“And so our first ever match in a major (qualifier really, I guess) ends with a 2-1 victory... for the opponent of course. Rats won the coin toss and elected to receive, with mass guard making things tougher than usual, but as rats do, we made it through and scored quick, making it 1-0. Of course, things went downhill from there; we put up a defense but overcommited into the orc backfield, which along with the MNG (apo'd with hesitation but failed) on our star blodging sidestep DT man, and the occasional KO that would come from a standard grind, resulted in the orcs getting to our endzone. An unlucky turnover put the orcs in a bad position, but by this point we were clean out of rerolls and so failed to fully capitalize because of a failed GFI; while the orcs were forced to make a risky pass to score, we were unable to cover all three recievers, and a prone one who we only managed to cover with one linerat, himself on two players, managed to escape after his black orc buddy blocked him free. One (Pass rerolled) 3+ throw and 3+ catch later, it was tied 1-1 with the orcs set to receive for the second half. They ground upfield, and while we avoided getting into their backfield too much, it was too much. Then, some lucky -2d blitzes resulted us in covering their ball carrier (S4 and lots of guard made it very difficult to get a clean hit) with a lot of tacklezones. Unfortunately, he expertly blocked him free, and used his blodgey goodness to escape and hand it off to a blitzer and score, making it 2-1.

With only a few turns left and morale of the rats low (translation: no rerolls left by this point), two turnovers sealed our fate, and we were first-round booted from the tourney.

Good luck in the rest of the qualifiers, I'll be booing you all the way! ;)

What would I do differently? Well first off I wouldn't get morg 'n thorg. He's nice and all, but I think I got over-excited at the prospect of actually being able to afford him; a better choice would have been two bloodweiser babes first, to help with all those KOs from the long grinds. Judging by how many rerolls I burnt up, a few spares wouldn't have hurt either, seeing as all that guard meant a lot of 1d blocks and dodges to reposition. And now I know that I most certainly will never ever hire a rat ogre again. Oh yeah, and I need more guard, a lot more guard. That's all, I suppose.”