Champions Bacaball

The long, dark night of the Bacaball series of posts is coming to an end, my friends and fellow sufferers. If you're still reading you're a glutton for punishment and my kind of people.

The unique to Champions Bacaball (along with the larger field, four flag stations and 6 players) is an additional field modification that allows players to insert as "live" players during the play of a point as the clock is running. On the Champions field diagram. The orange area is the insertion zone where "inactive" players await an opportunity to enter the active field of play dependant on the elimination of teammates. Netting suspended like a curtain at each end creates the insertion zone. Player(s) may insert from either end or at quarterly increments. There is no restriction on which insert point a player may use. Part of a team's strategy in Champions will likely revolve on which players begin a point and which ones insert based on specific losses, either of players or positions on the field. Players in the insertion zone must place their marker in a rack and are not allowed to pick it up (if they are the next insert) until the eliminated player has passed into the insertion zone (and is returning to the pit.) Players in the insertion zone may coach.

Points play out as normal excepting that the duration of each point may be extended by the potential to insert additional players. At no time will the number of "live" players in the "active area" of the field exceed 6. The max roster is 10 so no more than 10 players may participate on one side of a Bacaball Champions match during a given point. It is, however, possible for fewer than 10 to participate if, for example, a player receives any form of suspension or a suspension should carry over from a previous match. Each suspended player will reduce the maximum number of available players. If a team begins a Champions match with a suspended player they may not have more than 3 available insert players for any point while the suspension is in effect. Any additional suspensions would continue to reduce the available number of insert players. Keep in mind time in the penalty box is not the same thing as a suspension and the penalty box would function much as you are currently used to it.

The intriguing aspect of Champions play is that the insertion option allows for an ebb & flow to each point as which team has the upper hand can shift back & forth as players are whittled down with the possibility of changing strategies unfolding and different players bring different skill sets into the points. The player advantage to Champions is that everyone may get an chance to play every point depending on how a match unfolds.

Conceptually Champions is designed and intended to be that full scale format that transforms a game or a point into a full fledged sporting event. In Bacaball scoring changes the nature of the game completely. In Champions the introduction of insert players adds an additional level of strategy & suspense that encourages players and teams to compete according to their various strengths as they avoid their weaknesses. And despite the occasional complaint to the contrary it should take the Average Joe about 15 minutes to figure out how to watch Bacaball and understand enough about what's going on to (hopefully) find it entertaining.