Ready to Reslife Rumble!

On Friday, October 20, the annual Reslife Rumble took place in the Wildcat Center gym. For those who are unaware, Reslife Rumble is a dodgeball tournament between all dormitory halls. This year, there were four teams, two of which were composed of two halls each. The teams were the Commuters, the HUB, SnowView, which was composed of Snowden, and Harborview and lastly, McVillage, which consisted of McNulty and Harborside Village. This event started for the players around 11:30, in which they were supposed to be signed in. The games did not begin until about an hour later, around 12:30, though. But shortly after 12:30, the games began!

The rules for elimination were that the teams who lost twice first were out. The first battles were between SnowView vs. Commuters and the HUB vs. McVillage! The first games came out to a result of Commuters and the HUB with their first win and SnowView and McVillage on the chopping block! After these initial games, the matches continued with SnowView and McVillage going against each other to figure out who was the first team out! At the same time, Commuters and the HUB were battling it out on the opposite court. The results of the games came out to be McVillage being the first team eliminated and the HUB taking their first loss. Right after, the HUB and SnowView were up to show who could stay in the battle! With the match ending with the HUB wiping out SnowView, it left the HUB rematching the Commuters for the trophy in the best out of three battle.

With all the energy in the gymnasium, the battle between the HUB and Commuters began! These battles were the ones that took the longest to come to a decision. The first battle began with an all-out brawl between the two teams. Though the HUB had most of the crowd cheering for them, they took their first loss in a close game. With tensions high, as commentator JWU student Elijah Brown started to count down, the HUB had a false start. This led to the Commuters having the upper hand, starting with all the balls on their side of the court. Even with the Commuters having the upper hand, the HUB did not back down from the fight! Through perseverance, the HUB still had lost, leaving the Commuters the champs of this epic battle. The HUB did not leave empty-handed, though. They won the spirit stick, which gave the dorm hall a pizza party!

After the events of the battles, I had time to approach a few people at the event. First, I asked the event commentator, Elijah Brown, a few questions, to which he responded, “Seeing everyone from different halls and dancing with them was a highlight! What made me wanna come was just supporting my halls and increasing my school spirit!” It seemed as if everyone loved Eli being there, and he definitely helped increase the spirit in the gym that day! I went to the stands and asked a foreign exchange student at JWU; Isabelle Gallagher stated that she came to the event “because some of my friends were in the event and as an exchange student it is important to experience these kinds of things. I liked our team spirit as the purples (HUB) and Elijah definitely set the mood with his dancing and commentary!” Lastly, I went to who seemed like the JWU student face of the HUB, Xander Mills. He said that his “favorite part was the way it was set up with teams and the tourney style match up and it had actual rules and refs. I wanted to come because it looked like fun and a great excuse to play dodgeball with some college kids. Everyone played really hard and was actually so focused on the game, and no one wasn’t putting in 100% effort.” 

Overall, it seemed that everyone involved in this event had a blast! Next year, we assume the turnout will be bigger and that it will only get more competitive from here on out! The rumble brought a lot of spirit to the school and the students for their dorm halls! If you couldn’t make it to this year's Rumble, definitely come next year! And if you’re feeling up to it, sign up to help your dorm hall win next year!