Hospitality business juniors Andrew Dike, left, and Rodney Weng, right, practice their foosball skills before the foosball tournament Sept. 18, 2013, outside of Wells Hall. Rider Sandals has been touring various colleges in the East/Midwest holding foosball tournaments and will be on the West coast in the spring. The winner of the tournament wins a check for $100. Margaux Forster/The State News
When he competed in the Collegiate Foosball Tour on Wednesday, hospitality business junior Emilio Arribas was hoping not only to become the Campus Foosball Champ, but to move on to compete in national foosball tournaments.
“I love foosball, and I would have played even if the grand prize was only $10,” Arribas said. “I started getting into foosball my freshman year of college, and I aspire to be in the National Foosball Olympics someday.”
Twelve foosball enthusiasts gathered Wednesday on the lawn between the International Center and Wells Hall to compete in Rider Sandals’s Collegiate Foosball Tour.
MSU is No. 8 out of the 10 colleges Rider Sandals plans to visit this fall in the Northeast and Midwest. Rider plans to go to schools on the West Coast and in the Southeast at a later time.
“The tournament gets pretty competitive, and we have had a lot of success this fall,” said John Katsarikas, director of event marketing at The Campus Agency, the marketing firm hired by Rider.
Some students, including media and information freshman Kamen Kessler, decided to enter the tournament last minute while waiting to go to class in a nearby hall.
“I have a math class in an hour, so I thought I’d come and play foosball,” Kessler said.
The tournament winner, finance senior Alex Tomovski, received the title of Campus Foosball Champ and $100. Any student also could enter a drawing to win a pair of Rider sandals.
Tomovski said he found out about the tournament 20 minutes before it started and ended up playing with a lot of his friends.
“About a year ago my roommate bought a foosball table, so that is when I really started to get into it,” Tomovski said. “I’ve never done any competition with foosball before today.”
There also was a creativity challenge where students could take a picture with provided props and come up with a catchy saying for Rider Sandals. The photos will be uploaded to Rider’s website, and the most creative one will win a trip to Panama City Beach, Fla. for spring break, Katsarikas said.
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