Students from Northwestern’s residential colleges gathered Saturday night in Technological Institute to participate in NU’s own version of “The Hunger Games.”
Based on the popular series by Suzanne Collins, the event drew about 50 spectators and 30 tributes. Tributes were the volunteers from each residential college who wanted to participate in the event. The basic idea of the game was to find colored wristbands hidden around Tech that corresponded to the color assigned to a tribute’s residential college, said Medill junior Gabe Bergado, vice president of the Residential College Board.
Depending on the size of the residential college, three or four tributes were selected, Bergado said. Tributes were notified earlier in the week they would be involved but not of the specific rules of the game.
Gabe Bergado, vice president of the Residential College Board, said he planned the event because he is “such a big ‘Hunger Games’ fan.”
While the tributes participated in the actual games, spectators watched a live stream through a Google Hangout projected onto a screen in a Tech classroom. Volunteers filmed what was happening in various parts of Tech as the games continued, sending the videos straight to the Google Hangout so that everyone could keep up with the quick flow of events. The winner of the competition was James Sun, a McCormick senior from Cultural and Community Studies Residential College.
“The event was really well organized for being the first one,” Sun said. “I was surprised it had such a good turnout, and also it seemed really like there weren’t any mishaps throughout the event, which was really impressive.”
Medill freshman Rachel Fobar said some tributes came a few days before the competition to scope out Tech.
“The Hunger Games was really fun,” Fobar said. “My favorite part was watching the tributes try different techniques, like one guy hid and jumped out at other tributes.”
Communication freshman Theanne Liu, a tribute from Communications Residential College, said the event was “definitely an experience.”
“It was interesting to see people team up and how we felt genuine fear through the ordeal as if we were in the real Hunger Games,” Liu said.
Aside from its entertainment factor, Bergado said the event showed the unity and spirit that is well known within the residential college system. However, a school-wide Hunger Games event might be hard to execute, he added.
“I think how the (residential college) system is set up is a good size and a larger Hunger Games would be harder to facilitate right now,” Bergado said. “But it would be really cool to see if other organizations implement a similar game into their own bonding.”
