Corball

Corball is the most extreme sport there is and it is by far the most popular one in the Corvosphere. It started as a training exercise for EVA operators during the early stages of the construction of the Dyson Ring, but an investor saw lots of promise in revisiting the exercise as a competitive sport. It soon became the favourite of the workers in the stations and started to be broadcasted in the home planet of the Corvo, Quanjie, as well. Today it is seen and played all around the Universe, but the playing fields in Tiantang are still the biggest, and it is there where the Universal Championships are held.

Corball consists of two or more teams of 5 members each. Players wear deployment suits and are fired at incredible speeds using railguns that put them in orbit around a moon or asteroid without atmosphere. They remain in orbit at high speeds until they are somehow stopped. There are several railgun rings distributed around the moon as well, which players can use to increase or decrease their speed, while they control their flight with their deployment suits.

Teams must compete for the control of a ball. The matches have a duration of 20 minutes and a team scores a point for every full minute that the ball is under their control, without interruptions. The team with the most points at the end of the match wins. No weapons are allowed, but it is a full contact game in which players physically assault each other for control of the ball, to defend their carrier (the player in control of the ball), or to send someone to their death against a pillar or one of the many asteroids in the way. It is not uncommon for some of the players to die during the match.

Hacking other players’ deployment suits is allowed, although it is a rather dangerous strategy as flying at thousands of kilometres per hour in an asteroid field requires all of the player’s attention to make it out alive.

If a player moves too far from the ball, their suit will shut down and they are forced to leave the game until the players pass by an area in which they can rejoin along with reserve players.  Additionally, players can spend points gained in the match to launch orbital attacks against certain areas of the moon field, dropping dozens of explosive projectiles and often incapacitating or killing the majority of players caught in the blast. This established the corball motto, “the safest place is under your opponent,” and forces all players to stick together, as those that overtake or stay behind the pack are the ones likely to be targeted. Spending points is a risky move, however, and more than one match has been lost by a team targeting opponents who had been left behind and then losing the ball to the opponents who were nearby.

The violent and frantic gameplay and the stunning looks of the players make corball matches mesmerizing events that shut down the entire Corvosphere for their duration. Many people spend all their time and money following their favourite team. Corball players are among the most famous people in the Universe, their daily lives a reality show that can be seen by anyone willing to pay. The richest fans can afford access to the sensorial feed that is recorded by the players’ cortex connectors, allowing them to feel everything the player feels, and some corvo have spent entire fortunes living the lives of their favourite players.