The periodic newsletter of the New World Bloodbowl League

Final Heat Coming!

Hello Fellow fanatics, Jon Madmann here. We're about to enter another play off season, and there are still 8 teams eligible for the four play off berths. With 2 berths clinched (congrats Mike and Jerry) that leaves 5 more coaches fighting over the last 2, 3 from the Red conference and two from the Blue. Every game this weekend has play off connotations!

Here is how it breaks down

Red Conference Record (pts) CasTD

1) Darktower Slayers. 5-0-4 (29 pts) 28
Tied in the standings with the Wild Ones after their last game, the Slayers lead them by 1 in the important Cas/TD rating. With a win over the Deathrow Posse, they will equal the Wild Ones in the standings, will have split the season, and so it will come down to the increasingly important Cas/TDs. If they can maintain their dominance in Casualties (18 this season behind only the Tombstone Terrors and the Backwata Bashas, both of whom caused 19 casualties) and score enough to beat the Posse, they could end the season ahead of the Wild Ones and give us one of the most exciting come-from-behind seasons ever, rivaled only by the Arabica Knights who went 0-1-4 last season and ended up facing the eventual Blood Bowl Winner, the Deathrow Posse in the play offs!

2) Wild Ones. 5-0-4 (29 pts) 27
They need a win AND either a Darktower Slayers loss, or a Deathrow Posse loss while still scoring/causing 2 more Cas/Td's than the Slayers. [The Wild Ones sit at 27 (21+6), the Slayers 28 (10+18)]. If they lose to Athena's Avengers, they need to score many Cas/Tds doing so and have the Slayers go down to the Posse in a 1-0 pillow fight. Anything resembling the earlier match between those two (5 cas/td for the Slayers and 4 for the Posse) will send them to the Blood Golf course a couple weeks earlier than they hoped. The key to the rest of the Wild Ones season will be avoiding injury, scoring a LOT of TD's and getting back their rookie Wardancer, Nut Ironbranch. He's sitting out against the Avengers due to his Welcome to the league Concussion doled out by the Slayers in their last game, and will definitely figure into any run the WO's plan to make in the Play-offs, if they can get past the Avengers. With only 10 players hitting the field this weekend, look for the Wild Ones to pull out all the stops and try to reach the endzone 4-5 times in order to cement their play off spot.

Darkhorse: Deathrow Posse! 4-0-5 (24pts) 31
As we can see from their TD/Cas rating, they've had a productive year, coming up just short to really be in the driver's seat. If the possible 4 way tie of 5-0-5 happens in the Red conference, the Posse stand a good chance of going on, as they've a 3 and 4 point lead on their closest competitors, the Slayers and Wild Ones. Given a repeat of their earlier match, the Posse would come out ahead with a win, a rating of 35 and a chance to try and beat the vaunted Tombstone Terrors again and go on to defend their Championship from last year.

Really Dark Horse: Athena's Avengers 4-0-5 (24pts) 15
Sadly, the Avengers are all but out of contention, needing to not only win, but score a combined 14 Cas/Td's against the squirrelly Wild Ones, to merely equal the Slayers, a Herculean feat to say the least. Better luck next season, Avengers!

Blue Conference Record (pts) CasTD

1) Harbingers of Doom 5-2-2 (33) 31
With two ties, the Harbingers left the door open for the Arabica Knights and need to win AND maintain their Cas/TD lead (currently 3) over the Knights. With an upcoming game against the Rage D'Homme, the Doom need to keep focused and not give the Amazons any bulletin board material. At 0-1-8, the Rage are just chomping at the bit to trip up the Doom and end the season on a positive note. Keeping his cards close to the vest, the Harbingers' coach would say only We're going to try and win, and if any Amazons get hurt, hey, it's Blood Bowl, right? May the best team win! The Doom are no strangers to amazons, having faced them twice last season, including and opening day 0-1 defeat to the then upstart Avengers. If they can establish a presence on the field and not let the dodge-y amazons go too crazy, the Doom look to be in a good position to win. If they lose, they need the Knights to also lose, otherwise the Knights would finish at 6-0-4 and the extra win would put them over the top and into their second play-off game in two years, despite having equal points.

2) Arabica Knights 5-0-4 (29) 28
The Knights need to stick it to the reeling Skaven Skrewballz, who have been treated roughly this season, marking their lowest team rating since the innaugural season of the New World League. Giving up 3 handicaps means the Knights will have a strong chance to establish control early in the game and close the door on this once celebrated team, as well as ending a second season for their rivals, the Harbingers of Doom, in as many years. If they can take advantage of the lightly armored ratz, and keep them off the field, they can run up the score (and maybe the casualty count). While they are missing two lineman, they will still have a two player advantage over the ratz, who have only one Storm Vermin and one Gutter Runner left. That last Gutter Runner is a rat for all seasons though, with blodge, leap, and Dirty Player, and could be menace to any scoring effort by the Knights. He should be targeted for some good old-fashioned dirty treatment as soon as possible. Not that this reporter is trying to tell the Knights coach how to do his job, but that guy is an abomination and should have his membership card in the NWL investigated. He is probably an illegal immigrant and should be deported, damn dirty rat!

Other Interesting match-ups:
Tombstone Terrors v Bloodriver Savages: Can the Terrors keep their head of steam up and enter the play off with only one loss? Can the Savages play for the future, redeem their season and take out a Mummy or two? Only time will tell.

Chaos Crushers v Backwata Bashas: Will the Crushers continue to steamroll their opponents and careen into the Post season a lofty 8-1-1? Can the Bashas reach down and pull themselves up from the brink of the abyss and punch those nasty dirty chaos in the mouth? With a win, this would represent the winningest Season in Bashas history, and could be a spring board to future glory. Only Time will tell.

The information presented here is fictional. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.