SEC - S5W6: My Favorite Game

Introduction

The world of sports and gaming has been a very important aspect of the world that people utilize for relaxation, take as a profession, used for betting or competition to earn extra rewards, and so on. It's a great pleasure coming across a contest like this as it enables me to share my side of the story.

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My Favorite Game

I have grown to love a game intensely right from a tender age and the love waxes stronger even as I get older and that's football. Football is a game that originated many centuries ago and is well-modernized now, with the innovations brought by technology, football games can also be played virtually with other game players.

In essence, the game of football can be played both physically and virtually. In the physical world, the game of football can be played in the standard way through a team of players that have a common goal to win over their opponents, under a supervision of a coach.

At the training ground a few weeks ago	Exercising before playing the game

For the virtual football game, my favorite is the Dream League Soccer football game. Dream League Soccer was first released in 2011 as First Touch before it was modified to DLS with new editions released yearly. The recent edition of the Dream League Soccer is DLS22 and that's what I play on my mobile phone, online-based version of the game.

_{Screenshot from DLS22 Game on my Mobile Phone}

How to Play the Game

The game of football is comprised of players and a goalkeeper to make a team. The outfield players can only play the ball with the leg/head/chest/body and at any instance, if the ball hits them on the arm or hand while the arm/hand was away from the body, it would be considered a foul which opens the way for a free-kick or penalty (if it happens in own box).

That said, the goalkeeper is the only eligible part of a team that can use his/her to play in the quest to stop the ball from going into the team's net (but not a ball intentionally played to him/her by his players or the ball outside own box). Each team has a goal post and the number of goals they can put in the net of opponents determines the winner of a match (exceptions for two-legged matches for qualification in a competition).

In essence, a football team aims to put goals into the opponent's net while preventing them from scoring in their net. The game is associated with two cards, namely;

• Yellow Card: This is a card utilized to penalize a player for an offense (tackle badly ir using hands on the ball intentionally or fighting and other non-sportsmanship behavior of a player) during the game.

• Red Card: Yellow cards seem to be a warning for a player that might get dismissed later from the game. If after the first yellow card, a player commits another bad offense that deserves a yellow card, another one would be issued and a red card would follow while the player would be dismissed. And a straight red card can be given if the offense is very bad.

All these protocols and others are followed in both physical and virtual football. For my virtual football game, I enjoy online competitions against anonymous players across the world. Below is a quick overview of how the on-screen control can be utilized to play the game (game controller can also be used to play the game).

_{Screenshot from DLS22 Game on my Mobile Phone}

How Many People can Participate

The game of football is played in its standard form with 11 players (10 outfield players and a goalkeeper) while the manager and other coaching members monitor the event from outside the pitch. There are always substitutes outside as well but in essence, only 11 players from each team can be on the pitch at a time (making a total of 22).

In addition, there is another standard of football which is the five-aside football, we have 4 outfield players and one goalkeeper on each team, that are eligible to play a match at the same time.

_{My Team on DLS22}

For my DLS22 virtual football game, the standard 11 players are used while I act as the manager that oversees the affairs of the club/team and plays against one other player (through his/her team) at a time.

My Records

I highlighted earlier that I have been playing football right from when I was little, as such I have won several local competitions in my village back in the day, I mean standard and non-standard competitions. In addition, during my junior secondary school days, we do organize games based on bets with other classes and each team player doubles his contribution at the end of the game (I won this severally).

And during my university days, I had a wonderful time both with my class and department football team as well as in the church team. I served as the Sports Director for the Agricultural Engineering Students' Association in 2015 and hosted a departmental football competition where my class won the competition at the end (I also played and scored the first goal in the competition). Let me show you some memories below, don't laugh too much, lol.

Juggling a Ball in 2015	Receiving winners medal in 2015 AESA Games

Going further, I won two football finals in 2018 when I was just a few months away from my graduation. One of those was a departmental competition (between the Agricultural Engineering classes), my class won and the other one was the Faculty of Engineering football competition where my department won.

AESA Cup 2018	Faculty of Engineering Cup, 2018

I have other records that can't be included in this piece. For my virtual football game, I have just made it to tier 13 because I have a weak team which I am still building but I'm making progress to conquer many opponents despite the insufficient resources on my team.

The Gameplay of my Favorite Game

I have talked extensively about this earlier, the game of football is played with a team of players which can either be 11 players from each team or 5-aside (5 players from each team). The team has outfield players and only one keeper on the pitch at a time.

In the DLS22 as well, you need a team to participate in a game, the only difference is that you are in charge of the team as they play against a team from another player. In essence, you are contesting against another team owned by a player (which means two real people are involved).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the game of football has been my favorite game over the years and would remain that way for life, it's a legacy I would be passing on to my unborn kids, hopefully, they would welcome it.

I play this game both physically and virtually, and I have some achievements through this, had made connections through the game and it's a lifelong journey for me. I'm glad I participated in this, I hereby invite my friends @xkool24, @pelon53, and @kouba01 to take part in this. Thank you.