Saturday June 16 at 1pm, the smallest an baddest of the two groups Elf Clan and Raglan Shire got together to battles it out on the field of Tiny Soccer. And boy wot a game it was!
PREGAME
Elf Clan pulled the first surprise move by all taking on the form of tinies. Raglan clearly thought they were going to be taking on biggies... which gives them a decided advantage since tinies are closer to the ball. But Elf Clan came not as Elves and Orcs... but as dwagons, ferrets wabbits and other assorted critters, ready to looks Raglan players right in da snoot.
We started da event off right by stealing Raglan swag right offa bat. Dat right, in da best tradition of the Rabid Elves... we hit their swag boxes an stole tooty horns an flags an all da loot we could, replacing their flags with ours and sniping their gestures. Hooo.... Pink Piracy at its best!
Not that we came empty handed. We had our own hand-made soccer uniforms, flags, pom poms and full cheerleader outfits. Elf Clan came to this game ready to rumble. But as player Koni said later, we "thought we was gonna get our tails stomped."
I mean after all, let's be realistic. We was taking on Raglan Shire, da baddest of da bad when it comes to soccer. These folks beat Caledon hands down last year, with both sides not cheating even once. Totally honorable game. Caledon crawled away from that with bite and claw marks all over their ankles. No, we didn't underestimate Raglan Shire one bit. We was there to win, but expecting to get wiped all over da field.
Howeber, dat not wot happened. Wot happened was what is undeniably da very best game I have ever seen on Second Life, ever, this side of the Orc Elf war!
THE RABID ELVES... THE ELF CLAN TEAM. A FINER BUNCH OF TEAM MATES YOU'LL NEVER SEE.
SUPPORT FOLKS
First let's thank da two main supports people. Steve was da ref, and did a respectable good job considering he was da ONLY ref (we really needed about 4). No, we not mean da Great Tree Steve, we mean Steve da tiny. The entire game was live-action monitored by DJ Escape Unplugged, in what has got to be the most biased, prejudiced, illegal-offside sports broadcast ever, highy supportive of Raglan Shire and moaning/weeping ever time Elf Clan scored a point. It was great, cos we said dat wot would happen! From da pre-game interview to da final score, the announcer was heavily pro-Raglan an properly non-home-team demoralizin. We would expects nuthin less, cos we know he scared. Mwaaahahahah...
DA FIRST HALF
Game got off to shaky start when the Tiny Terrors started out da kick even though the Rabid Elves won da coin toss. But Elf Clan took it all in good humor. We unnerstands bites to da backside if ya get a chance. mwahahahaha... After all, it a tiny game, we all was excited, da start-up was dragging on and finally a tiny just KICKED IT! Da moment dat happen we all jumped in and hooo it was on.
Raglan made first score. Dat pretty demoralizin, cos it first blood. But Elf Clan turn right around an before Raglan even knowed wot hitted 'em, we made a score and we was tied, 1-1. Our moralizin was back an we was ready to rumble. After dat, Raglan payin' attenshun!
TINY TERRORS-- THE RAGLAN SHIRE TEAM. SCURVY-LOOKIN LOT. THEM FERRETS WAS LOW TO THE GROUND AND LIKE BULLDOZERS... THEY'D GO RIGHT UNDER YA AND THROW YA TO THE BLEACHERS.
Our first goalie was Osprey Therian, who filled in last minute wifout practice cos... as usually... ELF CLAN WAS LATE! (Silly Elves. Tsk). Osprey did great job; if not for her, Raglan woulda scored lots more than they did. Zephyre was also last-minute fill-in player, and he did great job-- especially considering he'd had no practice. Maxwell, Koni, Kylinn and I was on da front line and it was score for score tussles I can tells ya! By the end of the first half, the score was 2-3 with Raglan ahead.
