Magical Darts Player
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Overview
The international game of darts was invented in the 14th century and was most commonly used to pass time in the military. Over many years, darts evolved, and the modern-day Unmagical version was invented in the 19th century by an Englishman named Brian Gamlin.
It was not until the early 20th century that darts entered the wizarding community. First being played in pubs and cafés, the way Unmagicals do, a passerby wizard, Gael Powell, found the game rather boring and started enchanting the darts players were throwing with.
This was quickly enjoyed by both players and audience, officially changing the game of darts within the wizarding community. Each dart was enchanted differently, making it a game of luck and skill at the same time. Wands were placed in boxes prior to a match, and the player was monitored at any given time to ensure participants did not use wandless magic.
The point of the game is to reach 301 points first, with each player having three throws per turn. When nearing the end of the game, the players have to score in the area which has the exact points they need to earn to reach 301. If a player throws more than they are supposed to, they keep their original score and have to end their turn. For example, if a player needs to score 12 points (having 289) and they score 15, they revert to having 289 points for their next turn.
Enchanted Darts
There is a wide variety of different darts, and it is never guaranteed which ones you will receive. Every throw utilises a new dart, so it has become almost impossible to cheat at the game. Some enchanted darts are the following:
Opposite throw: The dart will turn the opposite way from how it is originally thrown. If thrown to the left, the dart will turn and loop right. These darts are often marked with a yellow band around the metal. Coloured throw: The dart will only land on the colour it is marked with. Darts like these are marked with a blue band around the metal and a red, green, black or white strip in the middle of the blue band to specify the colour it will exclusively land on. Odd-Even throw: Like the coloured throw, this one will only land on an even or odd number. They are marked with a pink band and either has a 0 or a 1 written on it. 0 means an even number, and 1 means odd.
Notable Players
As darts became more popular in the world, it was no surprise when challenges and tournaments began to arise. Often played between friends or for an extremely large sum of money, it is easy to participate in a tournament.
One notable match was where two players named Arnoud and Melani had a month-long tournament. Arnoud, a Belgian dart player, had travelled to London to participate in one of the biggest darts competitions in the world. Relatively well known in the darts community, he was a fan favourite to win the tournament. Melani, a British player, only recently started to compete in tournaments. Being rather a new face, people were intrigued to see her compete. Both made it to the semi-finals and ended up against one another. The game started off very calmly, both scoring easy points and getting to low numbers within a couple of minutes. Arnoud was left with nine points to score, whereas Melani was left with six.
While this seemed to be an easy game to finish with those numbers, it was quite the opposite. Both of the players were getting extremely unlucky with their darts and kept missing their designated points over and over. It continued for such a long time that the tournament had to be put on hold as they were still competing in the semi-finals, resulting in the finals being postponed until one of these players won. As time dragged on, more people came to watch the show, in the hopes of seeing one of the players win. Exactly 27 days since the start of their semi-final, Melani had scored right in the six, winning the battle if Arnoud were to fail his throw. Ironically enough, on his last turn, Arnoud hit number nine, resulting in a draw after 27 days of consistent darts throwing.
It became world news, and both players were invited to countless interviews, often appearing in articles in random newspapers all across the world. Melani resigned from darts not too long after, as she aimed to do this for fun and did not want a repeat of their semi-final. Arnoud remained a professional darts player, winning the tournament after a mere two hour-long final.
Trivia
- You can learn about a Magical Darts Player and other careers in Magical Career Exploration classes taught by the Academics team.
