League Expansion, Returning Teams, and Blood Bowl Day

Time now for a few administrative posts concerning the MMBBL.

First up, we're expanding the league from eight to twelve teams this Autumn. We don't have any new coaches, but four of our current coaches have expressed interest in fielding a second team. Therefore, there will be six teams in each division, with each of the two-team coaches having one team in each division. When playoff time comes, only one of that coach's two teams may advance, even if both teams are technically eligible.

In theory, we have the resources to support up to sixteen teams at this point, since there are four boards among us. If we expand further, it will be directly to sixteen teams if possible. If that can't work, then the two-team fielding coaches may be asked to cut back to one in subsequent seasons. This is simply a matter of everyone being able to play on the alternating game nights of the two conferences, Bloodbath and Deathdealer. having an odd number of teams in either division means that someone's got to wait nearly a month between games, and that would be frustrating to say the least.

And now on to the returning teams announcement. To begin, several teams who've been with us recently are taking breaks, mostly so the coaches can experiment with new team types. The Dusk Hill Dirt Bursters, Meathooks, Brutakai Ragefangs, and Bloodsand Blasters are all getting put on the shelf for a little while, after four, four, two and one season of play, respectively.

Returning are four of the squads from last season - The Smash and Go'nads, the Blueriver Wardoves, the Traumatic Takedown and the Blackwater Bilgerunners, as well as a previously established team, the Fly-by Knights, who were last seen in the Spring season. with five returning teams, this means that over half of the league will be entirely new squads. Though the returning teams have an edge as far as skill and playoff hope goes, there's still a lot of wiggle room for new teams to get off the ground quickly. Those new teams will be given an introductory post soon.

Something that pleases me to no end will be our first annual Blood Bowl Day. Commemorating the start of the MMBBL last year, this is the sort of landmark that every league commissioner hopes for. Enthusiasm seems to permeate the league, we've managed to find a balance between the more casual and more hardcore players (namely the aforementioned two-team coaches) and we've set a foundation of league history that we can build on with each passing game. Everybody still gets a little chill at the mention of Ol' Teabagger. We know what it means to exclaim "HUNGRY!" when the die roll comes up a 1. We've even got a handful of creative alternative projectiles when "Throw a Rock" comes up on a kickoff. In short, we've taken the generic core of the game and covered it with a gooey, sweet, unique MMBBL frosting. This Fall, we start on the second tier of this delicious, vicious cake.

Blood Bowl Day is going to be a celebration of the league, and as well an excuse to hang out with what's become a tightly-knit crew of fantasy sports fans. There'll be pizza, drinks, and of course on-pitch carnage. The games themselves with carry a few twists - money earned will be halved as it's "preseason" play, the games themselves won't count in the standings (thought star player points will), and teams who aren't even in the league itself this season will be welcome. Don't expect to see too much on the blog about the games, aside from the major highlights. I love updating this site, but there's no way I'm going to be able to scribble out 10-15 matches in full detail.

There's still a couple of posts to be made - One concerning the new teams, one for a new house rule we're implementing which will give flavour to the different venues the teams play in, and one to showcase some new graphics - a league map, a "head-to-head" match post header, the MMBBL logo with all the current team logos incorporated, and the biggest project to date, player cards! Keep an eye open, and we'll see you on Blood Bowl Day!