The rules
of Gridball.

Gridball is played on the Grid, a 24 × 24-foot square divided into four 12-foot quadrants: Prime, Major, Minor and Entry. Each team has two players on the Grid, one in each of two quadrants, so four players are in play at once (Rulebook 2.4).

The Prime player serves. When the ball bounces in your quadrant, you must return it into another quadrant after one bounce. Miss, and you are eliminated: the other team scores, the players below your quadrant move up the Z-path, and your team’s Next In player enters at Entry. Then Prime serves again.

Objective

Outscore the other team over four 16-minute quarters (Rulebook 2.3). Points come from Eliminations, and from holding Major (a Grid Hold) or Prime (a Gridlock) while four rounds end. A tie after the fourth quarter goes to sudden-death overtime.

24 × 24 ft

The Grid, four 12 × 12-ft quadrants

2 v 2

Players on the Grid, one per quadrant

14

Players per roster: 7 male-identifying, 7 female-identifying

4 × 16 min

Quarters, with sudden-death overtime on a tie

Where things stand: the first NGL playtest is being planned and no league match has been played yet. You can play pickup Gridball today with a playground ball and tape or chalk. The league-play standards below describe how sanctioned NGL matches are set up.

• Prime, upper left. The serving quadrant. Hold it for four rounds for a Gridlock.
• Major, upper right. Hold it for four rounds for a Grid Hold.
• Minor, lower left. A transitional quadrant with no bonus scoring.
• Entry, lower right. Where the Next In player enters the Grid.

Quadrants are spaces on the court, not player positions. Every player can expect to play all four as the rotation moves them along (Rulebook 4.2).

Markings and runoff

A solid outer boundary and two quadrant lines, 1-foot service lines in Prime, a 2-foot center circle for the coin toss, and each quadrant labeled by name (3.1.4). Keep at least 5 feet clear on every side; official NGL venues need 10 feet (3.1.5).

Grid Advantage

Before the match, the home captain calls the coin toss. The winner chooses whether to hold Grid Advantage in the first half (Quarters 1–2) or the second (Quarters 3–4); the other team holds it in the other half. At the start of that half, the Grid Advantage team’s two Starters take Prime and Major and the opponents take Minor and Entry. Quarters 2 and 4 carry on from where the previous quarter ended (2.5).

• Exactly 14 players per roster: 7 male-identifying and 7 female-identifying (4.1.1).
• No gender requirement on the Grid. Any two rostered players may be on the Grid, and anyone may be Next In. Deployment is a coaching decision.
• Two players on the Grid for each team at all times; the other 12 wait off the Grid.
• Substitutions are unlimited. After an Elimination the Next In player enters at Entry from the team’s Next In Box. A player still on the Grid may be replaced in the same quadrant only between quarters or during a timeout, and the substitute’s count starts at zero (4.3.1).
• One captain per team calls the toss and is the only player who may ask the Head Officiator to explain a ruling (4.6).
• Roster checks. A roster that does not comply is reported to the league. A team forfeits before the match only if it cannot field 7 eligible players (4.1.1, 8.5.2).

16:00

Per quarter, counting down

2 / 12 min

Break between quarters / halftime

7

Timeouts per team per match, 75 seconds each

2

Most timeouts a team may use in a quarter, or in overtime

The game clock

The clock runs only while a round is in play. It starts with each Prime serve and stops at every Elimination, timeout, challenge and official stoppage (5.1).

Time running out mid-rally: the rally is played to its end. An Elimination, and any award it completes, counts. No new round begins (5.1.1).

Timeouts

Called only between rounds: after an Elimination and before the next Prime serve (5.3). Unused timeouts carry through the match, subject to the limit of two per quarter.

• Prime serves. Whoever holds Prime serves the next round, so losing Prime means losing the serve (5.4, 6.1).
• Underhand only.
• Bounce in Prime first, then into a quadrant held by an opponent, never a teammate’s.
• 10-second serve clock. Prime must serve within 10 seconds of the Head Officiator’s serve whistle. A delay is Time Wasting (6.1.4).
• An Officiator resets the ball. The Head Officiator hands it to Prime at the start of each quarter and of overtime and after every stoppage, re-serve or replay. After an Elimination, the Officiator who made the call resets it with a hand-off or a bounce pass, crossing the Grid if needed while the ball is dead, never lobbing it over players (6.1.5).

A legal return

• Struck after the ball bounces exactly once in your quadrant.
• Lands in a different quadrant from the one it was struck from. It may go to a teammate; only the serve must go to an opponent (6.2.1).
• Played while you are inside your own quadrant. Striking with any part of the body outside it is a Foot Fault (6.2).
• Struck with open hands or forearms only (below the elbow); never a closed fist, and never caught, held, carried or thrown (6.2.4).
• A touch on any other part of the body after the bounce is an Illegal Touch, and you are eliminated (6.2.5). A ball that bounces and then hits the receiver's head or face when they weren't playing it is a Hinder and is replayed (6.2.6).
• A return that hits a player before it lands eliminates the striker, unless that player moved into its path or tried to play it; then that player is out (6.2.7).

You are eliminated if you

• fail to return the ball after it bounces once in your quadrant;
• let it bounce more than once in your quadrant;
• return it out of bounds, beyond the outer boundary;
• return it into your own quadrant, or strike it before it has bounced;
• land a serve or return on a quadrant line (a line fault);
• strike it illegally (a fist, catch, carry or throw) or commit an Illegal Touch (6.2.4, 6.2.5);
• commit a third Foot Fault, or any foul whose penalty is an Elimination (6.3.1).

Calls at the line

• The outer line is in. A ball touching the outer boundary is in play (6.5.1).
• A quadrant line is a line fault. A serve or return that lands on one of the inner lines eliminates the player who struck it, with standard rotation and 1 point to the opponents (6.5.1).
• Out of bounds is automatic. A return that lands beyond the outer boundary eliminates the player who hit it, with no warning (6.5.2).
• Outside interference is replayed. If an outside object, person or fixture interrupts a rally, it is replayed from a new Prime serve with no penalty (6.5.3).

When a player is eliminated

1. The other team scores 1 point.
2. The eliminated player leaves the Grid across the nearest outer line of their quadrant and returns to the bench.
3. Everyone below the vacancy advances one quadrant along Entry to Minor to Major to Prime, whichever team they are on. Players above the vacancy stay put.
4. The eliminated team’s Next In player enters at Entry, walking straight in from the Next In Box.
5. The round ends and a new one begins with a Prime serve (6.3.2).

+1 Elimination

Every Elimination, whichever quadrant the eliminated player held. There is one per round, because it ends the round (7.2.1).

+3 Grid Hold

The same player is still in Major when four consecutive rounds end (7.2.2).

+7 Gridlock

The same player is still in Prime when four consecutive rounds end (7.2.3).

How the counts work

• Counts belong to the player, not the team or the quadrant.
• A count goes up by one each time a round ends with that player still in Major or Prime.
• It resets only when that player is eliminated or leaves the quadrant. A player who moves in starts at zero.
• On the fourth count the team scores, and the count restarts at zero.
• All counts reset at the start of each quarter, but carry into overtime.
• One Elimination can complete an Elimination, a Grid Hold and a Gridlock at the same time, for one team or both. In overtime, all of them are added before the 2-point lead is checked (5.2, 7.2.2, 7.2.3).

The scorekeeper tracks counts and the Head Officiator signals each award; players and coaches are expected to track their own (7.2.2).