8 ms·

International Racquetball Federation Officially Sanctions Racket:Next

32 points by victorbond 5y ago

rootsudo 5y ago
It means Racket:Next is now a sport, in the current political theater, the title can be read quite differently. I also did not know of Racket:Next.
- rich_sasha 5y ago
  I was assuming, in turn, it's something to do with Lisp.
  - victorbond 5y ago
    Fair error... but no. Thanks for commenting.
- victorbond 5y ago
  It's Racket:Next aka Racket: Nx, the original name and still out there. Check www.racketnext.com Thanks for commenting.
victorbond 5y ago
March 15, 2022 For Immediate Release International Racquetball Federation [IRF] Officially Sanctions Racket:Next Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA: In a decisive vote of the IRF Board of Directors, Virtual Reality racquet sport game Racket:Next [aka Racket: Nx] has become a fully sanctioned sports discipline of an IOC-Recognized global sports federation, effective April 1, 2022. With this action, Racquet:Next becomes the first electronic game of any sort to become an official global sport. IRF [Colorado Springs, USA]; Racket:Next developer One Hamsa [Tel Aviv, Israel]; and the Metaverse Sports Association [San Francisco, USA]; signed a Memorandum of Understanding in July 2021. At that time, the IRF endorsed Racket:Next and committed to progress toward full sanctioning of the game as a sport. IRF Secretary General Luke St. Onge said at the time: “When we realized what this combination could mean not only for our federation but for all of racquet sport, we jumped all over it. This will be a game-changer both for us and for world sport. We look forward to sharing so much more as this exciting partnership unfolds.” As St. Onge predicted, the partnership has unfolded and “the game” has changed. Dean Schear, IRF Chief Financial Officer and Chair of the IRF Virtual Sports Committee, added, “Bottom line, we have a great vision, a great team, and the sense of urgency and commitment to act now.” The IRF has been asked to participate in the E-Gaming Pavilion at The World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, in July. The IRF is also a candidate to participate in the Olympic Virtual Series later this year. Metaverse Sports Association CEO Victor Bond, who drove and facilitated the agreement, commented, “This is a marriage made in future-sport heaven: a world-class developer and a unique, successful, and wonderful game with a fully global international IOC-recognized sports federation that has the vision and the grit to not just look around the corner but to go there.” Bond added, “This is one big step in our collaboration and one gigantic leap for the new technology of sport.” One Hamsa CEO Assaf “Usul” Ronen added: “This first-ever sanctioning act supports Racket:Next’s core design principles as a fully athletic and visceral game, allowing players of all racquet sports – not only racquetball – to make every racket sport move, except for those that would not work in the average living room (like a racquetball dive or a clay court tennis slide), immersed inside a lighted, responsive, audio-filled dome, in a game that is purely skill based.” Ronen continued, “Racket:Next has already surpassed 300,000 players worldwide, led by the fastest-growing VR headset, the Meta Quest 2, in which it’s been a top-rated title since its launch in 2019. Since 2021 we also witness a surge of players on emerging China-based platforms. Racquet sports, all together, is the largest sports category in the world, eclipsing even world football. For more information: web: www.racketnext.com email: racketnext@gmail.com International Racquetball Federation: www.internationalracquetball.com One Hamsa: www.onehamsa.com Metaverse Sports Association: www.metaversesportsassociation.world ### International Racquetball Federation: The International Racquetball Federation is the governing body for all internationally sanctioned racquetball events. Racquetball is an extremely fast sport where balls can travel in excess of 150 mph in a 40 ft. long, 20 ft. wide, and 20 ft. high court. One Hamsa: Born to the deserts of the middle east, One Hamsa is a game design studio formed to craft quality VR games. We care about unique content, and unreasonable levels of polish. Metaverse Sports Association: The Metaverse Sports Association is dedicated to the development of high-quality athletic virtual reality games into officially sanctioned global sports. Racket:Next is our and the world’s first success. There will be more.
- HstryrsrBttn 5y ago
michaelt 5y ago
I'd never heard of 'racket:next' and their website seems to be down, but here's a video from youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNMmB1VDFwc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNMmB1VDFwc Seems to be a VR game where targets light up and you hit balls at them using the VR controller. It doesn't look like there's any force feedback, or measurement of how hard you hit, which will avoid the problems suffered by things like Zwift where issues like poorly calibrated power meters limit the possibilities for serious competition.
- kitd 5y ago
  Thank you. Your few lines of comment gave me infinitely more information than the linked site.
dgellow 5y ago
The headline is really confusing, I thought “sanctions” meant “apply penalties” and that racket:next was about the Racket language. In fact it seems to be a VR game recognized as an official sport?
- jffry 5y ago
  Sanction is such a strange word. It can mean both "giving permission or approval" as well as "giving a penalty for noncompliance with a rule or law" I also misread the headline as the latter instead of the former, likely because of the latter type of sanctions being in the news as of late.
  - Steltek 5y ago
    You've mooted a very good point. The English language is full of contradictions and condones many deceptive spellings.
  - tcskeptic 5y ago
    Ah! Contronyms! Words that can mean a thing... and it's opposite (or nearly so). Dust, cleave, overlook... many others. One of those enjoyable corners of the language.
    - jffry 5y ago
      Weird quirks of language (English and others) usually have interesting histories too.
    - mijoharas 5y ago
