[Boromir88]

Group D at Eregion
There's nothing the Noldor smiths and their dwarven friends like more than a building project. There was already a stadium built outside Ost-in-Edhil which hosted several Arda Cup playoff games, but when Eregion won its bid to host Group D, the Noldor went straight to work renovating the old stadium.

The Ost-in-Edhil Stadium already had 65,000 seats, which was quite satisfactory for the Noldor's fancy. They don't like making the largest, bulkiest stone stadiums possible, but would rather build a true gem on Middle-earth. So the Eregion planning committee diverted all funds not to adding more seats, but to adourn the stadium in all the precious stones and gems the Noldor and dwarves could get their hands on.

The greatest accomplishment of the renovated stadium has to be somehow the Noldor builders were able to craft windows and precious jewels that could take in and capture light. So when the Hollin sky would often be lit up in its various hues of blues and greens, oranges and yellows and reds the stadium's walls somehow took in all the outside light. Then at night time the stadium let out a pale, but bright glow of light being converted to all the colors of the sky. And residents from the nearby great Noldo city and even sometimes from the entrance to Moria (under a day's walk away), could see the stadium letting off it's beautiful multi-colored glow. It was a site that has attracted many a tourists to the area and the Noldor were proud of their new accomplishment.

The stage for this group is expected to be extremely friendly as it will predominantly feature Elves in support of Eregion. However, as the group was also hosting many Elf-friends, like the rangers and older generations of Gondorians, under the captaincy of a jewel unto herself, Arwen then there isn't expected to be much trouble in terms of security or rabble rousers. Even the Barad-dur team, many of Eregion, Eriador, and Gondor fans were anxious to see Gil-Galad, Isildur, and Cirdan return.

The baddies on Barad-dur were feeling quite alone and you must wonder how well they can perform for their team being so far away from any support. Surely the Moria orcs would be more likely to attend the Group B games for the Misty Mountains and whatever orcs out of Mordor decided to travel, they would likely follow Sauron. The Mouth and Nazgul #1 were looking both disgusted and nervous that under 500 orcs and other general beasties (of the 'fell' disposition) had turned up for Barad-dur. Their hearts raised somewhat by a travelling band of around 100 trolls came, but only to find out they were sporting the Dunedain emblem of the royal sceptre and wearing Bert, Tom, or Barrow-wight jerseys.

"This game can turn even the evilest creatures into a travelling carnival of singing freaks" scowled The Mouth.