Efforts to turn backyard tackle games into global sports

“Are you ready?” Call the host.

Later, two burly men – without protective gears – ran at full speed with each other before the conflict, with the sound of flesh and bone crunching.

The crowd burst into collective roars, some cheers, some wincing.

This is the moment they have been waiting for – it is this adrenaline-fueled energy that has enabled the organizers of the Running IT Champions League to rely on to help them bring what they call “the world’s most intense new collision sport” to audiences around the world.

This is a supercharged version of a one-on-one tackle game that originated from backyards and school playgrounds in Australia and New Zealand – i.e. in the Pacific Islander community.

A person carrying the ball must “go straight” to the defender, who also sprints to them: they are not allowed to dodge, hurdle or avoid tacklers.

The game’s videos have been popular lately, with the founders of the Running IT Alliance taking advantage of the surge in interest – they say they have gained millions of views online, won thousands of followers, attracted popularity sponsors, and even inspired competitions for competitors.

They held acrobats in Melbourne and Auckland, and another match will be held at the Dubai Arena on Saturday, with the winner taking away a prize of $200,000 (£98,000). The next one on their agenda is to expand to the UK and ours.

But the foundations of support for the alliance are increasingly being contested by key voices. Medical experts and sports figures worry about the physical and mental health effects of the game – which has also become a wider social media boom, which has been accused of taking away a life.

“It’s like shaking a baby,” said Peter Satterthwaite, who said his teenage nephew died after copying the game at the party.

The purpose of the game is simple: it is regarded by a group of three judges as the “leading” contact.

Two of the league’s seven co-founders, Brandon Taua’a and Stephen Hancock, told the BBC that they have fond memories of Melbourne’s teenagers playing games.

“I used to be in Brandon’s direct’ and it’s straight’,” Hancock said.

None of this will be the case this weekend when eight finalists compete for the huge cash prize in the United Arab Emirates.

Hancock insists that it is a “skill game” – “(it’s all about footwork) – but it’s undeniable its violent nature.

The fast-scrolling alliance’s social media accounts show dozens of fast videos, all honing the explosive action of two men colliding.

In other videos circulated during the event, several competitors were eliminated and needed immediate medical care.

Taua’a acknowledged the sport was risky, but said the league had a security protocol to minimize it.

Screening competitors, undergoing medical assessments (such as blood tests and physical examinations), they also have to send the latest video that will feature and the movement has a response. Medical staff are also at intervals of events.

Taua’a believes: “There are dangers in surfing, boxing and many other sports.”

For champion Champ Betham – who won $20,000 in Auckland earlier this month and won the championship in Dubai on Saturday – the dangerous element is a secondary consideration.

He told Radio New Zealand at the time: “It was a huge blessing for us as a whole, almost trying to win 20k or hours of work.”

“We have to pay some debts and for refrigerators and cabinets, food for our little ones, especially in New Zealand’s economy and stuff like that. Nothing cheap these days.”

For a six-month-old coalition, the money involved impressed. Together with the prize fund, competitors’ travel and accommodation costs are also paid. A 1,600-seat arena has been booked. The league has a sleek social media account, a PR rep and a bunch of promoters – including anti-plant sports stars.

Its initial financial backers were described only as “a group of local investors who believe in products”, but big names are emerging: a few days before the Dubai event, the alliance announced it had acquired major sponsors on the online gambling platform Stake.com, which was banned in major markets such as Australia and the UK.

There were also conversations with potential U.S. investors, including links to U.S. podcasts and UFC heavyweight Joe Rogan, who Taua’a said “certainly helps” the alliance builds its business in the U.S.

They will need big supporters to match their ambitions to play, which they think is more than just a brief social media trend.

“This may actually be a sport that can compete with MMA and boxing (in class),” Hancock said.

But as Taua’a and Hancock focus on the future ambitions of the game, more and more voices question their safety.

“They might as well use smoking as a legal exercise,” said neuroscientist Alan Pearce.

Peter Satterthwaite made it clear when addressing the BBC in the New Zealand city of Palmerston North.

“It’s not a sport,” he said. It’s a purely designed “dangerous activity” to hurt the guy in front of you.

His 19-year-old nephew Ryan was celebrating his 21st birthday with friends in a local park when he decided to try the game he saw in social media feed.

Ryan made two tackles. Neither he nor his friends fell or clashed. But when he walked away, he told his partner, his uncle said he was uncomfortable.

“(Ryan) was a little coherent, and then he lay down, his eyes rolling back.”

Satterthwaite said friends rushed him to the hospital where doctors had to “cut big pieces off his skull” to relieve stress from brain swelling.

“I saw him on the ventilator, his chest up and down as he breathed, like ‘Get up! Open your eyes’.”

Monday night, just the next day after he and his companion partner, Ryan’s life support was closed in a ward full of loved ones.

“It’s just a harmless conflict, it just shows you how fragile life is and how fragile the brain is,” Ryan’s uncle said.

Run it says it understands the dangers of contact exercise and takes safety seriously. Weeks after Ryan’s death, the league released a video saying the game was “not suitable for the backyard, not the street.”

They said, “Don’t try at home.”

However, Satterthwaite suspects the warning will have a big impact.

“I don’t think there is a sport in the world that isn’t done in the beach, in the backyard or in the park.”

The worrying Shenei Panaia is not only a physical impact.

As a Samoan who grew up in Australia, she often sees the fun of students playing games. But mental health workers fear it reinforces “a version of masculinity, silence is strength, violence is proof of pride.”

“It sends a dangerous message to young people that their value is based on the pain they can bear. If you are not strong, you don’t belong.”

Penaia said the coalition’s attempt to turn it into a profitable audience movement contradicts the values ​​of many in the Pacific Islander community.

“We were taught to look for each other…to make decisions that are not just ourselves.”

A group of concussion experts and sports figures responded to their attention.

For more than a decade, the world of high-impact sports has been taking safety measures as research on brain damage develops.

Official agencies including Australian rugby and New Zealand rugby have warned people not to participate, and the New Zealand Prime Minister also praised it as “stupid”.

Neuroscientist Pearce believes it amplifies “the most violent aspect of the movement we have established”, and safety protocols have little effect on minimizing any risk. He said blood and physical examinations cannot predict brain damage, and even if they don’t hit the head directly, catastrophic damage can occur.

“I can’t see that it would be safe to run 25 kilometers in a row if not stopped,” he told the BBC. “That’s simple.”

Dr. Pierce said there is a risk of immediate concussion delaying brain injuries such as Ryan Satterthwaite and Chronic Traumatic Enzyme Disease (CTE), which are degenerative diseases caused by repetitive head trauma. They can cause cognitive impairment, motor disorder, dementia, depression.

“(They) basically use collisions as entertainment value, actually commercializing concussions,” he concluded.

But, a spokesman for the league – believes that it has nothing to do with “masculinity” but rather “power and skill”) said organizers had no intention of slowing down and were less concerned about their critics.

Taua’a says what happened in their game is “not much different” from what you see in a TV rugby game, and – with their protocol it’s much safer than many games you play in the world’s backyard.

“It’s very new for the audience, and it may take some time to get used to seeing our content.”