You know how ping pong is, essentially, a tabletop, game-room version of tennis? Well, someone applied the same concept to soccer. Teqball is the result.
Unlike table tennis, which uses a miniaturized racket and ball, the new game is played with an actual soccer ball. Yes, the same regulation ball they kick around in the turf while fans yell and get into fistfights in the stands (also, the same one they play in FootGolf). Except, instead of kicking it around a field, you kick it from your side of the table to the opposite end and brace yourself to react when the opponent sends it flying right back.
Teqball uses a specially-designed table with an arched playing surface that’s optimized to give the ball a sufficient bounce, whichever part of the table it lands on. Instead of a net dividing the two sides as with ping pong, it uses a stiff vertical board that should deliver a similarly satisfying bounce. The idea is to volley the ball back and forth, touching it with the same parts of the body allowed in soccer, with a player gaining a point whenever the opponent is unable to complete a return. Oh yeah, players can touch the ball up to three times before returning (similar to volleyball), although they can’t use the same body part two times in a row. A game ends when a player reaches 12 points.
While players themselves or a third-party can officiate games, the guys behind Teqball also have a system they’re calling the Teqbox. It’s, basically, a hardware and software system that uses sensors to monitor everything that happens in the game, allowing it to keep score, call fouls, and even compile statistics for generating detailed analytics.
You can learn more about Teqball directly from their website.