Season 34 FINAL

tags · June 11, 2019, 08:11:07 PM

The season has ended, and the finale is all set to play! Invitations are sent!

Dominating the season early, Napoleon's Illuminati Lizardmen were qualified already after the 6th round. But what's this? Their only loss was to Hakos' Masters of Mischief, who managed to almost catch up, and now they meet again in the finals! Thrilling!

Let's have a clean, fair... uh... scratch that, exciting match!

Oh, and do remember to sign up for season 35 folks!

NapoleonBlown-apart · June 11, 2019, 10:20:50 PM

Hello, Hakos, and well done for getting into the finals.

I should be able to play on Thursday or Friday any time from 18:00-20:30. I'm going away over the weekend, so I likely won't be able to play then, but I will get back on Sunday so a late match then may be possible. Please tell me if any of these times suit you.

hakos · June 14, 2019, 08:55:09 PM

Thanks, feels good but unexpected to be here.

What a season.

I did not expect to reach the finals after 3 draws in the first 3 matches but when 18 matches ended in a draw that gave me a chance. Two victories raised my hopes until the vampires killed my players while giving me my only loss. Winning the last match versus Lizards was not expected. The question is, was it a Pyrrhus victory?

Napoleon, I cannot play this week, too much work. Sunday evening could work depending on how late "late" is. Next week: Monday & Wednesday evening 19-21 works. Next weekend is probably ok as well.

/hakos

NapoleonBlown-apart · June 15, 2019, 10:04:47 AM

Quote from: hakos on June 14, 2019, 08:55:09 PM
Thanks, feels good but unexpected to be here.

What a season.

I did not expect to reach the finals after 3 draws in the first 3 matches but when 18 matches ended in a draw that gave me a chance. Two victories raised my hopes until the vampires killed my players while giving me my only loss. Winning the last match versus Lizards was not expected. The question is, was it a Pyrrhus victory?

Napoleon, I cannot play this week, too much work. Sunday evening could work depending on how late "late" is. Next week: Monday & Wednesday evening 19-21 works. Next weekend is probably ok as well.

/hakos

Yeah, it was a very fun season.

I don't know exactly when I'll be back on Sunday, so Monday might be better. Would 19:30 CET work for you?

hakos · June 15, 2019, 03:46:55 PM

Quote from: NapoleonBlown-apart on June 15, 2019, 10:04:47 AM
I don't know exactly when I'll be back on Sunday, so Monday might be better. Would 19:30 CET work for you?

Ok, let's aim for monday 17/6 starting at 19:30 CET

/Hakos

hakos · June 16, 2019, 09:57:32 PM

Hey Napoleon

Please note that you need to join the final by using a ticket. I think there is some delay involved in that so it would be good if that is done before we start our match.

/hakos

tags · June 16, 2019, 11:49:36 PM

The only delay is that an admin needs to start the competition. I should be able to do that, but might not be home before closer to 20-ish tomorrow. Dunno about J-R's availability.

J-Reedy · June 17, 2019, 09:11:42 AM

Normally I wouldn't be home until late (abouts 21-22.00) on Monday but as there's been two cancellations due to illness on the boardgaming night, it might be that I get home earlier than normal. But don't count on that.

NapoleonBlown-apart · June 17, 2019, 11:56:08 AM

I forgot about the competition needing to be started by an admin, sorry about that. I'm in now. If we have to start later, I should be okay up to about 20:15. If that's too late for you or an admin isn't able to start it before then, then I should be free on Wednesday from 19:00-20:15 as well if you are still free then.

tags · June 17, 2019, 12:45:31 PM

I was able to start the competition now, so you're all set for 19:30! Good luck to both of you :)

NapoleonBlown-apart · June 17, 2019, 01:09:25 PM

Thanks, kvasi. :D

hakos · June 17, 2019, 01:41:25 PM

Great, thanks all /hakos

hakos · June 17, 2019, 10:16:01 PM

Lizards win the toin coss and decided to defend

1st Half

Rats get the ball for free and make a classic two flank attack lead by one gutter runner on each side. In the mean time the other two gutter runners passes the ball so that one levels up.

