Burger Bowl 21st/22nd July Edinburgh - Pipey Wins!

[Garrick]

Full Rules Pack+ emailed to all Participants!

Including:

Full itinerary
Saturday Evening Plans
Chess Clocks
Roster Building Rules
Roster Submission Process
Paint and Miniatures
Rules for Fair Play
Points System
List of Prizes

[Garrick]

Dear Participants,

Less than 2 weeks to go and you should have received an email yesterday entitled Burger Bowl 2018 Email 2.

This email is important as you have less than 1 week left (deadline midnight on Friday 13th July) to:

o submit your rosters for checking. All rosters that are correct and submitted by midnight on Friday 13th July will be awarded an additional Assistant Coach and an additional Cheerleader

o confirm if you will be joining us at Badabing for the Saturday evening 21st July at 7:30pm. If you would like to join us then details of what you need to do by midnight on Friday 13th July are in the email

o choose your lunch for Saturday 21st July by emailing me, from:

• AKVA Beef Burger, Home made Tomato Relish, Crispy Salad & Brioche Bun
• Cajun Chicken Burger, Cucumber & Dill Aioli, Crispy Salad & Brioche Bun
• AKVA Falafel Burger, Guacamole, Tomato Relish, Crispy Salad served on a Vegan Bun
• all served with a Side Salad and Rustic Fries.

A marginally updated Burger Bowl 2018 Rules Pack version 2 was attached, if you have any questions about this pack or any other aspect of this year’s Burger Bowl please contact me.

Looking forward to seeing you all on the 21st July at AKVA BAR, 129 Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, EH3 9QG. Don’t forget that the tournament starts at 9:30am and finishes at 6:15pm on both days.

Cheers, Graham

[lunchmoney]

Who won?

[Pipey]

I was lucky enough to win! I'll be posting a tournament report soon. I'm sure all results and placings will be up shortly.

Excellent venue and lots of attention to detail really made a cracking tournament. Thank you to Garrick and the crew.

[Garrick]

Full Results

Final Results.png

[firebreather]

Thanks Garrick for a superbly run tournament, having train station, hotel, venue and evening restaurant all situated close together made for a very stress free weekend.

Thanks to all my opponents even those that brought Dwarves, which was almost everyone I played

[Pipey]

Planning to do a tournament report for this. Must remember to take some pictures this time...

I humbly present my Burger Bowl report as promised…


Burger TO Garrick sporting a welcoming grin!

Burger Bowl is a tournament I always do my very best to get to. An hour and a half or so on the train from Durham (or Newcastle) makes it a very convenient trip for Geordie Blood Bowlers. Edinburgh is a beautiful city, a great night out, and the people are always welcoming. Five of the extended Geordie clan travelled up to the 56th parallel to do battle for the fabled Burger King Crown; they were Schmee, Stick, Don_Vito, Circusbear and myself.

The venue, a Swedish-themed bar, was really nice: spacious, airy and with great food and beer. The Burger entry package was £25 for two excellent meals (burger Saturday, soup and filled bagels Sunday), coffee on tap and all the prizes, trophies and spot giveaways each round. Excellent value for money. The beer was a shade expensive as the only down side but that was no issue, other than the time I managed to pay £8 for a pint of beer but I’m still not sure how that happened…




The venue. We were upstairs which was actually much more spacious than downstairs which was nice enough!



And so a relatively potted rundown of my matches…


I used Undead. These were Eurobowl rules so it was 6 skills for me at TR110. Nothing fruity here, just 4 block ghouls and 2 guard wights, 12 men and 3RRs (FF3). Keeping it simple is my new mantra! Some of the lower tier teams had bonus skills, though generally this was a very tier 1 heavy tournament. Plenty of dark elves, dwarf, undead, lizards floating around.


Game 1 vs. TommyBoy80 and his Dwarves
4 guard, MB slayer, block runner, 11+apo and 3RR

My second match against Tommy. A lovely chap born on nearly the same day as me so we somehow hit it off straight away! I was asked to kick and started my drive with 9 guys. Ouch. I was still able to control the advance of the slow dwarves to a degree, but knew at some point they would be ready for a push. I recall things went wrong quite badly for Tommy when he rolled skull-reroll-skull on a one die block early in a crucial turn. From here things swung in my favour and I started to rack up stuns and KOs and took control. Tommy did have a crazy shot at 1-0 at the half with AG2 elf bowl and no RRs which very nearly came off; alas the pass was inaccurate. The second half arrived and Tommy’s one dicers continued their trajectory of misery. I kept hitting POWs and stuns (or worse) and my drive was comfortable in the end, stalling out for a 1-0 win.


