“Lustrian Challenge qualifier final!

Nocturama brought a wizard and the Goats brought Morg to this final, the Goats bringing their TS up well above 250. Facing such a big team with a good coach, Nocturama felt pressured. No important players missed the match. Handicaps for Nocturama were crappy (extra training and buzzing). It was raining the entire match.

The Goats received first, put the ball on their AG5 Beastman and started to move upfield. The teams maneuvered for position a bit and surprisingly, Nocturama was first to foul (only a stun on one of the CW). The Goats' cage lost integrity pretty quickly, as Nocturama tied down Chaos players, the Goats didn't break enough armor and on top of this got one DP ejected on the first foul. The ball carrier was blitzed down in T3, but the ball stayed in a tight spot and the Goats got it back with one of the CW. The Goats did a good job with placing in spite of the broken cage, initially preventing a clean shot on the new ball carrier. Morg in particular is very hard to move out of the way. But it was becoming increasingly difficult for the Goats to protect the carrier, and the second shot at him popped the ball again, this time allowing Nocturama to steal it.

MA6 Blitzer Red Right Hand made a break for it while the rest of the team tried to mark potential threats, using up the last RR in T7. The Goats played well in their final turn by not trying to blitz the ball carrier (blodge-SS and no tackler in range), but instead opting to get as many players to mark him as possible. In the end, they forced dodges through TZ to get the TD, and Red Right Hand fell down on the first one, so 0-0 at half-time. (I wouldn't use the wizard to clear the way in this position because I had already fullfilled my objective for the 1st half, as Synn didn't score, and there was still a GFI to be made with no RR.)

In the 2nd half, Nocturama put the ball on the AG5 Lineelf far back in our own part of the field and tried to break through on one side. But we failed to get a knock-down, so instead chose to spread out and wait for a better opening, hoping that the Goats would over-extend in some way. They didn't, but on the other hand they didn't threaten the ball either. So Nocturama stayed back, trying but failing to get a CW down for a juicy foul target. The Goats closed in and started to get more and more elves off the field. In T3, Nocturama had the opportunity to crowdsurf a tackle Beastman and did so, placing much of our team near one side. The Goats used this to full advantage and chainpushed another Beastman in to surf a WE in return, also boxing in all remaining elves in the Goats' part of the field. Nocturama had to rely on dodges through TZ to get out of the dangerous situation, and did get the rookie Blitzer far away to the other side of the field. With only one Chaos player in range to blitz, the AG5 rushed forward and threw the ball to the rookie. ST4 Blitzer Loverman was then supposed to dodge out of the Goats' box to mark the threatening Chaos player, but fell down on the first dodge. (I was losing numbers fast and had to take the opportunity to score, with the wizard still in hand I felt pretty confident.)

The Goats responded with blitzing down the ball carrier, recovering the ball with the AG5 Beastman and throwing it across the field, where the AG4 Beastman failed to catch it in the rain. Instead, Blitzer Loverman recovered the ball and Nocturama tried to cover him with the few remaining players. There weren't enough elves left however, and the Goats could easily move in three assists to allow Morg a 3d blitz, getting a clean POW and a decisive armor break. To add insult to injury, the ball bounced into the hands of one of the CW. Nocturama's wizard was so upset with the weak performance that he decided to fry Loverman with a lightning bolt. After that, Nocturama had a small chance at a 2d blitz, but failed a dodge and that was game over. (Now knowing that prone players block lightning, I should have gone with fireball instead, probably increasing the chance to get that 2d blitz even if the carrier wasn't knocked down himself. Not sure it would have made a difference however, I had very few players left to get the ball and score with after that stun on Loverman. I lost the game by the consistently weak performance that my players gave in the 2nd half, failing too many rolls and suffering too many armor breaks. Synn played well to make my task as difficult as possible, and Nuffle rewarded his good play. The botched wizard was just icing on the cake.) The Goats moved in the winning TD in T16.

GG Synn, well played and see you around (and make sure that you hurt the Eaters if your paths cross in the main event). I wouldn't want to change my play in any of the critical positions in this match, I think I did the right thing all along (except the wizard, obviously). It just wouldn't come together.”