If you passed by the Junction August 21, you might have seen a bunch of giant beach balls with legs bursting out of them.  These human-like balls were part of a bubble ball tournament hosted by Mississippi State University’s Student Affairs   along     with the Black   Student Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Logan Reeves, junior industrial engineering major and Student Association secretary, refereed the event. According to Reeves, the event began around 4 p.m. and each game consisted of two teams of five people and lasted 12 minutes. 

“So basically you have these inflatable, reinforced bubbles that you put on that have a hollow inside,” Reeves said. “They have shoulder straps and handles, and you run around and play soccer in them and bounce off people – it’s a lot of fun.”

Reeves said some highlights of the Bubble Brawl, including the creative names students came up with, were enjoyable to watch.

“It was fun to see some people come up like ‘Aw yeah bubble soccer’ and about five minutes in some of them were huffing and puffing so hard we’d call half-time and watch  them throw the things off,” Reeves said. “That was fun to me just watching them have so much fun that they needed a break. It was very rewarding to see how much they were enjoying the event that the SA sponsored.”

Jaron Ritter, junior mechanical engineering major, said she was on her way to Barnes and Noble when she stopped to watch people running around in bubbles. 

“They were knocking into each other pretty hard and one girl got knocked down and had to have two people help her up,” Jaron said. “It looked like they were having a lot of fun.”

All students were welcomed to play. The students  came and signed up with their groups, then signed a liability form. Before the game started, each player would wipe his or her bubble ball down with a Clorox wipe before getting in. 

Benjamin Foster, junior business information systems and information technology services major, said he was one of the students that played in the tournament. 

“I gathered four of my fraternity brothers and headed for the Junction. We signed a waiver and wrote our team name, (A-team), then waited for our team to be called to play,” Foster said. “I climbed into the bubble and strapped on my harness. Both teams were lined up civil war style when the referee blew his whistle. I ran  full speed at the opposing team and we clashed.”

Foster said once he was knocked down, it took one minute to figure out how to get back up. He also said kicking the soccer ball proved more challenging in the Bubble Ball. At one point, he said he was convinced the temperature was 100 degrees inside the bubble.

“Everyone was sweating, and even though ‘A-Team’ didn’t score any goals, it was still a blast,” Foster said. “My team and I started walking back to the fraternity house and it was then we realized that bubble brawl took a toll on our knees. Your arms are tucked inside the bubble so you can protect your fall with your arms, so the legs were the only option.”

Foster said even though he limped for a few days, his team lost and he almost broke a leg, he thought the event was a great experiance.

Reeves said he and Roxanne Rave and Sunny Patel, directors of the research and development team committee, started seeing viral videos of Bubble Balls circulating last spring and that is where they got the idea for the “Bubble Brawl” event.

“Student Association bought the balls,” Reeves said. “We will hopefully be renting those out to different organizations on campus and using them for other events that we may have. That hasn’t been officially decided yet but that’s the plan as of now.”