RPS Blood Bowl League - The RPS Cup

[Daave]

Well isn't this jolly? A whole new forum to fill with tales of joy and woe.

This is the official RPS Cup thread, of which we are currently in the 3rd round. I'm undecided as to whether we will have another Cup after this, as part of me would like this one to remain special with 64 players (which we are unlikely to get again) and another slightly hairier part of me doesn't want to commit to the admin work again!

The third round is ending on Wed 8th June at 10pm and, as always, let me know if you can't play your match. Only Quickfire809 vs. Chrisvnerd and Rhys vs. boots468 remain to play, and if they finish early we can start the 4th round even sooner!

The relevant links are below where you can whinge, upload your replays or admire a spreadsheet. A thought just occurred to me, would the quarter finalists consent to a quick interview to add a bit of flavour to the cup? Sadly I have dwarves next round, but it's been fun while it lasted!

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/foru...-Report-Thread

http://challonge.com/rpscup

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?...CKnribAE#gid=0

[President Weasel]

Well that's the strangest feeling I think I've ever had. Rooting for a Dwarf team? I'd never have believed it :)

[boots468]

Rhys Vs Myself is scheduled for Tuesday. Apologies for not being able to hurry the cup up, but it was the only time convenient for both of us. And the later we play the later is is until I get knocked out ....

[Rhys]

Yes my apologies, The usb ports on my laptop have failed and my new laptop (which I had already ordered fortunately) arrives Monday.

I can not play games on a trackpad

[quickfire809]

Hey Chrisvnerd, got your message off the old forums :) I am Eastern Time, but really just about any time tomorrow will be good for me, so if 3-4 pm my time doesn't work for you, name another time and I'll be there.

[chrisvnerd]

Hey I just figured out the whole new forum thing. Im in the lobby right now and ready to go.

[quickfire809]

wow, just finished up our game. An epic 28 turns until the final score of 2-1 to chrisvnerd. What a freakin crazy game. I'll write up something today or tomorrow about it, but let's just say, I feel like nuffle had it out for me all game. One example, during overtime, my thrower (with sure hands) failed two 4+ pickups and one 3+ pickup. Just amazing.

Oh well, chrisvnerd played a very good game, and was quite up in the air til right at the end.

[chrisvnerd]

Just putting in the report for the 28 turn marathon that Quickfire and I played. He summarized it pretty well, so I won't add much. I ended up the victor, with a score of 2-1. I'll write more in the report thread in a bit.

[Rhys]

2-1 Victory to the Lustria Fireborn over the Nordic Noggins

[boots468]

Yup, 2-1 to Rhys. Good game overall, a very pretty elf-like goal each in the first half, then a late winner in the double-skull heavy second half. Then my mighty blow beserker got killed blitzing a skink on the last turn. Good luck in the next round Rhys.

[Daave]

No match reports? Even for a 28-turn marathon? :(

[drawlien]

Here are my answers to the questionnaire that Daave sent out:

Can you introduce yourself and explain your team choice and set up for the cup?

I'm drawlien and I've been playing Bloodbowl in the forum leagues for about a year now I think. During that time I have organised an all Goblin league (now defunct) and the Challenge league (which you can find elsewhere in the forums). Apart from BB I generally play RPGs the most recent being Dragon Age 2. I did buy the Witcher 2 but it runs really poorly on my computer so I'm waiting until I can upgrade before I play it!

Edit: Forgot the team set-up bit!

Dwarf teams are fairly straightforward to start up. You can get all 6 positionals and 3 re-rolls in the starting line-up if you forego an apothecary so that's what I did! First purchase was the apo.

How has your road to the quarter-finals been?

First game defaulted to me as Laneford was without interwebs.
Second game was hot Dwarf on Dwarf action against Indefatigable Snoozer where I managed to get the most armour breaks and won 2 - 0.
Third game was against Soulpride's Skaven. This match was brutal to his team, killing 1 Gutter Runner and breaking the neck of the other and causing several other injuries. I won 2 - 0 again.

Who do you have next in the cup and how do you rate your chances?

Daave! I'd say whoever the dice are with will win.

Who is your favourite member of the RPS community? (BB or otherwise)

Difficult to decide as this community is generally very friendly, but I would say Groovychainsaw for setting up the Divisions of Death and being a nice chap.

Who would win in a fight between Kieron and Quinns?

Kieron would use his Deus Ex nous to find an unorthodox way to take Quinns down. The newboy will have to bide his time until he gets older and wiser.

Who do you think will win the cup?

