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Shockball Handbook
Contents:
[History] [Leagues] [Core Rules] [Official Variants]
Overview
The sport of the future! Though many ball-centric sports have come and gone over the course of millennia in the galaxy, a new sport has emerged relatively recently. A sport with just enough violence to hook audiences without the gore that drives away mass appeal.
Core Rules:
[Win Conditions] [Equipment] [Moves/Scoring] [Restrictions]
Win Conditions:
Winning a game of Shockball is very simple. There are two ways to win in the Core game. The team with the most players standing at the end of the time limit wins. Also, the team that knocks out the entire opposing team wins even if time is left.
Games are split into 4 quarters. Each quarter lasts ten minutes.
If a quarter ends in a draw neither side gets the quarter.
If both teams win two quarters it goes to a sudden death fifth quarter.
If sudden death is undecided, a 1v1 match between Captains takes place.
Equipment:
Official GSL rules state no outside armor, gloves, or scoops may be used. Only team uniforms approved by the League may be used. Outside leagues of course do not have to follow this rule, but to qualify for GSL they must do so.
Uniforms may consist of whatever clothing makes a being 'decent' paired with a function-less helmet, a padded shockball glove, and a shockball scoop. The scoop must be 1 meter in length or less. The scoop may not have any modifications. It is a stick with a basket and nothing more. Again this is for official GSL rules. Each player must also have a number on their jersey and their helmet.
Moves/Scoring:
There are no restrictions on movement other than it must be powered by the player's body. No technology may assist in jumping, flying, or any other action.
Species with natural flight or enhanced abilities are allowed to use these by default but can be excluded by a League.
Scoring must be propelled by the scoop. A glove may not be used to throw or tag a player. The scoop and glove may both be used to pass the shockball to a teammate.
A stunned player is out for two minutes (or 2 rounds) unless they heal quickly (roll 50+ on a d100).
It should also be noted that when a shockball hits a player it bounces off while losing some speed, meaning play continues.
Players can be substituted between quarters only.
All moves must (unless against a PC) must follow this dice scale:
Contents:
[History] [Leagues] [Core Rules] [Official Variants]
Overview
The sport of the future! Though many ball-centric sports have come and gone over the course of millennia in the galaxy, a new sport has emerged relatively recently. A sport with just enough violence to hook audiences without the gore that drives away mass appeal.
Core Rules:
[Win Conditions] [Equipment] [Moves/Scoring] [Restrictions]
Win Conditions:
Winning a game of Shockball is very simple. There are two ways to win in the Core game. The team with the most players standing at the end of the time limit wins. Also, the team that knocks out the entire opposing team wins even if time is left.
Games are split into 4 quarters. Each quarter lasts ten minutes.
If a quarter ends in a draw neither side gets the quarter.
If both teams win two quarters it goes to a sudden death fifth quarter.
If sudden death is undecided, a 1v1 match between Captains takes place.
Equipment:
Official GSL rules state no outside armor, gloves, or scoops may be used. Only team uniforms approved by the League may be used. Outside leagues of course do not have to follow this rule, but to qualify for GSL they must do so.
Uniforms may consist of whatever clothing makes a being 'decent' paired with a function-less helmet, a padded shockball glove, and a shockball scoop. The scoop must be 1 meter in length or less. The scoop may not have any modifications. It is a stick with a basket and nothing more. Again this is for official GSL rules. Each player must also have a number on their jersey and their helmet.
Moves/Scoring:
There are no restrictions on movement other than it must be powered by the player's body. No technology may assist in jumping, flying, or any other action.
Species with natural flight or enhanced abilities are allowed to use these by default but can be excluded by a League.
Scoring must be propelled by the scoop. A glove may not be used to throw or tag a player. The scoop and glove may both be used to pass the shockball to a teammate.
A stunned player is out for two minutes (or 2 rounds) unless they heal quickly (roll 50+ on a d100).
It should also be noted that when a shockball hits a player it bounces off while losing some speed, meaning play continues.
Players can be substituted between quarters only.
All moves must (unless against a PC) must follow this dice scale:
100: Critical success.
81-99: Rousing success.
51-80: Success.
26-50: Barely a success. Slight Negative.
11-25: Mild fail.
2-10: Major fail.
1: Critical fail.
