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Polish Jugger League

People in Poland have played Jugger for years, but it was never a league – just a bunch of friends who met at a postapocalyptic convention, and decided to play a casual game of jugger.

With growing knowledge about the game (convention brawl audiences wanted to play, people who weren’t there kept asking about „that game in a picture”) and demand for standardised rules we decided to start the Polish Jugger League.

Who are we? It all started with OUTPOST leading games, and propagating Jugger among people, but over the time several others joined. Now we are in the process of establishing our own rules and overcoming attendance issues – in our country we play Jugger during conventions that take place in different parts of Poland, and most people cannot attend every single one.

How do we play it? We play it rough. You can see it in the videos - bruises and small injuries are the part of the game... and they look cool! Similar to Czech games, different pieces of armor are allowed, so players can customise their looks and equipment, and our game footage looks more like scenes from original Blood Of Heroes movie.

We also used to play with real dog skull (you can find weird things in a forest!), but after we lost it, we now play using a toy dinosaur skull that still looks badass...

Knowing the fact that we play in different areas, our jugger fields vary, depending on space availability – sometimes the field is smaller than we would like it to be, sometimes we play on grass, sometimes on tarmac, sometimes on sand... we had to play in the forest once – and just imagine how hard it was for chain enforcers!

That’s it for now, I hope soon I will have some more info about our different teams, some new footage. photos...


And that someday our League grows stronger and we will be able to play games with juggers from other countries.


Some videos of Jugger in Poland:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JczzSX8Q6k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBGCnxPKC10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByIAaiW1cn8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X3PynizP6s


This is a guest article written by: Bartek Rae Rutkowski 


First translation of the German Rulebook

The first translation of the German Rulebook has been released! A team of people worked together to make the German Rulebook available in English for all Jugger players. 

We hope it will help Juggers who come to Germany to play, and also people with an interest in the German Rules.

The rules can be found on the jugger.org community site, under 'English Version' for the translated version. 

Jugger in Austria


A few weeks ago I heard of Jugger in Austria, espacially in Vienna so i asked them for an introduction and a few pictures and here is it all for you.


Sunday. 8pm.
3 friends rest from a long
battle in a greek restaurant. The waiter tries to understand the
story behind a handful of battered people, having a bunch of taped
self-made weapons leaning at their table. Completely worn out with
marks, only a juggerian warrior could bear, they enjoy their first
served beer. And in the blink of an eye, all scratches, bruises and
tiredness dissolve in pure pleasure. Jugger Vienna most certainly
turned out to be one of the best sport experiences of all our team
members.


Well.. who startet that wonderful madness?? Two enthusiasts
from germany founded the first Austrian Jugger team in 2010. It never
stopped growing since. Compared to other Juggerians, our style might
be a little different. Why? Many reasons. For one thing, we have more
female players than male. There is an age variance, reaching from
young kids to parents and there is only one strict rule in our
colourful community: have fun to the fullest and treat everybody as
an equal.


You can find us taunting, fighting, running, tumbling,
succeeding and laughing in the parks of Vienna - mostly Praterwiese
and Donauinsel. We learned, that between slagliners, rugby players,
football artists and sun bathing beauties - Jugger always takes the
throne in attention! Give us enough weapons to equip all curious and
interested people - we could play at least 3 games at a time. Only a
couple of months passed since the first steps were taken, and each
and everyone of us became a believer in one of the best team sport
experiences ever. And every time we try to explain the magic of our
sundays to our clueless friends, there will be that moment in which a
mischievous smile flashes over our faces. That moment when all those
memories of amazing days we shared cross our minds. "Jugger?
Can't be explained. Must be played!!"


Here also a picture of the team ...



... and the two founders.



