Dodgeball is a non-traditional sport that is creating a big buzz not only in the Philippines but all throughout the world. It’s a game that anyone can play—all sizes, all gender and all ages.

It was Sports Unlimited’s first time to join an official dodgeball tournament and we planned to have the most fun out of it!

The National Dodgeball League Philippines was launched at the GFC Gym in Ortigas.

The event was dubbed “Dodge to Build” because it was part of a fundraising campaign for those who were affected by typhoon Reming. All proceeds of this event will be used to rebuild the homes and communities destroyed by this typhoon that swept Albay.

Back when I was in grade school, we called this game “War Ball.” Today, they call this game “Dodgeball”.

Dodgeball is a fun and fast game. It’s a high intensity sport but it’s pretty easy to play. It’s also very entertaining to watch.

It even gets more interesting when one knows the rules of the game.

In the beginning, we were not too familiar with all the game rules. Obviously, it was our first time to play. We only knew the basics such as the “offensive objective” is to hit your opponent with the ball while the “defensive objective” is to do whatever you have to do so you don’t get hit by the ball! Dodge ‘til you drop was our policy.

We didn’t do badly in the game. We had to win two out of the three games to surface as champions.

Here are more rules to get you oriented about the game:

·          If you cross the center line at anytime, you would need to get out of the court.

·          If you throw a ball and your opponent catches it, you’re out of the court too. And if your opponent has members that are out the court, one member gets to go back in.

Now you’ll get an idea why players constantly go in and out of the court during the game.

We got a little bit of the other teams attention by winning our first match. We may have been first timers but we weren’t pushovers. It was fun and we played some more!

The participating teams were divided into two groups. We were playing a round robin format which means we had to play all the teams in our group. The two teams with the most wins in each group entered into the semi-final round.

We beat Team Better Bodies. That was one down. Ateneo looked tough. We knew how these college teams were. They practiced after classes for sure. They had uniforms that gave the impression that they were taking the game seriously.

My partner Marc admitted that he was better at dodging the ball than throwing it.

Although experience is always a big advantage to a team in Dodgeball, it can also be countered with enthusiasm. Ateneo may have had all the experience but I had to give it to Sports Unlimited when it comes to enthusiasm in anything we join.

My team’s enthusiasm paid off. Game one was ours. Game two was tough though. Ateneo came back strong. Although no team had home court advantage, it seemed like Ateneo did.

They had a pretty big cheering squad. It always helps players when the majority of the crowd is cheering for them.

Here’s another rule, we already knew that if any part of the ball skims any part of your body, you would have to leave the court. But let’s say you are holding a ball and your opponent tries to hit you, the ball you are holding can be used to block the ball that’s being thrown at you, provided that it is “all ball” that touches your opponent’s ball.

Here’s more information— these balls are rubber-coated foam balls which makes this game more safe and enjoyable.

The momentum of the game is swung back and forth. Ateneo took the second game from us. The score was one game all. The winner of the next game would win the match.

To beat Ateneo, we had to play more as a team and think more about how we were going to beat them based on their style of play.

Teamwork and strategy were more valuable factors in dodgeball than athletic skill. Our strategy worked. We beat Ateneo and we were unbeaten.

We have not lost a match yet— not bad for being the underdogs in this group but word has it that our next opponent, team Punch-out, is one of the teams to beat in the tournament.

Right from the beginning of the game, we knew that we had to strategize well.

You have got to love the festive, party tournament atmosphere that this dodgeball league has brought. But at that point, it was more about beating the team and making it to the semi-final round.

The first game went pretty quick. We were all out of the court before we knew it.

So we put the game behind us and tried to win the remaining two rounds.

Team Punch-out was tough but we managed to win game two.

At the third round, I began to realize that Dodgeball can be a great cardio workout. My heart was beating fast and my arms were starting to feel the burn.

We needed to dig deeper to beat the team. They seemed to be in great shape. They won game three.

By beating us, Team Punch-out came in at the top of our group. If we came in second then we could get the chance to play against them again in the semi-final round and revenge our tight loss.

The top two teams that qualified for the semi-final round were Team On Fire that sailed through to the round without losing a match; and Team Stuntworks that came in second. Our group Sports Unlimited came in second to Team Punch-out.

Sports Unlimited battled On Fire. Jackie Forester and Anthony Suntay plus three really big guys were up against us.

The round-robin format was still observed in the semi-final round. The only difference was that instead of playing in a half court, we played in a full court. It meant that we had to throw the ball a lot harder.

We lost the game badly and needed to regain our composure.

It was clear to everyone that On Fire was the team that would stand in the way of winning the event. They were strong and serious about winning. The temperature was rising in the gym. The competition was getting more intense and merciless.

Playing on a full court definitely made the game more difficult for us. We lost to On fire.

And our chance to avenge our loss to Punch-out in the Preliminary round has come. We had an idea of the way they play so we had a better shot at beating them.

It was pretty wild that we got this far in the tournament.

Sports Unlimited was ahead in game one. Our strategy was to play very aggressively in the second game and not give Punch-out a chance to come back.

When game number two was underway, I have to say that you can just tell how much love the organizers, officials and players have for this game. It was contagious.

It was a different Punch-out team from the one we played in the earlier round. They weren’t that hard to beat anymore.

It was a crucial win. Losing to both On Fire and Punch-out would have put us out of the running for sure but beating Punch-out kept our hopes alive.

After losing to us, team Punch-out played the unbeaten team On Fire and blew them away quickly.

The twist came when we beat Team Stuntworks but right after team Stuntworks beat team Punchout. And then Team On fire beat Team Stuntworks.

After every team played against each other, we were elated to find out that we made it to the finals and we were up against Team On Fire.

It was so wild. We were actually in the finals. It was no secret—every game is competitive and it’s always great bringing home the top prize but when the dust settles. It’s all about the fun everybody has during the event.

Dodgeball is all about promoting maximum social enjoyment!

And we sure had a massive good time. Although we did not end up winning this event, we were so glad we got wrapped up in all of this.

There’s no doubt about it, Dodgeball is on a rage. The people involved in this league had a heck of a good time!