Note: Team Owners/Managers may own fully NPC teams and roll for their NPCs
Restrictions:
Teams:
Teams can have anywhere from 10 to 33 (max) players on a team at a given time. Every team has a home playing field and an area they call home territory. Some teams from areas with lower populations can sometimes represent entire sector like the Arkanis Sector, while some areas are so densely populated that they have several teams such as Coruscant and Taris. There are 32 teams in the GSL, a constantly fluctuating number in the AGSA and too many amateur and local teams to count.
Races:
GSL does not exclude any races. Other leagues are, however, allowed to do so at their discretion without scrutiny from the GSL.
Official Variants:
Classic Shockball:
Technically the original, in which two teams of six each armed with one ball, navigate an arena trying to knock the enemy players unconscious by hitting them with the ball. Whichever team has the most conscious players at the end of an allotted amount of time wins. This form has slowly fallen out of favor as it’s not safe enough nor cost effective for casual players and not gruesome enough for hardcore players.
HoverShock:
One of the more recent variants, in this version the platform beneath a player’s feet can be destroyed piece by piece when hit by the Shockball. This leads to players falling through with a well placed shot. The different style lends itself to fuels and make the 1v1 more entertaining to watch
Bounty:
Another variant, this one popularized in the underground circuit, puts different point values on different players. This can lead to more strategic play as some players need to be more heavily guarded while others can concede fewer points by body blocking
Corellian Crush:
A variant popularized on the planet of its namesake, Corellian Crush uses a different model scoop which enables it to deliver a shock of its own if it makes contact with an enemy player. This form of Shockball is much more physical and taxing on each individual player as even enemy players without the ball become threats
Hutt’s Demand:
A variant popularized in Imperial Hutta, this mode is very straight forward. First team to 100 points wins. This makes it very fast paced and high action, though when taken to the underground it becomes a bloodbath even hardened criminals can be turned off by as it requires he death of hundreds for a single match. In PvP terms the stun is shorter lasting only two rounds, or one if succeeding a 50+ on a d100
Leagues
Galactic Shockball League: In The sport’s most regulated form exists the Galactic Shockball League, where a rigid system is in place for the number of teams allowed to play, the length of matches, seasons and an extremely long list of rules to keep the games civil. This league has the largest income of them all, brings in the highest ratings, and has teams from nearly every sector of the galaxy. However, in the age of the Imperial Republica the anti-alien sentiments have seeped into the league over time creating a divide between the teams of the core worlds and the Outer Rim which has mostly alien players. This divide was aided by the fact that the league discourages the use of the natural advantages of certain species, ensuring teams are on a level playing field. The basic rule is no player can use a biological feature that humans can’t. It has teams from all over the galaxy, including Imperial Hutta and Mandalorian space. The Sith Civil War did cause the withdrawal of teams originating from the Old Empire, causing a recent vacuum in the league and leaving open spots for new teams to be founded. GSL seasons work in four stages. Stage 1: Trams play against one another until the end of the Stage and the 16 teams with the worst records are eliminated. In case of tied records the tied teams face each other in an extra match. Stage 2: The top 16 teams continue to play each other until the stage is complete and the 8 teams with the worst record are eliminated. Stage 3: A tournament between the last eight teams takes place until only two remain Stage 4: A best of five games series takes place between the two remaining teams after which the winner is crowned that season’s champion. It’s championship is hosted on Coruscant. This league usually does not allow alien captains or abilities above human to be used.
All Galactic Shockball Association: With the divide between humans and nonhumans growing day by day in the Imperial Republica, certain entrepreneurs smelled blood in the water and created a league to compete with the GSL. This was the All Galactic Shockball Association that in addition to traditional Shockball arenas, added outdoor arenas that highlighted the strengths of different species. This is perhaps their most positive difference in contrast with the GSL. For example an underwater arena for amphibious species and arid arenas for those with high thresholds for heat. However, this league is rife with controversy as it has been caught manipulating profits and has ignored the huge cheating problems in its league. Fixers and gamblers plague this league more so than the GSL and the Imperial Republica has used this as evidence of the superiority of humans. It’s championship is held on Corellia. The AGSA season runs parallel in direct competition with the GSL which really hurts its ratings.
