University Colleges from five different cities came together in Utrecht in the weekend of 5 and 6 May to fight out who was the best in Sports and Arts. The Inter-UC Championship started off with twenty five sleep deprived students getting out of their bed at 7 AM. Way too early for any student they would argue. An exodus followed with the result of LUC´s representation arriving right in time for sports at the Olympus sports complex in Utrecht. At arrival all became creative with different colours of face paint. As LUC was assigned the colour blue, Brave heart proved a popular theme for the different sport teams. A proper warm up followed. The Chair of Fortuna, LUC’s Student Association, Jules was doing a pretty good job at getting all our feet moving.

The sports themselves started at 10 PM. There were 4 different sports played at different locations. Hockey was played outside while volleyball, basketball and football were organised indoors. Though all students were highly motivated, they lacked the repeated training that had toughened up the other UCs for the last years. As such not many matches were ended with victory, but there was one team that stood out. While LUC became known for its underdog position, the volleyball team was able to show the other UCs what we are worth. They beat every single college and ended up in the finals. The game was thrilling beyond compare. You could heard chanting throughout the entire complex. Drums in the deep repeatedly shouting L-U-C, L-U-C. Everybody from LUC was there cheering for their team and their college. Only by bad luck was our group eventually beaten by the same team they had already swept of the field a couple of games earlier.

Half-broken from all that hard work all colleges travelled to the UCU campus grounds. They then guided us to an old barrack where we would compete in a new field: improvisation. Laura, Jori, Limo and Liam were there to represent LUC and they did a darn good job. All of them received laughs and applause many times. A final improvisation showdown between the colleges was won by our own Limo. Multiple characters were thought up on the spot and he managed to bring them all to live. His impersonation of a Latina woman was envisioned perfectly and will not soon be forgotten.

After such a long day students were getting hungry. Luckily dinner was already served in the UCU cafeteria. And how much was there to choose from! LUC doesn’t have a regular night time buffet, but at UCU there is a large diversity of dishes to choose from ranging from soup to pasta, meat to veggies, and desert to fruit.

With completely filled bellies we all returned towards the Main Stage, a grass field in the middle of the campus grounds. It was already dark when the other competitions started: the Battle of the Bands and the Chugging Competition. While we didn’t win any of them, we did manage to get second in Chugging (especially our very own Chair Jules showed very adept in making beer look like water as he chugged it away). The Battle of the Bands was very exciting as our entire band played better than ever before. Roos captured the attention with her nightingale voice, just as the team up of rapper MC Liam and Samuel, of which the latter took care of a sick beat for rapper Liam to spit his self-written lyrics on. All received well deserved large rounds of applause afterwards.

At midnight there was the highly anticipated Inter-UC Party. The theme was Arabian Nights & The Wild Wild West but was only really followed by some of our own students. Several ladies were seen in belly dancing costumes and our own treasurer Jake wore a Western outfit with both cowboy boots and suspenders. People danced the whole night through in celebration of such an awesome weekend.

Along with the sun the students rose from their improvised beds. Breakfast equalled the large amount of food available for dinner. While everybody woke slowly, preparations were made on a grass field in the middle of the campus grounds. Everybody was called to the Main Stage to witness the different Boards face off in the very first Battle of the Boards organised by Fortuna. The first match was a classic game of Tug of War. Many exciting battles ensued but LUC came out victorious. The next field in which to compete was a student version of Relay Run. All boards gathered 4 of their members on a line to race to the other side individually and let each of their members perform a different task. The first one would chug a bottle of water (Jules already showed that he mastered this and proved it here again) and run back to tag the second person. She (mandatory that it was a girl) had to knot a tie on a volunteer and tag the third person. That person had to turn 10 times around a hockey stick and run back with their world shifting around them. The final person was to undo a bra with one hand and run back to the finish. As you can see it was a true student version of Relay Run. As such everybody was cheering for their college. LUC won again which ensured their spot in the finals: a game of dodge ball. There was however a tied second place, but a final game of tug of war gave UCU the second spot in the finals over RA. The dodge ball final was the most intense and fast-paced thing any college has ever seen. Both teams lined up on one side of the field. After an intense silence a storm followed that is hard to describe. Both teams rushed towards the three balls in the middle sliding through the grass for the last meters. Red balls flew through the air and before we knew it the UCU side of the field was empty and LUC came out victorious. History was made that day, as LUC won the very first Battle of the Boards. The trophy was given to the Fortuna Board and the crowd went wild.

When the cheering had settled we went on to the final event of the Championship, namely the Inter-UC-Quiz. Again Fortuna was responsible for setting this up and the Board has assigned Limo, who earlier showed his improvisation skills, to lead as quizmaster. Statements were given and the quizmaster asked whether these were true or false. The grass pitch was divided in two sides, one side representing the answer ‘true’, the other ‘false’. Statements ranged from “The time travelling car in Back to the Future was a DeLorean” to “A round in boxing is 5 minutes long”. The final standing student would be the winner. It was such a success that we ended up doing the quiz multiple times. With over a hundred questions at the quizmaster disposal the fun was luckily able to continue.

With the Championship at an end everybody returned home exhausted but filled with a lot of new amazing experiences. Above all LUC returned with two trophies: for Painting and the Battle of the Boards. We will practise all year long to make sure we win even more trophies next year. One thing is sure: we will be back.

 

Fortuna General Board Member,
Pieter Johannes Goethart