“OCCS Antipodal Regional Shield 1/08
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After the hillarious and easy going game against Zombies in the first round Rotten Gothem had a more serious opponent in round 2. Green Graves coached by the able Mr_Prezident was a high caliber team with well developed mummies and an excellent wight blitzer in the ST 4 compo.

The opponents won the kickoff and the match started bad for Rotten Gothem, despite getting a blitz to start with. Poor GFI's and signs of wicked luck for Prezident clouded my hopes of walking out the winner. Pain was KO'd on a foul where the ref caught the fouler but was swayed by Argue the Call. And to set that foul up Prezident misclicked and had to make a 5+ dodge with his mummy, which he managed with a reroll.

But despite having an excellent chance of scoring the Green Graves decided to hold off, probably in the hopes of reducing time for a quick tie. During this temporary hold off a match deciding event happened. Frustrated by how things went Hate stormed up and smashed down Mossy. The opponent mummy fell severly wounded and had to be carried off the pitch.

The Green Graves now made their advance and tried to cut off the Rotten Gothem blitzers. But RIP's agility is a blessing and he managed to dodge away from his zombie pursuer and blitz the ghoul ball carrier. At the same time his colleague Bones disposed of another ghoul which sprained his groin badly and was out for the rest of the match.

Prezident had a decent chance of scoring in the last turn, but the ghoul that RIP blocked was too dizzy to be able to pick up the ball.

So the first half ended without goals and to Rotten Gothem's fortune Pain recovered from his foul, leaving the team with more front line bashing power than their opponents.

In the second half Rotten Gothem started with the ball and made an early charge down the left flank. They got caught up in zombies and wights though and the bulk of them retreated to find new ways of approach. By now the margins were on Rotten Gothem's side and the ghouls made many fortunate dodges and avoided tough blitzes.

This enabled RIP to break through on the right flank with the ball. When the opponents had to divide their attention the Rotten Gothem ghous could break through on the right flank as well while the mummies pummeled the Green Grave zombies to keep down their numbers. Prezident was close to covering the ball, but RIP yet again relied on his agility and dodged away from compo to throw a scoring pass to Dung the Dodgy.

The TD left the Green Graves with time for a tie though and despite a perfectly set up defense by Rotten Gothem they bashed their way through the zombies and had a fantastic chance of scoring. A simple dodge by the ghoul ball carrier would be enough, but instead Lichen caused a turnover when he double skull blocked one of the Rotten Gothem ghouls. A rough break for Prezident and yet another fortunate event for me.

A win for Rotten Gothem Resurrected, +fan factor, good money and both mummies and a ghoul skilled up. This was more than I could have hoped for and the team will now wait to prepare themselves for the semi-final.

Thanks for the match! It feels odd to be on the lucky side for once :)
See you in the next tournament.”