Clash Of The Halls 2026: Recap

Friday, March 27th, marked the official end to this year’s Clash of the Halls competition. Following a week of action-packed activities and months of preparation, I had the opportunity to interview Campus Activities Board (CAB) member Eric Chen (‘27).

Day 1: 

Monday opened with movie screenings for each hall. “The screenings went very well,” said Eric, citing high engagement from the student body and “good audience retention.” CAB welcomed judges Dr. Eysturlid and Dr. Terry, whose scores both determined the final rankings as follows:

1. 1503
2. 1506
3. 1502
4. 1505
5. 1507
6. 1504
7. 1501

Despite this, some students felt that these rankings were unrealistic for 05 and 06, with a surprising win from 1503 leading to a bit of controversy to stoke the flames of competitiveness for the upcoming days.

Day 2: 

Tuesday centered around the Talent Show, where each hall performed a unique talent. Speaking about the preparations for this event, Eric mentioned a “couple of problems,” specifically with halls not having talents prepared before screening. Despite these setbacks, he wants to emphasize a “huge round of applause” for these halls for resolving their respective issues before the show. “Every single hall ended up having something to show, and all the halls had incredible talents,” said Eric.

Despite a couple of technical issues with the sound system, which Eric emphasizes were beyond the control of IMSA Student Productions (ISP), we saw a variety of interesting acts. “I never knew George Welson knew how to juggle,” Eric said—neither did I, Eric. Among these acts was 1505’s dating show, a performance that was interesting to behold. Eric himself personally performed, singing the intro song to Sofia the First alongside 1504’s Victor Fernandes, who performed Coldplay’s “Yellow.”

Judging for the Talent Show was Mr. Rodrigo Sanchez and Ms. Tracy Townsend, with the final rankings as follows:

1. 1506
2. 1505 & 1502
3. 1501
4. 1504
5. 1503
6. 1507

Day 3: 

Wednesday, which was an I-Day, was the day for judging all artistic submissions from the halls; this included the murals, hall decorations, t-shirts, and profile pictures. These were displayed in the CAC commons for students to browse during the day, and were judged by Mr. Grant Bell, Dr. Leah Kind, and Dr. Emily Gauld.

Each hall produced unique hall decorations to match their themes and colors: 1505 (DEM01LITION, Orange), 1502 (02 DOLLAR BILL, Green), 1503 (DISC03, Purple), 1504 (DR4GON, Yellow), 1505 (LOV5STRUCK, Red), 1506 (CY6ERPUNK, Blue), and 1507 (MYTHICA7 GARDENS, Pink).

1501’s display showed an overturned hall commons, with warning and construction signs plastered on the demolished furniture. In 1502, a broken-into bank vault had strewn loose bills everywhere, and in 1503, a nightclub and disco dance floor was decorated with flowing streamers and soda cans (and Molly Federici’s cardboard cutout). 1505’s hall commons featured a romantic table seating with a computer program and webcam that would calculate your compatibility with your “significant” other. In 1506, blue-accented displays of technology were placed front and center. Finally, 1507’s decorations featured an ethereal landscape with a gigantic dandelion in the center surrounded by greenery.

Mural Rankings:

1. 1506
2. 1507
3. 1503
4. 1505
5. 1502
6. 1501

T-Shirt:

1. 1506
2. 1501
3. 1507
4. 1502
5. 1503
6. 1505
7. 1504

Propics:

1. 1506
2. 1501 & 1507
3. 1505
4. 1503
5. 1504
6. 1502

Hall Decs:

1. 1505 & 1506 & 1507
2. 1503
3. 1502
4. 1501

Speaking on the final rankings, Eric mentioned that while he agreed with other students that 1505 looked to be one of the most polished murals. Yet, what ultimately hurt their ranking was how they included the other hall’s themes, which he said was an “important part of the murals.”

Day 4: 

For Thursday, students participated in a campus-wide Think Tank. This featured a big set of problems created by CAB members. Each member took one section; for example, Eric himself worked on the science section. Overall, Eric felt the questions were well-designed, with almost every problem being solved by at least one hall. He also mentioned “great participation and collaboration,” making the event very enjoyable.

The questions are shared and can be found here: https://docs.google.com/presentationd/1aW3dPlhAma0kstfkIA3hJRmApHvQod9BVvJJ1ttc8j8/

The rankings for Think Tank are as follows:

1. 1505 & 1503
2. 1504
3. 1507
4. 1506
5. 1502
6. 1501

Day 5: 

On Friday, the Clash Pep Rally took place in the main gym. The event started with the senior game, dodge ball, with the final winner being decided by a game of hot potato amongst the winning team from dodge ball. The event went smoothly, with Roy Wang stealing the show for 1505, introducing the interesting tactic of lofting the hot potato as high in the air as possible towards his opponent.

Speaking on why hot potato was used to choose the final winner, Eric mentioned that among CAB’s considerations was safety and engagement—no one would get injured playing hot potato (though it got pretty competitive at the end), and it would let every student participate. Ultimately, it made for great entertainment for the student body and ran smoothly for CAB.

Following the senior game was drill. Eric, describing his hall (1504)’s performance, was proud to see how well it turned out. “04 invested a lot of energy, and I’m glad it turned out nice,” he said. Similarly, 1506’s performance was one that “we saw coming,” explaining that 06 was “very locked in” this year on their drill performance, which featured a cohesive, well-rehearsed choreography and a large turnout.

Despite the impressive performances across the board, some technical issues affected both 1505 and 1502’s dances. To explain what went wrong, he mentioned that audio corruption for 1505’s mix was due to the file being in an M4A format and not MP3; similarly, 1502 saw issues because of a mismatch in file names, leading to the wrong mix being played. “Everything is a time crunch in March,” Eric said, explaining that despite not having the chance this year, CAB is looking to run all the songs on the speaker system in advance next year to catch these issues.

This year’s drill was judged by Dr. Patrick Buck, Dr. Brian Trainor, and Ms. Staci Marsden.

Riddle: 

Throughout the week, the halls also worked to solve CAB’s daily riddles. Eric himself designed Monday’s riddle, which, in reflection, he mentioned was “terribly designed” and that “many people struggled with it.” However, he thinks that riddle as a whole was positive because it brought out one of the best elements of clash: competitiveness. He would also like to give a kind shout-out to everyone who sacrificed their math grade for riddle.

Conclusion:

At the conclusion of the week’s festivities, the final clash rankings are:

1. 1506
2. 1505
3. 1503
4. 1502
5. 1507
6. 1501
7. 1504

Congratulations to 1506 for their win, and 1505 for their strong performance this year as well. Overall, this year’s Clash was an overwhelmingly positive experience for all students who participated, with engagement and support from the students at a high level, and a relatively strong turnout from every hall.

For Eric’s final remarks: “Thank you to all the participants, it was fun to see everyone having a good time!”