“Well, there I was, a first-time BB coach, standing in the first round of the Battleground BBOL tourney with my brand-new Wood Elf team, and had no clue how they wound fare. And my opponents were Dwarves, of all kinds of races. It would certainly be a very tough match.

The Dwarves were first to kick, and they promptly caused a Touchback! Seeing that there was an uncovered corridor along their sideline, I gave the ball to the Lineelf that was already standing there and had him run, sending a second player to follow and cover him. A touchdown in turn 2 would be a perfect start to this match, for me at least. :) Unfortunately, my Wardancer Valmarion was knocked down when attempting to break through the Dwarves' LOS, causing a turnover.
Die Schaufler immediately went after my ballcarrier. But they weren't able to tackle him down! When it was my turn again, only a successful Dodge roll stood between me and my first career touchdown...
I rolled and - failed, took a re-roll and - failed again. Blech! There went my opportunity to get an early lead. And worse was to come.

The Dwarves, of course, took possession of the ball and headed towards my end zone, taking down any of my players they could reach. Soon, several elves were lying on the ground. My most important player - Valmarion the Wardancer - was KOed by a foul, Loriel Oakenleaf got badly hurt and had to miss the rest of the match. To make things worse, I continued to have extremely bad luck on my Dodge rolls. (My Luck rating went down to 22% at one point.) When Die Schaufler eventually scored in turn 7, only seven elves were still on the field.

The second half began, and my KOed players returned to action, except for Coreth Elnash, so I now had nine elves available. I was kicking, and when the Dwarves picked up the ball and moved forward, Valmarion Leaped over their line of tacklers and blitzed the Slayer carrying the ball. Unfortunately, he failed and was knocked down in the attempt. Consequently, the Dwarves moved forward much like in the first half, but met a bit more resistance. The brave Elthan attempted to blitz the ballcarrier three times, never succeeding. They, in turn, continued tackling and occasionally fouling - they even managed to discourage the referee from punishing their dirty play two times. Eventually, he did send one of their players off the field, but the game was all but decided. Die Schaufler scored another touchdown, winning the match 2-0.

<i>Well, the Dwarves played the game their way, and my team just couldn't keep up with them. Speed and ballhandling are their strengths, but if they can't get the ball because those Dwarves just shake off your tackling attempts, they have a problem. As you see above, only one pass was played in the entire game. That was in the very last turn, just to get a SSP for my lineelf... And damnit, I even had to use a re-roll on this pass to make it connect! Poor dice results were another problem I had. This became evident in turn 2, when my player failed two 3+ rolls to dodge out of one opponent's tackle zone - he would have been completely free to score!

But there was good news, too. For one, my team didn't suffer any permanent damage and would be able to play at full strength in their next match. They also got an FF increase and received 50000 gold pieces - just enough to get an Apothecary! I am already looking forward to Game 2. Just hope my opponents won't be Dwarves again - it might yet happen...</i>”