A ball, three teams and a hexagonal pitch
October 14, 2016 7:59 AM Subscribe
Looking for a new sport? Why not have a nice game of Three-Sided Football? Three teams, a hexagonal field, and the team that concedes the fewest goals is the winner! You might especially enjoy it if you're an anarchist Marxist with an interest in psychogeography and surrealism.
In the last few years Three-Sided Football (3sf) has been emerging from a long hiatus since its creation by the Dutch artist / philosopher Asger Jorn in 1966. While he was trying to explain his concept of Triolectics (more generally known as Three-Valued Logic) he realised that the metaphor of a three-sided game of football would help.
It wasn't until 1994 when a game was first played by a group of Situationist-inspired architecture students in Glasgow (who weren't actually doing much architecture). Two friends who met there played the first ever game, which was a bit of a disaster - half an hour of fifty people running around in the freezing cold before abandoning ship to the nearby pub.
In 2011 one of the initial players, Mark Dyson, met Neil Transpontine, an artist and member of the Disconauts (a group of experimental artists intent on going to space) with a profound interest in three-sided football. They hit it off and decided to host a memorial match in Deptford, south-east London.
At present there's a six-team league in Deptford which plays on the first Sunday of each month, although they do restrict games to the less chilly months in an attempt to avoid the problems that plagued the initial game. The unusual genesis of the game leads to it being popular with surrealist / situationist and anarchist / marxist groups as well as psychogeographers for some reason; the team "Strategic Optimism" have some interesting pages including a description of their unusual iconography and kit.
The game is gaining exposure (BBC, The Guardian, Telegraph), and popularity worldwide with a recent world cup competition, as well as being used to predict election results.
(Previously)
In the last few years Three-Sided Football (3sf) has been emerging from a long hiatus since its creation by the Dutch artist / philosopher Asger Jorn in 1966. While he was trying to explain his concept of Triolectics (more generally known as Three-Valued Logic) he realised that the metaphor of a three-sided game of football would help.
It wasn't until 1994 when a game was first played by a group of Situationist-inspired architecture students in Glasgow (who weren't actually doing much architecture). Two friends who met there played the first ever game, which was a bit of a disaster - half an hour of fifty people running around in the freezing cold before abandoning ship to the nearby pub.
In 2011 one of the initial players, Mark Dyson, met Neil Transpontine, an artist and member of the Disconauts (a group of experimental artists intent on going to space) with a profound interest in three-sided football. They hit it off and decided to host a memorial match in Deptford, south-east London.
At present there's a six-team league in Deptford which plays on the first Sunday of each month, although they do restrict games to the less chilly months in an attempt to avoid the problems that plagued the initial game. The unusual genesis of the game leads to it being popular with surrealist / situationist and anarchist / marxist groups as well as psychogeographers for some reason; the team "Strategic Optimism" have some interesting pages including a description of their unusual iconography and kit.
The game is gaining exposure (BBC, The Guardian, Telegraph), and popularity worldwide with a recent world cup competition, as well as being used to predict election results.
(Previously)
And here's the Golden Goal video that shows professional players at it. Norwegian. But still.
posted by lmfsilva at 8:12 AM on October 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by lmfsilva at 8:12 AM on October 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
I have to assume that they're not allowed to make alliances (2 versus 1) but I'd give a pretty to know what the players are saying to each other.
posted by Mogur at 8:20 AM on October 14, 2016
posted by Mogur at 8:20 AM on October 14, 2016
Another 3-team sport: Kin-Ball, created in Quebec, Canada. Rick Mercer did a fun video segment a while back.
posted by howling fantods at 8:21 AM on October 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by howling fantods at 8:21 AM on October 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
Alliances would be short-lived as they'd inevitably need to betray one another. I can imagine an alliance being "Let's run up team C to 5 goals, and after the fifth, we fight each other for the win." But the optimal strategy then is for A and B to each betray after 4 goals scored on C. Knowing that betrayal will happen at 4 goals, optimal strategy is to betray at 3 goals...
It devolves down to playing the game as though an alliance never took place.
posted by explosion at 8:24 AM on October 14, 2016 [4 favorites]
It devolves down to playing the game as though an alliance never took place.
posted by explosion at 8:24 AM on October 14, 2016 [4 favorites]
It seems like there should be 3 "halves" to get one full rotation around the field.
posted by howling fantods at 8:33 AM on October 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by howling fantods at 8:33 AM on October 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
Nice game, I think I saw it on Subjunc-TV once.
posted by googly at 8:46 AM on October 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by googly at 8:46 AM on October 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
"Everyone's playing Three-sided Football and orange ball is playing Pentellated 8-cubic Cricket"
-- something people frequently say
posted by orange ball at 8:48 AM on October 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
-- something people frequently say
posted by orange ball at 8:48 AM on October 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'll stick with 43-Man Squamish.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:39 AM on October 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:39 AM on October 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
I bet alliances form and shift about as fast as the ball moves from one third to another, seeing as it's never not in your interest to help one opponent score against the other, if I'm getting it right. It sounds like a really fun dynamic.
posted by lucidium at 1:21 PM on October 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by lucidium at 1:21 PM on October 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
We played at a Woodcraft Folk camp a couple of summers ago. It was fun, though it was hilarious how competitive some of us became in the middle of a camp that was all about modelling the joys of cooperative living for the children and young people.
posted by hfnuala at 1:34 PM on October 14, 2016
posted by hfnuala at 1:34 PM on October 14, 2016
You might especially enjoy it if you're an anarchist Marxist with an interest in psychogeography and surrealism.
Also: welcome to MetaFilter, guys!
posted by rokusan at 2:29 PM on October 14, 2016 [3 favorites]
Also: welcome to MetaFilter, guys!
posted by rokusan at 2:29 PM on October 14, 2016 [3 favorites]
Reminds me of the Big Ball Game from Where's Waldo/Wally. WARNING: LINK CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR 25-YEAR-OLD WALDO BOOK.
posted by HeroZero at 8:55 PM on October 14, 2016
posted by HeroZero at 8:55 PM on October 14, 2016
It would be more interesting if there were more than one ball.
posted by flabdablet at 5:13 AM on October 17, 2016
posted by flabdablet at 5:13 AM on October 17, 2016
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posted by leotrotsky at 8:07 AM on October 14, 2016 [6 favorites]