Cardboard tube fighting, the game that I played with my brothers and sisters when we were kids, is now a thing.
There is even a Cardboard Tube Fighting League.
The CTFL hosts tournaments and battles where cardboard tube fighters go head-to-head in an attempt to break their opponent’s tube without breaking their own.
I expected to find the formalization of this game a little silly, but it turns out that I love the league’s three core beliefs:
- People need more ways to play and take themselves less seriously.
- Events can be fun without alcohol.
- Cardboard sword fighting is fun.
It’s hard to disagree with any of them.
It’s disappointing that can’t actually strike your opponent with the cardboard tube (the goal is to break your opponent’s tube by striking it), but I suspect that the founders of The Cardboard Tube Fighting League have taken the same approach to their sport that I take with football:
If I tell my friends that we are playing tackle, no one will play with me.
If I tell my friends that we are playing flag football, at least a few of them are game.
The Cardboard Tube Fighting League was probably interested in getting lots of people to play rather than getting lots of people hurt.
Disappointing but understandable.
