On a kickoff, with clear weather, BB2 told me that a wood elf thrower needed a 3+ to pick up the ball when the ball was not in a tackle zone.

Also, the blitz leap combination does not work, unless I move atleast one square first.

1. You don't pick-up the ball on a Kick-Off, you make a Catch roll, which doesn't get the +1 (as it's not accurate), so that would be correct.
   If you mean it was a pick-up in your turn that you have a point.

2. There's posts somewhere on this forum on how you need to perform that action (it's not intuitive iirc).