Marvelous Miracles take home Viking Games trophy

No miracles needed as captain Darrel Wilmoth and the Marvelous Miracles claim the victory in Viking Games 8, leaving defending champion Bob Pecoraro and his team of Wisdom Warriors in third place.

As the battle cry rang out across the big sports field that formed the stage for this year's Viking Games at the Calvary Chapel Scandinavia conference near Stockholm, it was initially met with laughter. "No miracles needed!" screamed the seven members of the team named the Marvelous Miracles, with a confidence that initially did not seem to impress the five other rival teams in the minutes before the 8th edition of Viking Games kicked off.

But it would not be long before the competing teams, one by one, would begin to feel the superiority and determination of the Marvelous Miracles, led by team captain Darrel Wilmoth. As the six teams, all given names inspired by the second half of 1 Corinthians, competed in activities like beach volleyball, football, relays and various water balloon battles it quickly became clear that three teams stood out in the overall battle for the Viking Games trophy.

In the end captain Darrel Wilmoth and the Marvelous Miracles came out triumphant with more points than team Healer's Heat led by Simeon Fuchs, who finished second, and the defending champion Bob Pecoraro and his team Wisdom Warriors. In spite of winning the final captain's showdown contest, captain Bob could not prevent overall defeat. The Marvelous Miracles took home the trophy as Darrel Wilmoth collected his first ever Viking Games championship as captain.

"We certainly lived up to our team name more than our team battle cry, that's for sure. It was a really tough competition this year, so it may have been a miracle that we won the whole thing. But it was very exciting to hear our team name being called out when the winners were announced. It was fun. Viking Games is always fun," says Darrel Wilmoth, who - when he's not unleashing his inner viking - is the pastor of Calvary Front Range in Colorado, USA.

Trophy travels to Colorado
Viking Games 8 had another historic touch to it as it featured the first ever all-women's team, the Veils of Victory. In spite of putting up a valiant fight, the Veils of Victory came up just short in several competitions - and had the last inches and a little bit of luck been on their side their overall points tally would have been much higher.

In the end the trophy will now spend a year in Colorado with captain Darrel Wilmoth, who will return next year to defend the title.

The final scores in Viking Games 8:

141 points - Marvelous Miracles
123 points - Healer's Heat
113 points - Wisdom Warriors
85 points - Tongues of Thunder
40 points - Invincible Interpreters
40 points - Veils of Victory

The Viking Games is an annual tradition at the Calvary Chapel Scandinavia conferences, which started in 2008 and has since been staged each year. It's a fun way for conference participants to take a break from all the sitting down at teaching sessions and get to know new people (or new sides of familiar people) through competitive comradery.

Click on the fact box on the right to see all previous winners of Viking Games.

Click here or on the video below to see the Viking Games 8 film:


2015 Conference - Viking Games 8 from Calvary Chapel Scandinavia on Vimeo.


2015 Conference - Viking Games 8 (news report) from Calvary Chapel Scandinavia on Vimeo.

Captain Bob and Axes of Agape triumph in Viking Games 7

There will never be a closer winning margin than the one deciding this year's Viking Games. One point was all that separated the winning team from the runners-up as the team Axes of Agape came out on top, thus ending a long title drought for team captain Bob Pecoraro.

Six teams played in Viking Games 7 on Friday afternoon at the Calvary Chapel Scandinavia Conference 2014, competing in various activites such as beach volleyball, water balloon duals, a custom-made form of baseball, and relay races.

After years of failed attempts at Viking Games glory, Bob Pecoraro can finally call himself a champion after he eventually led his team, Axes of Agape, to victory in this year's tournament, finishing only a point ahead of the team Death by Smorgasbord, led by captain Johan Wikfeldt.

