Arda Cup Football 2011

[Boromir88]

Group D at Eregion
There's nothing the Noldor smiths and their dwarven friends like more than a building project. There was already a stadium built outside Ost-in-Edhil which hosted several Arda Cup playoff games, but when Eregion won its bid to host Group D, the Noldor went straight to work renovating the old stadium.

The Ost-in-Edhil Stadium already had 65,000 seats, which was quite satisfactory for the Noldor's fancy. They don't like making the largest, bulkiest stone stadiums possible, but would rather build a true gem on Middle-earth. So the Eregion planning committee diverted all funds not to adding more seats, but to adourn the stadium in all the precious stones and gems the Noldor and dwarves could get their hands on.

The greatest accomplishment of the renovated stadium has to be somehow the Noldor builders were able to craft windows and precious jewels that could take in and capture light. So when the Hollin sky would often be lit up in its various hues of blues and greens, oranges and yellows and reds the stadium's walls somehow took in all the outside light. Then at night time the stadium let out a pale, but bright glow of light being converted to all the colors of the sky. And residents from the nearby great Noldo city and even sometimes from the entrance to Moria (under a day's walk away), could see the stadium letting off it's beautiful multi-colored glow. It was a site that has attracted many a tourists to the area and the Noldor were proud of their new accomplishment.

The stage for this group is expected to be extremely friendly as it will predominantly feature Elves in support of Eregion. However, as the group was also hosting many Elf-friends, like the rangers and older generations of Gondorians, under the captaincy of a jewel unto herself, Arwen then there isn't expected to be much trouble in terms of security or rabble rousers. Even the Barad-dur team, many of Eregion, Eriador, and Gondor fans were anxious to see Gil-Galad, Isildur, and Cirdan return.

The baddies on Barad-dur were feeling quite alone and you must wonder how well they can perform for their team being so far away from any support. Surely the Moria orcs would be more likely to attend the Group B games for the Misty Mountains and whatever orcs out of Mordor decided to travel, they would likely follow Sauron. The Mouth and Nazgul #1 were looking both disgusted and nervous that under 500 orcs and other general beasties (of the 'fell' disposition) had turned up for Barad-dur. Their hearts raised somewhat by a travelling band of around 100 trolls came, but only to find out they were sporting the Dunedain emblem of the royal sceptre and wearing Bert, Tom, or Barrow-wight jerseys.

"This game can turn even the evilest creatures into a travelling carnival of singing freaks" scowled The Mouth.

[Boromir88]

Group H at Dunharrow
The road through Dunharrow, lined with the stone statues the Rohirrim called Pukel-Men was now lined with mostly Men, Orcs, and other beastlies, but also small packs of Elves and Dwarves were heading through up the narrow passage, to cheer for individual favorites like Feanor and Legolas or Gimli. And out of the Dwimorberg, through the Dimholt, came a particularly ghostly and chilling group to support the King of the Dead. Rarely before had these ghouls ventured out of their haunted mountain, but with their King playing on Minas Morgul, they felt their King's call to watch the games.

Where they were all heading? To Firienfeld where the Rohirrim have used the Firien plain as the pitch, and have carved 85,000 seats into the encircling White Mountains. Some spectators believed the seating wasn't ideal since even the closest row of seats were quite removed from the field and players benches. And there were questions of how would you get almost 90,000 people through the congested mountain pass, from Edoras (which was going to be providing all the food and lodging)?

However most were pleased with the large Firienfeld, since no matter where one was sitting, one could see the entire pitch, and the mountains encircling the plain insured the noise from the crowd would be ear-deafening. Lothlorien had the fewest fanbase, and most seemed divided more by either loving Feanor or Galadriel, not so much the 'Lothlorien' brand. Although the Rohirrim would find little difficulty cheering for not only their home team, but also for Lothlorien with Shadowfax and Gandalf, and their friends from Minas Tirith.

The one thing everyone agreed on was Minas Morgul would be the outcasts of the group. The Rohirrim would be hurt if their own team didn't make it, but as long as Minas Morgul didn't go through that would be acceptable. And that was the other problem the Rohirrim would have on their hands, because Minas Morgul had a swarming crowd hoping to get tickets to their teams' games. The Witch-King put together the best PR effort, and not a greater host leaving from Minas Morgul had been recorded in history before (and when joined by the dead men from the Dwimorburg, and the Corsairs out of Umbar, Minas Morgul's numbers swelled to nearly 40,000).

What security problems would this cause, because surely the Rohirrim (nor the Minas Tirithians) would like having to play host to this unruly crowd of their ancient enemies? And especially since such a large turnout came from Minas Morgul, the home town fans were wondering how much of a "home-field" advantage they would enjoy?