Recreation in the World of Avatar

There are a large number of sports and games in the World of Avatar, created for both simple enjoyment and fierce competition. These range from the physically demanding sports such as the Air Nomads' airball or the Southern Water Tribe's ice dodging to games like Pai Sho that challenge the mind.

Many games of a particular nation incorporate that nation's native bending element into the game. For example, airbending is utilized for airball, and earthbending for earth soccer.

Airball


Played on a field of evenly spaced vertical poles, airball is a popular sport with the objective of scoring points by shooting a ball into a goal. The aforementioned goal is like a circle and spins when hit. One scores a point by either leaping from pole to pole until one is able to simply toss the ball in or by airbending the ball and causing it to ricochet and eventually enter the goal. As the game is greatly dependent on one's airbending skills, if any of the players are non-airbenders, the sport became rather one-sided and gives the airbenders an unfair advantage.

Bison polo
Bison polo is believed to be a variation of regular polo, with players riding their flying bison instead of horses.

Penguin sledding


Penguin sledding is a children's pastime in which one mounts the back of an otter penguin and sleds down hills of snow, and through natural channels carved through glaciers. It is a lot of fun for both the rider and the "sled", and is enjoyed by children of the Southern Water Tribe and possibly the Northern Water Tribe as well.

Ice dodging
Ice dodging is a rite of passage for young men in the Southern Water Tribe. When a young boy reaches the age of fourteen, his father takes him along with two others in the tribe, and lets the boy captain the boat through a series of icebergs that are difficult to maneuver through. If the boy manages to steer through, the three of them will be awarded a mark from the boy's father. The mark with a crescent moon is the Mark of the Brave, the mark with a curved line and a dot underneath is the Mark of the Wise, and the Mark of the Trusted is a curved mark.

Ice marbles
Ice marbles is a game played by the citizens of the Northern Water Tribe. The game is never shown being played, but it is noted that Sangok wished he could play ice marbles instead of attending his waterbending training.

Earth soccer


Earth soccer is a game played just like soccer, but with earthbending to guide and move the ball. Earth soccer, being a somewhat gritty sport, is commonly played by the lower-class citizens in the Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se.

Elephant koi riding
The elephant koi is a fish that resides in the Kyoshi Island bay. These gigantic koi were very friendly and did not mind taking on a passenger. Being able to hold one's breath is a must, as is keeping an eye out for the unagi, a monstrous-sized eel; if the koi gets eaten by the unagi, the rider went down with it. Aang rode an elephant koi at least twice in his life.

Redemption


A reconstructed version of the Gan Jin tribe's Redemption ritual, Aang described this game to persuade the Gan Jin and Zhang tribes to end their one hundred year feud. The story explains what "really happened" to the tribes' founding patriarchs, Jin Wei and Wei Jin. The sacred crystal orb was just a regular ball, and the Eastern and Western gates were goal posts. Jin Wei was running with the ball when he fumbled it. Wei Jin picked it up and began running the other way, but he stepped out of bounds. By rule, he was put in a penalty box for two minutes, not twenty years, as the Gan Jin had believed. Gamewise, this is a typical "run the ball to the goal" game, but with panda referees, and when a player scores a goal, everyone yells, "Redemption!" It is possible, however, that the game was make-believe, as Aang claimed to have made up the story, and no one else seemed to remember what it was.

Gliding
At the Northern Air Temple, the mechanist designed and built gliders based off the ones the Air Nomads used one hundred years ago. His gliders did not require airbending to fly, instead using a system of pipes that delivered hot air updrafts around the temple. One pilot would demonstrate a series of fancy or difficult maneuvers, and challenge another pilot to match them.

The wingspans of the mechanist's gliders were longer than those the Air Nomads used, and were rectangular to maximize lift. On the back of the glider under the tail wing is a leg 'hammock' for the pilot's feet. Teo's unique glider was connected to the footrest and the top of his wheelchair, and used two levers for steering.

