U of T sends delegates to compete in Ottawa against law students from across the country
Between January 4–8, a team of delegates from U of T Law competed in Law Games, hosted by the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) Faculty of Law. Law Games draws student teams from law faculties across the country to compete in an annual tournament of sports and legal competitions (alongside a healthy amount of partying). Law Games is the largest annual gathering of law students in Canada. This year, the event was attended by 13 teams of students representing 14 law faculties. Students stayed at the Delta Hotel in Ottawa City Centre, with sporting events held at the uOttawa campus. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2023 was the first year that the event has run since 2020.
While some schools held competitive athletic tryouts for students to earn a spot on their teams, U of T Law had limited student interest for Law Games. This was likely due, at least in part, to the fact that Law Games overlapped with both 1L classes and the January Intersession for upper-year intensive courses this year. Due to the small number of delegates, the Toronto students, rallied together by Hamza Naim (3L), merged with students from the University of Manitoba (UM) to form a team cleverly named “Moronto.” Team Moronto was comprised of 10 U of T students and 11 UM students. What appeared at first to be an unlikely pairing of schools soon turned out to be an excellent opportunity to meet and get to know fellow law students from our neighbouring Anglophone province.
While Team Moronto did not take home any trophies, they played their hardest at the sporting events. Moronto came in second place overall in dodgeball and made it to the quarterfinals in both volleyball and soccer.
L’Université de Sherbrooke took home the Sport Cup for the greatest achievement in sporting events. Attendees voted on the winner of the Spirit Cup (awarded to the team with the greatest enthusiasm and school spirit), which ultimately went to Dalhousie University. McGill University took home the Genius Cup for winning the Legal Quiz event. The University of British Columbia was awarded the Dirty Cup in recognition of their excellence in challenges such as shot-gunning a beer before 6am, finding the most original way to sneak alcohol into the activities, doing a dance battle with another team, and receiving no complaints from the hotel. Lastly, there were two mooting competitions (Team Moronto did not participate).
Some tactics by the host school, uOttawa, were perhaps questionable. Is it really fair to include a question in the Legal Quiz that asks what year uOttawa Law was founded? (Regardless, uOttawa answered this question incorrectly.) Furthermore, the Games were hosted by uOttawa’s Civil Law program. Depending on who you ask, the Common Law program either did not want to come or was not invited.
Some members of Team Moronto decided to have a bit of fun with the uOttawa students by holding their prized red plastic chicken, Junior, hostage for the weekend. This endeavour included airdropping a ransom video to all attendees at one of the club nights. Don’t worry—Junior, affectionately nicknamed Chickie, was shown a good time and was safely returned to the uOttawa students on the final day.
Law Games delegates bravely faced their competitors and the challenges of an Ottawa winter. All attendees were given transit passes for the duration of the Games to facilitate travel between activities. This would have been very convenient, if not for the partial subway closures that persisted throughout the event. Tragedy struck when freezing rain caused the track for the Beer Mile to become completely iced over. There was no indoor backup track, so participants chose a stretch of road on which to run the event. Unfortunately, participants were not aware that this was a private road directly in front of a retirement home. Elderly residents of the home were not pleased and called security. We will have to wait until next year to crown the next Beer Mile champs.
Each night of the Games featured a party with a different theme. The themes this year were Moonlight (glow-in-the-dark), Tomorrow Land (festival/Coachella vibes), and Retro (‘80s-themed). The parties were held at clubs in downtown Ottawa. The clubs were the perfect venues for those who enjoy sticky floors and flooded washrooms. The final night featured a formal Closing Gala hosted at the hotel. The Gala was a fantastic event, nearly on-par with last year’s Law Ball. It featured a four-course meal, an awards ceremony, a photo booth, and a DJ.
In all seriousness, uOttawa were gracious hosts and the volunteers did a great job in working to make the events run as smoothly as possible, in spite of weather-related delays and the difficulties of communicating with hundreds of not-exactly-sober law students.
Hopefully, this article has sparked your interest in attending Law Games 2024. Many lawyers will tell you that Law Games was a highlight, if not the highlight, of their law school experience. Whether you’re a competitive athlete excited to play against a rival school, a social butterfly looking to expand your law student network, or just interested in partying and general antics, Law Games is the place for you. Please consider coming out next year; while there was universal agreement that the Toronto-Manitoba team mashup was a blast, it would be nice to have a better cheer than “Toronto, Manitoba, we couldn’t make our quota!”
Editor’s Note: If you are interested in becoming a member of the Law Games organizing committee or being a Team Captain at Law Games 2024, please contact Abbey Butler (2L) or Hamza Naim (3L).
