The Last Stand: Survival Game
On the 15th of June, the Facilitation Club of UCSI has organised a fun and exciting game of ‘survival’, known as The Last Stand. From 4.00pm to 10.00pm, the event was held at UCSI University, South Wing, in Block A, Block C and Block G respectively.
The Last Stand is basically a game of survival between humans and vampires in an apocalyptic world. In order to come out alive, the participants must ‘collect’ various resources, work together to ‘train’ survival skills, and most importantly, ‘survive’ at all costs.
As one of our friends were in the Program team for managing this event, my friends and I were heavily encouraged to join as a show of support. Our little group consisted of me, Sue Ann, Ryan and Ben.
On that day, we arrived early at the MPH, Block A to do our registration. We were given a T-shirt each to be worn and were provided with an assortment of food and drinks, buffet style. The event kick-started with various performances by our own students, such as Kpop dance, solo singing, Diabolo and a few more.
At around 5.15pm, we had an ice breaking session to get to know the other participants a bit more. After that, the facilitators briefed us on the game.
The general gist of the game was this— the participants were of groups of four, and they were randomly assigned to either HUMAN or VAMPIRE. Each participant was given a wristband that acts as their ‘life’ in the game, and they must prevent it from being snatched or torn by other participants that want to ‘kill’ them.
Throughout the game, the participants had to collect as many resource cards as they can, as they acted as a currency of sorts in the game, namely Food, Water and Medicine for HUMAN and Blood and Vaccination for VAMPIRE. The resources cards can be traded for power cards, such as Revive, Shield, Transfer Attack and Safe Zone Pass at a trading centre located at the Ground floor of Block G, in front of GG06 hall.
The game arena was limited to Block C and Block G, and was divided several zones such as Common Zone, Safe Zone, HUMAN Zone and VAMPIRE Zone. Different rules apply at different zones, such as:
- Common Zone: All participants can attack each other.
- Safe Zone: No participants can attack each other.
- HUMAN Zone: All HUMANS can attack both HUMANS and VAMPIRES, but VAMPIRES cannot attack anyone.
- VAMPIRE Zone: All VAMPIRES can attack both HUMANS and VAMPIRES, but HUMANS cannot attack anyone.
Besides that, there were also many station games located throughout the arena. There are 8 station games in total, including 5 hidden stations. The participants can join the games to earn points and survival skills.
Not only that, those participants that had their wristbands torn need not worry because there was a Revival station of high difficulty where they can earn their ‘life’ back, though it took quite a long time.
Also, when we looked into our event booklet a little closer, we realised that each resource card carried a lot of points, which is 80 points per card, while the power cards held none. Hence, we deduced that in order to win the game, not only did we have to collect as many resource cards as we can and protect our wristbands (which held 1500 points for each member of the group), we also had to trade only the right amount of our resource cards away for power cards.
After the briefing, everyone was given approximately 10 minutes to form their plan and decide on the best course of action.
At 6.00pm sharp, the game officially began.
Everyone was running, wanting to be the first ones to reach Block C and Block G to collect the resource cards. Our team split up into me and Sue Ann for Block G, and Ryan and Ben for Block C. The resource cards were littered all over the floors and some were even taped at the walls.
During the 10 minutes’ grace period where no one was allowed to ‘kill’ anyone else, we gathered all our resource cards and traded some for a few power cards, just in case.
After that, we cautiously headed for Block C, in search for the station games. Along the way, we encountered an all-girls team, and successfully snatched two of their wristbands before they escaped.
The first station game we found was at located at HUMAN zone at level G. For the game, we had 5 minutes to memorize random facts that were written and taped onto the walls. Then we were given some hoops and were required to throw them onto the plastic bottles in a straight line. After that, we had to answer several questions based on the facts given in record time.
When we got out, we encountered another participant on his lonesome. The 4 of us wanted to attack and snatch his wristband, but unfortunately for us, we were stopped by the floor master because she thought it was unfair for 4 persons to attack 1 person, but I digress.
Moving on to level 1, we encountered another team of VAMPIRES. Since we were still in the HUMAN zone, they couldn’t attack us back and had no choice but to evade us. Here, we successfully snatched another wristband.
We were having a bit of trouble finding the next station game when I discovered a hidden station by accident. For this game, we had to used wires, lemons and coins to light a lightbulb. Since we finished the game under 3 minutes, we were given double the usual points.
After that, we had the dilemma of whether we wanted to move on to level 2, which was a VAMPIRE zone. After much debate, we decided that it was not worth the risk since we would be at a major disadvantage for only being allowed to escape and not attack.
Hence, we headed for Block G in search for the other station games. It was at right outside of Block C that we saw the all-girls team again. This time, they ran away as soon as they saw us but we were not to be stopped as we were having too much fun. We snatched another wristband from them.
In total, each of us managed to snatch 1 wristband each.
After that, we decided that we shouldn’t waste any more time ‘killing’ anyone since they could always revive at the Revival station anyway.
So, we went to the station game at level 2 straight away. At this station, we had to do basic first aid based on the instructions given, such as bandaging a head and making an arm sling.
After our 3rd game, it was already almost 8.30 pm. After 8.30pm was a free for all session where no rules apply. Everyone could attack everyone, and power cards couldn’t be used anymore.
Our team wanted to play it safe, so we hid at the car park.
At 9.00 pm, the game had officially ended. When we made our way back to the MPH for the prize giving ceremony, we heard that it was complete chaos during the last 30 minutes of the game. Even the facilitators themselves did not expect the level of craziness that occurred. It all sounded fun and exciting, but we were still glad that we did not take part, since there were people that got hurt too.
Even though our team did not win the game, we had a lot of fun working together to solve the games and attack other teams. This event had much room for improvement, but overall I think it was a success.
All in all, it was a fun experience and I will definitely try again if given the chance!