Lip sync battle highlights Mavsians, Student Events Team

The Student Events Team hosted its annual Homecoming lip sync battle in Bresnan arena Thursday night. Greek organizations, the Maverick Machine, Mavsians and more came together to set the stage for a night in paradise for viewers of their performance. 

The night’s theme was “Mavericks in Paradise,” but with the amount of competitiveness, only one team would end the night in true paradise.

The Mavsians topped all other participating organizations to win their second straight Homecoming lip sync competition. Using a mashup of Kendrick Lamar’s “United In Grief” as an introduction and Sam Smith and Kim Petra’s “Unholy” as their main song selection, the Mavsians captured the attention of the crowd and the judges on their way to a lip sync success.

Each team earned 150 points for participating in the event, but the top three teams earned additional points. First place took home 100 extra points, second place earned 75 and third place came away with 50 points.

Despite the light-hearted nature of the event, the rules and judging rubric contained a lot more information than what meets the eye.

Each routine needed to be within four to eight minutes long and no obscene actions or profane connotations were allowed. Judges deducted points if competitors did not have at least one person lip-syncing at all times. And if they left any items from their performance on stage, additional points would be stripped from the team. 

The judging rubric consisted of seven different aspects. Teams earned 20% of their points from their costumes or props correlating to the ‘Mavericks in Paradise’ theme. The necessity for someone to be lip-syncing at all times was doubly important, as another 20% would be given to a team if they just followed the rule. Overall performance and choreography were weighted at 15% each, and the remaining 30% was divided among originality, teamwork and knowledge of song lyrics.

As the night concluded, the participating groups were thanked for their performances and dedication to creating an outstanding performance that could have only been created by the students and organizations at Minnesota State.

Header photo: Mavsians take home their second straight lip sync victory at the annual lip sync event during MSU’s homecoming week. (Alexis Darkow/The Reporter)

Write to Hayden Lee at Hayden.lee@mnsu.edu