I was driving to work on a cold Wisconsin day, looking at the dusting of snow across the highway, and a moment of realization hit me. "Professional snowball fighting??" Yeah! What a freakin' awesome idea!! My mind immediately went to work.

I've laid out the ground work to turn the traditional random chucking of snowballs around into a sport worth competing for. In fact, after you've read the rules set forth, consider the Pro Snowball league I'm scheming up. Winter is here my friends, time to take a break from the net and receive a jolt of cold adrenaline. I expect responses in the forums or email for all those interested in starting a league. Consider yourselves pioneers.

Ride to the battlefield in style

   Pro Snowball Rules

   * signifies the optimal choice


   Preperation

1) Choose location
with lots of packing snow *

2) Bring stuff
shovels, buckets, etc *

3) Type of game
Capture the Flag *
others:
Face Tag
Objective
Free for all

4) How many teams
2 teams *
more than 2 teams

5) Choose Referees
large amounts of players, or mulitple teams may require multiple refs *
If there are no refs, Team Captains will ref

6) Choose Team Captains
pick teammates
or randomly assign teammates




Declaration of War

Here's where you team digs the trenches and mounts the horwitzers. Managing your team is essential. You'll need people building walls, digging holes, getting material and supplies, stocking ammunition, etc. In a well organized team, the team captain can assign his teammates tasks that should streamline the base's progress. The team captain is essentially a General, and should be treated as such. Remember, this is Professional Snowball Fighting!

If you are playing CTF:
Team captains must first decide how many flag caps win a game. Team captains then deligate one medic per team. Medics are responsible for healing injured teammates and releasing teammates from the dead zone.


Team captains choose the location of their base. Rock/paper/scissors or something will determine who gets to pick their location first.

When the last base location is picked, each team immediately has 5 minutes to prepare for the building their base. This includes acquiring any materials (buckets, shovels, whatever) desired. Hustle! At the end of 5 minutes, if all team captains agree that more time for preparation is needed, 5 more minutes will be allowed, but no more.

Each team now has 45 minutes to build their base. Teams resources are limited to their half of the field. Divide the field accordingly for multiple teams. If at the end of 45 minutes all team captains agree more time is needed, 15 more minutes will be allowed, but no more.

Calm before the storm. Teams have 2 minutes to do whatever. Combat begins.



Combat

There are two locations that are very important. The dead zone, and both teams' hospitals. The dead zone is located on one far side of centerfield. Each team's "hospital" is located in the team's base. Both locations have some item that is used to be touched/tagged that clearly denotes a player is using the zone (like a pole or something).

1) Every player is considered to be wearing snowball armor :) and thus can take 2 direct hits.
2) The first hit (anywhere, unless face) renders the person injured and unable to walk (so when you get hit drop to your knees!). The victim may use anything but his feet to travel.
3) Anyone not in/behind their base and not on their feet (on their knees/crawling/etc) is considered injured/vunerable. Anyone hit while injured/vunerable are dead.
4) The exception is a face shot, which will automatically kill the victim.
5) Dead people immediately go to the dead zone, and stay there until revived.
6) To revive teammates, the medic must go to the dead zone, and tag the dead zone object to release the dead teammates.
7) The revived dead are invunerable and must return to their base immediately, and tag the hospital object to be back in battle. They can not attack or take a flag until they tag the hospital.
8) In the meantime while all this is going on, the medic can be killed so you probably want to cover them. If the medic dies, only the team captain can revive the medic and release teammates. The captain can not revive dead teammates without the medic.
9) Anytime both the medic and team captain are in the dead zone, everyone is released from the dead zone (that means everyone).
10) While on the field, a medic can heal up teammates if they are injured by tagging them
11) Any player may return to the hospital to be healed at any time.
12) Any healing on or off the field is instantainious.
13) In order for a hit to count, the majority of the snowball must connect with the victim.
14) Anyone called by a ref, believing the player was hit, is hit. Only team captains can dispute this, and if there is a dispute, check the following disputes section for instructions.

Specific CTF info:
CTF "capture the flag" is big on action and strategy.

