Team England Captain 2025: Community Q&A

[sann0638]

@wulfyn, do you have a link to the TZ Discord? Might help people to see what you have in mind.

[KFoged]

Will you keep the new Team England logo, or go in a new direction?

Also just for the record I didn't change the actual logo (even if I liked to) and the "old" logo was still on the chest of the shirt

We tried to make the shirt a bit more fresh adding a more modern TE logo as a pattern on the shirt.

[GreenskinPhil]

Hi Both,

Thankyou you for standing & think the platforms you are doing so on are applaudable.

If possible, Id like you to expand on answers given to post selection what preparing a team & the (excuse the buzzword) ‘culture’ within it, means to you?

If timeline stays as expected you will have the best part of ¾ of 2025 to prepare this team to perform optimally in Hungary.
Do you have thoughts (bar the thankful inclusion of a squad to effectively train) what your structure for this or non-negotiables of team members are?

Will the team be competing together beforehand at any European events?
Do you envisage regular get togethers in addition to online play & if so what structure will they take?
What are your minimum expectations of team & squad members, old & new, in preparing for the event itself?

Best of luck to you both & thanks again for putting yourselves forward for the good of TE & the community!

[Wulfyn]

Hi both. My question is - what do you think the team captain can learn from how other countries select, organise their squads and arrange training?

I think the most fascinating thing is in how different the selection processes are. For example Team France were perennial underachievers in the last decade and we think that some of that is because they would have regional selections, were each region put their best player forwards. It meant that every year they had a great team, but not their best team. You only have to look at how well their top club teams do to see just how many amazing players they had. From this I think we can learn that whilst community outreach and widening is really important for Team England we should select individuals based on who they are and not where they live. I think it's also a fairer system as well as making for a stronger team. France no longer select in this way.

Other nations also have automatic selection based on how well they do at a certain tournament or series of tournaments. I've already stated my views on how I think we need to make sure that any selection is looking at what races people are playing well and how applicable tournaments are to the Eurobowl experience, so if those automatic selection tournaments meet that criteria then great, but I don't think it's a good idea to pick someone just because they won a single tournament.

On the other hand I think we can learn a lot from how some teams are organised. France and Denmark in particular seem quite unified with more sharing of ideas than we have typically had, which is one of the motivations behind Squad England and the wider discord channel. They are also better prepared - even simple things like set plays of 1 turn setups (attacking and defending) can be worked out well ahead of time and drilled into all players. I don't think that's a lot to ask of us, and I think much easier to do as a supportive group than as individuals. If you've ever seen an Italian player set up a 1 turner wrong in a team event you know how much crap they get from their team-mates afterwards haha.

[Wulfyn]

If possible, Id like you to expand on answers given to post selection what preparing a team & the (excuse the buzzword) ‘culture’ within it, means to you?

One of the things that I would propose to do in the application form is ask people if they are provisionally available for specific European team tournaments. Tilean Team Cup is an awkward one as it falls on the same weekend as the NAFC (I'm trying to get them to change it!), but there are many other great ones. I've mentioned before that I think you need to pick for the year ahead rather than the ones gone, but I do think that experience is important, and people who want to play for England who have not had a lot of historic experience should be willing to go to at least one. That is non-negotiable - if you have not played outside the UK and you want to play for England then you must be prepared to over the coming year.

I don't think it is a secret that one of the things that underpinned how successful we were in the last decade was having a core of players getting regular European experience against top opposition. I don't think you can be really serious about wanting to win a Eurobowl if you haven't done the prep work to be successful, or are willing to do it.

That also sets the culture. Partly through team bonding of playing together, but partly through a shared understanding that to play for England you have to put some effort in, and that those who are putting the effort in will be rewarded. This is going to vary from person to person as well; not everyone has the finances to have multiple mega European trips, so I don't want to set any other non-negotiables because it will require some nuance.

So yes I expect there to be events where we compete together in advance, and there will also be training days but we need to discuss the format as a group, and the number will depend on how many events we are competing at. My favourite style in the past is when people have played with 2 on each team, taking alternating turns, but having to discuss why they are doing it and what their plan it. That promotes knowledge sharing.

