Today is May 25th and it is the 145th day of the years 2025. As a little obeisance to the
145 group, which played a very important role during the my presence here on FUMBBL, I want to do a first conclusion on my five primary
'Blood Bowl targets 2025' today:
1. Play more Blackbox
As mentioned in my targets I wanted to play more Blackbox and thus applied with a squad of all four elven rosters to the BBT13. (
Summary and
Conclusion can be found in prior Blog posts). The run was quite successful from my POV and I liked the possibility to find games almost at every time of the day quite fast.
After all that Elfing, I also decided to try a IDT13 run with Norse, which was supprisingly successful as well because I managed to earn the Norse badge for winning 10 games before losing 3.
... but I do not want to conceal that BBT / IDT 14 was by far not as successful. This time I did apply with a more diversified squad: Norse - to see if I could do as good as in IDT13 (I could not and got a record of 5/6/4), Lizardmen - because I wanted to try them, High Elf - because I wanted to see if I could do better than in BBT13 with another approach to team development and Khorne as a filler and team for bad mood.
So after the full run in BBT13, Blackbox is now a way of 'game finding+' to me: No need to think about pairing, quick and easy matches, try out some rosters and maybe strive for an IDT badge.
2. Participate in RRR and BRAWLS after I get some practice in Blackbox
In addition to Blackbox I also played a few tournaments during the last months. Not as many as others, because I still somehow fear scheduled matches a bit. Nevertheless, I played the
Sclitz Cup and
got eliminated by the later finalist
Warp Pit Beauties before their redraft cut. I played the
OLC Lightweight championship twice and
won my debut, while I got eliminated in
round two the second time. I lost the
final of the
XLF Necromantic Horror against Java and my
first round in the
Steel Gauntlet VI against RickWreckless, which is no shame I guess, since both coaches are Legends. (But I still struggle with the misclick in my game against Rick a bit)
And after that I really got to the two tournaments I mentioned in my target: The
Royal Rookie Rumble and the
BRAWLS. My first attempt in the low bracket of BRAWLS LXXI with
Skaven was a
round 1 loss against the later winning team
Inactive Duty Training of coach Java whom I met again in RRR 642. This time I played with
Norse against his Skaven. But the result was the same: A
round 1 elimination. It seems Java is my
'tournament nemesis'. The only draw I managed against him was during a BBT game.
My second attempt in the BRAWLS low LXXVII with
Elven Union started with
a match against Gnome. Unfortunately not against the famous
Ayla, but 'only' a secondary team of coach petehodges, because he wanted to allow a fox hunt during the GLT qualifier. ;-) And round 2 - which is scheduled for June 2nd - paired me against
SavageJ's Bridgetown Book Club.
Speaking of that. After I failed to apply for the Ulthuan Invitational, I chose the right group during the submission of the
Norse team I played during the IDT13, for the
Grotty Little Tournament New qualifier. But I lost my
round 1 game as well.
So it seems tournaments are not the place to be for me. More because of the scheduling Challenge, than because I am surprised not too win. There are too many coaches out there that play far better than me. Nevertheless, I will keep on trying and hopefully learn something... And most important enjoy the games.
3. Focus in 145 group
As I pictured in my
Hitchhikers guide... I outgrew my active (playing) role in 145, which means I focus on my participation on the
145 Discord server and if time allows and people ask for it, on introduction games.
4. Get the Elven Kingdom league running
After some advertising the influx of coaches was great and we were able to start Division A Season 1 with twelve teams. And after some some recruiting it was even possible to start a Build Up Division with four more coaches and four coaches who wanted to play a second team in that Division.
I am curious about the feedback from participants while I still hope for new coaches to join. We reached the Initial goal of 16 coaches, but if you are interested, feel free to
join the group and our
Discord server. We would be happy to grow further!
5. Further improve as a good Blood Bowl coach on and off the pitch
To be very honest this is by far the hardest goal for me. Dealing with 'bad luck' or 'felt injustice' is still a thing I want to improve on from a emotional perspective.
Losing a game to a better coach or knowing my own faults seems much easier to me than losing to the dice... while not knowing if there was anything that could be done better. ;-)
\
Condensed abstract:
If you are newish to the game join the
145 group and its
discord server, if you are enjoying the Elf-way of Blood Bowl join the
Elven Kingdoms League and If you face me in a game where I complain about dice, please be patient - believe me I am working on it!
And regarding my targets... I already achieved most of my primary targets for 2025... well becoming better is not really a target that can ever be achieved and Nobody ever talked about winning something, right?
... But I will continue to play BBT / IDT, because it is so convenient. And if you ask me what else is coming next? Well, there are other
BRAWLS and
RRRs to be played, there is the
(SL)UMBBL Shield and the
Norse XLF and I am still waiting for a
OLC Welterweight Championship to be drawn. And not least there is the Elven Kingdoms League!
As always, questions and comments are highly welcome. I hope you enjoyed the read.
Cheers,
Chris
