| abstract
| - In 2022, the rumble à la mode for French street gangs who wanted to settle something was a fight between two armed teams on a patch of neutral ground. The side that scored the most goals in a simple ball game played with guns won the beef. The violent game played like a cross between "get the guy with the ball" and the gun fight at the OK Corral. About this time the French corp, Javert et Cie., was trying to reclaim an economically dead neighborhood in return for extraterritorial rights like those granted multinationals. Javert was getting nothing but drek from the local gangs until some bright exec came up with the notion of sponcering these killer ball games that the punkers seemed to like. Cash purses, assignments in corporate security, and other goodies went to the winners. The games really gripped the gangs' attention. They lost interest in doing dirt to Javert and concentrated on working to win the contests. Things really started cooking when a mid-level exec noticed that her fellow suits were betting like crazy on the outcome of the fights. Black market vids of the fracases were hot--the suits got a real kick out of watching the street trash waste each other. A quick check with the corp legal department was followed by some wheeling and dealing, and the next think you know, Javert et Cie. was feeding cable coverage of "Jeu de Guerre de Ville" to pay-per-view networks all over the country. Within a few months, satcasts were carrying the games all over the world. Within months of their sports debut, the gangs organized into official teams. Non-gang players were introduced in Germany in 2024, the same year that Godiva Enterprises in Chicago adopted the game to co-opt the gangers plaguing its operations in the city's depressed zones. "City Combat Game," the English translation of the game's French name, didn't cut it as a U.S. sport name, so a brightboy somewhere dreamed up the name, "Urban Brawl." By the 2050's, urban brawlers came from almost every social class and even include university teams. But most brawlers still come from the streets, betting survival against escape from poverty. In some corp enclaves, felons who are tough enough may be offered indenture on an Urban Brawl team instead of imprisonment or the big sleep. The first North American championship, "The Super Brawl," was held in 2037. European urban brawl was dormant; the horrific EuroWar was giving everyone too big a taste of a real conflict for a small-scale, professional urban combat game to stay popular. When the war ground to a halt in 2042, the corps rebuilding the infrastructure of the continent channeled a lot of returning combat vets into urban brawl teams. A lot of these new brawlers were hooked on the battleboost drugs and chips that were used by all sides in the EuroWar, and this pushed the game's death rate to new heights. The first international Urban Brawl World Cup was in 2046, and has been held every two years since.
- Urban Brawl is an officially non-lethal sport where teams compete in an urban environment. The goal is to bring a ball into enemy's base, incidentally causing as much mayhem as possible (the rules clearly state that the object of the game is to score goals, not kill opponents). Cyberware, non-heavy weaponry, and some armor are permitted. Magic is not. Fatalities are a common occurrence. Urban Brawl can trace its origins to a French gang war that turned into a corp multimedia circus in the 2020s. The fad took root in Northern America before Europe (busy with EuroWar). The first North American championship was held in 2037; the first international, in 2046 (International Urban Brawl World Cup is now held every two years). The Seattle Urban Brawl team is called Seattle Screamers.
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