Larkstar

@Ozone led our rag-tag team in Season 4 of the AD Invitational, which I'm fairly certain was OCC's first time in the comp. In addition to Ozone, @Mongloom, @Kazman29, @RTSD, @Larkstar, @bob152 won the whole darn thing! For Season 5, @Bouffon took over team. I believe bob152 also competed, but I'm afraid I don't remember the rest of the team, nor how they faired in the comp.

I had pre-volunteered in my post in the signup thread. But since that is that and this is this, I'll do so here as well.

Returning coach with a new team. Coach name: Larkstar Team name: Little Things That Kill Race: Halfling And for Pid, I'll volunteer to jump to Div 5 if it's needed for numbers. =)

Go get em guys!

@Kazman29 Is he alive?!?!

[OCC] Little Fockers. PM'd Meshuggah as well. I'm loving the lineup! Let's show em what OCC can do!

The biggest benefit from having a team from Oddball is being able to select 2 from either Power or Smash. If we take both Skaven and Dark Elf from Flash, then all we are really doing is replacing Brets (or Amazon) with Flings. I'm not sure that's worth it. So two lines of thinking, I suppose. If we want to try to get the biggest advantage from the rules, then I think Dorfs or Orcs might be preferred to either Rats or DE. But if this chosen race composition is trying to fit square pegs in round holes in regards to coach's "best" races, then perhaps we should dump the Flings and pick the best 6 races for our talents. Thoughts?

Didn't I see your name listed for UKBBL for this past season?

Lock me in for Halflings then - [OCC] Little Fockers. It'll be the 600 TV build with two Block Treemen (so 660 TV). I love Jump Up for Trees, but I think the importance placed on Cas/Kills means Block makes more sense. I'm also a big fan of team unity, so I'd be down if everyone wants to try to use the same logo and color scheme. =) Let me know! And I've already signed onto their Discord server.

Since this is low TV format, I think I could do some damage with 3 Block/MB players. Not many other teams could match that for "valid kill" potential. Downside is this team could give up more casualties. *shrug* But yeah, there are some possible strong combos if we ran an Oddball team. WE (or Rats), Zons, Undead, Orcs and Dorfs? Yikes. Though both Humans and Khemri get a nice boost with the NAF bonus. HE or PE with starting Guard is pretty great too. But I'm also flexible if our captain thinks there's a stronger collection of teams. I have experience with Humans, Liz, Norse, Undead, Necro and Dorfs as well.

I'd be proud to help represent OCC in this. And I'd be happy to play Halflings so the team would have more options to select from. =)

At least he didn't call you the "Worst player in the OCC," which is what he called me back in week 4.

@Smiling Tom And here I am thinking I'm special with my AG 5 Blitzer, while you are styling with an AG 5 Catcher! Well done sir! I still haven't taken a Stadium enhancement. I've had the funds, just nothing calling to me. I also kind of like having a 14 man roster (no Ogre though) and feel like I should keep my bank as large as possible for as long as possible.

I'll be interested to see people's reasons as well, as I've yet to make up my mind. My current top candidate is probably the Weather Dome though. I'd rather not deal with Rain, Snow or Sweltering Heat. Those things could also cripple my opponent, but that's not usually how it works out for me.

Well, it's time to say goodbye to the Dirty Fockers. They had an amazing run all the way up to Division 1, earning a number of scalps along the way. We finished this season at 3-2-4 in Division 2A, good enough for 6th place and likely safe from relegation. But it's time for something new. I've been wanting to play Humans in a league for a long time, so that's where we're headed. =) Super proud of the career record, with all 19 of those wins being earned (no forfeits!). What have we learned? We learned taking Jump Up as the first double on a Treeman was every bit as good as expected. Piling On later in development? Not so much. LOL But it was fun to experiment with it. We learned just how much we missed having an AG 4 Fling. =( Still, we put up an acceptable 5-4-8 record without Cruel Focker toting the ball. So long Dirty Fockers! May your retirement be full of feasts! S4 Division 6F : 4 Wins, 4 Draws, 1 Loss - 16 points 3rd S5 Division 4C: 2 Wins, 6 Draws, 1 Loss - 12 points 6th S6 Division 3A: 3 Wins, 1 Draw, 5 Losses - 10 points 7th S8 Division 2A: 5 Wins, 2 Draws, 2 Losses - 17 points 3rd S9 Division 1B: 2 Wins, 3 Draws, 4 Losses - 9 points 8th S10 Division 2A: 3 Wins, 2 Draws, 4 Losses - 11 points 6th Career: 19 Wins, 18 Draws, 17 Losses

I was shocked to learn I had broken that streak! I have full faith you can do it once more... so I can kill it again next season!

Just remembered I download most of these ages ago. I checked and have the MP3 for Episode 13 Underworld - 48.1 MB. Let me know if you need me to get it to you.

