B5
Battle of the Bands
B1
Track and Field wins big
LIBERTY CHAMPION Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Today: P. Cloudy 68/48 Tomorrow: T. Storms 79/51
libertychampion.com
Volume 30 • Issue 21
Fun Run held at Snowflex
‘How Animals Eat T heir Food’
Jacob Tellers jtellers@liberty.edu
Liberty University Student Activities and Riverside Runners held a Fun Run Thursday, April 18 at the Snowflex Centre. According to Student Activities, the free race drew more than 50 runners from Liberty, as well as some from the surrounding community. One of the reasons The Bald to hold the race was Mountain to help runners get 10K at prepared for the upcoming Bald MounCamp tain 10K, which will Hydaway be held at Camp Hyis coming daway April 27, Student Activities said. up, The Fun Run inSaturday, volved both a 5K and April 27. a 10K race. According to Student Activities, all runners started together, but they had the option further along the trail to run on the shorter or longer path. About half of the runners opted for the 5K, while the rest ran the 10K.
FYI
See RUN, A8
Debate wins again Dylan Friberg dwfriberg@liberty.edu
The Liberty University Debate Team took home two national championship titles for their performance throughout the season, edging out Northwestern and George Mason University. Liberty topped the rankings of the American Debate Association (ADA) and the Cross-Examination Debate Association (CEDA) for the fifth consecutive year. This brings their win tally to 33 national championships since 1995, according to the Liberty News Service. According to Liberty’s Director of Debate Michael Hall, the process of planning for these debates is both rigorous and time consuming. “A lot goes into preparing for a debate, including practice speeches, practice debates, strategy work with partners and coaches, and individual time spent researching,” Hall said. “For most of our students, this amounts to 20-30 hours of work each week.” Students have a topic given at the beginning of the year that will be debated for the entire season, Hall explained. This year’s topic was the U.S. energy policy. Liberty is also vying for the top spot in the rankings of the National Debate Tournament (NDT), acording to Hall. The NDT is the third and final championship that Liberty participated in, and its
See DEBATE, A7
Courtney Russo | Liberty Champion
CREATIVE — Students Ian Deibert (left) and Nick Sjolinder (right) will be attending VidCon this summer.
Video hits 46 million views What started as a funny idea, has become a viral YouTube sensation
Melanie Oelrich moelrich@liberty.edu
The pseudonym “MisterEpicMann” may not ring many bells, but perhaps “How Animals Eat Their Food” does. What some people might not know is that the two individuals featured in the viral video are Liberty University students junior Nick Sjolinder and senior Ian Deibert. The YouTube video was posted one week ago and has already accumulated more than 46 million views. To put things in perspective, the new “Hun-
ger Games” sequel trailer, “Catching Fire,” has only gained a little more than 22 million views after six days. According to Sjolinder, he bases the ideas for his videos on improvisation. “I came up with the idea for ‘How Animals Eat Their Food’ the way that I come up with my other video ideas, which is waiting for (the idea) to pop in my head,” Sjolinder said. “I always try not to plan too much ahead for my videos.” Sjolinder and Deibert met when they were placed as roommates on Dorm 10. “We both had a crazy amount in
common, especially our love for art, media and idiotic laughter,” Deibert said. “When he started showing me his old YouTube videos he had made for his channel back in high school, I thought they were hilarious and wanted him to put them back up. He finally agreed, and since last fall, we’ve been filming new videos.” According to Deibert, the popularity of their videos is due to the rapid response from friends, relatives and “faithful” YouTube subscribers.
See YOUTUBE, A8
‘Social Scavengers’ go hunting
The School of Communication hosted the event Saturday, April 20 Daniel Bartlett dbartlett@liberty.edu
“Social Scavengers,” an event hosted by Liberty University’s School of Communication, brought in students from all majors Saturday, April 20, to compete for various prizes based on their social media involvement during the event. Beginning at 11 a.m., students registered their teams on the outside terrace of the Hancock Welcome Center, according to senior communications student and product manager for the department Ashley Thomas. Students were given the option to group into teams of two or three, or to choose to work by themselves. The hunt took six teams to nine different locations around Lynchburg, including The Drowsy Poet, City Stadium, Cinemark Movies
Nathan Rohrer | Liberty Champion
ACTIVITY — Students check in to the scavenger hunt at the Hancock Welcome Center. 10, Dickey’s and the monogram. Various clues took them around Lynchburg, and once a team arrived at the specified location, members had to take a creative photo and tweet it, according to Thomas.
“Certain locations, such as Dickey’s and Snowflex, allowed students to gain bonus points throughout the race,” she said. According to Student Assistant and General Manager of the School of Communi-
INSIDE THE CHAMPION News
Sports
Feature
The College of Osteopathic Medicine inked a five-year agreement with Centra. A3
Kyle Harvey reviews “42,” the story of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier. B1
The A.S.A.D. Fashion Show took place Saturday, April 20 in the Towns Auditorium. B8
News Opinion Sports Feature
cation Joe Marcus, in order to participate in the event, at least one team member needed a smartphone and a Twitter or Instagram account. Local businesses, such as
See HUNT, A8
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