As the New Year festivities simmer down, hangovers are recovered from its time for the second part in this series of New Year resolutions, side quests and big dreams. Today we hear from coaches from all over the world - as far afield as our neighbours to the south and over the pond to North America.
If you missed yesterday’s instalment of New Year resolutions from Scottish coaches you can catch up on it here.
So I put a few coaches from Scotland, and around the world, in the hot seat to ask them;
Before we look forward to the heady heights of 2025, what was your Blood Bowl highlight of 2024?
What’s on your Blood Bowl bucket list for 2025, on or off the board?
Here’s what the coaches from around the globe had to say!
Zahiko, 2024 Team France Eurobowl Captain
My best memory of 2024? Unequivocally, France's victory at the Eurobowl. I was elected in 2023 to bring back the trophy after a 12-year absence and that's what we achieved. On a more personal note, I'd been training hard with my orcs for the Eurobowl for 3 years and I was able to take them there. So I was delighted!
Team Captains, Zahiko and Purdindas front row and centre. Congrats to France on their Eurobowl win in Athens this year. Absolute pleasure to play the French in Round 1
If I had to make a top 3, I'd add the Vorace tournament. After six months away from the field for personal reasons, I did a magnificent 5/0/0 with Orcs, which meant I became the best in the world on Elo with this roster. Finally, I'd like to mention the TTC (Tilean Team Cup) for all the Bloodbowl side events and the humility and confidence I gained in the team. In fact, despite some poor individual results, we finished third!
For 2025, as I'm not in the national team, I'm going to focus more on personal challenges, starting by getting my Amazons and Norse up to 200+ Elo. With Cocoripows, we'll be preparing for the 2027 World Cup by continuing our training sessions. In terms of tournaments, I've got about ten planned, mainly team tournaments with Rugbowl and Bilbao (which are part of the NAF super séries) but also Dungeonbowl and the York Master as individuals.
Otherwise, off the board, buy a flat by myself!
Runbad, serial Canadian TO and Twitch Streamer
The first half of my year I saw my results with Norse tank and I ended up with my first wooden spoon! An accomplishment in its own right. Since then I have rebounded, and attended 5 tournaments with Vampires. I’ve enjoyed some good results, and have managed to currently hold the top Vampires rating in Canada.
In 2025 I hope to nudge my Vampire rating over 200 Elo, which would be my first. I would also like to continue to build my online twitch community (Ed Note: my favourite streamer, give him a follow!) and finally achieve twitch partnership through the support of the community.
Stimme, NAF Tournament Director and perennial blogger
2024 was a year filled with many great events. The lingering effects of the pandemic—and my own sluggishness—were finally behind me. For the first time, I had the opportunity to attend tournaments in the Czech Republic and Poland (and as hospitable as they are, the Polish even let me win). I also visited the Netherlands, France, the UK, and Greece.
However, the highlight of the year was probably traveling to the Amorical Cup in Ottawa and reconnecting with the Canadian and US Blood Bowl communities, where I first started playing this game many years ago.
I have many things on my bucket list for 2025. First, I’m just a few Snotling games away from completing all the races. I also want to continue visiting Blood Bowl communities on their home turf—Finland is high on my list, and Hungary will be another welcome addition to my country badge on NAF. Finally, I’m hoping to take on another two years of tournament directorship, contributing to the growth and success of our community.
Janninu, TO for Blood Bowl on the Rock and lead organiser for the Maltese World Cup Bid
2024 saw my return to playing Eurobowl after missing it for many years. The last Eurobowl I played was Wales in 2018 where we won the hosting rights. This led me and the team to organise Malta’s Eurobowl in 2022.
Historically, and aside from when we hosted, Malta had always had a decent record so there was some self-placed pressure to return to winning ways. We were very happy with a fantastic run in Athens facing six tough opponents. Over the course of the weekend we only lost to Finland whilst we managed fantastic draws with powerhouse nations; Sweden and Italy whilst we pulled in well earned wins against Ireland, England and Norway.
The win over England was definitely a highlight as it was our first time playing them In Eurobowl, and I must admit it can be a bit intimidating sitting across from coaches who have seven Eurobowl stars on their chest!
I have two big plans for 2025, no guessing the first one! The result of the World Cup bid election where we would really like to take Blood Bowl international tournaments to the next level will shape not just next year, but potentially the next few.
After the success of Eurobowl XIV in 2022 we understand the potential, and would like to elevate the World Cup experience to be more like big eSports events. The numbers the Blood Bowl World Cup pulls warrants the step up and we're confident we can do it.
