Blood Bowl itP IV: Anything But A '1'

[Wraith]

Hate to be a party pooper but it seems this is only because the Unsightly Jellyfishes were awarded a win in their bye against KingOfFeed whereas I was awarded a draw - which I thought was the convention (as Silfir made the case for it somewhere earlier in the thread/s).

Games that aren't played by mutual agreement of the coaches, or because someone has a severe problem with their schedule, get a 0-0 draw because sometimes life happens and it's not fair to punish people for it.
Forfeit games - and the resignation of a coach from the league counts as forfeits - result in 2-0 to the remaining player. All of this is in the blurb for the league description, in-game.

The reason that you got a draw and not a forfeit, LCP, is because - having checked the threads back then - it seems MisterQuiv cried off several matches and then quit without PMing me, so when it came to end the day I didn't know that he had resigned until too late.
I apologise for this oversight. I've gotten much better at checking the forum before I do anything to the calender, but frankly there's so many people resigned and a few more that rarely post that I can't always remember which is which. There is a partial solution for what has already occurred, as I shal explain below.

I believe playoffs can be assigned manually I guess at this point we're best off reconstructing the table outside of the client and using that to decide who ends up in the playoffs. It has the merit of giving us the ability to retroactively disqualify our tardy coaches and eliminate all their results - including wins and draws from before dropping out. At least points-wise, that'll lead to a fairer table.

Having talked through the situation at length with Silfir, the best solution we can come up with is to strip MisterQuiv's results out of the league and, ignoring the in-game ranking table, manually keep track of who *should* be winning. Then, at the end of the season, if the two tables don't match then I should be able to assign them manually also so that the 'right' people go into the play-offs as they deserve.

This, at current state of progress, will return LCP to the #1 place and will eliminate any other inconsistencies that might occur between draws/losses. There's nothing that I can do about the missing SPP, unfortunately, but to be honest the top 4 teams at present are already the top scorers so I don't think anyone is actually hurting for missing a couple of assigned touchdowns.
The only concern that I have is with the Cyanide interface itself; if it does not offer me the freedom that I need to assign playoff positions exactly as I want, then we may reach the point where it is necessary to abandon the league and create a new knock-out tournament for the top 4 teams as we did in the first season. This will have zero effect on anyone's team values or SPP, only that it'll be a bit more paperwork for me behind the scenes.

If anyone can think of a better solution, or if there is something I haven't addressed that you want to know about, by all means just ask here or in a PM. I'm trying to run the Rookie League as transparently as I can so that everyone has fun, not just be a tyrant by assigning games and getting them out of the way because they're inconvenient.

[Thufir]

OK, the Stunty Cup is now accepting applicants. The name is KOitP and the password is Eliminated. Ogres, Goblins, Halflings, Lizardmen with no Saurus and Underworld with no Throwers or Blitzers are the valid options for teams to put in. No other restrictions.

[Maethirion]

The Inaugural Blood Bowl 2 League has completed its round robin stage, and is into playoffs.
The teams that have made it through are:

End-Times are a Mutating (Unpronounceable)
Khornate Killers (Maethirion)
The Tenocht Thunderscales (Aetherstorm)
Elf Smasherz (Dsop)

Congratulations to all, especially Dsop and Aetherstorm, for whom (I believe) this is their first tournament. Hopefully you should all have received an invitation for your team to join the knock out playoffs. We're still working out how Cyanide has programmed this, but hopefully it should all work out in the end.

[Wraith]

I was robbed! Robbed, I tell you!
If it weren't for those 8 failed dodges in first half, and that 6+ interception by a Dwarf Lineman, and that +5 foul on my Witch Elf, and the six injuries inflicted to go alongside three KO'd in the second half, and the other 8 failed dodges, and... and.....

....Well, alright, maybe I it wasn't as easily sewn-up as I thought it was going to be. I'll get you next time Dsop, but good luck in your next match all the same!

In unrelated matters, I have submitted a Skink team to the Knock-Out league - the Ancient Spirits 0f Evil are ready to go!

