GitP Blood Bowl Manager Cup - Season 7 - [Results, Standings, Schedule, and Leaders]

[Delia2531]

THE GUTTER PRESS
The magazine of the Low-down Dirty Rats.

WEEK 10 - LIKE RATS...?
In the last couple of seasons as we've drawn to the end of the regular schedule the coach's office usually has a queue outside of players looking for a little more practice time or a chance to run a play they've developed hoping to be the one that makes the big difference and gets us that all-important play-off berth.

Not this year! With the impending match against Da Monsters this week, it seems that almost every single rat in the roster has been in to see me to request that they be swapped out; each with a story about heir skills that would benefit this team or that team, but in reality it is all about not being on the pitch when we gave our oldest rivals in a do or die (possibly quite literally) match.

We're just firming up the details but it looks like Da Monsters won't be the only orcs on the pitch this week, Screech is off to face the Bats with the Iron Boyz, hopefully bringing them plenty of TDs along the way, and LDR will be being joined by one or other of the Berts to beef up our line and give us some room to move the ball around.

I've let the rest of the players know how I feel about loyalty and courage so hopefully we will see a unified team out there this week, ready (as ever) to put their bodies on the line for a few coins and the chance to become a star!

WEEK 9 - CRUNCH TIME!

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It would seem that we are now almost three quarters of the way through this final season of the league and we still have only a win and a draw under our belts. The loss of some of our favourite players has been a real blow and whilst the new guys are settling in quite well, I can't help but feel that the nature of this season means that some of them have got one eye on the future and perhaps this is keeping them from really committing to the tackles and such?

Also; it seems that Nuffle, and any other god you care to mention, still fails to smile on the our rats; last week we couldn't catch a cold! In an effort to address this I have asked the Tanyas to look in to ways of influencing our luck and as a result all of our players will be wearing some sort of magical amulet this week; I haven't asked to which God they belong, sometimes things are better left unknown, but they do bear a striking resemblance to a certain mummified, severed head!

With four games left in the regular season, it is still possible that we could get the fabled 5 wins required for a chance at the playoffs, but given: a) the current points within Division A; and b) the matches we have left to play; it does seem like merely a mathematical exercise.

Still, perhaps our newly-purchased luck can see us through?

LOW-DOWN DIRTY RATS – SEASON VII MID-SEASON REPORT

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Looking Back

Week 1 – Legends of Jam
We tried to out-pass the elves and it almost worked, three touchdowns in the same game gave us hope that the new strategy of “score-at-all-costs” would work.

Week 2 – Iron Boyz
We underestimated the power of the rookie orcs and it hurt us; one touchdown and a serious injury to one of the toughest rats on the team.

Week 3 – Bad Badenhof Bats
Against the uncertainty that the Bats are turning out to be this season, again we thought we had the edge in the air and on the ground, relying on our speed to dance around the thralls and keep away from the Vamps; needless to say it didn’t work! We lost our most experienced, and highest scoring, Gutter Runner and Dangerous Beanz took a big hit that slowed the big guy down.

Week 4 – Bloody and Raging Killers
Not only did we lose this, we failed to score; something that we haven’t done in a long time (week 11 of season VI to be exact) and only the fourth time in three seasons (plus once in the Season V playoffs); and against a bunch of plodding orcs to boot! To add insult to injury, literally, Dangerous Beanz’ broken neck made him just too slow to get out of the way of a big hit and he landed with a sickening crunch bringing to an end the career of one of the most popular players on the team. We can all remember back at the start of Season V when young Beanz ran out against Selene’s Seductive Strut only to be wheeled from the pitch with a badly broken leg (although he was one of the luckier ones that day); and the day he returned from Doctor Badgers laboratory under the Naked Singularity stadium a changed rat.

Week 5 – Three Moon Strikers
Switching tactics to concentrate on hitting people paid off against the dark elves of TMS; whilst we worked hard in defence it was not enough to prevent 2 touchdowns against us; luckily our offensive creed paid off and we walked away with a pocket full of TDs again for our first win of the season.

Week 6 – Da Biffeddodle Balldroppers
Even with their performance to date, you might excuse all of us here at LDR of being a little nervous going in to our last match of the first half of the season. Halflings are notoriously hard to tackle and our defending hasn’t exactly been stellar this year. Add to the almost $700k of inducements (the only up-side of losing DB and Scutter was to keep that figure down) and we could have had a problem on our hands. Thankfully the rats kept their heads and ran in another trio of TDs giving us all a much-needed confidence boost, but still leaving us languishing at the bottom of Division A with an uphill struggle against the more experienced teams in the league ahead.


