"All right, now listen 'ere boys. Ol' Jimmy has had a little "chat" with the ref, yeah? So's when they're all set up and ready to receive the pigskin, we don't need to wait for no whistle, 'cause the ref might be too busy to tie his shoelaces right then to notice us slippin' past the line a little early, know what I mean? Cornelius here has been hittin' the gym real 'ard these last couple o' weeks, so he's gonna take care of that berserker on the corner there right? Just wait for his signal, and they'll never know what hit'em."Beer Buddies win the toss, elect to receive, but they're hit with a blitz event, and the setup is just barely susceptible to a steal. It's a risky gambit, but I figure elves gonna elf, so I go all or nothing for the ball. My ST4 catcher luckily KO's a berserker off the edge with his blitz to make things even smoother. Unfortunately for me, the ball bounces 1 square away from the closest catcher, and I thought I was done for:
But first, Equi's pick-up failed, and the next turn, after he actually downed my carrier, he failed to dodge out after stealing back the ball. So yeah, Nuffle gave me a head start there.
"Goddamn, they lookin' real angry over there boss. Looks like they ate some of that red'n'white mushroom as well, crazy look in their eyes... oh shit, here they come!"Second drive was a travesty for the elves. Solid blocks and armour breaks from the Norse removed several elves early, and the last attempt to put up a column defence ended abruptly when a line-elf rolled snake eyes for 2+ dodge with RR. That left an entire flank open, and I just let them roll over me at that point, not risking any more casualties than what I was forced to. Easy equalizer for Equilibri.
"Yeah... things not lookin' all that great, boss. Those crazy f'ers sure know how to throw a solid punch and a kick to the nuts... hey, I gots an idea. How's about we sets'em up a little... ruse, eh? Tell you what, you go act like you runnin' scared with the ball over there, and we play possums over here's, yeah? And then, when they least expect it, BAM! We hit'em with the ol' sand in the eyes, and we rush past'em! They'll never see it comin', they won't!"Second half was my turn to receive, and I tried to methodically push a loose screen towards the end zone. I failed. Equilibri put up some very solid defence, and I was ultimately forced to either go with some crazy Hail Mary play or retreat with the carrier. Seeing no plausible way forward, as was my first instinct, I made a run for it towards my own end zone and tried to dodge away with what I had left. I did not really have a solid plan, but hoped that an opening would present itself. Lo and behold, I got this:
Empty backfield, 7 is prone, but red 3 (Cornelius Shea) is upright and is my st4 NoS catcher. I see the opportunity for a play here. Stand up 7, run towards 3 with my carrier for a short pass which succeeds, and 3 has a 2d blitz on blue 3 (Abbevor, berserker) for a mad dash towards the end zone. It succeeds, and I manage to go up 2-1 in the very last turn.
There's a riot as the last event, so Beer Buddies has a very real chance to equalize. I put up what I could defensively with the 6 players I had left standing at that point, and Nuffle decided it was enough.
As was agreed in the chat, a draw would've been the more fair result here. My first TD was mostly Nuffle. But damnit, I've had a couple of bad nufflings with this team, so I feel I was kinda due
Anyway, thanks for a fun match Equilibri! I guess none of us have much of a shot at the finals, but may season 29 be more fruitful
