It was a bash! Dodgeball action, Detlef Schrempf, and other wild scenes from GeekWire’s giant 5th anniversary party

The ping pong and foosball action at Thursday’s GeekWire Bash once again delivered thrilling competition with top-notch quality of play.

But for our fifth Anniversary Bash, we expanded beyond those games and went big — like, really big.

It was a blast hosting our annual party, presented by Point Inside, for Seattle’s buzzing tech community last night at the massive CenturyLink Events Center, where more than 1,500 people joined us for dodgeball, basketball, video games, beer pong, cornhole, sumo wrestling, March Madness, massages, and of course, action-packed sold-out ping pong and foosball tournaments.

With double the amount of attendees and a much larger space, our epic geek carnival reached new levels. The inaugural dodgeball tournament was a big hit, with 16 local companies — including Avvo, Rover.com and Portent — bringing their respective squads for some awesome matches.

Here’s a look at some of the fun action from dodgeball winner Tune:

The aggressive start, in slo mo, of that Tune vs. Avvo dodgeball final. #GWbash

A video posted by GeekWire (@geekwire_official) on Mar 24, 2016 at 7:09pm PDT

It was also cool seeing local star athletes like Sonics legend Detlef Schrempf and Sounders FC veteran Brad Evans — who were both at our first Anniversary Bash five years ago — join us again, with Evans playing some FIFA on the Xbox with local CEOs, and Schrempf battling attendees 1-on-1 with games of H-O-R-S-E (last night, it was G-E-E-K).

Former Seattle Sonics star Detlef Schrempf takes on Ryan Rodriguez from @lifeatexpedia in a game of GEEK at the #GWbash.

A photo posted by GeekWire (@geekwire_official) on Mar 24, 2016 at 5:29pm PDT

Several other Sounders players came out for the Bash — including Chad Marshall, Stefan Frei, Aaron Kovar, Nate Sturgis and Andy Craven— as well as Mariners Moose, who seemed to enjoy himself.

Other fun activities included sumo wrestling, beer pong, and the arcade center, which included some of the cult favorites of the 80s, as well as a video game truck with some of today’s top titles.

For those needing a break from the heated competition, the massage station was certainly popular. Attendees also fueled up on tasty bites and cold drinks.

There were several champions that won prizes and geeky recognition. Team Tune overpowered Team Avvo in a thrilling dodgeball championship match.

Over on the expert ping pong bracket, Brian Chia of Slalom used a mix of patience and power to take down his good friend and defending champion Valeri Kim of Akvelon in the championship.

Brian Chia of Slalom takes on Valeri Kim of Akvelon in the Point Inside expert class ping pong championship at #GWbash.

A photo posted by GeekWire (@geekwire_official) on Mar 24, 2016 at 8:05pm PDT

On the intermediate ping pong bracket, Shavkat Karimov took home top honors; David Anderson of GatheredTable won first place on the beginner’s bracket. 

On the foosball tables, it was George Barta and Mohammad Ahmadnia from Collinear Group winning the expert bracket; Jensen Cunningham and Joe Finden of SkyKick won the intermediate bracket. 

And congrats to RealSelf, who took home honors for the top spirit prize:

A big thanks to Point Inside, the title sponsor of this year’s bash. Also, thanks to gold sponsors: Hired, Flowroute, EY, Moz, AOL, Atlas, First Tech Federal Credit Union,Akvelon, CenturyLink, eBay, DoubleDown, BestBuy, Avvo, RealSelf, OfferUp,Booking.com, Nuance, Impinj, Qumulo, Lyft and PrimeNow.

We’ll have more highlights from the Bash in the coming days. In the meantime, enjoy some more photos below, including some fun ones from the photo booth. Once again, thanks so much for joining us for the GeekWire Bash.