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For most Australian parents, hide and seek is a children's birthday party classic: a game brought out to wear kids out and release their energy before any tantrums arrive.
But for a small but growing number of adults, the competitive version — known by its Italian name, nascondino — has given them a chance to wear the green and gold and represent Australia.
Alan Jones, the co-captain of the Australian team, the Nascondingos, said it was more complicated than the game most kids and parents are used to.
"The competitive version of the game is as much about getting back again as it is hiding," Mr Jones said.
"At first you've got a minute to go and hide, and then the seeker comes out looking for people. They come out from a giant beanbag, which is the safe zone, and start looking for people.
"If they see you, they'll call out the colour of your shirt and start running back to the safe zone.
"So if you can get back without them seeing you or if you can run faster and beat them back then you score points."
The Nascondingos were the first Australian team to head to the world championship in Italy, but co-captains Mr Jones and Stuart Dawson are only relatively recent converts.
"We had never heard about it until we heard an interview on Radio National, about a year ago," Mr Jones said.
"We like to do crazy things together, so he rang me up and he said: 'How about we have a crack at this?'"
The championship takes place each year in the town of Consonno, in the Italian region of Lombardy.
Consonno was once known as the area's "Las Vegas" for its themed buildings, until a landslide in 1976 buried the main access road, turning it into a ghost town.
The Nascondingos asked organisers whether they needed to be represented by a national sporting body or go through an approval process to enter the tournament.
"They said: 'Oh no, just enter a team,' so we did," Jones said.
"That's got to be the easiest way in the world to wear the green and gold in an international competition … ever."
Mr Jones said sporting the national colours definitely had its perks, even in a sport many would not have heard of.
"When you're leaving through an international airport in Australia, everybody assumes that when you wear the green and gold that you're from a real sporting team," he said.
"So we were taking selfies with people, and I even got an upgrade on the plane."
Many of the 79 teams at the world championships were Italian, and Jones said that in Europe there are permanent nascondino leagues.
After placing eighth overall, the Australian team is keen to see a local league here as well.
"We thought we might kick off next April or so, when the weather's right, with a few demonstration games," Jones said.
"We need a place to play — a soccer field would be perfect — and we'll need to make some obstacles and put some uniforms on and then we can have a match.
"A year ago we didn't know if we could do this, so why not?"
Topics: games, arts-and-entertainment, offbeat, human-interest, australia, italy