“OCCS Middenheim Challenge 11/07 - round 1
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Masthugget Midnighters hadn't played any tournament matches since they got booted from the Royal Rookie Rumble and transfered to League, so nobody really knew what to expect from them. The Midnighters were teamed up against a quite even undead team, both boosted by an exceptionally strong player. In the Midnighters case it was the promising warewolf Shadowclaw, while St. Hallow's Eve had a more experienced emerging star in their ghoul runner Renfield.

St. Hallow's Eve won the kickoff and the undead horde fell like a wave upon the flesh golems on the LOS. The sturdy golems first held the wave well, but Gilbert Gluttony eventually fell and was knocked out. It would turn out that he would spend the rest of the match outside the pitch.

The Midnighters got in further trouble when their dirty player Steven Stairfall got ejected after lining up a gang foul on one of the wights. Sadly he didn't even get the opponent off the pitch.

The Hallow's Eve ghouls now made a rush down the right flank. At the same time Nighthowler scored a fatality on the Charnel and the crowd cheered in delight when the zombie rose to fight for his new master. The warewolves proved their worth and Shadowclaw charged the ghoul pack and hurled Ghoul off the pitch. The rest of the ghouls fell upon him and one of them landed a stunning blow sending him crashing to the ground. The charge was enough to discourge the ghouls from continuing though and they fell back in disarray.

There Freddy Kruger waited for them. The expert interceptor stripped the ghoul of the ball, which only bounced once before Nighthowler rushed in to snatch it up. Hallow's Eve was now in trouble with many of their key player caught up in one on one struggles and spread out over the pitch. They tried to get close to the ball, but Nighthowler dashed away, using all his speed to get out of blitzing range. Knowing that they couldn't reach him Hallow's Eve instead took out their frustration on Freddy Kruger, blitzing him and snapping his leg off with a downward kick which ended his participation on the match.

The skirmish in the centre continued for a while and Nighthowler stalled at the end zone line before scoring close to the first half time running out.

In the 2nd half both teams could still muster plenty of players. The Midnighters were lacking a flesh golem, Freddy Kruger and the ejected dirty player, but in turn they could field Charnel. With a 1-0 lead and recieving the ball they certainly had good chances to win the match. When a bad kick enabled them to start with Shadowclaw as the ball carrier things looked even better.

They started with a careful strategy, putting zombies on the LOS to tie up the mummies and gathering a cage on their own side of the pitch. The zombies held out quite well, being knocked over repeatedly but rarely stayed down. Graves was the only exception, being knocked out by one of the mummies mighty blows.

Hallow's Eve made a risky charge down the right flank with their two tacklers Ghost and Warlock which ended up with both getting surfed into the crowd by Nighthowler. That and the following turn of events decided the match. The Hallow's Eve players had sprinted poorly during the whole match, but during a period of time they crippled themselves on risky bursts. First the mighty ghoul Renfield slipped on a sprint, knocking himself out and shortly after one of the mummies tripped and had to be carried off the pitch as well.

After this Hallow's Eve seemed to lose faith in themselves and the Midnighters moved their cage down the pitch without the undead following in pursuit. They could safely stall their way to a 2-0 victory and are through to the second round of the tournament.

Thanks for the match, MrNomad! Crazy poor GFI record for you in this match, but perhaps you shouldn't have challenged Nuffle by insisting on them without rerolls ;) I'll take good care of Charnel for you!”