Our VC Cup teams faced off in an intense head to head game of Benchball. Teams of 4 played off in a round-robin tournament of 5 minute rounds, with the aim of the game being to get all of your players on the bench alongside their goalie, moving the ball with netball style passes and daring catches from players on the bench. Play began with the referee throwing the ball up between the two centre players, following a series of passes, blocks and dodges between teams, before taking the plunge to throw a scoring shot to their goalie. If the catch was successful, they joined their team mates on the bench, if not, the ball is handed to the opposing team and the game is resumed. The matches were all-consuming when it boiled down to a 1v1 playoff, where it became a test of skill and strength to score a goal from the half way line past their opponent to the bench. We were also fortunate to collab with WorldFest for the event, and to add an element of friendly competition, we got our teams dressed up to compete as different countries.
Day one was split into two sessions, the first session (U Bunch o’ Kents as Malaysia, Infomaniacs as China, Keepers of the Keys as Germany, Sofa Sitters a Nigeria, SPPecials as India, Living La Vida Mocha as Turkey, Regulatory Rebels as Kenya, RISistence is Futile as Wales) faced off in a heated and fun tournament. Infomaniacs stormed ahead, winning all 3 of their games, putting them in 1st place in their tournament. Closely followed behind were Living la Vida Mocha, with 2 wins and 1 draw, earning them second place. U Bunch o’Kents following in 3rd with 2 wins and 1 loss.
The second session (Liquorice All Sports as Greece, Ins and Outs as UAE, Flu Fighters as England, DoNATS as France, Chipperfield Circus as Canada, Campus Sporting Exploits as Pakistan, Marlowe’s Marauders as US, Return of the Mac as Hong Kong) saw two teams in particular powering through their games, with both teams winning all their matches, Flu Fighters and Return of the Mac displayed their superb Benchball skills finishing joint 1st. Runner up was Liquorice All Sports, winning 2 but losing 1, closely followed in 3rd was Campus Sporting Exploits with 1 win and 1 drawn.
The positions for day two were established based on the results of day 1. The first session was comprised of the lower ranking teams. Keepers of the Keys flew ahead of their tournament, winning all of their games. Followed by Chipperfield Circus only losing 1 game. One tournament experienced a 4 way tie! With Risistence is Futile, Ins and Outs, Regulatory Rebels, Marlowe’s Marauders all having 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss… Incredible!
The final session was intense, it was all to play for. The games were fast paced, nail-biting and thrilling. Campus Sporting Exploits played a very good game with only one team member, then drew and lost their remaining games. Liquorice All Sports up next with their 1 win and 2 draws. Coming in at a tie were U Bunch o’Kents and Living La Vida Mocha, both yielding 2 wins and 1 loss. But nothing competes to Return of the Mac, winning all of their games on both days! Leaving them as the winners of the overall event.
Congratulations to Return of the Mac for their win in VC Cup Benchball! Securing 21 overall points with their ‘Full Team’ bonus point. In 2nd place was Living La Vida Mocha, who earned an additional bonus point for ‘Best Dressed Country’ (see above), and Infomaniacs in 3rd place. It was such a fun two days of friendly competition with everyone.
Up next in the Vice-Chancellor’s Cup is Nerf! Get ready to fight and crawl your way up the leaderboard!