FINALS

[tags]

It's time for the FINALS!

It's the third meeting for these two teams. The first one, a bloody slaughter. The second one, a tight and carefully played draw. What will happen in this one?

The Candidates vs Good Game Gauls

[hakos]

Seems the candidates won their election to be part of the final election where the winner takes it all. Well played Kvasilad.

Ah, feels great to be here since it is so totally unexpected for me. First season I lost almost everything and just got slaughtered. This season I have somehow managed to never lose. But when investigating the luck numbers I think I know why...

On the other hand, I have never managed to defeat the Candidates either. So, what will prevail, the never losing streak of the season or the never winning streak versus the necromantic team? A draw is not an option this time!

@Kvasilad: I can play any time this weekend. Just propose something.

/hakos

[tags]

It seems clear that luck has played no small part for both of us, despite how much we'd like to think it was pure skill that brought us here :D

My Saturday is actually quite busy this weekend. I think Sunday at 13:00 would be a good time, for example?

[hakos]

My Saturday is actually quite busy this weekend. I think Sunday at 13:00 would be a good time, for example?

Sunday at 14:00 would be perfect for me. Is that ok? Otherwise I can do 13:00 as well.

/hakos

[tags]

My Saturday is actually quite busy this weekend. I think Sunday at 13:00 would be a good time, for example?

Sunday at 14:00 would be perfect for me. Is that ok? Otherwise I can do 13:00 as well.

/hakos

Sunday at 14:00 is good, let's book it for the final showdown!

[tags]

The finals have been played!

The first drive, TCA elected to receive. There were a few careful and tentative turns trying to outmanouver the defence, but GGG kept being better positioned, and there were no clear holes in their ranks. In the end, there was nothing for it but to throw caution to the wind and punch through the flank with ghouls and wolves. The gamble looked long enough to have failed, with some dangerous blocking and shoving along the edge of the field. However, the blodging ghoul ball carrier managed to slip out alone, and was saved by GGG's lack of tackle, neither for the first or last time.

GGG got the ball with only a single turn left, and I felt confident there was no plausible one-turner there, so I subbed out my wolves and other most valuable players. In an unforeseen event, though, there was a riot, and GGG suddenly had two turns to score! I looked longingly at my werewolves, now resting on the benches. I tried to put up a defensive line against the rushing skink, but stopping it looked like a tall order. As a last resort, MPDG's double agent zombie Claire Colburn decided to dodge away for a desperate blitz, and lo and behold, not only did the dodge succeed, but two POW's turned up at the perfect moment. Realizing that the blitz could've been prevented by positioning, hakos was understandably a bit miffed by the unlikely last-minute save.

The second half started quite strongly for the Gauls, as they were able to remove no less than three zombies from the pitch in two turns. I had more or less resigned to concede the point, but furthermore, was afraid I would have to do that _and_ lose a large part of my team in the process. GGG had several turns where they could not have been prevented from scoring, but I suppose rightly, hakos judged that an equalizer now would most likely mean losing in overtime. Electing to stall, the Gauls made efforts to remove more opposition from the field. That did not happen, though, as no more Candidates left the pitch for the remainder.

Instead, applying more and more pressure to the ball carrier group, one lucky blitz from a wolf managed to pry loose the pigskin, and from there escape with it to safety. The lowest-scoring match between these two teams ended in a 0-1.

Wow... I felt I had the dice, but I did not think it was this skewed.



The luck seemed roughly even in the beginning, but escalated quickly and went full-on crazy in the last handful of turns, which was of course critical to the outcome.



Despite the stats, it was an exciting game for sure, and was wildly open until the last couple of turns.

Thanks for the match hakos, I guess The Candidates were the luckier ones in the end. This really should have gone to overtime, but there is nothing that can be done against Nuffle.

[hakos]

Congratulations to the worthy Winner of Season 38. The Candidates.

You played well and only gambled when nothing else remained for you to do. Unfortunately the gamble payed off. I really hoped your ghould would trip on the Kroxigors tail, but not.

Also, I did a key mistake in turn 8 when I did not stop your only guy that could hit my skink. I only needed to put a saurus in the way of the zombie, and I had plenty of them to spare. Still, I would have needed some good skink dodging to score, so it was far from certain even if I had done that. Apart from that I was quite happy with my decisions in this game. I think I did what I could.

/hakos

[Gnaarkill]

Nice job boys!

Sounded like a real nailbiter. I guess small mistakes are the decider in top matches. But it was also kind of the luck differene in this one :)
Anyhow, a worthy champion!!

Congratulations Kvasilad!!!

And big up for the runner up spot Hakos!

/Gnaar

[Lars]

Grats on the win kvasilad

/Lars

[J-Reedy]

Grats to both of you!

[hakos]

Really nice luck graph Kvasilad.

Clearly shows what happened. Especially in second half. I got the early man advantage as can be seen when my luck graph turns upward in the middle and then I could leverage that for the rest of the second half. I could get really good positioning etc. However, when your dices started to defy all probabilities in the end it was not much I could do.

Anway, you still deserve the win, no questions asked. See you next season.

/hakos