HALF TIME
After a very brief half-time during which Raglan DID NOT SERVE COOKIES... we got back to the game. By this time our practiced late-arriving team was online, and we traded out spots. Osprey and Zephyre both moved to cheerleading and Shade and Unique came in. We put Kylinn on goalie and this time, decided to run a defensive line. At first I assigned Shade to defense, but he not heard me an was right up there on offense. I decided to drop back and play defense myself an boy was I glad I did. Koni, Maxwell an Shade proved to be a 3-person sledgehammer on da Raglan offensive line. Hooooo you shoulda seen 'em. I mostly hung back unless I saw the ball go behind the Raglan goal, in which case I came forward and waited for it to come out again to try a sneak-attack goal. Unique played excellent defense and always hung back on our side of the line... which was great cos she saved our hides more than once when the ball zoomed past me toward our end. Translated: I was a defensive forward and sometimes got too far forward cos hooooo it soccer! So I glad Unique was back there to protect da home fort. :D Kylinn did a great job as goalie. I think I saw her twice grab a ankle an bite.
Da lag was just awful. Dat to be expected, mainly cos it's Second Life and coded like a donkey's intestine... but also cos we maxxed out da sim with 59 people!!! (Which is probably one of the reasons more Elf Clanner's weren't there. They waited until the last minute to port in... and SIM FULL!)
During the game one of Raglan side crashed, so we called a TIME OUT while he relogged. Was only da right thing to do.
We pretty much traded goals with Raglan back and forth... but finally got the upper hand and had our score 6-5 (Elf Clan) coming down to the end of the second half, with 2 minutes on the clock. Boy, dat was tense, cos Raglan knowed we ahead one point and dey stepped up da pace. It was all we could do to defend. That whole 2 minutes seemed like the ball was always on our end. Raglan tried wif all their might-- but we held da wall. Finally, the buzzer sounded and the game ended: score ELF CLAN 6, RAGLAN SHIRE 5. Hooooooo!
There was dancing and applausing and Raglan Shire was very good sports and everbody having fun. But den I heared a comment off to da side and I asked da ref about it:
"Someone says one of the goals we made was when other player was crashed, without anyone knowing he had crashed. Is that true?" Sadly, ref answered "Yes, it true. But we didn't see it in time."
We is Elf Clan. Our first code in da charter is HONOR... an we can't "win" when other side was down one man and dere any question about score being fair. So I quick IMed other players an we talked. Dere was discussion, but in da end we agreed it was only fair to declare a draw. So we announced decision to ref: the final score should be a TIE... with no rematch or tiebreaker required. It was da fair thing to do. Raglans very happy and complimented us on sportsmanship. So both sides winned! We fine with that. Best soccer game ever!
BOTH TEAMS AND CHEERLEADERS LINE UP FOR AN AFTER-GAME PHOTO
After da game we taked team photos on both sides and then both teams together. We danced and congratulated but STILL NO COOKIES.
Player Maxwell had just bought new sim and he a DJ... so he invited us all over for after-game dance. It was great. He played wunnerful music (including Puff da Magic Dragon)... and den he handed out TINY MOTORCYCLES he made to eberone dere! (They great motorcycles too.) Hooo was great party!
All in all, it was bestest soccer game I eber seen. Everyone had a great time and the two teams were perfectly matched. We was neck-and-neck da entire game. Anyone who was watching World Cup during our game was at WRONG GAME! Tiny soccer beats World Cup hands down! :D
RAGLAN TEAM: (positions unknown... mainly total chaotics...)
Manannan Amat -- Chief ankle-biter
Awor Blabbermouth -- Tail Puller
Catten Carter -- Fancy Chanter
Seth Direwytch -- One of dem ragamuffins
Bree Himmel -- Polite but a toe nipper
Dagmar Klaar -- Defensive ankle-biter
Cyzicus Mesmeriser -- All over da place
Daveypup Nirpaw -- Offensive Defense
Fox Obviate -- Tacks-in-the-grass placer
Chester Reichmann -- Defensive ball-sitter
Balto Rosca -- Chief nya-nya maker
Iwanta Salamander -- Just total nutz
Shakespear Shamrock -- I dunno but eber time I turn around, HE DERE!
Bribed Ref: Steve Gracemount
Biased Announcer: Escape Unplugged
Great Video: Pyewacket Bellmann
Date: June 20, 2010
Event: Elf Clan vs Raglan Shire Soccer Game
From da pre-game interview to da final score, the announcer was heavily pro-Raglan an properly non-home-team demoralizin. We would expects nuthin less, cos we know he scared. Mwaaahahahah...
