Blaseball

Overview

Launched in public beta by The Game Band on July 20, 2020, Blaseball is a weekly baseball simulation which progressively diverges from the rules of traditional baseball with every passing season, with semi-guided input from the community. On July 30, 2021, Blaseball's public beta ended, and the game entered "gamma" after a short hiatus.

Blaseball occurs as an hourly baseball simulation, beginning on Monday of every real-life week, and lasting roughly 100 hours, each hour representing one day of a season. Every team plays every day, with two teams from each division going on to play an additional post-season championship playoff on the weekend. In the case that a game from the previous day is still going, a day's games are delayed until the next real-life hour.

Fans engage with Blaseball by picking a favorite team, betting coins on games, and purchasing concessions which allow them to earn more coins and access special features, such as voting and eating peanuts.

Alongside the mechanics provided by the game itself, fans have developed a noteworthy fan-made narrative for Blaseball, developing backstories and designs for each character, as well as the game's teams and larger world. The Game Band actively encourages this practice, and at times has taken some inspiration from fans' ideas.

Games

Blaseball games are structured similarly to games in regular baseball, typically consisting of two teams competing in nine innings, with points typically being scored when a player runs four bases.

A team's performance is determined through a combination of their players' rating statistics, the enemy team's rating, and any special events on the field. On the pregame betting screen, this is condensed into a percentage probability denoting a team's likelihood of winning, with lower odds leading to increased betting payout.

When a day is active, games are viewed from the "League" tab. There, a quick rundown of every game for the current day will be shown, with the fan's favorite team always appearing on top, followed by the games with the highest difference in odds. Active games show current scores, field standings, and a ticker with play-by-play commentary, whereas finished games show their final scores and highlight the winning team.

A team will continue to play games in a season even when they are mathematically barred from participating in the post-season playoffs. This is known as "Party Time". Teams in Party Time have a number of benefits, helping to even out particularly under-performing teams. Teams in party time can also be granted entry to the playoffs via the Wild Card decree.

Outcome

A blaseball player's rating is determined by a number of attributes, such as Base Thirst, Anti-capitalism, Buoyancy, Shakespearianism, and Cinnamon. These attributes combine to form four overall categories of rating: Baserunning, Defense, Hitting, and Pitching. While all blaseball players have ratings for every attribute, only the attributes relevant to their position are counted for their star rating.

Decrees won in elections can directly impact a blaseball player's rating, as well as grant them items and armor which can impact their rating.

Aside from blaseball player ratings, a game's weather can have a significant impact on the game's outcome. Weather, set before a game begins, determines which types of random events may occur during the game. For example, a Solar Eclipse causes rogue umpires to randomly incinerate players, Lots of Birds causes the field to be swarmed with birds, and Bloodrain allows players to siphon rating from the enemy team's players.

Alongside weather, certain random events are determined by the outcome of a game. For example, shame occurs when a tied score is broken during the final inning, preventing the losing team from scoring any more points and potentially putting them at a point deficit in their next game. Similarly, spillover occurs when a game goes into overtime and is not resolved within one real-time hour. In the event of spillover, the next day's games are postponed for as long as necessary for every game to finish.

Concessions

Bought from the game's shop, concessions are miscellaneous items which a fan can buy to earn additional coins, vote, or change teams. Originally, fans could own every available shop item, although the shop only offered twelve items. In Season 12, the shop was replaced by concessions, offering a wider variety of items but limiting the fan in how many items they can own at one time.

By default, a fan has eight "snack slots" with which to hold concessions. As of Season 15, this was expanded to allow fans to purchase or remove snack slots, influencing the payout of the items they hold. The maximum possible payout is a 650% increase for a single snack slot, while any number of slots beyond 24 reduce payout to 0%.

Similarly, it is not required that a fan own any given item. While the original shop required that fans at least own snake oil, and prevented the sell-back of any item, concessions can be bought and sold in any capacity. It should also be noted that some items can not be bought directly as concessions, despite taking up a snack slot.

Certain concessions are removed, introduced, or altered depending on seasonal changes, typically to highlight new random events. The exceptions to this are votes, flutes, snake oil, peanuts, and bread crumbs, which have remained unchanged since the original shop.

