[xmprt]

My first month of work, I inadvertently got pulled into a playing soccer with a few coworkers. I didn't know many of them but by the end of the day I felt close enough to a lot of them that I was a lot more confident talking to them whether it's for help with a product, general programming questions, or in some cases personal stuff.

I'm sure I could have cultivated those relationships over the course of working there much longer but I don't think there would be any virtual substitute for that one soccer game.

[wreath]

That was my exactly my experience. Many of those soccer team mates became the closest colleagues ive had largely BECAUSE of the time we spent winning and losing!