Dancing, Smashing, Shooting: Video Game Olympics

“Five minutes, people! Five minutes to keep killing and harvesting the souls of the weak!” shouted senior Chris Donaher as students competing in the Video Game Olympics fought in “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.”

The tension was palpable as sundry video game fanatics filled the rooms of Trinkle Hall’s basement last Saturday night.

Not only were GameStop and Chipotle gift cards on the line for dancing, smashing, shooting, blue turtle shelling, and slam dunking, but cold, hard cash, too.

The eight games featured in the VGO covered a range of different video game genres so that there would be at least something for everyone.

The VGO skipped last year but returned in full force, with an impressive 52 students participating.

“Everyone has a schedule and they go from one room to the next.” explained Donaher, who helped organize the VGO. Donaher assured that the process was much harder to organize than it seemed, requiring several hours of programming.

Most organizers spent all day working to set up and properly run each game.

“I will take all challengers,” said sophomore Kevin Cherniawski with a grin, demonstrating the competitive spirit of the VGO.

Taking home the bronze medal was junior Paul Longerbeam, who crushed the competition in “Mario Kart: Double Dash.”

Taking home the silver medal was the 2009 VGO gold medalist, senior Yun Kim.

“I think I did about okay,” said Kim. “I wasn’t really expecting anything because the games are different this year than previous years.”

The only man standing in his way this year was senior Matthew Presser, who took home the $100 grand prize.

“I’m going to be using my prize money for the first few payments on my fiancé’s ring. I was really happy to get this.” said Presser.

“I did this two years ago when they had the last one,” he continued. “I didn’t even get into the top three. I got the gold medal for [‘Dance Dance Revolution’] that year too, so I’m surprised I did as well as I did.”

“I’ve been playing [‘Dance Dance Revolution’] since I was 14. I even made the Free-Lance Star for it back in 2007.”

Presser sadly won’t be able to defend his title next year as he is set to graduate by next semester, but he still hopes to be a part of next year’s events. “I would like come back and help them do it. I like seeing it happen. It’s a rare thing.”