The University of Miami’s Launch Pad team won the Budgetball tournament held Saturday and will be traveling to Washington, D.C., in June for the Budgetball Championship. Thirty-two teams with up to 10 students on each team participated in the single elimination tournament.
Budgetball, similar to Ultimate Frisbee, is a new sport that combines not only physical play but also fiscal strategy. Teams score points by passing the ball to a player in the end zone, while strategically managing their Budgetbucks. Budgetbucks may be borrowed, earned or spent by taking advantages such as an extra offensive player or by taking team sacrifices like wearing oven mitts during play.
To win, the team must creatively and responsibly use debt and savings to gain sufficient advantage over their opponents and score more points.
Team Launch Pad was the only team standing at the end of the day. They used their athleticism and business-savvy techniques to accrue money and beat their components.
“We used the same type of strategy for Budgetball as we do for real companies,” said Lucas Sommer, the team’s student captain. “We planned out our long-term goals and used resource allocation to build an effective team.”
Sommer is an MBA student and employee at The Launch Pad at Toppel, a place where entrepreneurs get together and work on business plans, starting companies and Web sites. He handpicked 10 other students to be on the team including undergraduates, law students and MBA students. And he is thrilled with their win because not only do they all get to go to Washington, but they also received $750 for The Launch Pad.
“Everyone’s really excited to go to D.C. and we appreciate the opportunity,” Sommer said. “We’re glad to have won the donation and it will be used to promote the next generation of entrepreneurs at UM. We’re also happy to be representing the university in Washington.”
The championship will be held on June 13-17, where the team will compete with other schools across the country as well as members of Congress.