Bruins vs. Foxes: A Recap

Reported by Isaac Gallegos

Photography by Fitsum Admasu, from unsplash.com

On Feb. 28, various students participated in Bruins vs. Foxes -- a campus wide game of infection, where one student must tag other students who will then be able to tag more.

Freshman Evie Daniels participated in the game, saying, “Bruins vs. Foxes was a school-wide game where Bruins wore bandannas on their arms or legs and foxes wore them on their heads. The fox’s goal was to tag as many Bruins as possible, and the Bruin’s goal was to survive as long as possible.” 

She continued to say that Bruins who were still alive at the end of the game would be entered into a raffle to win AirPods, iPads, among other prizes.

Foxes were students trying to tag others, while Bruins were those trying not to be tagged and turned into Foxes. The first fox was a student by the name of Zach Cogswell. Through him, other Foxes came about. Evie explained, “The game started with a secret original fox who could tag any Bruin before they knew he was even a fox. Bruins could also stun foxes for fifteen minutes if they hit them with a sock. Each Bruin would take a selfie and submit it online to receive credit for that day and get their prize.”

Many participated in the event, and students won their prizes. Daniels, while reflecting back on her experience, said, “I don’t actually know the guy who tagged me. But I was having engineering class outside and the foxes were circling us, so we asked our professor to take us inside. So we moved inside Klages and they just waited for us to be done.”

She went on, “I was basically trapped because there are three exits and there were like twelve foxes monitoring all of them. A couple of them started running so I took a chance and tried to casually go out the front but there was one dude in a hat that I didn’t see and he tagged me.”

I asked Daniels how she viewed the game overall, and whether she would consider participating in it next year if it were offered again. She said, “I liked playing, but it got a lot more fun when I became a fox. My favorite part was probably the teamwork between the foxes to try and tag all of the Bruins. And yeah, I think I’ll play next year.”

Alliances also played a big part in strategizing. Students, mostly when made a fox, would group together to find ways to tag remaining Bruins, such as Daniel’s example. With these strategies was also the detail of where foxes would hide if they wanted to tag a bruin. Some students would hide behind structures and wait for students to pass by, others would wait as an alternative exists and prey on their victims. Either way, students engaged in an outside activity that encouraged community and friendly competition.