Elections

Elections are held every season, with results announced shortly before the start of a new season. In an election, fans can spend votes on blessings, wills, and decrees, allowing the fans to directly impact the rules of blaseball, as well as their team's rating and abilities.

Decrees have a sweeping impact on the game (such as opening the forbidden blaseball rule book, introducing a fourth strike, or creating new types of weather.) As such, they are chosen by popular vote from every team, with the most popular decree(s) winning.

Wills are given in twos to individual teams, with a team's wills being determined by a raffle of the votes cast by fans supporting that team. Wills are largely beneficial, and a single will can be earned by multiple teams in a season, although a team can not win the same will twice in one season.

Blessings are similar to wills, although there is no limit on how many a team can receive, and only one team can win an individual blessing. Blessings are raffled off to a random team, influenced by how many votes a team cast for a given blessing. Most blessings directly improve a team's rating by direct boosts, swapping players, or granting players beneficial items, however some protect a team/division from negative effects, or have questionable benefit.

Teams

Originally, the Internet Blaseball League was populated by twenty teams at any given point, however that number increased beginning in Season 12. The ultimate goal of each team is to earn ascension out of the Internet League and into Blaseball 2, however fans of individual teams may create their own goals beyond this. When a team ascends, a new team is created to take their place.

Teams are split into two leagues, and further split into two divisions within each league. At the beginning of the Internet League, these leagues were Good and Evil, with Lawful and Chaotic subdivisions, however after Season 5 these leagues became Wild and Mild, with High and Low subdivisions.

Below is a list of all 24 teams as of the beginning of Season 24, categorized by league and subdivision:

Currently, only one team has managed to ascend out of the league, that being the Baltimore Crabs. However, the team returned to the Internet League in Season 12. While it was known that entire teams could be incinerated, the first Internet League team to be incinerated was The Breath Mints, who were incinerated during Season 24.

While these teams are the only currently-active Internet League teams, other teams have appeared from time to time. For example, the Hall Stars and The Shelled One's Pods both existed solely for the Day X fight against The Shelled One in Seasons 9 and 10. As well, several alternative teams existed before the Internet League's official opening.

Seasonal History

Past events in blaseball history can have a major impact on both the game and the fan narrative surrounding the game. As such, listed below is an overview of previous eras in blaseball as well as noteworthy events from each era.

Blaseball Beta

Season 1 - 10: The Return & Discipline Era

The Return was thought to be the start of recorded blaseball history, although later records would prove this untrue. Little of note happened during the first season, although the season one election resulted in the opening of the Forbidden Book.

The opening initiated the Discipline Era, leading to immediate solar eclipses and the incineration of blaseball player Jaylen Hotdogfingers. As well, the Moab Sunbeams became the Hellmouth Sunbeams, as Moab, Utah was swallowed by a hellmouth. Further solar eclipses caused umpires to incinerate blaseball players at random intervals.

The Grand Unslam

On Day 73 of Season 3, server issues during a game between the Shoe Thieves and the Tacos caused a several-minute rollback, undoing a grand slam. The event, dubbed "The Grand Unslam" led Los Angeles to be enveloped by the void, changing the L.A. Tacos to the Unlimited Tacos. Every Tacos player briefly became Wyatt Mason, save for the original Wyatt Mason, who was permanently changed to NaN.

Blagonballs

During this era, a number of blagonballs were discovered, under various circumstances. The 5-blood blagonball was discovered upon the blaseball Patreon reaching $5,000, while the 3-blood blagonball was discovered upon Millenial Sandie Turner successfully stealing home base. Later blagonballs were discovered upon a five-run home run being accomplished, upon a no-hitter pitched, and upon a perfect game being played. No purpose for the blagonballs was discovered during the Blaseball beta.

The Resurrection of Jaylen Hotdogfingers

Following the introduction of idols in Season 6, fans noticed it was possible to idolize deceased players, leading many to rally around Jaylen Hotdogfingers, the first player to be incinerated.

Soon after, it was realized that one of Season 6's election options allowed a team to steal the 14th most idolized player. Fans widely agreed upon a plan to ensure Hotdogfingers sit in the 14th spot. Although Intern Commissioner Parker MacMillan III expressed uncertainty, the Garages won the blessing, sending Mike Townsend to the void in exchange for bringing Jaylen Hotdogfingers back from the dead.

