“OCCS Middenheim Challenge 11/07 - round 2
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This month's Middenheim Challenge has been largely an undead affair and the next on the schedule for the Midnighters where Bethino's family. What looked like a very hard challenge with the undead sporting a row of blodge ghouls and the Midnighters missing their excellent strip ball tackler would turn out to be a very exciting match where to factors decided the win. Succesful dodges and a avoiding casualties. Looking at the casualty spread it looks like a one sided match, but it was a close call to the very end.

The match started with the opponents winning the kickoff (it's like the 5th tournament match in a row now...) and it looked quite scary when the undead quick stepped around the LOS and killed Charnel on the very first block of the match. Charnel who was recruited from St. Hallow's Eve in the first round of the tournament seems set on making it into the history books by playing for as many teams as possible.

Despite the bad start the Midnighters bounced back though. They landed a couple of gangfouls on the mighty Montserrat, but the dp didn't break through...something that sure would have changed the outcome a lot considering how well the mummy tied up opponents throughout the match.

On the other hand, the AG 4 wight Marta was a huge disappointment for Bethino's, fumbling the ball a lot and then getting KO'd for the rest of the match. A failed pass let Kevin storm in and snatch up the ball.

Casualties were mounting as the flesh golem Gilbert Gluttony was badly injured, but the Midnighters held their grip and got rid of one of the many blodge ghouls on a surf and tripped another to a deadly fall on a his dodge attempt.

Both warewolves were knocked out int he struggle to break Kevin lose of the opponents, but they succeeded in their task and the ghoul could rush off and score just before the half time break.

Marta the wight didn't make it back, but sadly neither did Nighthowler, who also stayed out for the rest of the match.

The second half started with the Midnighters in control of the ball and with a 1-0 lead, but suddenly it felt like fate didn't want them to succeed. A missed blitz on one of the mummies by Shadowclaw confuzed the necros and in the melee the undead stormed through their ranks. Margins were rarely on the Midnighters side and when Kevin slipped in the grass when he tried to dodge away from one of the mummies the possession was lost to the opponents.

Second half was just a misery for the Midnighters, where the only bright point was that Shadowclas survived a couple of really scary gangfouls. Nury could score in the end of the half and bring the match to OT.

The Midnighters won the kickoff, but since they failed to inflict injuries they now had an inferior squad compared to the opponents. A charge down the left flank to end the match quickly instead lead to them being boxed in and in a fatal turn both Duskblight and Jason were surfed off the pitch.

The rest of the match was a cat and mouse race, with the few remaining Midnighter players trying to keep away from the opponents and find a hole in the defenses...or at least hold out for a coin toss. But in the end Kevin lost the ball again and the succesful dodges of the Bethino ghouls proved an impossible task to defend against.

Thanks for the match, Bethino. It was fun and exciting. I think my fans are a bit too picky if they desert the team after such a match, even though we failed to inflict a single casualty through blocks despite lots and lots of attempts.

Good luck in round 3!”