ENC students participating in Survivor Live. (Credit: Joey Fortin)
“Outwit, outplay, outlast” are the words played out by the candidates of ENC’s Survivor Live.
Survivor is a television game show in which teams of people on an island compete against each other with the hopes of becoming the winner of a grand prize.
ENC’s rendition of Survivor, co-hosted by Joshua Rice and Nathan Vazquez, included 10 fearless students who were asked to take part in the first ever Survivor Live held on campus. Aaron Hebert, Executive Director of Student Events, was the mastermind behind this idea and has been excited about bringing it to life.
To get participants, the SGA Council asked certain students to be a part of this event in order to get an even representation of the student body. Hebert explained that “it was hard to only choose 10 people.” If the event happens again, Hebert would like it to be expanded beyond only 10 participants. He would also like to extend the time frame past the 1-hour limit.
According to Hebert, it was a challenge to bring this game to the stage and to a live audience. Hebert said that when he was in high school, they had a very similar event, and that inspired his idea to try it at ENC. Survivor Live was just like the show, but it was a shortened version. Hebert explains, “There were challenges and activities happening, but it was a sped-up version.”
At ENC, players were divided into the Red and Blue teams. The two teams went head-to-head in a number of challenges, including an obstacle course, a blindfolded puzzle, a TP mummy, and a creative variation of trivia.
The goal of each team was to win the challenges in order to keep their players out of the Tribal council, where you could potentially be voted out. The winning team had immunity from the Tribal council, but the losing team had to compete for a safe spot to avoid being voted off. As a part of the accelerated pace, Hebert explained that “the elimination process happened very quickly.”
Sophomore Jael Bourqe was the winning survivor and received a $50 gift card to the ENC School store, along with a bucket hat which emphasized the tropical theme.