Welcome to the Progressão podcast. In Episode 187, we opened the discussion around game intelligence by revisiting the more traditional definitions of the concept — a view where game intelligence is often treated as a separate cognitive component involving perception, anticipation, and decision-making. This week, we take the discussion further. Or perhaps more accurately, we take it back to nature. What if game intelligence is not something that sits inside the player as a separate mental component? What if skilful action is better understood through the relationship between the player and the environment? In this episode, we use examples from nature — plants, box jellyfish, and wolves — to challenge the idea that intelligence must always be brain-based. From there, we move into the ecological view of football, where perception and action are inseparable, and where skill emerges through attunement to meaningful information in the environment. Drawing especially from two key propositions, we argue that game intelligence is the ability to establish a meaningful connection with the environment, and that skill learning is the process of becoming attuned to ecological information and organising action within an information-rich world. From Jari Litmanen to affordances, direct perception, and the human–environment system, this episode continues our journey toward understanding football as a living, relational, and deeply ecological phenomenon. Further reading from the ideas discussed in this episode: Bielecki, J., Dam Nielsen, S. K., Nachman, G., & Garm, A. (2023). Associative learning in the box jellyfish Tripedalia cystophora. Current Biology. Gable, T. D., Homkes, A. T., Johnson-Bice, S. M., Windels, S. K., & Bump, J. K. (2021). Wolves choose ambushing locations to counter and capitalize on the sensory abilities of their prey. Behavioral Ecology, 32(2), 339–348. Mech, L. D., Smith, D. W., & MacNulty, D. R. (2015). Wolves on the Hunt. University of Chicago Press. Segundo‐Ortin, M., & Calvo, P. (2022). Consciousness and cognition in plants. WIREs Cognitive Science, 13(2). 🌍 More at progressao.fi 🐦 Follow us on X and Instagram: @progressaofi