Elon’s One Phoenix committee of the Student Government Association, which handles the homecoming court, hosted the first-ever Phoenix Feud. A Family Feud-like game tasking teams of two homecoming court candidates and three audience members to work together to win. 

The event took place at the McBride Gathering Space in the Numen Lumen Pavilion and was separated into multiple rounds, allowing many groups of candidates to play. Additional challenges were added between trivia questions to spice the game up. There was also a Kahoot as the final event to allow everyone to get to know the candidates.

Questions ranged from Elon history to questions about campus. Challenges ranged from games of rock, paper, scissors to a challenge where the contestant is tasked with getting an Oreo from their forehead into their mouth without using their hands.

Ethan Wu | Elon News Network
Senior Ella Allen attempts to eat an Oreo by moving it from her forehead to her mouth without using her hands on Oct. 7 during the first-ever Phoenix Feud centered around Homecoming trivia in McBride Gathering Space. This was one of the short games that were held if no teams answered a question correctly.

The winning group of each round all received gift cards, while the second and third place groups got to draw from a prize bin. The winner of the Kahoot won a snack box and a $30 Amazon gift card.

Elon seniors Anjolina Fantaroni and Fiona McAllister won two of three rounds, the most of the night. Fantaroni also won the final Kahoot at the end of the night. 

Fantaroni and McAllister currently serve in leadership positions at Elon News Network.

Olivia Glover, class of 2028 senator and Phoenix One co-chair said the event was based on an old trivia night Elon used to hold. Glover went on to explain how they found the event in the archives and talked with  Elon Student Involvement to bring this event back to campus. 

Ethan Wu | Elon News Network
Team Royalty Kings discusses the answer to a round one question on Oct. 7 during the first-ever Phoenix Feud centered around Homecoming trivia in the McBride Gathering Space.

Glover said the One Phoenix committee thought it would be a great way to use this idea to allow the student body to engage with the homecoming court candidates.  Glover stated that the goal for this event was to help the student body get to know the homecoming candidates before they voted. 

“I had no idea who was on the ballot besides one person so I just voted for her,” Glover said. ”The idea of this was for students to know them before they actually vote.”

Glover said she's glad that people showed up and got to meet the contestants and hopes that the next chair of One Phoenix will be inspired to continue this event next year.

“We hope that they will keep this event going,” Glover said. “A lot of the freshmen on the committee were here tonight and they had a great time with it, so hopefully one of them is inspired to do it again.”

Voting for homecoming court is currently open on Phoenix Connect and closes Oct. 10.