Underground Shockball Circuit: A league with no name yet most know of it’s existence, this criminal ridden version of the sport is a classic case of escalation. In the underground version of the sport, there are hardly any rules to follow asides from no outside weaponry or armor. But it’s hardly necessary. Known as extreme Shockball, deathball, blastball, sarlacc sack and more, in this form of the sport the ball does not knock the hit player unconscious, it kills them. This makes it infinitely more dangerous and leads to larger rosters on any given team as they lose players every match. Cheating is rarely punished in the league and many teams do so publicly since it helps to grow their fanbase. The underground circuit rarely functions in structured seasons. Instead teams are invited to black market gatherings, parties of crime lords, and most excitingly when one owner challenges another to a match. These are often the most heated and most watched games in the underground. The one consistent rule in the underground is the host or home team has their own set of rules, really enforcing “home field advantage”.
Journeyman’s Shockball Federation: For those players nearly at the professional level, this league is made up of teams made by local academies including those of the military variety. Players who graduate from their schools and completed their time in the JSF can enter the annual GSL and AGSA Draw, in which teams sign on new talent. Both leagues can draw a player but ultimately it is up to the player with which league they will sign. It’s championship is hosted on Coruscant. JSF seasons are complimentary to the GSL beginning two months after the GSL season ends, and the JSF season ends two months before the GSL season begins.
Local Leagues: Many smaller leagues exist whether they be by city, planet, system or sector they have more local talent and nowhere near the same investments as the other leagues but if a hopeful athlete didn’t play in the JSF a local league is a great way to earn a reputation and maybe score a ticket into one of the larger leagues. Alternatively it can simply serve as a job for those not wanting to play on the galactic stage. Not every local league is legal however as the udnerground scene has local leagues as well. This is where the most experimentation can be seen with factors such as zero gravity, predatory creatures and different equipment are just some examples of the different elements toyed with in local leagues. Local league seasons vary wildly from leave to league.
History
A few decades after the Battle of Coruscant, as the Imperial Republica settled in to its new capital, the sport of Shockball began its rise in popularity. An archaic form of the sport had been around for ages as a child’s game with simple rules: catch the ball with the scoop. Get hit with the ball, you’re out. However new tech was making it much more of a spectator sport and enabled it to be played on a professional level. Academies across the galaxy began to build Shockball teams and incorporated them into their curriculum, most notably some military academies. This would eventually become known as the JSF. After a decade or so of these teams facing one another, the interest was high enough that the gamble was made and the Galactic Shockball League was formed.
However, this was not the league we all know today. In the early days, there were only enough players for a few decent teams. The early days also kept most of the schoolyard rules. If you were hit you were knocked unconscious for the rest of the match and whichever team had the most players left standing at the end of time was the victor. This was functional as a base, but eventually advertisers, sponsors and even the fans themselves criticized how short matches were becoming. If a particularly skilled team happened to face a lower tier team, the entire match could be over before the 5 minute mark. This was hardly worth the price of admission. So changes were made and quarters were added. Now a team could win in four separate quarters each lasting ten minutes, with a fifth quarter added in the case of a tie breaker. This would hold fans and investors off for a while.
After the demand grew even higher for more watch time, the league made its largest change ever: the decision to move to a point based system. Many criticized this move, but over time fans had to accept it. Now, players who were knocked unconscious remained in that state for a minute, then were awakened and could re-enter play. The team wipe rule remained in effect, but now if the entire team was wiped, the team only won that quarter, not the game. Whichever team had the most points at the end of the quarter won that quarter. Even further down the line the fourth quarter rule was added. It stated that even if a team had won 3 of 4 quarters, the fourth quarter would still be played. And IF the team with no quarterly victories managed to perform a team wipe known as a in the fourth quarter, they could still get a fifth quarter, thus promoting the idea of a last ditch effort and not a drawn out affair.
After nearly two centuries, the league had failed to regulate how many teams could be in the league itself, leading to what was known as the Stretch. At the height of this time, over 160 teams from across the galaxy were in the league. This made scheduling near impossible, seasons way too long, and despite the season length many teams never faced each other for years at a time. This led to the league being slimmed down significantly. Some teams lived on by merging with others while some simply were out of luck and left on the street. Around this time as well, the cultural divide between humans and nonhumans in the Imperial Republica was getting wider, and this combination of changing tides led to the creation of the AGSA.
In the early days of the All Galactic Shockball Association it seemed like a win-win for fans. Some healthy competition between leagues would push innovation in the sport to best one another, and it meant more of their favorite sport to watch. It also meant instead of one bloated league they got two more concise leagues. That was the promise anyways. What actually came of it was just disappointing. Instead of healthy competition came seedy back alley dealings. The AGSA was less concerned with building a league than it was taking down the GSL, this led to teams being formed out of the GSL’s cut franchises but laid nowhere near as much. This was caused by nearly all funding being diverted to bribing advertisers and HoloNet providers to air only AGSA. After a lackluster first season with barely any funding, people began to ask questions.
