And needless to say, I am quite pleased with my current standing! When I started this I never imagined even cracking the top 10. I designed my squad with the goal of capturing a racial lead perhaps. The idea was that being in the run for those would keep me motivated to finish the run.

Secondary goal was to develop teams for the XFL, so I picked teams I didn’t have a developed variant for already.

I saw Amazons and Humans as a good opportunity. I selected Dark Elves for something new to play, as I was bored with Norse and Khemri and already have XFL ready teams for that. I do have an Ogre team ready but with zero points for my squad left I had limited choice. I expected that Ogres would be better than Goblins and Halflings if played correctly, and that they would face less competition for the racial lead. So I picked them. I think I was proven right on that one.

However, a good start motivated me initially and at about 30 games in it looked as if a top 10 spot might be realistic. At about 50 games in I was pretty sure that this could be achieved with a bit of luck and focus, and with a lot of luck and focus that I might even make it to the top spot.

That was before Malmir started on his fantastic run, which was quite frankly terrifying to behold. The high score of 87.5 at the time looked achievable (Purplechest's I believe). Malmir’s eventual 92 looked extremely daunting, so I decided to take it one game at a time and reassess my chances after 80 games. I needed at least one more racial lead to have a chance I figured, which further limited margin for errors.

80 games in I started to regain hope, as I had about 74 points if I remember correctly. This could be done, assuming my humans would crack smallman’s racial lead.So eventually my squad managed to top Malmir’s 92, by the slimmest of margins.

At 92 games things looked good, but then I lost many points due to:

1. 
   
2. - Me all of the sudden feeling the pressure. I’m sure that affected my play and cost me a few points
   
3. - Me being eager to finish, so I left my rule of not playing when tired. That certainly affected level of play, especially when things didnt' go well initially
   
4. - Some opponents’ actions. One guy left a game against my Dark Elves that I had practically won without ever returning. That cost me a point much to my frustration. Another coach timed me out while I was disconnected. After returning I used my wizard without realizing this, and that probably cost me 0.5 point. Please note this was not malicious on the other coach’ end, as he apologized. I think he was unaware that I was offline and that he wasn’t aware of protocol when an opponent doesn’t respond. I have certainly made mistakes like that myself.
   
5. - Nuffle presented the bill for my prolonged streak of good games. The last few games I do think I had mostly bad luck, which cost me a win and / or tie here and there. It happens.
   

But even though I had hopes of ending up with maybe 94 points I am obviously very pleased to lead the board of 403 squads as of today, even though I suspect I could lose the lead. Either to lost racial leads or somebody doing better than 92.5. I think it can be done. I certainly regret having picked Dark Elves instead of Norse now, but you can’t have it all I guess. The irony of course is that they are the only team that somewhat developed into the basis for a tourney team.

Thanks everybody for all the great games and lessons learned over this 100 game slog! I intend to put my thoughts about lessons learned in playing bloodbowl in general and with these respective races in a later blog.