What are your minimum expectations of team & squad members, old & new, in preparing for the event itself?

The game changes every few months, so it is just as important for older established players to practice as it is for newer ones. For example everyone needs to know how to do a 1 turn defence and attack against various opposing teams, especially the new ones that will have some tricks. If you have not had at least 3 practice games against every team you have not faced before (with a good opponent in a tournament style roster) then you are not prepared; you need to know how to deal with Vampires for example. Everyone should be able to go into any game at Eurobowl and think to themselves that they have played this "game" before, and know how to approach it. That's another reason for having Squad England - more experience and availability to practice with 24 over 12.

And part of my role in preparing the team is ensuring they have done that.

[yud]

Hi both. My question is - what do you think the team captain can learn from how other countries select, organise their squads and arrange training?

With regards to selection, my view is generally that the way we do it works and would not envisage large-scale change to that (i.e. proposing a move to a stat or qualification process). There has been some changes and the process looks to continue to be involving and I would work with the committee on making sure that is moving in the right direction - but I'm not coming in with big ideas to overhaul the selection process.

So the main areas I would be looking at other countries would come down to preparation. The non-playing captain role becomes part of that - and looking through previous Q&A's and feedback from those involved over the last few years would suggest this is something that we can improve on. I'll cover this in the following answer to Phil's question.

[yud]

Hi Both,

Thankyou you for standing & think the platforms you are doing so on are applaudable.

If possible, Id like you to expand on answers given to post selection what preparing a team & the (excuse the buzzword) ‘culture’ within it, means to you?

If timeline stays as expected you will have the best part of ¾ of 2025 to prepare this team to perform optimally in Hungary.
Do you have thoughts (bar the thankful inclusion of a squad to effectively train) what your structure for this or non-negotiables of team members are?

Will the team be competing together beforehand at any European events?
Do you envisage regular get togethers in addition to online play & if so what structure will they take?
What are your minimum expectations of team & squad members, old & new, in preparing for the event itself?

Best of luck to you both & thanks again for putting yourselves forward for the good of TE & the community!

The only non-negotiable for me is that people putting themselves forwards must be willing and able to play on either the bowl or open England team. (assuming we move to an initial selection of 12 people as proposed in the recent newsletter, rather than picking the 8 bowl and 4 open members at the first stage) - I do not see how this can practically function without this.

I would not be looking to put in place any further firm restrictions that may limit those who can be considered, beyond what is already in the charter.

I would like to maintain the ability to pick any of the 12 to feature in the bowl and for that to provide some motivation for the selected 12 to engage with the preparation process over the coming year. There is of course the issue that we may not know the full details of the ruleset - and this potentially could go beyond the roster process, there could be some consideration of the schedule and timing. 2 hr 15 min rounds have been discussed a little following Athens, as the 9th man I would not be overzealous with clocks for example, banging them down at the first opportunity. I would generally leave that aspect to the players to manage as they are comfortable with; I do not subscribe to the 'mandatory chess clock' philosophy and would let players manage that as they see best (though if requested and a player is more comfortable with me implementing it that could be done - I had a bit of experience managing 100 boards and timing at UKTC as a ref..). Perhaps a bit of a tangent, but I think in my head, there potentially could be some candidates who may be more comfortable with 2 hr 30 min rounds which may strengthen their case if that ends up being the schedule.

In Athens, rosters were available quite far in advance. One of my blood bowling strengths is understanding / determining what strategies can be used for negative match ups (happens a lot with goblins, as you might expect). Whilst it is not really possible to analyse every possible variation of an 8 vs 8 match up, I think for the key games against the teams expected to be up at the top tables, we should be sitting down well prepared for those. So I think a large part of my efforts in the run up would lean into looking both at rosters of opponents and, where possible gameplay - and playing practice matches with these rosters. I think when we are sitting down for a match, we should be 'ready' with a reasonably detailed understanding of the individual match-ups across the boards. We should understand beyond the individual match-ups, how as a team we are going to approach the round and what our route to a win may look like, and how that would adjust as the games progress. My focus would be on working with the team to get to that position - I suppose almost a bit like a 'scout'.

