[Nogrod]

The board of Nogg’s Ball has observed the current situation of the competition and has arrived to the following predicament.

On the first knock-out phase the teams to challenge each other will be:

1. Angband – Ham/Doriath
2. Valinor – Ham / Doriath
3. Tuna – The Inklings
4. Lothlorien / Shire – Barrow-Downs
5. Nargothrond – Bree
6. Numenor – Gondolin
7. Mordor / Roverandom – Fangorn / Old Gray Hill
8. Mordor / Roverandom – Misty Mountains

And if standard rules apply, then it will be the winners facing each other from matches:
1-8 = Angband – Misty Mountains
2-7 this is a hard one to predict…
3-6 = Tuna – Gondolin
4-5 = Barrow-Downs – Nargothrond

So Angband and The Barrow-Downs will meet in the semifinal!

On the other semifinal a group of nobodies (unless Mordor gets it’s act together and will proceed to this stage) will face Tuna, and Tumunzahar will be betting heavily on Tuna – elves they are but however…

So a final between Tuna vs. Angband / Barrow-Downs to be seen?

Due to these considerations Nogg’s Ball’s directorate will announce the following change to their line-up.

Sold out:
FW Tulkas (Valinor)

Signed in:
FW Finwe (Tuna)

Other changes will take place after the rest of this round’s matches are played out.

Generally the team will be considering selling off the Erebor goalie Smaug in the first place but as said earlier, he will be given an opportunity to show his skills as well as his team to show up some actual playing before any action is taken by the board of Nogg’s Ball. The same goes with Valinor’s defender Mänwe.

Depending on today’s fixtures Nogg’s Ball will be highly interested in changing their Barrow-Downs midfielder Feanor of the Peredhil (a winning teams midfielder to be sure but a bit ineffective) to either Dwalin (Misty Mountains) or Wizard Artaxerxez (Roverandom). Also Ham’s midfielder Miller would be an option – depending on today’s results and the consecutive standings in the charts (whether Ham will meet Angband in the first knock-out round or not).

But the time will tell…

PS. Sleepy & Arcticstorm: I have made the change in Nogg’s Ball’s initial line-up.