Seen At 11: Fightball Latest Craze To Hit New York City

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The game of basketball has been taken to a different level.

CBS2's Otis Livingston reported Fightball is the latest craze in the New York sports world.

The one-on-one games last eight minutes on a 40-foot court, with an eight-second shot clock, while a DJ continuously pumps up the tunes.

Fightball is the brain child of Liron Reznik and Jonas Hallberg.

"We have a soft spot for that one-on-one moment, that mano-a-mano moment," Reznik said.

Reznik described to CBS2's Livingston the unique environment fightball is played in.

"Speeding up and intensifying the game. Mashed it up with the club and created something new that gets people on fire when they are in the venue," Reznik said.

Hallberg said their friends had some doubt they could pull this off.

"They thought we were a little bit crazy, getting into a new sport is tough, but we took the challenge," Hallberg said.

Fightball is a physical, grueling sport that demands a certain mentality.

Andrew "Spongebob" Washington played eight years professionally overseas before doing a year in federal prison. Needing a way to get his life back on track, the Washington, D.C., native returned to the court.

"Things kind of got rough so when fightball came along I put everything that I went through, bottled it up, put it in a bottle, shook it up and just let it all out there when it was time to play," Washington said.

Washington became a champion by winning the first ever Fightball spring title and more than $100,000. It's a hunger and thirst to be the next winner that fuels Brooklyn's Marvin "Money Ova Fame" Roberts.

"This is my NBA. This is going to put food on the table, it's going to feed my family. It's all up to me, it's in my hands, nobody else's," Roberts said.

Fightball will be back in New York City in the fall as it hopes to go to other venues around the country.