Registration began at 7 p.m. at the Wildermuth Intramural Center, and the game began at 7:30.
“The whole idea for this is to kind of start a freshman tradition,” said Kathy Bayless, executive director of Campus Recreational Sports.
Bayless said the knockout challenge will likely become an annual event in which, each year, the goal would be to break the ?record of the year before in number of participants.
“We’re trying to set the IU record to then be ?broken,” she said.
Bayless also said they may eventually try to break the Guinness World Record but that breaking the record didn’t seem like a good starting point.
In order to break a Guinness World Record it is required that participants submit video recordings of the event and heavily document proof that they broke the record.
Bayless said while that may be something fun in the future, right now it was just for fun.
Bayless said the idea was brought up last year. Each year there are changes made to programming that fall into one of two categories: new programming or program enhancement, ?she said.
Knockout was an example of new programming. Popular campus events such as battleship have been the same.
Samantha Lowry, assistant director for intramural sports, said this year the knockout challenge served largely to gauge interest to see if breaking a world record in the future would be feasible.
The game was set up in a waterfall style. If students stayed in the game, they moved on to the next hoop.
In the center of the game was a speaker attached to a mic, which Lowry used to direct students. The Recreational Sports mascot, Andi, was present, high-fiving students as they went through the game.
Approximately 60 students attended, far from the 571 participants that would be necessary to break the world record.
Additional new programs in the works for this year include bubble soccer and log rolling, Bayless said. Knockout was chosen for the event because it appeals to many students.
“I think the best part is that it’s very low skill level so that anyone can ?participate,” Lowry said.
There were 10 student staff members involved in running the event, ?Lowry said.
A number of professional staff members also attended but weren’t necessarily ?involved.
Lowry said the event was advertised mostly through word of mouth. They also chalked, made a Facebook event and e-mailed students who had participated in past Recreational Sports events.
Dalton Judd won Wednesday's competition.
Freshman Erin Butler also participated in the tournament.
“It was great,” she said.
Butler said she came to the tournament with a friend and did not expect to make it so far in the ?tournament.
Her name will be placed on a plaque on the knockout trophy, which will most likely be displayed in the WIC.
Lowry said discussion has already begun regarding when the tournament will be held next year.
She said possible times suggested have included Welcome Week or the second week of school when Lowry said students seem to be excited about being on campus.
There has also been discussion of pairing the event with RecFest.
Lowry said the rain may have had something to do with the low turnout.
“I felt like we could’ve had a few more,” she said.
She also said she thought the turnout was a positive foundation for the event that they can build on for years to come.
“You can just come, play and have a good time,” ?she said.
