This is just something I've thought up and wrote this morning. Decided to try this out on a whim and if I have enough interest, I'll write up the profiles of each team individually in the future. If there's any questions or 'rules' that you think should be seriously included, let me know in the comment feedback! Thanks.

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World Dodgeball Federation


History


On May 15th, 2002, a group of investors led by real estate billionaire Thomas Salem gathered for one final meeting in Miami, Florida, USA to complete the blueprints for a new league with the sport of dodgeball. With an unanimous vote, the plans were set forward in motion and Salem made a press release announcing the formation of the World Dodgeball Federation. The sports journalists immediately dismissed the idea as foolish; dodgeball, after all, was still regarded as a children's game to be played during school recess, not to be played by paid professionals. Talks with stadium owners persisted and on December 10th, 2002, Thomas Salem made a public announcement that the WDF will have its inaugural season starting in the spring of 2003 with five teams representing four cities and future expansion already being planned for 2004. On April 20th, the heavily-hyped WDF started its first game, between Florida and Columbus, in front of a sellout crowd in the Nationwide Arena with newly-named Commissioner Thomas Salem in attendance. Slowly but surely, the sports journalism world started to turn their views on the WDF, and today it is regarded as a respectable, if still small-market, sporting league. Today the WDF has nine teams in eight cities.


Rules


Each team must have a starting roster of six players, gender non-restricted, and a reserve roster of four.

The dodgeball court must be separated in 35' x 35' halves called Attack Zones. Beyond the opposite ends of the court are red-painted regions 10' x 35' in size called Alt Zones. The entire court with the alt zones must be surrounded by a free-reign zone for referees and pexiglass walls 15' in height and a subsection containing seats for the reserve roster and coaches. The center line is split through a neutral no-person zone at each side, three feet in length each.

There are five personal referees in the court at all times, and two television review referees. Other staff included must be the scorekeeper, timekeeper, and two panel reviewers overseeing the score and time keepers, along with a team of janitors and engineers hired by the respective hosting arena.

At the start of the round, there must be five players for each team situated in their respective Attack Zones, and one player for each team on the Alt Zone adjacent to their opposing team's Attack Zone. The player in the Alt Zone must be chosen before the game and remain in their Alt Zone for the entire duration of the game with one allowed substitution. There are no limits for substitutions on Attack Zone players, as long as it occurs between rounds or in the case of injury. Each team must also have a chosen team captain, which must wear a captain's jersey during the game.

The official ball must be 6" and dark-green in color with the WDF-authorized logo imprinted on it. There are four balls of the same size active during each round, with exception to the Dead Round where six balls are to be used at once. Each team begin the round with two balls (three in the Dead Round) each.

Each round is timed at eight minutes each, although the Dead Round is at four minutes. There must be a digital countdown clock placed on all sides of the court that is easily visible by all players and referees. The clock stops only in times of televised reviews and in the case of player injury.

There are eight rounds in the entire game but in the case of a points tie, there is a Dead Round that determines the winner at the end.

The balls must be picked up from the court floor as soon as possible by the players; any ball left idle (not moving) on the floor will ensue a single point penalty for each ten seconds of idle motion left on their side of the Attack Zone. Once the player picks up the ball, he or she must throw the ball to the opposing side within the next five seconds or receive a single point holding penalty. Players must also not step out of bounds from their respective zones or suffer a single point penalty for their team.

Any shots to the head are not scored, but if a player shoots three shots aimed for the head that connects, the player will be ruled out of the game and the team must go on for the remainder of the round with no substitution for the disqualified player. However, if a player receives a shot to the head while crouching or is deemed to be positioning him/herself to be hit on the head on purpose, points will be scored for the other team as normal. This rule is enforced at the referees' discretion.

In the first eight rounds of game play, no player will be eliminated (with exception to rule disqualifications). Instead, points are rewarded for the team successfully scoring body hits on the other team's players. Any Attack Zone legal shot is scored at two points, but if a shot is scored onto the opposing team's captain, the team will be scored three points. Any shot scored by the team's Alt Zone player will be counted as one point, with exception to any shots to the team captain which will be two points. Any shot to the Alt Zone player will not be scored as points. The team with the most points at the end of the eight rounds wins the entire game.

Any ball that strikes the wall or goes out of bounds is considered 'dead' until picked up by a player.

Only the team coach is allowed to signal a red flag for any disputed point or penalty ruling. Once signaled, the referees will stop the clock and the dispute will be ruled by the televised review referees. The coaches are allowed to have three red flag challenges per game, but only once during any round, including the Dead Round.

The Dead Round is the only round that features traditional dodgeball eliminations and no points will be scored during this round. If the Dead Round ends with the same number of players on each team by the time the clock reaches zero, the round is restarted. If the situation remains the same after three Dead Rounds, the game ends with an official tie.

In the official standings, the wins and losses are recorded along with a team points system. Each normal win counts as five points, each normal loss counts as zero points, each Dead Round win counts as four points, and each Dead Round loss counts as two points. If the game ends in a tie, each team are rewarded three points.

Safety equipment allowed are knee pads, elbow pads, mouth guards, and transparent face masks. Any of these are optional however and is up to the discretion of the players and/or team doctors.

The team with the best win-loss record receives the championship trophy at the end of the season. If two or more teams end with the same win-loss record, then the one team with the most team points receives the championship. In the case of a tie in team points, a championship game between the two teams must be held to determine the undisputed winner. Any extreme circumstances and problems will have a ruling by a panel of officials led by the Commissioner.


Teams and Arenas (as of 2012)


Florida Lightning -- BankAtlantic Center (Fort Lauderdale) - 17,040 seats
Columbus Archers -- Nationwide Arena - 17,171 seats
Kentucky Jockeys -- Freedom Hall (Louisville) - 18,865 seats
New York Enforcers -- Madison Square Garden (NYC) - 18,200 seats
New York Bandits -- Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum (Uniondale) - 16,250 seats
Cleveland Dragons -- Quicken Loans Arena - 20,562 seats
Atlanta Pilots -- Phillips Arena - 16,697 seats
Charlotte Creepers -- Time Warner Cable Arena - 14,100 seats
Nashville Avalanche -- Bridgestone Arena - 17,113 seats