Natural Disaster just received a thorough lesson from Nagarythe Decadence. The match ended 0-4. I'll add the replay in a few minutes.
Basically, Nagarythe Decadence really _was_ that much better. E_A managed to crowdsurf crucial players of my team quickly in both halves, with maneuvers that are way too clever for their position in the league. I knew they were better than their current rank, they had suffered in the beginning of the league from having their intended scorer die on them - but I honestly didn't expect them to be _that_ good.
Without key players, I never got a grip on the game. Basically, every tactic I tried was countered immediately, and the lack of skills with my linesmen severely limited my options. Whenever I tried to improve my position, there was a dark elf with Block or Dodge or ST+1 or AG+1 who destroyed my plans. In the second half I became more and more desperate, which probably cost me a touchdown which I might have been able to achieve with a bit more patience.
As the game went on, Nuffle also increasingly favored the dark elves - I think every kickoff event went E_A's way, and his crucial moves tended to succeed, while my crucial moves mostly failed. But that was not the reason for my loss. The match might have ended 1-3 instead of 0-4 with the dice on my side, but victory was simply completely out of reach for me this time.
I received no permanent injuries, and got a level-up which will give me a much needed new kicker (the other one had died in the match against Piran due to interface problem). E_A tried to kill Orlando Bloom, but my apothecary saved him. No one in the team understands why, though there are rumors that Orlando is paying him tons of money for beauty products.
Let's see next week whether my wood elves learned something from this ... disaster. ;)
Edit:
Here's the replay.