job building cohesion and the team spirit that reigns supreme in this team now. And not to forget, she also earned two Dietmar Althoff medals, one in Bronze and one in Silver! The only woman in the league with Dietmar Althoff Medals, actually!” Nadja almost blushes.

Günther nods at the wall where the draft picks are shown. “So are you satisfied with your roster for next year?”

Cody: “Sure. We are actually using only three of our draft picks, adding two players from the college system and one more from the draft instead of rookies Gerstner and Haltenbach and Moose Vasko, who struggles with his hip. Luckily, he has found a home among the Sluggers and can continue to play the game he loves there. Voronin came out of Kislev to play for the Wolfcubs. He played only five matches for the team, but he’s so talented that was quite enough for the league commissioners, who put him straight into draft 7. Now he’s here, and we will mostly use him on the offense until he has developed blocking ability. He is a project, but a very promising one. Eaton spent his college career at Talabheim, and managed 12 games before he graduated. He will take Gerstner’s place, and will be thrown right into the fray from day one. We have planned StandFirm for him and then PilingOn, and will then eventually develop him as a secondary killer blitzer and back-up for Goode. The only non-college player we will use is Luzie Scholl. With her sidestepping she’s a capable LOS-player, and will be even better with wrestling and fending abilities. If she lives that long…”

Hertha: “Tell us about your plans for the coming season, Inga! Will we see the Crimson shirts in the play-offs this year?”

Inga: “No. It’s still too early. We are still little more than a capable bottom feeder. Maybe next season, if we can preserve and develop at least a handful of our players. Looking at the rounds, we will first play Wreckers and Knights. I hope to be able to beat the Wreckers, but have little hope for points against the Knights. So that’s two points. Second part is against the KFC South, with Eagles, Razorbacks, 49ers and Scimitars. We might manage 3 points there, a possible win against Scimitars and a lucky draw against Razorbacks or 49ers. Last part is against SHC East. That’s Rangers, Greenskins, Legion and Manticores. Maybe 3 more points here? A lucky win against Legion or Manticores and a draw against the other, maybe? So that means 8. We have a fair chance against our divisional opponents, except the Grizzlies, so I dare guess at 1 point per match, giving us a final four to bring it to 12 points this season. So most likely scenario is 12 points like this season. We showed this season that we can surprise though, so maybe 2-3 more, but it still will not bring us to the play-offs, I’m afraid.”

Nadja: “What we do promise is to continue playing the no-nonsense violent Blood Bowl we have stood for during Seasons 5 and 6. You won’t see any Crimson shirt quitting, I promise you that! We will block, hit and blitz as long as there is life in any of us!"

Herha: "We sure look forward to that, and we already paid our all-year passes!"

Brought to you by Hertha Wendlinger and Günther Schiele, Carroburg Tageszeitung