“Crown Of Sand VII : Qualifier VII Finals:

Tough first half. We recieved and took our time, eventually placing multiple players in scoring range, making it difficult to mark them all with 2-3 opposing players off the pitch.

Our opponent had enough time to get into scoring range. We managed to sack the ball carrier but were unable to recover the lose ball, eventually resulting in a bouncing ball falling into his players hands, which we managed to convert into a T8 TD to tie it up 1-1.

The second half began with him receiving and a perfect defence. The ball was set to bounce right next to the line of scrimmage, but unfortunately, bounced onto our side of the pitch for a touchback.

Our opponent took block/skulls ending his turn, We had an opportunity for a 1 BD (33% knock down) deep ball carrier sack but rolled snake-eyes on a gfi (with sure feet). The failed gfi didn't "hurt" use per-say but it foiled a terrific opportunity.

We couldn't catch a break. Our opponent was on the defensive, we managed a 1 BD ball carrier sack, but the ball bounced right into the hands of our opponent's catcher. Still, he was rather bottled up.

Finally, a stroke of luck, our opponent exposes the ball carrier and trips on a dodge. We manage to recover the ball but failed on the pass to our open catcher for the easy score. Our opponent manages to recover the ball but fails another dodge in an attempt to cover-up.

We managed a 2 BD hit on the ball carrier, stripping him of the ball, bouncing into our 5 Ag wardancer (the blitzer)'s hands. He leaps out of trouble and we manage to cover him up fairly securely. We manage to stall for a turn and finally score on T6 of the 2nd half, going up 2-1.

An unimpressive round of blocking forced some tough rolls for our opponent but he managed the T15 score to tie it up 2-2.

We had an opportunity for an opportunity for a OTT to win the game. Our first move required our star wardancer Tinaglanb to 2+ leap for a block to set-up the OTT attempt, unfortunately, he rolled snake eyes and killed himself, literally.

What a turn of events. One turn, we were up 2-1, our opponent needed a mini-miracle to tie it up and gets it. We have a reasonable OTT attempt to seal the game and suddenly our best player RIPs himself. We also manage to lose the OT coin toss, giving our opponent the ball, now with only 9 players left on the pitch.

Wit so few players, we cannot mark all the scorers so we press forward with both catchers getting in the TZ of his thrower, hoping to force a longer pass then our opponent would like that may possibly fail. Unfortunately, The thrower completes the long pass to an open catcher who manages to walk in for the game winning score.

This was a very rough Qualifier tournament follows for us. The range of emotions were very off the charts. It seemed at several points like we "had it in the bag" but strange sets of circumstances refused to let us "put the game away". The long term effects of this loss will be crushing to the team's morale. Tinaglanb was this team. He led our squat to an incredible 20/1/3, winning a B-Minor, a Black Box Brawl, and the Wood Elf Black Box 'Team of the Year' award, along the way. For a while now, this team has only played in tournament games, so as to prolong the benefits of some of our star players.

The loss of Tinaglanb puts us back to the drawing board, a task which will be quite difficult given my current real-life scenario. My BB time is quite limited, so it was nice always having 'Elf Yourself' tournament-ready. This will no longer be the case. However, I will have to find a way to find the time to re-ready the team to compete in the next tournament. The game must go on. RIP Tinaglanb! Thank you for 24 amazing games and so much overall success.

EDIT: Thanks for the correction, you are right! Although, with a RR, it would have been 55%, but nevertheless, that wasn't what led to the loss. I don't think I'd change any aspect of my strategy this game, which if nothing else, is a comforting thought. Good luck in the rest of the tournament! Go win it, so I can live vicariously through you and I'll at least feel like I was 'basically second place' and 'basically could have been first place'.”