Another big target is to continue growing Blood Bowl on the Rock. We already have 45 coaches signed up and we’re hoping to pass 50 (Ed: I went last year, and I’m taking three fellow Scots back with me this year - well worth the visit!).
The view from where the Blood Bowl happens at Blood Bowl on the Rock
The current limit for the event is set to 50, but I’m working on how the venue can take more. The tournament is in a fantastic location right next to the sea In a nature reserve and we have a brilliant caterer who provides us with incredible lunches and a massive Saturday night BBQ! So far we have coaches from Spain, Scotland, England, Germany, France, Finland and Greece signed up so it's shaping up to be a fantastic international event.
The view of Valletta from Jock's apartment this year when visiting
Wishing the Scottish community a fantastic 2025 with many successes and looking forward to good results at Eurobowl so we can finally visit Scotland at a Eurobowl! (Ed: Thanks Janninu, we’ll be busting a gut trying!)
Purplechest, raconteur and One World One Blood Bowl Podcast host
The Europen, a giant well run party of Blood Bowl in beautiful Athens.
Total Domination. I plan to win a BB3 Chalice, top the BB3 ladder, win a BBT run on FUMBBL, a couple of table top Tourney wins and probably a Major (which I don't have a ticket for yet!) . If i make it onto Team England then also to win the Eurobowl. (Ed: I suspect some tongue firmly in cheek here)
Stewbaca, TO of Kent Team Championship, SE England NAF Rep
There were many Blood Bowl highlights for me in 2024. I achieved a lot of things on a personal level - winning a tournament for the first time would be my highlight in probably any year other than this one. The reason for this is because things off the board have been great. There's been two things I've been really proud of helping to create which I hope have really benefited the local community.
This year we ran the Kent Team Championship as a NAF event (in 2023 it was an invite event for local leagues) and we attracted 120 coaches, and have managed to increase the capacity for 2025. I've been very proud of the team behind it for being able to bring an event of this size to our region. Previously we would have had a drive of around 3 hours to get to an event of that size, and hopefully it will benefit the local community to have an annual event attract these sorts of numbers.
The second thing is running the South East Tournament Series (SETS) for the first time. This year we had 11 events - expanding to over 20 in 2025 - and it seems like it has helped to get local coaches to travel to a few more events and build links and friendships between different leagues. I've also been working with the TOs of our neighbouring series to align rulesets, build scoring solutions and to hopefully run a champion of champion event. Being able to give back to the community that has given so much to me in these sorts of ways is definitely more of a highlight than probably any individual accomplishment (Although I may take that back if I'm ever fortunate enough to win the NAFC!).
It feels a bit strange to me to be writing about resolutions in January. As an accountant, my year starts in April and that’s when I tend to write my resolutions.
There are a number of things on my Blood Bowl Bucket List. However, the one that I'm going to be focussing on is getting a team over 200 ELO on the NAF database. I'm very aware that it is just a number and doesn't mean too much, other than that you’ve played a team many times, but it is good to have a target. In 2024 I was playing through all of the races (I’ve got three left to do so I'll probably tick that off sometime soon). The two that I most enjoy playing at the moment are amazons and wood elves, and I will probably play one or the other at most tournaments this year.
AndyDavo, Twitch Streamer, TO to Davotational and Team Wales Coach
My View on rankings is that they are largely meaningless as factual yardsticks... That being said... For the first 9 months of the year on tabletop; I was the number one ranked 'form' player and I got Necro to #3 on the NAF leaderboard. I also finished the Blood Bowl 3 World Cup in third place overall, so I guess you could say - while I'm statistically not the best, 3rd isn't a bad place to keep finishing!
My other highlight, if I'm allowed two, is to have taken part in the casting of the Blood Bowl 3 World Cup, while the game isn't by any means finished yet, its come on tremendously in 2024 and the hard work is now starting to pay off.
Typically the answer for the year ahead is to attend either the World Cup or Eurobowl event, regardless of location, but, for reasons some are familiar with, this year doesn't have the same draw. I've set myself the ambitious target of playing and mastering all non-stunty teams at NAF tabletop, seeing how many I can get a tournament win with or cracking them to 200 elo. This is likely to take several years though, so this year's goal is to complete 5 more races.
In the online space I want to expand my YouTube content to help more people - so that's more guides, and to continue to support Cyanide with Blood Bowl 3. I am especially excited with what should drop over the next 2 seasons!
Thanks to all the coaches from all over who took the time to share. If you missed yesterday’s new year’s resolutions check it out. Last part will be published tomorrow - don’t miss it!
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