By Marijn Thijs
A regular Saturday morning, 7 AM, in Middelburg. It may have seemed like a regular Saturday morning to the untrained eye, but in reality, it was one of the most exciting Saturday mornings of the year. Around 80 RASA Vikings boarded a bus in the early hours to defend UCR’s honor in the yearly UCSRN Tournament. Their victims: the other University Colleges tied to the UCSRN: Amsterdam, Utrecht, Leiden (in the Hague), Rotterdam and Maastricht. This year, the massive cup was going to be ours. We were armed and ready. RASA and the involved societies had been pushing to sell all the available tickets, making sure that UCR would be represented in all events, which worked out very well. Almost all spots were reserved and all available supporters tickets were also sold quickly, mainly due to the new student initiative ‘SoCheer’, which consisted of a full-blown and well-prepared cheerleading squad. Everybody on the bus was therefore very involved in the event, ready to engage in battle or shout the Vikings to victory.
The organizers, the UCSRN Board, had divided up all the events into three major categories, namely Sports, Creative and Intellectual Activities (CIA’s) and Performances. The winning team in an event would receive 6 points, the runner up 5, etcetera, all the way down to a measly 1 point to the bottom team. The introduction of an online interactive score sheet meant that participants could check their position on the total ranking at any point. Halfway through the day, the Vikings had gathered a good lead over the other University Colleges, closely followed by both LUC and AUC. However, our competition did not make it easy to keep this position.
Sports
UCR racked up a total of 29 points on the sports events. Both the basketball team and the male football team cruised to convincing victories, which could have been expected considering the intensity with which both teams had prepared themselves. The basketball team won their one important match against AUC, whilst beating the other teams quite easily. In the meantime, the male football competition proved a very interesting one; UCR won 5 out of 5 games, whilst their opposition beat each other continuously. Therefore UCR had amassed a total of 15 points, with runner-up LUC only racking up 7 points. The hockey team performed very well, not losing a single game and tying to eventual hockey champions AUC to secure second place. On both running events UCR proved a contender as well; getting the bronze medal in the 5-kilometer race and the silver medal in the 4×600 relay race, who brought a balanced and fast quartet. The female football team, the table tennis team and the volleyball team did very well to stay positive as the competition proved to be too strong. Spurred on by Viking spirit they gave all they got but eventually ended up falling short to their respective competition. UCR ended up finishing 4th in the final sports ranking, 4 points behind the number one University College.
Creative and Intellectual Activities
UCR managed to gather a total of 23 points in the 5 total CIA’s. As with sports, UCR managed two victories. Nobody could provide competition to the UCR chess duo, as they won 9 out of 10 games and finished ahead of the other chess-players by a good margin. The UCR delegate for the painting competition made such a fantastic artwork within the time frame set to earn UCR another well-deserved victory. UCR’s 48-hour movie was another Middelburgian masterpiece, even though the judges only awarded it with 2 points. The debating team meanwhile steamrolled to the finals, just missing out on the victory and coming second. The League of Legends team, who were also well-prepared, sadly slipped up a couple of times, eventually ending in a respectable 3rd place. Eventually, the 23 hard-fought points gave UCR the overall second position in the CIA category.
Performances
In the performances category, UCR has a history of performing very well. The Battle of the Bands has been UCR’s territory for years, as last years band prolonged the title won two years ago. This year, the UCR band was energetic as ever, managing getting the crowd involved without even trying due to their great song choices. This is one of UCR’s strengths; the audience is always given something to enjoy when a UCR band plays. However, this year’s funky AUC and UCM bands managed to finish ahead of the Vikings, but we were certainly not knocked off the podium as we were awarded third place. The improvisation competition was, as always, a very competitive one, which resulted in hilarious sketches. UCU got a well-deserved win as UCR finished fifth. SoCheer was one of our most important assets in the performances category; a delegation went to represent the Vikings at the dancing competition, finishing fifth. They were a major asset in the Mascot competition as well. Teddy got an immense amount of back up from the cheerleaders, as their performance included two cheers and an awesome throw. Teddy eventually finished second, but only because all our spectators were participating and there thus was not enough audience support. Other than that, the addition of the enthusiastic cheerleaders spread the RASA spirit throughout the whole day and over the entire campus. There was barely anything to separate the competitors in the performance category, as UCR was one of four UC’s to finish 2nd with 13 points.
Overall: 65 points
After the Battle of the Bands, the final results were announced, and our efforts throughout the day secured us 2nd place overall! This is a massive improvement compared to last year, when we did not manage a top-3 finish. AUC were the deserved winners, topping every category as well as winning a whopping 79 points in total. To celebrate AUC’s victory and, of course, UCR’s second place, a great Inter-UC party was in order. Everybody interacted and plenty of alcohol was flowing, ensuring a really good atmosphere until deep into the night.
The cup ended up going to Rotterdam, however, as in true UCSRN Tournament fashion the cup never stays at the UC to which it rightfully belongs. The UCSRN was an enormous success, and next year we will win it for sure (or at least take the cup home). RASA VIKINGS!
Marijn Thijs, Class of 2016, is a History, Linguistics and Economics major from Maartensdijk, the Netherlands.
