Murder ball

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This article has been tagged since February 2007.

For the wheelchair sport, see wheelchair rugby. For other uses, see murderball.

Murder ball is a game involving two or more players who struggle to take a ball (or similar object) across a predefined plane for points. Upon completing that task, they attempt to take the ball over to the other scoring area, and in this fashion they appear to be shuttling the ball between these two. In the event the ball carrier is stopped while in possession of the ball, they must toss the ball away, allowing the other players to fight over and resume advancement. The game has many other names, including death ball, bloodball, murder-the-man-with-the ball, mugby, kill-the-carrier, kill-the-man (or killa man), and smear-the-queer.

Generally, there are no teams, every individual is out for themselves. The end of the game may come about by any of a number of means (time limit, score limit, injury, or whatever). It is an unruly game without any standards except the concept of taking the ball over a plane and attempting to take it to the other.

This game is a derivative from football. It may closely resemble a more medieval form of the sport.

In Toronto in the 1970s Murder Ball was banned from the high schools. A similar game called Friendly Ball was immediately instituted.

In Australia, Murder Ball falls under both the titles of 'Mugby' and 'Kill the Dill with the Pill'.

[edit] Rules

There are core rules (the Standardized Rules) that define what it means to play the sport. If these elements are not present in this way then it is not Murder Ball. There are principles that need to be decided (the Non-Standard Rules) that vary from instance to instance of the game that must be present for it to be Murder Ball, but are defined per instance.

Variations to the Standardized Rules are additions to them or a more objective declaration of the rule, but never is the intent of the rule not present.

[edit] Standardized Rules

Score is kept based on how many times an individual carries a ball across the goals while possessing the ball

There are vertical planes that are defined as the scoring end zones for the game.

When a player has possession of the ball and crosses into the plane they are awarded points as an individual.

After scoring the opposite end zone becomes the end zone where the ballcarrier can score.

If the ballcarrier loses possession, the end zone still remains active for all players.

It is the responsibility of all the other players to stop the ballcarrier.

When the ballcarrier is stopped they must toss the ball back into play for the other players to attempt to recover and advance.

The ballcarrier who was stopped and tossed the ball back into play, cannot be the first person to touch the ball after it is thrown back into play.

The ballcarrier can be stopped by being tackled (usually following the rules for American Football for tackling), going out of bounds, or being stopped by a locally declared penalty infraction.

[edit] Non-Standardized Rules

The dimensions of the playing field are not standard. The boundaries are normally defined by available space, but there are boundaries set up.

The ballcarrier is temporarily safe from being tackled after they score while in the endzone they just scored in, however, they must leave its protection for the game to continue. The compulsion and duration allowed to leave the endzone varies locally, but there is a penalty for not leaving it.