Following the resurrection, it was noticed that Hotdogfingers was incredibly unstable and, in an Internet League first, had begun hitting players with pitches. Hit players would themselves become unstable, often leading to their incineration. After an unstable player was incinerated, their instability would spread.

Eventually, Hotdogfingers' debt was refinanced, causing hit players to swap teams, rather than have a higher chance for incineration.

The Shelled One

Following the second championship, peanuts were made available for purchase. A number of fans determined that buying and eating one million peanuts could potentially atone for opening the Forbidden Book. However, some fans devised a system to generate and consume infinite peanuts, permanently barring the planned atonement and awakening The Shelled One, a deity-like spinning peanut.

Upon waking, the angered Shelled One called first and second strike, due to the opening of the book and the Peanut Fraud respectively.

Third Strike - Idols

Idols were introduced in season 6, with players earning coins when their chosen blaseball player performs well. Upon introduction, the idols board featured a conspicuous red line, separating the top idols from the rest of the board. On several occasions, the Shelled One encased idols above the line in a peanut shell, but spared idols with "Peanut" in their names.

This led fans of the Tacos to plan "the Snackrifice", in which fans brought every Tacos pitcher to the top of the idol board, alongside the three peanuts: Peanutiel Duffy, Peanut Bong, and Peanut Holloway. The Tacos' entire pitching lineup was shelled, and they were given a single Pitching Machine as a replacement. The Shelled One was disappointed by the Snackrifice, but was ultimately pleased that the Peanuts were above the red line.

Fourth Strike - The Hall of Flame

Following the resurrection of Jaylen Hotdogfingers, The Monitor was attracted to the Internet League, hoping to find her. Instead, The Monitor took note of the Shelled One and decided to stay, hoping to eat the peanut-esque deity.

The Monitor also opened up the Hall of Flame, a location for fans to spend peanuts in remembrance of fallen players. By the end of season 8, 100 million peanuts had been spent in the hall of flame, angering the Shelled One immensely and leading fourth strike to be declared. Along with the fourth strike came a declaration that the Internet League was "out".

The Shelled One's Pods and the Death of the Shelled One

The Season 9 championship playoffs between the two-time champions the Baltimore Crabs and the zero-time champions the Charleston Shoe Thieves ended in upset after the Shoe Thieves shamed the Crabs in the final inning of the final game, resulting in the Shoe Thieves winning the championship and preventing the Crabs from ascending.

Following the upset, the Shelled One appeared, challenging the Shoe Thieves. In the ensuing match, commonly referred to as "Day X", the Shoe Thieves played against the Shelled One's own team, the Shelled One's Pods, comprised of every shelled player. The Shelled One handily beat the Shoe Thieves, and all shelled players were un-shelled, but stayed with the Pods.

After the Crabs' victory in Season 10, the Shelled One returned, defeating the team in one hit. However, the Monitor introduced its own team, The Hall Stars, to combat the Pods.

The Stars, comprised of hall of flame leaders, defeated the Pods, allowing the Monitor to consume the Shelled One. Following the incident, the Crabs were allowed to ascend. Upon the removal of The Shelled One, The Monitor's boss, Ownership, arrived, announcing the beginning of the era of Peace and Prosperity.

Season 11 - 24: Peace, Prosperity, and Expansion

Following the death of the Shelled One, blaseball entered a brief hiatus as The Game Band made changes to the game. The Tokyo Lift were formed to take the place of the recently-ascended Baltimore Crabs, however their first season's performance was notably poor, finishing 28-61. While the Crabs were no longer participants in standard blaseball games, their fans were still capable of standard fan actions.

This included building the Internet League's very first ballpark in Season 12, despite warnings against it. The construction of the Crabs' ballpark resulted in a league-wide flood, leading Ownership to call for expansion, bringing in four new teams: the Georgias, the Mechanics, the Worms, and the formerly-ascended Crabs. Flooding persisted, occasionally sweeping players "elsewhere..."

The New York Millennials v. Parker MacMillan III

After Season 10, fans of the Millennials noticed that blaseball's then-intern Commissioner, Parker MacMillan III, had failed to uphold Eat the Rich, a decree passed in Season 3. As such, the Millennials led several other teams into a class-action lawsuit against the Commissioner, demanding atonement.

