“Although I'm usually very frustrated when I get kicked out of a tournament, I feel oddly content about this. As unimpressive as the game appeared I just feel like I did very well controlling the pace and reacting to the circumstances.

Half one I experienced 3-4 consecutive turnovers which made me up end up out of position and my main concern was to avoid cas because I knew I didn't have terrible odds to advance on a tie.
I knew if I managed a couple of cas on the dwarves I had good odds to at least come out on an even tie breaker when his player ressources brought down.

One of my biggest concerns was that jimmy hadnt used any cards or wiz in half 1 which meant a lot of threats were about to come.

Jimmy defended the ball really well and ultimatively I didn't want to start a scrum there that might have cost me cas.
The Trollslayer who could out my troll was my biggest concern and I tried my best to take advantage of his low av and to take him out. Unforutnatly that didn't happen either.

The critical moment was the 1turn score and I knew that succeeding there was huge so I took my time to plan it out carefully. Ultimatively I found a very nice way to do it with only 3 blocks it required 2 push backs due to a stand firmer. Passing the ball to the reciever failed and I had to use up my RR. Then the blitz turned out to be a pow and that was done.

Next half Jimmy started with a broad amount of cards to hit me. I was relieved knowing I could probably deal with it and hadnt to worry about them anymore for now.
At this point he had done one cas and I hadn't done any. I knew it would get awfully close on the tie breaker and i was well advised rather to push for win.

This also meant that injuries didn't matter anymore. I didn't really had a plan how to beat him on his offense but figured with the higher time restraints and more odds I might be able to switch things up, maybe even kick deep in his half. Something I usually never do.
A blitz occured but it wasn't for me but for him. My player close to the ball boneheaded thanks to a card and I was suddenly moving backwards rather than forward.
The dwarves had a good pace and tied most of my players up on the line.
As usual my offensive setup was ill prepared to deal with a blitz but I knew that dwarves weren't too well prepared to exploit it.

Jimmys Runner went forward on a cruisade all alone and it ended up being 3 of my catchers vs 1 of his. He tried to block my path and I tried to let him shadow clear the path, unfortunatly he didn't fall for it.
Everything worked out well anyways. I got a hit on his game winning runner player and he was stunned, secured a cage.
Everything looked well overall.
In the turn before I was a bit concerned he could use the wiz dodge through some lucky tacklezones and bring it home.
Now I was less concerned. His runner was down and he couldnt do great things to exploit the situation.
He went for a retard fireball on the cage and it worked out pretty ok. He got two of my guys down but didnt have incredibly great access to the carrier. Anyways he blitzed and got him down. Where to step was kind of a hard decision. I could have gone between two still standing players and this way secured the ball in a zone but that meant to involve 3 more dwarves into the game on the bottom side that could have potentially be used to build a cage.
I figured as long as the ball remains in the middle and those 3 dwarves are cut off, it will be much easier to reretrieve it.
As a matter of fact I figured it would be exremly easy.
In the end I underestimate the guard again and jimmies excellent capabilities to to use it to defend against me. He had surrounded his carrier with cover. it was far from perfect but it was decent enough to potentially only give me a -2d block on his skilless player.
A guarder of mine stood right there next to one of the supporters.
So my first step was to try to bring him closer to be able to set up a 1d or even 2d block. Unforutnatly i got both down, couldn't move him and suddenly the whole situation looked much worse.
My kroxy could get a 2d on the carrier and i soon realized this was my second best move to use.
The kroxy however needed two dodges to reach his target. I could have praid for not having to use BT on the first dodge and then alter my plans on the second but I kinda couldn't afford to fail because I feared jimmy would somehow make the ball accessible to his better carrier in the next turn.
So if only i could free up the krox. Fortunatly there was a way, it only required a 2d pow. The pow didn't come.
Now I was almost out of options. I still had a ag4 st3 sacker with all the good skills but now he was tied up well and my best shot was a -2d on a player with Sure Hands.

I decided to try, had to do a risky 3+ dodge then leapt from a DT and was home free. the block was only good for a touchback and i was in trouble.
I rudderd back to keep the ball away from the good carrier and put another zone on it.

Jimmy used his turn to build up a cage at the side, I figured it would be hard to get there but it didn't look futile.. also I knew i had to step up my game.
More cas kept flying now and after the wiz i had already lost 3 catchers. Odds continueusly diminished now and it was imperative that I ended the drive somehow and could replenish.
And then I caught a break. Jimmy failed the dodge, the ball came loose and ended on his star slayer, who was standing right next to 2 of my players from of which one had guard.
All was good.
Another guarder was next to the 2 and i weighted my options again. Finally I decided to go for a blitz with my newly created st3 dodge catcher. He only needed a leap and a 35/36 dodge to execute the blitz and in case of failure he'd provide an assist so that I could throw a second 2d block.
Unfortunatly the leap was a 1 and i had to use up the RR.
The Dodge worked and the blitz was both down.
With that another action failed very early in turn. Jimmy continued to injure more players, key postions werent many left and he knew he could just build a massive cage since he didnt even have to score.

I tried my best to mix it up a little but ultimatively at this point I just didnt have the players anymore to make a difference.

Jimmy ended it nicely with lots of cas and a 2:0 lead secured a really good position in advancing to the finals.

Jimmy was convinced he would win and he turned out to be right.
I had a pretty good feeling about winning the game initially and although the game went as it did I can't say I would feel differently facing the same situation again. :)
Makes Jimmys win all the more worthwhile.

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