University Wrestling Tournament

At the end of a long vaccination campaign, my university had finally done it. They had successfully fully vaccinated all students, faculty, and staff. Because of this, we were all allowed back to the campus. On August 28 2021, 283 people were gathered, secure in the knowledge that most people were safe from the threat that the virus posed. (Disclaimer: even vaccinated people can still have negative effects from catching covid, even though the vaccine massively decreases the chance of negative effects. Proceed with caution and at your own risk.)

The pride of the university was the indoor gym. It was a massive place that could fit everyone inside, and as a result everyone agreed to pour in there on that day. We stood there, almost 300 people chatting about and getting to know new people. There were even some students that were starting in the upcoming fall semester and saw this as a nice opportunity to get to know the campus and student life.

I don’t know how it started but some of the guys on the wrestling team wanted to do a small tournament to get back into the mix of things. Soon enough the basketball and soccer teams also wanted in, and then the tournament allowed anyone to join and 64 guys, including me, got involved. However, before anything even started, some of the girls on the sports teams started demanding to be allowed to join, and soon enough they got the dean of students on their side. Apparently, you can’t explicitly discriminate against people based on their gender while on campus. Crazy, I know. Anyways the guys came up with a plan to not make it obvious but keep the girls out of their way.

The plan was a 128-person tournament involving 64 guys and 64 girls. In the first round, each match will be between a male and a female, and afterwards it would just be a normal round robin format. The guys thought this would just eliminate all the females at first leaving only them in the latter stages, but some of the girls thought they had decent chances if they got lucky with the draw. They also added the condition of a loser’s bracket at the request of the girls because they didn’t want to spend the entire rest of the day watching dudes wrestle if they got eliminated first round. The guys accepted but only if the losers are the ones to advance in the loser’s bracket. I guess they thought it would be hilarious to simultaneously crown the ultimate winner and ultimate loser of the university.

It was all set. 1 round of 64 intergender knockout matches, the winners of which advance to the winner’s bracket where the winners of each round advancing forward. The losers of round 1 join the loser’s bracket where the losers of each round advance to the next rounds. By the end there will be 1 winner who’s won 7 matches and 1 loser who’s lost 7.

My name is John. I’m a 23-year-old master’s student studying Brutalist and post-modern architecture. It sounds incredibly lame I know, but after graduating I had a tough time with jobs especially because of the pandemic. I consider myself a massive extrovert so not being able to see people for a long time really took its toll on my mental health. I had a one-month internship that didn’t go well, followed by 2 job opportunities that lasted a total of 5 months without much luck. After half a year of graduating, I found myself directionless and without any real work experience, so I decided to just try something new. My local university only offered graduate degrees in neo-classical and post-modern architecture, and I really hated studying neo-classical during my undergraduate period, so my fate was sealed.

I’m not the strongest guy around, but I go to the gym regularly. Most weeks once and some weeks 2-3 times if I’m feeling active, so I’ve kept in shape over the years. I stand at 5’11 and 165 pounds, which gives me some advantage going into the tournament. I didn’t think I was going to win, but I was surely making it out of the first round if I didn’t draw some gym freak. With a bit of luck, I could definitely make it to the last 16. I stood in the gym with everyone else as the draw was beginning, waiting for my name to come up so I can get to see my opponent for the first time. And then it happened.