And if you want to contact the Jugger players in Vienna, this is they're E-Mail-adress: jugger.wien@gmx.at

A comparsion of the german and the irish Jugger Rulebook

A few months ago when I came back from a training I though about all that stuff that we discuss very often. But in the four weeks I spend in Dublin we had not one discussion like this. So I started to compare the Rulebooks.
The version of the irish Rulebook I used was written by Peter Houlihan. This version isn't final but there will be an election about his Rulebook.
Let's start with the point that everybody knew who played once against an irish team. In irish Jugger an double is only a double if the two players hit each other exactly in the same moment. Here I always have the discussion if it's a double or not if I hit somebody with my chain first, but he hits he too. "Was it a half second or not?" Who can make that decision? In this point I think the irish rule is more practicable and more precisely. Here's the part from the irish rules:
The first player to hit the other wins, no matter how close behind the other player was. However if two hits land so close together that the gap between them cannot be distinguished they are considered to have „doubled“ [...]. Either player may call a double and if they insist (if they call it three times or more) both players must accept the double [...]. Also, if one player hits another at the same time as they strike a third the second two players are considered hit.
Another point that is discussed on every tournament is about  standing up: A few say you're risen once you stretch your leg, the others say you're risen when you made the first step. And a few others mean you're risen when you make the first move. Once again the irish rules are more precisely:
 After a player has completed their count they must attempt to rise immediately if they are unpinned, runners are exempt from this and may stay down as long as they wish. When rising a player may block with their spar as soon as their knee is off the ground, but their hits will not count until half a stone after they have begun their rise. 
Well, now we could discuss if it's need's to be a half stone or if that's a too long time to rise, but in this way you don't get a discussion when you're risen or not. In my point of view that's better than the german version.
For the runners it's allowed to stay down tactically. The same for spar players but only if another spar player is in range, after that he must rise immediately. In the german rulebook there isn't an exact definition:
 Den Spielern ist es erlaubt, aus taktischen Gründen über die Strafzeit hinaus knien zu bleiben. Für die Dauer des Kniens dürfen Spieler nur gepinnt werden. 
In comparison the part from the irish rulebook:
 Other players have the option of staying down if another spar player is already within hitting distance. For fixed spars this means that the spar player could touch the rising player without moving their feet, for chain players this means that the chain is within range and half a swing of the rising player.
Another little difference is about pinning. In the german rulebook is written that you can't pin two people at the same time. In the irish rulebook it is:
 Only one player may be pinned with one spar at a time however a player with two short swords [but not q-tips] may pin two other players. 
That could be useful if you have someone who is good with two short swords.
And what about the chains? In irish rules only a 180° wrap counts as a hit, and if you wrap a spar the first 360° count as a hit if the ball gets you. In my point of view we should add this to the german rulebook and as I know a few teams already handle it this way.
Now the differences for the runners. A point in irish Jugger counts once the skull is in the goal, not when no runner touches it:
 A runner is considered to have scored from the moment any part of the skull enters the goal.
Another point is that if you leave the court within the range of a chain you must get down for eight stones.
And about the stones, according to irish rules a stone is 2 seconds and not 1,5 as in the german rules. Also there aren't any limitations for changing players. And the last point is that the court lines aren't part of the pitch.
At the end I can say that in the german rules is more space for interpretation and that the most rules in the irish rulebook are easier. I for my part prefer the irish rulebook.



"A comparsion of the german and the irish Jugger Rulebook" vollständig lesen

Jugger in Amsterdam

Jugger has arrived in Amsterdam 1,5 years ago. Two Jugger players form Münster in Germany moved to Amsterdam after they played Jugger in Münster for a long time. After they got used to life in Amsterdam, they started building weapons and promote Jugger. Now there are always enough players to play at least 3 against 3 or some training games.
At the weekend of the 16./17. October two people (@nalfion and @p0Ldi_MS) from Münster visited Amsterdam. They brought a strong chain with them, since you can only buy chains with a small diameter in the Netherlands, probarbly the same problem as in Spain.
On the first day we built the chains and on the second day we trained in the Martin-Luther-Kingpark, you can watch pictures of this training on flickr.
If you want to join the training there is a doodle and a forum to coordinate the trainings, so feel free to use them and join the training.