Blood Bowl Tournament: Tacklezone Sevens

As part of 3 events at this year’s UK Games Expo Team Tacklezone will be hosting a Blood Bowl 7s tournament in the gaming hall at the UK Games Expo. The perfect opportunity to get a taste of a Blood Bowl Tournament without committing to a full day of gaming.

NAF Affiliation:
All three of these events will be affiliated with the NAF and thus will be sanctioned with results recorded on https://member.thenaf.net/
Membership to the NAF is optional but encouraged. Sign up is possible on the above website and can be discussed during the event with the Tournament Organisers. 

Schedule:
The Sevens tournament will be played over 4 rounds. Rounds will be 1 hour and round times will be:

Friday 30th May
- 16:15 - 16:30 (Registration and info)
- 16:30 - 17:30 (Round 1)
- 17:45 - 18:45 (Round 2)
- 19:00 - 20:00 (Round 3)
- 20:15 - 21:15 (Round 4)
- 21:30 (Awards and close)

The Draw:
There are a total of 4 rounds for the Sevens Tournament. The first-round matchup will be drawn at random. During rounds 2 - 4 matchups will be drawn using the Swiss system, meaning each round your team will play another team on the same points total, if possible. Tiebreakers will not be applied until the final results.

Prizes:
1st / 2nd / 3rd placed individual. 

Tournament Scoring:
The Sevens tournament will score the individual results using the following scoring:
Win: 2 Points / Draw: 1 Point / Loss: 0 Points

Note: A concession counts as a loss, with +2 touchdowns added to the score in favour of the conceding player’s opponent. 

In-Game Rules:
Blood Bowl Sevens is different from regular Blood Bowl in a few important ways. The tournament will follow the rules as per the latest Blood Bowl supplement - Death Zone with the team building exceptions below.

It is a shorter, smaller, faster variant of the game, played by amateurs who tend to fall over a lot. As such the rules are modified with reduced access to players, skills, stars and inducements.

Team Building:
Teams can be selected from any of the 30 available teams and are built to a budget of 600,000 gold coins.
Teams can have a maximum of 11 players on the roster with a maximum of 4 positional per team.
No stars players can be rostered. 

The tournament will be using the following tiering.

Tier 1: 
Amazon, Dark Elf, Dwarf, Lizardman, Norse, Orc, Shambling Undead, Skaven, Underworld Denizens, Wood Elf

Tier 2: 
Black Orc, Chaos Chosen,, Chaos Dwarf, Chaos Renegade, Elven Union, High Elf, Human, Imperial Nobility, Khorne, Necromantic Horror, Nurgle, Old World Alliance, Slann, Tomb Kings, Vampire

Tier 3: 
Gnome, Goblin, Halfling, Ogre, Snotling

The following inducements are allowed for teams in all tiers:
Bloodweiser Kegs: 0-2
Mortuary Assistant: 0-1
Part-time Assistant Coach: 0-3
Plague Doctor: 0-1
Temp Agency Cheerleader: 0-4
Wandering Apothecary: 0-1

Skill Upgrades:

All teams pick a captain who gets “Pro” - can only be a player who could take Pro as a primary skill (Tier 3 teams can make any player “Pro”).

In addition all teams receive a number of additional skills dependent on their tier. Note that only 1 skill can be added to each player – this includes the captain with pro who cannot have any further skills added.

Tier 1: 0 (zero) skills

Tier 2: 1 primary skill

Tier 3: 2 primary skills

In addition to these rostered skills after game 1 all teams can add 1 primary skill to any player who does not already have a skill added.

Then after game 2 all teams can add 1 primary skill to any player who does not already have a skill added.

Please write these additional skills onto your roster after games 1 and 2. 

What to Bring:
For all events coaches should bring their painted Blood Bowl team. Teams must consist of painted miniatures, and all positional players should be readily identifiable. Lego figures and other unpainted proxy figures may not be used at the event. 

Coaches should bring a copy of their team roster, showing all player characteristics, skills and costs, plus any other items paid for during roster building. This should be made available to your opponent if they request to see it.

Please bring pitches and dugouts, these will NOT be provided.

Other items coaches should remember to bring are the relevant rulebooks, dice, tokens and templates. It is also a good idea to bring some glue or blu-tack in case of miniature emergencies over the course of the weekend.

Code of Conduct:
Blood Bowl is a battle of skill and luck between you and your opponent. Quick reference guides for core rules are useful and encouraged; play books that tell you how to set up,  attempt a one-turn touchdown, etc. are not permitted. 

The use of chess clocks to share the round time equally between the coaches is encouraged, and is mandatory if requested by one of the coaches. Should a player run out of time on their share of the chess clock time they are only allowed to stand up or un-stun players before passing to their opponent. 

If a game is called by a referee after the allowed time for the round has expired, the game will end immediately with no further actions taken. As such it is in your interest to ensure you keep an eye on your and your opponent’s game time.

The sharing of dice is encouraged, and is mandatory if requested by one of the coaches at any point in the game.

Establishing dice etiquette before the game starts is encouraged; it is important to clarify your respective interpretation of acceptably rolled dice, cocked dice, etc. before any important rolls are made. Agree on an approach and stick to it throughout!

Always ask your opponent before handling their figures,  and respect them if they prefer you not to. 

Don’t distract or advise coaches while they are playing their game, especially if you have a vested interest in a particular outcome!

…

We look forward to welcoming you to the event. 

You will also need a valid UKGE entry ticket to attend this event. 

Tickets will be on sale on Friday 14th Feb 2025. 

There will be awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. 

Sponsored by Exit 23 games - https://exit23.games/