EuroBowl – Eur’Open
8 – 9 November 2014
Oostende, Belgium





Hello fellow coaches,

As promised, some hot news on EuroBowl and Eur’Open 2014!

Tournament date and venue
EuroBowl and Eur’Open will take place on 8 and 9 November 2014 in the Royal Astrid hotel, Wellingtonstraat 15 in Oostende. The hotel is ideally situated in the centre of town, at a mere 10 minutes’ walk from the railway station and the ferry port. And, perhaps best of all, at a 2 minutes’ walk from the beach for those fond of a November morning stroll (or dip

Catering will be served at the hotel – which is renowned for the quality of its cuisine – but there are dozens of restaurants, pubs and taverns nearby. And yes, there is a fully-equipped wellness centre – complete with swimming pool – to relax after a hard day on the pitch.

You can find more information on the venue on royalastrid.com.


Eur’Open format change

A big change is that Eur’Open 2014 will be an event for 3-player teams. We have chosen this format as an extra motivation for players to attend the Eur’Open – past team events have shown that playing Blood Bowl as a team adds a whole new dimension of fun, interaction and friendly rivalry to the game.

We decided on a smaller team size than the 8-player format used for EuroBowl to make it as easy as possible to set up a full team. If playing in a league, you can even compete with multiple teams and find out who are the top dogs and how well you measure up against other leagues.

Even if you are unable to find a complete team, you will be able to register as an individual player and we will find a team for you. Each and every registered coach will be able to play as part of a 3-player team – that is not just a promise, but a guarantee!


EuroBowl – Eur’Open 2014 rules pack


Rules designers
• Florent Maire (Babass)
• Bram Serbruyns (gesmachiene)
• Mats Clays (Da Great MC)

Rules philosophy
When we started drawing up the rules pack for EuroBowl and Eur’Open 2014, we wanted to create a set of rules that would:
- be clear and understandable;
- be accepted by the community. We realise there will always be people who aren’t fully satisfied with the rules, but we have tried to please as many as possible;
- promote team diversity. Not by enforcing teams to bring a certain amount of tier 2 and tier 3 races, but by making all races competitive.
- use a scoring system for teams that puts more importance on ‘winning as a team’, without negating the individual victories altogether.

Tournament format
• 6 Rounds: 3 on Saturday, 3 on Sunday
• LIVE DRAW (in opening ceremony) for the first Round
• Swiss pairing (per team and per individual coach) for Rounds 2-6

Team creation
• Team value 110
• No inducements are allowed, except for Goblin Bribes (50K each, maximum 3) and a Master Chef for Halflings (100K).

We were toying with the idea of giving lower tier teams extra budget, but quickly decided that those teams need extra skills more than they need the extra money. Allowing all inducements was never on our agenda, as EuroBowl is not the right tournament to experiment.


Team tiers
• TIER 1: Amazon, Chaos Dwarf, Dark Elf, Dwarf, Lizardmen, Necromantic, Norse, Orc, Skaven, Undead, Wood Elf
• TIER 2: Chaos, Chaos Pact, (Pro) Elf, High Elf, Human, Khemri, Nurgle’s Rotters, Slann, Underworld, Vampire
• TIER 3: Goblin, Halfling, Ogre

Day 1 skills
• Tier 1: 3 normal skills
• Tier 2: 4 normal skills + 1 ‘double’ skill
• Tier 3: 3 normal skills + 2 ‘double’ skills

All skills must be assigned on Saturday morning, at the start of the tournament.

Day 2 skills
• Tier 1: 3 normal skills
• Tier 2: 3 normal skills
• Tier 3: 3 normal skills

All skills must be assigned on Sunday morning, before the start of Round 4.

We wanted to make Necromantic a ‘Tier 1.5 team’, allowing them 4 normal skills at the start of the tournament, but ultimately decided against it, even though we really feel the team needs that extra skill to be competitive. We were afraid that this would create demand for more teams to be partially moved into a different tier.



Skill assignment
• Stacking is not allowed, no player can ever receive more than one skill.
• All skills must be clearly noted on all copies of your team roster before the tournament starts. It must be clear to everyone which skills are ‘day 1 skills’ and which are ‘day 2 skills’.
• All positions and all skills must be written in English to avoid language confusion.

You will be asked to hand in a copy of your team roster to the tournament organisation before the tournament starts.

EuroBowl team scoring system
• Each individual victory gives the team 1 point
• Each individual draw gives the team 0.5 point

• Team victory earns the team 1 point
• Team draw earns both teams 0.5 point
• Team loss earns the team 0 points

We listened to the community that wanted a change. There was a lot of debate going on the different forums to get more bonus points for a team victory. When we put forward the rules pack draft to Pippy, he told us that this was too big of change so we needed a 2/3 majority with the team captains to get this change approved. There was a strong voice for a change but the 9 – 6 vote in favour of the new system was not a 2/3 majority. That is why the old scoring system for teams is still in place.


