If you say you’ve never played it, you’re lying. The game that requires only a balloon, and with the simplest of rules—do not let it touch the floor. And now, it has an official World Cup—the Balloon World Cup.

Organized by Barcelona and former Spain football star Gerard Pique and Internet celebrity (网红) Ibai Llanos, the first tournament (锦标赛) took place in Tarragona, Spain, on an 8m×8m court, which had living room furniture and a small car as obstacles. Peru’s Francesco de la Cruz became the very first balloon world champion.

“It’s been amazing, it’s something totally different. Sometimes you have to get out of your comfort zone and try new things,” said Pique, for whom this is not the first sporting business project away from the football field—he was also behind some other sports events.

The tournament was inspired by a series of popular videos from the Arrendondo family from Oregon, United States, with brothers and sister Antonio, Diego and Isabel playing the game during Covid-19 lockdown and posting the fun on Tik-Tok. Antonio and Diego teamed up to play in the World Cup, with teams from 32 countries taking part.

“We played the game as kids, and then, during the start of quarantine (隔离) for Covid, we wanted to play it again,” Antonio said. “We started arguing with each other over whether it hit the ground or not, so we started taking videos in slow-mo (慢动作) to see if it did, and then finally it got to the point of let’s post this video of us on Tik-Tok.” “When I woke up the next morning it went viral, with a million likes, and then after that we just decided to keep playing and played more and more until one of our rounds got the attention of Ibai and Pique.” Antonio added.

De la Cruz, who beat German Jan Spiess 6-2 in the final, said: “I am very, very happy, I thank God that I have been able to achieve this.”

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