[LCP]

Manticoran, when do you want to try to fit our game in? I've got a three-day weekend so available whenever until Tuesday (CST).

[Unpronounceable]

The Inaugural Blood Bowl 2 League has completed its round robin stage, and is into playoffs.
The teams that have made it through are:

End-Times are a Mutating (Unpronounceable)
Khornate Killers (Maethirion)
The Tenocht Thunderscales (Aetherstorm)
Elf Smasherz (Dsop)

Congratulations to all, especially Dsop and Aetherstorm, for whom (I believe) this is their first tournament. Hopefully you should all have received an invitation for your team to join the knock out playoffs. We're still working out how Cyanide has programmed this, but hopefully it should all work out in the end.

Sorry, I was wondering when we were going to hear the match ups and then I re-read your post and realised I had to do something, *doh*.

All signed up now.

[Wraith]

Undead have been unveiled for Blood Bowl 2, at long last!

They're currently available to play only as an opt-in beta patch, and set to join the game proper at the end of the month. As much as I'm enjoting thechange of pace that my Dark Elves provide, I'm sorely tempted to make BB2 the first time that I play thrm seriously in a league.

Also if you missed it, the Blood Bowl World Cup came to its conclusion when Lizardmen overcame Skaven 2 games to 0. Given that we very nearly had an all-Dwarf semi final, I'm overjoyed that "less optimal" teams took the top 3 places (Orcs taking 3rd).

[Maethirion]

Sorry, I was wondering when we were going to hear the match ups and then I re-read your post and realised I had to do something, *doh*.

All signed up now.

No worries, all sorted now. And while I have no idea whether it's randomly generated, or if it took the standings from the previous competition, Cyanide has given us exactly the right placings. So the bracket is:

Khornate Killers v. Elf Smashers
End Times are a Mutating v. The Tenocht Thunderscales

Best of luck!

[Wraith]

Have Some Popkhorne 0-2 Super Furry Wild Animals

I'm probably going to make a video of this one for Youtube posterity. It was the sort of match that gets described when people tell stories of ye olde times, for good and bad reasons.
The first half began when I failed the coin toss and yet Silfir chose to kick. I thought this was odd, as Khorne are a bashy team with no ball handling skills to speak of, whereas I had a Troll and a Mighty Blow Stormvermin on my team. Why let me Block the LoS down right away, when he clearly had the advantage of 'lots more Block' against 0SPP Goblins?

Apparently, we were both right, either that or Silfir has some limited precognitive powers. My first roll of the game Badly Injured a Cultist, and my second one saw the Warpstone Troll Skull/Both Down and then, despite Loner, successfully reroll into Skull/Both Down again, ending on a turnover.

Popkhorne swarmed down the pitch and started beating up Rats, taking the ball out of my players' hands several times. Somehow, every time I managed to pick it up again I made it a few more squares up the pitch before getting punched down again, even managing to get free of the scrum in Turn 7 with Silfir having only one player capable of Blitzing the Goblin Ball Carrier. Needing a dodge, a GFI and lacking either Tackle or Block, the Herald still managed to get the POW he wanted and looked confident that that he would end the half 0-0.
Nuffle intervened again, and with a cry of "Insane Goblin Bullsh*t!" I forced a ridiculous play that had no right to succeed: standing up a Goblin, dodging him away from the Herald and into the End Zone, then having a second Goblin stand up, dodge three times through tackle zones, pick up the ball in one tackle zone, dodge out, GFI twice and throw the ball to his waiting comrade. I don't think I even used a reroll.