I would likely target the home nations tournament as an opportunity to try some of this in practice, so that would likely be a tournament I would like the team to attend. I would not place mandatory online/in person/european tournaments as part of the training. Perhaps trying to select pairs that are reasonably close together could help with practice but this would primarily be driven by availability of the team, and what they individually view their most effective and efficient way to prepare is.

One person might view a few european trips to play at top level their best option, another might view playing a lot of online is the way. There perhaps needs to be some balance - I need to be confident someone can sit down game 6 and be at the top of their game in a high-pressure match, so likely someone with 3000 online games against top opposition but 6 career tabletop games is not going to be ready this time around - but maybe some candidates can already demonstrate this - and those are the players I'd be looking to lean on for their experience and to help in preparing the entire squad to make both a competitive team, but also develop the wider 12 as part of the process.

[Cauleeflower]

This is specifically for Wulfyn in response to the "must play in Europe prior to EB" stance.

I'll be very brutally honest here. That shit is expensive. For many people Eurobowl is their blood bowl trip and holiday for the year in one. Travelling multiple times a year to play in Europe may very well be out of reach for many people who are good enough. There are other platforms available digitally to allow people to get a similar level of practise. We've all been through COVID, we know how to do these things. Would you potentially reconsider this stance and look at more ways to get coaches playing more top talent in a more accessible way?

I do fear you're shooting yourself in the foot at the first hurdle making this demand of people.

[Wulfyn]

This is specifically for Wulfyn in response to the "must play in Europe prior to EB" stance.

I'll be very brutally honest here. That shit is expensive. For many people Eurobowl is their blood bowl trip and holiday for the year in one. Travelling multiple times a year to play in Europe may very well be out of reach for many people who are good enough. There are other platforms available digitally to allow people to get a similar level of practise. We've all been through COVID, we know how to do these things. Would you potentially reconsider this stance and look at more ways to get coaches playing more top talent in a more accessible way?

I do fear you're shooting yourself in the foot at the first hurdle making this demand of people.

I think I explained myself badly, so I think that might be where you are coming from. Because you raise a good question, and I’m totally in agreement about how expensive these trips can be. This is why I said that attending an event (UK or not) this year with the team would not be a “non-negotiable” because individual circumstances have to be accounted for due to cost.

This is going to vary from person to person as well; not everyone has the finances to have multiple mega European trips, so I don't want to set any other non-negotiables because it will require some nuance.

What I meant was where someone had never played in a tournament outside of the UK before. That’s not just the main team tournaments, that’s never been to a Europen, or a World Cup, or a Dungeonbowl, or anything. If you went to Alicante last year, or Greece just gone then you would not be required to come to a European event prior to Eurobowl. I apologise if I have miscommunicated that; it’s not a requirement for everyone to do something ahead of EB.

That is non-negotiable - if you have not played outside the UK and you want to play for England then you must be prepared to over the coming year.

My thinking here is that it is not about skill or practice, it is about experience. I think it’s just too much of a stretch to ask someone that has never done anything like this before to be at the top of their game in such a pressured environment when it is so unfamiliar to them. But I also don’t want people to think that they have to spend all that money in advance of selection in the hope that they might get picked someday in the future, and then feel annoyed and resentful if they are overlooked. I want to show people, as part of my efforts to be more inclusive, that even if you think you are out of the running because you have not played abroad before then still apply if you are prepared to get that experience over the coming year. I think that’s better than just excluding them completely.

So taking yourself as an example, you went to Greece for the Europen so you have European experience and would not be required to do something extra this year if selected.

Does that answer the question? I think maybe I just explained myself badly before?

[Cauleeflower]

Thank you for clearing that up. There was a misunderstanding on my part. While I do still have some concerns that you could be excluding some of the community with this requirement, it's certainly clearer.

UKTC attracts foreign coaches, so does NAFC.We have the new UK masters being organised by Pipey of team England fame that is attracting even American coaches (in it's first year!). While I can understand why you have this as a requirement, I don't think I can agree with an exclusion criteria that can affect someone purely based on something like finances or family situation. We've had a lot of new talent join the community since COVID, some of them are very good. They may not really have had the opportunity to attend these events due to aforementioned reasons.

