The Dresden Monarchs beat the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns 28–19 for their first ever title, bringing the German championship to a team from the New States of Germany for the first time.
The effects of COVID-19 and the entrance of the new European League of Football could be felt in the comparatively lackluster performance of defending champion Braunschweig Lions who finished 5–5 in the North, squeaking into the playoffs in fourth place and losing on the road to Hall in the quarter-finals.
The fate of Frankfurt Universe, the opponent of Hall in German Bowl XL and semi-finalist in 2019 was even worse, as they dropped to 7th place in the South, narrowly avoiding relegation as much of their roster had left for the crosstown ELF team.
Dresden represented the fourth different German Bowl opponent for the Unicorns who had gone 2–0 against the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes (2011&2012) 1–0 against Frankfurt Universe (2018) and 1–4 against Braunschweig (losing in 2014, 2015, 2016 & 2019 but defeating the Lions in 2017) in championship games.
[3] Being plagued by injuries in the semifinal, Schwäbisch Hall signed Reilly Hennessey an Italian-American who had won the Italian championship earlier that year as a backup to starting Quarterback Alexander Haupert.
The semifinal proved similarly doable for Hall as they overcame the Potsdam Royals but lost starting Quarterback Alexander Haupert to a knee injury.
[6] Dresden, whose powerful passing offense led by Quarterback K. J. Carta-Samuels had dominated their division jumped out to an early lead of 7–0 (PAT, Finke) with a 14 yard reception by Darrell Stewart, but Hall managed to get within striking distance before the end of the first quarter with a 28 yard pass by German Quarterback Alexander Haupert to long time Hall receiver Tyler Rutenbeck.
Moritz Böhringer, the intended target of the failed two point conversion pass, complained that a Dresden defender had grabbed his facemask and the TV images indeed showed contact, but there was no flag for that thrown by the referees.
Driving down the field, Schwäbisch Hall scored again and seemed to be putting away the game with a twelve point lead (this time the PAT was good) on a 26 yard pass by Hennesy to Yannick Mayr.
However, on their first possession of the new half the Monarchs regained old strengths and seemed to shift the momentum in their team's favor as they ate away 6:07 minutes of game time, driving down the field and ultimately scoring on a 12 yard run by Devwah Whaley.
In the fourth quarter Dresden benefited from the field positions their kicking game gave them and took the lead for the first time in this half with a 26 yard chip shot through the uprights by Florian Finke.