Blood Bowl World Cup
On Thursday 3 October, the Eltham and Caterham Lions flew to Austria for the Blood Bowl World Cup.
Looking across the table into the eyes of your opponent at the start of a Blood Bowl game is always something special, sharing the knowledge that, between you, the next two hours will promise drama, tremendous concentration through a series of chess-like puzzles, and incredible good fun in a competitive and sporting atmosphere. Competing at the biggest tournament of its kind, the team that attended the Blood Bowl World Cup in Austria have gained an unique experience that will stay with them for life.
We played nine games across three days, sometimes playing over eight hours of Blood Bowl a day against opponents from France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands. The team had to play their games in a range of languages, against opponents who have been playing Blood Bowl since the 1970s.
Walking into the convention centre to register the two teams, The Eltham and Caterham Lions A and B teams were treated to an electric atmosphere, as over 1,500 players from six continents collected their passes, put on their lanyards, and gathered the skill markers for their teams’ combinations. With live music, including a special acoustic percussion band to hurry play along in the dying minutes of each tie, the excitement was palpable. The boys were treated like celebrities due to their age, they were constantly asked for selfies and given gifts of miniatures, teams, dice and merchandise!
Playing as two teams of six (each with an individual game), every draw mattered to the overall fixture, which could be won 4-2, drawn 3-3 etc. The students did themselves incredibly proud, with the A-team emerging with a winning record of 5-1-3 and coming 68th out of 236 teams, and the B-team coming 218th with a record of 2-0-6. The A team beat some British Champions, whilst Finn Ogilvie of the B team managed to secure a draw against the captain of the Italian National team, who narrowly lost the final – finishing second.
This was truly a unique experience that the team will remember forever, and are already looking ahead to the next world cup in 2023!