I've only played 3 of the other quarter finalists before but I reckon any one of us could win it from now on, how else did we get this far? If I really have to choose I would say me of course!

[LowKey]

Can you introduce yourself and explain your team choice and set up for the cup?

While I have been a fairly long term reader of RPS and had recently been considering applying for the DOD, the formation of the Cup provided that final driver to get me involved. Beyond RPS I have been playing BB on and off for a while with some pals, namely Gorm who I believe is in the new stream of players for the DOD with myself – I originally played wood elves before the release of the Legendary but got fed up of my lovely wardancers getting broken.

The Undead are a great mix of bash with some reasonable speed and a good range of nice starting skills, including dodge on the ghouls, block on the wights and mighty blow on the mummies and while zombies and skeletons may not be exciting they offer a solid bunch of linemen happy to take a few punches. While their passing game is pretty much non-existent without skills on the ghouls and their ball handling skills in general are questionable, the one two punch of a mummy blitz and ghoul run is effective.

Mummies in general being excellent players, lacking the annoying traits of comparable strength big guys.

Mummies <3.

How has your road to the quarter-finals been?

The Cup has been a great test of my abilities, and being put up against considerably different teams (WElves, Chaos and Skaven) has kept it both interesting and often nail biting. All of my opponents have played very well and the matches could have gone the other way if a few rolls had been different.

Who do you have next in the cup and how do you rate your chances?

Chainsawhands, who I believe hasn’t conceded a TD within the Cup yet… also I believe he has something like three lvl 2 players and one lvl 3 player compared to my two lvl 2’s… and I have an injured wight… aaah I am not overly hopeful, if I cant get some early injuries and tie up the black orcs/troll with zombies who knows but I am looking forward to it none the less.

Who is your favourite member of the RPS community? (BB or otherwise)

As I said I am new to the forums and as such new to the community, however everyone I have played against has been very friendly, particularly excelsias who put up with numerous changes in match times due to me, and the guys running both the DOD and Cup have been very helpful and have obviously put in a lot of effort which is great.

Who would win in a fight between Kieron and Quinns?

Quinns has madness in his eyes…

Who do you think will win the cup?

Myself of course! Or Chainsawhands if he beats me of course!

[Nullkigan]

Can you introduce yourself and explain your team choice and set up for the cup?
My name is not really Nullkigan, but I do coach Dumb Luck. I run the RPS ArmA 2 server, and am certifiably insane. Or an AI. The people in the RPS steam chat can't quite make up their minds.

I picked Lizardmen because I felt like trying something a bit bashier than the High Elves and Amazons I've been playing in the Divisons of Death. I was also inspired to name a team 'Dumb Luck', after another coach named his players after phrases I said during one of my matches, including 'Worst cage ever'. Dumb Luck also seems to fit my play style and, to horribly stereotype, starting lizard teams. Especially those Kroxigors. My twisted sense of humour then had me name most of the players after the sort of things that would result in a successful military campaign. Stuff like 'Tactical Acumen', 'Superior Logistics' and 'Bigger Stick'. The idea being, that even with all these things you still win or lose by the graces of Dumb Luck.

A few people expressed their doubt at my picking an unskilled, long term growth team for a short knockout cup. I think those players, and their Dwarf/Elf/Norse team ideas, got knocked out early on.

My overall plan has been a simple all or nothing gamble. Maximise strength and beat the snot out of anything that moves. Long term concerns (e.g. apothecaries) got ignored in favour of more brawn. I started with a Kroxigor and the full six Saurus, but only one reroll and no apothecary. I still don't have an Apothecary.

How has your road to the quarter-finals been?
I can't really remember much of it. I do know I had a little Dumb Luck, and my opponents got a little Nuffled.

My second opponent, Sinister Agent, was caught by surprise when I turned up with the full complement of high strength dinosaurs. My third match, against Jolima (who is a much more experience player than I), really had me worried for the longest time. Skaven can turn any mistake into a touchdown. Fortunately, my dice were blessed and he only had a single stunned rat left on the field by turn sixteen.

This does mean I'm about due to lose. All those ones I haven't yet rolled must be building up, and it's time for some Lizard-on-Lizard action.

Who do you have next in the cup and how do you rate your chances?
Rhys' Lustrian Fireborn (Lizardmen). It's practically a mirror match. The stats say we've both scored about the same number of times. He's caused significantly more casualties and has three level 2 Saurus two my two. He has an apothecary, I have a spare skink.

I've never played Lizard vs Lizard before. Those backed up ones are going to be critical. Having never played Rhys or watched any of his replays, I'd give it 60-40 in his favour. The additional skill(s) will tip the balance.

