By: Kaja Antic, Sports Writer
Picture this: you’re in your room at some chain hotel near Pearson International Airport, waiting for your flight home from Toronto. You turn on the sports channel, watching the Vancouver Canucks lose 5–2 to the Boston Bruins. Then, as the third period winds down, the program moves to a new sport you had never seen before.
World Chase Tag (WCT) — a televised competitive parkour tag tournament. You’re amused and confused at the same time as the fast-moving athletes cross what is essentially a playground skeleton, turning elementary school games into competitive adult athletics.
This was my experience when I first watched WCT, the event staying ingrained in my mind even after the sports channel had shifted to a Dallas Stars–Philadelphia Flyers rerun. At first, I couldn’t believe this was real, but as the program went on, I understood the basics of how the event seemed so competitive compared to the preconceived notion I had of tag.
WCT is the first and only competitive tag league in the world, and operates national, continental, and international competitions. There are multiple teams in four separate continental divisions — Europe, Middle-East & Africa, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas. WCT consists of an open league — with no strict gender requirements — and a separate women’s league.
The tournaments are held in a structure called the “Quad” — a 12×12 metre square featuring various obstacles for climbing and parkour — where each “Chase-Off” takes place.
The Chase-Off is the usual format for main WCT competitions. Each match is a best-of-16 format between two teams, both consisting of up to six athletes. In each 20-second chase, there is a chaser and an evader. If the evader lasts 20 seconds without being caught, their team earns a point and that athlete stays as the evader for the next chase. If the chaser tags the evader within 20 seconds, neither team gains a point, and the chaser takes over as the evader for the next round.
Tags must be made with the hand only, and if either athlete steps outside the Quad’s boundaries, they immediately lose that chase, resulting in either a successful tag or evasion for the opposing side. There is also a 25-second break between chases for athletes to rest and move into position for the next contest.
If a Chase-Off ends in a draw, the two teams move onto sudden death. The sudden death format is similar to the original Chase-Off, but it only consists of two 20-second chases, and doesn’t include the 25-second rest period. Whichever team has the longest evasion time in those 20 seconds wins the match. If both teams have an equal evasion time, this sudden death process is repeated.
WCT is growing rapidly in popularity, boasting over one million subscribers on their YouTube channel, with over 300 million video views. The sport has earned many exclusive televised distribution contracts such as NBC in the US, and has even collaborated with popular American content creator MrBeast. This is also a paid professional venture, as athletes earn $1,000–$5,000 a month, depending on their skill level.
There have been various re-creations trying to capitalize on Chase Tag’s popularity, such as the American reality TV show Ultimate Tag, which featured a similar competition, yet lacked the professionalism and true athleticism of WCT. This show was short-lived, only airing ten episodes in 2020, with the majority of reviews being negative. Many of these reviews even mentioned that FOX, the show’s creators, had ripped off WCT while adding unappealing WWE-esque theatrics into the mix.
The next WCT event is the WCT 6 World Championship, being held in Évry, France from April 26–28. If you’re interested in a high-stakes, quick-moving, surprisingly entertaining sport, I highly suggest you check out WCT competitions. Their aforementioned YouTube channel has hundreds of videos showing various competitions, which is a great introduction to this rapidly growing spectacle.
