Counteract Counterattacks

In sports with ridiculously loose offside rules, such as basketball, water polo, team handball, and Uniball*, the counterattack is a very real threat, and personally I think it degrades from the game, as people at the top of the horseshoe have to constantly think about defensive position while setting up an offence. There's also the fact that an attacker can simply cherry pick, giving the opposing team a man-advantage in the hopes of scoring an easy breakaway goal. That also diminishes the quality of the game, turning it from a competition of team strategy into ping-pong, play-the-odds game.

I designed a field to fix this. The field is U-shaped, with goals at either tip of the U. The ball must be worked around the perimeter, but players are free to move in a beeline from goal to goal. The design of this field makes a counterattack near impossible. To help you visualize, I linked a nice iso-pixel representation.

*Uniball is a (very) minimalist computer sports game that relies heavily on ball movement and definitely not on graphics. Simple, yet extremely challenging, and quite fun if you enjoy team sports. See link.