“Warpstone Open 2013 Qualifier XIII: Round Three

Qualifier XIII in this year's Warpstone Open seemed destined to be unlucky. There were a host of incredible teams, from one-turning skaven to beastly chaos to wood elves with wardancers rivaling Vindaloo. Any one of these teams would have been favored in another Qualifier, but somehow Nuffle had chosen to lump them all together.

The match started off with a shallow kick to the Watchmen. The wood elves had lined up in formation protecting their most valuable assets - a sidestepping wardancer, a lineelf with piling on and mighty blow, and of course the legendary wardancer GarciRaider. Watchmen Philosophy managed a number of knockouts early on to open up the defense. With the wood elves exposed, Watchmen Philosophy took the ball and retreated, looking to score a few casualties in the first half. This strategy proved moderately successful as the knockouts continued, but knockouts were not going to be enough in a match like this. Retreating deep did open up an opportunity to lay a hit on GarciRaider, an opportunity that the Watchmen did not pass up. Hollis Mason landed a crushing hit on GarciRaider, badly hurting him in the process. Rafadavila wasted no time in employing the apothecary, as the team's hopes lay entirely in the hands of that young wardancer.

The half progressed in true chaos fashion - more knockouts coming along the way and Hollis Mason neutralizing the hitting power of the wood elves by taking out Juandi, their mighty blow/piling on threat. In turn 8 for the Watchmen, Ozymandias walked the ball into the endzone for the touchdown.

Watchmen Philosophy 1, To the Topranked 0

The end of the half came and a one-turn touchdown materialized for To the Topranked in the form of GarciRaider. A blitzing, leaping touchdown that lay silence over the Watchmen fans scattered throughout the crowd.

Watchmen Philosophy 1, To the Topranked 1

When the second half began, five of the seven players who had been knocked out during the first half returned to the pitch. This gave To the Topranked a full squad of eleven players on the field and caused the coach of Watchmen Philosophy to hang his head. Not nearly enough damage had been caused to ensure a victory, let alone a tie. They needed to press their defense.

Instead of taking this approach, however, Watchmen Philosophy hung back on defense at the start of the half. This choice was to prove disastrous. The first move of the half had GarciRaider attemping to pick up the ball and bring it to safety. Doubles ones!

The downside to this apparent good fortune for the Watchmen was that they had set up far too deep to adequately take advantage of this rare wood elf miscue. Watchmen attempted to blitz GarciRaider off the ball to allow for a pickup and pass, but the curse of Nuffle reared its ugly head. Double ones for the Watchmen on the blitz.

From this point, To the Topranked secured the ball with GarciRaider and swung to the right side of the field. Watchmen Philosophy had gotten badly out of position in their attempt to get the ball and found many of their players caught in behind the wall of wood elves, making defense against their agile opponents all the more difficult.

This point in the match saw Nuffle turn his back upon the Watchmen. Perhaps it was their unwillingness to foul a downed wardancer late in the first half. Perhaps it was a cruel twist of fate. Perhaps, as some have speculated, there were hordes of wood elf fans in the crowd chanting spells and rending voodoo dolls limb from limb. No matter the reason, Watchmen Philosophy could simply not secure the knockouts they needed to force a quick touchdown from the wood elves. GarciRaider strode across the goal line in turn 7, sending the wood elf followers into a frenzy.

Watchmen Philosophy 1, To the Topranked 2

Watchmen Philosophy still had two turns to attempt an equalizer, painfully aware the To the Topranked still held a hired wizard in reserve along the sidelines. Throwing caution to the wind, Coach Liquidorange sent his beastmen deep in an attempt to create a group of receivers for Ozymandias. Risks had to be taken, and Ozymandias was left alone with the ball, deep in the Watchmen half, with the hope that the better than 50/50 odds would break in favor of the Watchmen. The use of the wizard was expected and it was anticipated that Ozymandias would stand and throw a long pass to one of the waiting receivers.

All was for naught, however, as the wizard took careful aim. Ozymandias was knocked clean off the pitch by a lightning blast, rendering all efforts by the beastmen up front null and void.

Final Score: Watchmen Philosophy 1, To the Topranked 2

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In the end, this was a great matchup. It certainly could have gone the other way, but this day belonged to the wood elves of To the Topranked. Best of luck in the finals, Rafadavila. See you next time around on the pitch.
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