This week saw the fourth VC Cup event take place, with The Cube. This was an event based on the original TV show, in which contestants completed a series of challenges without losing all their lives.
For this event, teams met for a social evening at the Pavilion Café Bar, where they took on five different challenges.
Part one
Walk of Faith – a communication skill game, which involved a team member navigating their way around a circular path, whilst blindfolded.
Campus Coasters – a chance for staff to put their knowledge of the Canterbury campus to the test, identifying campus buildings and matching them to the correct historical figures.
The Mind – a non-verbal communication and faith game, which saw staff employ their mindreading capabilities to guess if their partner’s card was a higher or lower number than the card they held.
Speed Stack – a classic high-tension, reaction-based game, of stacking cups into a pyramid and collapsing them back down to a tower in the quickest time.
Silent Hangman – much like ‘Wordle’, teams fought it out to guess the desired word before another team for fear of losing a life!
Following a tense first round, teams headed off to Woody’s common room for the second half of the evening. On route, teams were given the chance to win a bonus point by completing a ‘Where’s Wally’ inspired scavenger hunt, in which teams needed to work together to find the five lurking faces of the Sports Development team, which had been planted along the way. In addition, a little version of this mischievous bunch, Billy, Charlie, Dean, Oli, Sam and Wally were also hidden in the picture. Can you find them?
Part two
Having arrived at Woody’s, teams were able to grab a refreshment before playing three additional challenges, this time earning lives when victorious:
Candle Blow – Here teams selected the team member with the most hot air and the potential to blow out as many candles as possible in one big puff.
Cards – A ruthless reaction game, which saw players swapping playing cards to try and obtain a set. Once a set was secured, the player was able to grab a red ball from the table which then opened up a free for all, leaving the person without a red ball in their hand out of the game!
Human knot – This saw teams perplexed and contorted as they attempted to unknot themselves before the other teams, without releasing their partner’s hands.
Following these last few challenges, teams were ranked one to fourteen based on the lives they had left, with the top 8 going through to the quarter-finals. Teams Happy Ravers and Kent Union were tied for 8th position, so a decisive and complex activity was brought in to determine which team would progress… Rock, Paper, Scissors. After a couple of nail-biting rounds, Kent Union was able to claim victory and went through to join the rest of the quarter-finalists.
A battle to the final
The quarter-finals saw teams use their super-human reflexes in a game of ‘dart catch’, with the four quickest teams to catch their dart qualifying for the semi-finals. Here teams elected a shooter and a catcher, one person to shoot a foam bullet at their partner and a brave teammate to catch the bullet either mid-flight or on the rebound. Team Liquorice All Sports showed their commitment and bravery, even after their teammate’s poor aim resulted in them taking one to the forehead! Unfortunately, teams Liquorice All Sports, Campus Sporting Exploits, Kent Business School and Finance missed out on qualification and their chance to progress to the next round of the competition.
So, with four teams remaining, Kent Union, Living La Vida Mocha, DoNATS and ToMORA Never Dies, the semi-final saw teams compete in a nerve-racking series of ‘Jenga stacks’. Teams played three variations of Jenga stacking, with ToMORA Never Dies finishing in 4th place and Living La Vida Mocha collapsing into 3rd place. This left just two teams standing strong, DoNATS and Kent Union. To determine the evening’s victor and winner of the prestigious Cube trophy, teams competed in the final event, a series of ‘Ball flick’ challenges, which saw team members tasked with flicking balls from their stands in order, by colour and in the fastest time. After a tough and close three rounds, DoNATS finally took the win, leaving Kent Union relegated to 2nd place.
A shake-up
Despite failing to reach the semi-finals, teams Liquorice All Sports, Campus Sporting Exploits and Living La Vida Mocha remain at the top of the leaderboard, with just two points separating them. The heroes of this event though have to be Kent Union, who had yet to reach the top five in any of the VC Cup tournaments to date! They clearly found their calling here, working well as a team and using their individual strengths to reach an epic final. This had propelled the team to 9th position overall, with several events still to come!
If you’re curious about the upcoming VC Cup events, check out the information webpage!