“Background:

Another Orcish Creation (AOC) is a genetic clone of a League team. I created them with the help of some dwarfs, a couple of wizards, and a sacrifice or two, all in an attempt to practice some orc maneuvers before the League game. And if you want some serious practice, there's no place like "the box."

Back to present day

I was initially a little miffed at drawing Muccheggia, having been in the mood to bash in the heads of some elves or humans instead, but as fate would have it, my opponent was to be Chaos, one of the ultimate bash teams. Resolved to having to come up with a brand new playbook on the fly, AOC took off onto the pitch, ready to put on an amazing display for their first match, in front of 27,000 fans, or die at the hands(claws) of the chaos warriors, instead.

Muccheggia won the toss, and decided to receive. Just as AOC was setting up to kick, the rain that had been steadily falling all morning ceased; we took this as a good sign. Of course, the stupid ball bouncing out of the back of the endzone was a lousy follow up. So, the match begun with the expected amount of pushing as the chaos hoard attempted to struggle forward, and we orcs attempting to restrain them. As Muccheggia begun to sweep down along the sideline, the ball in the hands of one of their beastmen, the orcs executed a particularly ingenues maneuver: exploiting the weakness of the too tightly packed cage they were using to protect the ball carrier, the AOC performed a block, resulting in a triple push, popping the ball carrier out of the cage, and directly into the sights of blitzer 2 who had snuck into the backfield during the first turn. With the ball now loose, both teams began wailing away at one another. Unfortunately, the orcs came up on the losing side of that battle, as Muccheggia recovered the fumble, and beastman Marzo took off towards the endzone with the ball.

Having been flanked by the offense, there was only one thing left for AOC to do: start inflicting causalities. Now, most people would target the chaos warriors, citing them are the true powerhouses of any chaos team, and with that power comes strength, a high armor value, and poor odds that you're going to inflict a lasting injury upon them. Also, take this into consideration: how often do you see a chaos warrior with the ball? They're not really known for their movement or agility. It's really those pesky beastmen that end up scoring the points. Those lousy beastmen, who are wearing less armor, and who happen to be standing right there, ripe for a block. In one turn, with a blitz, a block, and a foul, three beastmen had been taken out of play for the rest of the game. Let them have their touchdown, for the second half was only moments away, and we would be receiving.

With the ball kicked deep into their side of the field, AOC began a spectacular drive, including passing and rushing the ball forward through and past the chaos line. Linemen 8 immediately congratulated Marzo on his touchdown, by breaking his jaw, as the orcs marched towards the goal line. But, in an amazing display of resilience, lone beastman Aprile was able to get a claw on the advancing orcs, knocking the ball loose, and out into the crowd. With the ball thrown back along to goal line to midfield, poor Aprile was left standing there, watching in horror, as they were surrounded by orc, before culminating with 3 issuing a vicious blitz against them. Thankfully, due to the injury, Aprile did not have to watch as 8 walked over, picked up the ball, and skipped into the endzone. Game tied, one-all.

Midway through the second half, AOC kicking off, to a chaos team that only had 6 players to field. The odds were now looking in our favor. The kick bounced into the wide zone and close to the line of scrimmage, close enough for a wild grab attempt by one of the two remaining beastmen, or perhaps a lucky roll for one of the chaos warriors. But before either of these could happen, a melee broke out, center field. When the dust finally settled, there was one less orc on the field, as well as one less chaos warrior, and the several orc players had surrounded the ball, as they were now demonstrating their ability to mimic elves, as they passed and rushed their way into the endzone. All that was left after that was a few more pushes, and for the whistle to blow, signifying the beginning of the celebration for Another Orcish Creation's inaugural victory.

I would like to take a moment and thank coach Sengio, who never gave up, even when frustrated.”