Greeting sports fans,

The first Round of the Wood Division finished with a lot of draws and only one but very bloody and spectacular decisive result!

Swan Riders managed with a lot of luck to take a 1-1 draw against the Geheb's Lions. It was also the 4th appearance of Deeproot with the Swan Riders (26th in the CIBBL for the Halflings), who manage to keep the tradition of remain undefeated when he is playing with us! The game was very strange, since both teams lose the ball during their offensive drives. The Swan Riders tried in the first half an early Throw Team Mate, since they could not withstand the huge pressure of the 4 high skilled Block-Ras against our cage, but the landing was unsuccessful. The Lions took the ball and despite our use of a wizard, the advantage that our chef gave us (all Lion RRs were stolen!) many other throwing team-mates as ammo (as a kind of Halfling bombs, I guess...) and risky -2d blitzes from the side of the Swan Riders, they hold it and score it at the end of the halftime. At least we manage to enter the second half-time with a numerical superiority (thanks to the excellent ref, who spotted the Lion's fouls and our better casualty and recovery rolls). In second halftime the Lions failed their pick up and allowed us to come near the ball. In the ensuing scrum-fight Swan Rides took finally advantage of their Chef, who made again the Lions to forget of all their training!Thus the spectators just showed in awe the Lion's ball carrier just collapsing in his own attacking block against a Halfling! By that time, our Treemen (without Deeproot who got KO from another foul) have managed to join the scrum, cleared the path to the ball and #6 Halfling Catcher Maddox Odana scored the equalizer. Some rounds were played with the Lions trying to score the winning TD, but long passing is for sure not their strength. Nevertheless, Coach Kharigor was very disappointed that the defensive reaction of the Swan Riders allowed the opponents to have this chance. This is something that we must continue working on it.

Next game is against one familiar team, the Flesh Golems of the Scrapheap Scrappers . Our previous game was for the Pit Division, Autumn Y7 and it was won by us 2-0! 9 players of the today Scrappers have also played in that game! From us 5 only players (the 2 Treemen and 3 other Halflings) have survived the in between games and join Deeproot for this rematch. The differences in the survivability statistics is really huge! The result of the first game is very difficult to repeat itself, since it was based a lot on our huge luck than in real tactics. Srappers were indeed very unlucky initially losing the ball in their offensive drive from a blitzing kick off, then failing the go for it to the End Zone during the last round of the first halftime and managing to removing most of our team from the field only very late in the second half.

The last game of the Scrappers was against the Mystics (Zoats from the Crystal Mere) and it was scary as hell. Just check it out to see how the Scrappers just smashed the poor Zoats killing and maiming more than half of the team in the process! I would like to remind you that Zoats have Armour 9 or 8 and many of them had fighting skills like Guard and Block. Halflings have none from that!!! Are we also gonna die ….. ?

Instead of your familiar “do you know..?” today we will have a mini spotlight of the stars of both team, who started one year ago as rookies in CIBBL and achieved in the last games Star status.

From Swan Riders we have Deeproot.. eh no. Deeproot has played also last year against Scrappers, but the then rookie Treeman now Star is Drychaen (2-6-1-10, Grab, Guard, Multiple Block, Break Tackle, 18 G 57 SPP, 21 Cas). During the first game against Scrappers he had a solid perfomance with 1 Blitz Action, 10 Offensive Blocks (1 Removal/ 1 Turnover) + 6 Defensive Blocks (1 Removal! = Cas for Drychaen/ 2 Placed Down from the Attacker), 4 Roots, 3/4 Standups and 1 succesfull TTM leading to the 2nd Touchdown of the Swan Riders!

From the Scrappers we have probably one of the best new CIBBL Stars: #1 Vigour Mortis (5-5-4-8, 19 G, 4 Cp. 5 TD, 6 Cas). He is missing skills, but who needs it when he can punch like Ogre and handle the ball like a Elf with none of their drawbacks! With Vigour Scrappers are dreaming for a title this autumn! He is such a beast! Against the Swan Riders one year ago he (still only St 4 at that time) put a good pergomance with 5 Moves Actions (1/1 dodge), 4 Blocks Actions and 6 Blitzes (2 Stunned/1 KO / No Turnovers), plus other 2 defensive Blocks (1 Stunned for him/ 1 Stunned for the Attacker) which was unfortunately not enough for the Scrappers. Vigour tried two 1d Blocks against Drychaen during the first half (Pushbach the first and Pow/Push the second). But soon after a succesful stunned hit from the other Treeman Glueck Tannenbaum, Vigour stayed far away from the trees and the ball action for the rest of the game hunting halflings with blitzes. Next time we will meet him, he will be Agility 4 and I guess that he will focus more on the ballhandling. There are now other specialized killers with Tackle and Mighty Blow in the Scrappers team to focus on blitzing.

Do you want to see these emerging Stars collide again? Soon on your CAMRA Broadcasting Service you will have the chance to shout for your beloved team as spectators. Come and support the Swan Riders in their effort to finish once a tournament above the 4th place!

Stay tuned (and pray for the Swan Riders)!