History of The Game
#2 of The Game
Some things should never become popular. Written 2015.
After the call for morph extermination was repealed in America, the morph creation and breeding companies that had existed before the ban, attempted to recover and redevelop their market. In doing so, they created morphs intended to dominate in specific areas, like sports. This was not well received by the fans and athletes, who claimed that it defeated the competition of the sports. Official leagues placed bans on anyone with engineered genetics, created or born, animal or human.
As morphs were slowly banned from the sports for which some of them were created, morph only leagues were attempted, but failed to draw enough attention to survive. This led to less civil sports. The early morph blood-sports were nothing more than fighting pits, mostly illegal. The Anthromorph Gladiator Association arose as a legal battle arena where different species were pitted against each other in a small ring. In order to remain legal, they had to make concessions to ensure the safety of the combatants, but deaths were still common and often cheered. While popular, these fights failed to utilize the intellect that morphs brought to their animal forms. In response to this, Marisol Esquilin of Bestia Entertainment developed the format for Batalla Bestia that later became known as simply The Game.
The original premise for Batalla Bestia called for equal combatants in alternating positions of predator and prey. Set on a baseball field, the four predators would wait on the pitcher's mound. The morph posing as prey would then need to travel around all the bases, finally becoming safe again after touching home plate. As they touched each base, one predator could come off of the mound, relying on the restraint of a sentient species. If one of the predators tackled the prey, he was considered caught and out. Returning home scored a point and after three outs, the teams would switch positions.
In practice, however, The Game quickly turned bloody as crowds cheered the violence of "accidents." It became one sided as entire teams were slaughtered and morphs were selected and even bred specifically to be prey. The sport shifted to the survival of the runners and a safety box was added to run to after touching home plate as some predators ignored the rules. This bloody twist to the sport was protested and attempts were made to pass laws banning it, but The Game had enough supporters to survive until it changed again.
In an eventful clerical error, a male rabbit named Bulldog was accidentally listed as a bulldog named Rabbit and ended up on the predator mound. He did not attack any runners until a female rabbit came up in the lineup. She managed to evade the other three predators, but tripped just before touching home plate. Bulldog charged off the mound and lay on top of her, claiming his "kill" and stopping the others. He then raped her on the field in front of the surprised, but enthusiastic crowd. The public response to this sexual exhibition led the organizers to encourage more of it.
The Game became a public and forced breeding event as the division shifted from predator/prey to male/female. The fan-base rose as balance shifted in the competition and the outcome was less guaranteed. Protests lessened as the violence did and shifted to sexual objections, losing momentum. The rules were adapted for the new format. The females would run the bases as before, evading the males. If caught, they could be raped, killed or simply counted out. Many females would fight back, resisting being caught with deadly force and killing the male. If the female touched all the bases and returned to home plate, she would have the choice of choosing a male or declining. Those that declined were most often sent back out until they chose to breed.
The Game finally came to an end when two porcupines, Orville and Melinda, entered and brought civility that foiled the shock and awe entertainment. They were owned by two organizations that made subtle efforts to educate morphs, Morph American Support Company and Market Anthro Service Company. Behind the scenes, females were encouraged to ignore pressures from their owners and believe in their right to choose. On the mound, Orville encouraged a passive approach, matching species and assisting in non-violent mating. He met with some resistance, but stood his ground, notably resulting in one death that proved to solidify his popularity. After dropping ratings, an attempt to deny entry to the porcupines met with fan revolt and a very popular petition to keep them, supported by many protest groups. AGA eventually gave in and stopped hosting The Game events, but attempted to sue MASC and MASC, but the companies were dissolved and the porcupines were moved to Harstlein in Western Australia where they died in a supposed car crash.
The mysterious circumstances surrounding Orville and Melinda's sudden death gave rise to rumors and suspicions about AGA's involvement and the eventual dissolution of the company. When morph slavery was abolished across America, laws were put in place banning non-consensual morph fights, preventing a resurgence of The Game. Unfortunately, the bloody sport still survives in illegal venues, forcing innocent and unaware morphs to battle or fornicate for entertainment. As a civil society, we can only hope that someday these too will fade into dark history.