- A family in North Carolina started their own "Quarantine Olympics" to pass the time while they're at home.
- The Presley family competes against one another in silly challenges that range from blindfolded toilet paper fights to straw races, and they air the footage on Alex Presley's TikTok.
- Their first installment of the games got over 8 million views, and Alex's followers are even trying the games for themselves.
- "I'm glad everyone's making the best of the situation that we're in right now and has something positive to look forward to every day," Alex told Insider.
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The Presley family has been playing games together for years.
"We play family games most nights that we come home to visit our parents," Alex Presley, 25, told Insider.
"Everyone used to always say, 'Oh let's go to the Presleys' house. There's always that something crazy going on there,'" his twin brother Zach added, with their friends and family members thinking of them as the fun house throughout their lives.
The Presleys took their love of games to the next level with the 'Quarantine Olympics'
The games actually started by accident, according to Alex.
The family was running through their usual games while self-isolating together when Alex decided they should try something a little more creative.
He suggested the household — which consists of Alex, Zach, their parents Wendy and Lee, and Alex's girlfriend Taylor Sharp — try the straw challenge, racing each other to drink as much water as they could while it poured out of the refrigerator without the cup overflowing.
The family agreed, and Alex filmed the competition, posting the footage on TikTok with the caption: "The Quarantine Olympics have officially begun!"
The video quickly went viral, having over 8 million views on TikTok at the time of writing.
"I didn't realize it was going to blow up like it did," Alex told Insider. "It went, you know, insanely viral."
"Our family is very competitive, so I mean we do stupid stuff all the time," Zach said. "This is just the first time Alex has videoed it and put it out there on TikTok. So it's just a new platform."
Nearly all of the comments on the video were requesting more competitions, so the Presleys decided to oblige.
The Presleys have completed 14 challenges so far, documenting each competition on TikTok
Alex, who was in the lead for the games at the time of writing, typically thinks of the ideas for the challenges, all of which take place in the Presleys' home.
He also tries to make use of household items like toilet paper that they can then reuse so there's no waste created during the games.
The Presleys usually film their videos after dinner, and it can take anywhere from 10 minutes to two hours to capture the footage they need.
For instance, a toilet paper dodgeball challenge took longer to film because they had to clear breakables out of the room before they played.
Alex said the biggest challenge of the Quarantine Olympics is thinking of games that he can capture in just 60 seconds to fit TikTok's video length.
Getting his family invested, on the other hand, isn't difficult at all. "Everyone's kinda competitive, so they want to win," he said. "They want to do good for their team."
"Sometimes, when I tell them the idea of the game, they're like, 'Nah, I don't know about this.' But as soon as we start playing, they're into it and everyone's just laughing and cheering everyone on."
And the Presleys find ways to get around the app's time constraints as well.
Alex and Zach went live on TikTok on Thursday to do the "Watermelon Challenge," wrapping as many rubber bands as they could around the fruit in real-time, allowing their followers to feel like they were there with them.
Alex and Zach told Insider that the best part of the Quarantine Olympics is the impact it's had on people around the world
"A lot of people are messaging me that they're doing it with their families," Alex said. "They're thanking us for all these games.
"It is cool to see those people all over the country and the world saying that they're doing these games with their families," Zach added.
"I've had people from Canada, Germany, and London all reach out and say they're doing this with their families," Alex said.
"I'm glad everyone's making the best of the situation that we're in right now and has something positive to look forward to every day," he added.
The Presleys plan to continue the Quarantine Olympics for the duration of their time at home together, and Alex is brainstorming ideas for their eventual closing ceremonies.
To keep up with the Quarantine Olympics, you can follow Alex on TikTok here.
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