Thrudball 7s, 4th August 2023

This year was my first trip to Thrudball. I was stopping by on the way home from a family trip to Devon. Traffic on the M5 was a literal nightmare and I was sat in traffic watching our ETA at the Supermarine Rugby Club edge closer and closer and then finally past the time that the Friday night sevens event was due to start. I'd messaged Mike (sann0638) to let him know I was running late and effectively registered from afar who managed to reassure me that I'd still be able to play. I ended up arriving just before the draw was due to start. This did not help my stress levels as I really hate being late for anything but it all worked out in the end. 

Game 1 v Ryan (rydog)

I was paired up against 3 opponents within the space of about 5 minutes for this game. Firstly I was going to be playing twelfman, host of the Anything But a One podcast. Then it turned out I was going to be playing FallingdownJoe, the spare player as twelfman was late. And then finally I was playing against rydog who had himself just turned up! After that whirlwind, it took us a little while to get settled and started and this may be the only time that a game I've played at a tournament has timed out (although at my age my memory starts to go so it may have happened several times before). 

Before each game you get to give a primary skill to a player and before the tournament you can give pro to one player. For this game I had a pro minotaur and a block beastman on a mino, 2 warrior, 4 beastmen build. 

Ryan was playing Old World Alliance who, my assumption is, are better at Sevens than regular BloodBowl as the loner on half the team becomes irrelevant. Ryan kicked to me and I marched up the pitch, surfing a player because he didn't realise that he'd placed him by the sidelines as the pitches are used for both 11s and 7s it can potentially be a little confusing. 

I wanted to stall before scoring however there was no safe way to do so, and I ended up giving Ryan 2 turns to score back against me. Fortunately I managed to knock down his key scoring threat and whilst he still had a chance, it was a small percentage play which didn't come off for him.

We were rushed for time so playing fast - Ryan scored early in the second half and I was able to get the ball up the pitch with a potato play. He was unable to knock over my ball carrier who blitzed free at the death and walked in for the touch down. It might have ended in a draw as Ryan still had a few turns to get an equaliser but unfortunately for him the round was over.

Oli was in the number 1 spot after round 1 so got to wear a crown as he was playing our friend dafo in round 2. 

Game 2 v James (TitaniumBoy)

James was a youth player who had just beaten my leaguemate Stu in the first round. I was able to get revenge for Stu with what turned out to be quite a comprehensive victory. 

Looking at the matchup, I picked wrestle on a beastman which proved useful at knocking the ball loose later. 

I kicked to James who blitzed his rat ogre down the pitch, leaving him in danger of a surf. I put a lot of my resources into the surf rather than stopping the score which turned out to be worth it as the ogre was knocked out for the majority of the game.  I was also able to get enough players in front of the ball to turn him over on a later turn.

I scored at the end of the first half having removed a few players and the sweltering heat made a few more players miss the next drive leaving James really short of rats. He did a desparation blitz and managed to knock the ball carrier over, leaving the ball by the sidelines. My chaos warrior failed the pick up and the crowd took pity on the rats throwing the ball directly in front of the gutter runner - one of James' two players on the pitch - who took it in for the equaliser.

The weather and removals continued to hit James hard, and receiving the ball I marched up the pitch, keeping the ball safe and scoring on my final turn for my second 2-1 victory of the evening.

James was visibly down quite early on in the game - perhaps because he'd not seen the surf on the rat ogre which really shifted the game in my favour. I'd love to play him again another time as he is clearly a promising young player. 

Game 3 v AJ (vindaloo)

AJ was the first coach to play all 29 races under BB 2020 rules. Our friend dafo on 22 thought he was close, but he only just made the top 10.

Today he was playing Norse and with strip ball on the valkyrie, I opted for sure hands on a beastman as my additional skill. 

Ryan kicked to me and put me under a lot of pressure instantly. A few double skulls or both downs ended turns for each of us early. My biggest victory was preventing him from scoring after knocking the ball loose. 

In the second half I managed to casualty the yhetee which was a big turning point. The game looked like swinging in my favour. With another player out and getting the numbers advantage and the ball turned over I was in a really strong position. 

Unfortunately I was out of possession of the ball on my final turn requiring a blitz to knock an ulfwerner away from the ball, a block to knock a player away from my player who was my sole scoring threat, then I needed to dodge a chaos warrior out, pick up the ball, rush twice and handoff. The sequence was going well but unfortunately the pickup failed meaning the game was drawn 0-0.

I finished 4th overall, which I am very pleased by. SKABB league members finished 3rd (Oli), 4th (me), 26th (Marc), 36th (Ross), 40th (Marianne) and 46th (Stu). Had my last ditch attempt to score a touchdown paid off, then I think I would have won the tournament on the tiebreakers. 

Most importantly thought, my NAF ranking for Chaos Chosen at Sevens jumped by around 10 points meaning that I am the number 2 ranked coach in the world at a niche variance of a niche game using a niche race (only 86 coaches have ever used Chaos Chosen in NAF ranked 7s games).

Whilst this is ultimately not very impressive or meaningful, I have made it my goal this year to try to get the number 1 spot. How cool would it be to be number 1 in the world at something no matter how many caveats you need to put on it? Now, I have no idea if calltroop who is number 1 knows they are, or even cares about being the best in the world at this very specific thing. I would be much more fun if they did and are annoyed at this new challenger coming for their spot so push themselves to get an even higher ranking.