The BackBlast:

Intro:

AI invented, League perfected. Sometimes stumbling across things on the internet is a good thing. Just think about combining aspects of Rugby, Croquet, Soccer, and Ultimate Frisbee.

Warm-o-Rama:

We tossed the Rugby ball around and attempted to explain the rules

The Thang:

This is speedgate. If you are curious how the game is ACTUALLY played you can reference this:

https://playspeedgate.org/

However, the men of the League don’t do anything the way it’s meant to be so we altered the rules to handle gameplay for 22 HIM’s.

For starters: The field

1 Center Gate – 20′ across with 2 wooden stakes located in the center of the field

2 Goal Gates – 14′ across with 2 wooden stakes at each end of the field to act as goals

The ball: Rugby ball

We used an official size 5 Rugby ball for gameplay

The rules:

We started with one set of rules and ended up on another in true Westside fashion. The evolved form of the rules worked out better, in my opinion.

We broke into even teams with Team 1 wearing the pennies and we started things off with a kickoff which was just that, one team kicked the rugby ball to the other.

Passing the ball to players in Ultimate Fashion (hitting the ground results in a turnover) the team would progress up the field to the center gate where they would have to either pass or kick the ball THROUGH the gate in order to progress further down the field. Throws must originate BELOW the waist or it will result in a turnover. (YHC was the worst offender of this one)

Catch was, when the ball passed through the center gate it was allowed to hit the ground and was treated like a fumble in football where anyone could recover it. The 20′ center gate is a dead zone and could not be entered. Doing so resulted in a turnover.

Once through the gate the Ultimate rules again applied and the team would continue to advance until they reached one of the end goals where they could attempt to score. Offense had to throw the ball through the gate to score and Defense was allowed 1 defender in the gate to act as a goalie to block. More than 1 person in the goal gate would result in a corner kick like in Soccer.

Halfway through the game we changed the rules, a bit. I mean, it’s an evolving sport. We decided to play just like Rugby where the ball was live 100% of the time even if it hit the ground. We were initially concerned with injuries but it worked out really well.

Final score was 4 – 6 with Team 2 claiming victory thanks in a large part to 8-Bit who was dominating all morning.

COT:

Name-0-rama, MVP (8-Bit), Praises and Prayers

Naked Man Moleskin:

Super fun morning men! We did a quick AAR to discuss the likes and dislikes of the gameplay. Below are a few of the changes we made:

• 100% live gameplay is a plus
• Having PAX call out when someone goes cleats up to avoid injury (gameplay would be paused)
• Removing the throw restriction so PAX can throw any way they want
• Potentially using the lacrosse goals and removing the use of a goalie
• Cracking down on Soccer dribbling (sorry Scamper)

These were just a few items that came out of our first gameplay. Overall I had a blast putting it together and everyone seemed to love bringing something new to the fold. Next steps will be to draft up some rules to go by and put it out to the PAX. Love you men and I couldn’t have asked for a better morning.

Until next time. SYITG!