Eventually, more time passed and things continued to develop for the new sport called Gobbo Ball.

  The arena by Rick’s house was completed, and all the clans in this period of peace had practically dedicated almost all of their time to learning and getting better at the sport, especially when Rick made it abundantly clear that if the Goblins wanted to participate, the plan he had in place was for all fourteen clans to have their own team, and the teams would then go against each other to see which clan had the best squad.

  Again, Rick was not forcing his ideas about this new sport on his people.

  He made it very clear that they did not have to participate, they were not being forced to do this, none of it was mandatory, but the Goblins loved it, and even if none of them were overly enthusiastic about the new sport, everybody would at least give it a try just because it came from Rick.

  Which brings us here today, the first official game of Gobbo Ball.

  There was only one arena at the moment, so that is where everyone was gathered. Unfortunately, the arena was nowhere near big enough to house every single Goblin living in the Dark Lands of Mir.

  There were only about three thousand seats in the arena, obviously a far cry from the total number of Goblins that were available to come, which is why Rick promised that everybody would be able to get in and watch at least one game in the new arena.

  Because while this game was an official one, it was not necessarily a part of any official league and would not contribute to finding out which clan had the best team. These were instead to be seen as exhibition matches, giving the new teams of all the clans a place to practice live against a real opponent.

  So in these games, the majority of the three thousand seats available would be reserved for members of the two clans that were participating.

  Obviously, that still would mean that not everyone in the participating clans would be able to attend, but again, there would be multiple exhibition games played to allow every single person within the Dark Lands of Mir a chance to watch a game of Gobbo Ball.

  Now, for all those who could not watch, there would be another way that they would be able to hear about the results of the game. A newspaper.

  Rick implemented the newspaper, or at least the Goblin version of a newspaper.

  He did not have the manpower to make enough copies that every single Goblin in the Dark Lands of Mir would receive their own, but at least fourteen copies would get made that detailed the events of the game, the score, and all the major things that happened, and then that would be distributed to each clan, even the two that were participating.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Then there would be a dedicated person to essentially gather the members of the clan, or at least those who wanted to hear about the results of the game and read it aloud to them. The end goal of this was obviously to have a real working newspaper system.

  Rick believed that if you wanted to implement sports, you needed to also implement a way for people who could not attend the game to hear about it, otherwise it would not be fair for those that could not reach the venue on that occasion.

  But the newspaper was not just for sports. It would also be a nice way to keep his Goblins informed about the daily happenings of their people.

  While Rick himself would get all the finer details and things that did not necessarily need to be shared with the masses, someone that lived on the far east side of the Dark Lands of Mir, for example someone in the Pogra clan, might not be too aware of events that were happening not even on the far left side of the Dark Lands of Mir but the central clan itself.

  The newspaper, when it fulfilled its potential at least, would definitely be able to help with that. And perhaps it would have already reached that point if Rick knew how to build a printing press, but he had not even the slightest clue.

  He would leave that task for experienced crafters, but of course he still shared anything and everything he knew about the printing press to at least give those of the Pogra clan something to work with.

  But that was enough for that. There was a game to be played, and the commentator of this game was none other than Rick himself. Who else but the commentate on the game but the man who knew the most about it?

  “All right, my beautiful Goblins, we are all gathered here today to witness the very first match of Gobbo Ball!!!”

  Immediately after Rick’s opening remark, a very packed arena roared so loudly with cheers that the arena shook.

  ‘Velora, look, they love it!’

  [Indeed they do. Do not leave them hanging.]

  ‘Of course not!’

  “Now let us give a big round of applause as we welcome the two teams that will be playing in the match today.

  “First we have the mighty Weavers of the Hessel Clan!”

  Roars shot up around the arena once more, but it was mostly from the members of the Hessel Clan in attendance, as they cheered on the clan members representing them.

  “Going up against them, we have the Guardsmen of the Krell Clan!”

  More roars shot up around the arena and it was shaking once again as both teams stood in the center of the field.

  The ‘field’ in question, was what came to be after months of deliberation and there were quite a few changes from what Rick originally envision when he thought of the sport.

  Firstly it was 150 feet by 150 feet, which was a decently large size, and the center of the field was where the ball would be placed, something made specially by the Pogra Clan and only had a diameter of roughly 7 inches.

  It divided the field in two perfect halves, both of which had a set of 7, 5 foot tall walls arranged in such a way that there wouldn’t be a perfect line of sight straight to the goal.

  And even that had changed.

  It was no longer the column idea that Rick had but instead a circle slightly bigger than the ball being used attached to a rod and stuck in the midway point across the field on the back line of each team’s half.

  There was a lot of time spent on putting all of this together, and now it will finally come to fruition.

  Of course, only with the say so of Rick.

  “Now that both teams are ready and prepared to go, it is time to officially kick off the game! Let’s go Weavers! Let’s go Guardsmen! Match….START!!!!!!!!!!”