First of all it was great to meet so many Blood Bowlers the atmosphere was great and the refs didn’t have to bring out their red or yellow cards all day. However after going through the team rosters there is a significant percentage of illegal rosters (I’m not naming anyone!), thankfully none in the top twenty and I’m sure (almost positive) that these were honest errors. As this tournament was regarded as a pre-season friendly this doesn’t really matter. However, next year will be the first Blood Bowl Major so I will be clamping down on incorrect rosters and yellow, maybe even red cards will be dished out!
Galek said in a previous thread "I hope Andy has learnt his lesson", well, no I haven’t
. Star Players had little overall effect of the tournament. Of the top five players there was only one Star Player (Headsplitter) in Geoff Porritt’s team and overall less than a third of (27.8% to be exact) bought Star Players with them. According to earlier threads the two Star Player’s that were of most concern Lord Borak – just one, the team he was with were placed very low in the overall standings. And of the seventeen Orc teams there was only four Varags. Also telling was that the highest placed Orc team was 11th (no Varag) but the majority of the Orc teams were towards the bottom of the final standings. Griff also seamed to perform poorly, constantly in the injured box of the dug out as I walked around the tables. In my humble opinion your simply better off buying re-rolls and positional players as they don’t attract the fouls and blocks the Stars were getting. The noticeable exception was probably Deathwing’s Count Luther! Does this mean I’ll allow Star Players next year? Well I don’t know! They don’t unbalance the teams but is it a case of people just don’t want them in the Tourney’s? You guy’s are probably the best testers for this, so would you mind if you saw them next year or not?
I feel the skill system worked out well. I heard lots of discussions and lively debates of what people were planning to take and the pro’s and cons of each and how this would effect their tournament strategy, all good stuff! From a personal point of view I would just kit as many linemen with block as I could but some went for all manner of exotic skills, Anthony was telling me how Strip Ball worked out really well. A couple of options I’m tinkering with for next year would be to keep it as it is (if it ain’t broke…) or maybe having win giving you access to traits or even having a simple point system; 1 for a loss 2 for a win Skills cost two points. I must admit I’m quite happy with how things worked out so I wont take much convincing to keep the skill progression the same.
The other bone of contention was the scoring system and I do think this needs a little tinkering with. Maybe wins should be 5 points instead of 3 placing more emphasis on coaching. Let’s not forget that next year we will have more games and so the difference in points between players will be greater. So, will more games be enough or should we increase winning as well?
I think the most important thing for me was that we proved a Tournament can take place because of Resurrection’s success I can go to Rick (Priestly) and Jervis and say next year we can have a two day event and open it up to at least 200 participants. This may sound like a no-brainer but when planning budgets I have to prove on paper tickets will be sold etc.
So, good going to all those that participated. Next year will be bigger and will have a wackier quiz with the right answers! I’m also thinking about a life-size game of Blood Bowl on one of the evenings where you guys are the players and we’ll have giant dice and everything! Well, we’ll see!
Andy Hall
Fanatic
I hope Fanatic will continue to make it for Blood Bowl events (maybe for Games Day ?)
I don't like star players 