      For anyone else that was confused, apparently there is an alternate usage of the word 'Cleave' that means 'to adhere' (rather than 'to cut' or 'to separate').[0] I hadn't heard of that one. [0] https://www.dailywritingtips.com/75-contronyms-words-with-contradictory-meanings/ https://www.dailywritingtips.com/75-contronyms-words-with-co... [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cleave#:~:text=Definition%20of%20cleave,%2C%20rituals%2C%20and%20food.%20%E2%80%94 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cleave#:~:text=De...
tantalor 5y ago
The good kind of sanction.
- victorbond 5y ago
  VERY. VERY. GOOD. Thanks for commenting.
NoGravitas 5y ago
Now we just need Snooker Plus. Because Snooker could be better.
- victorbond 5y ago
  Snooker is wonderful. Thanks for commenting.
claudiulodro 5y ago
What do y'all think are the odds VR Racquetball is the next big thing? I could see it happening -- it's a pretty clever idea. It might just be a niche thing like drone racing though (or is drone racing catching on?). These "future sports" are an interesting market.
- blunte 5y ago
  Multiplayer Wii tennis was fun. I've never tried multiplayer VR anything, but I imagine racketball in VR would be fun too. However, having slammed myself (too) hard against walls playing, I wonder how dangerous it would be to be flailing around blind in a normal room...
  - victorbond 5y ago
    Multiplayer WII was the best 2D racquet sport simulation. Racket:Next is THE VR next BIG step... and the best way to play it is to set the stationary "Guardian" about 2 meters, so you don't crash the lamp! Thanks for commenting.
- victorbond 5y ago
  Actually, Racquetball simulations don't work in VR, nor any other racquet sports simulations except table tennis. Racket:Next is an ANALOGUE of conventional racquet sports... have a look at www.racketnext.com/playing. Thanks for commenting.
nuclearwast 5y ago
racket:nx is the one VR game that everyone like. Some games easily trigger VR sickness, other can be scary for the (younger) player for various reasons (fear of height, monster, etc.) not this one. Racketnx is basically the vr version of arcanoid. The strong point of the game is that the learning curve is extremely low. Almost anyone can pick the remote, put on the helmet and start hitting the ball. Someone mentionned there is no feedback. There is very natural and well done haptic feedback. Speed of the swing matter in game. That is of course tracked in game (has to be).
- victorbond 5y ago
  100% CORRECT, SIR! Thanks for commenting.
blunte 5y ago
Their home page: so much information, but so little information. I guess it's one of those situations where you're supposed to know the thing before you go there. Is it VR? Or confusingly is it virtual instrument racks? Equally confusing is the English word, "sanction". Sanction is a very bad thing, unless it's the sanction which is a very good thing!
- mikestew 5y ago
  This native English speaker is with you, I thought RacquetNext was some new-fangled racquetball racket that was banned because it has carbon fiber plates that…do $SOMETHING, ala the Nike Vaporfly/Alphafly running shoes. You know, “sanctioned”. Instead, it turns out to be some poorly-designed web page that tells me little about what they’re trying to sell.
  - blunte 5y ago
    > I thought RacquetNext was some new-fangled racquetball racket that was banned because it has carbon fiber plates that…do $SOMETHING, ala the Nike Vaporfly/Alphafly running shoes. You know, “sanctioned”. This was exactly what I expected as a best guess from the title.
  - victorbond 5y ago
    We'll try to do better on the page... but I admit, this is the first time that we have been criticised for telling to LITTLE!!! :-) Thanks for commenting... your feedback matters.
    - mikestew 5y ago
      Oh, the pages tells plenty, it just doesn’t tell me anything that I found useful. I mean, I even scrolled down for more than the page deserved, IMO, and I still can’t tell you what is on offer, exactly. Some kind of racquet game, with the implication being that I can play it at home, too. But, hey, you’re here reading feedback, so that’s appreciated. :-)
    - anm89 5y ago
Semaphor 5y ago
> There are more racquet sports players in the world than soccer players. Are there? I (or at least I think that’s being played) only know it from US American TV shows, where business people or mobsters usually play it. But I’m in Germany, maybe it’s very regional, but massive in regions it’s big in? Does anyone have some information for me?
- iso1210 5y ago
  If you're talking professional, there are at least 100,000 professional football players in the world https://colors-newyork.com/how-many-professional-footballers-are-in-the-world https://colors-newyork.com/how-many-professional-footballers... There's fewer than 10,000 professional Tennis players, and that's far more popular professionally than squash and other racquet sports so at a professional level you're talking more than 10 times football than tennis. https://tenniscreative.com/how-many-people-play-tennis/ https://tenniscreative.com/how-many-people-play-tennis/ For non-professional, Based on 2019 data, 87 million play tennis worldwide, and far fewer squash players (20-30 million) https://squashezine.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-many-people-play-squash.html https://squashezine.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-many-people-pla... But them together and you're less than half of the 250 million football players
  - Retric 5y ago
    Team sports generally support larger numbers of professionals. In part because viewers are simply watching more people at the same time, but also because teams need redundancy.
    - iso1210 5y ago
      If you're stepping away from organised activities, practically every kid in the world plays football, all you need is a ball, clearly that outnumbers sports that need equipment - Tennis and especially Squash.
      - Retric 5y ago
        By that metric Tag is probably the most popular sport. Anyway you need a ball, several people, a goal, and a large open field to play something vaguely close to soccer. So it’s popularity varies wildly by area.
jackbravo 5y ago
Found this other article more informative and with better videos to get an idea of what this looks like: https://www.vrfitnessinsider.com/racketnext-officially-sanctioned-by-irf/ https://www.vrfitnessinsider.com/racketnext-officially-sanct...
- victorbond 5y ago
  I agree. That's a great article, and Sonya Haskins is a great writer and person. When you have a minute though, hover on "Images and Video" and dive in to a cornucopia of Racket:Next delights... Thanks for commenting.

