Pedro, ‘12

It all started one very boring and unproductive night. I was watching tv in one of my friends room with two other guys and all of a sudden we started tossing around a small, orange plastic ball. Soon enough the objective became to keep the ball going, and the person who dropped it received instant looks of disapproval from everybody else.  Consequently, the tossing of the ball became a process of elimination, by which the person who failed to keep it in the air was immediately out. Even though we were only four people at the time, games became extremely intense. Nobody wanted to lose the game, especially after we started giving a point to the last man standing.

As the night passed, the four of us established ourselves as the creators of The Ball Game, and began to create rules in order to make sure that everyone could play without it being unfair or too complicated. First, The Ball Game starts with all the participants standing up and forming a circle. If you’re not standing up, then you automatically lose.

Since we started playing the game in the lounge of our hall, the most important rule was that, if the ball touched the ceiling after you touched it, you were automatically out. It is important to understand that The Ball Game consists of single-handed touches to the ball that enable it to keep on going. Therefore, sometimes in order to save it from hitting the floor you make an effort, but the ball comes out too strong and hits the ceiling or isn’t directed to anyone. If it hits the ceiling, then you’re out no matter what. On the other hand, if the ball isn’t directed to any specific player (making it a bad pass), but the other player reaches for it and touches it, then the other player is out. If the player acknowledges your pass as a bad one and doesn’t move in any way towards the ball, then you’re out because your pass was horrible!

On the other hand, if your pass goes in the middle of two other players, and neither of the players move towards the ball, then they’re both out because they didn’t make the effort to keep the ball going. Furthermore, if they both go towards the ball, but they are not able to make another pass, there is no elimination.

The only case in which two players can’t go out at the same time is when there are only 3 players left, since there ALWAYS has to be a final. The player who wasn’t in danger on being eliminated goes directly to the final, while the other two play a sudden death.

Sudden death is similar to the final. Two players stand facing each other, but separated by some space in order to allow the tossing of the ball. In the final, even if the other player makes a horrible shot that isn’t directed at you, you have to go for it because if it falls inside your area, you lose! If the ball goes outside your area after the other player hits it, then you win. If the ball hits the ceiling after you hit it, then you lose. The winner gets one point, and then he gets the ball in order to start the next round of… The Ball Game!

As more people saw us playing in the lounge, more people wanted to form part of this wonderful new sport. Some were pretty successful and got a couple of wins on their first day, but me and my other three friends are the creators of the game for a reason. No one has more wins at The Ball Game than any of us. And of course, who do you think has the most amount of wins?? Guess???? Yes…it’s me, 12 wins ahead of the second place, who has won the game about 27 times hahaha.

Anywho…I’m sure the rules to The Ball Game didn’t make much sense to you, even though I tried to explain them as clearly as possible. I know this because they don’t even make sense to me, and I’m one of the creators! Still, if you want to try it you’re more than welcome to start tossing an orange plastic ball around with some of your friends. Maybe during one boring and unproductive night you’ll come up with a game of your own!