After an unsuccessful turn of punching more 0SPP Goblins on the LoS for his Turn 8, Silfir began the second half with a flurry of blood. I had packed players just behind the LoS looking to cause a frenzy-trap or two, and in doing so a) forgot that Bloodthirsters can be ST6 if the want to and b) you can block people sideways as well as forwards so it didn't amount to much other than get several players injured and the rest of them based by Cultists.
Successfully contained, the Super Furry Wild Animals would have to try a bunch of unlikely dodges in order to do anything about the ball which was being walked casually down Popkhornes' left wide-zone by a Bloodletter, escorted by one other who was positioned nearby in order to prevent a lucky Blitz being turned into a crowd surf..... At least, the would have if I hadn't just brought Bomber Dribblesnot off the reserves bench and sat him in the middle of the pitch, safely behind Skaven Linemen and free from the claws of the Blood God's followers and from where he unleashed a reign of terror on the pitch for both teams.
That turn he landed a bomb perfectly, Stunning the ball carrier and knocking down his escort - the ball scattered into the crowd and ended in the Animals' side of the pitch among Throwers and Stormvermin. The turn after, he threw wide and (to communal gasps of relief) didn't hit anything, though coming VERY close to taking out two Cultists that had been menacing my rookie Thrower for 3 turns prior. The turn after THAT he missed a potential hat-trick of Khorne players and instead chose to start a grudge between himself and my remaining Lineman, leaving the corner of my cage wide open to a Blitz.
A Blitz which immediately failed thanks to a failed Dodge, no less, which gave me one more turn of wanton artillery abuse before Silfir had had enough and did something drastic about the little bomb-throwing sod.

So I gave it a try and.... well.....

....Ever seen a thrown Bomb intercepted by a Bloodthirster? I have. It's a sight to chill the blood, especially if it's only a Short Pass to take out your whole damn cage thereafter. Further wackiness ensued however, as although The Cookie Monster made a successful throw he was in turn intercepted by Goat Gave Rock & Rock To You, one of those useless 0SPP LoS-fodder Goblins that I have just spent the previous paragraph disparaging. Determined to prove himself where a professional Bombardier had failed, GGR&RTY sent the ball exactly where it ought to have gone in the first place, KOing a Bloodletter and knocking Cookie Monster off his feet.

That signified the beginning of the end for Have Some Popkhorne - even though they outnumbered the Underworld team 9 players to 7 (which was technically 6, as the Warpstone Troll DoeSimian RatsPony refused to come online for ~9 of the 16 turns...), their killing spree had come to an abrupt end, taking injuries and KO's themselves as Stormvermin Come As You Aardvark grabbed the ball and ran safely out of reach. Too many Two-Headed Goblins ran around with apparent impunity, getting in the way and refusing to die for far longer than they had any right to, and so the game ended with the ball buried in the End Zone as I sat aghast at my good fortune while Silfir experienced some kind of break down; something about how even a life of bloodshed and violence was for naught and how staring at a Goblin allowed the Abyss to stare back at him....

Thanks for the game, Silfir - I hope that at some point the outrage began to morph into comedy, as that's usually the only way to survive either side of an Underworld and/or Khorne match. I'm afraid I can't apologise for my bullsh*t plays, as they're the ONLY thing that has allowed me to claim my first every victory over any of your teams in any of the GitP Leagues!

[Silfir]

Don't worry, there's a last time for everything...

[Deadline]

So is DSOP still around? I noticed I didn't have his steam account in my friends list, so I tried to grab his steam name from the first page and am getting a profile not found error when following the link we have there.

[Wraith]

I must have made a mistake copy/pasting his info at some point. The link that I have in my records works just fine: Here ya go! He's online right now, in fact, depending on when you read this message

[Unpronounceable]

No worries, all sorted now. And while I have no idea whether it's randomly generated, or if it took the standings from the previous competition, Cyanide has given us exactly the right placings. So the bracket is:

Khornate Killers v. Elf Smashers
End Times are a Mutating v. The Tenocht Thunderscales

Best of luck!

Time for your revenge aetherstorm :)

I'm not around this weekend so how is the 16-17th for you?

[Aetherstorm]

Time for your revenge aetherstorm :)

I'm not around this weekend so how is the 16-17th for you?

That should be fine for me. If I remember correctly, our time zones are pretty much inverted, yes? I generally get off work some time in the early to mid afternoon, meaning I'll be free both days during my evening and night (NZ time) which would be your morning, I presume. If that doesn't work out I've been doing a lot of evening shifts at work during the week, so my mornings are often free on weekdays.

