April Anarchy 2023

 A Blood Bowl: Team Manager tournament

Our dynamic duo at Neff Central is preparing to host the 4th annual April Anarchy!  This annual tournament pits Ben vs Jen in a 2-player tournament of 6 initial matchups -- all of the Blood Bowl Team Manager teams -- against one another to determine which is supreme! NOTE: The 2022 tournament was postponed indefinitely due to unforeseen disruptions in the Crystal Ball Network. 

The teams are divided into a bracket style head-to-head matchup in a two-player, single-elimination  format. Once 6 teams win and advance, if a either Jen or Ben has two teams that are now matched up head-to-head, they will select which team they wish to control going forward.

Each round, the losers of a match will be eliminated as the winner advances. From 12 teams to 6 teams to 3; until there are only two, where finally one will be crowned the champion of April Anarchy! Check out last years results here: April Anarchy 2021. In 2023 we might implement a "Loser Bracket" giving one team a chance at getting back into the Semi-Finals! The teams are ranked into seeds to determine their overall strength, based on personal opinion and last years results, although lower seeds may be well suited to cause an upset and defeat a higher ranked favorite, so as usual nothing is guaranteed. To preview the teams and learn about their strengths and weaknesses, go to:

Fantasy Flight Games.com - Bloodbowl Team Manager - Team Analyses

BGG thread "wich-team-best"

This weekend we drafted our teams and set up a bracket.

Ben draftees:    Champions of Death {Undead}, Skavenblight Scramblers {Skaven}, Athelorn Avengers {Wood Elf}, Gouged Eye {Orc}, Nurgle's Rotters {Nurgle}, Reikland Reavers {Human}

Jen draftees:    Chaos All-Stars {Chaos}, Grudgebearers {Dwarf}, Lowdown Rats {Goblin}, Zharr-Naggrund Ziggurats {Chaos Dwarf}, Black Fangs {Vampire}, Naggaroth Nightmares {Dark Elf}

   

Matches will start this week!

UPDATES TO COME...        Results:

Round 1

Game 1 -- April 9, 2023

 The dirty Lowdown Rats cheated their way to victory as the refs were clearly paid off! As one after another of the followers of the God of Pestilence were thrown out, the pitch was flooded with gobbos for days. Even so, disease was rampant and Nurgle's Rotters were looking good to advance for the first time in the Anarchy tournament. Only a final tackle by a Troll put the Goblins into the next round! 
Nurgle's Rotters (Ben) 28 - Lowdown Rats (Jen) 31

Game 2 -- April 10, 2023

Bull Centaurs played a big roll in this game and the second string Hobgoblins were on the pitch by the end as the Ziggurats had a healthy lead. 
Athelorn Avengers (Ben) 23 - Zharr-Naggrund Ziggurats (Jen) 35

Game 3 -- April 14, 2023

The Chaos All-Stars had massive Star Power and even so just eked out a win over the game, but slow, Champions of Death. The mummies were especially inefficient this go around, crumbling to dust at the hint of a tackle.

Chaos All-Stars (Jen) 44 - Champions of Death (Ben) 38

Game 4 -- April 16, 2023

The Eye ran the table, breaking out to a 20 point lead based on High Stakes Week. The Nightmares tried to make a match of it, but two skaven mutants BoneCrusher and Headsplitter laid the smack down on those elves. The troll went on a massive tear, injuring three players including two in the fina, only getting thrown out once, for a change!

The Gouged Eye (Ben) 60 -  Naggaroth Nightmares (Jen) 26

Game 5 - April 18, 2023

The Dwarves took a lead and had strong Star power. The showed a penchant for taking control of the pitch, and standing firm. But the skaven just out cheated them. They bribed, stabbed, and ran too many ratmen onto the pitch. They sprinted like their lives depended on it (and they often did!), squeaking out a tournament fixture victory with six cheating incidents in the one event alone!

Skavenblight Scramblers (Ben) 42 - Grudgebearers (Jen) 36

Round 2

Game 6 - April 26, 2023

The Lowdown Rats came into this match cocky. And why not!? THey fouled and ran with the ball, tripped up Blitzers and signed Star Trolls and other beastly allies away from other chaotic teams. They developed a slew of upgrades, including bombs, and offensive coach, a tackling coach, dodging tactics, etc.

The Gouged Eye focused on getting a fanbase, but without some fortuitous cheating may have been swept in the first fixture. THen it took 7 points in SPP to eek out a victory in the Chaos Cup! With no star players they took the Sprike Trophy, and  with the help of a Rat Ogre took the Goblin Leeg as well. 
The goblins were up to the challenge, but in the end it was the harder hitting orcs that move on to the semi finals.

The Gouged Eye (Ben) 42 - Lowdown Rats (Jen) 28

Game 7 - April 26, 2023 

Star Players were hard to come by, and the Skaven lost a number of matchups due to effective cheating by the Ziggurats. It was a close match, decided by a deft move by freebooters to keep the Skaven out of the endzone in the final fixture. The dark dwarves hit harder and managed to hold to a close margin of victory, advancing to the semi-finals for the first time!

Skavenblight Scramblers (Ben) 30 - Zharr-Naggrund Ziggurats (Jen) 34

Game 8 - April 28, 2023

Reikland hosted the playoff match against the Chaos All-Stars, and the matchup began on the side of the home team.  Soon however, the Chaos All-Stars recruited many star players and were staffed to win going into the final round. Then the referees showed both red and yellow cards to the Chaos team... surely the Reavers bribed them! Then a couple of All-Stars were tossed from the next highlight for cheating... FIX!

The final trophy was a tie - and the REavers won with final fan support and upgrades 9-7.

Reikland Reavers (Ben) 34 - Chaos All-Stars (Jen) 34

Game 9 - April 30, 2023

The humans travelled to the blasted Dark Lands east of the Empire. They brought a total of eight star players with them! Following behind was a long wagon train of fans, merchants, wizards, sponsors, and others looking to make money off the April Anarchy 2023 Finals. These people from the Empire were confident of victory, suffering from hubris after winning Holiday Havok in 2022. THe Dwari Aharr, or Chaos Dwarves, cheated, fouled, bribed, and hit their way to winning ALL FOUR fixtures and took a VERY narrow victory over the REavers.

The Ziggurats will now be facing off against the Eye in their first Anarchy Finals! 

Reikland Reavers (Ben) 27 - Zharr-Naggrund Ziggurats (Jen) 28

THE FINALS

Game 10 - May 4, 2023

First Round of the April Anarchy FInals everyone missed their tackles and the Eye edged ahead with Rivalry Week. In the DUngeon BOwl the Orcs failed to land a single tackle again! What a disgrace and the Ziggurats took the lead.

The Orcs tied it up in the third matchup - the Far Albion Cup, at 22-22.

The blood bowl was a tight matchup, and the lack of hitting by the Eye seemed to actually confuse the Dwarven game plan. THe Chaos Dwarves sent everyone to the Blood BOwl pitch, and the Eye cleaned up on smaller matchups. Team upgrades pushed them over the edge and the Orcs win the April Anarchy trophy!

The Gouged Eye (Ben) 37 - Zharr-Naggrund Ziggurats (Jen) 33