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This month I managed to get an Interview with the captain from Team Finland, and Im very glad I did. Not only because he is he an excellent coach but the timing to do it right now, when the Swedish Championship is starting tomorrow. Everyone who has attended previous years knows who Tonalt is but to keep it short, his team won the first year and came in second the year after so my guess is that he is here to get back on top, Since we both struggle to talk Swedish we decided to do this in English but as I knew Pertan had some roots from Finland I thought it was a good idea to let him shoot the first question.

(från Pertan) "Moi Aku, Toivottavasti kaikki on hyvin? Okay lets take this in English so the rest of guys keep up. So I got the privilege to ask a question to you so here it comes.

You're the current Finnish Team Captain for Finnish national Blood Bowl team. How long have you had the position? And a follow up question, what do you find is the most difficult aspect of being a team Captain?"

Moi Petri! Hyvää kuuluu, Salassa nähdään The Finnish captain is always elected during the Eurobowl trips, and I was voted captain in Malta in 2022. COVID, the World Cup, and Ronn Moss have somewhat disrupted the usual rhythm, so my captaincy term has been extended. In Athens, I was the Finnish eurobowl captain for the first time, and there I was re-elected to continue for the 2025 season. We'll see what happens after Hungary. I consider the role of Finland’s captain to be a great honor, but also a significant responsibility. The captain is expected to make tough decisions and, ultimately, deliver results. It’s not easy to choose which close friends make the team and who gets left out. As captain, I’ve also tried to help grow the scene, which is a challenging task. Despite the time and effort I’ve put in, it’s hard to be certain that it will yield results. But I think it has gone reasonably well and I'm surrounded by passionate people who help.

If we go back a few years, how did you end up to play Blood Bowl in the first place?

I started playing in the early 2000s, but I really got into the game when I discovered FUMBBL in 2004. I had a break from active playing for several years until I found the tournament scene with some friends in 2017, and since then, I’ve been playing a lot.

How is the scene in Finland now versus how it was earlier?

The Finnish scene used to be very fragmented, and at the Eurobowl, it was basically just members of a single league who participated. Things have become more organized, and the focus has shifted from just drinking to occasionally playing as well, which is starting to show in the results. The community is still incredibly warm and fun, and we certainly haven’t stopped enjoying a drink or two. At the moment, Finland's top players are internationally competitive, and we’re constantly improving!

You have played very solid with many different races and mainly played hybrid/dash but what race is your favorite among those, and why?

At the moment, my favorite race is Amazons. I've always played teams whose gameplay is based on positioning and the use of the Guard skill, such as Humans, Orcs, Dwarves, and Amazons. While these teams share many similarities in playstyle, Amazons offer the most flexibility thanks to the Dodge skill. It’s effective both for protecting players and for positioning during play. I haven’t consciously gravitated towards these races, but I’ve chosen races that aren’t widely played in Finland. This way, there’s less overlap when selecting teams for Eurobowl or other tournaments.

What do you think is the most important lesson you have learnt to get better as a coach?

The most important lesson I’ve learned is the value of practice and routine. Some coaches are naturally better or more talented at Blood Bowl and gaming in general, but unfortunately, I’m not one of them. My skill comes from experience and putting in a lot of practice.
Through repetition, I learn from my mistakes and improve my gameplay. What works best for me is choosing one race to focus on and playing them intensively for a long time, which has allowed me to achieve my best results. Winning my first Swedish Championship with Orcs was perhaps the only exception to this rule, but at the time, I had been training very intensively with other teams

There are a lot of people who stream Blood Bowl at the moment, are you follow anyone and how important (if any) do you think it is to watch good coaches play?

I follow streamers and other content creators occasionally. I’m most interested in quality NAF-style matches where skilled coaches play and explain their decisions. I don’t usually have the patience to watch Ladder grinding by Andydavo or others, but I did watch the World Championship recordings because they help me understand the playstyles and choices of the best players. That said, I still appreciate their work. Blood Bowl-related content is essential for the growth and development of the game in the future. For this reason, I think GW’s new rule sets, streamers, and Cyanide’s Blood Bowl games have been the best developments for this game in the past 10 years.

Do you think a story about the team and their players are important?

In general lore and the story side of the game is a big part of Blood bowl. Many people spend endless hours thinking about backstories about teams and players and I love that Blood Bowl offers that. For me Blood bowl is mostly about game mechanics with pretty game pieces. So I really don't care about the story aspect so much because I'm thinking more about tactics and making the right move at the right time.

How much time do you spend on painting minatures?

I'm a slow painter and I have high standards, so when I'm commited to painting a team, it takes a long time. I've been painting miniatures since I was 15 years old so I love it. I try to paint a team or two every year. Almost finished with my gnomes for my local league!

About Team Finland and Eurobowl 2025, how do you think the rules will affect the "meta" and do you have any specific goals with the team? Like "top3", "not comming in last" or "Atleast beat Sweden"?

Top3 is the dream. I'm happy with top 10 but I'd like to improve from the last year. Not beating sweden is the thing that I get the most flak for still. So that's given that we have to beat Sweden in Hungary. We beat the easy Nordic neighbor Denmark last time.

Speaking of tomorrowns tournament, SM i Sala, how did you guys get the idea to come to Sala in the first place?

I'm not 100% sure anymore but I think I head about the tournament from one of the swedish Eurobowl players. The 1st year of SM in Sala happened to be around when we were looking for tournaments outside Finland that do not require so much traveling and Sala had all those things for us. Even though we like to say swedes are the worst we secretly love you guys

11 How would you describe your journey for the previous years?

I like the tournament, the head organizer is a great guy and the atmosphere has always been fun! We usually bring our best to Sala and it has shown in the results. We we're expecting to do good even the first time around but you can't beat the feeling of being the 1st Swedish champs as Finns. And after that I haven't felt as much pressure to succeed but of course I'll do my best every time to get the trophy back to Finland where it belongs

And finaly, where will you end up on the scoreboard when all games are played this weekend?

We'll aim to take the stage again and this time we won't give it up. You bring them and we knock them down!

I thank Tonalt for his time and it will be fun to see if those last words will be a threat, or a promise but nomatter what, as a Swede I wanna say that it not as important to win as it is to compete. But also as a Swede who compete against Finland, I would say it is more important to win so it will be interesting to see how everything plays out in the end. Maybe the funniest thing would be if the Spanish guys just grab the first price, However, I consider my job done which is poaring fuel on the bonfire cause I think everyone loves a friendly rivalry. Good luck everyone and remember, if you play against Nurgle, it could be me so just let us win, pls pls pretty pls ;)