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Ever heard of poolball? Never has a concept more interesting caught our attention – the game of football reinvented by the mass favourite brand Budweiser. Playing football with friends will never be the same again.
What makes poolball different is the fact that you play it on a life-sized pool table, thus challenging you to modify your skills to suit the game. Football fans from around the country can meet and interact with each other while taking part in an exciting competition.
Is there anything more to this? Well, yes. The event, dubbed the ‘BudIPL’, can be brought to one's office too! It gives us the opportunity to have a fun time with colleagues in an otherwise dull environment.
Wondering what the ultimate reward is? Read this: A fully-paid trip to London and a chance to watch an English team play football live. Now imagine sitting in the stadium and getting to experience that electric atmosphere! Feel it yet?
The stakes are definitely high – with such a lucrative prize up for grabs, teams have the incentive to play for something more than fun and pride.
Talking about mass participation, BudIPL is scheduled to take place in five major cities in India – Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Pune, giving an opportunity to that many more people to participate.
Think London is just a flight away? Think again. The format of the tournament will test you to the fullest before you stand a chance to win the big reward.
The event is divided into three rounds – preliminary, city finals and national finals. The initial preliminary round will be tough and will see teams face each other in select bars across the city. Once the winners are decided from these matches, they will then go ahead and face-off against each other in a city final.
In the city finals, all those teams that qualify from the preliminary stage will face each other to determine the champion of the city. How cool would it be to be crowned champions of one's city! It definitely is a matter of pride, and also excitement, when you have the chance to represent your city in a nationwide competition.
Following this round, the city champions then go on to take part in the national finals.The format of the national finals round is a little different; all the teams (i.e. city finalists) in the national finals will be split into two groups, where they will face off in a round robin league.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the semi-finals, and the winner of the Budweiser Indian Poolball League 2015 will be determined based on the final between the two victorious teams from the semis.
The format is quite detailed and on the face of it may seem tough. Having said that, it will be an occasion to let loose and have fun, and at the same time show competitive spirit through the game of poolball.
An exhibition match was played on the 25th of April 2015, where the concept was introduced to fans in an event filled with a lot of excitement, music and of course, Buds. Looking at the heart-warming response and the enthusiastic crowd, it definitely makes us want to participate!
You can register for Budweiser Poolball here: http://bit.ly/BudIPL
For further details on the rules and regulations, you can click the following link: http://bit.ly/1OWdHMv