[Pipey]

Hi couple of questions from me if not too late.

Thanks for standing, and for the detailed and thoughtful answers.

Further to the general discussion relating to high quality play abroad and online, I had a question about my new event UK Masters. I set this up to encourage a higher quality of play on the tabletop in the UK. I had observed for example that the Team England players very rarely play one another in recent years, probably due to our ever sprawling and scattered tournament scene. What are your thoughts on this event or any event with a similar aim? Would you encourage potential Eurobowl/EurOpen players to engage with UK Masters to maximise the quality of practice? (I know it will be after EB 2025 but asking in principle)

Second question relates to the TE Charter. Is there anything you would ask the Committee to consider changing going forward to potentially write into the Charter for future captains and committees so this process works best for the community going forward?

Thanks both

[yud]

Hi couple of questions from me if not too late.

Thanks for standing, and for the detailed and thoughtful answers.

Further to the general discussion relating to high quality play abroad and online, I had a question about my new event UK Masters. I set this up to encourage a higher quality of play on the tabletop in the UK. I had observed for example that the Team England players very rarely play one another in recent years, probably due to our ever sprawling and scattered tournament scene. What are your thoughts on this event or any event with a similar aim? Would you encourage potential Eurobowl/EurOpen players to engage with UK Masters to maximise the quality of practice? (I know it will be after EB 2025 but asking in principle)

Second question relates to the TE Charter. Is there anything you would ask the Committee to consider changing going forward to potentially write into the Charter for future captains and committees so this process works best for the community going forward?

Thanks both

UK Masters - I like the tournament idea, I think it fills a gap. Whether it maximises the quality of practice, not sure - with a relatively large field there is generally going to be some randomness in the draw, my gut feel is I've probably played as many games against Team England / Eurobowl players in small fields as I have in big ones.

TE Charter - I think any changes to the charter should be based on the views of the community, rather than my own personal opinions or ideas. I would like be in a better position after a year of captaincy to suggest changes than I am now.

[Wulfyn]

Further to the general discussion relating to high quality play abroad and online, I had a question about my new event UK Masters. I set this up to encourage a higher quality of play on the tabletop in the UK. I had observed for example that the Team England players very rarely play one another in recent years, probably due to our ever sprawling and scattered tournament scene. What are your thoughts on this event or any event with a similar aim? Would you encourage potential Eurobowl/EurOpen players to engage with UK Masters to maximise the quality of practice? (I know it will be after EB 2025 but asking in principle)

Thanks to the efforts of a lot of TOs who give up their time to create so many excellent tournaments for us the UK calendar has never been better. And this includes the wide range of tournaments that you can go to. Whether it is one or two day events, with competitive or themed rulesets there is something for everyone.

So it’s great to have something like the Masters that is focused on competitive play for people who are interested in that. It’s not just great for established players to play each other more often, but also for the many skilled up and coming players to make their mark. And even better if we are able to get coaches from other countries to come along as well. We've talked about things like this for a while, such as having coaches needing to put forward a 200+ rated team for entrance to a tournament, or having something like Accelerated Swiss or McMahon to get the higher rated players paired together quicker.

There's always the issue that the bigger and more successful the tournament the less the top players will meet at the start, and balancing between existing top players and up and coming top players of the future is always difficult. But regardless of the challenges I support the idea, and I will absolutely be engaging with the English competitive community to attend this and other high skilled events, both those selected and anyone looking to break into the team.

Second question relates to the TE Charter. Is there anything you would ask the Committee to consider changing going forward to potentially write into the Charter for future captains and committees so this process works best for the community going forward?

There's nothing I would consider changing at present, other than supporting the committee’s intention to increase the initial pick from 8 to 12. As you know I was around when the committee was being formed and my big push was for a Europen team to become an official part of what we did, so it is great to see this evolution. I think the charter is strong. I like the selection method that we have, and I am sure the team will get back to winning ways soon.