MD 2 against Mongloom and his Khemri. We were at his stadium, so normal Star prices meant we took Chef, Deeproot, Zara and spent 50k from the treasury to get a Wizard. Pretty nice bang for the buck with Zara getting to reach her full potential. We managed a very nice 8 turn drive during the 1st half, though we risked the stall by allowing a 4+, 4+, 3+ two-dice Frenzy blitz (by a non Tackle player) on our Blodge ball carrier, Fat Focker. I'd do it again, but it very nearly worked as we were bailed out by Double Skulls after one of the dodges required a Reroll. 1 - 0 at the half! 2nd half and Mongloom opted to take the Both Down rather than Reroll the 3 dice block from a Guardian on a Fling. Guardian gets KO'd while Fling is fine! Good times. =) Complicating things was the fact Khemri had yet to try to pick up the ball! Continuing the trend from last match, both attempts to stick the Throw Teammate landing fail. But next turn, the Throw-Ra fails the pick up giving us another shot! We make the 4+ Landing, we crush the 4+ pick up with the ball in one tackle zone, and breeze the 2+ GFI to score making it 2 - 0! That, ladies and gentlecoaches is why you play Halflings. Khemri manage a pretty spectacular break away pass play, but even ST 4 AG 3 Blitz-Ras can't hide from a Wizard. Successful Bolt and KO meant we could recover with wonder Fling Fat Focker in our own end zone and then go coast to coast to win 3-0! On the whole, my dice were simply outstanding. AND, we got our very first Piling On Casualty on turn 15! One of the better performances in the history of the Dirty Focker franchise and lets us claim the top spot in Div 2A. Even if it's only temporary.

So MD1, as it turns out, was in fact a loss. But it was a close one at 0 - 1 and we were a few Throw Teammate Landings from scoring 3 different times! Two attempts failed with a Reroll, and a 3rd attempt scattered to hit a random Dark Elf. But it was a gutty effort by the team, and they did me proud. Piling On was a tremendous belly flop! With no real threat of being fouled in the 2nd half, I must have used it 5 or 6 times and the best it could deliver was a single KO! The animation, in case you were wondering, shows the Treeman take a little bunny hop onto the downed player and then just fall over backwards. It pretty humorous in its outlandish simplicity.

Well, week 1 will be loss. Why will it be a loss? Because I'm playing a 12 player Dark Elf team at 2160k TV and somehow he has 15 Blodge Players! I don't know how, but he does! If that wasn't bad enough he's also got a Wizard Stadium, meaning that I can't really cage. He can either get a free shot at taking down a Treeman who many never stand back up, or can likely fireball multiple AV 6 players. Yeeesh! Further, it significantly reduces my Inducement advantage. Without being able to spend 150k on a Wizard, I actually run out of crap to buy! Currently I'm getting 1180k inducements. So, Morg (430), Zara (270), Chef (100), Babes (100), Bribe (100) STILL leaves me with 180k to spend... FFS! I could get 2 Side Step Flings to annoy him. Or one Side Step and one Sneaky Git? I might also grab that 2nd RR for 100k and just get a normal Loner Fling for Fouling. It might be just a "screw it" game and try to get a good jump start on the Dirty Git competition, because I have not a clue how to prepare for this match.

The Focker's 5th season ended up being their worst to date. But considering it happened in Division 1 it's not nearly as discouraging as it sounds. However, 8 match days later, the loss of our amazing Halfling star still haunts the team. Fat Focker is doing his best to pick up the slack with a 6-2-3-6 Block, Sure Feet stat line. For the time being, our hopes and dreams will rest on his ability to roll 3s! Not ideal, but it's the best we've got. Now onto the elephant in the room. Humongous Focker will be my first ever Piling On Treeman. This isn't a "shits and giggles" skill choice. Having Jump Up means the only time Piling On hurts his blocking efforts is if he remains or moves into base contact with another opposing player after the knockdown. This assumes I've broken armor of course, which will be the primary trigger to use the skill. I fully understand I won't be able to use it when he Takes Root, and accept I could go whole matches and never use Piling On. I could have gone safe with Grab, or taken a different path with Multiple Block. But I play Halflings as a heavy bash team, and having the ability to reroll key Armor of Injury rolls is a luxury Halfling teams just don't have. Now I do. We'll see how it works. I might finally buy a 2nd Reroll. I've skated on thin ice with just 1 since team creation. It could be time to just accept the extra 60k of TV and buy the 2nd. I'm going to see how the schedule plays out, but it seems like a good idea. Doing so would reduce the bank to 10k and leave us with only 12 rostered players. 60/40 that I buy it at this point though. The other big decision is what to do with Colossal Focker. He's on 43 SPPs with 3 normal skills obtained. His Guard is a very important cog for controlling the LOS. Letting him get 8 SPPs only to roll another normal roll seems like such a waste. So instead of a 2nd Reroll, I could fire and rehire a new Tree. If you are willing to accept this wonky math, firing him and NOT buying a 2nd Reroll actually amounts to lowering our TV by 120k. And that means I just induce a Reroll for 100k until I can build up my bank again. 40/60 that I take this route. With Season 10 (the 6th for the Fockers) right around the corner, I'm considering altering old strategies and exploring new ones to try to get the team back to division 1. After all, you never get anywhere if you're just standing still! =) S4 Division 6F : 4 Wins, 4 Draws, 1 Loss - 16 points 3rd S5 Division 4C: 2 Wins, 6 Draws, 1 Loss - 12 points 6th S6 Division 3A: 3 Wins, 1 Draw, 5 Losses - 10 points 7th S8 Division 2A: 5 Wins, 2 Draws, 2 Losses - 17 points 3rd S9 Division 1B: 2 Wins, 3 Draws, 4 Losses - 9 points 8th Career: 16 Wins, 16 Draws, 13 Losses

Turns out I only needed 1 hour to decide. =) Dirty Fockers will be back for Season 10! After all, how could I rob the OCC of its first ever Jump Up - Piling on Treeman!!!