32 points by victorbond 5y ago

It means Racket:Next is now a sport, in the current political theater, the title can be read quite differently. I also did not know of Racket:Next.

rich_sasha 5y ago
I was assuming, in turn, it's something to do with Lisp.
- victorbond 5y ago
  Fair error... but no. Thanks for commenting.
victorbond 5y ago
It's Racket:Next aka Racket: Nx, the original name and still out there. Check www.racketnext.com Thanks for commenting.

victorbond 5y ago

March 15, 2022 For Immediate Release International Racquetball Federation [IRF] Officially Sanctions Racket:Next Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA: In a decisive vote of the IRF Board of Directors, Virtual Reality racquet sport game Racket:Next [aka Racket: Nx] has become a fully sanctioned sports discipline of an IOC-Recognized global sports federation, effective April 1, 2022. With this action, Racquet:Next becomes the first electronic game of any sort to become an official global sport. IRF [Colorado Springs, USA]; Racket:Next developer One Hamsa [Tel Aviv, Israel]; and the Metaverse Sports Association [San Francisco, USA]; signed a Memorandum of Understanding in July 2021. At that time, the IRF endorsed Racket:Next and committed to progress toward full sanctioning of the game as a sport. IRF Secretary General Luke St. Onge said at the time: “When we realized what this combination could mean not only for our federation but for all of racquet sport, we jumped all over it. This will be a game-changer both for us and for world sport. We look forward to sharing so much more as this exciting partnership unfolds.” As St. Onge predicted, the partnership has unfolded and “the game” has changed. Dean Schear, IRF Chief Financial Officer and Chair of the IRF Virtual Sports Committee, added, “Bottom line, we have a great vision, a great team, and the sense of urgency and commitment to act now.” The IRF has been asked to participate in the E-Gaming Pavilion at The World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, in July. The IRF is also a candidate to participate in the Olympic Virtual Series later this year. Metaverse Sports Association CEO Victor Bond, who drove and facilitated the agreement, commented, “This is a marriage made in future-sport heaven: a world-class developer and a unique, successful, and wonderful game with a fully global international IOC-recognized sports federation that has the vision and the grit to not just look around the corner but to go there.” Bond added, “This is one big step in our collaboration and one gigantic leap for the new technology of sport.” One Hamsa CEO Assaf “Usul” Ronen added: “This first-ever sanctioning act supports Racket:Next’s core design principles as a fully athletic and visceral game, allowing players of all racquet sports – not only racquetball – to make every racket sport move, except for those that would not work in the average living room (like a racquetball dive or a clay court tennis slide), immersed inside a lighted, responsive, audio-filled dome, in a game that is purely skill based.” Ronen continued, “Racket:Next has already surpassed 300,000 players worldwide, led by the fastest-growing VR headset, the Meta Quest 2, in which it’s been a top-rated title since its launch in 2019. Since 2021 we also witness a surge of players on emerging China-based platforms. Racquet sports, all together, is the largest sports category in the world, eclipsing even world football. For more information: web: www.racketnext.com email: racketnext@gmail.com International Racquetball Federation: www.internationalracquetball.com One Hamsa: www.onehamsa.com Metaverse Sports Association: www.metaversesportsassociation.world ### International Racquetball Federation: The International Racquetball Federation is the governing body for all internationally sanctioned racquetball events. Racquetball is an extremely fast sport where balls can travel in excess of 150 mph in a 40 ft. long, 20 ft. wide, and 20 ft. high court. One Hamsa: Born to the deserts of the middle east, One Hamsa is a game design studio formed to craft quality VR games. We care about unique content, and unreasonable levels of polish. Metaverse Sports Association: The Metaverse Sports Association is dedicated to the development of high-quality athletic virtual reality games into officially sanctioned global sports. Racket:Next is our and the world’s first success. There will be more.

