The foosball of bars and basements has become more competitive.Getty Images
On Wednesday nights at Ottawa’s TailGators sports bar, the sound of clacking rods and ricocheting foosballs cuts through the chatter. This isn’t your typical bar game. It’s a competitive league where players, ranging from their mid-20s into their 50s, gather to showcase their skills on the bar’s six foosball tables.
“It gets pretty intense here when we have tournaments,” says TailGators’ manager, Samantha Percival.
Foosball, sometimes called table soccer, has a passionate core of players and organizers across Canada. Some are working to elevate the game to new heights, turning a pub pastime into a community-driven sport.
Leading the charge is Cam Burrows. By day, Burrows designs skateboard parks, but by night he co-runs the non-profit Canada Foosball and Canada Foosball Shop. His mission is to sell high-quality tables and reinvest the proceeds into grassroots development.
“We’ve never taken a dollar. We have full-time jobs and put everything into this side project.”
One of Burrows’ contributions is a 12-week foosball curriculum for schools that he is preparing to launch. The program goes beyond teaching kids to spin rods; it delves into the strategic, possession-based nature of competitive foosball.
“I want to offer schools a free table for one semester with a promise they’ll build a community around it,” says Burrows. “If it works, they keep it [the table].”
Burrows’ dedication to the sport is evident in his approach to gameplay. He says that at the highest level foosball demands intense skill and concentration.
“The first time I saw it live, I literally couldn’t see the ball,” he recalls. “These guys shoot so fast I didn’t even know which direction it went.”
When he’s competing, Burrows aims for what he calls “zero waste of motion”. He minimizes every movement to avoid tipping off opponents and carefully controls his wrist range, knowing that even the slightest lift can give a goalie more time to react. Other times, he’ll deliberately use shoulder movements as a bluff. “It’s all a part of the strategy,” he says.
Foosball’s origins date back to early 20th-century Europe, though its exact birthplace remains hazy. In 1923, Harold Searles Thornton patented a version in the UK, while around the same time, Frenchman Lucien Rosengart reportedly built a table to keep his children entertained during winter. The game took off in the U.S. in the 1960s, after American servicemen stationed in Germany brought it home.
By the 1970s, foosball was booming, complete with televised tournaments and a million-dollar tour. Today, the prize money is a fraction of that, often ranging in the hundreds or thousands, but people still love to compete.
Linda Ly, a five-time Tornado Foosball world champion based in Calgary, discovered her love for the game during the time she spent at the University of Calgary’s arcade.
“Partway through university, there was a tournament held on campus by Tornado Foosball. I met a bunch of the local professionals and it opened my eyes.”
Since then, she’s earned five world titles – two in women’s singles, one in women’s doubles and two in mixed doubles. Ahead of major tournaments, Ly shifts into high gear, training two to three times a week in marathon four-to-six-hour sessions, and sharpening her reflexes and mental strategy with solo drills at home. It’s an intense regimen that mirrors the precision of the game itself.
To compete at that level, even the gear matters: handle wraps for grip and a custom leather wristband for support during long matches.
“Everything’s a new puzzle to solve,” she says of foosball’s constant challenges. Among players, the game is often called “high-speed chess” – a nod to the tactical depth and breakneck speed that define the top-tier competition.
Is foosball a sport or a game? The latter, says Burrows, putting it into the same category as darts and ping pong. Whatever foosball is called, its evolution from a basement pastime to a competitive venture ensures that venues like TailGators remain vital hubs.
Over her seven years there, Percival has watched the weekly foosball crowd steadily grow, a testament to the game’s continuing draw. “My first shift here was a foosball night, and the same people are still here today,” she says. “It keeps getting more popular all the time.”
