The field of fourteen teams were scattered with all sorts of themes. Standouts included Team Prestige World Wide as they dressed up in resemblance to Dale and Brennan from the movie Step Brothers, Teddy and the Boyz who all wore their wrestling singlets, and Black Jesus and his Disciples which comprised of ‘disciples’ dressed in bed sheets following Mfundo Kaendera in his wig and beard. However, best dressed went to Scooby Doo Gang, a group of all senior girls dressed up as the characters from Scooby Doo, even including Scooby Doo himself and his lesser known nephew, Scrappy Doo.
The upperclassmen teams showed their superiority early on, as Team Prestige, Eastern Conference Rejects, and the Sloths all won their first two games in smashing fashion. Team Ballzagna, Duck Dynasty, and the African Militia looked to be on a Cinderella-esque run as they won their first two games as well.
The first two rounds saw two nail biters in Toon Squad facing off against Recess and the African Militia against the Sloths. After just a few minutes, Toon Squad had one player remaining (Darian Irannejad) and Recess had a lone man as well (Mitchell Jenkins). Jenkins was able to successfully weave and dodge Irannejad’s speeding passes, but a failed attempt to catch one of the opposing darts led to Jenkins and Recess’ defeat at the hands of the Toon Squad. The Sloths and African Militia saw a game of the similar fashion. Nick Kelly and Alec Hall of the Sloths remained against Kenny Afolabi-Brown of the African Militia. Afolabi-Brown was able to catch Kelly’s peg. This led to the dodging of balls from both Hall and Afolabi-Brown for a grueling length of time, until Afolabi-Brown dropped a ball he attempted to catch, giving the Sloths a narrow victory.
Teddy and the Boyz upset Team Ballzagna behind James “Teddy” Griffin’s late dodging heroics, and Duck Dynasty fell short of upsetting African Militia after Drew Byrd caught Jordan “Jballin” Stover’s age-old distraction lob attempt. Las Sirenas rolled along through their brackets, defeating One Ball to Rule Them All and Teddy and the Boyz en route to the semi-finals where they met Team Prestige, Eastern Conference Rejects, and the Sloths.
Team Prestige crushed Las Sirenas behind Luis Orellana’s outstanding dodging, catching, and willingness dive to for balls in combination with Michael Silver’s rocket of a throwing arm. The Eastern Conference Rejects came out victorious in a hard-fought battle against the Sloths with help from Leo Simon’s desire to win and extreme intensity. The final game was set with the heavily anticipated matchup of the Eastern Conference Rejects and Team Prestige.
After the Sloths came out on top of Las Sirenas in the third place game, the stage was set for the final match. The Eastern Conference Rejects gained the upper hand, eliminating Joseph Contreras almost immediately from a hard throw by Jhordan Greene. However, Team Prestige wasn’t short-handed much longer. An amazing catch by Luis Orellana eliminated Aram Sahakyan and Michael Silver took out Sami Elmaani. Team Prestige’s momentum continued to gain until Sebastian Romero took out Gabe Gomez who was the last remaining Reject, concluding the final game and bringing Team Prestige the Dodgeball Tournament title.
