Talk Fantasy Football

Greetings!

Schmee-Goo productions are proud to announce that Cambridge Double Trouble, your all doubles, all pairs, Cambridge Blood Bowling extravaganza is returning on the 24th / 25th November. For those returning; the only difference from last year is that there a couple of racial tier tweaks and we're welcoming Bretonnians and Khorne. We're also moving the timetable back by half an hour to try and ensure we get into the pub on time! For anyone new or unaware of the Cam Dub, read on.

Basic Rules

In these confusing times, it's probably best to pull these basic rules out at the beginning:

- We will be following the 2017-8 NAF tournament rules, found here
- Goblins may buy Bribes, Halflings a Master Chef and any team may hire a Star after first hiring 11 rostered players. No other inducements are permitted. Stars available are listed in the NAF team list document here
- Any stars released in Spike! Journals until the end of September will be considered, and then an announcement made on whether we'll be including them (NAF approval willing!) on Oct. 1
- We will be welcoming all 24 mandatory NAF races and the two optional ones, Bretonnians and Khorne. See the above team list document if unsure or these are new to you
- For team creation guidelines, please see below!

Venue

The Venue will be the Golden Hind pub, 355 Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 1SP. A map can be found here. The pub is about 3KM from the Cambridge train station, and easily accessible by road, via the A1/M --> A14. There is a decent sized car park to the rear. The bar downstairs serves reasonably priced pub grub, and there is a CO-OP just over the road for bits and pieces.

Accommodation Suggestions

Being quite touristy, Cambridge isn’t short of places to stay. The internet seems full of cheapish B&Bs, and there are two Premier Inns within a short drive of the venue around the north of the suburbs (A14 and A1307).

Tournament Rules

Cam Dub - 1

The first twist for Cam Dub (so it has been christened) is that it a Blood Bowl pairs tournament! At registration on day one, we will split the field down the middle by ability (for want of a better method, we’ll use a coach’s best ELO NAF ranking - although I reserve the right to place an internet newcomer by hand), the higher ranked in one pot, the rest in another. We will then draw a name from each pot, randomly forming the pairs for the rest of the event! If attendees have a preference as to who their partner is going to be for the weekend, a buddy, a league mate, a chum, we encourage you to sign up as a team! We only ask that in order to keep things fair and equitable with the random draw system, we don't see any mega-teams. To this end, we ask that only a maximum of one member of a submitted pair have a NAF ranking in excess of 200.

You will play all six games in your pairs, as a team. There will be a random draw for game one, then this arrangement will follow a Swiss / Swiss format, so team 1 will play team 2 (etc.), and within those teams, the coaches doing the best individually will play, and their partners will square off.

The scores for each game are as follows;

Win, 10 points
Tie, 5 points
Loss, 0 points
Both games won in a fixture, 1 bonus point.

TD and CAS tie breakers will not be used on a round by round basis, fixtures between coaches / pairs on the same number of points are generated randomly. In the event of a tie after 6 games, the winning pair will be determined by combined strength of schedule, then CAS and TD difference (only spp generating CAS count), TDs scored, CAS scored and then by one round of Go-Johnny a Go-Go-Go-Go.

Cam dub - 2

The second twist for Cam Dub is in team selection.

Coaches may spend 1.1m GC upon their rosters. Stars are allowed, but only after 11 normal players. Wizards and other Inducements are not allowed bar Chefs and Bribes for Flings and Goblins. We will be using standard "Resurrection" format conventions; no raised players continue in the next game / no FF rolls / no skill rolls carrying over, etc. Teams are identical from one game to the next. IP / the 4 minute rule will not be enforced, however you may use them if both coaches agree. There will be a time limit for games as a whole, so if you play slowly we may have to call a result early, although we hope this won‘t become an issue, there will be plenty of warning!

Upon registration, coaches may give players on their team (although not Stars) only double skills. There will be no Strip ball Wardancers, Guard Longbeards or Block Saurus at Cam Dub! A ‘double’ skill is defined as a skill that player type can only gain via a doubles skill roll in LRB6. For instance, a Black Orc gaining an agility skill, or an Elf a strength skill. No normal or + stat skills will be allowed. The number of skills you may give your team is governed by the following tier system;

Tier zero, 2 skills: Undead (Block Mummies are good!)
Tier one, 3 skills: Wood Elf, Amazon, Chaos Dwarf, Orc, Norse, Dwarf, Bretonnian
Tier two, 4 skills: Skaven, Chaos Pact, Dark Elf, Lizard, Necromantic, Khemri, Human
Tier three, 5 skills: High Elf, Pro Elf, Ogre, Nurgle, Chaos, Slann, Underworld, Khorne
Tier four, 7 skills: Vampire, Goblin, Halfling

There are no rules on skill duplication, but each player may only be awarded one skill (no stacking). You may not give Stars skills.

Housekeeping

Cam Dub will cost £20 for NAF members, and £25 for non NAF, inclusive of signup. The PayPal address is camdub@hotmail.co.uk, payments as gifts, please!

Early bird discount If you pay before the end of September, you save £5 on your ticket (£15 NAF / £20 non NAF), and you also receive a coveted Blood Bowl Bingo joker token! I say coveted, you may not know what this is, but I promise it's worth it!

