“Semifinal game (round 8) in FUMBBL Cup X and the seventh actual game for both teams.

I managed to win the toss yet again, but perfect defense for Mayhemizer made things very tricky for me. Three KOs on Mayhemizer's linefodder gave me some breathing space, but I made my first bonehead move of the game by leaving my ball carrier in range of Chen, the ST 5 tentacles beastman. Jill had to make some GFIs to get Chen down, but she managed to only stun the monster. More crucially, the DP foul on Mayhemizer's AV 7 CW clawbomber resulted in an ejection and a stun, which meant that the numbers were even after 2 turns.

Mayhemizer put a lot of pressure on my ball carrier and surrounded her with 3 players, one being the ST 5 tentacles guy. On turn 4, I had to resort to desperate measures, but managed to blitz Anna free by rolling 1d pows at critical times. I made things too difficult for myself with poor play but managed to survive at this point. Mayhemizer responded by bolting Anna and putting some tentacles on the ball. I tried to use Sarah, my ST 5 chaos warrior to clear the route, but she got stuck in ST 4 tentacles despite using a reroll. Luckily, Anna freed herself from ST 5 tentacles on two occasions, scoring the go-ahead TD on turn 6.

Mayhemizer now had 3 turns to equalize, but a blitz! for me made things tricky for him. However, he had a good first turn of the drive, causing a KO and three important stuns, thus forcing me to focus completely on defense. In the end, I did manage to stop the TD, but had to use my second and last apo on a BH on Morgan (the first was unsuccessfully used on Jeff).

The second half started with essentially intact squads for both of us. The drive descended into a melee in the middle, with Mayhemizer driving forward on the top. I had some luck with the injuries and stayed up 1 player for much of the drive. Mayhemizer made a break for it on turn 4, but I got his ball carrier down and surrounded the ball with two players. I managed to protect the ball quite well until turn 7, when Mayhemizer's AG 4 chaos warrior made a 3+, 4+, and 2+ dodge, 2 GFIs, and snatched up the ball on a 4+. On my turn, I had to use a RR on a dodge and couldn't bring the ball carrier down, allowing Mayhemizer to equalize on turn 8.

However, Nuffle hadn't had his final laugh yet. I set up for OTS after mistakenly setting up for a 2-turn drive, but I ended up getting a riot and a chance for a 2-turner after all! With 11 players against 9, the ST 5 tentacles guy out, and my ball handling rolls working nicely, I got Anna set up behind a double screen 8 squares from the end zone. Mayhemizer only got one player in contact with my ball carrier, but this player was safely blitzed away, leaving Anna an easy job to score the winning TD.

Thanks for the fun and very exciting game! This one really could have gone either way and overtime would surely have been a thriller. Nuffle was on my side during the key rolls, like when I managed to score in the first half and the riot to end the game.

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