Capítulo 51: Basketball And Wrestling, All In One Game?
Inside his room, at the hotel they were staying at, Seiji just finished talking to his mother and father through video call.
"*sigh*… Mother is such a worrywart. How could basketball players even die from playing the sport? It's not like we're wrestling or punching each other during the match…"
To somehow relax his mind, Seiji opened a new tab on his Moogle browser and opened up MeTube. Not 'You', not 'They', and most certainly not 'Our', but MeTube.
After logging in to his account, Seiji got a few recommendations in his feed. Most of them could literally be considered as ancient videos already, as they were from 30-50 years ago.
There's the videos from the second coming of 'memes' and there are videos that are all about basketball. However, what caught his attention the most was a video with the thumbnail of six buffed men who are about to beat the living daylights out of their opposition.
One person is holding the other on his waist, kneeling on the hardwood floor on one knee, ready to give the other guy some much needed German Suplex. The other pair is a guy literally carrying some other guy within his arms in an eye-level, ready to drop him on the floor haphazardly, while the remaining pair are two buffed guys fighting each other on the floor, with the other guy beating the helpless dude in submission.
"What are these guys doing? Oh, there's a ball on the side. Don't tell me…"
Filled with dread and some anticipation, Seiji looked at the title of the video. Sure enough, it has the title, "You've Never Seen Basketball Like This.".
Okay, now Seiji's curiosity is definitely piqued.
Clicking on the video, Seiji was immediately greeted by the sight of four pairs of buffed men literally hugging each other while wearing some kind of tight-fitting wrestling clothes. There seems to be an isolation play of some sort as the guy with #99 at the back of his blue 'jersey' is circling around the perimeter like an NFL Running back(RB).
Whilst holding the ball within his arms, he cut through the baseline and attempted to score an easy layup. However, this attempt proved to be futile as a player on the red 'jersey' literally pushed him away, making the guy plop on a the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.
The next moment, #99 let go of the ball he is holding —which is quite obvious because he just got the life beat out of him — the player on a #1 jersey on the blue corner, no, on a blue jersey, saved the play by catching the ball and throwing it inside the hoop haphazardly. Surprisingly, it went it.
Meanwhile, the guy who just got absolutely wrecked by the guy in red jersey, got up from the floor like it was nothing and went back on defense.
While Seiji was absolutely baffled by what he just saw, the narrator of the video finally started to speak.
[Did ya all just see that? These guys are playing basketball. Well, kind of…] Seiji could tell that the narrator himself was baffled by what he just witnessed.
[And this guy just got the life beat out of him.]
After a brief pause, the video continued, showing a clip of a guy in blue beating a guy from the enemy team into a submission pose.
[The craziest part about this? This isn't even a foul…]
Afterwards, the video replayed the earlier sequence of 'play' wherein #99 got absolutely wrecked by the guy in red.
Seiji couldn't hold his surprise any longer as he paused the video and just stared in a dumbfounded manner at the screen.
"What the… What the heck did I just witness?"
Calming himself down, Seiji continued the video from where he left off.
[Ladies and gentlemen, this right here, is Rugball. A sport created in Russia that mixes elements of Basketball, Wrestling, and Rugby to create a hybrid monster of a game where you might just lose your life…]
'Well, I could see that. The injuries a person could get from playing basketball for a decade isn't even close to what you might get from playing one game of this sport,' Seiji thought.
[It's violent, it's unsettling, and it's pretty much the greatest thing I've ever seen…]
"Wait, what?"
[But before I show you a clip of these guys completely dismantling each other, let's go back a few weeks, when I first saw a clip of this sport.]
[Wrestling and Basketball? How? Or, an even better question, WHY…?]
Good question. Why would people want to play a sport where you would literally be beaten up every time?
[Well, back in 1999, the Russian Federation of Rugball was formed, making it an official independent sport. But, long before it was official, the game is played by wrestlers as a form of training to help develop coordination, dexterity, stamina, and many other factors that translated to wresting.]
[Similar to basketball, the game is played in a court, with a hoop. And that's the extent of their similarities…]
As the video progressed and as the narrator explained what was written in the Official Rugball Rulebook, Seiji became even more dazed. According to the rules, the game begins by throwing the ball in the center of the field.
The ball can be passed, thrown, beat, lead, or rolled in any direction. The player with the ball in hand is allowed to run.
In the game, you could use power tricks and fighting techniques, except for prohibited ones. By prohibited, they meant killing.
"What a surprise… You're surprisingly not allowed to kill in this game?" Yes. You can't kill someone in this game.
However, other than that, you're absolutely good to go out there and beat someone until you're satisfied.
Aside from that, the game doesn't free throws, no fouls, you don't have to dribble the ball, no goaltending, and there's no traveling. As the narrator have said, there are literally no rules in this bloodbath, no, sport.
[Now, equally as chaotic as the game itself is its name. I don't know if it's called Rugball, or Regball, but its official website calls it Regball. So, I'm just gonna call it Rugball because everything is just ruleless and lawless and nobody cares about anything anyways…]
[You can do WHATEVER you want, to either score or stop the other team from scoring…]
※・※・※・※
While watching the video, Seiji got immersed in it. Watching people wreck each other is another kind of entertainment, it seems.
Eventually, the video came to the part where the narrator will show some highlights of a game of Rugball.
[Okay, the tipoff. Looks like a pretty normal game of Rugball… Oh! Wait! Never mind. Right off the bat, homie's getting mauled for no reason…]
In the video showed a guy in blue who wasn't even holding the ball within his hands getting bear hugged by a guy in red.
[Four whole seconds into the game and dude already doesn't give a damn…]
[First possession. Let's see what happens here…]
The ball is on the red team and a guy with a beard is holding the ball within his arms tightly. He could probably fit just fine as an NFL Quarterback with his size but he's here, trying to avoid headlocks and handlebars on the baseline.
[Jesus… the game just started!]
Just as he successfully reached the pain, a guy in blue just nonchalantly shoved him away using his arms before trying to 'steal' the ball. Once he was unsuccessful, the guy in blue hugged the guy in red from the back and performed a textbook example of a takedown.
[Uhh… Dude just absolutely wrecked his elbow and we're just supposed to act like it's normal? My guy, are you good?]
Next clip, it showed the video from the intro.
[What!? Man's just got smoked and then pops right back like nothing happened! Forget a fractured skull, I gotta get back on defense!]
[Guys. This, was not a foul. THIS! In the NBA, this is attempted murder!]
As the video continues, more and more ridiculous scene unfolded, making Seiji realize just how soft the foul called were in the current IBA League. You can't even breathe on the players without them calling for a foul for it.
To be honest, it was just ugly and disgusting to watch.
※・※・※・※
To be continued…
[A/N¹: I couldn't help it. The video was just too funny. Yep, that was a real video on YouTube and you guys could go ahead and search for it. It's absolutely fun to watch. Anyway, next chapter, we're really going for a game of basketball.]
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