Avoriaz hosts first snowball fight

17th March 2015, by Abi Butcher

Europe’s first snowball fight competition took place in Avoriaz last week

Europe’s first snowball fight competition took place in the French ski resort of Avoriaz last week.

Two teams of seven players lined up for the battle — looking remarkably like American footballers — on a 40x10m pitch. The objective is to capture the flag of the opposing team. Games consist of three-minute sets, making it an intensive and explosive sport.

Any player hit by a snowball is immediately expelled. To win a set, one team must capture the other side’s flag. If this proves impossible, the winning team is the one with the most players on the pitch at the end of regulation time.

Snowball fighting, or Yuigassen, is a popular concept in Japan, where a major competition was recently held in Shikoku. Snowball fight competitions are held every year in Canada, too.

The Avoriaz match, which took place after dark last Tuesday, was conceived as a show “test match” by two Morzine-Avoriaz-Les Gets Ligue Magnus professional ice hockey club and the Black Panthers American football team from Thonon.

Watch a video of the snowball fight here

• ski
• snow
• competition
• canada
• avoriaz
• morzine

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