Tales from the Pitch: Fanatical

While everyone is hyped about the emergence of ice hockey on Mars, I wanted to inform our readers of what has been going on during the off-season of the Mars Aero Football League. Of course, there has been some trading of players, and some new acquisitions, but I’m more fascinated by the emergence of local fan organizations throughout the settlements.

Every team has its fans, but what we saw in its infancy last season was the coming together of like minds who wished to support their team with incredible passion and overwhelming zeal. These ad-hoc groups met infrequently last season, but still enough to recognize a shared vision and during the past few months we’ve seen a solidification of club rules and the creation of local fan support groups. Wishing to know more, I decided to visit the supporters of my team, The San Olympus Titans.

Calling themselves the Cronus’s Crew, these superfans make sure that every game they are present and loudly supporting their team. The local establishment in Sans Olympus broadcasts every game and fills up with the Crew whenever they can get a ticket to one of the games. I head there to see for myself and raucous debate between fans fills the room. If I didn’t know better, I would have never suspected that MAFL was off season.

I’m greeted by three men and two women who in turn introduce me to Amzi Jones, the current President of Cronus’s Crew. They are quite the sight. Their bodies and faces are painted with Titans purple. On their heads sit a comically oversized laurel wreath in Titans gold. I was later told that they normally only dress in that fashion for a game but had wanted to give me a real feel of what the Crew can do.

Amzi tells me that they started with five or six of them meeting up to watch a game, but has quickly grown into a little under fifty card-carrying members. Whenever they attend a game, they make sure that they are the loudest, rowdiest group and that their team can hear every cheer through the spectator bus speaker systems.

It doesn’t take long for the heartache of last year’s final to come up in conversation. There are a few murmurs of how we were robbed, but the reality is that the Titans were simply too hurt, and bad luck ended an amazing inaugural season. Wanting to lighten the mood, I mention that we’ll get them this year to which the group cheered loudly and told me I was welcome back any time.

Cronus’s Crew is joined by the Golden Dragons in Huacheng, the Novyimir Dynamaniacs, and the Cometeers in Marineris. I expect more fan clubs will be popping up soon. History is filled with disturbing tales of football hooliganism, but, while Cronus’s Crew aren’t teetotallers, I didn’t get the sense that these were people out looking for a fight or would pose any concern to Mars’s security forces. These are just a bunch of fans who love their teams and who want to show it in the craziest, loudest way possible.