About KAOS

Killing As Organised Sport

KAOS was started in New Zealand at the University of Canterbury in 1981 by Vicki Spong (AKA "Vixen") and her friends. It was also started at Williams College in the US "sometime in the '70s", but apart from the name and the game they're not related. Since that time it's spread like a humourous black stain to several other New Zealand universities.

Defining KAOS can be like trying to nail jelly¹ to a wall. There've always been the parties, the battles (pacifist warfare), the stunts and of course, the water-guns (our killing rounds are similar to Killer or TAG). Some people even claim to be able to detect a kind of KAOS accent in agents who've been around a while. But get more precise than that, and you wade in to a morass of exceptions, changing fashions², fads and fuzzy lines.

Nevertheless, a few bold agents have attempted to describe KAOS for you. Here are their works:

• The '89 Manifesto (Canterbury). We've written a lot more since, but this remains an excellent description of what we're basically about.
• Belle on KAOS
• John's Bibliography
• John's Supersoaking
• Andrew's Gothic MC (flash animation), he just might be taking the mickey...

KAOS Eagle

Image Copyright © Robert Urquhart 2003