Hard and rapid throws banged against the walls as students in costumes clamored for the title of dodgeball champion at the Mashouf Wellness Center’s two-gym basketball court.
Mashouf hosted their annual costume dodgeball tournament on Thursday, consisting of eight teams. Each team got the chance to play a minimum of two games.
The winners advanced to the winners bracket, while losers fell to the losers bracket, giving them one last chance at redemption.
The winners of the tournament would each get their own swag bags including water bottles, candy and a campus recreation tote bag as well as bragging rights. Second and third place also won similar prizes.
“I’m not the greatest athlete in the world and looking around here, there are some athletic specimens,” said Tim Twok, a third-year student at SFSU. “If I can get backpacked into a championship, I’m happy with that.”
Twok dressed as a character from the Super Mario series known as Waluigi. His team, SF Baddies, was able to make it into the top four, but sadly lost against ‘$xax’aj.’
The tournament was constructed in a way so students could feel welcome to participate by showing a goofy side with their costumes.
Karina Castaneda, a fifth-year student and special events coordinator at Mashouf, believed that students felt more comfortable competing in a costume tournament.
“I know some people personally who would not join a dodgeball tournament if it wasn’t a costume,” Castaneda said. “You can get the cutest team costume or things like that so it’s just a little more fun than a regular dodgeball tournament.”
Teams let their creativity run wild with their costume choices. Some teams had themes, such as chefs, barbies and Magic Mike performers.
The SFSU women’s soccer team dressed as Magic Mike under the team name, ‘Magic Swamp.’ The team competed in the tournament the previous year but unfortunately finished in second.
“We’re really competitive all the time so it’s something other than soccer that we can compete in,” said Taylor Reed, a second-year student and forward for the SFSU women’s soccer team. “We all like to compete together and play soccer every day. We’re really connected and we just know how to get through adversity.”
In their first game, the team was able to rally back up while down three players to one. The heroics and spirit of the team motivated them to capture the win and advance to the next round.
Unfortunately, Magic Swamp was knocked out of the competition when they faced team Barbie, the runner-up of this year’s tournament.
Team Barbie faced this year’s winning team Hangover twice and lost. The inspiration for the winning team’s name came from a Hollywood movie “The Hangover,” featuring a group of friends celebrating a bachelor’s party in Las Vegas.
“Barbie was definitely the toughest team we faced,” said Jonah Roth, a fourth-year student at SFSU and member of team Hangover. “We beat them once and then we saw them in the championship again were like, ‘ah, they could give us some trouble,’ but thankfully we knocked them out pretty quick.”
Team Hangover had a strong start to the tournament beating their first opponent three times in 10 minutes.
With Roth graduating this year he hopes his team can protect their title for the foreseeable future.
“I’m gonna be gone but I sure do hope these dudes do [win] and they come with another great costume because I think we kind of killed it this year,” said Roth.
