EUCS Spring Budweis

Saturday

AIM's first-ever EUCS tournament. The beginning of The Cows' jump over the moon.

With only 5 teams at EUCS Spring in Budweis, the competition was tight from Day 1, especially with AIM's biggest rival, Outsiterz in the field.

AIM's first game was against a young and athletic FUJ team, who pushed The Herd every step of the way. The match went back and forth, until finally FUJ got the better of the The Herd on universe at 13-14. The Herd was crushed, its first-ever EUCS game ended in its first-ever EUCS loss.

But then a light appeared. Captain Bende Pigniczky stepped up to force the cows to make a decision "up or down from here?" Thundering hooves began to shake the earth. It was all up from here on out.

Starting with a tricky 12-9 win against Terrible Monkeys, who through a tricky junk defense against The Herd. Then, The Herd followed up its first-ever EUCS win by picking up its first-ever rivalry win against Outsiterz to round out Saturday's matches.

Sunday

The Herd was chomping at the bit Sunday morning, ready for more. Starting the morning off against 3SB, an intense test for such a young herd. But, AIM came ready to play. Earning several blocks on defense and dominating 3SB in the air to earn an 5-8 halftime. 2 breaks later, the score was 7-8 and AIM looked like its D-Line handlers of Daniel Ramel and Bende Pigniczky might be able to spark a comeback.

The Herd fought valiantly but this was as close as they would get in its first match against an EUCF team, eventually falling 9-15. With this loss, The Herd was scheduled to play a round robin against Terrible Monkeys and Outsiterz to determine 3rd place.

The Herd was hungry for more. Starting with an intense rivalry rematch, Outsiterz wasn't interested in going home empty handed. The Herd was down 10-11 and after a solid Offense point, the Defense took the spotlight with 3 consecutive breaks, including an assist from Levente Nagy to Bence "Karate Kid" Szodorai (his first ever tournament goal). That momentum stayed with The Herd to the end, winning 15-12.

Last game of the day was a rematch against Terrible Monkeys, but The Herd was living high on life. In fact, The Herd did not get broken once on its way to a final game win of 15-9. The Herd's tournament's biggest cows were as follows:

1. Ábel Csillag - 9 goals, 19 assists
2. Magas Dávid Tiszay - 21 goals, 3 assists
3. Ferenc Klément - 6 goals, 18 assists
4. Daniel Ramel - 2 goals, 11 assists
5. Bende Pigniczky (C) - 3 goals, 9 assists