Looking Ahead
As previously mentioned we have a mountain to climb if we are going to qualify for the play-offs again (having done so in both previous seasons).

Week 8 – Sultans of Slaughter
We’ve faced the Nurgle team once before and come off worse (one of those few times we’ve failed to score); but we think we’ve got the measure of bashy teams now so we’re hoping that things will go better this time around.

Week 9 – Brillianté
At the start of the season we would have tipped these Elves to run away, literally, with Division A but they’ve struggles to find their feet against fast teams, their wins coming against heavier teams (and the halflings). Hopefully they will keep to form and not be able to match the speed of our rats and we can replicate the result they had against Ultimate Feet in week 2.

Week 10 – Da Monsters of Da Midden
Including the warm-up game before Season V, we’ve played these orcs 3 times and had all possible outcomes with only one TD between the teams in each victory. Expect this grudge match to be tight; we haven’t done well against orcs all season and these orcs are as tough as they come, and it’s player swap week to boot!

Week 11 – Murder, Arson, Jaywalking
Another tough team we will likely be fighting for a play-off spot. We’ve moved on from a draw early in Season V when we were rebuilding the team after the Doc tore us apart, to a close win towards the end of Season VI. We’re hoping that we can run rings round the daemons this time, just in case points difference or match results play a part in deciding the all-important play-off berth.

Week 12 – Ultimate Feet
And so it comes to pass that we are rounding out the last regular season of the cup against our old rivals, and closest friends, the team that combines all the rattiest bits of Sweet Feet and the Strut back under a single banner. The Feet are having an amazing season, their only negative is a battering from the Iron Boyz. If this is the end of our season, at least we can go out with a rat-based score-fest; I’m sure Krusty and Kowen will have lot to catch up about after the match!

Final Musings
It has been a brutal season for LDR so far; we had hoped that after the hard start of Season V and the relative success of Season VI that this might actually be the year that we came good. However; we all know that rat lives come cheap, even if some of our players don’t, and I am sure that we can play the rest of the season in a way that will make our lost team-mates proud as they look up from the great compost heap in to which we must all eventually pass.

The Rain, Weasel, Dangerous Beanz, Scutter we hope we can make you proud!

To all our former players, please come down and support the team; catch up with former team-mates, chat to the new guys, have a drink (or more) with the Tanya’s and let’s end this final season as a true rat swarm all together in a chaotic bundle of activity!

WEEK 2

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Three touchdowns not enough against Elves!

The Rats faced the elves last week, with both sides running and passing ball seemingly at will; and crossing in to the end zone just as easily. A thrilling event for the fans, apart from those prefer to see blood and guts.

Despite running in three outstanding touchdowns we still came away with a loss, but with no new injuries and a confidence that against any other team our new approach to the game has a strong chance of working.

This week - The (Iron) Boyz are Back in Town!

This week Dark Tail is hoping that The Rats can not only throw and run the ball in to the end zone, but also keep themselves out of the powerful clutches of the bruising orcs of the Iron Boyz. Expect to see speed across the entire pitch and a swarm of rats around each and every Orc trying to carry the ball.

Editor's prediction - LDR 3-0 IB

WEEK 1

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Okay rat fans, here we are at the start of the final season of the GitP Bloodbowl Cup; the LDR are back after their short lay-off run and coaches Dark Tail and Krusty are determined to put on a show this year! The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that the coaching staff has been pared down this year; a deliberate decision by Dark Tail to focus on offensive activities in an attempt to simply put more points on the board that any opposition can hope to counter, ”The best defence is a good offense!”

LDR face the Legends of Jam this week, with the Elves looking a little rusty having been out of the league for a couple of years. With Dark Tail’s new focus on offense, can the rats out run, pass and catch the lithe and limber elves? Only time will tell.

In related news, the change to the divisional structure this season means that LDR will be facing the only other rats in the league, Ultimate Feet, in a Divisional clash in the final week of the season in what could turn out to be a veritable touchdown frenzy.

LDR find themselves in the unusual position of (currently) being favourites in all of their pre-break matches under the new structure; hopefully the rookie teams can learn something from our offense and apply it to some of our divisional rivals as well as perhaps knocking a few lumps out of said rivals at the same time!

The second half of the season sees LDR playing all of their old foes from across the Divisions with some old scores to settle and the all-important play-off slots at stake.

• Can our intrepid rats put a record number of touchdowns on the board in a single match?
• Can they take the record for most number of touchdowns in a season?
• Can they all stay alive, and unharmed, until the play-offs?
• Has Dark Tail got it all wrong?

Who knows?

To find out, tune in next week; same rat time, same rat channel!