I had ventured 300Km up north from Calgary, through a little early snowfall, to the Food Bowl NAF sevens tournament in Edmonton. A five game in one day Sevens event. A great point about this event was that donations for the local food bank had been requested. So lots of people brought canned goods etc. You could actually use food donations or cash to buy rerolls as it was for charity, or put your donations towards raffle prizes of a brilliantly painted Chaos team, a dinner for two at a steak house and a Sevens mat from Jack’s Maelstrom Gaming mats. The venue of Table Top Cafe is an excellent spot for table top gaming, including having some good food and a lot of beverage options as well as lots of tables and other gamers about.
I had never played a match of Sevens before and ended up taking my trusty Humans. In Sevens most additional options other than players are double cost to reflect lower league training than full Blood Bowl teams. We had 600K for the team, plus 60K for skills (no repeats).
My “Lead Balloon” side had 1 Ogre, a Blitzer with Frenzy, a Blitzer with Guard, 1 thrower with block, and 4 Linos so giving me a reserve. This gave me a good covering of key skills. Was lacking some useful stuff like Tackle and I was concerned about perhaps having to face teams with three or four strength 4 players.
The Sevens modified Kick Off table seems a lot better than the full BB kick off table to me as Perfect Defence and Blitz are not in it, but replaced by useful but less powerful results. Also teams are set apart at the start so the receiving team can’t make any standing blocks first turn.

First off I was up against Barry’s Rat Scratch Rookies - Skaven. +2 Fame was a nice way for the crowd to show support for Humanity. We got a couple of cheering fans rerolls out of that in this match. To start we only managed to boot the ball out for a touchback but before long we had KO’d a Gutter Runner. As they had moved to one flank we tried to bottle the rest up. But the two remaining Gutter Runners did a handoff with one racing through tackle zones (4+) to dodge his way to an early TD. They then produced a superb kick which landed just in front of their LOS. My thrower was too far from the ball but fortunately a Lino managed to pick it up and then was only pushed back in response. We had to switch sides but eventually got through to score by half-time.
Second half we received. Thrower picked up and was repeatedly hassled by one of the GRs. It was a challenging advance but he made it over the line for the winner. A sigh of relief.

Second match we faced Cu Local 56 Permits, which was Brandon’s Pro Elves. Rocks were thrown by the rabid fans. One stunned a human Lino but also a Line Elf was clean knocked out. A Frenzy Elf blitzer had raced forward to try and surf one of ours but our guy went down on the turf. Our Thrower then proceeded to cas the impudent fellow. Two players up things looked good. We were soon even given a chance to blitz their ball carrier and gladly obliged. But an Elf got the scattered ball and one of our Blitzers was cas’d. It looked like the tide could swing for a moment but we Ko’d their other blitzer and then a crowded Elf failed his long pass attempt. That left us able to surf their awaiting receiver. Our thrower picked up and even dodged away to score before half-time. More Elves went down second half and eventually we were facing just 3 players as we waltzed up the field. When they went down to 2 our Thrower made it 2-0 by full-time. Another one where Nuffle smiled on us. Brandon took it very well.

Now yet more fast opponents. This time Jess with his High Elves “Dolphins”. They received and caught our kick. They did a handoff to a free player and scored as quick as a flash (t2). Then when receiving I recklessly let my Frenzy Blitzer get in amongst the Elves and he was KO’d. A bad start but our thrower dodged out of trouble and we KO’d a catcher. Then cas’d a line Elf and we were up in player numbers in yet another match. It was still a tricky drive and it took Blitz push and some gfis for us to equalize turn 5. Second half it was 7 v 5. A blitzer ko’d another line elf. We weren’t allowed to stroll at our leisure however and the ball was popped out, but scattered to a lineman. We surfed an Elf with a 3DB, stalled it out, and the Lino enjoyed scoring the 2-1 winner. I did have to donate for a few rerolls this match as Jess managed to make it tough despite our blocking. So that was 3 wins. In all these games I hadn’t done a lot with the Ogre but other than some delayed Bonehead start to drives he had been controlling space for me well. All enjoyable matches so far, at least for me!

Jack and I had been dancing around each other so far in this tournament, always on adjacent tables. He had 2 wins and a draw, and he had Khorne including a claw, mighty blow Bloodthirster. He had been unleashing hell on his squirming opposition. All that Frenzy look very intimidating. But on the other hand at least still only 1 player above strength 3. Quite a few rerolls were used by each side in this one. Our Guard blitzer was hit by a rock but just stunned. We managed to get at their carrier and pop the ball free. It went to the side and eventually fumbled off. The crowd threw it back into the melee. Our armour was holding up brilliantly and our thrower managed to get the ball, and hand off to a Lino who actually caught and scored. A crucial defensive TD before half-time. The Bloodthirster hadn’t done much of note in this one. On the other hand our Ogre had gone down twice, including a double skulls, and then had flailed around dumbly on the floor for 2 turns. But second half with a player advantage again we managed to keep the ball under control and get forward for a 2nd TD. The Khorne weren’t done yet. They finally unleashed some hurt and got the score back to 2-1. Fun match.

So with 4 wins I was in a great spot. Barry had moved back up to 2nd spot and I was to face Bob’s “Cheesy Bastards” Skaven. I chose to kick again. Quite early on I did a dodge with my thrower instead of staying to take a block in the face. He fell and was cas’d. A major problem. The skaven skipped around and took up some time. Our Ogre tried to get back and save the day but he ended up pushing. A GR scored in turn 5. I had 2 turns to drive but ended up with a carrier trip up when trying to get through a double rat line. We hadn’t got any rats out this half. Second half my receiving Lino fumbled. No sure hands to save him. They steal the ball. We did managed to blitz back and a Lino caught the ball. But the storm vermin in front of him smashed him down, and this time a GR would not be caught after picking up and so scored their 2nd. On my drive we were looking for a consolation TD. Again it was tricky but the carrier got in range, did a gfi and..failed. We rerolled but then the end zone gfi was of course failed. So last match ends up a 2-0 defeat. Very well done to Bob.

So despite that end I was very happy with how it had all gone. Plus all the coaches I played were great chaps. It turned out that my first 4 wins were enough as everyone else had dropped points in 2 or more games, so I was champ! Good work indeed. The trophy was a superbly relabelled can by Dan M.

Perhaps Lead Balloons can rise up after all. Other canned trophy winners include Jack for Brutality, Dan for stunties, Barry and Ty drew for sportsmanship, and Tom won best painted team. I had done well on TDs scored and received but the Scoreboard and Wall trophies went to Jess and Brandon. Ferick (Bob) got end boss (highest placed without another trophy).

Thanks to Dan M and Tom for their organisation. Well done to all for their donations. Several hundred dollars worth. And thanks to a great bunch of people at the tournament!