The controversy was made public nearly a century ago and the AGSA has never recovered from that blow to their reputation. Ever since then it’s been known only as a lesser form of the GSL with worse rules and worse players. Their worst offense was the Jarly scandal. A player by the name of Jance Jarly tampered with the ball to set it to a higher voltage when shot from his scoop. This caused the unintentional death of an opposing player due to a miscalculation on Jarly’s part. Ever since then, Jarly’s name and to a further extent the league was forever associated with cheating. This bad reputation does make it easier to get into as a player and can be a stepping stone for rising stars, but most professionals try to avoid it as best as possible.
For years Shockball had deadly variants in the criminal underworld, but it was the Jarly incident that lit the spark of interest needed to grow a major league in the underground. This league had teams owned by criminal syndicates, weapons manufacturers and pirate gangs, and many could play on the professional level. These players could never enter the GSL if their ties to the underground circuit were discovered, but for many Outer Rim denizens this was the definitive version of Shockball. It did away with the pesky rules and let the players kill each other for the spectators’ pleasure. It also counts as the first major variant to the sport. After this many facets of the sport became offshoot versions. A prime example of this being Hover Shock, originally a form of training endured by players, it became its own variant especially popular for duels.
The most recent development in the Shockball scene is known as the Exodus, which was caused by the events of the Mandalorian Uprising and the Sith Civil War. Because of these conflicts the Shockball teams that formerly represented their sectors in the GSL withdrew. This left many franchise opportunities in the league and ever since people have been scrambling to put together teams to enter the most important Shockball league in the galaxy. However competition is stiff as now the few remaining teams have had plenty of time to hone their skills and draw the best talent coming out of the JSF.
My intent is to help flesh out the world by adding a relatively innocent pastime that can have major implications story wise. I believe this could add a new form of death disabled pvp at the higher levels and death enabled pvp for the more unsavory types. I also think it can make for good drama with what happens behind the scenes with millions of credits on the line in certain cases and teams of different cultures duking it out. Espionage, sabotage, players from opposing factions invited into enemy territory, that kind of thing. I think this could be really cool and has various possible angles, and it could maybe even start a sports section in the newsletter talking about the best sport pvp and I’ve matches of the month.
Credit Goes To:
@Cazar for the rules and formatting
@Darasuum, @AutoFox, and @Andrewza for help with the tech write-up
@Wolf & @Loco for advisement
Code:
[cbox3=80%]
[CENTER][B][SIZE=7]Shockball Handbook[/SIZE][/B]
[abox3=40%][IMG]https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.lIM1F0RknZSzEf_2Z8E7iQHaHa&pid=Api[/IMG][/abox3]
[SIZE=6]Contents:[/SIZE]
[jumpto=0][COLOR=yellow][History][/COLOR][/jumpto] [jumpto=10][COLOR=yellow][Leagues][/COLOR][/jumpto] [jumpto=1][COLOR=yellow][Core Rules][/COLOR][/jumpto] [jumpto=2][COLOR=yellow][Official Variants][/COLOR][/jumpto]
[B]Overview[/B]
The sport of the future! Though many ball-centric sports have come and gone over the course of millennia in the galaxy, a new sport has emerged relatively recently. A sport with just enough violence to hook audiences without the gore that drives away mass appeal.
[aname=1][B][SIZE=7]Core Rules:[/SIZE][/B][/aname]
[jumpto=3][COLOR=yellow][Win Conditions][/COLOR][/jumpto] [jumpto=4][COLOR=yellow][Equipment][/COLOR][/jumpto] [jumpto=5][COLOR=yellow][Moves/Scoring][/COLOR][/jumpto] [jumpto=6][COLOR=yellow][Restrictions][/COLOR][/jumpto]
[aname=3][B][SIZE=6]Win Conditions:[/SIZE][/B][/aname]
Winning a game of Shockball is very simple. There are two ways to win in the Core game. The team with the most players standing at the end of the time limit wins. Also, the team that knocks out the entire opposing team wins even if time is left.
Games are split into 4 quarters. Each quarter lasts ten minutes.
If a quarter ends in a draw neither side gets the quarter.