Each base has a flag on or in front of their base that they need to protect from being taken. The object is to steal the other team's flag, and take it back to your base.

1) You have successfully captured the flag when you are holding the opponent's flag, while touching your base.
2) If the flag carrier is killed, they must DROP the flag immediately.
3) The flag carrier may relay the flag to a teammate while alive.
4) If a player on the stolen flag's side grabs the stolen flag before the opposing team picks it back up, that player can return the flag to it's original position. The flag returner is invunerable when they are returning the flag, but can not attack nor touch the opposing team's flag while returning the stolen flag.
5) If both flags are stolen, expect your base to get raided and suffer lots of casualties. Remember, it's great to have a lot of defense, but if you have no offense you will never cap.
6) When the flag is capped, all players in the dead zone are released to the hospital.
7) A team wins when they have reached the cap limit.
8) If a ref calls a player dead, and the player does not drop the flag, the flag will be dropped by the ref at the location of the flag carriers' death. If a dispute ensues, the flag will still be dropped at the point of death and dispute rules will be in effect.


Disputes

"OWNED!!" "@#$%!!"

In a call dispute, the ref will decide if the player was hit or not. If the team captains are refs or can not agree, then a duel is set and play stops.

1) Both team captains go to centerfield, standing 8 paces apart (standing back to back, take 4 paces each).
2) The team's captain that started the dispute (whom we will call the offense for now) starts by throwing a snowball at the other team's captain (the defense).
3) If the captain of the offense hits the captain of the defense, the defensive gets to throw a snowball back at the offense. If the defense hits the offense, the offense gets to throw back at the defense.
4) This continues until somebody misses. The first person to miss is the loser.
5) If the offense misses, the team captain is CAPTURED. They are to go to the enemy base and sit in a holding zone until his team rescues him by tagging him.
6) While captured, that offense now has no team captain, which means if the medic is killed, teammates can not be brought back from the dead zone. This obviously can be very disasterous.
7) If the defense misses, both the captain and the player accused of being hit are killed, and go to the dead zone.
8) The surviving captain must return to the hospital to restart play.



Misc just in case stuff

1) Interruption of play
] Play resumes by all players returning to base

2) Serious injury
] Play stops, when the problem is resolved, refer to #1

3) Loss of player(s)
Duties may be reassigned to other teammates
] If teams are uneven, the team captain can request a player from an opposing team. The oppsing team captain chooses who they will give up.



Addedum

- To capture the flag, you must have control of your flag at your base. In the event of a tie, the person capturing takes precidence.
- A player may not shoot/attack once hit until they are not on their feet. Once shot, the injured player may continue running up to three steps and fall. If the distance is farther, they will be considered "bled to death" and immediately die.
- Modification: classes Medic, Soldier, Captain. Captain: unchanged. Soldier: unchanged, takes normal damage as specified above. Medic can take only one hit, as they are wearing a "medpack" rather than "snowball armor". This allows for more medics on the field.
- Suggested: use colored armbands for teams, and another armband to identify medics or captain.
- Captain can not be a medic also.
- Player leaving hospital can not be killed until they either leave base or use their hands (make snowball, pack wall, etc).
- There are 3 dispute timeouts per team. A timeout can be called only while both flags are at rest. A dispute can be called in response to a ref call. A dispute can be resolved in real time or the game can be stopped. The ref makes a determination based on the current gamestate, level of activity, and criticalness of the captain's current role, if the game should be stopped or if the captains will duel in the middle of battle. The captains can not be killed by anyone else while walking to or acting in a duel.
- Recommended amount of onfield referees: 3


Enightenment

Pro Snowball is an aggressive new sport, with much potential. The captain has great importantance to the team. The medic is also very important. The loss of either person can be detrimental to the entire team strategy. The team working together will ensure victory.

Game alterations are not standard gameplay, like calling for backup or supplies. As a general rule, don't make game alterations (unless decided on before the start of the declaration of war).


Pro League

As mentioned in the beginning: post to the forums or email me about your interest, and we will begin forming plans for league tourneyments. Start a team, prepare to compete. There will most probably be divisions, like East, Central, and West.