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Sports and Gameses
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| The Aztecs had two different games - tlachtli and
patolli. Tlachtli was a ball game that was played between teams
using rubber balls. The court was shaped like a capital I and
it was 60 meters long by 10 meters wide. One person on each team
would have to shoot the ball into a vertical hoop high over their
heads with their knees without using their hands. The hoop was
placed on opposite walls at the midpoint of the court. In a way
this game combined modern day soccer and basketball. Whichever
team made the first basket won the game. Sometimes it took hours
to complete a game. |
| The other
game, patolli, was a gambling game that was played with pebbles
and dry beans. In this game you are given six pieces to play
with and you have ten jade pebbles to gamble. The board you would
play on is an "X" divided into squares. Each player
has a home base in the middle of the "X". Now you must
decide how many jade pebbles you want to gamble on the whole
game. You are given five cacao beans with white dots painted
on them. These will be used as dice. If you get one white dot
you move one square, if you get two white dots you move two squares
and so on, but if you get all five white dots you move ten squares.
The pieces must move clockwise. To begin the game you must throw
a one. When you make it back to home base, you take that piece
off the board; your opponent owes you one jade pebble. You keep
playing until one player has lost all of his or her beans. |
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