“Final of the Middenheim Challenge 8/07
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Gothenburg Geckos had the margins on their side in the matches up to the final of the Middenheim Challenge, but things looked bleak on game day. The rain was pouring down which would have a hard impact on the ball handling of the skinks. The World Warriors Elfs on the other side were skilled enough to cope with the conditions.

The dark elves won the kickoff and the ball sailed short because of heavy wind and a slippery ball. This allowed the elves to swarm the LOS and push the sauruses and kroxigor down. The remaining sauruses cut off what looked like an offensive push down the left flank and the dodge killer Huanitza went after the witch elf, but without success.

The brawling continued on the muddy pitch, with some knocked out players on each side. The dark elves formed a cage, but the sauruses quickly broke through. In a crucial moment Steelthunder lost focus and caused a turn over after being caught by a dive tackler, which opened up for a block on the ball carrier. It went better than I could have hoped for with the ball carrier knocked out and the ball scattering into the hands of the saurus.

Ottahuan tried to break free with the ball, but was caught up by the hated witch elf which one blocked him down. This was followed by a huge skirmish on the increasingly muddy and slippery pitch, where the Kroxgor the kroxigor was entreched firmly with the ball and the other players battled out for an edge around it. The half ended in a stalemate, but it was the Geckos that payed a heavy toll for their struggle. While the dark elves could muster all their players in the 2nd half the Geckos lost their two key players. The block tackler Huanitza and the prime scorer Boqitza.

The 2nd half proved to be extremly frustrating for the Geckos. The skinks had a horrid time trying to pick up the ball, which lead to many chances for the opponents to block it off and snatch it up.

The dark elves continued to live up to their reputation and KO'd sauruses at an alarming rate. The blocking game worked excellent for them, with fortunate 1 dice blocks and great AV breaks, while their dodges were less impressive. The Geckos on the other hand didn't impress much at all and despite countless cages around the ball it always seemed to scatter outside of them when the skinks fumbled the wet ball. Things turned for the worse when the opponents showed their superior technique, dodging in and snatching the ball up from situations far more complext than the skinks failure of even getting it off the ground.

Practically the whole match was played within 4 squares from the LOS. A set-up which should favor the lizardmen, but it was the dark elves that succeeded in the bashing game. Ironically the only times the ball seemed to end up in the Geckos possession it was when it scattered into the hands of the sauruses. But they always lost it in the following turns. The teams switched possession of the ball or the strategical position of it every round, often fueled by inapt blocks from the sauruses or awful fumbles from the skinks.

Surprisingly it was a heroic effort by a skink that saved the match. After making a mess of the entire match the fresh recruit Cuaq-quet suddenly showed his potential. He leaped off the back of a saurus and intercepted a throw, which put him behind the bulk of the dark elf LOS troops. For once the sauruses managed to create a safe zone and the skink ran out of blitzing distance. Jake the Snake managed to get away from Kroxgor and shadowed the skink, but it managed to dodge away and run in a TD in the last turn of the match. A freak TD, but it felt deserved after seeing so many fumbled pickups during the match.

The Dark Elves didn't have enough time to try to counter and the Geckos had pulled off another tight win, this time securing the Middenheim Challenge Cup!

The Geckos finally achieved their first tournament win after falling in the final of the Royal Rookie Rumble XLVIII.”