If you’ve read or watched the Harry Potter series, you’d know that Quidditch has Bludgers that are hurled at opponents to make them lose control of the ball. While this could be fatal in real life, no one’s ever thought much of it since it’s only make-believe. But what if there really was a sport where players were armed with weapons to cause serious injuries to their opponents? That, my friends, is exactly what Ultimate Tazer Ball is all about. The weird sport actually allows players to use stun guns on members of the opposing team.
I watched a few short videos of the sport being played, and in my opinion, there’s nothing fascinating about it beyond the use of the stun guns. The ball used by the players is actually pretty huge, like a beachball, which makes it look like grown men running behind a kid’s toy and trying to stun each other in the process. Menacing expressions are adopted, which I’m guessing is to provide the audience with some entertainment while in reality, nothing much is going on. But again, that’s just my opinion, so let me tell you the rules of the game, and then I’ll let you be the judge.
Two teams of four people each compete to get the oversized ball into the opponents’ net. Only players in possession of the ball are allowed to be zapped. And that’s pretty much it for Ultimate Tazer Ball. You can see why although the YouTube video has over 1 million hits, no one’s actually buying the fact that this is a real game. Many believe it to be just another internet hoax. But 25-year-old Canadian Eric Prum is pretty serious about his creation and insists that it isn’t fake. He’s actually launching a league along with German business partner Erik Wunsch. The first tournament is scheduled to start in Bangkok in March. So far there are four teams on the league, Philadelphia Killawatts (are you kidding me?), San Diego Spartans, LA Nightlight and Toronto Terror.
According to Prum the tasers aren’t really dangerous police-grade ones. They aren’t lethal or cardiac-inducing either, since the stun guns used are of much lower amperage. Even so, the players are pretty vocal about the pain. While one of them claims in a video, “It hurts, man, it doesn’t feel good,”and another one warns, “If you’re scared, don’t play.” The creators of the game are quite bold to say that Ultimate Tazer Ball will soon become an “exciting sport of the future.” I highly doubt that, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