I look forward for the chance to avenge myself, or at least drag a few of your players down with me

[Wraith]

Day 09 of the Rookie League has been completed, and with it, the amended Leader Board crafted by my own fair paws.

As explained previously, I have simply stripped out every result created by The Shameful Dead and amended everyone's scores appropriately, so it's lacking whatever algorithm that Cyanide uses to decide how to place ties, but it now works as intended. This has had remarkably little effect on the table, save for Unpronounceable, Silfir and myself who are now in tied for 5th place, however we all have already "not played" MisterQuiv so I expect that we'll work that out amongst ourselves over the next ~4 days or so.

Season 03 - Day 10
The Shameful Dead (MisterQuiv) vs. Team Named Spoon (Grytorm)
Naggaroth Nightmares (Maethirion) vs. The Expendables '97 (Unpronounceable)
The Orctodads (legoshrimp) vs. Super Furry Wild Animals (Wraith)
Have Some Popkhorne (Silfir) vs. Those Who Eat Brunch (Dsop)
Playboy Plaguemates (Deadline) vs. Rules Rules Rules (TFT)
The Unsightly Jellyfishes (Lyrakien) vs. Unsidhe De Cuirte Dorche (Manticoran)
Isla Sauria (LCP) vs. Goblinization Nation (DarthMario)

Games to be completed by: Monday 24th July

[Lyrakien]

Those Who Eat Brunch (Dsop) vs. The Unsightly Jellyfishes (Lyrakien)

So wait, why is it telling me I'm playing Manti this round?

[Wraith]

Because I'm really dumb and typed out half this week, half next week's matches while not paying attention.

Apologies for the confusion, it should be fixed now.

[Deadline]

Because I'm really dumb and typed out half this week, half next week's matches while not paying attention.

Apologies for the confusion, it should be fixed now.

Am I officially being listed as one of the MIA players now? I understand if that's the case, as I haven't been able to get together with several of my last few opponents (and often due to my time availability, not theirs).

If not, I'm happy to stick it out for the remainder of this season, although the Plaguemates are certainly out of the playoffs. That said, given how rapidly my time has vanished on me, I'm fine with bowing out the remainder of the season so that I don't slow things up. Either way, thanks to all my opponents for the games this season. Given that summer has become a much more busy time than I expected, I may have to go on hiatus for a bit for the next season or two until this fall/winter.

[Wraith]

Deadline, you are not listed as MIA - TFT is. You're not playing only because he dropped out, so this you get a 2-0 victory in your favour.

There have been a couple of weeks prior to that wherein both you and your opponent passed the two week deadline without asking for an extension, so you were given a 0-0 draw (along with several other players' games, I should add) just to keep the whole thing rolling.

I appreciate you telling me that you have a difficult timezone and that getting a hold of opponents can be tricky. If you need more time, just ask - I'd hope that everyone gets to play their games, but at the same time experience has taught me not to wait indefinitely until everyone has played, because sometimes it just doesn't happen.

At the very least, your next game is scheduled to be against me, which will hopefully make it easier for us to play - I'm on GMT, but I'll be flipped by 12hrs due to working a nightshift, hopefully it'll help.

[Deadline]

Deadline, you are not listed as MIA - TFT is. You're not playing only because he dropped out, so this you get a 2-0 victory in your favour.

Ah, for some reason I thought that the strikethrough meant that both participants were MIA. My mistake.

I appreciate you telling me that you have a difficult timezone and that getting a hold of opponents can be tricky. If you need more time, just ask - I'd hope that everyone gets to play their games, but at the same time experience has taught me not to wait indefinitely until everyone has played, because sometimes it just doesn't happen.

At the very least, your next game is scheduled to be against me, which will hopefully make it easier for us to play - I'm on GMT, but I'll be flipped by 12hrs due to working a nightshift, hopefully it'll help.

No worries, I'll do my best to make sure I can carve out some time to get our match in. I'm not sure it's so much that I'm in a difficult timezone, as it is that my free time has dwindled to a trickle. But I'm glad to hear I'm still in!