Eur’Open team scoring system
• Each individual victory gives the team 1 point
• Each individual draw gives the team 0.5 point

There will be an added bonus for team victory but this will be announced later this week.

Tiebreakers for teams
Teams will be ranked by the points they have earned. Should two or more teams have an equal number of points, the following tiebreakers will be used:

• Tiebreaker 1: Number of team victories
• Tiebreaker 2: Number of team draws
• Tiebreaker 3: Opponent score (the sum of all points from all teams your team played against)
• Tiebreaker 4: Net TDs + Net Casualties

In Belgium we have been moving away from TDs and Casualties as primary tiebreakers. Example: if you get ‘a free win’ because you are lucky enough to inflict lots of casualties early in the game, the easy victory should be enough of a reward in itself. Receiving great tiebreakers shouldn’t be an added bonus when this happens.


Scoring system for individuals
The following scoring system will be used to determine individual rankings for EuroBowl and Eur’Open:

• Win: 5 points
• Draw: 2 points
• Minor loss (1TD): 1 point
• Major loss (2+TD) : 0 points

For some years, we have been tinkering with the individual scoring system in Belgian tournaments. We have currently reached a consensus on the ‘5 points system’. Large Belgian tournaments like Brassbowl, HQ Bowl and the Belgian Championships have adopted it.
However, we make a difference between ‘major wins’ (5 points for a 2+TD win) and ‘minor wins’ (4 points for a 1TD win). We hope that this makes games more interesting. This has been controversial, however.


Tiebreakers for individuals
Individuals will be ranked by the points they have earned. Should two or more individuals have an equal number of points, the following tiebreakers will be used:

• Tiebreaker 1: Number of victories
• Tiebreaker 2: Number of draws
• Tiebreaker 3: Opponent score (the sum of all points from all your opponents)
• Tiebreaker 4: Net TDs + Net Casualties

As you can see, lots of good reasons to attend EuroBowl and Eur’Open 2014! The Belgian Blood Bowl community is really looking forward to welcoming you, so be there – and be there in force!

The exact schedule and further practical information will be communicated later.

Hello fellow coaches,

Please find below the information you have all been waiting for: the EuroBowl – Eur’Open 2014

participation fee and registration procedure.

PARTICIPATION FEE

Tickets for EuroBowl or the Eur’Open 2014 will cost EUR 230 p.p. This price includes:

• Participation to the tournament

• Some goodies that will be distributed over the weekend – more on that later, although we won’t spoil all surprises

• Three nights at the Royal Astrid Hotel (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) – check-in as from Friday 3 p.m.; check-out until Monday 10 a.m.

• Nine meals: dinner on Friday; breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday; breakfast, lunch and dinner on Sunday; and breakfast and lunch on Monday. Meals include sparkling and mineral water; soft drinks or alcoholic beverages will have to be paid for separately. Special dietary requirements will be catered for.

• Use of all hotel facilities, including swimming pool

• Free Wi-Fi

Please feel free to bring along non-participants, such as your better half, personal coaches or cheerleaders – these persons pay EUR 197 for 3 nights, 9 meals and full use of hotel facilities.

As you can see, we opted for a fixed, all-in formula and price for all participants, offering excellent value for money. This choice was partially inspired by logistics, but is primarily aimed at promoting the social side of the hobby and saving you the bother of having to organise your stay yourselves. Believe me, you would be hard-pressed to find a better deal!

REGISTRATION

Online registration will be opening soon. You will be able to confirm your participation either in a new topic started by Driesfield on the TalkFantasyFootball forum (viewtopic.php?f=48&t=39547), or by sending an e-mail to dries.goutsmit@telenet.be.

You can either register as:

• EuroBowl captain, providing us with the names of the 8 coaches that will make up your country’s team and the races they will play;

• Eur’Open captain, providing us with the names of the 3 coaches that will make up your team and the races they will play; or

• Individual coach for the Eur’Open.

Please also mention:

• the number of non-participants that wish to stay at the hotel

• any specific dietary or other requirements you may have (e.g. vegetarian, special bed size if you’re a 7-footer, food allergies, child’s bed, wheelchair access…)

• your means of travelling to Oostende, so we can arrange parking space, provide information for public transports, etc.

Registration will be complete if you see your (team's) name listed in the TFF topic. We’ll send you all payment details after registration has ended, i.e. starting from 1 July.

If team composition changes after registering, just drop Driesfield a line through the TFF forum or send him an e-mail. He will update the list of participants on a permanent basis, so you will always know which teams and individual coaches will take part.

This approach will also enable individual Eur’Open participants to find fellow coaches to form a team. We guarantee once again that, thanks to our hot matchmaking skills, each individual coach will be able to play.