"It was due. Last year I came so close, so this win gets that Viking Games monkey off my back. My thoughts go out to Johan and his team for coming in just one point short. I've been there. But our win was a great team effort; we took all those water balloon hits, dominated the volleyball court, and ran all those yards to bring this trophy home," says Bob Pecoraro, who - when he's not exercising his athletic skills - pastors CC Turku in Finland.

Captain Homerun
Bob proved his worth by raking in the points at the custom-made Baseball contest, batting several homeruns for his team, and by winning the captains' javelin contest at the end. He showed high form from start to finish, becoming the sixth captain in history to lead a team to a Viking Games championship (see infographic below).

His team consisted of Alex Lahtinen, Sara Fuchs, Mouritz Fuchs, Helge Rasmussen, Toni Alajärvi, Maria Bentz, and Anniina Vahala.

The final scores of Viking Games 7:

129 points - Axes of Agape (captain Bob Pecoraro)
128 points - Death by Smorgasbord (captain Johan Wikfeldt)
113 points - Rimbo Raiders (captain Joel Wickström)
110 points - Moose Mafia (captain Simeon Fuchs)
83 points - Disciple This (captain Kyle Bentz)
74 points - Pillaging Prophets (captain Darrel Wilmoth)

The Viking Games is an annual tradition at the Calvary Chapel Scandinavia conferences, which started in 2008 and has since been staged each year, each time with more and more participants joining in. It's a fun way for conference participants to take a break from all the sitting down at teaching sessions and get to know new people (or new sides of familiar people) through competitive comradery.

Click here or on the video below to see the Viking Games 7 film:


2014 Conference - Viking Games 7 from Calvary Chapel Scandinavia on Vimeo.

Rockers of Rome claim Viking Games 6 trophy

Viking Games 6 will go down as one of the most epic contests so far in the tournament's young history. Winning his second title in two years, captain Nate Holdridge led the Rockers of Rome to viking glory after a closely-fought showdown with the runners-up.

40 centimeters. That was the distance between success and failure in Viking Games 6 as it all came down to one final sprint between two of the leading team captains. Although all the six teams in this year's Viking Games (by now a trademark tradition at the annual Calvary Chapel Scandinavia conferences) competed in three different disciplines, the deciding (and defining) moment of Viking Games 6 came when Rockers of Rome captain Nate Holdridge edged himself over the finish line only an arm's length ahead of Antioch Adrenaline captain Bob Pecoraro in what will forever now be known as "The Sprint".

Former team-mates turned rivals
With the points difference between those two particular teams from all other tournament activities already extremely close, that sprint ended up becoming the tiebreaker that saw Nate Holdridge's team win for the second year in a row.

"I just wanted to do only what I needed to do to win and nothing more," captain Nate exclaimed only moments after catching his breath, while seeing Bob Pecoraro (his former team-mate from last year's championship team but now rival to the 2013 title) laying face down in disbelief and defeat.

"The finish line film doesn't lie - it is there for all to see how he cuts over into my lane just at the last moment. He and his team did a good job overall, I'll give him that, but if we were to run that race again - which I hope we can - he's going down," said Bob Pecoraro afterwards when he had had time to process the defeat.

Championships are like children to you
This year the six teams competed in Beach Volleyball, various water balloon activities, as well as some high-paced relay contests that ended up in a final sprint.

Six different pastors captained each their own team against each other, making for plenty of good-willed banter and heightened competitiveness among them (see photo).

All top 3 finishing teams ended up within a close point margin, with captain David Guzik's Cyprus Saints in third place and Bob Pecoraro's Antioch Adrenaline just short of the eventual champions, Rockers of Rome, consisting of Nate Holdridge (captain), Alex Lahtinen, Richard Mansour, Jacob Scott, Iiris-Maria Murtonen, Emil Riisum-Broegger, John Marsh, Samira Jarrouge, Adolph Karlsson, and Thorvald Allestad.

"Many people have asked me which championship or victory I am most proud of, but it's just so hard to say 'cause all titles are like children to you, they are all special. But this 2013 title was an incredibly special victory indeed which came through a great team effort, my savvy coaching decisions, and the sheer will of all my teammates," captain Nate said.

