Lines were spanning into Lang tunnel Tuesday night for Extreme Bingo, a tradition held by the Residence Hall Association (RHA) in partnership with UNI Dance Marathon.

“This is our biggest event; we’ve saved up specifically for this event,” said Meghan Busswitz, freshman elementary education major and director of social programming for RHA.

RHA and UNI Dance Marathon kicked up regular bingo to make it extreme. Not only were random shapes required in order to count as a bingo, sometimes participants had to fulfill tasks or answer trivia questions.

When players weren’t trying to make triangles, diamonds and random letters, they were also going for regular linear bingo – with a twist.

Participant Sarah Schoon, senior athletic training major, had to ‘twerk’ in order to obtain her prize of a water filter pitcher.

“I was a little embarrassed, but I had fun,” said Schoon.

Matt Fedro, sophomore communication and public relations major, won a new PS4 off a triangular bingo.

“I went for the Xbox One, but I had fun anyway, plus free stuff,” said Fedro, “I’d definitely go again, it was very well planned.” 

Other prizes included a Victoria’s Secret gift card, Jason Aldean concert tickets, Beats headphones and other various items.

Dance Marathon helped sponsor the event, which is why dancing was a big part of the fun that ensued that night.

When two players called a bingo at the same time, a dance-off determined who could pick a prize first. This dance-off was judged by other players cheering for their favorite contestant.

Dance Marathon also started off the night with a presentation reminding and inviting everyone to register for the upcoming Dance Marathon.

While not all walked away with prizes, many students had fun playing bingo with a twist.

“I came to have fun and I did. I knew I wouldn’t win, and I’m glad I didn’t because I’d be so embarrassed if I had to sing Whitney Houston,” said Shannon Wyman, senior graphic technology major.

“Our turnout this year was pretty good,” said Busswitz.

As RHA works with the department of residence, the rules required that winners lived on campus, though all were welcome to play. Once a player won, they could continue to play but only redeem one prize.

And since the prizes were in randomly wrapped boxes, a winner didn’t really know what they had won and were discouraged from swapping if it wasn’t to their liking.