HstryrsrBttn 5y ago

michaelt 5y ago

I'd never heard of 'racket:next' and their website seems to be down, but here's a video from youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNMmB1VDFwc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNMmB1VDFwc Seems to be a VR game where targets light up and you hit balls at them using the VR controller. It doesn't look like there's any force feedback, or measurement of how hard you hit, which will avoid the problems suffered by things like Zwift where issues like poorly calibrated power meters limit the possibilities for serious competition.

kitd 5y ago
Thank you. Your few lines of comment gave me infinitely more information than the linked site.

dgellow 5y ago

The headline is really confusing, I thought “sanctions” meant “apply penalties” and that racket:next was about the Racket language. In fact it seems to be a VR game recognized as an official sport?

jffry 5y ago
Sanction is such a strange word. It can mean both "giving permission or approval" as well as "giving a penalty for noncompliance with a rule or law" I also misread the headline as the latter instead of the former, likely because of the latter type of sanctions being in the news as of late.
- Steltek 5y ago
  You've mooted a very good point. The English language is full of contradictions and condones many deceptive spellings.
- tcskeptic 5y ago
  Ah! Contronyms! Words that can mean a thing... and it's opposite (or nearly so). Dust, cleave, overlook... many others. One of those enjoyable corners of the language.
  - jffry 5y ago
    Weird quirks of language (English and others) usually have interesting histories too.
  - mijoharas 5y ago
    For anyone else that was confused, apparently there is an alternate usage of the word 'Cleave' that means 'to adhere' (rather than 'to cut' or 'to separate').[0] I hadn't heard of that one. [0] https://www.dailywritingtips.com/75-contronyms-words-with-contradictory-meanings/ https://www.dailywritingtips.com/75-contronyms-words-with-co... [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cleave#:~:text=Definition%20of%20cleave,%2C%20rituals%2C%20and%20food.%20%E2%80%94 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cleave#:~:text=De...

tantalor 5y ago

The good kind of sanction.

victorbond 5y ago
VERY. VERY. GOOD. Thanks for commenting.

NoGravitas 5y ago

Now we just need Snooker Plus. Because Snooker could be better.

victorbond 5y ago
Snooker is wonderful. Thanks for commenting.

claudiulodro 5y ago

What do y'all think are the odds VR Racquetball is the next big thing? I could see it happening -- it's a pretty clever idea. It might just be a niche thing like drone racing though (or is drone racing catching on?). These "future sports" are an interesting market.