Can't break a true champion
Later that night, while parading the Viking Games trophy (or, as he dubbed it, "the chalice of victory") around the conference grounds during "fika", the Rockers of Rome captain delivered a clear-cut message to the Games Commissioner.

"Last year in 2012 I was part of a great squad and was able to lead the team of pastors to ultimate conquest and glory in Viking Games 5. This year, due to our dominance last year, the pastors were broken up into different teams, but you know, you just can't break a true champion," he said, all of the above jokingly.















Click here or on the video below to see some of the highlights from Viking Games 6:



The final scores of Viking Games 6:

120 points - Rockers of Rome (captain Nate Holdridge)
109 points - Antioch Adrenaline (captain Bob Pecoraro)
107 points - Cyprus Saints (captain David Guzik)
74 points - Lions of Lystra (captain Jeremy Foster)
60 points - Malta Menace (captain Joel Wickström)
39 points - Corinth Conquerors (captain Stan Marinussen)

The Church Disciplinarians Dominate Viking Olympics

For the second year running, the guest speakers at the Calvary Chapel Scandinavia conference assembled their own team and won the annual Viking Games in style.

Led by Captain DomiNate (a.k.a. pastor Nate Holdridge of Calvary Monterey), the Church Disciplinarians triumphed against national teams from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland as they competed in disciplines such as Death on a Swing (water balloon fight), beach volleyball, and a baton race / miniature golf combo.

This was the 5th annual Viking Games, which has now become a traditional Friday afternoon activity at the Scandinavian conferences. This year, the games were held in the spirit of the ongoing Olympics, however the Olympic sportsmanship was sometimes hard to find as national nordic rivalry and fun banter between the athletes flourished in the hours leading up to the event.

National Anthems
The games were kicked off by each team performing their national anthem, a feature requiring some creative thinking of the specially assembled team of multi-national guest speakers who ended up belting out "He'll be Coming 'Round the Mountain When He Comes" (a song referred to in a humorous teaching parable by pastor and team-mate Mark Walsh earlier that day).

Although many teams fought courageously, the team of guest speakers - dubbed "The Church Disciplinarians" - slowly exhorted their superiority on the various courts of battle, ultimately finishing as a clear overall winner with Denmark and Sweden coming in for second and third place.

Turning Hubris into Fear
The triumphant winners received their gold medals and the highly-coveted Viking Games trophy at the award ceremony on Friday evening to the cheers of their humbled opponents and the tune of "We Are The Champions". And team captain Nate Holdridge didn't pull any punches when it came time for the victory speech to be delivered.



"As the humble captain, I was rather taken aback by the hubris of the other teams. Be that as it may, I figured the good Lord would grant us the victory, not because of our righteousness, but as a judgment against the arrogance of the other squads," he said.

"Whether it was the Fins on the beach volleyball court, the Swedes in the water balloon zone, or the Danes in general, our greatest tactic was the fear of the Lord. From the opening note of our pastoral anthem, I could sense the pride of the other teams dissipate into a puddle of fear. As the walls of Jericho fell for Joshua, so the victory was easy for us after that moment. To God be the glory!," said Captain DomiNate after securing the 2012 Viking Games title.

However, already a few days after these 5th annual Viking Games, rumors are circulating that previous winner Captain Kyle is already going through intense preparations at a training camp in a secret location in North America to take back the Viking Games trophy that has eluded him since his remarkable comeback victory in 2010.

But no matter what, for the next year the five team members of The Church Disciplinarians - Nate Holdridge, Arpad Horvath-Kavai, Mark Walsh, Phil Metzger, and Bob Pecoraro - can rightly call themselves Viking Games champions.

Captain Kyle goes from gutter to glory in Viking Games III

Last year he led his team to an embarrassing last-place finish in Viking Games II at the CCS Conference 2009. This year Kyle Bentz surprised everyone by leading the Beatitude Bulldogs to a final victory in Viking Games III.

