Duel Of The Fates: The Story Behind The Viral HUB Lawn Lightsaber Duel
During Penn State’s first major snowstorm of the spring semester last week, two Penn State students were caught on camera doing the unthinkable: having a lightsaber duel on the HUB Lawn.
Naturally, the video quickly went viral on TikTok. In just a few short days, the clip racked up nearly 500,000 likes and more than 1.6 million views.
Although a lightsaber duel on the HUB Lawn is an uncommon sight, it’s nothing new for Ernesto Estremera and Tyler Dickerson, who also happen to be members of Penn State’s Star Wars club. The group regularly meets up to play video games, get food, and, unsurprisingly, live and breathe Star Wars.
While the club often hosts spontaneous lightsaber duels, the opportunity for a snowstorm duel caught the pair’s attention ahead of time.
“We had talked about how it was going to be snowing a few days before, and we thought it would be cool to do some lightsaber dueling in the snow,” Dickerson said.
The idea of having a lightsaber duel in the snow is a dream for many Star Wars fans, and Tyler and Ernesto didn’t want to waste the chance they had.
“We just saw the opportunity and took it,” Ernesto said.
Once the illustrious duel was underway, a video was then posted by passerby @liariccione on TikTok before it started to go viral. The video was reposted to many Penn State media outlets and even a few national platforms like Barstool Sports.
“In the club, we’ve been trying to get on Barstool [Sports] forever. That’s what we’ve been trying to do,” Ernesto said. “Later on, we found out that it got posted on Star Wars Reddit. Honestly, for me, that is top tier. My life is done. I’m satisfied.”
The two were excited about the passion they saw from fellow fans, who posted supportive comments on the video and expressed jealousy over the experience.
“It’s nice to see people that have a really strong appreciation for fun stuff like that. Even though we’re all technically adults, it’s fun to see people act like a kid again,” Ernesto added.
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