Adidas unveiled the official “Brazuca” match ball of the World Cup on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. ET in a blown-out event, complete with light show, in Rio de Janeiro. The Brazuca will be used in every game at this summer’s 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

When designing the ball, the company wanted to improve on many of the criticisms they faced during the 2010 World Cup, where their Jabulani ball was widely panned. Dickson Etuhu of Nigeria called the Jabulani “the worst ball ever.”

Basically, the Jabulani had very few seams and was really lightweight, so it moved around like a knuckleball. Players didn’t like it. Goalies understandably hated it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAAxGbhKbIM

So Adidas basically needed to design a super-light ball (because players are demanding and jerks and want a light ball they can shoot really hard) that didn’t fly all over the place. To try and solve the problem, the company shaped the panels much like a series of interconnected boomerangs. This allows them to have only six panels but still have plenty of seams, hopefully ensuring that the ball flies truer.

Whether it works remains to be seen. For now though, they have high hopes. The company interviewed 600 players, 1/3 of whom are not contracted by Adidas, about the ball and said the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

As for the color scheme, eh. We know the youths like all these bright colors, but we’re black-and-white guys over here. (We do like the details of the stars, though, a nice homage to the ’94 Questra, AKA the best World Cup ball that ever was.)

UPDATE: Here’s video from the unveiling last night in Rio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-kdQQDYcMo