Lizards mark hard on one side but leaves the mercenary gutter runner on the other flank completely free. Perhaps they know what would happen. Second turn, the throw to the mercenary is good but the catch fails. A skink immediately picks it up.

Time to get it back, but a simple 2D block with a loner guy fails, and of course the loner effect kicks in. Quick turn over and the Lizards can create a cage.

Quick forward a couple of turns, the ball is on the rat half and it is time for desperate measures. Luckily one rat reaches the skink and the ball is free. But it is quickly picked up by a pesky skink again and moved just one square from the touch down zone.

Final attempt, 2D block again, and again it fails and again loner kicks in. That leaves the lizards free to score 0-1.

Nothing more of interest happens. The half is very friendly, only one badly hurt on each side.

2nd Half

Both teams line up 11 players. Lizards play it safe, picks up the ball, creates a cage, knocks down some players and then start to move forward. Rats set up a column defence. Slowing down the offence and waits for an opportunity.

About 3 (or 4?) turns in there is suddenly a missing corner in the cage after an attempt to pass through a 3 square wide corridor. All rats quickly mark everything they can see. The guard runner moves in to mark two lizards and two blocks later the ball is picked up and moved out of the cage. But definitely not well guarded.

Lizards get the ball back, and then rats get it back again. However, the ball is now dangerously close to the rat touch down zone. Also, the gutter runner with the ball is marked by a diving tackle skink. The attempt to remove the skink fails and in desperation the dodge is tried and succeeds. The runner does what it is best at, it runs as far away as it can.

Which is not enough, a block saurus can reach it. Fortunately the runner is the one with block, dodge and side step so it manages to escape once more. It continues to run at maximum speed and finally moves out of reach.

In turn 16 the equalizer, 1-1, is a fact.

3rd Half, Overtime

Lizards once again wins the coin toss and this time they choose to attack. Surprisingly, there is still two full teams on the field. Despite heavy blocking from Lizards on rats. Another key fact is that lizards have 0 RR while rats have 1 RR at start of overtime.

BLITZ

Rats get the opportunity of a life time. Blitz in overtime in the final. It is all-in. Every single rat, except the three mercenaris on the LOS swarms the Lizard half. The ball is too far away to pick up.

The AG4, sure hands skink have no problem picking up the ball. However, due to rat infestation the skink can not be protected and is an easy target. Skink is down, ball is free, but the pick-up fails.

It is about now that dices starts to haunt the Lizards. About every turn a Lizard is removed from the field. Either by rats hitting unexpectedly hard or by lizards failing a simple block and with no RR they knock out themselves.

After a couple of turns the ball is safely in the hands of a gutter runner and out of reach from the Lizards. The rat coach decides to stall as long as possible since overtime now apparently is a full 8 turn half.

With 4 turns left it is time to score. 2-1 to rats. BUT, it is sudden death, so the match ends there with Masters of Mischief becoming Masters of Season 34.

-----------------

Thanks for the game Napoleon. It was quite a fun and even game, at least during normal time. Lots of back and forth with these two fast teams. Perhaps I was a bit more lucky during normal time since hardly any rats were removed from the field.

Sorry about the overtime, here Nuffle wanted to decide the game. Not much you could do after the Blitz and one Lizard removed per turn.

It would be nice if you can upload the match statistics here as well. Thanks.

/Hakos

NapoleonBlown-apart · June 18, 2019, 02:43:20 AM

Yeah, it was a fun game. No problem about the dice at the end. I had plenty of good luck this season and I was playing as lizardmen, so a bit of bad luck probably just balances things out.

For some reason, the finals aren't showing up at all on BB2 replayer for me.

tags · June 18, 2019, 07:43:02 AM

Congratulations Hakos on winning what looks like a tightly contested final! :)

If any of you could send me the replay file (.bbrz), I'll have a look at what's wrong. It should be here on both your PCs:
C:\Users\<USERNAME>\Documents\BloodBowl2\Profiles\<SOMELONGHASH>\Replays

The name of the right .bbrz is cryptic, but if you sort by date, it should match the time you played. It's also the most recent if that's the last match you played.

Mail it to bb2replayer@gmail.com or send it to me on Discord.