[Thufir]

So the Stunty Cup currently contains Tasroth, Wraith and Silfir. Unpronounceable said he'd put in a team but hasn't yet, I'm planning on putting one in myself, and Qwaz said he probably would. That would bring us to 6, but for it to work properly as a knockout we need another 2 on that. So I'm calling for more interested parties (also for Unpronounceable and Qwaz to submit their teams already).

[Deadline]

So the Stunty Cup currently contains Tasroth, Wraith and Silfir. Unpronounceable said he'd put in a team but hasn't yet, I'm planning on putting one in myself, and Qwaz said he probably would. That would bring us to 6, but for it to work properly as a knockout we need another 2 on that. So I'm calling for more interested parties (also for Unpronounceable and Qwaz to submit their teams already).

Well, as mentioned just a few posts ago, I'm interested in the Stunty Cup (with my halfling team "The Blueberry Turnovers" ). However, I may have difficulty finding good times to get a match in. So keep me in mind if you still need people, but if you get enough more reliable players, I'll bow out.

[Unpronounceable]

Hi, sorry been very busy, not computering and away at weekends.

I'll submit my team on monday.

Aetherstorm, sorry not been on to catch you last week. Do you want to name a morning time next week you are free and i'll make it. I think i am 11hrs behibd at the moment based on our last game so if you could play about 9am would be good?

[Aetherstorm]

Aetherstorm, sorry not been on to catch you last week. Do you want to name a morning time next week you are free and i'll make it. I think i am 11hrs behibd at the moment based on our last game so if you could play about 9am would be good?

I think I can manage that. Having just seen my work schedule, I am free on Tuesday the 19th and Thursday the 21st for a game during my morning. That would be your Monday and/or your Wednesday evenings? If either of those work for you, that's awesome.

[Unpronounceable]

I think I can manage that. Having just seen my work schedule, I am free on Tuesday the 19th and Thursday the 21st for a game during my morning. That would be your Monday and/or your Wednesday evenings? If either of those work for you, that's awesome.

Sure, fine by me. Lets try the monday first and then the weds if that doesn't work. ;)

[Lyrakien]

Yo, I just bothered Manti, and he said that he stopped playing in the Rookie League a while ago, so playing our BB game might be a bit harder than I originally anticipated.

I'mma see if I can't get him to confirm here.

[Manticoran]

In fact, I stopped playing Blood Bowl entirely a while ago.

[Unpronounceable]

Btw, i lost to aetherstorm 2-0 in a game that had sweltering heat both on and off the pitch.

Off season traing plans for the end times involve 'how to actually hurt people' and a trip to the glue factory.

[Maethirion]

Btw, i lost to aetherstorm 2-0 in a game that had sweltering heat both on and off the pitch

This brings us into the finals for the BB2 league:

Khornate Killers v. Tenocht Thunderscales

Would anyone be interested in watching this if we tried to sort a time that's kinda reasonable for people not in NZ, or should we just go for a time that works for us?

[Wraith]

I would be interested in watching, but I'm working a nightshift again for a few weeks so it's not imperative that I get front-row

====

Meanwhile, the Rookie League lurches towards it's last couple of matches; Day 11 out of 13 is upon us!

Season 03 - Day 11
The Shameful Dead (MisterQuiv) vs. Naggarothian Nightmare (Maethirion)
The Expendables '97 (Unpronounceable) vs. The Orctodads (legoshrimp)
Team Named Spoon (Grytorm) vs. Have Some Popkhorne (Silfir)
Super Furry Wild Animals (Wraith) vs. Playboy Plaguemates (Deadline)
Those Who Eat Brunch (Dsop) vs. The Unsightly Jellyfishes (Lyrakien)
Rules Rules Rules (Its_TFT) vs. Isla Sauria (LCP)
Unsidhe De Cuirte Dorche (Manticoran) vs. Goblinization Nation (DarthMario)

Games to be completed by: Monday 08th August