So in the blogs I saw Koadah's Rookie Cup post. Rookie, I guess that means me? So since he's a nice...koala(?) I decided to ask him about it. And so I ended up joning the 145/Rookie club, as well as the Rookie Cup LXIII. I ended up creating a new team : Scaly Fur Experimental Rejects. The main differences from my Academy team are a higher fan factor(8), only 1 thrower and 2 GRs, just enough liners to play at 11, and a 2nd reroll.

So Koadah told me by joining I had nothing to lose, might win something, have fun, and he could arrange our game almost immediately. All true :) However, the tricky koala brought me the wrong dice, leaving me unable to do much at all in the beginning. I got my share of failing a tiny pass with re-roll, blocking with double skulls, KOd by halflings, etc early on. Then it got better and the match was very exciting, even though he was just better than me and eventually won 3-0. Fluffy Funny-Fur died so I bought a replacement liner and kept a bit of money for later.

Although I don't really know how clubs/tournys/cups/spaceshuttles work, I think I just got eliminated in the first round.

What did I learn today?
- Rookie Cup sounds fun and apparently I cant lose anything (except team members... I miss you Fluffy).
- There's a club for losers, erm I mean low-rated players and newbies. Sounds like a good place to learn the basics and develop a few tactics without getting smashed to bits while doing so.
- It will come in time, but it really shows I'm still not great at positioning/timing for blocks.
- Rerolls are important
- Rerolling blocks even if JBB doesn't mention I can : it works wonders. Saved me at times.
- Anything can fail. Any dice roll. Any. Got double skulls?
- Dont be too afraid to foul. After my last game I noticed I made an impressive 6. I asked if I went overboard. The answer : Never! This game fouls seemed to serve me well again, when used intelligently.
- I need to learn how to keep players injured/down, and not let them get back up next turn. This would help me a lot.
- HT doesn't bring KO back automatically : still roll a 4+.
- When looking at the stats, one thing jumped to my eyes: 2 rush. That's all. I usually get something like 30 per game. I can't score TDs by not having the ball. Get the ball.
- Double-check my plan before I blitz. I think it happened twice that I got the player up, went to chosse another player for an important block and "oh damn, I can't undo my get-up movement...".
- Reading on the enemy's skills whenever I had a chance helped me some, but in the end he used them so well he got me.
- Read. I need to check on what ratings actually mean (112/97 ?), fouls/knock/stun/injure (how to keep them down), double-check some skills.

Is there a "clogs the Recent Blogs page" award?

EDIT : oh right, I screenshoted the bug I get at the end about sending the game report. Will go take care of that now.