"I have never felt more attacked in my life," said pastor David Guzik when asked to describe his participation in Viking Games III. He and Crosspoint Dublin's Kevin Fitzgerald (seen taking a hit in photo to the right) were selected to be the moving targets in the traditional Viking Games discipline "Shoot the Pastor" this year (where participants throw water balloons at the guest speakers for points).

Competing in disciplines such as beach volleyball, football penalty shoot-out, rubber boot-throwing and the trademark feature "Shoot the Pastor", six teams battled it out for the overall victory this year. But in the end, it was Kyle Bentz & The Beatitude Bulldogs who came out on top.

"I've been training all year to do well and to erase the memories of last year's performance, to seek retribution. This year we had great unity in the team and everyone fought hard for victory. I guess spending most of this summer at Viking Games camp really paid off and polished us off for this year's games. I'm proud of the team," says a smiling Kyle Bentz.

He adds that he will be ready to defend the title at next year's conference, thus sending a clear message to this year's defeated team captains to "bring it on!"...



For more pictures from this year's Viking Games III, check out this video:

20100810_vikinggamesIII from Theisbro on Vimeo.

Meatball Matadors rise to the top in Viking Games II

This year's Viking Games II ended with a narrow victory to the Meatball Matadors, led by team captain Brenten Powers. He salutes his team mates Aaron & Sara, Yuri & Lidia, Ralph & Robin, and Per Jacobsen in the moment of victory.

"I'm proud of how our team worked together using our various strengths to gain the lead. We couldn't have done it without Ralph Wood's Bible knowledge, Sara Pratt's knowledge of Sweden, Aaron Pratt's goal keeping and gaining the extra points by blocking a balloon with his head. Good job team!," Brenten says.

In the other end of the standings, there was no contest. It wasn't even close. Led by captain Kyle Bentz, the ABBA All-stars owned the last place from start to finish.

"If I could sum up our team's losses in several semi-encouraging constructive words, they would have to be 'destruction', 'complete annihilation', and 'utter failure'. I was told if we answered all the Bible questions with the answer "Sweden is the best" we would be a sure winner to this year's games. Apparently I was lied too. Nonetheless in what we lossed in points we gained in fun and friendships as a team. ABBA ALLSTARS FOREVER!!!," says the defeated captain, who assures his team's fans that he will fully recover just in time for next years conference.

Whichever team you were rooting for, don't miss this short video re-cap of the 2009 Viking Games II:

20090814_confvikings from Theisbro on Vimeo.

Pastors Felt the Viking Love

A new feature at the 2008 conference was the Viking Games, which saw one international team and teams from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland battle it out against each other in various fun disciplines. One of the disciplines that left a mark was the highly popular "Shoot the Pastor", where each team got a chance to shoot water balloons at their pastor of choice, who was left fighting for his dryness on a moving swing.

Each team was awarded points for a hit, while points were deducted if any shots hit the pastor's head. In a final twist of fate, the Viking Games ended with a reversal of roles as the pastors had a last chance to deduct points from the teams by taking shots at the team captains. Pastor Stan Block describes the feelings he went through while trying to dodge the incoming water balloons:

"Frightened, terrorized, heart racing! I now understand the feelings of villagers as they would see the boats in the distance with no place to run or hide. I was grateful for the moments when my three partners [pastors Kevin Fitzgerald, Glen Nudd, and Brenten Powers] were called on to take their place in the line of fire instead of me! As to the opportunity for revenge, I regret that our aim was off so much of the time, to have left them all with no points would have been perfect but it was some consellation to drive the Swedes back to Stockholm in disgrace. May the Games live on in the coming years and may other foreigners experience the same Viking hospitality shown to us! All said, I felt sad to say goodbye and that speaks to the depth of relationships that were built in the four days."