THE BANDOSPRAIN
CARD FOOTBALL · CALIBRO SIM · GAMES.THEBANDO.CC
SPRAIN is card-driven football. You call the play, set the coverage, and watch a deterministic simulation run it out — pursuit, coverage and penalties and all. The engine is CALIBRO. Nothing to install; the match shell is a web app.
PLAY SPRAIN
Those four counts are the live catalog: the player card list, the offensive playbook (quick game through reverse and boot), the coverage shells, and the campaign coach ladder. They will drift if the catalog grows; this page is meant to match the build.
HOW A MATCH STARTS
A campaign match is a seeded game against the next coach on the ladder. Before the opening kick you call the coin in the air — heads or tails. If you win the toss you choose kick or receive. If you lose, the other side chooses. The toss is rolled from the match seed so a given match does not flip a different face on refresh.
The first time through, SPRAIN walks a scripted unlosable intro drive: tap a play, pick up a first down, throw where the coverage bubbles are not, and finish in the end zone. That drive always scores. After that, the real sim is live.
CALLING A PLAY
On offense the call dock is a slim rail at the bottom of the field. Tap it and the hand of play cards rises over the foot of the field. Switch RUN or PASS, tap a play, and press SNAP. Each play has an energy cost; if you do not have enough, SNAP stays dead. While the ball is live the dock folds away so the field can use the height.
The playbook is the 22 CALIBRO calls: quick slants, mesh, stick, smash, flood, dig combo, four verts, play-action post, double move, RB screen, inside zone, power, outside toss, draw, QB sneak, fade, slant-flat, boot, goal line, counter, sweep left, reverse. A play is a set of routes. The intro puts it: see the arrows — that is where your guys run.
Before the snap you can assign the ball. On a run, pick the carrier — running back or quarterback. On a pass you can lock a primary (WR1, WR2, tight end, or back) or leave the read to the engine. There is also a pump-run trick: show pass routes, then the quarterback keeps after a short fake.
HOLD-TO-AIM PASSING
While a pass is live, hold a finger on the quarterback. Time slows to about a third of wall-clock speed so you can draw a trajectory. That slow-mo only changes playback pacing — the sim still steps in the same ticks, so the outcome stays deterministic. An arc is drawn toward your finger; receivers under it highlight. On release the ball is thrown at that point. Catch math still uses arm, coverage and scatter. If you never aim, the engine keeps its original auto-read.
Coverage is shown as bubbles on the field. The intro's Cover 2 line is the whole tip: those bubbles are the defense's zones — throw where they are not, not into the red. Cover 2 splits down the middle; the seam is the hole. A sack usually means the line got beat — quicker concepts get the ball out before the rush arrives.
DEFENSE
On defense there is one list of coverages instead of a RUN/PASS pair. Pick a shell and press SET DEFENSE. The eight shells in this build are Cover 0 (all-out blitz), Cover 1 (man free), Cover 2 (two deep zone), Cover 2 man, Cover 3, Cover 4 (quarters), Tampa 2 (mike runs the pipe), and nickel blitz.
DOWNS, KICKS, FOURTH DOWN
You get four downs to gain ten yards. Cross the yellow first-down marker and the count resets. Inside the 20 is the red zone; the field shrinks and the defense loads up. Reach the end zone for six, then the kick.
After your touchdown you choose: kick for one (the button on the shell quotes about 95%) or go for two (risky). When you are kicking off you choose kick deep from the 35, or onside (the button quotes about 13%). On offense, if you are in field-goal range a KICK FG button shows distance, a percentage, and +3. On last down, PUNT is there too. Fourth down is the three-way choice the coach hint names: go for it, punt to flip the field, or kick a field goal.
STAMINA, CARDS, THE LADDER
Stamina is a bottle on the dock that drains downward. A gassed card plays weaker next snap — rest it. Injured cards lose durability and heal over time, or you repair them from the collection. Copies let you level a card; the game tells you when an upgrade is ready.
Home is a ladder of 13 coaches, from Trainer Mike through Iron Crown. Play starts the seeded campaign match against the current rung. Roster, settings and saves stay in the browser unless you make the optional BANDO account.
All players, teams and coaches are fictional. No real athletes, likenesses or team marks are used.
TIPS THAT ARE JUST THE RULES
- Tap a play, then SNAP. The dock is not a second field — it hides during the play.
- On a run, pick who carries (RB or QB) before the snap if you care who gets it.
- Hold the quarterback to aim; release on the receiver you want. If you do nothing, the sim still throws.
- Throw away from red coverage bubbles. Tight coverage is a hint to look somewhere else.
- If you keep getting sacked, call a quicker concept.
- On fourth down: SNAP, PUNT, or KICK FG. Those are the three buttons the shell actually draws.