Even if I do win, it won't be easy.

The semis would then be against Drawlien's Dwarfs or Daave's Undead. Of the two, I find the Undead (Daave) scarier, as their mummies are strong enough to give my line of scrimmage some trouble. On the other hand, I am tickled by the player names to be found of the Dwarf team. There'd be something poetic about laying low some famous academic minds through Dumb Luck.

Who is your favourite member of the RPS community? (BB or otherwise)
Playing favourites is bad, but amongst the BB subgroup you could probably bend my arm and make me say NTW, who is nice, enthusiastic AND useful. He does a lot of spreadsheet monkeying for various RPS social clubs, including ones which have yet to make the jump to the new iteration of the forums.

Who would win in a fight between Kieron and Quinns?
I think Jim or Alec (maybe it was even John?) answered this in the comments of a front page article once - the answer was Quinns because he actually works out.

But how do you fight a GHOST?

Who do you think will win the cup?
ChainsawHands Orc team, AKA Nuffle's Boyz. They've got the right mix of raw krumpin' power and skills to stand up to the other remaining teams, plus they've made some excellent progress in building up team value to supplement those strengths.

[Rhys]

Can you introduce yourself and explain your team choice and set up for the cup?

My name is Rhys, I am an Australian living in London and I have never really contributed to the forums before and aside from a few comments in news articles have mostly stuck to reading the RPS news feed.

I am a big fan of the Lizardmen, I have played High Elves on the table top but they just don't have the fantastic mix of strength and speed and agility that the Lizardmen do. The Lizardmen start short on skills so it is imperative in such a short cup that you start with a full line up of ST 4+ players as even without skills they are a tough nut to crack. I decided to go with an extra re-roll rather than another skink and hope that I didn't lose any to bad luck.

How has your road to the quarter-finals been?

My first match against Groovychainsaw ended with 3 cas and 2 kills to the Lizards as Nuffle abandoned him completely
My Second match against Sorbicol started off poorly, he was succeeding all half with 1D blocks and my skinks were fumbling the ball pickups in the rain which saw me end it 1-0 down. In the second half I was having a horrid time failing to pick up the ball 5 times in a row, Fortunately nuffle decided to give Sorbicol equally bad luck and he didn't get a single defender down until overtime. On turn 16 a tricky skink picks up the ball and dodges away scoring with 2 GFI for the equaliser. I managed to pick up 2 more touchdowns in overtime as I slowly beat his team into the floor (and even got a lucky pickup off a fumbled pass to allow a saurus to TD.)

Game 3 against Boots was interesting with a touchdown each in the first half very out of character for both teams with passes and dodges galore. I received in the second half and ground out six turns before scoring, then to add insult to injury his opening blitz on one of my skinks in turn 15 resulted in a dead blitzer making it impossible for him to equalise.

Who do you have next in the cup and how do you rate your chances?

I am up against a very similar Lizard team although I think I have a skill and an apothecary on him (with the cash for another skink)

It will be a close match and it could go either way very easily.

I dread playing undead in the next round if Daave comes out on top as I have a horrid record against them.

Who is your favourite member of the RPS community? (BB or otherwise)

Grrovychainsaw was an absolutely excellent opponent in trying circumstances so he has to get my vote.

Who would win in a fight between Kieron and Quinns?

Rocky style double KO

Who do you think will win the cup?

Could be anyone but I hope it is me.

[Daave]

Can you introduce yourself and explain your team choice and set up for the cup?

I'm Daave, I organised the cup and regularly get smashed at RPS socials. I feel very lucky to have made it to the quarters of my own tournament.

Undead have the best win percentage of any team and they are well-balanced and very good at playing a running/bash game from the start. Pretty standard set up I think, sadly I've been unable to get the 4th ghoul due to Screwie killing a zombie (who was MVP of course).

How has your road to the quarter-finals been?

I did a lot of preparation for my first match against Vex (WoE) in order to at least get to round 2, and it turned out to be my closest match, with TDs being scored at the end of both halves and the end of extra time. My match against ScrewberryJam (DaE) had much tighter play by me, although the aforementioned zombie death rather messed up my team development. By the time I met PresW (Ska), I had honed the art of smashing finesse teams and it was rather brutal in the end.

Who do you have next in the cup and how do you rate your chances?

Drawlien and his Dwarves. Unfortunately a completely different prospect to my previous games, Dwarves rather counteract all my advantages except for a slight speed difference, and drawlien is a byword for terror in the RPS community. I'd say I have maybe a 30% chance of winning.

