The first night of the five-week Social Elite Challenge saw more than 170 players take to the courts representing their workplaces, government departments and family.

Badminton Cook Islands president Thomas Mereana-Ngauru said everyone was excited to be back after the last competition was more than six months ago.  

He said the standout teams of the evening were We are BCI, featuring men's singles national champ Emanuela Mataio, and Sombat Santuy, an Indonesian dominated team, who both remain unbeaten after two rounds of competition. 

“It will be interesting next week as these two teams go head to head in the first round of the evening.”

He said in pool b there is the young studded Team Victor, led by Victor Anselmo and his fellow AIMS Games team mates, along with team Just Whack It, led by Maria Greig, and featuring the national women's champion Te Pa Tupa.

Mereana-Ngauru said they both came away with two wins and were unbeaten after the first night of the competition. 

He said the young AIMS players of Team Victor hoped to continue their winning streak next week as they take on the two big corporate teams Vodafone Thunderbolts and BSP Smashers.  

He added that 16 teams have been placed into two pools of eight, and after seven weeks of round robin play, the top four and bottom four of each pool will go through to the top eight and bottom eight playoffs.