Game 2 vs. Tinfish with Necromantic
All 8 positionals, 12 guys, 2RRs; leader, block wolves, couple of guard, blodge ghoul, block golem

A strange game when my offense started with a cage in my own half and a blodging ball carrier (owing to Grant hitting the perfect Blitz!). Suddenly defending, I set about the task aggressively and in the initial turns of the half he had to make lots of squeaky dodges and one dicers to progress, all of which came off nicely meaning he nearly scored. A scramble in my own backfield went my way in the end, and I just about managed to score in turn 8 needing a GFI with no RR. In the second half Grant came close to 1-1 but he failed his spuds check* with a blodging ghoul, killing the ghoul. Tough game this... I retrieved the ball and comfortably converted for a 2-0 win. Flattering score line in the end.

*GFI roll into the endzone, Mancunian vernacular


Game 3 vs. GWI1874 and his Lizardmen
6 block, 12 guys, 3RRs

Mass block lizards is always an issue. I received and had a fairly torrid time advancing the ball from deep after RRs spent on the pickup and a double skull. There were one or two very important ghoul dodges. I scored in T7 with a hand off and dodge: no gimmie. Gordon couldn’t convert his two turner failing his first 8in9 stunty dodge. This made it 1-0 at the half which I felt was a little fortunate. In the second half Gordon kept good control of the ball until an opening presented itself (I had a poor turn for one reason or another). I could later force Gordon to score leaving me three turns for 2-1. A Riot reduced this to two and a deep kick made it even trickier. A crazy pass and suicide dodges nearly got me through the line but it ended a 1-1 draw. A win would’ve been an injustice.


A very healthy field of around 40 were competing for this impressive array of prizes, all to play for…


Game 4 vs. Stripey Dave (real name Chris!) and Humans
13 guys and apo, 2RR and leader; tackle and MB blitzers, 2 guard blitzers, wrestle and diving catch catchers, block ogre

Again I was asked to kick and found myself a player down early. Soon my mummies got into contact and started to tear up the AV8 handsomely. Aggressive Undead defence with players up was extremely demanding; the humans couldn’t protect the ball and I got the better of the ensuing stramash. I went 1-0 up against the drive at half time. In the second half I continued to deal out the casualties and things escalated. This was a 3-0 win in the end. There was plenty of tension in the first two or three turns but things changed rapidly once my armour and injury dice went postal!

Game 5 vs. Bazooka25 with Lizardmen
11 guys, apo, 3RR; 6 block just like Gordon

A similar first half to the prior lizard match. I scored in T7 leaving Bazooka (Barry) two turns back which he didn’t convert owing to a little bad luck. My drive had been pressurised, generally being a player down and fending off lots of big scaly things. In the second half the lizards scored but perhaps too early, leaving me plenty of time to stall out for a 2-1 win. I had also whittled the 11-man roster down a shade which made driving easier. Another tough game. The wall of St4 and block is extremely tough to deal with.

Game 6 vs. Stick_with_poo using Undead
Same base roster as me; tackle wight, guard wight, guard mummy, two block ghouls and a wrestle ghoul

The 30th meeting between Stick and Pipey in NAF tournament history: I believe this is still a record. This was the second tournament this year that saw us go head to head on table one for the title (the other being Waterbowl). Exciting stuff, and a very interesting match. I was asked to kick, we removed a wight each (tackle for guard). Next I decided to defend with all men's (my favourite strategy it seems, reading this through!) at the half way line after I got a key stun on Stick’s other wight. Under significant pressure and with a mummy sat on the ball carrier stick went for a solo hand off and dash with a blodger. Dodge and 4+ hand off required. The play worked and my four dice at the ball was unsuccessful. Things now looked favourable for him but he needed a dodge to support the ghoul and this hit the deck. I took possession of the ball in my own half but soon started to lose out on attrition heavily. Real ebb and flow fare. The final crucial swing in fortunes came at the end of the half when I dodged a ghoul through and out of a TZ into scoring range who caught an accurate long pass, all with no RRs. Stick had a GFI for one die but hit skull. 1-0 at the half against serve.

Stick had a player advantage on my offence and I was treated to some very aggressive and problematic defence, I got the better of this to go 2-0 around T4 with Stick unable to convert another one die hit on my ball carrier. 2-0 but several players down (7 vs. 11 I think), Stick wasn’t out of it yet. Scoring on his drive was inevitable but crucially I avoided conceding a two-turner after some poor ghoul dodging denied Stick yet again. 2-1 was achieved in T6 leaving two turns for him to get the draw which would be enough for him to win the tournament on a 5/0/0 record compared to my 4/1/0. A shallow kick applied more pressure though I could pick up and hand off to a ghoul who scarpered accompanied by another ghoul deep towards my own endzone. In Stick’s T8 I presented him with a "corner cage" (ball carrier on corner square, protecting ghoul on the diagonal) leaving him a 5+ dodge to surf the ball, pick up and retrieve. He got the dodge and surf, but the ball came out up the sideline bouncing into play on his left. A wight needed dodge, pick up, pass (and ghoul catch) which only got as far as the pass. A properly entertaining 2-1 win which saw me take the Burger title!


