“TR187 B Minor - Round II

We're up against arw's dark elves, who triumphed on an extra time cointoss vs JackDaniel's chaos in the first round. It was an expensive win with 3 players missing our game due to injury, leaving them just 11 players. This makes them the underdogs, somewhat, but they still have a load of blodge and 2 AGI5 players which will make keeping them away from the ball difficult.

We have a few issues with our first attempt at kicking off, when we would have had a blitz! result but one of our blitzers bugs out on attempting to GFI towards the ball. We reload but saves are corrupted / the ball disappears / so eventually we opt to restart the match.

On the second attempt we kick and this time get perfect defence, letting us totally screw up their first turn plans (a line of elves on the LOS on one sideline get a couple black orc friends). This forces them to start with a -2d block on our troll (which knocks him over for a stun!), but they soon dodge away from things to the other side, stunning our +AGI blitzer too. This gives them just enough space to 1d blitz through on turn 2 with their MA8 blitzer, but he double 1s on a GFI! We take this opportunity to charge into the backfield, blitzing over their AGI5 ball carrier and catching the ball on the rebound. We've also KILLED a blitzer, using up their apo to save him. They manage to blitz back with their witch elf, knocking the ball free and catching it (using up their last reroll), and we can only manage a 1d tackle blitz (rerolled) that fails to knock her over.

The following turn we use our final reroll to dodge a guard over and get a 2d tackle block in- but can only push her into her own endzone. She makes the two 2+ dodges past our tackler and tries for a very long range pass to a blitzer waiting unmarked in our endzone... but fumbles it! This lets us KO her with our MB/tackler and surround the ball. But that doesn't daunt the dark elves who dodge and 1d blitz our DP onto the ball so it's "only" sitting in one tackle zone now, then do 3 dodges through tackle zones, grab the ball, and throw it downfield. Luckily we're able to recover it with a lineorc, and throw it to our hastily retreated AGI4 blitzer. Turn 7 and he blitzes forwards after their AGI5 lineelf... but it's double skulls! They use their final turn to grab the ball and throw it downfield, but will be unable to score this half.

We take turn 8 to try and cause some more damage, only managing to get our DP sent off (first foul of the game). 2/4 elves in the KO box wake up giving them 9 for the kickoff.

They get perfect defence and the kick is going to land on a black orc standing on the LOS by one side. They rearrange in a balanced way just in case we get the touchback, but the ball bounces between the black orc and the sideline. We KO two players (the two who just woke up?) and get players around the ball but can't get anyone close enough to grab it. They crowdpush a black orc and then run their AGI5 lineelf through, securing the ball and throwing it back to a blitzer. We crowd in almost all our players, and it looks pretty difficult for them, until they get a -2d blitz that with a pushback lets them get a simple 2+ dodge into our half with one player. This bit of space also lets their MA8 blitzer run through with a series of 3+ dodges, holding the ball. We go for a 1d blitz on him with a tackler but double 1 on the GFI! He scores on turn 3 and 3/4 of their KOs wake up so it's 11 vs 10 with 3 rerolls for us and zero for them.

This time we manage a KO and a badly hurt on the first turn as we collect the deep ball, they charge in bravely into our half, where we MB/tackle blitz their AGI5, finally removing him from the pitch into the BH box! Frenetic defense from the dark elves follows, as twice they manage an extreme distance 1d blitz that knocks over our AGI4 blitzer on the ball. Finally on turn 7 we have to go for the pass, running 2 blitzers deep, clearing space round the ball, and then throwing it to them with our AGI4. They can't get back to us and we make it 1-1 with a single GFI.

They have one turn til overtime to try for a one-turner, getting a reroll from cheering fans to help them, but they have to give up after pushing their +MA blitzer twice.

*** OVER TIME ***

We are chosen to kick, unfortunately, and we each have 1 reroll. Their AGI5 witch elf has finally woken up from the KO box too. They try for a 1d blitz to make space, but a skull rerolled into both-down means they will have to wait a turn, while their DP gets sent off KO'ing a lineorc (also his first foul!). On turn 2 they run their witch elf with the ball down one side while trying to free up a couple of blitzers in our half - and trying to hold us off from the ball. They don't have quite enough players and we're able to get a 2d tackle blitz in that KOs her. They go for the ball (behind two blitzers by the sideline) but can't do it, and we counter by throwing one of their blitzers into the crowd (-AV) before securing the ball. The following turn we throw out the blitzers accomplice (KILLED) and run the ball into their half. With just 4 vs our 10 it looks like curtains for the elves now. On turn 5 we crowdpush another blitzer (stun), and on their 6th turn they manage a -2d double pow on a black orc, then a dodge n foul with a lineman that gets their player sent off. We then niggle a blitzer, leaving just one blitzer on the field. We try for a cleared pitch, but a MB knockdown followed by a +6 foul isn't enough, before securing the win on the final turn.

GG arw”