“Ulthuan Invitational X, Light Side Qualifier
Bright Lantern, round 1

This was an Ulthuan Invitational matchup through and through: high elves and high team value. As expected, the underdogs brought a wizard. The goddesses won the toss, and chose to kick. The first drive was dominated by Morgana's fouls. She KO'd Bear turn 1 (and he spent the next 14 turns in hibernation), she left a boot-shaped fracture in Squirrel's skull, and it took another boot to eagle's balls (BH, apo) before the referee realized what was going on. Fortunately, Lion and Ant had been keeping up the pace with the numbers game.

By turn 6, I had 7 players vs his 6, and he used his bolt. The bounce went well for him, leaving only Hawk marking it. The 2gfi blitz succeeded without using a reroll, and even managed to remove Hawk for this game and the next. Coach Bullroarer now had an easy 3+ pass to Ex Valkyrs, the fend lino I'd failed to knock down the turn before. However, he missed the pass, and fumbled it on the reroll. As a result, I could score the 1-0 turn 8.

I set up to counter an OTTD, but the Goddesses didn't attempt one.

Going into halftime 1-0 with the wiz out was great. However, my 3 most defensive players (kicker, sacker, diving tackler) were all out. With Belldandy, the goddesses' ST4AG5 blodge thrower still in the game, Hawk's strip ball was dearly missed. I knew that if bullroarer wanted to bring the game to overtime, he probably could.

The second half, we played my 11 vs his 10. I set up pretty agressively, with Eagle, my MA9, only 2 squares from the LoS. Belldandy failed his pickup, and bullroarer chose not to reroll. A sideways bounce left the ball snatchable by Eagle with 2 gfi's. He succeeded, but failed the pass, and was prompty BH for the second time in the game. Turn 2 I had a somewhat longer shot at stealing the ball, involving many GFIs. However, I snaked the first one. Bullroarer was in control, and frustrated at getting these shots and wasting precious overtime rerolls, I started playing poorly, and wasted another, as well as position, by hitting Anzus in an outside corner, rather than focusing on defense. At this point it really looked like I'd see overtime with 1 reroll vs his 4.

On turn 13, he KO'd a player on some 3+ dodges, and then I KOd a player of his as well. This, combined with a foul, left bullroarer feeling pressured enough to score on turn 15.

Playing a 2 turn offense with 11 players vs 8 and a team reroll allowed me to score using 2 2dies where push was enough, and 3 2+ rolls, with different skill rerolls on 2 of them.

All in all, bullroarer's bad luck on the pass on the wiz turn, and his decision not to stall on turn 15 were the key moments that pulled me through this game.”