The winner’s prize which I was fortunate enough to take away. These chaps will be making an appearance at Geordie Bowl in September…


And finally…


This is what happens if you book cheap accommodation in the Scottish capital!

I plan to be back next year and would highly recommend the trip. A real northern classic, this. Hopefully see you there!

[Garrick]

I humbly present my Burger Bowl report as promised…

Thanks Brendan, an excellent write up.

[Garrick]

Burger Bowl 2018 – a virgin Tournament Organiser’s perspective.

As this was my first tournament as TO I decided to keep a “diary” of the experience and when I read it through realised it was a useful aid for me on the do’s and don’ts for future tournaments I might organise:

At the beginning of the year Ant Purdie who had created Burger Bowl and run it for 4 years in the RAF Club decided to focus on his role as Captain of the Scottish Eurobowl team with the objective of bringing the Eurobowl to Scotland and handed the organisation of Burger Bowl 2018 onto me. In parallel to this the RAF Club closed down and a new venue had to be found quickly.

I wanted the first tournament I organised to be as good as it could be for a maximum of £25 per head including a nice meal both days, a bar and access for under 18s. So finding the right location within budget was a challenge which surprisingly my wife agreed to help me with. Having visited over a dozen places all of which had advantages I settled on Akva as it seemed to tick more boxes than any other venue I had seen.

As Akva had never hosted anything remotely like a Blood Bowl tournament before Ant and I had a series of meetings with them discussing what it was we were looking for and what they had that could improve the tournament. We agreed that £15 out of the £25 entry fee would go towards lunch on the Saturday and Sunday and that with 30-40 attendees there would be no additional hire fee for the venue.

Prizes – On the Friday afternoon in Nottingham before the NAFC, I spent some time with other Scottish Coaches discussing what they wanted in the way of prizes. Unpainted teams/models were considered less desirable instead a Scottish themed painted team was the ideal first prize but also there was a lot of support for prize tokens in addition to the trophies normally given out, tokens that could be used in future games of Blood Bowl. Hence the Scotling team and painted NAF trophy for 1st place but also painted figures for 2nd place, 3rd place, Stunty, Top Rookie, Wooden Spoon and Best Painted.

On top of this I approached several suppliers whose products I used / liked and asked for their sponsorship. Tritex, Two Drunk Flings and KR Cases all stepped up to the mark.

Best Painted Trophy - So this is an idea I have stolen shamelessly from Geordie Bowl: Each year the winner of the Best Painted Team will paint the next year's trophy. Obviously we will need a trophy to "prime the pump" so I have used an old NAFC Duel entry of mine (not the one I won the 2017 NAFC Duel painting competition with ).

Free NAF membership for new members – to encourage more coaches to join the fun of the Blood Bowl tournament scene. Burger Bowl was NAF ranked and to tempt new coaches into the tournament scene the entry fee included NAF membership for those who were not already members (but not membership renewal). New to tournament coaches are far less likely to win prizes (other than the Top Rookie Award) so it seemed fair that they shouldn’t pay more than the regular tournament goers.

Top Rookie Award – instigated to give first time and younger coaches something to strive for. Top Rookie is open to anybody who has not played a NAF ranked match before Burger Bowl 2018 and also anyone under 18 whether or not they have played NAF ranked matches previously. It is not just all about the top experienced coaches!

Registration of Rosters - I also put quite a lot of thought into this and decided to reward early submission so as to get a flying start on loading Score etc. Initially I was going to give everybody who registered a week before the tournament 5 free Fan Factor however it was pointed out that this rather detracts from those rosters which already have purchased FF so considered Brendan’s “golden re-roll” but eventually decided on a free Assistant Coach and Cheerleader. It worked and I was able to send all the information to Brendan Spencelayh who kindly loaded it onto Score for me a full week before the tournament. Score behaved impeccably during the tournament and within an hour of the tournament finishing, Brendan had loaded all the results onto the NAF ranking database.

Pre-ordering for the Saturday lunch was a necessary evil (Sunday lunch was generic) however agreeing to organise a meal out on the Saturday night that also needed pre-ordered was a massive ball ache with lots of moaning and will not be done again!

Gavin Wilshaw asked if he could bring a Blood Bowl 7s pitch to play if anybody finished early, I was delighted to say yes as I want this tournament to have a buzz with loads going on. This is why when a Cosplay Girl approached me about coming along to watch and entertain, I also said yes, unfortunately she was double booked, maybe next year!

