Getty Image / Alexander Tamargo
Hasbro debuted a new sport this week, NERFBALL, that is poised to supplant paintball, airsoft, and laser tag battles forever by incorporating futuristic technology.
To introduce the world to NERFBALL, Hasbro held a ‘Battle in the Bubble’ exhibition game with NIL stars at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. I was invited to speak with the new faces of NERFBALL ahead of the exhibition battle. The athletes included Maya Brady (Tom’s niece), Nebraska pole vaulter Jessica Gardner, Jada Williams, Hannah White, Lyric Swann, and Ohio State lacrosse star Mitchell Pehlke amongst others.
For the Battle in the Bubble debut of NERFBALL, the NIL stars were broken up into two teams: Team VELOCITY and Team IMPACT. Team IMPACT was captained by former NFL star Donald Driver and Team VELOCITY was captained by Luke Goodman of the ‘Out of Darts’ YouTube channel.
How NERFBALL Is Played
NERFBALL pulls on elements from paintball and basketball. Nerf describes it as an “exciting and heart-pounding combination of paintball-style play with the speed and agility of basketball, all combined with buzzer beating shots and unbelievable highlight moments.”
Each NERFBALL game consists for four 4-minute quarters. There are two teams. Each team has a defender, midfielder, and a runner. The Nerf Pro Stryfe X blaster is used with Nerf Pro darts and a Nerf Pro League Ball is in play.
There are two ways athletes can score points, by ‘shooting’ the NERFBALL through the net on the other side of the arena for 6 points, or ‘shooting’ an opposing team’s player with a dart for 1 point. The most points win.
Where it gets really cool is with the introduction of XO-Nano technology suits worn by the athletes. With these suits, it is known in real-time whether someone is hit by a dart or not and there’s no arguing in the game because the technology knows. Here the athletes break down how the game is played:
How This New Nerf Game Compares To Other Sports
I went to IMG Academy for a roundtable interview with the athletes. Speaking with Mitchell Pehlke from Ohio State Lacrosse, I asked him how NERFBALL compares to Lax:
Cass Anderson: “How does the speed compare to lacrosse? What do you bring to the table as the only lacrosse player in the Battle in the Bubble?”
Mitchell Pehlke: “I’d just say the agility aspect. I think lacrosse, especially the position I play, midfield, it’s a lot of cutting, it’s a lot of spread-stop, spread-stop. I think bringing that aspect is huge, and I think on the other side, I come from an Italian household, very vocal, so I feel like I’m bringing the voice to the team. Communication, I think, is very key for this one, I think it’s gonna be the thing that lets us take it home.”
We were in a room of athletes from various sports. I was curious what the perfect athletic build was.
Cass Anderson: “What’s the perfect build of an athlete for this? Because he’s too big, right?”
Mitchell Pehlke: “It’d be like an Isaiah Thomas, shifty, small. I think, as Luke said, one of the first things is the smaller you are, the better it is, because you’re less of a target.”
Without getting ahead of things, I was curious how NERFBALL would translate to the video game realm. In speaking with the various NIL athletes, it was obvious there was definitely a ‘gaming’ element to the way this new sport is played.
Cass Anderson: “Do you think this game would translate well to its own video game in the future?”
Mitchell Pehlke: “I think it translates well, obviously the big video games are 2K and Call of Duty. You kind of put them together, it’s not like a sport like lacrosse that’s tried to be a game, and just never worked out.”
Lyric Swann: “Yeah, I feel like to go with video games, because we only get like 60 darts per quarter, so like in a video game, you can get a power up, so maybe you have 15 seconds of unlimited ammo, or something.”
NERFBALL will be available with the official XO-Nano technology suits at the NERF AX at Garden State Plaza mall. More can be learned about it on the official NERFBALL website.