If both teams win two quarters it goes to a sudden death fifth quarter.
If sudden death is undecided, a 1v1 match between Captains takes place.
[aname=4][B][SIZE=6]Equipment:[/SIZE][/B][/aname]
Official GSL rules state no outside armor, gloves, or scoops may be used. Only team uniforms approved by the League may be used. Outside leagues of course do not have to follow this rule, but to qualify for GSL they must do so.
Uniforms may consist of whatever clothing makes a being 'decent' paired with a function-less helmet, a padded shockball glove, and a shockball scoop. The scoop must be 1 meter in length or less. The scoop may not have any modifications. It is a stick with a basket and nothing more. Again this is for official GSL rules. Each player must also have a number on their jersey and their helmet.
[aname=5][B][SIZE=6]Moves/Scoring:[/SIZE][/B][/aname]
There are no restrictions on movement other than it must be powered by the player's body. No technology may assist in jumping, flying, or any other action.
Species with natural flight or enhanced abilities are allowed to use these by default but can be excluded by a League.
Scoring must be propelled by the scoop. A glove may not be used to throw or tag a player. The scoop and glove may both be used to pass the shockball to a teammate.
A stunned player is out for two minutes (or 2 rounds) unless they heal quickly (roll 50+ on a d100).
It should also be noted that when a shockball hits a player it bounces off while losing some speed, meaning play continues.
Players can be substituted between quarters only.
All moves must (unless against a PC) must follow this dice scale:
[/CENTER]
[cbox3=90%]
[COLOR=red]100:[/COLOR] Critical success.
[COLOR=red]81-99: [/COLOR]Rousing success.
[COLOR=red]51-80:[/COLOR] Success.
[COLOR=red]26-50:[/COLOR] Barely a success. Slight Negative.
[COLOR=red]11-25:[/COLOR] Mild fail.
[COLOR=red]2-10: [/COLOR]Major fail.
[COLOR=red]1:[/COLOR] Critical fail.
Note: Team Owners/Managers may own fully NPC teams and roll for their NPCs
[/cbox3]
[CENTER]
[aname=6][SIZE=6][B]Restrictions:[/B][/SIZE][/aname]
Teams:
Teams can have anywhere from 10 to 33 (max) players on a team at a given time. Every team has a home playing field and an area they call home territory. Some teams from areas with lower populations can sometimes represent entire sector like the Arkanis Sector, while some areas are so densely populated that they have several teams such as Coruscant and Taris. There are 32 teams in the GSL, a constantly fluctuating number in the AGSA and too many amateur and local teams to count.
Races:
GSL does not exclude any races. Other leagues are, however, allowed to do so at their discretion without scrutiny from the GSL.
[aname=2][B][SIZE=7]Official Variants:[/SIZE][/B][/aname]
Classic Shockball:
Technically the original, in which two teams of six each armed with one ball, navigate an arena trying to knock the enemy players unconscious by hitting them with the ball. Whichever team has the most conscious players at the end of an allotted amount of time wins. This form has slowly fallen out of favor as it’s not safe enough nor cost effective for casual players and not gruesome enough for hardcore players.
