Battle Teams:

Volleyball:
It’s the mostttt, wonderful tiiiiime, of the yeeeeear… Nope, not Christmas, Battle week!!! And volleyball is always a great way to kick things off. Competition was so intense on Saturday, and some teams were so evenly matched, that we had to dig into the rule-book to resolve 3-way ties, including ties in wins, losses AND total point differential… What are the odds!

At the end of the day, this was a year of surprises, because three of the final four teams are different in 2018 vs. 2017. Sogeti surprised everyone this year with an awesome team, taking the first final four spot. Vivial was another surprise this year, barely edging out Reynolds & Reynolds Blaze for a spot in the final four. Reynolds & Reynolds Inferno had both siblings, Blaze and Ignite, cheering them on as they took the third final four spot. Finally, after Taylor Communications won a very close game against WinSupply, they fell just short in their next game, giving the last final four spot to Premier Health Blue. What a battle!!!

Join us at UD RecPlex on Monday, June 4 at 6pm to cheer on the final four, and find out who will be the 2018 volleyball champion. Sogeti will play Reynolds & Reynolds Inferno while Vivial will take on Premier Health Blue. New this year, we will have a match to determine 3rd vs. 4th place. No need to cut your fingernails, because we expect every game on Monday to be a nail-biter! ????

Miniature Golf:
Even though the initial forecast for Sunday morning showed a chance of thunderstorms, the only thunder we heard came from the echo of all the holes-in-one. Competition was fierce, yet members from four different teams played together on each hole as if they were one team. That’s our favorite part about battle!!!

And while we were all distracted with team spirit, good sportsmanship and all the colorful shirts and golf balls, BOOM, these three teams snuck in and claimed the top three spots: Reynolds & Reynolds Inferno came in 1st place with an amazing 169 combined score. Their twin Reynolds & Reynolds Blaze took 2nd with 176 and (no, not the third Reynolds team), Aerotek came in 3rd with a team score of 177 (yep, only one tiny point difference).

Swimming & Inner Tube Relays:
After a cup of coffee on Sunday afternoon (or 17 cups of coffee, depending on how much sleep you had between volleyball and mini golf ????), Battle of the Businesses continued with Swimming and Inner Tube. Our favorite part of the evening was seeing all the battle teams, put their intense competition aside for a minute, to loudly cheer for their new best friends, the Special Olympics team. After that minute was over, the battle continued.

Reynolds & Reynolds Inferno was certainly on fire, claiming 1st place in both swimming and inner tube, with a flaming fast 1:16.51 swim (six seconds from the 1:10.47 record set by Wright State in 2003) and 2:13.57 inner tube (only three seconds from the 2:10.53 record, set by Reynolds themselves in 2011). Then, you know how they say “every second counts”? Well, in this case, every 0.01 second counts… LexisNexis swam their way into 2nd place at 1:27.25, while Premier Health Blue took third with a time of 1:27.28… A difference of 0.03 seconds!!! Kettering Health Network – A came in 2nd place in inner tube at 2:19.19, while Reynolds & Reynolds Ignite was not far behind, taking 3rd place with a total time of 2:26.29.

With that, we end a wonderful and eventful Battle weekend. If you think the fun is over, think again, the forecast is heating up, and so is the competition. The Battle is always more intense when we start seeing scores. Come join us and cheer on your favorite team, (or cheer for all of them so you can’t lose!!!). Either way, see you then! ????

-Recap by Peter Qumsiyeh