Who is your favourite member of the RPS community? (BB or otherwise)

Groovychainsaw for being a good loser, with the emphasis on loser. (jk :P)

Who would win in a fight between Kieron and Quinns?

They are the same person.

Who do you think will win the cup?

Chainsawhands by a country-mile.

[potatoedoughnut]

Can you introduce yourself and explain your team choice and set up for the cup?

I'm potatoedoughnut [sic]. Yes they're a real thing and delicious.

I've played a lot of GW games (<3 BFG), but am new to Blood Bowl. I've always been a fan of the Undead (in WH Fantasy and in general) and punching people in the face is better than being fancy (and in the game).

I'm from the States and have been hesitant to join a real BB league because of the time difference, but I am very glad I did. The competition is much better and everyone is very manner.

How has your road to the quarter-finals been?

First round I played BarmyBrad's Vampires, and despite being well coached they're a slave to the dice so that was more a matchup win than any skill on my part.

Second round I played passengerpigeon's High Elves. Strangely he elected to get three catchers and no thrower. This combined with some nice casualty dice (6 KOs, 3 Cas, and a death) lead me to another win.

Third round I played Matindo's Necromantic team and again the casualty dice pulled me through (5 KOs, 3 cas) to a very close win in overtime. Neither of us had an effective offense and the 2-1 score was entirely defensive stolen touchdowns.

Who do you have next in the cup and how do you rate your chances?

I play Chrisvnerd's Undead in a mirror matchup. I feel I chose a better colour for mine (bright green? really?) so hopefully Nuffle will recognize this and give me the better dice. We both have spare meatshields so I think it will come down more to positioning and ball dice than the blocking game, which I think may favor Chrisvnerd based on my previous games (which the block dice have won for me).

Who is your favourite member of the RPS community? (BB or otherwise)

I guess I would go with Robin Beauclaire, but I find the whole movement a bit distasteful.

Who would win in a fight between Kieron and Quinns?

Quinns would become the monster that killed Keiron (if he's not already).

Who do you think will win the cup?

Nuffle, obviously. I think Nuffle will exert his will through Nuffle's Boyz though. ChainsawHands has developed a pretty beastly Orc team pretty quickly and has by far the best match reports.

[ChainsawHands]

Can you introduce yourself and explain your team choice and set up for the cup?
I'm ChainsawHands, which is actually my real name due to my parents being big Sealab fans and also time-travellers. I'd played Blood Bowl maybe half a dozen times before the Cyanide version came out, but I'd never really had the patience to paint all the little figures. I signed up to the RPS leagues (Open and Death) when they started, and have been playing ever since. Highlights have been my Lilac Lightning Lizards running away with the first season of the Open, and my pro-elf team Elf Harm winning the Divisions of Death championship last season without having won a single match. ;-)

I picked orcs because I love the green maniacs, and at the time I was picking my team no one else was playing orcs! I went for the fairly standard orcy starting lineup - all four black orcs, all four blitzers, a thrower, 2 lineorcs and 3 rerolls, with 10K in the bank for an apothecary. It's worked out pretty well.

How has your road to the quarter-finals been?
Remarkably short! My first round opponent, GriddleOctopus, had fairly poor armour luck with his necromantic team in the first half, but then none of his 6 KOs got up for the second half and he decided that only having 3 players on the pitch wasn't going to work, so he conceded. My next opponent made it to turn 12 before... well, before he conceded too. Greeny1 in the third round put up a good fight with his humans and lasted the whole match, but a riot took a turn off, so da boyz have still to actually complete a full 16 turns!

So far I've managed not to concede a single touchdown, and the extra cash and MVPs have given me a troll and a goblin, as well as some skills on the rest of my team.

Who do you have next in the cup and how do you rate your chances?
Next up I've got LowKey and his undead. They're the bashiest team I've faced so far, and they're obviously doing something right to have got this far, so it should be a fairly close match.

Who is your favourite member of the RPS community? (BB or otherwise)
Just about all of the BB guys on here have been great, but the guys who went to the effort of actually starting and running the leagues and the cup deserve special thanks. Thanks guys! Thuys? Thighs!

Who would win in a fight between Kieron and Quinns?
Kieron. Quinns doesn't even have any iron.

Who do you think will win the cup?
Only Nuffle can say!

[quickfire809]

No match reports? Even for a 28-turn marathon? :(

I'll get mine up some time tonight (colonial time). I think I've been dreading reliving the match :)

[Screwie]

I'll get mine up some time tonight (colonial time). I think I've been dreading reliving the match :)

Upload the replay file to challonge if you can, please :D I would like to see this epic for myself!