Das Freeboot

No guest authors today, this one from me about my recent experience "Freebooting" at a couple of recent tournaments.

Well, kinda, but not quite...

Running a Blood Bowl tournament is fraught with perils but the big one is: "will everyone show up"? With individual tournaments the TO is often the "spare man" and will bring a team so they can both O the T and play - rather than give up a bye every round and have a player sit around without a game. Not all TO's are so keen to play, though, as they usually have plenty else to do besides play 3-6 games - although some exceptions prove the rule - and so are quite relieved when an even number of players attend on the day. However with team tournaments, missing a player from a team of 4 causes all sorts of issues - and missing a whole team can be a major problem. Luckily, a plucky band of Blood Bowl specialists are there to swoop to the rescue: the Freebooters.

In a Blood Bowl sense, a Freebooter is someone who volunteers to keep the weekend free in case they're needed. This can either be people who've missed the ticket deadline, people who had plans which have changed - or just some publicly-spirited locals who want to help out. In any case they're useful for a TO to be able to call on short-notice if they're in a jam.

My freebooting story started this year with Home Nations (4-5 July). TO BBJock ended up short a team of 4 after several withdrawals so I ended up on a team with 3 other plucky players: SBBC regulars Doglobro & SnarkyHobbit along with Ellusionn from Poland (who we'll undoubtedly catch up with again in Warsaw).

The "fantastic" freebooter four: "Last Minute Saviours"

My second Home Nations was a fantastic experience. It's a great tournament with some high-quality play teamed with friendly and welcoming atmosphere. Even if you lose your own game, your team can still pull off a round win. With the pressure off I ended up playing some uninhibited elf-bowl with the new-ish (at the time) High Elf roster and finished with a reasonable 3-2-1. The team matching my score for a creditable 16th from 68 finishing above the Welsh, T&T & Maltese Open teams. The highlight of the weekend, however, happened upstairs in the Bowl.

No, I don't mean Wales beating Ireland...

The other tournament I managed to freeboot my way into was Bilbali in Spain. Bilbali has been on my BBucket list for a while and I was offered a spot on "Thistle Hurt" with LewishM, Xiao & Purdindas. As my first overseas tournament I was a bit nervous about what to expect... however my fears were overcome in round 1 after a couple of Radlers and a game against some very enthusiastic (and perhaps a little tipsy) wrestling enthusiasts.

I'm told not all Spanish tournaments start this way...

I think my favourite thing about this one was the camaraderie of the travelling coaches, but the locals all made us very welcome and based off this evidence I'll certainly be looking to do a bit more BB travelling in the near future. My Humans ended on 5-2-1 good enough for 40th with the team finishing 68th of 116 on 2-3-3. Mournival (who, as a seasoned BB traveller, seems to know everyone) was certainly getting into the "Scots on Tour" spirit - but still managing to come away with a brilliant 2nd place with the SBL Ultras.

Mournival meets Massa

As an additional bonus, just before we left the country it seems Spain won some minor sporting event as well. So a great time was had all round.

If you fancy a spot of Freebooting, travelling or if drinking lots while co-incidentally playing board games is your thing, a great place to start is the Tartan Trailblazer Discord where you'll find many like-minded souls who'll provide you with a lot of help and support - and may even offer you a spot on a team.