In this era of canceling sport seasons, a replacement has arisen: Blaseball.
Blaseball is baseball at your mercy. Baseball perfected. Our players are inhuman. They play day and night. Rain or shine. They never grow sick. They never tire.This is our gift to you — the fans. We hear your prayers at trade deadlines. We suffer your DH debates. No more. Democracy returns to the national pastime. Each week, you vote to remake the league in your own image.
Everything from rules to rosters is in your hands.
Of course, votes aren’t free. Cash is king. So do what you do best. Gamble. Betting is allowed and encouraged. But parents fear not — your currencies and credit cards have no value here. Blaseball deals in its own dollar.
Seasons run Monday to Friday. The Postseason runs on Saturday. On Sunday, we rest.
Your first vote is on us. The fate of the league is on you.
Rejoice. Play ball.
— The Blaseball Gods
Or, in plainer terms, it's a simulated online sports league where you can "watch" the games live and vote on what rule changes should be implemented for the next season. It has gained a significant following in the past couple of weeks.
News articles about Blaseball:
Vice: Blaseball is the Real Return of Baseball: I'm ride or die for the New York Millennials.
Fanbyte: Blaseball Offers Strange Hope Among the Chaos of Restarted Sports
I am so glad we have a Blaseball thread. I talked about it a bunch in the CC and my positive feels for it have only increased and enriched in the time since recording.
The Blaseball commissioner is doing a great job.
My team was the worst in the entire league last season, but this season are doing really well. I assume that something will cause them to completely collapse during the pennant race. Probably related to the peanut plague.
Millennials are looking good, but home stretches always make me nervous. I desperately want them to win it all for Scrap and Chorby. #RIPScrap #ChorbyTHANKS
The forum is quieter on this than I expected. Maybe the game discussion is just better in chat threads. That being said, I'm a Magic Maaaaaaan! Comish is doing great btw.
The extended siesta is unfortunate, but I imagine the team needs a break to catch up with things, given how the server has been buckling under the strain.
The forum is quieter on this than I expected. Maybe the game discussion is just better in chat threads. That being said, I'm a Magic Maaaaaaan! Comish is doing great btw.
Blaseball Twitter is pretty great, so it feels like it a forum would also work well. I'm a little puzzled it hasn't taken off here, given the general state of non-absurdist regular sports, but I suspect we'll see an uptick in a few weeks, once the siesta is over and things are running a bit smoother. Honestly I'd rather this thing be a slow burn than a quick fad, because it is really flipping great.
I saw it, but saw the bit about gambling, and assumed it was some kind of sketchy scam thing, especially since you can't even look at what it is without signing up. But if it's legit and amusing, I'll take a harder look.
I'm having a hard time figuring out why I can't quite connect with it, and I suspect the answer may be that the things I find lacking are the things that everyone else finds really charming. Like, it really annoys we that I can't look up recaps of games, or that there aren't stat leaderboards, or even player trackers. Like why did my chosen Hawaii Fridays, a team utterly bereft of talent save two field players, suddenly lose one of those players?
I think I'm supposed to write my own story as to why, but there aren't really that many story prompts here. And if my schedule means that I can't "watch" the games live, then there's not really a great way to figure out what's happening.
Yeah, the infrastructure is a bit sparse right now. The fan community is working to build up sites that track that kind of stuff, and I expect that the week-or-two break that the devs are taking will lead to them implementing at least a little bit more.
I saw it, but saw the bit about gambling, and assumed it was some kind of sketchy scam thing, especially since you can't even look at what it is without signing up. But if it's legit and amusing, I'll take a harder look.
The gambling is entirely fictional: you get coins when your team wins and you can bet those coins on other games. No real-world money involved.
If you want a taste, there's a twitch stream of the last championship series, with commentary.
Watch for the Hades Tiger's star players Jessica Telephone (acquired from the Pies, with the highest stats in the game) and Landry Violence. They're up against the New York Millennials, who have the Fourth Strike, which means that they get an extra strike every at-bat.
The Philadelphia Inquirer: At Tastykake Stadium, the Philly Pies are two-time champs. Welcome to Blaseball.
Kotaku: What Is The Forbidden Book, And Other Blaseball Questions Answered
Polygon: The Blaseball team is taking a break: The commissioner is still doing a very good job
Blaseball Fandom Wiki
As for the Fridays, it looks like during the solar eclipse on Season 3, Day 76 (while playing the Los Angeles Tacos) they lost Hendricks Rangel and Sebastian Sunshine to incineration by rogue umpire.
I don't fully understand what this is yet but I've signed up for it. Go Seattle Garages? Any idea when this thing is starting back up again?
I don't fully understand what this is yet but I've signed up for it. Go Seattle Garages? Any idea when this thing is starting back up again?
Probably in two or three weeks.
I don't fully understand what this is yet but I've signed up for it. Go Seattle Garages? Any idea when this thing is starting back up again?
In the meantime, the Blaseball Wiki is an endless delight and a good place to find backstory on your favorite team.
Man this is crazy. They even have songs for players on Bandcamp? All I've learned so far as a fan of the Garages is Mike Townsend really sucks.
The Society for Internet Blaseball Research has put out an API for the Datablase that they're building.
SIBR-metrics, as it were.
You might have seen it during Season 3, but: Friends at the Table: Bonus Episode: Sports Are Just Numerology
Do we know what they are using to sim the games? Are they using OOTP as the game engine?
Do we know what they are using to sim the games? Are they using OOTP as the game engine?
I'm pretty sure it's their own custom-created sim, given what we can see of the player stats from the API and the occasional incineration or peanut allergy.
I was thinking they could be using OOTP with injuries and fatigue turned off and then just adding the lore on their own. For example if a player is incinerated then they just delete that player from the system. However I guess things like some teams getting 4 strikes while others only get 3 wouldn't work.
Man this is crazy. They even have songs for players on Blandcamp? All I've learned so far as a fan of the Garages is Mike Townsend really sucks.
FTFY
I recently joined up and have been digging in hard during the siesta. The Commissioner, who is doing a great job, said they hope to be back on the 24th for season 4. When I first saw the team list I picked the Unlimited Tacos without knowing any of the story. I just love Unlimited Tacos. So sad to find out their total team stats are the worst in the league, but there's always next season.
I am all in on the Jessica Telephone love, it is so great.
I mean, the San Francisco Lovers went from absolute last place in Season 2 to third in the playoffs in Season 3. So there's hope. Blaseball tends to have a lot of things that keep teams from staying on top (the Philly Pies are no Yankees). Plus, the Tacos were the home team during the The Grand Unslam and seem to be under some kind of disrupted spacetime.
Yeah, maybe we are in the timeline where the Tacos at least make playoffs. I just hope we don't get completely screwed by Blessings again.
If all goes according to plan, Blaseball should be back tomorrow around 9am PST.
Let's go TA-COS! Clap, clap, clapclapclap!
Excited for my 1st day of blaseball but can't seem to log in. Is anyone else having issues? I type in my credentials, hit the login button and nothing happens.
Nevermind, it's working for me now.
I'd never heard of this before today and now I'm all excited that Fish Summer hit a three-run double. What is happening.
Check out Fish's fanart!
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