Tumbang Preso

Everyone but the tagger stands behind a chalk line with one slipper each and throws it at a can whenever they like. The hard part is that the slipper has to come back, and out past the line the tagger can catch you, unless somebody has just knocked the can flying. A good round is a string of rescues: one clean hit, and everyone stranded on the court runs for home.

Who is the tagger

It starts with a hompiang round the can. Everyone picks Palm up or Palm down (Q or E, or click a card), the hands are shown together, and the smaller group plays on until exactly one hand is different: that player is the tagger. The last two play rock, paper, scissors (scissors is a click on its card). At 2 players it goes straight to that.

Throwing

• Hold Q. A meter fills over 1.2 seconds and a landing mark slides out with it. Face within about 40 degrees of a standing can and the throw goes straight at it, so the hold only sets the distance. Let go while the fill is in the green band and you hit.
• The band is narrow, never more than a fifth of a second, and narrower on a big court and from further back. You are rooted while winding up.
• R drops the throw before it leaves. Overshot the band? Cancel and go again, where a miss would cost a walk past the line.

Points

Knock the can down for 3, or 5 from behind the yellow far line, where it also rolls further. A thrower's E kicks a standing can you are right beside for 2: no meter, but you are past the line to do it. Bringing home a slipper that landed past the line is 1, and a tag is 2. Nothing is ever taken away.

The tagger

While any can is down, nobody can be tagged. The tagger has to carry it back to its chalk circle and hold it there for a second and a half, and the circle lights up gold as they do, so everyone can see how long is left.

With the can up, the tagger's E is a lunge that tags a thrower past the line within 1.6 m in front. The lunge covers ground, so a few metres away is not safe, but a miss leaves the tagger waiting a second and a half: that is when to run. A tag swaps you over: the tagged player becomes the tagger and loses their slipper, and the old tagger gets one back and is SAFE until they reach the line.

How to play it well

• Throw when slippers are out. A knock while three people are stranded rescues all three; with nobody out, it just sends you for your slipper.
• Watch the gold circle, not the tagger. When it is nearly full, be on your way back.
• A short throw is safe. It lands behind the line: no risk to fetch, and no point for bringing it home.
• As the tagger, the can comes first. You may stand it anywhere in the circle; at the back, every throw gets longer.

Wind

One round in three the Habagat, the monsoon wind, blows straight up or down the court, and pennants show which way. It moves a throw about a metre along its own line. The band and the mark ignore it, so hold past the band into a headwind and let go before it with a tailwind.

More players, more cans

Up to 8 players there is one can and one tagger. From 9 there are two of each, and either can being down stops all tagging. The court grows from 11 m by 14 m at 2 players to 21 m by 26 m at 16, where the throw to the can is about 10.6 m instead of 5.5.

The street game

Tumbang preso is played on Filipino streets with an empty can and the slippers (tsinelas) off the players' feet. The name means roughly "knock down the prisoner": the can is the prisoner, guarded by the tagger (taya), who must stand it back up after every knock before tagging anyone. The hompiang and jack en poy, the Filipino rock, paper, scissors, are how children pick who is it.