We will be giving out prizes for all of the usual places and achievements, but we've tried to keep costs down wherever possible!

Please paint your minis. We won't be throwing you out or docking you points if you show up with bare metal, but it's just nice to play with painted teams. If you would like to borrow a painted team, please ask us!

Schedule

Friday Night: Draw / Pub

Saturday Arrive & Register : 09:30-10:00
Round 1 : 10:00 - 12:30
Lunch: 12:30-13:00
Round 2 : 13:00 – 15:30
(Lunch / R2 are fluid, we'll do the draw, you can choose to eat when you like, before, during or after)
Round 3 : 15:30 – 18:00
Saturday night: Frivolity and night out - probably a curry.

Sunday Arrive for 09:30
Round 4 : 09:30 - 12:00
Lunch: 12:00-12:30
Round 5 : 12:30 – 15:00
Round 6 : 15:00 – 17:30
Awards, Wrap up and go home: 18:00

Please bring with you a board, templates, dice, a painted BB team and a copy of your roster.

Really hope to see you there!

Phil & Michael (Goo and Schmee)

*****
Paid, limit is 32 (TBC):

Schmee (spare man)
Purplegoo & Wotfudboy
howlinggriffon & MrFrodo
Pete & Thomas W
Pipey & Circusbear
GORGOROTH & wwe2015
Don_Vito & SimonSpank
Stick & Warka
SlannMann & M_Ruckuss
BillyDee
besters & Vulturesquadron
Wittman79
Zedsdead
Mr_Zay

IN!

Take all of my money.

Wouldn't miss it!

I so want to be in for this, looks like so much fun! But I have consider logistics and wont be able to do so until much closer to the time.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Hope to be there!!!!!

Interested!

Thanks for the early interest, all. I've updated the OP and we're taking payments!

For those that come every year, the only changes to last year are four racial positions in the tiers (positions that have remained static for five years, so probably due a tweak). Undead have won all but one running of Cam Dub, and it makes sense, since Block Mummies are awesome and Undead are awesome. Awesome squared. Norse have also always done very well from T2. I've bumped these two, Humans and Underworld (other strong performers) up a tier, just to give things a little shake without going crazy. Stunties seem to be popular but also boom or bust, so I've left them as is.

Brets and Khorne aren't super straight forward to place this early in their existence, but I've gone safe with Brets (currently boasting the top NAF win %, I read somewhere) in T1 and Khorne have been lumped with their Chaos / Nurgle buddies in T3.

We had a decent chat last year about dropping the 'one pair member must have a ranking < 200' thing, but the feedback in the bar and after the event was all pretty much in favour of keeping it. So we'll keep it, and if there is a big wish for change, we'll have that chat in the bar and we can always change for 2019.

All that said, let's go!

How does the <200 ranking restriction work? When you sign up or when the tournament starts? I would imagine someone signing up as the <200 pair member and going over before the start of the tourney is relatively common.

(Not looking to game the system - genuinely curious)

It’s actually yet to ever come up hypothetically or practically! I guess when the tournament starts, but we’re not going to be ogres about it. Should someone uncharacteristicly go 600 and as such go over 200 the week before the tournament with dice hotter than the sun, we’re unlikely to wade in and break up teams. Good shout, but I hope an application of common sense will win the day (as per internet signups).

The rule is a hangover from Cam Dub 1 where every pair was drawn out of the hat on the day. In order to be fair to the guys that come as singles and are paired up by us, I think we should keep it around, but you have certainly found an edge case loophole.

Not criticising the rule. I like it and even consider it necessary for competitive balance with the random pairs. It's just that while I've been over 200 in the past I'm under at the moment. We're 6 mths out so if I, for example, talk Hawca into playing and we enter as a (technically legal at this moment) pair then chances are we'll be in violation by the time the tourney starts. I imagine that not entering as this particular pair is an example of what you mean by application of common sense in internet signups.

The trouble is that even if I assume I'll have a ranking over 200 again by the time this starts almost anyone I sign up with now risks also going over by Nov (esp with EB/EO a month before).

Like I said, not trying to game the system more trying to avoid doing so unintentionally. I'm surprised it hasn't come up before - I figured in the case of a pair both being over 200 they would likely be split up and entered in the draw as singles.

I normally pay early to help TOs with deposits (be the change, etc), but in this case I'll hold fire a while so as to reduce the risk of causing headaches

I’m sure there won’t be headaches. I completely understand your point / concern and agree it’s surprising this hasn’t come up or even been thought about before. That said, there are always more coaches that sign up under 200 than over, so it should be easy enough to make some new, ad hoc pairs if necessary, as you suggest (splitting up two > 200 pairs and finding new partners).

Let’s see how we get on!

Very interested in returning with the halflings with local chum.

Pipey wrote:<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Hope to be there!!!!!

Bren, did we agree that Peo would be mine this year ?

Now now boys....no fighting. I'm hoping to be there, just need to negotiate with my wife!!

Oooooooh!! Pencilled in, it misses my son's birthday by enough I'm hopeful I can make this.