World Chase Tag

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World Chase Tag

Sport	Game of tag
Founded	2011; 10 years ago (2011)
Founder	Christian and Damien Devaux
TV partner(s)	NBCSN, Channel 4
Official website	www.worldchasetag.com

World Chase Tag is an international championship for competitive parkour involving the game of tag. Events are currently broadcast on NBCSN in the United States,^[1] on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom^[2] and can also be found on their social media channels.^[3] The sport's slogan is 'Keep Chasing and Don't Get Caught'.

Rules[]

Each match is contested on a 12m fixed squared perimeter known as The Quad where a number of obstacles are placed, including The Tilted Cube, The Mountain, The Loading Bay, The Ridge, The Frontline and The Sisters. A six-part series on the World Chase Tag YouTube channel details these obstacles and illustrates chase tag tactics.[1]

Detail of play:^[4]

• Two teams compete with a maximum of six players each.
• Each game consists of sixteen 20-second rounds.
• Tags count only by hand, not by foot. Foul play is strictly forbidden.
• For each 20-second round, there is a chaser from one team and an evader from the other.
• The player who wins a round stays on to evade in the next round, and the losing player is replaced by a teammate who chases.
• When a player successfully evades a tag over the full 20-second round, their team scores one point.
• The game is won by the team with the most points out of the 16 rounds.
• If a player steps off the quad, their team loses the round.

Origin, major events[]

Brothers Christian and Damien Devaux founded World Chase Tag in 2011. The inspiration for the sport came after a game of tag between Christian and his child.^[5] Since its formation the organization has hosted a number of major events. ^[6]

World Chase Tag[]

“The Storror Chase Off™” (the first version of World Chase Tag) took place at Trinity Buoy Wharf on 18 December 2016 and featured four teams in a tournament-style chase-off.^[7]

The first Semi Final was Storror .v. Marrero Gang in a single set, 16-chase match, ending with Marrero Gang taking the win 2–0.^[8]

The second Semi Final was The Untouchables .v. Fade. In the dramatic final chase of the set, Teige Mathews-Palmer managed to squeeze out an evasion to give them a 1–0 victory.^[9]

The final was contested by Marrero Gang .v. Fade in a 'best of 3-sets' match with each set consisting of 10 chases. The first set saw Fade take first blood, but Marrero Gang came back to win the set 2–1. The second set ended in a nervous 0–0 draw and in the tie-break Merraro Gang claimed victory in the second chase to win the match 2 sets to 0.^[10]

World Chase Tag 2[]

Team Marrero Gang retained their championship in the final of the organizations second major event series, as they defeated Fluidity in the final.^[11]

World Chase Tag 3[]

The organizations third major event series was held in 2018. This tournament was the first and last one with a round-robin formation before a final, being dropped for all knockout next year. The 6 teams in the tournament were Ashigaru (Germany),^[12] Ape Escape (French), UGen (England), Marrero Gang (England), Samurai 7 (Japan), The Boys (USA). Each of the 6 teams had 2 matches to play, and their results would determine who goes to the final. There were 6 total matches in the tournament, before a final.^[13]

In the first match of the group stage, Ashigaru lost 0–2 to defending champions Marrero Gang. In the second match, UGen defeated Ape Escape with a score of 2–1. In the third match, it was close for most of the match. However, in the 15th chase Ashigaru triumphed of Samurai 7. The 4th match was between The Boys and Ape Escape. This game was a 1–1 draw, and there was no Sudden-Death as that wasn't a concept yet. This match got 41 million views on YouTube (as of March 2021) and is to date the most viewed WCT match by a long shot. In the fifth match, Marrero Gang thrashed Samurai 7 4–1, thus eliminating them from WCT 3. In the last match of the tournament, UGen beat 2–1 Ape Escape in a close match. Since UGen and Marrero Gang were unbeaten in their 2 matches and the top teams on the group table, they qualified for the final. In a closely contested final, Marrero Gang won for a third consecutive year beating U-Gen by two evasions to one.^[14]

World Chase Tag 2GO Euro Championship[]

In an intense final, Team Blacklist, captained by the founder of free running and Parkour legend, Sébastien Foucan beat U-Gen to be crowned the 2GO Euro Champions.Teams in this tournament included AirMov, 5th Unit, UGen, Blacklist, Breach, EuroSquad, Motus, and Ashigaru.^[15]

World Chase Tag 4[]

World Chase Tag 4 began with a tremendous upset in the quarterfinals, as 3-time champions Marrero Gang lost to newcoming team GNF (USA).^[16] European Champions, Blacklist (France), beat Samurai (Japan) 6–0. Breach, another dominant European team- won against Eurosquad in the quarterfinals. Another upset occurred as WCT 3 finalists and European finalists, UGen (England) lost to United (France-Switzerland).^[17] The first semi-final match is widely considered to be the greatest match to date. The reigning European Champions Blacklist suffered an upset loss to United. In the other semi-final match GNF, managed to defeat Breach (England) thanks to eventual World Chase Tag USA winner, Seth Wang.^[18] In the final, United beat GNF to become WCT4 champions, but only by 1 point in the final stretches of the game.^[19] Clément Dumais, member of the United team has published a video recounting the course of this team in this championship.^[20]

The event was edited into a 1hour highlight program which was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK and NBCSN in the US.

World Chase Tag USA[]

Events for World Chase Tag USA were held at The Roxy in Atlanta, Georgia. Teams included: 5 Borough, Antidote PK, APK Blue, APK Gray, Enso Movement, GNF, Hollywood Freerunners, Hub PTC, No Cap, Ollo, SoFlo, Team Apex, Team Empire, Tempest, The Unknown Project, and Try Hard Collective.^[21]

In the group stages 4 teams were eliminated- one for each group. In Group A, pointless Enso Movement were eliminated. In Group B, highly favored Tempest went out- again with no points. In Group 3, the closest group, Empire- though with a win- still got eliminated. In Group D, fan favorite SoFlo were eliminated- with 2 losses and a sudden death win. The top 3 teams of each group headed on to the playoffs.^[22]

In the playoffs to go to the quarterfinals between 2nd and 3rd place teams in the group, The Hollywood Freerunners smashed Try Hard Collective (with Hollywood player Kyle Soberman getting a record 6 evasions in a row. The past record was 3 by many other individuals), Hub PTC upset Antidote PK in a sudden death chase off due to them being tied after 16 chases, Ollo edged No Cap in another sudden death chase off, and lastly, fan favorites APK Grey played other fan favorites 5 Borough- which ended in APK Grey winning the untimely matchup- once again because of their talisman Mark Bowles.^[23]

The series was released over an eight-week period in November and December 2020 on NBCSN in the US and Channel 4 in the UK. Team Apex beat The Hollywood Freerunners in the final to be crowned the first ever World Chase Tag USA champions.^[24]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website