It required a little bit of preparation but the “Coach Name” personalised Results Slips Booklet made capturing all the results easy with the exception of the inevitable Geordie losing their booklet. Each booklet had 6 numbered round slips and a Best Painted voting slip, I mandated that you couldn’t vote for yourself in the Best Painted category and having your coach name on your voting slip ensured this.

I allowed everybody to choose where they sat and played rather than mandating table numbers.

There were 38 coaches registered but unfortunately one called off the night before meaning that as both TO and Spare Man I had to play Round 1, it quickly became apparent that I was not going to be able to play and run the tournament to the standard I wanted. This was for 2 reasons: 1) I should have played a fun team I didn’t care about rather than one I was proficient with; 2) I was not feeling 100% (it turned out later that I had a rip roaring chest infection). Luckily (God bless Schmee) the situation resolved itself and I did not need to play Rounds 2 through 6. The lesson learned was that you need a TO and a separate Spare Man for larger tournaments or if that is not possible / practical then bring a fun team you don’t care about and whatever you do don’t be ill!

The tournament itself went smoothly. The prior close liaison with Bar Akva ensured there were no surprises on the day. Access was as agreed; the right number of large enough tables were available; a projector for my laptop allowed clear dissemination of the pairings in each round, the leader board, timings and eventually the prizes; Chess Clocks kindly provided by Brendan Spencelayh kept everybody to time; and wireless microphones would have made announcements easy if I hadn’t already lost my voice.

The pre-ordered lunches in Akva were excellent and having them in the same venue as the tournament meant that 45 minutes was more than enough for lunch allowing me to have a timetable (with 2.5 hour rounds) that started at 9:30am and was finished by 6:15pm both days.

In addition to Bren’s excellent tournament report above also check out Ant Purdie’s Burger Bowl 2018 Tournament Report on the NAF website: https://www.thenaf.net/welcome/stories/ ... g-july-18/

[Purplegoo]

I'll hopefully be uploading my July blog tonight (edit: tomorrow. A thing got in the way!), and that will include Ant's thoughts. Apologies, Graham if I e-mailed the wrong man looking for a report; the NAF site has you listed as joint TOs and I have Ant on speed-dial (so to speak - Gmail auto-fill!) so poked him first. I'll also link your perspective and Bren's match reports for triple the reportage.

Looks like a cracking venue and an enjoyable weekend. Good stuff!

[HumptyTrump]

Burger Bowl 2018 – a virgin Tournament Organiser’s perspective.

As this was my first tournament as TO I decided to keep a “diary” of the experience ...

Very interesting, thanks for spending the time doing this and for being the TO, it went extremely well.

[Garrick]

I'll hopefully be uploading my July blog tonight, and that will include Ant's thoughts. Apologies, Graham if I e-mailed the wrong man looking for a report; the NAF site has you listed as joint TOs and I have Ant on speed-dial (so to speak - Gmail auto-fill!) so poked him first. I'll also link your perspective and Bren's match reports for triple the reportage.

Looks like a cracking venue and an enjoyable weekend. Good stuff!

Phil, no problem. Ant asked me if he could do the tournament report for you. The confusion arose because Ant handed responsibility for Burger Bowl over to me earlier this year but remained in an advisory capacity including registering Burger Bowl on the NAF website.

In fact I would like to take this opportunity to thank the 3 people who provided me with Burger Bowl support and guidance: Ant, Brendan and Ralph Roscrow (HumptyTrump). Thanks chaps it was much appreciated. And also to Schmee for standing in as the spare man and saving my bacon.

[sann0638]

It required a little bit of preparation but the “Coach Name” personalised Results Slips Booklet made capturing all the results easy with the exception of the inevitable Geordie losing their booklet. Each booklet had 6 numbered round slips and a Best Painted voting slip, I mandated that you couldn’t vote for yourself in the Best Painted category and having your coach name on your voting slip ensured this.

I'm a big fan of printing the match report slips via Score, as another option.

[Pipey]

I'll hopefully be uploading my July blog tonight, and that will include Ant's thoughts. Apologies, Graham if I e-mailed the wrong man looking for a report; the NAF site has you listed as joint TOs and I have Ant on speed-dial (so to speak - Gmail auto-fill!) so poked him first. I'll also link your perspective and Bren's match reports for triple the reportage.

Looks like a cracking venue and an enjoyable weekend. Good stuff!

Phil, no problem. Ant asked me if he could do the tournament report for you. The confusion arose because Ant handed responsibility for Burger Bowl over to me earlier this year but remained in an advisory capacity including registering Burger Bowl on the NAF website.

In fact I would like to take this opportunity to thank the 3 people who provided me with Burger Bowl support and guidance: Ant, Brendan and Ralph Roscrow (HumptyTrump). Thanks chaps it was much appreciated. And also to Schmee for standing in as the spare man and saving my bacon.

No problem Graham, happy to help.