Berlin Rumble: Ich Bin Ein Berliner

Volkajo and Fako Boiiz give a masterclass in how to make a tournament special

Adieu to Volkajo, for now… and haste ye back

I found myself in Berlin for the Berlin Rumble to bid Volkajo adieu as he takes a step back from the Blood Bowl community, he says for good, and I, and others, hope it is just for now. Volkajo - a coach, who if you’ve met him, you’ll know embodies the spirit of the community almost like no other. I once said of him that if there was a tournament in the souks of Marrakech, you’d find him in the middle of it all, ensuring everyone was having a good time, feeling welcome and making firm new friends in no time.

In short he was and is my inspiration in the community. He’s why I found myself in Germany to say a fond farewell for now whilst collecting my tenth country badge playing this wonderful game and experiencing more of this heartwarming community wherever it's to be found.

I remember him talking of the caravan of travelling coaches who you’d find at tournaments near or far enjoying and receiving the nourishment of friendship from the fraternity of coaches you meet along the way. I can safely say it was his example that encouraged me to set out on the road and I have him to thank for feeling like I belong in this caravan. 

We have a saying in Scotland, and if you’re reading this Timo, haste ye back my friend.

Fako… Boiiz, a tournament delivered by team effort

Whilst I had gone predominantly to enjoy Volkajo’s company I can safely say dear reader the Berlin Rumble is a tournament that you should have on your radar, add it to the bucket list, for this is a tournament that excels in the little details ensuring you have a smile on your face all weekend, and set to the backdrop of beautiful Berlin.

The Berlin Rumble 2025, with coaches from Austria, Germany, Scotland, Spain and Switzerland Photo Credit: Volkajo

The venue was a hostel with plenty of space to play inside or out, in the walled garden, and with the sun splitting the skies it was nice to be able to sit under a shaded tree with a breeze and cool drink in hand enjoying the company. Inside you could find Volkajo, a la Dinner Ladies (UK sitcom written by Victoria Wood), giving trolley service making sure water, cola or beers were topped up… and when everything was getting too hot deliveries of half-time ice poles were much welcomed!

The Venue, Zwölf Apostel-Kirchengemeinde, with plenty of room to play in and a beautiful walled garden for Blood Bowl in the sun. Photo Credit: Volkajo

It was clear Timo, having travelled extensively, knew just how to host the perfect tournament. But equally, it was his teammates, the Fako Boiiz, who were just as attentively involved in the delivery of the weekend, ensuring visiting coaches felt truly welcome and well looked after. 

A shout out must go to Pedda, Felix11_59, and all the other local coaches who chipped in, whether it be making lunch, painting the very cool Berlin Wall trophies or just hanging out and being great company in the evening in the walled garden with beer in hand.

The 'Berlin Wall' Trophy from the rear. Photo Credit: Felix11_59

Each segment of the Wall Represents a trophy awarded to a coach whether it be the winner, best painted or most casualties - a very cool set of trophies with each segment made by one of the Fako Boiiz in a team effort. Photo Credit: Felix11_59

There was the social gathering on Friday night, and the blessing of the tournament dice (although so much Fako was consumed this ritual slipped to the Saturday morning!) as coaches arrived into town. Unfortunately a later flight and airport security meant I missed the shenanigans. 

However I didn’t miss out on Saturday, which was a four-round affair, but with no hard deadline on the last round of the day. This meant coaches could enjoy a relaxed match and good company with beer in hand as the sun went down. Conversations lasting long into the night before I found myself rounding the evening off with one of Berlin’s famous Turkish Kebabs (reader I confess, my second of the trip!)

A rule set that encouraged a stacked field of great coaches to Rumble!

With a ruleset that placed gold values next to stronger skills; 40k for block, guard et al, versus 10k for premium skills like shadowing and fend, much like Monkey Bowl, a long-standing tournament in England, meant that roster building was not going to be a cookie cutter affair! 

Whether it was the all foul appearance, nearly all stand firm Nurgle of Gr4n0t4 or Centruki’s Goblins with the Black Gobbo and all the toys (no surprises that he racked up 54 casualties to take home the Most CAS segment of the wall!) the visiting coaches from Spain were keen to live up to the spirit of the Berlin Rumble!

I hadn’t gone with the aim of ‘competing’, so I took Norse simply to bang on mens. However, for those that know me, I can’t help but give it my best shot, and I’d need to because this was a field stacked with talented coaches from Germany; Stimme, Tschirgant, Vito and Junior84, to name but a few and coaches from further afield, including Swiss Eurobowl Captain, Jokaero, who’d come to have a beer with Timo.

My Norse roster can be seen below. In short; twelve mens, two pigs, three rerolls, apo and a sprinkling of mighty blow and a dirty player to get the job done. As an elf coach, having only played Norse once before, I was not in my Blood Bowling comfort zone, shall we say! 

Norse Roster for Berlin Rumble, with thanks to bbtc.pl

The Blood Bowl - day one, round one to four

Round one I found myself facing off against Josh, (badluckboii), a relatively new coach, sporting dwarfs. A tough racial matchup, but fortunately for me, having received the drive, I chipped a couple of dorfs along the way to deliver a 2-0 win for a good start.

badluckboii in round one with dwarfs

Round two saw me up against Vito piloting his Undead masterfully. I tried and failed to stop his drive. In the second half on my drive I found myself under huge pressure and it took a giant slice of luck when my ball carrier was sacked and the ball spilled into the crowd. The Berliners were looking on me favourably by delivering an almighty toss of the ball towards Vito’s endzone. A quick escape from a humble lino picked up the ball - he just had to survive that sack attempt with RR - push, skull! Escaped with a quick dodge, and facing a return two-turn drive, which thankfully I was able to repel. A lucky draw for the Norse.

