Team Scotland - Five Top Tips To Winning Your First Cap

Welcome to a two-part blog series for Scottish Coaches who either harbour the ambition for playing for Team Scotland at Eurobowl, or would just like to understand a little more about what goes on underneath the hood to put together the Squad to represent the Scottish community at Eurobowl. 

How I got involved in Team Scotland

This first blog deals with my five top tips as the current Scotland Captain that I’d offer you if you’re looking to get selected at a future Eurobowl. The second in this blog series will look at the analysis and selection decisions that I and the Selection Committee made for Eurobowl in Budapest this coming October. But before we get into the details of Eurobowl a bit of background into how I got hooked on this game and great community…

I had a summer dalliance with Blood Bowl back in the early 90s when a new kid moved to our school and introduced me and a few friends to the game. Fast forward 30 years and I had a random Facebook advert for Blood Bowl 2 around the time of the release of PS5, which brought back a happy memory. 

My last console was a SNES, just to date me, and I decided it was time for my next console. I went a few weeks without sleep to secure the Playstation before I then acquired Cyanide’s Blood Bowl 2 for the princely sum of a fiver! A short Facebook post about my rediscovery of the game and lo and behold my old school chum, Hugh, or as some might know him, Gerdleah, responded saying he was in a PS league and I should join.

Several hundred BB2 games later and Tony, (Yellow_Ox) a new found friend, was inviting me to go to a Blood Bowl tournament, Thrudball, to play in person. Between him and IcePheonix they gave me everything I needed to play. I had a blast and picked up a nicely painted third edition Dark Elf team (the team I’d principally been playing on BB2) at the Thrud Charity Auction so I could maybe play some more.

L:R - IcePhoenix, BB_Jock, Yellow-Ox - the guys that got me started on tabletop hanging out at my first NAFC, and second tournament ever.

A few months later I was off to the NAF Championships in May 2022, my second tournament, and I came roaring out the gate going 5-0-1 and coming 6th overall. This was the same year that fellow Scottish coach Sporran became the NAF Champ. The weekend brought a discovery, I might not be too bad at the game and I knew I was definitely having a lot of fun playing Blood Bowl over table top.

It was not long after the NAF Champs I discovered that it was possible to play Blood Bowl for Scotland and felt there could be no higher honour in the game than pulling on your nation’s jersey. So this became the goal and I set about trying to qualify for selection in the 2023 season for Eurobowl in Athens in 2024.

I reached out to speak with Ant (Purdindas), the Scotland Captain, with a view to catching up with him at Glasbowl in July 2023. Living outside Scotland I’d not had the opportunity to meet him in person and remember being nervous - I wanted to create a good impression and learn what it took to make the team. He was very welcoming and keen to chat - little did I realise (he recently told me) he’d already spotted my tournament performances on NAF and was keen to see how he could recruit me!

So I ended up as one of the Captain’s picks for Athens and had a cracking weekend, even if my personal expectations didn’t quite match up to my performance on the board. Being part of the team and having the experience of playing at Eurobowl was thoroughly enjoyable, especially drawing tournament favourites, France, in round one!

Team Scotland vs Wales at Eurobowl in Athens in October 2024

Having gone through the Eurobowl cycle watching Ant as captain I had strong ideas of how I felt Team Scotland and the competitive scene of the Scottish community could develop. Over a number of beers and chats it became clear that Ant and I had a similar vision. Having been captain four-times, Ant was prepared to support me as my Vice Captain and I was fortunate enough to win through in a closely fought election to become Scotland Captain for Eurobowl in Budapest.

Ant, Purdindas, four-time Scotland Captain

I start with this anecdote of how I came to be capped and then Captain for the benefit of any Scottish coach that harbours the ambition of playing for Team Scotland at Eurobowl - it’s a worthy and eminently achievable ambition, if you put the effort in.

Dreaming of playing for Scotland? My Five Top Tips

If you’re curious and want to understand what it takes - feel free to speak to me online or in person at a tournament. I, and I’m sure my fellow Team Scotland mates, will be only too happy to speak to another coach keen to compete at the highest level to represent our community. But for now, here are my five top tips:

1. Put in the legwork at two-day tournaments with strong fields

Everyone loves to have a fun day out at a one-day tournament, some with weird and wonderful rules to spice up the game. Unfortunately these tournaments just won’t cut it when it comes to highlighting your ability and potential. One-day tourneys are usually smaller fields, rulesets tend to be very different, philosophically speaking, from Eurobowl and it’s very easy, through the nature of a three round tournament not to be drawn against stiff competition.

It’s only when you’re in the crucible of a two-day tournament where there is nowhere to hide on day two, if you’re performing well, that your true potential can be seen. Captains want to see how you handle this longer form tournament, and how you react to the pressure of playing against stronger coaches at the ‘business end’ of a tournament. You don’t need to be winning tournaments to stand out, top ten or twenty finishes in big fields if done consistently is enough to shine a light that you’re a coach worth considering for the Scotland Squad.

