UNO Tournament Held at MUB

This is an article that I wrote for TNH this week, separate from class. It was also published in the Tuesday, September 27 edition of the paper.

SIC’em held their 2^nd annual UNO Tournament Friday, September 23 in the MUB Strafford Room at 9 p.m. The original goal of this tournament was to break the UNO Tournament World Record of 350 people; however, they did not quite achieve this.

The event attracted close to 100 people, according to Dave Zamansky, the Assistant Director for Student Leadership. We were “hoping for 200,” he said, adding that the heavy rain may have reduced student turnout.

“It definitely seems to have grown since last year,” said SIC’em member, Sarah McCullagh, sophomore.

The first UNO Tournament was held last spring, during Easter weekend; only about 30 students attended. This year’s tournament has “been in the works since last year’s UNO event,” said Alex Bieniek, a SIC’em staff member.

Neither students nor staff, however, were discouraged that they were unable to surpass the record Friday night. SIC’em members have high hopes for next year’s tournament. “It’s going to be an annual thing,” said Bieniek.

SIC’em members hope that the event will continue to grow each year, eventually breaking the UNO Tournament World Record.

Bieniek considered the event a success. “The whole idea of SIC’em is to give alternative events to students.”

Students found the opportunity to break the world record appealing, but did not consider it the main reason to attend the event. Sophomores Caitlin Allaire and Emily Pelletier attended the UNO tournament more for the fun of the game than to break the record. 

Enthusiasm from students was evident from the start of the evening. After the rules were explained and the prizes were announced, Zamansky asked, “Are you ready to play?” In response, a student shouted, “Bring it!”, and game play commenced. 

The prizes of the tournament were reason enough to be enthusiastic. Students could win tickets to the Colonial Clash football game, tickets to the Frozen Fenway hockey game, a Kindle, an iPad 2, and various other prizes such as UNO card games. 

A winner from last year’s event, Dylan Ball, attended the UNO Tournament again this year; last year he won an Xbox 360.

This year’s winners included Hannah DeBenedichs, junior; Laura Higgins, freshman; and Kelly Donahue, senior. For their prizes, DeBenedichs chose the iPad 2 and Donahue chose the Colonial Clash tickets.

SIC’em is responsible for many on campus events throughout the year. We are “always looking to add more events,” said Bieniek.

Next weekend, SIC’em is sponsoring Dualing Pianos on Friday, September 30 at 9 p.m.,  along with comedian juggler Mark Nizer on Saturday, October 1 at 4:30 p.m. and comedian Jessi Campbell at 9 p.m. A complete listing of SIC’em events can be found on the UNH MUB website.

SIC'em UNO Tournament draws bigger crowd than last year