Leave it to Carnegie Mellon students to latch onto what is perhaps the nerdiest craze sweeping the nation: dodgeball. Saturday, in the wake of the sport's 2004 namesake movie and the GSN program that raises competition to an Extreme level, Student Dormitory Council invited students to pummel their peers, old-school gym class style.

On November 20, The UniversityCenter's Weigand Gymnasium was split into far and near courts so that two matches could be held simultaneously. Each of the games was monitored by two referees. Each team played three rounds, with the first round preceded by an explanation of rules by the referees.

Six players per team were allowed on court at a time. Each game began with six balls in the middle of a neutral zone, and when the starting whistle was blown, players charged for the balls. After grabbing a ball, players had to leave the neutral zone before throwing it at a member of the opposing team. Players hit by a "fly ball" before were out — unless they were hit in the head, in which case the thrower was out. If a "fly ball" was caught, the thrower was out. "Outed" players from the catcher's team were allowed to return to the game. Players were allowed to reach over the boundary lines of the neutral zone on the side of opponents, but not to touch the ground on the other side.

Teams entered the tournament under clever names, and while some groups simply displayed their unity with similarly colored t-shirts, others wore team uniforms. The Inelastic Collisions made uniform t-shirts with, appropriately, physics related symbols.

Inelastic Collisions lost the first game of the 1 pm match on the near court. During that match, they held their own until the end, when, with only one player left on each side, they lost to Webster 2.

In their second game, Webster 2 held out with one member, Jerry Chin, on their team against five members of Inelastic Collisions. Soon, Inelastic Collisions were down to three on one. At that point, team member Teo Ifram made a non-bounce catch, bringing his teammate Eli Visbal back in the game-- only to have one of his throws caught. Finally, Visbal took out Chin for the win for Inelastic Collisions.

Inelastic Collisions won the third round with five of six members on court mostly due to catches that brought eliminated players back on court.

The second of the 1:30 matches was delayed to clean up the court after a player became sick. When it resumed, the 1:30 match on the near court degenerated into an unrestrained throwing match after a perceived miscall by the referees prompted one team to disregard the rules.

The sideline commentary brought elementary school to mind.

"Hey fifth grader! Stop picking on the third graders!" was shouted by a group of hecklers at a large player who had taken out a smaller player on the other team.

The Richards, an underdog team comprised of all first-years, took first place. The Richards team members were Mark Schumacher, Tim Sandy, Steve Blair Kevin Lipkin, Greg Collins, and Joseph Remolona. The top four teams received gift certificates to The Waterfront.

Event coordinator Jana Leong commented after the event that "all the teams really had a good time and enjoyed themselves." Given the event's success, SDC plans to hold more dodgeball competitions in the future.