While the pandemic has hit the sports world hard globally, one Brazilian sport, which has been played in the country since at least the 1920s, has found a way to survive by streaming itself and connecting players on the internet.

Called “button soccer,” the premise of the game is very similar to that of regular soccer—11 players on each side competing to score goals with a ball—except it’s played on a table with buttons. After more than a hundred years, button soccer remains extremely popular. There are around 6,000 players who actively participate in competitions and over 100,000 non-affiliated players in Brazil alone, and thousands more all over the world, according to the Brazilian Confederation of Table Football. Tournaments are attended by hundreds of people at a time, and countless unofficial competitions are held all over the world.

Full article at Wired’s website. Date of publication: 23/03/2022.