Every year, Dickinson Community at Binghamton University kicks off the start of spring with a weeklong competition between its buildings. This event has become known as Mutant Mania.

Mutant Mania is essentially Dorm Wars or building Olympics. However, at BU, it is weeklong and completely unique to Dickinson Community. Throughout this week, teams led by their three dedicated captains compete to see which building will eventually come out on top. All week, the five buildings are put to the test through daily challenges, special events and surprise twist.

On April 3, the annual Mutant Mania tradition began once again between Johnson Hall, Digman Hall, Rafuse Hall, O’Connor Hall and the Health and Wellness Community (HaWC), with this year’s theme being villains. From Disney villains all the way to horror villains, each of the five buildings tried its best to take home the victory through a series of challenges such as an Iron Chef cooking competition, a co-rec football game, a rap battle, a weeklong scavenger hunt and even a 4 a.m. attendance. However, the most popular, yet nerve-wracking, part of the competition are pop-ups. Pop-ups are riddles sent to the captains of each building at random times throughout the week — it could be while you are in class or even asleep. The point of these pop-ups is to solve the riddles as fast as you can, leading you to a specific spot on campus. “4×600=1600, rise and shine, time to run” sent members from all five buildings running across campus to the track at 7 a.m.

The first event of every Mutant Mania is the opening ceremony, where all buildings show off handcrafted banners and original alma mater. After the opening ceremony, Mutant Mania officially begins and starts a week full of teamwork, problem-solving, a little chaos and memories that will last a lifetime.

Although this was only a competition between the five buildings of Dickinson Community, the whole University is able to get involved. Throughout the week, BU students were able to see these events as they spread all across campus and watch while teams run around in colorful T-shirts, trying to get first place.

Each team had the support of their whole building behind them, but they wouldn’t be able to do it without their amazing spirit commanders. Billy Schiele, a senior majoring in integrative neuroscience, was a coach and captain of O’Connor Hall’s co-rec football league, and recently, one of his building’s spirit commanders.

“My job was to rally the troops within the building and get residents participating, while making sure our captains are doing their job,” Schiele said. “[Mutant] Mania is a lot of friendly competition, and I try to motivate residents to come out, try their best and see which building has the best game.”

Lauren Felle, the current student vice president of the Dickinson Town Council and a sophomore majoring in mathematics, discussed what it was like planning this year’s Mutant Mania.

“Planning [Mutant] Mania was very stressful, to say the least, but also very rewarding,” Felle said. “I personally never planned so many challenges and got to make people do crazy things I decide. It was so much fun, but I had such an amazing E-Board to lean on — it made it amazing.”

The weeklong event continued with endless surprises, challenges and pop-ups even while classes were going on, creating their own obstacle. Nonetheless, throughout the week, you could sense a feeling of excitement and compassion, knowing you have a whole community to share this experience with.

After each event, teams were scored from first to last place which would eventually lead up to closing ceremonies where the winner was announced. However, the winner of Mutant Mania earns something much more valuable than any trophy: bragging rights.

It was a suspenseful week with just a couple hundred points between Johnson Hall, O’Connor Hall and HaWC, but in the end, O’Connor Hall was the winner of this crazy competition that had consumed everyone’s lives for the past couple of days.

Kayla Kadlubowski, the vice president of public relations for O’Connor Hall and a freshman majoring in philosophy, politics and law, was one of the dedicated captains that helped lead her building to victory.

“I was so unbelievably happy we won,” Kadlubowski said. “I think it was such a mentally exhausting thing because of how dedicated we all were. I am very proud of my team because we put in so much hard work all week — we slept in the great room for the majority of the week and even took sleeping shifts. I’m just so happy.”

Although this event may seem like a lot of dedication and hard work, students all over Dickinson Community use it as an opportunity to meet new people, stay involved and be a part of such a special experience unique to BU.

If you ever become a part of Dickinson Community and find yourself involved with Mutant Mania, follow the words of Schiele.

“Drink lots and lots of water, make sure to feed and nourish yourself, get ample sleep and of course have fun!” Schiele said.