HoverShock:
One of the more recent variants, in this version the platform beneath a player’s feet can be destroyed piece by piece when hit by the Shockball. This leads to players falling through with a well placed shot. The different style lends itself to fuels and make the 1v1 more entertaining to watch
Bounty:
Another variant, this one popularized in the underground circuit, puts different point values on different players. This can lead to more strategic play as some players need to be more heavily guarded while others can concede fewer points by body blocking
Corellian Crush:
A variant popularized on the planet of its namesake, Corellian Crush uses a different model scoop which enables it to deliver a shock of its own if it makes contact with an enemy player. This form of Shockball is much more physical and taxing on each individual player as even enemy players without the ball become threats
Hutt’s Demand:
A variant popularized in Imperial Hutta, this mode is very straight forward. First team to 100 points wins. This makes it very fast paced and high action, though when taken to the underground it becomes a bloodbath even hardened criminals can be turned off by as it requires he death of hundreds for a single match. In PvP terms the stun is shorter lasting only two rounds, or one if succeeding a 50+ on a d100
[aname=10][CENTER][B]Leagues[/B][/CENTER][/aname]
[B]G[/B]alactic [B]S[/B]hockball [B]L[/B]eague: In The sport’s most regulated form exists the Galactic Shockball League, where a rigid system is in place for the number of teams allowed to play, the length of matches, seasons and an extremely long list of rules to keep the games civil. This league has the largest income of them all, brings in the highest ratings, and has teams from nearly every sector of the galaxy. However, in the age of the Imperial Republica the anti-alien sentiments have seeped into the league over time creating a divide between the teams of the core worlds and the Outer Rim which has mostly alien players. This divide was aided by the fact that the league discourages the use of the natural advantages of certain species, ensuring teams are on a level playing field. The basic rule is no player can use a biological feature that humans can’t. It has teams from all over the galaxy, including Imperial Hutta and Mandalorian space. The Sith Civil War did cause the withdrawal of teams originating from the Old Empire, causing a recent vacuum in the league and leaving open spots for new teams to be founded. GSL seasons work in four stages. Stage 1: Trams play against one another until the end of the Stage and the 16 teams with the worst records are eliminated. In case of tied records the tied teams face each other in an extra match. Stage 2: The top 16 teams continue to play each other until the stage is complete and the 8 teams with the worst record are eliminated. Stage 3: A tournament between the last eight teams takes place until only two remain Stage 4: A best of five games series takes place between the two remaining teams after which the winner is crowned that season’s champion. It’s championship is hosted on Coruscant. [b][color=red]This league usually does not allow alien captains or abilities above human to be used.[/color][/b]
[B]A[/B]ll [B]G[/B]alactic [B]S[/B]hockball [B]A[/B]ssociation: With the divide between humans and nonhumans growing day by day in the Imperial Republica, certain entrepreneurs smelled blood in the water and created a league to compete with the GSL. This was the All Galactic Shockball Association that in addition to traditional Shockball arenas, added outdoor arenas that highlighted the strengths of different species. This is perhaps their most positive difference in contrast with the GSL. For example an underwater arena for amphibious species and arid arenas for those with high thresholds for heat. However, this league is rife with controversy as it has been caught manipulating profits and has ignored the huge cheating problems in its league. Fixers and gamblers plague this league more so than the GSL and the Imperial Republica has used this as evidence of the superiority of humans. It’s championship is held on Corellia. The AGSA season runs parallel in direct competition with the GSL which really hurts its ratings.
Underground Shockball Circuit: A league with no name yet most know of it’s existence, this criminal ridden version of the sport is a classic case of escalation. In the underground version of the sport, there are hardly any rules to follow asides from no outside weaponry or armor. But it’s hardly necessary. Known as extreme Shockball, deathball, blastball, dewback sack and more, in this form of the sport the ball does not knock the hit player unconscious, it kills them. This makes it infinitely more dangerous and leads to larger rosters on any given team as they lose players every match. Cheating is rarely punished in the league and many teams do so publicly since it helps to grow their fanbase. The underground circuit rarely functions in structured seasons. Instead teams are invited to black market gatherings, parties of crime lords, and most excitingly when one owner challenges another to a match. These are often the most heated and most watched games in the underground.
[B]J[/B]ourneyman’s [B]S[/B]hockball [B]F[/B]ederation: For those players nearly at the professional level, this league is made up of teams made by local academies including those of the military variety. Players who graduate from their schools and completed their time in the JSF can enter the annual GSL and AGSA Draw, in which teams sign on new talent. Both leagues can draw a player but ultimately it is up to the player with which league they will sign. It’s championship is hosted on Coruscant. JSF seasons are complimentary to the GSL beginning two months after the GSL season ends, and the JSF season ends two months before the GSL season begins.
Local Leagues: Many smaller leagues exist whether they be by city, planet, system or sector they have more local talent and nowhere near the same investments as the other leagues but if a hopeful athlete didn’t play in the JSF a local league is a great way to earn a reputation and maybe score a ticket into one of the larger leagues. Alternatively it can simply serve as a job for those not wanting to play on the galactic stage. Not every local league is legal however as the udnerground scene has local leagues as well. This is where the most experimentation can be seen with factors such as zero gravity, predatory creatures and different equipment are just some examples of the different elements toyed with in local leagues. Local league seasons vary wildly from leave to league.
[aname=0][CENTER][B]History[/B][/CENTER][/aname]
A few decades after the Battle of Coruscant, as the Imperial Republica settled in to its new capital, the sport of Shockball began its rise in popularity. An archaic form of the sport had been around for ages as a child’s game with simple rules: catch the ball with the scoop. Get hit with the ball, you’re out. However new tech was making it much more of a spectator sport and enabled it to be played on a professional level. Academies across the galaxy began to build Shockball teams and incorporated them into their curriculum, most notably some military academies. This would eventually become known as the JSF. After a decade or so of these teams facing one another, the interest was high enough that the gamble was made and the Galactic Shockball League was formed.
