I find myself today in Middenheim, where the wildly popular and slightly shorthanded Darkie's Dreams just earned a tie with skaven team Flachenpfeifens in front of a roaring crowd of over a hundred thousand. While the crowds depart and the press descends on the players, I slip a guard a couple silver and get into a locker room. Prepared to fight, bribe, or wheedle my way to a good story, I manage to get an interview with the suprisingly forthcoming coach of the Darkies, Sinner.

Tournament News Tonight: Can you tell us a little about the qualifier? (they won the second of two qualifiers for long-lived teams, the codgers -ed)

Sinner: "Sure. As I love to play my dark elves in qualifiers - and tourneys if I can get them in - I applied to the qualifier where we had the best chances to get in. I didn't think we could win the qualifier, though I remember having a rather strong team at that time... As Darkie's Dreams was top 11 of long lived teams, I was quite sure they would get in... Actually, the whole qualifier was extremely funny, as with long lived teams you play coaches with dedication to their teams.

TNT: Just how old and decrepit was the competition? Any elves sporting beards?

S: I keep my team young and fresh...

TNT: As opposed to crotchety old veterans with three bum hips?

S: Right. I like to play with all players on the roster - even if that means I need to play with 4 or 5 players. As for bearded elves... now that is a funny thought. My elves are all pure-blooded without a hint of hair in their faces - but I am not so sure whether the witch elves have a shave before each game.

TNT: (laughing) You advanced to the quarterfinals, congratulations again. Was it difficult to get that far?

S: Yes. 'Til quarterfinal I was outclassed nearly all the time and against orcs and such this is really tough. I made it to the quarterfinals mostly because I played agressive against the greenskins. Of course my team was built to crack cages with a leaping guard and a leaping blitzer. Lots of talented footwork and a burly yet agile thrower helped as well. The problem was suffering injuries. I was losing players each game, and so in the quarterfinal I had nothing left to fend off wood elves.

TNT: You lost that match 2-1 to Power of Grayskull. Can you tell us anything about the game?

S: I was down to 7 players after less than a quarter of play. One man dead, one out for a week or more, one out for the game, another out cold... pretty hard to play woodsies from there. I also got another injury just after, leaving me to defend with 6 elves against 10 wood elves by then. we even managed to knock the ball from the woodies 3 times, but we couldn't recover it properly. They scored at the end of the first half. The second half was a fouling fest. Someone kidnapped the ref, and his replacement wouldn't call anything. They fouled with everything they had and we retaliated as best as we could. We scored in the final minutes, hoping to take the game to overtime, but they added time for injuries -

TNT: Adding insult to injury, I suppose -

S: Yes, that replacement ref again - and they had such a fast scorer, the game was a lost cause. Without the early injuries I might have been able to turn the tide, but thus...

TNT: Will Darkie's Dreams be back this year?

S: Uhmm, they are back in action and they will join the Cup for sure... at least try to in the qualifiers.

TNT: Do you have any words of wisdom, parting shots?

S: Wood elves are eeevil. No, seriously. I am a lousy coach, so play us!

TNT: Thanks for your time.

S: You are welcome.

Sam Walkerson's interviews have appeared in Spike! Magazine and Forts Illustrated.