MD 9 and I managed a very solid 1-1 Draw against a Dark Elf team who needed a win to promote to the Championship. I am quite the Focker. We were quite lucky with the AV and Injury Rolls taken, but quite unlucky with our Fouls... again! I must have thrown 8 fouls with zero removals and 3 ejections. The Trees each caused a Cas though, which was nice to see. For those of you who watched me play Sage in the ReBBL playoffs, Morg once again had a chance to score a TD but failed on the final Go For It! I swear to Nuffle!!! We leveled both of our stars, and predictably they both rolled normals. Which is ok, as Grab and Sure Feet suit them well. But are they enough to keep the team going? I guess I have about 20 hours to decide.

I've been meaning to come back to this for an update, but this season has been a tough pill to swallow. The loss of Cruel Focker (MV 6 AG 4 WonderFling) has pretty much sucked all the potential out of this team. Teams can readily attack our cages and screens with little worry of a thrown Halfling escaping for a score, or simply escaping period. Star Players have largely failed to pick up the slack. The Trees have improved a bit, but going from 4 combined Cas to 6 won't exactly move the needle. We sit at 2-2-4 with three of those losses being 0-3 walkovers where every possible thing that could go wrong has gone wrong. On the whole, we've only scored 6 TDs. To the other end of the spectrum, our 2 wins were strongly aided by Nuffle themselves, with tactics not nearly playing as big a roll as I'd like to see. I'm sad to say most of this season simply hasn't been fun. However, we always try to look on the bright side of things around here, so let's see what we can find... Taking away the 9 TDs from those three Nuffle-infested losses, we've only given up 3 TDs in our other 5 matches, with a 2-2-1 record. That's, well, that's pretty darn good. We have a Block/Jump Up/Break Tackle Tree on 49 SPPs. We also have a MV 6/Block Halfling on 29 SPPs. If/when they level, no matter the skills acquired,, they are solid to excellent players. But are they enough to build around going forward? The simple fact, I believe, is that we've reached a point where Inducements are failing to make the team as competitive as in season's past. All Elves now have Blodge and everyone else has heavy Guard. Team Rerolls are now typically rolled to ensure success (greed) than to save from failures, meaning our best Inducement isn't nearly as effective. The commitment we've made to fouling (currently leading the Dirty Git competition in Div 1) really only made a difference in a single match. So, what do we do? Demotion to Div 2 is likely, so trying to rebuild and have another go at Div 1 is on the table. But I expect we will still suffer from the same problems currently infecting the team. Waiting around for another AG 4 Fling to appear seems like hoping for hope. Regardless, I think the team has probably realistically reached its peak by getting to Div 1. There isn't any player even close to Superstar (let alone Legend) so I'm not really sure what I'm playing for. There is yet one MD left to play, but it's very possible we are looking at the swan song of the Dirty Fockers.

I beg to differ! I just pulled off a 3+, 4+, 3+, 3+, 4+, 4+, 2+, 2+ (With only the Dodge RR built in) to win my OCC match this week with a Thrown Teammate on turn 16. 4.23% for those scoring at home! Listen, much respect to my stunty brothers the Ogre coaches, but Ogres are a LONG term team. Playing them for one season will only serve to make you hate 1 in 6s more than you already do! You won't have enough Rerolls or Ogres or both to have any sort of actual fun. If you want to commit long term to the big bad Ogre belly flop plunge, then sure, they can do all sorts of neat things after about 1600TV. Goblins give the opportunity for pure carnage, so if that's what you want they are superior (at this stage) than Ogres for wrecking the field in hilarious and fun ways. But there is definitely a strategy involved with Goblin secret weapons and screwing that up will leave a huge empty feeling when your Fanatic or Chainsaw gets to play only 1 turn. Flings at this level are both fun and competitive, in the sense that your Throw Teammate TD attempts are better than anyone else. You can destroy things just as easily as Goblins with your 3 Trees and similar fouling potential. Does Schadenfreude suit your desires? Nothing is better than the Chef ruining a half for your opponent by taking all their Rerolls. And then the "game within the game" of getting to tailor your team with inducements is a very fun meta-game component few other teams get to experience. Puggy is a blast at these TVs for silly cage dives. In conclusion, take your time, read everyone's opinions, and then search your heart for the the answer... ... and then slap yourself for listening to these meat-heads and realize that Halflings are the ONLY choice you should be considering!