Kicker

It is often said that the best games are those that are easy to grasp but difficult to master. Only one game can be considered so ubiquitous across Felth, played by all races, terrestrial, aquatic, even semi-sentient, and that is Kicker.
Even the name plays into the simple nature of this sport, as there are only two rules:
1. Get the ball into the other team's goal to score
2. Do not touch the ball with your upper appendages
The sheer simplicity means that this sport can be found across nearly all cultures and classes, from a gaggle of children kicking around a bundle of plastic bags in the street to corporation sponsored teams duking it out in glowing stadiums among the cheering roar of hundreds of fans. Even cultures that developed on completely different ends of the globe, upon meeting, found that each of them had independently created the very same game.
The game has also helped break species-related barriers, as nearly anyone can participate, even with the vastly varied body types that roam the spore-choked surface of Felth.
Sirsysians are considered some of the best players on the globe, able to keep perfect balance with their four limbs and perform acrobatic feats other races can only dream of. Catching balls in their talons as they flip head over heel, sending it flying at the last second as they immediately right themselves, four arms sending them leaping from the ground, to protect their pitch.
Apothyms, while having one of their major traits more or less banned (as it turns out playing dead on the pitch does little more than slow the game), are powerful as a team, their complete mastery of non-verbal communication making apothym heavy teams appear to operate as a singular living organism.
Meanwhile, even the aquatic races of Felth play their own version of Kicker, using buoyantly neutral balls to play out the game in a deep, three dimensional environment.
Currents and jet streams can be used to manipulate the ball from a distance, players dragging the ball behind them in a draft to pass to other player, or using wafts of water to send it spinning into a hard to predict curve ball.
Ishqesh are the masters of this craft, their eyeless snouts cutting through the water at frightening speed. Having lived submerged for most of their lives, they are able to draft the ball meters up the field for incredible distances, a feat only matched by the diving capabilities of the amphibats.
Amphibats, with their vestigial wings, can make fast dives from the surface, their powerful limbs let them rise and fall above the waves in bursts of bubbles, disorienting and stealing the ball from rushing opponents.
Meanwhile, Gurund's heavy, air-pocket filled shells make them slower than their brethren, but with their sensitive palms and massive size, they are much harder to pass through, able to sense the motions of the opposing team from a distance away, positioning themselves in a way that can almost be called precogniscent.
That isn't to say the aquatic races and terrestrial ones don't duke it out against each other; the amphibious nature of many of the players means the best teams tend to consist of a mix of both the predatory and meek, apothyhms using their small size to dodge around the gangly bulk of rushing Ishqesh, while Gurund use their bulk to guard even the most lithe Sirysies on the pitch.

History

The simplicity of Kicker means it almost simultaneously formed among all cultures, no matter how remote. And while it has many names (Boufo, Hoofball, Narra) and many fiddly little rules, the core is so easy to understand that language isn't even needed to explain it. Anyone wishing to play a pick up game merely has to join in.

Execution

At higher levels of play, there may be unique rituals undertaken by each team to pump themselves up for the match. Sirysians are known to perform unique dances while wreathed within a smoke-fog of vapor vented from their masks, six limbs contorting and stretching, simultaneously warming themselves out and getting into the heads of their opponents.
Ishqesh hold a much simpler ritual: play the theme music of their team as loudly as possible, until they can feel it shaking their very being, always managing to sneak some sort of sound equipment into the match just to make themselves louder, a practice that has become a culture of the game itself, no matter how hard the officials tried to stomp it out.

Components and tools

You need a ball, and two goals drawn in the sand. That's literally it.

Participants

Teams of eleven are the standard, through that size will vary massively across culture and location. Pickup games on the streets of Ush-Dao often consist of eight players total, while the official rulebook itself states that Apothym teams can have up to five additional players in the event any of them disappear on the field due to their unusual nature.

Observance

From the greatest stadium that will leave the city streets around it choked with traffic for miles, to the barest patch of dirt surrounded by rusty folding chairs, there will always be a audience drawn to an intense match like moths to a flame. The sheer focus and fury of a player and his team can inspire all, from the young to the old.

Primary Related Location

Sol-Arinate