Article Written: 16 June 1456
Circlarians play, and have been playing all throughout history, many different sports. Of these, the four most popular are handball, scrall, diamond-back, and script-duel."
Handball
A typical handball team consists of seven active players: three Offense players, consisting of a Captain, Thrower, and Runner; and four Defense players, consisting of an Antethrower, Anterunner, Antecaptain, and Goalkeeper. The Offense players begin a typical play of handball by having the Captain throw the ball to the Thrower inside the playing team's side of the field, having the Thrower then toss the ball to the Runner, who will then run the ball to the other side of the field in the opposing team's territory until he/she arrives just outside of the opposing team's Goal Field, where the said Runner will toss the ball to the Captain who aims to catch the ball inside the opposing team's Goal Field. If the Captain succeeds at this, then the team scores a point.
Meanwhile, the objective of a team's Defense is to have the Antethrower intercept the ball before it gets to the opposing team's Thrower, to have the Anterunner intercept the ball before it gets to the opposing team's Runner, or to have the Anterunner and/or Antethrower tackle the opposing team's Runner while the said Runner has the ball. During that time, the Antecaptain may block or tackle the opposing team's Captain before the said Captain makes it to the inside of the Goal Field. The Goalkeeper may intercept a ball thrown by the opposing team's Runner before it is caught by the opposing team's Captain inside the Goal Field.
A few basic rules of this game are that the Playing Field will always be divided in the middle between the sides of each of the two teams, that the Captain cannot be tackled during the initial throw of the play to the Thrower, that the ball will go to the other team if it is dropped by the team with the ball, and that only the Goalkeeper of one team and the Captain of the opposing team are allowed inside the Goal Field."
Scrall
A twenty-five-square Grid, consisting of a North, South, West, and East Corner, composes a basic Scrall playing field. Each Square has an area of exactly one square-mile as the Grid is marked by spectator towers at various locations. Every Tournament features a Red Team, always located in the West Corner of the Grid, and a Blue Team, always located in the East Corner. A column of Squares running between the North and South Corners is initially contested by the two sides while the Squares West of this span belong initially to the Red Team and the ones to the East to the Blue Team.
Each Team has a Jackpot of wealth to which each recruit contributes a certain sum. And such a Jackpot is hidden somewhere in the Team's territory. The objective of the Tournament is to locate the opposing Team's Jackpot and retrieve it for its gain of wealth. Such an objective involves cunning strategy and mock-spellfire discharges, as well as the building of devices such as old-style balloons, compound aerovehicles, and weapons of war, all made of synthetic "fake matter." It is important to note that as these devices are developed and strategies implemented, countless safety measures are installed so that there are only mock casualties and never actual losses of life or injuries. During the play of every Tournament, each Team is subject to gain and lose Squares through confrontations and battles; and the Tournament only ends when the Jackpot of one Team reaches a total wealth of one-million qors gain from the other Team. There is no time clock set for these Tournaments, which means they can vary in time duration. Tournaments usually last between ten days and two months.
Diamond-Back
The ball used in the game of Diamond-Back is officially called a Slug, and its paddle a Slugger. Another distinct piece of equipment used in this game is the Catching Glove. The playing field of Diamond-Back consists of two components: one Diamond with four Corners marked by bases, and four triangular Outfields.
Each game of Diamond-Back is split into Contests. Each Contest ends when a team captures all four Corners of the Diamond. A typical game of Diamond-Back may consist of a dozen Contests, or it may consist of zero completed Contests, for the game is limited to a total of 60 minutes of playing time. During this allotment, a point is awarded to a team for each Corner capture; and the team with the highest number of points at the end of the 60 allotted minutes wins the game.
