After discussing the three players pitches/courts, it became clear that games involving tactics of 2 against 3 wouldn’t undermine the bipolar tension on the pitch, as it would lead to a dynamic that is the one of bullying.

From there the idea is to reflect on group behaviors by observing made-up games involving different levels of partnership.

The multi-teams football game is played on a round pitch, with only one neutral empty goal in the middle of the circle. It has no net, but a hole large enough for the ball to get in instead. A bit like golf, somehow.
For this example let’s imagine that 7 teams of 3 players each are playing. Obviously the winning team is the one that has marked more goals than any other, which implies that there iis one winner for many loosers (instead of 1 winner/1 looser).

The Octoball game is an 8 teams of 3 players (1 stricker, 1 defence, 1 goal). The bipolar tension is now within the team itself. The winning team is the one that marks the more goals, regardless of where they put the goal.

The Decaball game is played by 10 teams (sic) of 1 player and 1 goal each. I can imagine that this version would be highly competitive.