On the outskirts of Barcelona, Spain, hundreds of amateur soccer players attended a new sports competition project called the Quincy League.
One of them was 20-year-old Paula Moreno Rincon, who had a hard time explaining what this new competition was all about.
“It’s a new world,” he said. “It’s football, but with very different rules.”
Rincon wasn’t just talking about the field being smaller, with fewer players or shorter, tighter games. He was referring to “very different”, such as the giant dice that are rolled in the middle of the pitch to determine how many players can play, or the secret cards that coaches can play at will to send off opponents, award penalties or count goals. for: twice.
The Women’s Queens League is the sequel to the Kings League, which only launched in January but has already attracted millions of online viewers in the Spanish-speaking world. The game is based solely on soccer, but is immersed in video game culture and reality TV antics.
In Barcelona, the second season of the League of Kings kicks off on the first weekend of May, alongside the first season of the Queens League. This summer, the Prince Cup will be launched for 9 to 11 year olds.
The League of Kings also plans to expand internationally, with a new league confirmed in Brazil, with soccer superstars Ronaldinho and Neymar Jr. as team presidents.
Most of the Kings League games are broadcast from an indoor soccer field on the outskirts of Barcelona, where the Queens League draft took place.
However, the Copa del Rey final was played at Camp Nou, the largest stadium in Europe, in front of over 90,000 fans, with over 2 million people watching online.
The entire project was created by recently retired soccer star Gerard Pique, who had an illustrious career playing for Barcelona and the Spanish national team.
Pique’s right-hand man, Oriol Carroll, said he and Pique created the concept of the kings and queens leagues last year because they believed traditional soccer was missing out on a younger audience and needed to change.
“It’s getting harder and harder to watch traditional football. It’s 90 minutes, too long, and not much happens,” Carroll said.
He gave an example. “Today Barcelona: 0-0, no goals.”
In the League of Kings, however, things happen all the time.
“The rules are borrowed from other sports like water polo, handball or even video games,” said Carroll, who is also the executive director of the Kings League.
To engage the audience, Carroll said, they recruited some of the biggest online celebrities in the Spanish-speaking world to become team presidents.
One of the team presidents in the Queens League draft was 20-year-old Esperanza Boras, or Espe, who said she spent a tough week scouting draft prospects to find the top picks for her team, Anikiladoras FC.
Like most team presidents, Boras grew an online following by posting YouTube videos of himself playing video games in his bedroom.
Other team presidents are influencers, sports commentators or even former soccer stars such as Spain’s Iker Casillas or Argentina’s Sergio Aguero.
Whether from Spain or Latin America, they all have one thing in common. millions of followers are thirsty for content.
Presidents discuss the League of Kings on talk shows, get into heated arguments and sing anthems for their teams. They can even join the actual game and shoot a penalty.
It’s hard for some to take it seriously, like Javier Tebas, the head of Spain’s soccer league, La Liga.
“The only thing the Royal League has in common with football is the ball and the goals,” he said, adding: “I like it as a circus, but you can’t compare it to the football industry.”
The League of Kings doesn’t really see it as a problem, Carroll said.
“It’s a fine line between sports and entertainment, and we like to cross it.”
He said the League of Kings wouldn’t work if it was all a show; same if it was just football with different rules.
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