“I need to stop playing this game at 1 in the morning. My temper gets the better of me, and I'm less than pleasant to my opponent. For that, I'm sorry, Emberglow. Try to catch me sometime during the day; I promise to be a better sport!

This game got won for him by a combination of early cas to my players (blodge was ZERO protection vs his non-tacklers-non-blockers, as POWs were plentiful whenever he blocked), plus some insanely frustrating gutter runners, in particular Icky. In fact, if I hadn't managed to bh him first half, I doubt I would've been able to score at all!

The ridiculousness started early in turn 2 of the match, as he intercepted a pass in a tz, proceeded to bh two players same turn, and return it for a too-easy score. Those blasted gutters made it impossible for my elves to get around and score, esp when he gets two more cas in the first half and I can't complete anything requiring a 3+ roll w/rr. Only good thing to come out of this was causing a cas to his uber-gutter Icky, the blodging-sidestepping-diving tackler with a prehensile tail. *shudders* Of course, I ko myself on a gfi for a score...

Second half, he scores way too easily again, after my blitz on his blockless gutter holding the ball results in pushback. Line up for the kick trailing 2-0, and he gets a blitz, easily reaching the ball with a gutter, none of my elves within range to blitz him effectively. But incredibly, it was finally in turn 5 of the second half that my elves started to play like elves. His gutter actually drops the kickoff, allowing my woodie catcher to race in, pick up the ball in tz (first 3+ success all game!), knock down his passblocker so I could pass the ball for a change (another 3+ success!), catch in a tz (3 3+!!! Where was this all game???) and race for the endzone, as my tree kills his only tackler (apo save, but he's on the ground and won't be able to reach the ball carrier). Score!

Line up for the kick, this time I get to blitz for the first time in a dozen games! BH one of his FA guys, ko the other, am actually able to catch the ball as it comes down, and his tackler fails to knock me over for once. Simple matter (for an elven team actually succeeding it's 2+ dodges and passes) to score again, giving us 2 scores in 2 turns and making it a 3-2 game. But there's only one turn remaining, so have to hope for yet another blitz...but to no avail. Game over.

Incredibly, our apo works to stop a niggle on our treeman (caused by his rookie rat ogre on my av 10 blocking tree--my tree meanwhile knocked his RO down several times, with only a single stun on his av 8. Figures.) but yet another perm injury to a lineelf. That means I have...two healthy lineelves, three niggles, a -str and a -av rookie. My ff needs to start going up very soon, or else I won't be able to continue the team. I'm already keeping more injuries on the roster than I like, as I simply can't afford to replace them.”