Largest Connect Four Game Ever!

While in Midtown the United Nations debated sanctions on North Korea, in the Village NYU students participated in the largest Connect Four game ever (or at least we hope the largest ever):

Each decision was crucial. Nerves were high and the pressure was on. But it wasn’t the Superbowl or the World Series — no, this was far bigger. This was Weinstein’s version of Connect Four on Saturday in which event planners taped yellow paper to the windows of Weinstein residence hall facing University Place to replicate the board.

“It was definitely not good that they came and woke me up just to hang up things in my window,” CAS freshman Michael Bliss said of the RAs preparation for the event.

The windows in between represented the empty spaces the competitors chose where to place their “pieces” — or in this case, large sheets of red or black paper. Via cell phone, the two players chose where they wanted their pieces to fall by contacting RAs on each floor who then taped the appropriate team’s square on whoever’s window it happened to be.

“In terms of doing a good job, this is the kind of stuff we should be doing more of — using our buildings in creative ways,” Weinstein’s Community Development Educator Ryan Sylvester said. “Plus, it would be cool to say we had the largest game of Connect Four ever.”

The game started last week with the elimination of 43 players. During those rounds, games were played on traditional tabletop boards. Stern freshman Tommy Wong and CAS freshman Catherine Kelso emerged as Connect Four champions, and were then given the opportunity to rake in five million points for Weinstein’s Floor Wars, should they win the building-sized version of the game.

. . .

Trying to withstand the bitter wind across the street, Wong and Kelso battled it out with intense strategy as fellow residents cheered them on.

“This is the most exciting thing that’s happened to me this morning,” CAS freshman Gabriel Leinwand said.