Clawball: futebol caótico com gatos em realidade virtual é lançado gratuitamente no Meta Quest
A partir de hoje, os fãs de realidade virtual podem mergulhar em uma experiência de futebol no mínimo inusitada e divertida. O jogo brasileiro Clawball, desenvolvido pelo estúdio premiado ARVORE, chega gratuitamente à Meta Quest Store. Misturando partidas frenéticas de futebol 3×3 com o carisma dos gatos, Clawball promete se destacar no cenário de jogos VR, especialmente por seu estilo caótico e…
Clawball is a canon turian sport mentioned in supplementary material [wiki]. The contents of this post are strictly headcanon, as Bioware made no further discussion of the sport. And as anybody who was here for the Twins game against the Tigers a few Sundays ago* knows, I am actually a jock wearing a clever nerd disguise, so there’s my credentials for making up a fictional sport. Happy #turianweek!
The Basics
Clawball is played with two teams of five. Each team guards three hoops, which are attached vertically to curved backboards that help guide the ball in. The goal of the game is to put the ball through one of the hoops and gain more points than the opposing team. More casual games and courts set up in public parks use one hoop, rather than three. Games typically last for roughly three hours, with brief breaks between each hour to allow the players to rest, stretch, and get water.
The rules of the game are generally straightforward. Players throw the ball to each other, or attempt to steal the ball from the opposing team. They can only touch the ball with their hands; children’s, amateur, and semi-pro leagues are allowed to use both hands, but professional leagues allow only one hand on the ball at a time. Once a player catches a ball, they are allowed to take three steps before they must either switch which hand is touching the ball or throw it to another player. Players may push opposing players out of the way of the ball, but only push. Striking another player with one’s talons is not allowed. Pushing is limited to only contacting the other player with one’s hands, but full-body checking occurs with increasing frequency in higher-level leagues. As the crowd greatly enjoys body checks, professional players become masters at performing them in such a way that still ensures their hands and forearms are all that make contact.
The ball is roughly the size of a turian head, traditionally made of a shaped porous rock and covered in leather for comfort. Since the turian space age, synthetic materials have been substituted for the rock interior, though balls with the rocky core are still used by traditionalists. Urban legend states the earliest clawball “balls” were in fact skulls, but no evidence has been found to support this claim. At the beginning of each season, each team receives a new ball to use for the duration. New balls are completely smooth, but as the season wears on, grooves are slowly worn into it where the players’ talons grip and slide over the surface. The ball used during a league championship is given to the player who scored the final winning points during the game as an additional trophy.
Fun for the Whole Galaxy
There are clawball leagues on nearly every level -- from all over turian space, to the neighborhoods in a single city, to what essentially amounts to Little League. The most popular and well-known is the Imperial League, which includes teams from most colonies in the Empire, as well as the Citadel. Worlds such as Palaven and Digeris, with multiple major, imperially-important cities across the planet, field multiple teams. In recent centuries, the Imperial League has also adopted the moniker of the Interstellar League, as some felt “Imperial” may come across as too exclusionary.
Leagues for non-turian players have also sprung up in the past several centuries, though these do not reach as wide audiences as the turian leagues. Aliens playing with turians is strongly discouraged beyond casual and amateur games, due to anatomical differences. Alien players are fitted with gauntlets that temporarily augment them with talons similar to a turian’s, so players can perform similar moves to their turian counterparts.
The league for disabled players is also quite popular. This league allows more leniency with the rules, allowing players to choose their own accommodations according to their own needs. A popular sentiment among fans is that half the fun is seeing the different ways players find to compensate for their disabilities, and the new moves and strategies they invent. In honor of this, the Disabled League has made its official motto, “The Sport of Innovation.”
Show Your Team Spirit
Clawball is considered the turian imperial pastime, and as such it’s incredibly common for even non-sports fans to consider themselves (very) casual supporters of one team or another, usually the one from their home city or region, though several Imperial League teams have reached supporters across the galaxy. For example:
In 2183, the Acalin Claw-Fiends have been the reigning league champions for four years running. Hailing from a hub city in Palaven’s far north, the Claw-Fiends are noted for being the favored team of Councilor Sparatus, an Acalin native.
Cipritine holds the distinction of being the only location in the empire to have two teams, the Cipritine Telal and Cipritine Imperials. The two teams share a rivalry and reputation set similar to the New York Mets and Yankees of human baseball; the Imperials are more universally famous, but the Telal are more popular. “Fuck the Imperials” is a common sentiment among clawball fans.
The Carthaan Kabalii brought fame to their otherwise unremarkable colony home, thanks to their reputation as the “lovable losers” of the league, always coming close, but never winning the championships. A popular saying is, “No matter what else is going wrong in the universe, the Kabalii will always lose.”**
The Altakiril Ice-Wraiths [roughly translated from the original turian term, a mythological ice monster] usually hover around the middle of the league, except for the eight years of Quiria Ignascus’s run with them, during which they made it to the championships three times, and even won in 2178, only to be unseated by the Claw-Fiends the next year.
The most popular choice for casual fans beyond their home region’s team are the Citadel Widowers, who were added to the league roughly 250 years after the turians came to the station.
To avoid unfair biases, championship games are played on neutral territory, on a court belonging to neither team. For example, the 2182 championship between the Acalin Claw-Fiends and Navialine Nevescelet was played on Digeris, in the stadium normally home to the Apparitus Aranden.
On smaller scales, planetary leagues (the Palavenian League, the Digeran League, etc) often enjoy even more heated debates than Imperial League circles. These leagues are, of course, divided even more specifically than simply by major settlement, so turians are able to choose a team even closer to their home.
The Citadel has its own league, made up of 2 teams each from the Presidium and each of the five Wards. This league is the most common introduction to the sport for aliens, as well as being a way for turians on the Citadel to bond over the sport without arguing over whose preferred Imperial League team is superior. Despite its comparatively small size, the Citadel League is listed among planetary leagues.
For further information, the Turian Imperial Clawball League hosts an extranet site, with links to the official sites of all teams and other leagues. Or simply ask your local turian!
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*This is also how I make myself feel better about being this close to seeing a grand slam but missing out because the Tigers’ pitcher pitched too good. IT’S OKAY ESCOBAR I STILL LOVE YOU best inning i’ve ever watched my dudes
**Special thanks to my 11th grade English teacher, Mr. Dressen, a lifelong fan of the Chicago Cubs who told our class that whenever you felt like the world was turning upside down, you could take comfort in the universal constants: the sun will always rise in the east, the government will always want your money, and the Cubs will always lose.
at some point saren makes a comment about how his preferred clawball team has a good shot at the championship this year
nihlus promptly makes a show of pulling up the calendar on his omni-tool and says something to the effect of, “and there it is, right on schedule, his yearly lie to himself.”
cipritine has two clawball teams, the telal and the imperials. however, like the new york mets and yankees of human baseball, nobody actually knows any fans of the imperials.
clawball is actually closer to basketball than baseball, i only compare clawball teams to baseball teams because it's the only real sport i know anything about beyond "fuck the packers"
i've randomly decided that the arterius bros' favored clawball team is the "loveable loser" of the league. they're historically not very good and rumored to be cursed, but for some reason everyone still loves and supports them. saren and desolas are the turian clawball equivalent of chicago cubs fans.
