 "Photo: Brad Tollefson")
 "Photo: Brad Tollefson")
The Texas Tech campus was turned into a playing field for a game of capture the flag Sunday night.
The newly-formed Tech Capture the Flag organization meets every Sunday night at the Bookman between the University Library and the Student Union Building dividing students into two teams — a blue and orange team — for a campus-wide game. Even though the organization is new, campus-wide capture the flag games have been taking place on Tech’s campus for a couple of years.
President of Tech’s Capture the Flag organization, Anthony Carter, was one of the students who played in the first campus-wide capture the flag game at Tech. Carter, a senior exercise and sport science major from Carrollton, said the first capture the flag was after one of the football games in 2007 that he painted up for.
“After the football game people came in and asked, ‘Hey do you want to play capture the flag?’” he said, “and we played still painted up.”
Carter, also captain of the Orange Dreamsicles for the game, said the group played two games that first semester but took a break from playing because of a lack of organization within the group to coordinate other games. He said he eventually took charge and began putting up fliers around campus as well as sending Facebook invites through the Capture the Flag group page the students had created on the social-networking Web site. He said the group has increased in size.
“A lot of people play freshman year,” Carter said. “Then they get other commitments, but then we get new faces that join.”
Adam Beyer, a senior in business management from Dallas, was on his way to the library to work on homework when he passed by the group of students playing capture the flag.
Beyer said he has played with the group before and loved it.
“I usually play as much as I can, but I haven’t been able to because I’ve had a lot of midterms lately,” he said.
A first-time participant in Tech’s Capture the Flag, Chris Root, said he hadn’t heard of the group until this week. Root, a sophomore business and jewelry design and metal smithing dual major from Austin, said he has played capture the flag with church and paintball groups before. He said he will most likely continue participating in the weekly game, which he believes is exceptional in comparison to other capture the flag games he has played.
“To use the entire campus makes it a lot more fun,” he said.
Root brought a ghillie suit, which is camouflage clothing that resembles foliage, to the game Sunday night because his friends asked him to. With the suit, Root was able to disguise himself to appear as either a pile of leaves or a bush to other people. He said he has used the suit for other capture the flag games before.
“Last time I played capture the flag,” Root said, “one of the guys on the other team stepped on me because he didn’t see me.”
Isaac Whitley, a junior petroleum engineering major from Katy, played on the opposite team as Root Sunday night. Whitley said he was coming in to get the flag when he noticed Root, who he was unaware was wearing a ghillie suit. He said he was startled when Root emerged from the foliage.
“I didn’t know,” Whitley said out of breath from running across campus. “I found out really fast.”
Whitley said he had played capture the flag in elementary school and learned about Tech’s group recently through a TechAnnounce the group had sent out. Ravi Tek, a junior computer engineering major from Houston, said the Capture the Flag group has recently become an official Tech organization and therefore had gained the ability to use TechAnnounce.
Tek, vice president of Tech’s Capture the Flag organization, said he had never played capture the flag until he came to Tech. He believes the game at Tech is unique because of the campus’ size and because of the bizarre events he has witnessed.
“I had one guy who acted like a tree blowing in the wind,” Tek said. “You get some interesting stories out of it.”
Tek said he believes the weekly game can benefit students in more ways than just enjoyment. Some students learn more about the campus by participating. He has seen freshmen learn the location of certain buildings. Tek said he continues to participate in the capture the flag group in part because of his fellow students.
“I love how passionate they are cause I’m not that passionate,” Tek said. “I hate going out there when it’s cold and stuff. I like seeing their faces, it’s like Christmas morning.”
Tek said how the campus is divided between the teams depends on the amount of student participation, which varies every week. With the turnout Sunday night of about 24 students, the campus was divided east to west. If the group had been larger, the campus would have been divided north to south. He said capture the flag at Tech has developed by having more strategy, which causes each team to be craftier on where they hide their flag and jail.
Captain of the Blue Phoenixes, Michael “Shaggy” Vela, was described by fellow members of the group as a seasoned veteran. Vela, a sophomore accounting major from Wimberly, said from the current blue team, he is probably the member who has been active the longest. He said the two teams typically don’t have issues with each other and usually joke around during the game. He said the students who play capture the flag are part of the reason he continues to play every Sunday night.
“It’s just a fun way to end the weekend,” the team captain said.
Vela said he hopes the organization will continue and become a mainstay at Tech. He said capture the flag is growing popularity on other campuses, such as University of Texas and the University of North Texas.
Carter said he had heard Texas A&M has a group of students who play, but he hasn’t been able to find any more information about them. He said he also had heard there was a group of students at UT who played capture the flag and became interested in setting up a game against them.
“I found their Facebook group and got in contact with them and played them,” he said.
Carter said the team at UT may have more members, but the group lacks organization he believes Tech’s group has. Even though when the group played against the UT students in Austin last spring they lost, he said he felt if the tables were turned, the results would be different.
“If they came here,” Carter said, “I think we would have the upper hand.”
