Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, and Dodge. The five most famous words ever spoken about the game we know as dodge ball. This was the headline on fliers placed in every Penn State student's on-campus mailbox in the past few weeks.

At the White Building on Saturday night, teams assembled and prepared for the war that would ensue. Teams stretched, warmed up, and talked strategy before the matches began.

The competitors at the "Duck the Balls Holiday Tournament" embraced the challenge, and were looking to have fun.

"We weren't really expecting to go all the way; we were just out to have a good time," participate Michael Renz said. "We were just happy that we got to play more than two games."

In the preliminary round, all teams (identified by a given number) played a five-game series. Depending on those results, teams were selected to move into the following rounds.

With more than 35 teams registered to play, it took many volunteers to organize and run the events. The event was created because of a classroom assignment.

"In our Recreation, Park and Tourism Management 356 class, which is event planning, we broke up into four teams," event planner Dan Joseph (sophomore -- Recreation, Park and Tourism Management) said. "We were selected to work on the LateNight Penn State sporting team. It's all under LateNight, but we decided we wanted to do a dodge ball tournament with Madden and Mario Kart video game tourneys in another room."

To get the word out to students and to boost enthusiasm, Joseph and other classmates made fliers and sent them to every mailbox on campus.

"We did a big pre-registration online and made a website along with making fliers. We got a pretty big turnout with 30 to 35 teams preregistered. We didn't know if they all would show up or not, but most did," Joseph said.

As the tournament was in progress, teams not competing and onlookers were welcomed to play badminton or table tennis and to enjoy free food presented by LateNight.

Teams were urged to dress in uniform for the tournament and many did. With costumes ranging from simple, matching colored T-shirts, matching jerseys, and even lumberjack attire, it looked as if many participants were really getting into the spirit of things.

"It looks like everyone is having a really great time," Joseph said during the tournament.

With such a response from students, there was talk of making the "Duck the Balls Holiday Tournament" an annual event.

"I'm sure we'll play if they have it again next year," Renz said, and his team agreed.