The push to turn a backyard tackle game into a global sport

“Defender is ready?” Call the host.

A few moments later, two buildings work – with no protective equipment – at the utmost speed with each other before they collided, which is an unambiguous voice of the body and the bone grinding.

The crowd erupts to a collective roar, some chanting, while others are glowing.

This is the moment they were waiting for – and it is exactly this energy that adrenaline fed is that the Run IT championship organizers to help bring what they call the “most collision and collision in the world” to the international fans.

It is a super-charging version of an individual processing game that originated in the backyard and school playgrounds in Australia and New Zealand-which is in the Pacific Island societies.

One person who carries the ball must “run straight” in the defender, who is also running towards him: they are not allowed to duck or obstacle or avoid treatment.

The game’s video clips have recently become viral, and the founders of the Run IT Legue team have benefited from increasing attention – they say they have gained millions of views online, beat thousands of fans, attracted the shepherds of the big names, and even inspiring competitive competitions.

They were held Jousts in Melbourne and Auckland, and it takes place on Saturday in Dubai Square, where the winner was awarded a prize of $ 200,000 (98,000 pounds). Next on their agenda, it is an expansion in the United Kingdom and the United States.

But the league support competition is increasingly through critical sounds. Medical experts and sports figures are concerned about the physical and mental effects of the game – which has also become a wider madness on social media, already accused of demanding one life.

“He is like shaking a child,” says Peter Sattercotett, whose niece died in adolescence after copying the match at a party.

The goal of the game is simple: Be the person who “dominates” contact, and is considered a committee of three judges.

Two of the seven founders in the league, Brandon Taoa and Stephen Hancock, have told BBC with great memories of playing the game as teenagers in Melbourne.

“I used to” run it straight “in Brandon all the time,” says Hancock, says Hancock, which is joking that the husband usually tries to avoid hitting each other directly.

There will be nothing of that in the end of this week, when the eight final contestants compete for this giant cash prize in the United Arab Emirates.

Hancock insists on running it is a “skill game” – “[It’s] Everything about work ” – but there is no denial of its violent nature.

The rapid scroll of the league social media accounts shows dozens of fast videos, all of which are shipped in the explosive work of two men colliding.

In other videos revolving from the events, many competitors are exited and require immediate medical attention.

Taua’a admits that sport comes with risks, but it says the league has safety protocols to reduce it.

Comledrants are examined, and they are subject to medical assessments – such as blood tests and physical examination – and they must also send a recent video of themselves who play a sport of treatment. The medical staff are also on the sidelines of the events.

“There is an element of danger with surfing, with boxing, and many other sports as well,” also argues.

For CHAMP Betham – which won $ 20,000 New Zealand earlier this month in the competition in Auckland and is absorbed on the title in Dubai on Saturday – the risk element is a secondary consideration.

“This is a tremendous blessing for a full pile of us to try to win 20 thousand or anything for a few hours,” he told New Zealand Radio at the time.

“We have to pay some debts and store refrigerators and safes, and food for our young purposes, especially with the economy and things like this here in New Zealand. Nothing is cheap these days.”

The funds concerned, for the bond that was only exist for six months, is impressive. Along with the award fund, travel and accommodation expenses are paid. The square of 1600 seats has been booked. The league has a slow social media account, public relations representative, and a group of promoters – including anti -iron sports stars.

Its initial financial supporters were not only described as “a group of local investors who believe in the product”, but the biggest emerging names: Days before the Dubai event, the league announced that it had obtained a major sponsor in the online gambling platform, which was banned in major markets such as Australia and the United Kingdom.

There are also ongoing conversations with potential American investors, including an American PodCaster and UFC Joe Rogan, which Taua’a says, “will definitely help the league” build a presence in the United States.

They will need senior supporters to match their ambitions in the competition, which they argue are more than just a transit social media.

“This can actually happen in a sport that can sit [in a class] With MMA and boxing, “Hancock says.

But with a focus on Taua’a and Hancock on the future aspirations of the competition, more and more votes question their safety.

“They may also prepare smoking as a legal sport,” says neurologist Alan Pears.

Speaking to the BBC of the Northern New Zealand Palmerstone, Peter Satretoute is unambiguous.

He says, “It is not a sport.” It is a “purely” designer activity “to harm the man in front of you.”

His 19 -year -old nephew Ryan was celebrating the twenty -first birthday with friends in a local park when they decided to try the game they watched throughout social media.

Ryan did two processors. He or his friend did not fall on his head or clashed. But while he was walking away, he told his colleagues that he was not fine, telling his uncle.

“[Ryan] He was a little firm, then he lied and his eyes retreated in his head.

Friends rushed to the hospital, where doctors had to “cut a large piece of skull” to relieve pressure from brain swelling, says Satartoette.

“I saw him on the artificial respiratory system, and his chest rises up and down while he was breathing, and it was like” woke up! Open your eyes. “

On Monday evening, just one day after he played with his colleagues, Rayan’s life was supported in a hospital room full of loved ones.

“It was just a harmful struggle, and only shows you the extent of the fragility of life and the fragility of your mind,” says Ryan’s uncle.

Run it says he understands the risk of sports communication and takes safety seriously. Weeks after Ryan’s death, the league released a video saying that the game “not for the backyard, not for the street.”

“Don’t try this at home,” they said.

But Satterthwaite suspects that the warning will have a major impact.

“I don’t think there is a sport in the world that people do not do on the beach, in the backyard, or in the garden.”

Not only the physical effects that are concerned by Xinia Benaya.

As Samoa grew up in Australia, she often saw Schoolkids playing the game as fun. But the mental health factor is afraid to strengthen “a copy of masculinity where silence is strength, and violence is evidence of pride.”

“It sends a dangerous message to the youth that its value depends on the amount of pain they can eat. If you are not harsh, you do not belong.”

The league’s attempt to turn this into a profitable spectator that contradicts the values ​​of many in the Pacific Island community, says Benaya.

“We know to search for each other … and make decisions that serve more than just ourselves.”

Their concerns have echoed a group of concussion experts and sports personalities.

For more than a decade, the world of high -impact sport has entered safety measures with the development of research into brain injuries.

Official bodies including Rugby Australia and New Zealand Rugby have warned people against participating, with the weight of the New Zealand Prime Minister, saying it was “stupid.”

The neurologist Pierce argues by operating it, and it enlarges the “most violent aspects in our existing sport”, while safety protocols do little to reduce any danger. He says that blood tests and physical tests cannot predict a blow to the brain, and catastrophic damage can occur even without a direct blow to the head.

“I cannot see how running is 25 km in a row in a row without stopping safely,” he says to the BBC. “It is simple like that.”

Dr. Pears says that there is an immediate concussion risk, delayed brain injuries such as Ryan Satarthyte, and chronic painful brain disorder (CTE) – a degenerative disease caused by repeated head trauma. It can lead to poor perception, movement disorders, dementia, and depression.

“[They’re] He concludes that the use of collision as an entertainment value, which is, in fact, wanders in concussion.

But the spokesperson for the league – who argues that he is “not a masculinity” but “strength and skill” – the organizers say they have no intention of slowing down, and they are not very concerned about their critics.

“It does not differ much” for what you see in the TV matches, and – with their protocols – it’s much more safe than many of the games that played in the backyard all over the world.

“It is completely new to viewers and it may take some time to see what we have collected.”