A shortlist of some UK tournaments for individual coaches that I’d recommend for their heritage, how well they’re run and the competitive strength of the field to test yourself against:

• The Welsh Championships - Cardiff, January

• Waterbowl Weekender - Stockport, February

• Mulligan’s Open - Glasgow, March

• NAF Championship - Nottingham, May

• The Blood Bowl Open - Sheffield, September

• UK Masters - York, November

I’ll highlight the UK Masters in particular - it’s a new tournament set up by Pipey, the former Tournament Organiser (TO) of the well regarded UKTC. Several reasons I’d highly recommend attendance to any one looking at selection for the Eurobowl in Poland next year:

1. It’s happening right around the time that Squad selection will be happening, and whoever the captain is for Poland, they will probably be looking at this tournament to see who’s currently carrying the best form.

2. The tournament has spaces specifically reserved for past and present coaches who have been capped for their respective countries at Eurobowl. The confirmed list of coaches for this inaugural event is already distinguished with some of the best names in the game signed up. This will give you the rare opportunity to potentially test your mettle against fierce competition and perhaps burnish your credentials for selection at the same time by landing a Eurobowl scalp or two.

3. Hang out with a number of the current Scotland Squad and past caps who’ll be in attendance to help your transition into the squad if you’re selected.

   
   

2. Team Tournaments are a different prospect. Show that you can perform as a good teammate in this specific type of tournament.

Playing within a squad at team tournaments, and especially Eurobowl, is no longer a case of how well you do as an individual, it’s only how well the team does within each round that counts. This means the idea of personal ambition for your own performance goes out the window.

What do I mean by that? Well it could be that all we need from you to win the round is the draw in your match. Even though you could probably win your match when the captain says ‘lockup the draw’ you’re going to have to be prepared to forgo the idea of individual glory of winning your match to guarantee the draw with as little risk as possible so that the team wins the round.

The other likely scenario is you’ve got a draw, or you may even be losing the match when the captain taps you on the shoulder and says I need you to do everything you can to win, we need this win to tie the round. In going for the win, there’s probably a greater chance that you’ll lose rather than hang on for the draw you could get. At the end of the day the captain and the squad will not mind you losing, if you’ve gone balls to the wall to get the unlikely, but necessary, win for the sake of the team.

So whilst everyone has individual ambitions going into any tournament in a team tournament these have to be a secondary goal, and should always be at the expense of what’s best for the team as and when required.

Just as important as your ability to perform in a team scenario is how well you get on with people in a bigger squad. It’s not just on the board performance and skill that matters, but the likely chemistry you bring to the team. Playing for Team Scotland in Eurobowl is a year-long process and not just a single weekend. How you gel with other coaches, what you bring to the team in an ‘off-the-board’ sense will be carefully considered.

Like individual tournaments a list of team tournaments I’d highly recommend:

• Scottish Team Championships - Glasgow, May

• The Home Nations - Loughborough, July

• UKTC - Leeds, August

• Europen - Rotating host, Poland, October 2026

There are other team tournaments to consider, including the Kent Team Championships which with the above three UK based tournaments are part of the GB Team Championships NAF Super Series.

The STC is ideal, as for many Scottish coaches, it’s on your doorstep.

The Home Nations is mirrored on Eurobowl, and whilst you won’t need to travel overseas you’ll be getting a very similar experience sitting in a room with nearly 300 other coaches playing to the same rules pack.

The UKTC has long-standing heritage and has a reputation for a fun weekend and a strong field. Scottish coaches historically have attended in good numbers, and if you’ve not had the chance to experience this then I heartily recommend that you do.

Then there is the Europen itself. You might not be on Team Scotland in the Eurobowl, but going out to a Europen will give you a sense of what the competition is like, not to mention an incredible weekend away. With thirty-one Scottish coaches, a record, going to Budapest this year, it should be a great weekend and an opportunity for a potential future cap to gain invaluable experience.

3. Races: ‘Jack of all, master of none’ is probably going to find you coming up short

As captain you’re not just looking to select the ‘best’ coaches, solely by the perception of their raw ability alone. The captain is looking to select the squad of twelve leading to the Eurobowl eight much like constructing a jigsaw; they need to find the right ‘pieces’ to play on the preferred races in the context of the ever changing Eurobowl ruleset.

For example Wulfyn, the current England captain, has decided to be a non-playing captain. This is because he has determined his main race, Lizards, are sub-optimal for Hungary and another coach who has a specialism with another race is probably better placed to fill one of the seats in the team.

So whilst I would never discourage coaches to have fun with any and all races, especially at one-day tournaments, it is probably worthwhile recognising that to be in a likely position to command a seat in the Scotland Squad you need to be considered an ‘expert’ with one of the likely races that is going to be favoured.

