In a series of events that could have come straight out of a Glee episode, Imperial’s male A Cappella group, The Techtonics, managed to win first prize at the finals of the international competition for university A cappella groups in New York. They are the first ever British team to win.

The competition, made famous by the film Pitch Perfect, was held in The Beacon Theatre on Broadway. Teams from North America and the Europe competed in several rounds of the competition to be in with a chance of being one of the ten groups to perform at the final, which was featured on the worldwide Snapchat story.

The Techtonics were up first on the night, but disaster nearly struck when three band members got stuck in a lift an hour before they were due to perform.

On their victory, chair Will, said that “trying to get the trophy back on the flight home was nightmare”.

After qualifying for the international competition after winning the semi-finals that were hosted here at Imperial, the Techtonics attempted to crowdfund their flights.

They were somewhat successful, raising £565 of the £6000 they needed for flights. They also used profits from sales of their album to raise the money.

The group will be attending the Edinburgh fringe in August.