How to Play Spot the Ball?
If you find yourself wondering: What is spot the ball all about and how to play spot the ball, you have come to the right place!
If put as simply possible: In spot the ball you’re supposed to place a ball back into a picture, from which it has been removed. The name of the game itself might be a bit misleading as there’s no ball to be spotted in the image – as it indeed has been already removed. But “spot the ball” does sound nicer than “Where do you think the ball should be in this picture?”-game.
But let’s expand on the whole spot the ball process a bit further step-by-step to clarify how the process works and how to play spot the ball…
Step 1: A Picture is Chosen
The spot the ball competition organiser, or whomever provides the pictures to the organiser, first chooses a picture for the competition. Generally pictures are used in which you have multiple players and you can usually see the players’ eyes and make some sense to what is happening in the picture. This is of course so that the skillful judging and placing the spot is possible, so it’s not just complete guesswork. It is called a skill-based game after all. However, sometimes the pictures can be less clear, for example sometimes pictures are used where you can see no eyelines of the players, making spotting the ball harder.
Let’s use a picture as an example in which the player from the Blue Team is about to head or has just headed the ball. In reality this would be a very difficult picture to judge and decide where the ball is, as you cannot see the players’ eyes at all and the ball could be headed into almost any direction.
Step 2: The Ball is Removed
The ball is removed from the picture and used for the competition. This is where ‘spot the ball’ begins. Note that sometimes there might be some traces in the picture of the ball’s original location but these should be completely ignored – as the original location of the ball does not correlate with in the slightest where the winning spot will be.
Step 3: Spot the Ball Competition Begins
Your task is now to place a spot where you think the middle of the ball should be in the picture, based on what is happening in the picture. You should pay attention to everything in the picture that might be relevant for deciding where the ball should be, as such would probably be used as a part of the judging process. You can always choose to place more spots to increase your chances of winning too!
Step 4: A Winner is Chosen
The judges of the spot the ball competition decide where they think the centre of the ball is, and whoever guessed closest to the judges’ coordinates wins! It’s very important to keep in mind that the winning spot may not necessarily be anywhere near where the ball was originally in the picture. It’s all about subjectivity and how the judges with their professional expertise see the picture and where they think the centre of the ball should be in the picture.