The beginning of a Diamond-Back game is marked by the traditional Coin Flip, which determines which team will have its Captain initiate the hit for the start of the first Contest. The chosen Captain will walk into the Center of the Diamond, throw the Slug into the air, and hit it with the Slugger toward the team's Bouncer located in the Outfield strategically chosen by the Captain. The said Bouncer in the Outfield will then hit the Slug back toward a strategically-chosen Corner that the team wants to capture. The team's Runner from the same Outfield as the Bouncer will then run into the Diamond to catch the Slug before it touches the ground in the Diamond. If the Slug hits the ground, it will go to the opposing team's Captain to initiate the next hit. Assuming the Runner successfully catches the Slug, the previously-mentioned Bouncer will then run toward the desired base while the Runner runs with the Slug into the Diamond Center. From the Center, the Runner will throw the Slug back to the Bouncer; and if the Bouncer catches the Slug while touching the base in the Corner, that Corner is considered to be captured, meaning that the team scores a point.
However, the opposing team will have four Basekeepers and four Intercepters inside the Diamond, with one of each guarding a Corner if it is captured by the said opposing team. The Basekeeper guarding the Corner may hit the Slug with his/her Slugger back in the other direction to defend the Corner. If that happens, the Intercepter on that team may serve as a Runner while a Bouncer on the same team in an Outfield may play accordingly toward another Corner to have it captured in a similar fashion. Even if there is no Basekeeper hitting back the Slug, an Intercepter may catch a Slug intended for the opposing team and initiate a run for a Corner capture.
An Intercepter may also catch a Slug hit by an opposing team Bouncer from an Outfield. However, an Intercepter is not permitted to catch a Slug hit by an opposing team's Captain at the beginning of a hit.
Script-Duel
Each script-dueling Contestant starts out with five Avatars with each avatar being an original creation by the Contestant. Each Avatar has a certain number of health points, fatigue points, and spellfire points, all of which are purchased with money from the presiding impartial Duelmaster; and each Avatar is represented by a special talisman in the form of a paper Card lined with special scripts.
Only one Avatar can be played at a time per Contestant, who can use set scripts on the said Card for attack, defense, and other actions. Each Contestant can play his/her Avatar on a turn by activating the Card's standard Cast Script, which will cast all the selected scripts in a given turn (and you can select multiple actions in a turn). The objective of script-duel is to eliminate all five of your opponent's Avatars. One Cast is made per turn; and if your first Avatar goes down, you are to replace it with your next chosen Avatar on the Dueling Field. If you defeat your opponent, you ascend to the next Round, as all of your Avatars have their points fully redeemed; and if you win the Final Round, you, as is the case in many regional script-duel chapters, become the next impartial Duelmaster.
Round One of a given script-duel chapter consists of sixteen pairs of opponents, or thirty-two Contestants in total; and only one pair at a time takes the Dueling Field for a given Duel. The winners of each pair ascend to Round Two. Round Two consists of eight pairs of opponents, and Round Three consists of four. Round Four consists of two pairs of opponents; and the winning Contestant of each will be paired in the Final Round.
During the Final Round, when a Contestant places his/her last remaining Avatar upon the Dueling Field, the presiding Duelmaster, by tradition, may give either a thumb-up signal or a thumb-down signal, depending on how the said Duelmaster feels that Final Round will end. A thumb-up gesture means that the play is to continue until there is a practical outcome. A thumb-down gesture means that the Contestant opposed to the one with the last-remaining Avatar is given permission to have his/her Avatar deliver a fatal strike to the last remaining Avatar without the opponent being allowed act in defense; in other words, a thumb-down gesture means a "free kill."
Script-duel has been played passionately over the past millennia or two, but such a history is not without its troubles. The betting and gambling involved has historically proved a major catalyst to such issues. Contestants, themselves, occasionally bet in terms of "wealth stocks" which they may gain or lose depending on the outcome of certain Rounds. This sort of a wager more frequently than not has sparked factional rivalry extending outside the bounds of game play and has led to outbreaks of violence. Some script-duel chapters have banned such money wagers while, surprisingly, others have not. Local government jurisdictions within the Independent Commonwealth State of Retun, the Kingdom of the Great North, and numerous other Circlarian nations have varying laws governing what is legal and what is not when it comes to the practice of script-dueling. Most notably, Krylandia has script-duel outright banned.