I went to my first World Cup last year and thanks to Ulva, Ako and the team it was an opportunity for coaches from my BB2 Playstation league, Blood and Tears, to gather for the first time in-person all in one place to enjoy each other’s company whilst playing Blood Bowl over the course of a week. We came from as far as Canada, Ireland, England, Scotland, Spain and Greece and it was an incredible moment I don’t think I’ll ever forget.
Not only did we have an awesome time together, but with circa 2,300 other coaches all in one place it was impossible not to be caught up in the carnival atmosphere that our gracious hosts in Alicante managed to create with many a beer sunk over good conversation.
Blood and Tears, Left to Right: Fesz, Kahless, IcePhoenix, Yellow_Ox (Cpt.), BB_Jock (Cpt.), Fleekyfly, Shortstuff, Matxukador, Iamdimarkos, MidnightOgre, Jusmet, Dustbin89
Reader, it lit a fire in me, to go and meet coaches and sample their hospitality and share in our mutual love of the game and our community. Since Alicante I’ve travelled to Genoa for the Tilean Team Cup, Block on The Rock in Malta where I was royally entertained by my host and TO Janninu and the Maltese community who reciprocated by visiting Loughborough for the inaugural Home Nations. Likewise a fun weekend was had in Bilbali where Thibault and his team created a fiesta in the biggest tournament outside of Euro Bowls and World Cups.
I’m set to go to Athens for my first Eurobowl and obviously very excited to play for Scotland as well as the chance to meet the top coaches from all over Europe. Then it’s Belfast later in the year and Bleed Bowl in Cork, Ireland in early January next year. It’s safe to say I’m hooked on sampling all that our fantastic Blood Bowl community has to offer and I’m chasing my NAF country badges as fast I can - five countries by Athens, and plans to hit ten countries by Budapest at Hungary’s Eurobowl next year. (Hit me up with your must visit tourneys!)
All this got me thinking about if I was enjoying the experiences of meeting coaches from near and far, how could the community encourage more of these chance opportunities of meeting new coaches, and making new friends for as many of us as possible, and not just in a World Cup year.
I looked at the NAF series, and it’s a great innovation to encourage coaches to meet people and support tournaments in their near vicinity. However these series are often composed of more local, smaller one-day tournaments that understandably wouldn’t necessarily entice travel from afar.
So I felt like there was an opportunity to inter-link bigger tournaments and encourage coaches to make the leap on a 2+ to visit ‘destination’ tournaments and in doing so broadening the horizons for all coaches and enriching the tapestry of our great community. So the idea of the NAF Super Series was borne! Credit to Stewbacca who came up with the name.
The Super Series is set to encourage and incentivise coaches with a little bit of healthy competition to travel that little bit further to play, to meet and to make friendships over the Blood Bowl pitch.
Both Topas, NAF Series Co-ordinator, and Stimme NAF Tournament Director have been encouraging and supportive of the development of the idea. If you’ve not seen it, in this month's Tournament Director’s blog Topas announces the details of the framework for the Super Series pilot in 2025.
What does this mean in practice?
Well I’ve gathered up the support of Tournament Organisers (TOs) from far and wide and I’ll be set to launch and co-ordinate at least three NAF Super Series in 2025.
The Triple Crown
The first being the UK Triple Crown comprising;
The NAF Championships held in Nottingham, England.
The GB Team Championships
Team Tournaments have always been popular across Europe but they’ve recently gained a renaissance in the UK and as such the second Super Series will be The inaugural GB Team Championships where squads of up to eight coaches will compete for the honour, and the opportunity to travel the length and breadth of the land in the following team tournaments;
The Euro Team Championships
The third, and perhaps grandest of plans will be the Euro Team Championships (working title) where the destination team tournaments across the continent will come together to foster camaraderie, rivalry and revelry in equal measure. Tournaments from the UK, France, Spain, Italy and Germany will feature in a similar format to the GB Team Championships.
I’m meeting with the UK TOs next week to finalise the details of the first two Super Series and I’ll release the details of these Super Series structures, scoring et al shortly after they are signed-off by Topas. The Euro Team Championships will probably come together in the near future as it's a busy time of year with the German Team Bowl happening this weekend, and Eurobowl nearly upon us.
When I was speaking with the different TOs and canvassing their thoughts about the Super Series I asked them what they thought it would mean for them, their tournament and their Blood Bowl Community.
Chris Rafferty, Chairman of Scottish Blood Bowl and Mulligan's TO had this to say,
“The Super Series is a great idea. I’m keen to see both Scottish coaches branch out and beyond our borders whilst equally I’m excited by the idea of playing host to coaches who want to visit us. We have a good history of coaches travelling to us from other countries and we would love to see this continue.
Over the next few years we have a growth plan in place to see us increase to 160 attendees in 2026 before growing towards 200+ attendees in the future. The only way we can do that is by becoming a destination, must visit tournament. I think the Super Series will help us to grow our friendships and achieve this.”
Stewbacca, South East NAF Rep and co-ordinator of the SE NAF Series was equally enthusiastic,
“After starting the SE NAF Series in 2024, we've seen that it’s been great for building the community in our region. We've had tournament attendances increasing (with most events actually selling out) and coaches who'd previously only played in leagues have been drawn to the tournament scene.
Most importantly, it has helped to build links between what may have been pockets of coaches previously who are now making new friends (and rivals) from further afield and this has definitely helped improve the competitiveness of events as well.
Our flagship event, the Kent Team Championship sold out at 120 coaches in 2024 and has an increased capacity of 200 for March 2025. I’m confident The Super Series of which it is a part will make a positive addition encouraging this community integration on a larger scale.”
So 2025 will be the year of The Super Series, watch this space for more details as we finalise the opportunities for you to make new Blood Bowling friends across the UK and Europe!
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