Omashu mail system slide


The mail delivery system in the Earth Kingdom's city of Omashu contained miles and miles of tubes and chutes. Though not an official city sport, Bumi invented this game a hundred years ago, as he perceived that the mail system could be used as a huge slide.

Earth Rumble
This underground earthbending tournament is literally held underground in a giant earthen arena in Gaoling. The Earth Rumble competitions feature flamboyant fighters with theatrical stage names, each trying to verbally intimidate their opponent before knocking the other out of the ring with earthbending. The competition is a popular Earth Kingdom attraction; the stands at Earth Rumble VI were full except for the front rows, which were in danger of being pummeled by flying rocks and losing competitors.

Kuai ball
Kuai ball is a sport similar to volleyball, but played with the feet instead of hands. It is usually played on the beach and is popular among vacationers on Ember Island. A background in martial arts is beneficial to have to be competent against opponents.

Gambling


There are several popular types of gambling seen in the Fire Nation, including the shell game, where a dealer places a rock under one of three cups and shuffles them around, challenging the player to guess which cup contained the rock. Toph was able to fix the game by using her seismic sense to see where the rock was and prevent the dealer from fixing the game himself.

The "dice" game is similar to craps. Toph was able to use earthbending to ensure the dice landed in the combination on which she had bet.

Another game consists of a player using a hammer to hit a base that throws a puck upwards along a track. At the top is a bell. The game is won when the player strikes the base hard enough to ring the bell with the puck.

Hide and explode
Hide and explode is a children's game similar to hide and seek, but with a twist. After playing a game of "hide and explode", Aang's clothes were covered in burns, meaning that it is more than likely involves fire, but not firebending since Aang had not yet learned it.

Pai Sho


Pai Sho is a two-player strategy game, bearing resemblance to both Chinese chess and checkers. A popular pastime enjoyed by people around the world, Pai Sho is also used by the secretive Order of the White Lotus in order to identify its members by constructing a lotus pattern on the board, as shown by Iroh. The most famous Pai Sho tile is the white lotus.

"Rock, paper, scissors"-like game ("Water, earth, fire, air"-game)
The name of this game is never given, but it bears a great resemblance to rock, paper, scissors, except that it uses the four elements. As shown by Aang and Sokka's game, earth beats fire.

If earth beats fire, it can almost be sure that it uses the Avatar Cycle, which are in the order: water, earth, fire, and air. Water would beat earth, earth beats fire, as shown by Aang and Sokka, fire beats air, and air beats water. It is very likely that each hand symbol is made by one of the typical moves of the bending arts like the clenched fist, which is a frequent earthbending movement. The hand position for fire, however, seems to represent the element itself, more.

It is also shown during a flashback of Aang's, that two of the Air Nomads are playing this game and in a tie, both hold out their hands perpendicular to the ground. This seems to be air, since they are airbenders and would favor this element, and because this is a common airbending tornado technique.

Card game


This game seems similar to solitaire. The cards are the size of hanafuda cards. On each of the card faces is one of the element bending symbols: airbending, waterbending, firebending, or earthbending, and in the upper right corner is a different element symbol. The game was played by Iroh, and by Katara and Sokka; it can be played by one or two people. The setup of the cards is similar to the forty-card kabufuda deck, which have four suits of ten cards each, numbered one through ten.

Yoga
Yoga is a type of exercise and a natural therapy used for meditation, relaxation and medicinal benefits like stress reduction; it has many types of positions and respiration techniques. Yoga can be practiced next to steams; Katara and Aang practiced yoga inside of a steaming cave when Aang was stressed and restless because of the upcoming invasion of the Fire Nation.

Pro-bending


Pro-bending is a prominent sport in Republic City, involving two teams of three benders. The objective of the sport is to gain as much territory within the ring as possible within a set amount of time, or, alternatively, to push the opposing team over the edge of the ring. There is mention of a jackpot in connection with pro-bending, likely the prize in the championship tournament.