It's a bird! No, it's a plane! No, it's a shuttlecock!

On the weekend of October 10, the UCLA Club Badminton Team hosted the annual Bruin Open held on campus at the Student Activities Gym and the Pardee Gym in the John Wooden Center.

This tournament, which has become a fixture in the badminton community has grown bigger and better than ever before in part because of its wide reach. And according to club president Janan Dea, this is what has allowed for the Bruin Open to sustain its success and gain higher prestige.

"Last I know, the tournament has been going on for at least ten years. We have officers from Northern and Southern California and with the alumni connections, the amount of connections we have allows for a community to be all over the place." said Dea "People have built friendships through badminton and they are all willing to come support this one tournament we have at UCLA."

With an opportunity to see the friendships formed, the fierce matches played and the people who are in charge of running the club having a good time, Janan is hoping that this can help boost the school's team as well. In addition, as the Bruin Open has become more prominent and offering free marketing for the sport, the hope is that the reach will extend out to the student population to drum up further interest.

"The Bruin Open advertises for the UCLA club sports. We display professional mannerisms and we show how UCLA is effective in setting up tournaments and running things. We also provide advertising for UCLA in general." said Dea "People come on campus and talk about how they have never seen a campus as great as this. So it's great to have that encouragement from people who have never been here before."      

With contestants ranging from the most advanced to novices just looking to have a good time, the Bruin Open offered it all for those interested in badminton. In addition to a vast array of skill sets, individuals from all over California and even Mexico made the trip to UCLA to compete in the tournament.

The basic format of the tournament, according to Dea, was that there were going to be 5 different tiers of competitors ranging from the 'A' level meaning the most advanced all the way down to the 'E' level, meaning those who were playing recreationally. Within each of these difficulty classifications, there were separate draws for men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles.

Fast-paced and exhilarating action across each of the eight courts which housed the different levels of players ensured that the packed house was never going to be able to catch their breath. The birdies were flying all over the gym, some so fast that I could barely see them reach the other side before they were being returned.

A standout of the tournament that caught my eye was UCLA's own Christopher Kan who competed in the Men's Doubles A division with his partner Vinson Chiu and brought home the silver medal. Despite only being a freshman, Christopher did not let the nerves get to him and competed very well throughout the entire tournament.

"No, I really didn't have nerves. I feel like I have a lot of experience playing badminton, and I used to train with that same partner (Chiu), so even though I haven't played in like three years, I still feel like we had this." said Kan "We know how to play certain shots and who can get what. Often, there are shots where it's in between two people and they don't know who is going to take it for example. So yeah, having the a familiar partner is beneficial."