Proceedings lasted several days, only to be cut short when a simulation of MacMillan III attempted to lock the doors to the courtroom. A guilty verdict was delivered the next day, although the previous day's incident had led MacMillan III to be incinerated and replaced by Parker MacMillan IIII.

The Coffee Cup

Held as an interstitial season from November 17 to December 8, 2020, the Coffee Cup was a special cup pitting blaseball players against one another by coffee preference. A number of coffee-themed weathers were introduced, giving players different coffee-themed conditions during games. The cup was won by Inter Xpresso.

During Game 5 of the Coffee Cup, Parker MacMillan IIII was percolated, leading to their immediate death and replacement by Parker MacMillan IIIII.

Consumer Attacks

During Season 15, consumers began randomly attacking teams. The Garages faced the most attacks, with Chorby Soul being an especially common target. Throughout Season 15, consumers attacked Chorby Soul almost every single game, often more than once per game. Throughout the season, Soul was attacked 138 times. This constant onslaught almost immediately made Soul the league's worst player, with their stats quickly sinking to 0.0 overall.

Most other players were spared, due to how frequently Chorby Soul was attacked. Due to the incident, Chorby Soul was "preserved", removing them from the Internet League and introducing the ability for high-performing blaseball players to be preserved.

Mysterious Disappearances and Blaseball History

In Season 13, Brisket Friendo and Tad Seeth were "redacted", prompting concern from Ownership and Commissioner MacMillan IIIII. Further investigations found little information, however it was noted that newly resurrected players would cause opponents to become "observed". During Season 15, observed players began disappearing randomly, leading to a number of additional redactions. Around the same time, a number of players became "attractive", leading redacted players to mysteriously appear in their team's shadows.

Blaseball players Uncle Plasma and Liquid Friend began investigating the disappearances, leading certain events to be found "fishy". Players interacting with those events were given pickled herring, which could be used towards uncovering previously redacted parts of Internet League history, via the Library.

In Season 20, Ownership declared that Plasma and Friend had found no evidence of foul play. However, fishy events continued to occur, and the Library remained open.

Un-winning and The Fire Sale

During the Season 18 earlsiesta, an election decree named "Trust Fall" was implemented, causing teams to win a day's game when scoring fewer points than their opponents. This led play-offs to be populated by the league's poorest performers. These changes led to reports of widely decreased ratings for the Internet League, angering Ownership. In following seasons, Ownership unsuccessfully attempted to force a number of changes to undo the decree, hoping to fix the league's ratings and profits.

Following Season 23, a match between the Legends and the Rising Stars was played, in celebration of fifty years of Internet League Blaseball. The anniversary event saw noteworthy players from blaseball's past competing with popular current players, for an intended fifty innings. However, the game was cut short by Sun 2 going supernova. Ownership attempted to take out a loan, only to find the league's credit denied, forcing the Internet League into a fire sale. As a result, teams in Supernova weather had a chance to be completely incinerated, removing them from the League.

The End of Beta

During Season 24, an emergency alert announced that Sun 2 had collapsed, leading Ownership to double down on promises of being able to fix issues for the snackholders. Following the incident, Parker MacMillan IIIII betrayed Ownership, informing the teams that their only hope was to help one another.

Following MacMillan IIIII's statement, the season's election screen was replaced with a map of the universe. The map placed Sun 2 at the center of the universe, with the four corners being comprised of the Hall of Flame, the Vault, a black hole, and a desert. Fans of a team could vote on which corner to head towards, with other teams contributing coins to help them reach their destination.

Upon the first team entering the desert, a mysterious voice informed the teams to "charge the mound", and the universe began to tilt, forming a blaseball diamond with the desert as home base, and Sun 2 as the pitcher's mound. Teams began to redirect towards Sun 2, causing Ownership to begin melting, vanishing seemingly for good.

Following the death of Ownership, the black hole began to expand, slowly consuming any team caught in its path, removing them without replacement. On day 99 the black hole consumed the universe, destroying every team and marking the end of Blaseball's beta. Following day 99, a message from The Game Band was shown, including reassurance that teams would return in Blaseball's gamma release, as well as credits, and a message of thanks towards Blaseball's fans.