Blaseball: Short Circuits takes the absurdist sports game back to its roots

By Giovanni Colantonio October 26, 2021

The cult hit Blaseball is returning on November 1 with a new format. Dubbed Blaseball: Short Circuits, the new season will take the sports simulator back to its basics with simplified, newcomer-friendly mechanics.

Blaseball rose to cult status in 2020 when it launched amid social lockdowns. The browser-based game is an absurdist baseball simulator where players watch a season of “blaseball” unfold over a week and bet on games. It’s a mix between an idle game and a live service game, as it contains a community-centric social component. It’s also a pseudo-horror game where players are incinerated by rogue umpires. When we last left Blaseball, the entire game had been sucked into a black hole. It’s complicated.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Blaseball: Short Circuits is described as “a low-stakes mini series of temporary universes where anything can happen.” It’ll take place over the course of two weeks, where one season of blaseball will be played a week. The game will get multiple circuits, though the full release cadence has yet to be revealed. The Game Band notes that future circuits may experiment with the format further.

The event is meant to be more welcoming for new players, with a focus on “reimagining Blaseball from the ground up.” The game will feature a “simplified” betting and election system, which is referred to as a “test.” So if you’d heard about the game previously, but felt completely lost when logging in, this should be easier to follow — in theory, at least.

It’s important to note that this is a special event, and not the full next “era” of Blaseball. Developer The Game Band will send surveys out to players after the event to gather information about how they play the game. The feedback will help shape and iterate the main game when it returns.

Naturally, we’re still left with a lot of questions — namely, what the term “temporary universes” means. We’ll find out when Blaseball: Short Circuits begins on November 1.

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Giovanni Colantonio

Section Editor, Gaming

Giovanni is a writer and video producer focusing on happenings in the video game industry. He has contributed stories to…

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