AO Bowl
Founded by Sarzonia's Buddy Landry, the former commissioner of the Sarzonian Football Confederation (Sarzonia's top flight association football league), the Atlantian Oceania Bowl is a region-wide tournament of teams that play gridball, Sarzonia's nickname for the sport commonly referred to as American football. The name "gridball" comes from the official name for the sport in Sarzonia, "Gridiron football, formerly known as American football," which no one in Sarzonia actually uses. Even the organisation that officially named the sport thusly refers to the sport by its common nickname in all references.
The tournament was founded by Landry in an effort to give the Incorporated Gridball League a jump start. The league, Sarzonia's latest effort to establish a top flight professional league for the sport, consists of ten teams playing a 13 game schedule, and some of its rules are generally based on those of the old National Football League in the former United States of America.
The first tournament will be held in Sarzonia with 12 teams participating. The teams have been divided into three divisions. The three division winners and the next three teams regardless of record will advance to the playoffs. The teams are as follows:
NORTHERN DIVISION (played at the Iron Bowl, Portland)
CENTRAL DIVISION (played at Bryan Marshall Stadium, Woodstock)
SOUTHERN DIVISION (played at The Round Table, Nicksia)
Results
The group stage concluded with the division winners as follows: Space Union (3-0); Bedistan (2-1, wins head-to-head tiebreaker over Milchama); and Legalese (2-1, wins three-way point differential tiebreaker over Nedalia and Nojika). The wild card (Second Round) stage saw Bedistan defeat Nojika 22-10 and Oliverry edge Milchama 65-62 in overtime. The semifinal matchups are Space Union vs. Oliverry and Legalese vs. Bedistan. The winners play in the AO Bowl championship game, which is one game, winner take all.
Semifinals
Number one Space Union (4-0) got by fourth seed and Northern Division rivals Oliverry (2-2) by a 24-22 score. Second seeded Legalese improved to 3-1 and sent third seeded Bedistan (3-2) packing with a 13-0 shutout. The championship game will pit Space Union against Legalese for the inaugural Joe Gibbs Trophy for the AO Bowl champion.
