“Everything is at stake.”

As a three-time Chaos Day veteran, senior Laura DeJong is familiar with the dorm competition.

“There’s a lot riding on Chaos Day,” she said. “It sets the tone for how your dorm is perceived for the entire year.”

About 1,500 students represent their dorms by competing in a series of games, ranging from the tug-of-war to an intellectual challenge.

“It means the world,” explained John Witte, dean of residence life. “You can say that your hall won Chaos Day.”

Beets-Veenstra is looking for its third consecutive victory after winning in 2010 and 2011. But the rivalries among the dorms extend back over the heated 43-year history of the games.

Check out these stories to get a preview for each dorm:

• Beets-Veenstra
• Boer-Bennink
• Bolt-Heyns-Timmer
• Kalsbeek-Huizenga-van Reken
• Noordewier-VanderWerp
• Rooks-VanDellen
• Schultze-Eldersveld

Witte highlighted the rivalry between Schultze-Eldersveld (SE) and Beets-Veenstra (BV).

“The dorms to watch are SE, because they think they have a dynasty, and BV, because they’ve been the challenger historically,” he said.

Schultze-Eldersveld has been notorious for its Chaos Day championships, winning six of seven Chaos Days in the late ‘90s and ‘00s.

However, Beets-Veenstra has recently become a powerhouse, winning in 2010 and 2011.

And after Schultze-Eldersveld finished second to Beets-Veenstra last year, the rivalry couldn’t be more heated.

But the other five dorms aren’t willing to go down without a fight.

“[Kalsbeek-Huizenga-vanReken (KHvR)] went from dead last to third last year,” explained DeJong, a former resident assistant in KHvR. “They’ve been working all summer.”

But preparation won’t do participants much good, according to Witte.

“All the games are random and unannounced,” he explained. “We don’t match the groups with the games until that morning.”