Megasoccer

Game Type:

Sport, Open Game, Game Concept

Players:

Up to 100 or more per side

Field:

 

Equipment needed:

Lots of soccer balls

Time:

60 min

Rules:

Megasoccer imagines the sport of football for the 21st century. Megasoccer has two goals: to increase the number of game participants and to de-standardize the rules of the game. When football was invented in the mid 19th century, our planet only had about 1.25 billion people. With over 7 billion people and two more billion expected by 2050, a new football game should be conceived to accommodate these new global citizens. The inclusion of more people requires major changes to the rules: more balls, larger goals, a bigger field, and many more alterations. With these changes Megasoccer does not aim to create a final rule set, but to allow for a constant shifting and reinterpretation of the rules, creating a more investigative, responsive and interpretive approach to playing the beautiful game. 

In the test games, several balls, sometimes of different sizes and materials, were used each with different point values for each type. For example small balls could be worth 6 points, medium balls 4, and regular soccer balls 2 points. Whoever scores the most points wins the game. The first ruleset created a short game; any ball scored was not put into play again. 

After the Igfest game several good suggestions were made, including one that the balls be released back into play after a certain amount of minutes. This would resolve the issue of the game reverting to a regular game of soccer after many balls were scored, which happened several times. In the Fengersfors game three soccer balls were used, two worth one point and one worth two points. With eight players per team this seemed to be a good ratio of balls to people. Using this ratio a game of 200 players would have 38 balls. As more and more players are added to the game new strategies will have to be worked out, including announcing, refereeing, timing and substitution. 

 

Variations

Vary the number of balls, or the number of balls in play at any one time. 

Types of balls- soccer balls, beach balls, tennis balls- each can have a different point value