BB Online: Every Team Cup

While we've had FUMBBL since 2002, GW official online Blood Bowl grew out of a Cyanide title called Chaos League with the release of BB1 in 2009 - with iterations released in 2015 and 2020. After Cyanide went into administration earlier this year, there was a troubling lack of information on the future of the game until it was announced that the next game, Warhammer Blood Bowl would be picked up by GW-friendly studio Slitherine. Now that the Blood Bowl has a more secure future, it's likely that online tournaments and events are back on the calendar. Taking full advantage is SBBC's own Online Lead and BB3 aficionado Scott "L0rd Gibby" Gibb with a successful run in MisspelledTree's "Every Team Cup" (ETC).

I caught up with Scott to find out what happened...

The current version of GW-licensed Blood Bowl: BB3

Stripeydave (SD): Before we start, congratulations on the win it's a real achievement.

Quick first question to get us started - what's the story behind your NAF name?

L0rd Gibby (LG): Gibby has been my nickname since school, I used to play PVP on a game called destiny and the PVP character was called lord shacks and my friends thought it would be funny to change my GT to Lordgibby so I did and it's been that now for over 15 years or so.

SD: So how long have you been playing Blood Bowl and what are your favourite races?

LG: I've played on and off from around 2009 took a 5/6 years break till around 2016 and been playing ever since. My favourite team is any elf team but mainly wood elves.

SD: For this tournament: what was your decision-making process your team selection? LG: So the ETC (Every Team Cup) you don't get to choose what you play. You sign up and you can say to the TO what teams you don't want to play and then you get allocated live on stream what team you get to play decided by the wheel of fate, it's a wheel the TO spins and allocates the teams to coaches. I got Underworld.

L0rdGibby's Underworld team from ETC

SD: Who did you play against, how did you feel the matchups went?

LG: The coaches I faced were as follows:

Group stages:

• Tempsey

• Armsiee

• Frank1129

Knockout stages:

• BB_Nut

• Akindsir

• Jleav

• Squirrel

• Star Ferret (final)

Group stages went well for me I went 2-1-0 with the only draw being against OWA.

Most of the matches went well but in the knockout stages some of the games became rough, there were a few games where I just had to roll the dice and see what happens but sometimes that's what you have to do.

SD: What were some of the crucial plays (yours and your opponents) that contributed to your results?

LG: So my game plan from game 1 to the final was always kick the ball and just isolate a player from the team and take them off the pitch let me opponent score late thinking they had a 8 turn stall to then 1 turn them with the gutter runner.

Second half was keep the ball away score and then use the snots to stop my opponents 1 turn attempt.

SD: Any other memorable moments?

LG: The final I thought the game was over, I failed the 1 turn Vs flings and then went for a quick score to turn them over again quick and score, I failed the catch on the gutter which put the ball in danger. My opponent then failed to recover the ball but it was a 3+3+4+2+2+ to score. Heart in mouth I went for it and it paid off - got the score.

Same game another moment my opponent failed to score on his turn 15 the ball was on the floor I had a 3+ dodge 6+ pick up 3+ dodge and a 3+ pass with the chance for Zug to intercept the ball and then the gutter 2+ catch all came off and I was then waiting to see if the flings could one turn me back.

My first game Vs tempesty I had to do a 6+ pass with the gutter runner to a goblin to score to win the game safe to say I was happy that came off well.

SD: What advice do you have for coaches looking to take part in this tournament?

LG: This was a online tournament and I say if you want to get better at playing blood bowl you should play these tournaments as you can learn a lot from the skill level of the coaches involved. Also the ETC I would highly recommend as it's such a fun tournament that you don't know what team you will get and it also gives you a chance to practice a team you may not be used to and it doesn't impact your NAF record if it's not NAF sanctioned. Anyone looking to join the next ETC check out the TO stream channel on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/misspelledtree

SD: Thanks Gibby and congratulations again!

If you fancy having a look, a replay of the final is here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2810574828

Also - keep your eyes open for details on how you too can win yourself a WHBB World Cup ticket as future online tournaments are announced.