Vito coaching Undead, round two

Round three saw me drawn against Pedda sporting Rat Ogre powered Underworld. Choosing to receive in the rain he was keen to get up on mens with the power of Mighty Blow and Dirty Player… it wasn’t to be some rough dice saw the momentum in the drive stall quite quickly with the gutter runner CAS’d and ball spilled on turn four. All credit to Pedda though he hung in there and what should have been a turnover score was stopped due to a never say die attitude and an inventive roster where his rats sporting two heads got into nooks they ordinarily wouldn’t have. So the half ended 0 - 0 and considering the pounding the underworld had taken Peter was in very good spirits. Up mens I saw out the second half to take a 1 - 0 win as attrition proved too much.

Pedda coaching Underworld with a Rat Ogre who didn't quite fire in round three

Round four - the final round of the day against BigBlackBud, (derived from his love of Black Orc) sporting some Necro invited me to hang out in the Walled Garden. With no clock this was to be the most relaxed round of the weekend as others had the same idea. I won the toss and chose to receive, with both wolves off, one CAS, no regen the drive was all but done by turn three and by the end of the half his ball-handling ghoul was gone too. An easy score to go up 1-0 into the half.

Unfortunately for BBB the misery with the casualties continued until there was nowhere to go - ball was sacked, only to be scattered and caught by the Fleshie! The dream of a Fleshie TD wasn’t to be, and a quick TD allowed for a third score at the death.

With the Blood Bowl done for the day the next few hours were spent enjoying the company of coaches who’d come from near and far as we talked about tournaments we had on the bucket list to visit - too long to list here! Rumours of the suspected new rule set release and life in general. It was one of life’s pleasant evenings and reminded me why I love this community.

Eurobowl Captains in clash of the tournament

Round five and it was top of the table clash of two coaches both on 3-1-0 for breakfast. Jokaero, Switzerland’s Eurobowl Captain, sporting some tough looking dwarfs against my Norse representing Scotland in Hungary later on in the year. As I lost the coin-toss preparing to be banged on, it struck me as I sat across from Marcus that he was akin to Blood Bowl’s Roger Federer - devilishly handsome and talented and about to put my Norse to the sword with a sweeping backhand down the line! 

Jokaero, Switzerland Captain, and surely the Roger Federer of Blood Bowl

My worst fears were realised by the end of his first turn, ball in hand from a touchback, he’d KO’d and stunned two linos, but more worrying CAS’d an Ulf from the blitz! D16 deployed - seven! It felt like this was a pivotal moment in the match where it could already be over. I had to try, apo deployed, four! Saved and ready to come back for the second half I was going to need him for sure.

Jokaero continued to make steady progress down the pitch with mighty blow removing to the KO box more and more lineman, until turn seven… I’d done just enough to hold his dwarfs up meaning he had to loosen the wrought-iron cage he’d marched down the field. Leaving my Valkyrie with a 3,2,2, one-D sack attempt… I went for it with nothing to lose and found a pow into stun! The ball scattered back and I had a chance to punt the ball way down field with the other Valk, but failed the one in nine dodge. A huge slice of luck with the bounce meant his blitzer had to pick-up double rush, with Rerolls for everything… My relief was palpable as he one in nined the pick-up to fail to score, a big let off for me considering the start of the half.

Over two sets of KO rolls and the apo’d Ulf I was back to full strength with the job of driving to score, win and put me in the driving seat for the tournament win - how had I got here with Norse, was a mystery to me! Alas it was not to be - I failed to pick up the ball on four turns and whilst I had stretched the play the removals from the dorfs continued to stack up. I had a long-shot to score on turn 16, but fatigue kicked in and inexplicably didn’t take it… the game was to end in a hard fought, classic dwarven 0 - 0 draw! 

Round Six - Rematch with Junior84!

I had the pleasure of meeting and playing Junior84 at Mulligan’s in Edinburgh this year in round one. (tickets for Scotland’s NAF national for 2026 still available) Unfortunately for me with his lizards he’d bested my Slann. 

So now was the time for revenge, and boy did revenge happen on the board. You’ve heard that old phrase Norse or be Norsed! Well oh my, it happened - by the end of the match there were three thralls from a fifteen man roster left on the pitch! Being an elf-coach this was the first time I’d ever really experienced the power of the removal at scale.

Junior84 still able to raise a smile with nearly his entire team being pitch cleared

It meant the contest ended in a fairly straight forward 2-1 win, but the highlight for me was the good nature Junior brought to the game. Easily the most sociable affair over the board that weekend, where we enjoyed chatting about all sorts and laughing at some of the stupidity that the game can deliver from time-to-time.

The Winners, Thank Yous and Farewells.

Volkajo and Felix set-up to give out the Berlin Rumble’s famous Championship belt. With both Jokaero and I landing on 4-2-0 it was going to tiebreak with Jokaero winning through with a slightly harder strength of schedule - Congrats Jokaero!

Jokaero, Berlin Rumble Champion with Runner-Up, BB_Jock

Thanks were given to everyone involved in bringing together this fun-filled weekend and of course thanks and a fond farewell to Volkajo with his last tournament (for now!)

Many prizes were awarded in the line-up below, congrats to all, and I look forward to seeing you next year. Fako…. Boiiz!!!

Winner and Berlin Rumble Champion: Jokaero (Dwarfs)

Runner-up: BB_Jock (Norse)

Most Touchdowns: Junior84 (Vampires)

Most Casualties: Centruki (Goblins)

Best Defence: Gr4n0t4 (Nurgle)

Most Passes: Gamesup (Elven Union)

Stunty Cup: Kuei-Jin (Gnomes)

Best Painted: BigBlackBud (Necromantic)

Wooden Spoon: Cupcake92 (Halfling)

Best Presentation: LexusD (Halfling)