"I'm super excited!" said Gabe Smith, an HSS first-year, as he and the rest of Mudge's House Wars team walked along Morewood Avenue. On the opposite side of Morewood, the Forbes House residents yelled "We got shirts!" to counteract Mudge's "Whose house? Mudge House!" cheer. Dorm pride like this was infectious as first-years converged on the Cut.

In this year's annual House Wars festivities, dormitories split into groups to participate in individual events, including the wet watermelon pass, egg (ping pong ball) carry, and the three-legged race. Morale was high among all teams, and many had been taught specific cheers and floor team names by their Resident Assistants (RAs) and Orientation Counselors (OCs).

"Yeah, we're Sassy 7 E," explained Ally Naaktgeboren, an MCS first-year, as her fellow Morewood E-Tower teammates showed off their arm tattoos and t-shirts. They were especially proud of the fact that they convinced some of Morewood's boys to let them dye their hair, though they described New House's green RAs as "just nasty." Many Donner residents wrote Smurf phrases, in honor of Big Blue, on their t-shirts and arms, including, "Go Smurf Yourself!" and "Your Mom's a Smilf."

When asked whether or not being in an all-male dorm would give Hamerschlag an advantage in events like the tug-of-war, SCS first-year Carl LeCompte said, "It depends on the composition of each team."

LeCompte's fellow resident, CIT first-year Tristan Trutna, suggested something different: "It really depends on if the rope breaks," an allusion to last year's House Wars during which New House won the final tug-of-war over Hamerschlag because of just such an incident. This year, the New House RAs and OCs carried the broken rope around the Cut as a reminder of that victory.

Although overall feelings were good, some people were disappointed with aspects of House Wars.

"Waking up in the morning [was the most difficult event]," said MCS first-year Craig Reitmeyer. "And the boxed lunches could use some improvement."

Vikram Jetti, a junior at the TSB and a RA in Scobell, said that House Wars needed more OCs running the event instead of being involved in it. "They need more rigid rules," Jetti added. In particularly challenging events such as the orange pass, Jetti said, "Everyone just cheats because it's so hard."

First-years living in West Wing, Resnik, and Doherty Apartments even decided not to participate as their own team in this year's House Wars. OCs Erin Danehy, a sophomore in HSS, and Chris DeLeon, a sophomore in SCS, explained that many of the residents in their buildings either joined other dormitory teams or didn't compete in House Wars at all.

"As a group, there's only thirty of them," said Danehy.

"Maybe forty freshman at most," added DeLeon.

Against first-year dormitories like New House and Hamerschlag, those in primarily upperclassmen dorms felt outnumbered. Instead of preparing for House Wars, DeLeon and Danehy took the group out into Pittsburgh for a tour of the city and ice cream.

Forbes House residents expressed their disappointment with the selection of the two finalist dorms, Donner and Morewood, by shouting an expletive as a cheer. After House Wars ended, controversy abounded about whether or not the Head Orientation Counselors had altered the scoring method by averaging all of the dormitory floors' scores for each individual event instead of taking the best scores from the whole building, which is how finalists have been traditionally chosen in past House Wars.

Regardless of possible foul play behind the scenes, Donner and Morewood selected their twelve biggest to send to the rope for the final tug-of-war. On a countdown from five, each team heaved and held steady for quite some time as the other residents, both from their dorms and from others, cheered for them. In the end, Donner's team was able to drag Morewood's and was victorious. As they hoisted their trophy into the air, Big Blue cried out the cheer they had been repeating throughout the evening:

"U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi
You ugly! Yeah, yeah, you ugly!
M-A-M-A, how you think you got that way?
Yo' mama! Yeah, yeah, yo' mama!
D-A-DD-Y, you don't even know that guy
Yo' daddy! Yeah, yeah, yo' daddy!"