Well, my break didn't last long.

After losing Larissa on Friday night I had the BUBBLE tourney (5 round swiss, 20 participants but really more like 16) with 3 tabletop games on Saturday on 2 on Sunday. The format was a 1250 starting roster (inducements allowed) +4 skills before game 1, +4 skills to random players (1 double) before game 4,

Using this format I brought back last year's champion dark elf team 'the Reinforcement Schemers' with the following roster:

4 blitzers (tackle, dodge, dodge), 1 runner, 1 witch (wrestle), 5 linos, 3 rerolls, and a wizard. After round 3 I rolled to skill a blodger, the runner, and 2 linos, and I went with mighty blow, leader, block and dirty player (dumb with no bench)

In the first game against El Condor's skaven FC Hamelen, the dark elves get rid of the sidestep gutter runner on turn 1, making a score on turn 8 quite safe. In the second half, a blitz let them pressure the deeply kicked ball, forcing a 2-turn score by the skaven. With 6 turns to make the 2-1, the elves take the drive to the opponent's half, leaving the rat ogre behind, roaring on the LoS. The only role of the wizard is to prevent the need for a 2+ dodge with reroll on turn 16.

The second match was against Wosret's Wilger's Wandelende Wreedheden. The Dark Elves had to fight an uphill battle against the dice to manage a tie. A lucky dump-off and some fancy dodging without rerolls allowed the receiving delves to lead by 1-0 at half time. Although the Khemri only managed a single blocking cas, the Dark Elves rolled 6 snake eyes, including 2 consecutive turns where snakes were the only rolls. As a result, the delves suffered 3 casualties and 5 KOs throughout the match. Setting up for defense with 7 players, the delves needed their wizard to win. A fireball on the 5-skeleton cage left only the back corner open, which did not allow a sack. Fortunately. the Schemers' witch made a gutter move, sacking the ball with a 5+ dodge + frenzy + wrestle. While this was not enough to stop the Khemri TD, it was enough to slow them down, keeping the final score 1-1. A turn 16 hit on a tomb guardian even left the delves ahead 2-1 in blocking cas.

Despite the positive win record, the elves still got to play goblins on table 2 in the third game, against Vinz_D's Crookback Mountain Cavaliers. The goblins received, but in his first two turns, the chainsaw failed against a delf and then succeeded against himself after snakes. This failure allowed the delves to push for position, letting them sack and score halfway through the first half. Fungus, on the other hand, performed admirably, at one point killing 2 skilled blitzers with only 2 MA. A bribe fail made the chainsaw's contribution complete.The second half saw a dark elf TD, leaving the goblins without their secret weapons, and with few players left. The dark elves forgot to move a player into receiving range on turn 15, thus robbing themselves of the 3-0 after a failed throw-team-mate attempt. The wizard merely contributed a turn 16 attempt at a kill for the statistics.

On Sunday, the dark elves played what was technically a mirror match. However, the '1 runner, 1 witch, and 1 wizard' reinforcement schemers weren't exactly a mirror of SirSebstar's full positional team 'go nuke yourself'. Despite the advantage in armor and the mighty blow, the kicking schemers were heavily outcas'd. Nevertheless, the schemers managed to steal the ball and score in the first half. While behind in players, they were ahead in TDs with a wizard to spare. In the second drive, the schemers had the option to make a tricky surf on the witch with the ball, but elected to lightning bolt her instead. The ball went halfway across the field where no players were, but as it was the schemers' turn, they won the race to go and get it. Having scored the 2-0, they only had their receiving half left. Sorely outnumered, hanging on to the ball wasn't possible, but delaying the play was. As a result, go nuke yourself managed to score the 2-1 and save face before the end of the game.

At this point the situation was tense. On table 1, Wilger's Wandelende Wreedheden had the same 3/1/0 record as the schemers, and led by points due to cas. They faced off against go nuke yourself. On table 3, FC Hamelen also had an outside chance to beat the schemers as well, since they scored maximally in cas and TDs on their 3/0/1 record.

This meant that even if the schemers did everyhing right in the final match, the victory might not be in their own hands. And they didn't. In the last game against Fatty's blockless Nurgle, coach the Sage made the biggest mistake of the tournament. While receiving, he elected to 2-die block both chaos warriors and the BoN on the LoS. As a result, he had lots of players tied up in the beast's tentacles, putting him in an awkward position. Despite that, the schemers created a good chance at a 2+2+ pass. All that was needed was a push against a warrrior on that blitz (eeeeeew) or on that block (eeeeeew). Not making the reroll and delaying the play proved to be a mistake, as the elves never got another chance that good. A failed 3+3+ pass on turn 8 left the half-time score 0-0, and the elves kicking and outnumbered. Fortunately, the yuckies showed a lot more fail in the second half, with plenty of skull/both down. The schemers managed to steal the ball and score the 1-0 on turn 14. Nurgle pushed 2 pestigors forward for a 2TTD. The Sage had one lightning bolted and the other blitzed, allowing him to safely push his remaining players forward to secure the 2-0.

In the meantime both table 1 and table 3 managed a tie, leaving the Reinforcement Schemers clearly ahead of the competition. This marked the first time that someone won the BUBBLE for two consecutive years. Rumor has it coach the Sage intends to bring the Reinforcement Schemers back to Utrecht in 2513 for a hat trick.