“Lustrian Challenge Qualifier round 1.

Nocturama brought a wizard for the first round Dorfs. The Guardians were to rely heavily on super-star Blitzer Marcus.

The Dorfs received first, and managed to score in T7 of first half after spectacular play from Marcus. The Guardians could never form an organized cage and Nocturama popped the ball twice, but without being able to recover it. In T6 the Dorfs failed a quick pass and Nocturama could steal the ball, but in turn failed the long pass to safety. Marcus picked up the fumbled ball, dodged through and quick passed to one of the AG4 Runners for 0-1. The Dorfs were not hitting very hard, the CAS score being 1-1 at half-time.

2nd half started with Nocturama failing to hurt the grandfathered Dorf Ogre on a six-player gang-foul. The kick was deep, so Nocturama moved two players down to pick up while the rest of the team tried to get into scoring position. But we kept falling over, not wanting to spend RR when the ball wasn't threatened, and it wasn't until T4 that we actually picked the ball up. By that time, three Nocturama players had already left the pitch and the Guardians were boxing in the rest. It didn't look good, but then we finally pulled off a real elf play, with dodges through TZ and a short pass that got the ball far down towards the Dorf end zone and with no opposing players in range. It was 1-1 in T6.

Neither side took any chances in the remaining turns and it went to OT. The Dorfs got to receive, and again failed to establish a cage, so Nocturama easily popped the ball. But it was the Guardians that recovered it, and Marcus went deep and catched a short pass from one of the Runners. This could have won the game for the Dorfs, if Nocturama's wizard hadn't fried Marcus with a lightning bolt. We still had to risk a short pass over a Troll Slayer to secure the ball, but it worked and that was 2-1 and game.

With hindsight, I'm very happy that I took that wizard. I was considering not to, seeing the large TS advantage that I already had. In the end it was good to be rather safe than sorry.

GG Hakator, those Dorfs sure know how to move the ball! See you around.
”