This probably means that the optimal way to highlight your ability is to pick one, maybe two races at the start of the season to play at your two-day tournaments to showcase what you can achieve given multiple opportunities. It’s much harder to make the case to be selected as the ‘Skaven’ coach if you’ve played one tournament with them, whilst another coach has specialised with them and clocked in 30+ games in a season on tabletop with good results.

4. Races: Look for the gap in the market

Within the Scottish Blood Bowl community we have some races that are really well served by experienced coaches, and some that are not. For instance there is a surfeit of coaches who play Undead and Orcs, as two races that spring to mind. So unless you’re confidently the ‘best’ Scottish Undead coach it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to make the squad on Undead as the team can only have one of each race in Eurobowl.

This means I’d recommend you look at trying your hand at a race that is not as well served and spot the ‘gap in the market’ for Team Scotland. So in the case of Undead, Necromantic is an adjacent race, which whilst it plays slightly differently the experience you’ve gained on Undead could transfer.

As it stands we have a real lack of ‘agility’ coaches, so if you can confidently pilot some elves you’re going to stand out and give yourself a better chance to be selected over the second or third best Orc coach.

Likewise Vampires are currently in vogue and a strong race, but they’ve got a high skill ceiling, so a coach who specialises in Vampires with great results is going to be highly attractive to a squad. For instance when I think of who is a ‘vampire’ coach to their bones, Torquemada on the England squad is the obvious answer for me and would be a highly prized coach in any national setup.

If you’re not sure what your race is, chat with friends, drop me or other Scotland Squad coaches a line and chat through your thinking. You can definitely increase your chances by mastering a desirable race that’s not as widely played in the community.

5. Pro-active learning, practice, feedback and mentoring

Can you confidently do a movement seven one-turn? Have you truly mastered turn-ordering? Do you understand the likelihood of success when looking for a ‘full pow’ with a 2D block? Just some of the questions you could ask yourself. 

Whilst the obvious way to get better at the game is to play in tournaments it’s not the only way. The beautiful thing about Blood Bowl is it's a game that provides endless opportunities for continual learning. There’s so much variance that computers can’t competently solve it like they have with chess. So a few things you should consider to get better at the game:

• Online Blood Bowl - Fumbbl and Blood Bowl 3

• Get your board out and practice scenarios focussing on positioning without dice rolls

• Ask for feedback from opponents

• Get a mentor, consider getting some coaching

If you only ever play tabletop then practically speaking you’ll be limited to the number of games you can play in a year. Online Blood Bowl whether it be on the long-standing community led Fumbbl or Cyanide’s Blood Bowl 3 you can play a prodigious number of games from the comfort of your own couch! Building up your own database of patterns and shapes, learning through trial and error on what you’d do in certain situations prepare you for future situations you’ll come across on the board.

It might sound like homework, but do you get your Blood Bowl pitch out and push models around to see how a one-turn works, both in trying to score and defend? There are a number of resources you can reference - a shout out to KFoged’s Youtube series: One and Done. If you’ve never met KFoged then you’re missing out. Not only one of the best coaches to have ever played Blood Bowl, but tremendously good fun if you ever get the chance to play him over the board.

KFoged (left) and BB_Jock in the fifth round at NAF Champs 2024. Kåre is not only one of the best in the world, but ridiculously good fun to play over the board.

Another avenue is to ‘play along at home’ and watch Twitch streamers as they play online Blood Bowl. There are some coaches who will actively welcome your questions as you try to understand what and why they’re making the moves they are. There are also other streamers who will cast and review matches that have been played in key competitions. Some can be harsh, but if you’re willing and able to learn there are things you can discover about the game whether it's a match you’ve played or someone else's game.

If you’ve had the chance to play against a good coach, don’t be shy, ask them for their feedback, once the game is over with. What did they like or not like about the way you approached the game, things they thought you might have done differently. If you’re enthused to talk about the game and engage in ‘theory’ with other coaches then you’re probably on the right track of continual improvement.

Conclusion

So probably not earth shattering news about the things you could be thinking about when trying to improve at the game whilst chasing the dream of playing for Scotland at Eurobowl. However I thought it worth saying here, certainly from my point of view as the current Captain, the kind of activities I’m looking at prospective coaches to be undertaking to force their way into the conversation of selection.

I’d take this opportunity again to stress the importance of feeling comfortable talking to coaches involved in the Team Scotland set-up already. Even if it's a case of just raising your hand and making the current Captain aware that you’re interested then I'd be more than happy to help you start to walk your journey towards your first Scotland Cap and appearance at Eurobowl.

In the next blog I’ll dissect and reveal the analysis that went into deciding the Team Scotland Squad for Eurobowl in Hungary later this year, stay tuned…