Elven Marauders
| Nickname | Marauders |
| Association | Elven Footballing Association (EFA) |
| Coach | Justinian Constant |
| Captain | Rick Cuellar |
| Most caps | Martin St. Louis (135) |
| Top scorer | Kyla Night (118) |
| Country Code | ESF |
| KPB rank | 4 |
| Highest KPB ranking | 4 (Current) |
| Lowest KPB ranking | NR (World Cup 29 Quali) |
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| First international Audioslavia 4 - 2 Elves Security Forces (World Cup 29 Qualifying, Matchday 1) | |
| Largest win Keyne Island 0 - 11 Elves Security Forces (World Cup 35 Qualifying, Matchday 5) | |
| Worst defeat Commerce Heights 5 - 1 Elves Security Forces (World Cup 31 Qualifying, Matchday 17) | |
| Highest scoring match Keyne Island 0 - 11 Elves Security Forces (World Cup 35 Qualifying, MD5) | |
| World Cup | |
| Appearances | 7 (Qualis; 29-36: Proper; 33-35) |
| Best result | 3rd WC34 |
| Olympic Games | |
| Appearances | none |
| Best result | N/A |
History
Since the year 11,289 A.E., a form of football has been played the ESF. However, it was not until 13,432 that any form of a structured league came into play. These firsts set of leagues were mostly inner city squads who would play every saturday against other squads from the city. Eventually Mar Sara and Gladerial would both come to boast the best football in the country. With no other way to resolve the dispute apart from a match between the best squad from Mar Sara and Gladerial had a match in Char Sara, so that neither side would have a home field advantage. Gladerial's side, which had been dubbed the Twilight, due to the squad playing most of their games as the sun was setting, won the match in an exciting one to nil affair. The following year each of the eight cities where these leagues had taken root decided to set up a tournament where the best squad from each city would represent them, and whoever won the tournament would have bragging rights as to the best football in the country.
In 16,789 was when the first official professional league was organized and instituted. In it's infancy, the league started out with eight clubs, one in each of those original eight cities that football started in. Just a mere ten years later the squads had expanded to ten teams, and a devlopmental league was being planned. Twenty years after the start of the organizational league, the number of clubs had expanded to twenty-four, with three different leagues being recongized. In order to keep the matches for the lesser skilled squads important down the season, a promotion and relegation setup was instituted, which is still in use today. Since this time, two more clubs have been added into the mixture and the plans to expand even more, with the ideal set up of the Premiership having twenty clubs, the Star League having twelve, and the Green league with twelve as well has been achieved. Only time will tell if the system will work the way the investors hope it will.
First Competitions
When the nation of Losstarot announced they would be having an invitational tournament, and that the ESF was invited to participate, the first idea of a national team came to a head. Never before had the elves played football outside of their own country or against other countries. Woeful about the prospect of dissapointing their fans, the elves originally planned on foregoing the tournament and sticking to their league matches. However, with their political allies entering, the elves decided to enter the competition. Though the records of the players entered for that first international tournament are lost, along with the stats for each nation, it is known that the national team went undefeated in the tournament and defeated the hosts in the final, in what would soon create a fierce rivalry.
When the nation of Assegai Developments , the renamed kingdom of Losstarot following a brutal war, announced the following year of the Invitational would be annual, the squad felt compelled to join and defend their title. This is where the national teams first set of heros and their nickname orginated from. After another fabulous run to the title, with perfection being hampered only by a first match loss to Styrlands, and defeating the hosts once again, the squad was dubbed the Marauders. Zacharius, who would soon become the face of Elven Football, gave the squad its' nickname because they seem to invade and pillage the hosts each tournament, much like viking marauders did against the human kingdoms during their "Dark Age". The title seemed to fit and it has stayed the official nickname of the national team since.
Regional Success and Failure
The following year, the Marauders looked to stamp their dominance on their regions football by taking the third staight Invitational title. However, poor performances by the key players lead to an early exit for the squad, who didn't even make it out of the group stage. Frustrated by failure, the squad used the regional league to try and regain their reputation. Although the league had been around for a year and half, the Marauders did not feel the need to compete in it due to their success at the Invitational. The squad suffered some early setbacks and looked to be on their way down. However, some changes in the call ups and the squad finished in a respectable seventh place out of the twenty three nations competiting.
Eager to earn more glamor and glory, the national team began to become a regular fixture in the regional tournaments, and was always considered the favorites. However, the squad was never able to capitalize on their position, and started having a trend of reaching the final and then losing. This was quite prevelant in the year prior to World 33, as they would finish second in the League Cup, Mchuano Chombo , the Invitational, and Galaxy Cup. With the recent fall of regional activity the squad had to turn to a different venue to prove their glory.
World Fixtures
As the activity and interest continued to drop in the regional game, the elves decided to take their skill to the highest level of competition, the World Cup . The squad entered the grandest tournament of them all, thinking their regional success would be enough to lift them past these foriegners who they thought didn't know the true passion of the sport. They were quickly taught their lesson, as they endured multiple defeats in their debut tournament, World Cup 29 , likely due to not getting any expierence in the Baptism of Fire before qualification began. The squad was able to pull together some decent results towards the end of qualifying, and had the oppurunity to advance on the last matchday, but eventually fell to Becquerelia. They had expected to enter the following Cup of Harmony that ran alongside the Finals, but were unable to due to a flu pandemic.
In World Cup 30 the Marauders expected thier close achievement of making it last tournament to full their fires and make it all the way this time. The squad was plagued with upsets and once again failed to qualify, and entered the CoH, which resulted them in reaching the final, through a sitaution that has been called Spaamgate 2 here in the ESF, where Spaamanian Plijols withdraw in the semifinals to give the Marauders a free pass to the final, where they lost to Dance 2 Revolution in extra time. World Cup 31 saw the Marauders best chance for the squad to break through, but they were victims of their former colony Demot, who edged them out by a point. World Cup 32 and the following Cup of Harmony were both failures for the Marauders, and it looked like their horrible luck would continue. However, in World Cup 33 they finally broke through to the Proper, and made it to the quarterfinals before being eliminated by the defensive powerhouse Wentland. In World Cup 34 qualifying, the ESF was one of only two nations to have a undefeated record, with former colony Demot being the other. The squad was able to run this form into the semifinals before losing to Milchama , but was able to win the 3rd place playoff against the SLANI federation of Commerce Heights. World Cup 35 was a great success for the Marauders as the cruised right through the qualifying campaign, with just a single loss, coming at home against Rejistania. In the process, the sqaud also had a record setting win for the largest goal differential in a match and most goals scored in a match when they dismantled Keyne Island to a score of 11-0. In the Proper, the squad went undefeated in group playing, defeating Quakmybush and Sel Appa while drawing with The Lowland Clans. In tThey defeated rivals Turori 2-0 in the Round of 16 but unforutanetly lost to Bettia in extra time 2-1 (1-1) in the Quarters. However, the squad has cemented itself as top five or three team in the world, and are considered to be one of the favorites for the next title. The Navy Wave, the Marauders official fan club, hopes to provide them that edge they need in every match, in hopes that a title may one day come to the shores of the Elves Security Forces.
Hosting
The nation had submitted a bid to host the World Cup 34 with The Lowland Clans, only to finish last amongst the bidees. Despite the failure, the two nations continued their talks about hosting future editions of the event and were selected to host the Baptism of Fire prior to World Cup 36. The nation is hoping that there good showing will give confidence in the committee nations whenever the nation puts forth future bids for any of the World Cup tournaments.
