Elora man wins Canadian Open Blood Bowl Championship

ELORA – It sounds like something out of medieval times: the Canadian Open Blood Bowl Championships.

But far from being a blood bath, it’s a fantasy football board game tournament and Elora’s Chris Hamm is the champion of the 2026 Canadian Open, held in Toronto on Feb. 21 and 22.

“There’s some skill but also some luck involved,” said Hamm, who was still thanking his lucky stars nearly a week after the event.

The game is football, played on a board. The pieces are goblins, dragons and demons, and rolling the dice determines if you can pass, hand off, run, or block with your next move.

Hamm played six one-on-one games over the two-day tournament, tying one game and winning the rest, making him the overall champ.

Each game lasts about two-and-a-half hours and they become increasingly stressful as the tournament progresses, he said.

“The first four felt okay but the last two were very stressful,” he said, adding those last two games were against friends.

“I won by a roll.”

A self-proclaimed “nerd,” Hamm knows winning this championship is not earth-shattering. But he’s proud to have done it and intends to play the North American team championships in Detroit in June.

He’s trying to get his kids, aged 8 and 12, interested in the game, so holding the title just might give him some sway with them.

“It’s just good fun,” he said.