“FUMBBL Cup XV round 8, Semi-Final

This was the game that nuffle finally caught up to us, as I feared he would. I decided not to make any changes to my team, so gave up 220k inducements. I considered using petty cash to buy a wizard then decided not to. My opponent surprised me by using his own petty cash to induce Wilhelm Cheney (he was originally 20k short). In the end, a solid move. We won the toss and elected to kick. We put up a decent defense but were losing the blocking battle early. Then we got a riot on T8 and the clock rolled back. I set up in anticipation of this, but couldn't predict the ball would go out of bounds. Enmerkaurochs did get within scoring distance but a stout picket fence defense by team Marvin made that 2nd dodge too hard. 2nd half they got a perfect defense but it wasn't devestating. It did mean I had to play more conservatively and didn't get to take players off as quickly as I would have liked. Blocking and armor rolls were both sub-par for us but seemed decent enough for team Marvin. I'll have to check the dice stats on that. I managed to score but it was a tight thing. Then I kicked the ball out of bounds on T16 and they had a chance to try the 1TTD. Fortunately the opening blitz was double POWs on Eshnunna and that was that. It did Badly Hurt him but it was worth it. OT they won the toss and elected to receive. At this point I had resigned myself to the loss, but we got a Blitz! on the kick off and were able to get under the ball. We even caught it, and the bounce when team Marvin initially knocked it loose. I managed to extricate Eridu from the tangle and form a cage behind the LOS. Alas, I wasn't able to make forward progress and eventually lost it. I was able to surround it but then kept failing dodges, catches and/or pickups and simply couldn't get it downfield to Nebullchadnezzar who was waiting in the open. I also made a critical mistake that allowed team Marvin to recover when I missed a 2 die hit on a ghoul that knocked my chorf down the very next turn. Huge mistake! I made one last attempt on the Fleshie who had stolen my rightful TD when he caught a bouncing loose ball but could only mark him. He just handed off to Wilhelm and that was game. At least I denied him his SPPs.

Good game, and a good run for the Tauruses. I have no complaints, I was happy to make it this far. I wish I could have made it to the final but it wasn't to be. Now I will take a nice break from tournaments for a while. 8 games, and every single one of them scheduled with a coach either 5 or 6 hours ahead of me. I've had to twist my schedule into a pretzel and play late night games, early morning games, and mostly games on weekends. I will enjoy a few months of not having to do this anymore for a while. FUMBBL, you won't have the Tauruses to kick around for a bit. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Time to go make my donation for JackAssRampant's fundraiser.

Update - this was the team's 50th game. 40/3/7 with 4 tournament wins and this Semi-Final in the FUMBBL Cup. Not too shabby.”