Dungeonbowl 2009: Location and Brackets Revealed!

It's GO time, sports fiends! The brackets for the 2009 Dungeonbowl are set, as well as the location! This year' championship game will take place on the snow-kissed slopes of the Oberklunk mountains, at Midgard Battlefield. While the Asgard Raiders, proprietors of the arena, are away looting and pillaging, they have graciously welcomed the MMBBL back into their home on the condition that the finals match be worthy of a flaming funeral boat or two. And now, on to the brackets!

In Bloodbath division, the first round bye goes to the Darkmire Carnosaurs, who have been practically unstoppable this season, as well as quite literally undefeated.

The 2nd-ranked Stargazin' Farmboys, not entirely sure of how they got there, will take on the resurgent 7th-place Bleakwood Breakers at Most Likely Swamp Port.

The Bloodsand Blasters control the 3rd seed and will host the 6th-place Ibisi A-Nile-Ators in a heavily anticipated regional battle at Bad Block Pyramid.

The 4th spot is held by the Drudgetown Deadites, who will stare down the returning champions from the Spike! tournament, the 5th-seeded Razor Hill Spinebreakers, in the Pit.

Deathdealer Division's first-round bye goes to the Blackwater Bilgerunners, whom many are expecting to meet the Darkmire Carnosaurs in the finals a few weeks from now.

2nd place is held by a bewildered Grenedale Lesionnaires squad, who hold the league's only spotless casualty record. They'll host the 7th seed, in this case the Fjord Rangers who are shuffled over from Bloodbath's brackets. The game will take place at the Linitis Plastica Centre.

The 3rd-place squad, the Shattered Plains Rampage, nearly beat the aforementioned Bilgerunners, which would have shaken up the brackets significantly. Look for them to bring their best game when they face the mean-spirited dwarves on the 6th-place Dark Iron Dreadnaughts squad at Shattered Plains Arena.

The 4th-and-5th-seed game, featuring a repeat of last week's regular season match, will have the Sun Temple Chupacabras hosting the Lurkers of Azzilizza at the Sun Temple, in an all-jungle slugfest.

We'll have match results as they happen, sports fiends, so stay tuned!

Raiders Rejoice in the Rain

With the valkyries finally cleared out of Midgard Battlefield, the Asgard Raiders were finally able to host their match against the Traumatic Takedown. As one distraction left, however, another took its place, as the rain poured down in buckets as the squads took the field before over 24 thousand die-hard fans, mostly Norsemen and mostly drunk. The raiders won the opening coin toss, and chose to receive the ball first.

A high kick gave Asgard Raiders quarterback Egor Longrow plenty of time to get under it, but the rain foiled his attempt to field the ball cleanly. Still, he retrieved the ball from where it lay and advanced into the quickly-developing melee along the line of scrimmage. While the mobile quarterback option is somewhat anomalous in the MMBBL's ranks of throwers, few teams execute the strategy better than the stubborn Norse. With steady blocking from the linemen, Longrow pushed his way past the press of bodies and scored the first touchdown of the game on foot.

The Traumatic Takedown were eager to respond on their first possession, though their impressions came more frequently in the one-on-one blocking battles than on the scoreboard. As the sturdy chaos dwarf line paved the way for ball carrier Charlie Horse, Buster Kneecaps laid a brutal hit on runner Ymir Keldsvide, nearly killing him. The Raiders' medical staff retrieved and repaired the fallen warrior, though with significant damage to his spinal column. The crowd heaved a collective sigh of relief, as no valkyries would be needed to spirit away the mangled man.

Charlie Horse seemed home free at that point, galloping madly towards the end zone. Unfortunately, the fields of Midgard Battlefield are very often littered with slippery frost, and the centaur found such a patch, sending him crashing to the earth merely a yard and a half from his goal. To his dismay, the whistle sounded before he could right himself, and halftime saw the Raiders take a 1-0 lead to the locker room.

Upon the return to the field and the Takedown getting another crack at breaking the goose egg, they quickly set about breaking other things as well. Dead Leg charged at Tyr Warriov, picking the Norseman up in a headlock and dragging him several yards before dropping him and trampling him soundly. Though not permanently disfigured or maimed, the dizzy, bruised Warriov could only stagger to the sidelines and collapse on the refreshment table.

With the personnel advantage renewed for the chaos dwarf squad, Charlie Horse yet again made strides up the pitch. Once again he was nearly untouchable. Once again the goal was in his grasp. Once again...he upended himself on a patch of ice. There was still plenty of time on the clock however, and Horse ignored the catcalls and laughter from the Norse fans, picking himself up slowly and walking into the end zone to claim the ball and the tying point.

The Raiders received the ball once more, and set about their usual grinding ground assault. This time, runner Kari Quickstride was the carrier, shooting up the gut with linemen holding positions and shoving dwarves and hobgoblins aside. Several of the linemen, seemingly possessed with rage or perhaps simply off their medication, assaulted the Takedown's centaurs and even knocked over the mighty minotaur, M. Spazm. With the defense dwindling, Kari Quickstride picked his path and pumped his legs until there was nothing but open air between him and the end zone. Smashing the football to the earth and hurling himself into the fans, Quickstride had won the game for his Norsemen in the dying seconds.

The MVPs for this 2-1 Raiders victory were Egor Longrow, for his precision play, and Busitis "Bruce" Olecranon, who was a tough guy to get ahold of for the entire affair. both teams will have a short rest before playing again this week, back on their regular schedules. The Takedown host the Razor Hill Spinebreakers, while the Raiders will visit the Bog to play the Darkmire Carnosaurs.