What is box thrashball in Arcane Elemental Academy?

If you love hockey and lacrosse, you’re gonna love the premier sport in my young adult fantasy series, Arcane Elemental Academy: Box thrashball. 

If you’ve ever played Gears of War, chances are, you’ve heard of thrashball. But my sport in Arcane Elemental Academy is just named after the legendary game, with the word ‘box’ in front of it. Instead, box thrashball resembles floor hockey, but played with a ball instead of a puck, and there are no sticks involved. It’s also like box lacrosse, but again, without the sticks.

While Loki Kahne outlines the rules to our fearless protagonist, Yote Diamondback, in The Arcane Prophecy, I thought I’d share them with you below in case you wanted a deeper dive into this brutal, physical, and exciting game.

Oh, and before I begin, if you find these rules overwhelming, don’t fear. It doesn’t get this technical in any of the Arcane Elemental Academy books. This post is a detailed deep dive into the game.

What box thrashball looks like in Arcane Elemental Academy

Rosters and lineups

The court’s 60 yards by 30 yards. Each team can have up to 20 players per side, with 12 forwards, six defenders, and two goaltenders. Five players – three forwards (one center and two wingers) and two defenders – take the court for each side, and they play in shifts, often between 30 and 90 seconds. You’ll see these shifts played out in The Arcane Prophecy.

Meanwhile, the goaltender stands in front of a soccer-sized net, meaning they got some area to cover.

The forwards play in groups of three known as ‘lines’:

• First line: Best scoring wingers and center
• Second line: Next-best scoring wingers and center
  • Yote is a gifted scoring center
• Third line: “Checking Line,” with defense-first and physical forwards
• Fourth Line: “Energy Line,” playing in short shifts, and meant to agitate opponents
  • Loki often plays on the fourth line

Then, there are three defensive pairings:

• First pairing: Best scoring defender and best stay-at-home defender
  • Yote’s sister, Jett, is a scoring defender
• Second pairing: Defenders who are fair scorers and solid at playing defense
• Third pairing: Defenders who specialize in either landing hits or blocking shots
  • Yote’s love interest, Storm, excels in this role after beginning as a forward

Goaltending tandem:

• No. 1 goaltender: Starts the bulk of games, usually two-thirds
• No. 2 goaltender: Plays the final one-third

Some teams have a 1A and a 1B, where the 1A plays in just over 50 percent of the games, and the 1B plays just under 50 percent.

Gameplay

A jump ball (reminiscent of basketball) starts play, with the centers facing off. Jump balls also occur following a goal or a stoppage in play.

Goals are worth one point on a throw, roll, or a bounce in, two points if they’re kicked, punted, or, in Yote’s case, bicycle-kicked in, and three points if they’re drop-kicked in. A drop-kick goal also counts if one player drops the ball off the ground and a teammate kicks it in.

The box game has three white yard lines on the court, with two lines dividing the court into ‘thirds,’ and a center line dividing it into ‘halves.’ Players in possession of the ball must be the first one across the ‘two-thirds’ mark of the court leading into their offensive zone to prevent offsides. If offsides occurs, a jump ball follows.

Play lasts for three periods of 20 minutes apiece. If the two teams are tied at the end of regulation, they will enter sudden-death overtime, in which the team scoring first wins. Each overtime period lasts for five minutes.

Penalties

Penalties are classified into three categories:

• Two-minute minor: Penalties that do not cause injury
• Four-minute minor: Penalties that incidentally cause injury
• Five-minute major: Fighting, or penalties that deliberately cause injury

Any player who commits a penalty must sit in the penalty box for an allotted amount of time while the opposing team goes on a power play. The power play lasts a full two minutes, regardless of the outcome. This means a team can score multiple times when on a power play.

If the penalty-kill unit scores during an opponent’s power play, they effectively kill the power play regardless of how much time is left during a two-minute minor. If they score within the first two minutes of a double minor, the power play cuts down to two minutes. And if they score a second time, the power play ends. The only time this rule doesn’t apply is on a five-minute major.

Common penalties include tripping, elbowing, roughing, interference, fight instigation (if one player wants to fight but the opponent doesn’t agree to fight), fighting,

Thrashball doesn’t take over Arcane Elemental Academy

Box thrashball scenes only occur when they’re relevant to the plot. Think Harry Potter, when J.K. Rowling injected Quidditch into the book, when it made sense for moving the plot forward. That said, thrashball in Arcane Elemental Academy is not a subplot.

Still, Yote Diamondback develops an obsession with a former thrashball player. And there may be a little more to that obsession than meets the eye. It’s something you’ll see play out in Arcane, and if you want an introduction to Yote before she takes over the thrashball court, check out the first three chapters now.