The grounds
Seventeen grounds, one rectangle, seventeen ways to read it
Every ground fields the same furniture: five wall stars, two bounce domes, two ramp entries, four electro pads and four warp gates. What changes is where it is bolted — and that changes the match.
Ground 01
Slag Foundry
The furniture at rest: an even reading from end to end.
Poured-off slag, struck flat, lit from the gantries. Stars run down one wall against a tight pair on the other, a gate in each corner, one dome and one ramp per half. The other sixteen grounds are variations on this one.
Ground 02
The Saltworks
Stars out at the goals, gates on the halfway line.
A drained evaporation pan roofed over with floodlights. The stars sit at the far ends of one wall and the gates in the middle of both, so the wall game is played at the goals and the teleports at the halfway line. A ground that pays for the long carry.
Ground 03
Coolant Ring
Everything gathered in the middle, the ramps alone in front of the goals.
The floor of a cooling basin, drained and struck flat. Everything worth touching is gathered around the centre — five stars inside the middle half, a dome either side of the spot — and the two ramp entries are left out alone in front of the goals.
Ground 04
Scrap Reef
The gates open at midfield and let the ball out in the far corner.
Crushed hulls pressed into a floor, in a breaker’s yard. The gates are the whole point of it: they open at the halfway line and spit the ball out in the far corner, so a ball carried into the middle of a wall comes back beside a goal.
Ground 05
Cryo Glacis
All five stars on one wall: one flank scores, the other runs.
A coolant spill frozen into a sheet and played on. Every star is bolted to one wall, so the scoring happens down one flank and the crossing down the other. It is the most lopsided ground of them all, and both ends get exactly the same of it.
Ground 06
The Substation
Pads hold the middle of both walls, stars the four corners.
A switchyard floor with the busbars still live overhead. The pads hold the middle of both walls and the stars the four corners, so the ball is electrified on the way through and banked at the ends. Both ramp entries sit on the axis, either side of the spot.
Ground 07
Granite Quarry
Gates right at the goals, with a dome in front of each.
A bench cut out of the rock and floored with its own tailings. The gates are right up at the goals with a dome in front of each, which makes a clearance out of defence the most dangerous ball on the ground.
Ground 08
The Arcology
Laid out by machines: nothing on this floor is improvised.
The show pitch of a machine city, laid out by machines. Stars evenly spaced down one wall, pads evenly spaced down the other, gates in the corners, a dome and a ramp on each diagonal. Regular enough to read at a glance, which is the whole of its difficulty.
Ground 09
Skydeck
The tightest of them all: it is all fought around the centre spot.
A pitch bolted to a rooftop, wind and city haze included. The tightest of them all: every star inside the middle fifth, both domes hugging the centre spot. The match is fought where the kick-off lands, and a ramp is a trip to the corner.
Ground 10
The Dustbowl
The widest of them all, with both ramps buried in a corner.
A pan of wind-blown grit, played in the open. The widest of them all: stars at the far ends of one wall, pads at the goals, domes out on the flanks, both ramp entries buried deep in an attacking corner. A ramp is worth a detour here, never a rebound.
Ground 11
The Glass Trench
Three stars mid-wall on one side, two out at the goals on the other.
A pitch laid over the window of a pressure hull at the bottom of a trench, lit from below, with whatever lives down there drifting under the players. Three stars sit together in the middle of one wall and the other two stand at the goals across the pitch. The ramps open on the flanks near halfway, the domes wait on the diagonal.
Ground 12
Neon Market
Ramps in the goalmouths and gates in the corners: it rains shots.
A night-market rooftop in the middle of a megacity, stalls folded away for the match, rain still coming down through the neon. Both ramp entries sit square in front of the goals, the gates wait in the corners and cross the pitch, the domes guard the flanks near halfway. Every attack ends in a shot from close in.
Ground 13
The Biodome
Gates grown into the middle of both walls, the ramps hidden on the flanks.
An abandoned research greenhouse where the moss got to the pitch before the groundsmen did. Three stars line the middle of one wall, the other two stand at the goals; the gates grow out of both walls between them. The ramps open on the flanks either side of halfway, where nobody is looking.
Ground 14
Aurora Flats
Both domes stand on the halfway line: the centre is a slalom.
Sea ice past the polar circle, with the aurora rippling across it all match. Both domes stand on the halfway line, so every kick-off is a slalom. The four gates sit at the very ends of the walls and go straight across, the ramps open just outside each goal.
Ground 15
Obsidian Rift
Gates that cross over, and ramps set on the diagonal.
Volcanic glass poured over an active rift, with the lava breathing under the slabs. Stars at the goals on one wall, three in the middle of the other. The gates cross over from one half to the other, and the ramps sit on the diagonal, one deep on each flank, a long way from where the kick-off lands.
Ground 16
Bloom Reef
Three stars down one wall, the domes waiting right at the goals.
The night-time cousin of the Glass Trench: a deep reef under the pitch, where everything that lives there lights up. Three stars run down one wall, two sit either side of halfway on the other. The domes wait right in front of the goals, so every shot has to go round one.
Ground 17
Festival Dome
Where finals are played: a neutral ground for the whole league.
The only ground that belongs to no club. The cup final and the championship play-off are played here, under the searchlights and the confetti. Stars three to one wall and two to the other, the domes out on the wings, both ramp entries on the axis in front of the goals: nothing hidden, nobody at home.
The draw picks one, or you do
A quick match takes the ground you pinned in the menu, or draws one at random. A league or cup fixture is played at the home club’s own ground, whatever you pinned, and a final at Festival Dome.
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