However, this was not the league we all know today. In the early days, there were only enough players for a few decent teams. The early days also kept most of the schoolyard rules. If you were hit you were knocked unconscious for the rest of the match and whichever team had the most players left standing at the end of time was the victor. This was functional as a base, but eventually advertisers, sponsors and even the fans themselves criticized how short matches were becoming. If a particularly skilled team happened to face a lower tier team, the entire match could be over before the 5 minute mark. This was hardly worth the price of admission. So changes were made and quarters were added. Now a team could win in four separate quarters each lasting ten minutes, with a fifth quarter added in the case of a tie breaker. This would hold fans and investors off for a while.
After the demand grew even higher for more watch time, the league made its largest change ever: the decision to move to a point based system. Many criticized this move, but over time fans had to accept it. Now, players who were knocked unconscious remained in that state for a minute, then were awakened and could re-enter play. The team wipe rule remained in effect, but now if the entire team was wiped, the team only won that quarter, not the game. Whichever team had the most points at the end of the quarter won that quarter. Even further down the line the fourth quarter rule was added. It stated that even if a team had won 3 of 4 quarters, the fourth quarter would still be played. And IF the team with no quarterly victories managed to perform a team wipe in the fourth quarter, they could still get a fifth quarter, thus promoting the idea of a last ditch effort and not a drawn out affair.
After nearly two centuries, the league had failed to regulate how many teams could be in the league itself, leading to what was known as the Stretch. At the height of this time, over 160 teams from across the galaxy were in the league. This made scheduling near impossible, seasons way too long, and despite the season length many teams never faced each other for years at a time. This led to the league being slimmed down significantly. Some teams lived on by merging with others while some simply were out of luck and left on the street. Around this time as well, the cultural divide between humans and nonhumans in the Imperial Republica was getting wider, and this combination of changing tides led to the creation of the AGSA.
In the early days of the All Galactic Shockball Association it seemed like a win-win for fans. Some healthy competition between leagues would push innovation in the sport to best one another, and it meant more of their favorite sport to watch. It also meant instead of one bloated league they got two more concise leagues. That was the promise anyways. What actually came of it was just disappointing. Instead of healthy competition came seedy back alley dealings. The AGSA was less concerned with building a league than it was taking down the GSL, this led to teams being formed out of the GSL’s cut franchises but laid nowhere near as much. This was caused by nearly all funding being diverted to bribing advertisers and HoloNet providers to air only AGSA. After a lackluster first season with barely any funding, people began to ask questions.
The controversy was made public nearly a century ago and the AGSA has never recovered from that blow to their reputation. Ever since then it’s been known only as a lesser form of the GSL with worse rules and worse players. Their worst offense was the Jarly scandal. A player by the name of Jance Jarly tampered with the ball to set it to a higher voltage when shot from his scoop. This caused the unintentional death of an opposing player due to a miscalculation on Jarly’s part. Ever since then, Jarly’s name and to a further extent the league was forever associated with cheating. This bad reputation does make it easier to get into as a player and can be a stepping stone for rising stars, but most professionals try to avoid it as best as possible.
For years Shockball had deadly variants in the criminal underworld, but it was the Jarly incident that lit the spark of interest needed to grow a major league in the underground. This league had teams owned by criminal syndicates, weapons manufacturers and pirate gangs, and many could play on the professional level. These players could never enter the GSL if their ties to the underground circuit were discovered, but for many Outer Rim denizens this was the definitive version of Shockball. It did away with the pesky rules and let the players kill each other for the spectators’ pleasure. It also counts as the first major variant to the sport. After this many facets of the sport became offshoot versions. A prime example of this being Hover Shock, originally a form of training endured by players, it became its own variant especially popular for duels.
The most recent development in the Shockball scene is known as the Exodus, in which after the Sith Civil War began the teams based in the Old Empire withdrew from the league. This left many franchise opportunities in the league and ever since people have been scrambling to put together teams to enter the most important Shockball league in the galaxy. However competition is stiff as now the few remaining teams have had plenty of time to hone their skills and draw the best talent coming out of the JSF.
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