blunte 5y ago
Multiplayer Wii tennis was fun. I've never tried multiplayer VR anything, but I imagine racketball in VR would be fun too. However, having slammed myself (too) hard against walls playing, I wonder how dangerous it would be to be flailing around blind in a normal room...
- victorbond 5y ago
  Multiplayer WII was the best 2D racquet sport simulation. Racket:Next is THE VR next BIG step... and the best way to play it is to set the stationary "Guardian" about 2 meters, so you don't crash the lamp! Thanks for commenting.
victorbond 5y ago
Actually, Racquetball simulations don't work in VR, nor any other racquet sports simulations except table tennis. Racket:Next is an ANALOGUE of conventional racquet sports... have a look at www.racketnext.com/playing. Thanks for commenting.

nuclearwast 5y ago

racket:nx is the one VR game that everyone like. Some games easily trigger VR sickness, other can be scary for the (younger) player for various reasons (fear of height, monster, etc.) not this one. Racketnx is basically the vr version of arcanoid. The strong point of the game is that the learning curve is extremely low. Almost anyone can pick the remote, put on the helmet and start hitting the ball. Someone mentionned there is no feedback. There is very natural and well done haptic feedback. Speed of the swing matter in game. That is of course tracked in game (has to be).

victorbond 5y ago
100% CORRECT, SIR! Thanks for commenting.

blunte 5y ago

Their home page: so much information, but so little information. I guess it's one of those situations where you're supposed to know the thing before you go there. Is it VR? Or confusingly is it virtual instrument racks? Equally confusing is the English word, "sanction". Sanction is a very bad thing, unless it's the sanction which is a very good thing!

mikestew 5y ago
This native English speaker is with you, I thought RacquetNext was some new-fangled racquetball racket that was banned because it has carbon fiber plates that…do $SOMETHING, ala the Nike Vaporfly/Alphafly running shoes. You know, “sanctioned”. Instead, it turns out to be some poorly-designed web page that tells me little about what they’re trying to sell.
- blunte 5y ago
  > I thought RacquetNext was some new-fangled racquetball racket that was banned because it has carbon fiber plates that…do $SOMETHING, ala the Nike Vaporfly/Alphafly running shoes. You know, “sanctioned”. This was exactly what I expected as a best guess from the title.
- victorbond 5y ago
  We'll try to do better on the page... but I admit, this is the first time that we have been criticised for telling to LITTLE!!! :-) Thanks for commenting... your feedback matters.
  - mikestew 5y ago
    Oh, the pages tells plenty, it just doesn’t tell me anything that I found useful. I mean, I even scrolled down for more than the page deserved, IMO, and I still can’t tell you what is on offer, exactly. Some kind of racquet game, with the implication being that I can play it at home, too. But, hey, you’re here reading feedback, so that’s appreciated. :-)
  - anm89 5y ago

Semaphor 5y ago

> There are more racquet sports players in the world than soccer players. Are there? I (or at least I think that’s being played) only know it from US American TV shows, where business people or mobsters usually play it. But I’m in Germany, maybe it’s very regional, but massive in regions it’s big in? Does anyone have some information for me?

iso1210 5y ago
If you're talking professional, there are at least 100,000 professional football players in the world https://colors-newyork.com/how-many-professional-footballers-are-in-the-world https://colors-newyork.com/how-many-professional-footballers... There's fewer than 10,000 professional Tennis players, and that's far more popular professionally than squash and other racquet sports so at a professional level you're talking more than 10 times football than tennis. https://tenniscreative.com/how-many-people-play-tennis/ https://tenniscreative.com/how-many-people-play-tennis/ For non-professional, Based on 2019 data, 87 million play tennis worldwide, and far fewer squash players (20-30 million) https://squashezine.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-many-people-play-squash.html https://squashezine.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-many-people-pla... But them together and you're less than half of the 250 million football players
- Retric 5y ago
  Team sports generally support larger numbers of professionals. In part because viewers are simply watching more people at the same time, but also because teams need redundancy.
  - iso1210 5y ago
    If you're stepping away from organised activities, practically every kid in the world plays football, all you need is a ball, clearly that outnumbers sports that need equipment - Tennis and especially Squash.
    - Retric 5y ago
      By that metric Tag is probably the most popular sport. Anyway you need a ball, several people, a goal, and a large open field to play something vaguely close to soccer. So it’s popularity varies wildly by area.

jackbravo 5y ago

Found this other article more informative and with better videos to get an idea of what this looks like: https://www.vrfitnessinsider.com/racketnext-officially-sanctioned-by-irf/ https://www.vrfitnessinsider.com/racketnext-officially-sanct...

victorbond 5y ago
I agree. That's a great article, and Sonya Haskins is a great writer and person. When you have a minute though, hover on "Images and Video" and dive in to a cornucopia of Racket:Next delights... Thanks for commenting.