By Coen North
BLUFFTON, Ohio – The second annual “Last To Leave The Circle” challenge, inspired by the famous Mr. Beast YouTube trend, and organized by the Marbeck Activities Council, took place on Friday, Sep. 5. The prize for the winner was a pair of Beats headphones.
The rules were simple: The last to step out of the circle wins the challenge and the Beats headphones. “But there’s a catch,” said Morgan Jarvis, a junior and co-director of the event. “Every five minutes or so there’s a competition; and if someone loses the competition, they have to step out of the circle.”
At 8 p.m., everyone gathered into the circle and soon faced their first competition. All contestants had to stand on one foot and spin for 10 seconds. If anyone was unable to complete full 10 seconds, they had to step out of the circle.
One of the first to step out was Gabe Long, a first-year student. “10 seconds of spinning is too long, I’m dizzy,” said Long.
For the second competition, the organizers brought out a challenge wheel which all competitors had to spin. The wheel had various items on it, such as “rhyme with this word,” trivia, instant ejection from the circle, free space, and bring back someone who has been ejected.
Adeline Thorn, a sophomore, was eliminated by the “rhyme with this word” challenge. “I’m a little hurt,” said Thorn. “What even rhymes with orange anyways?”
Next came the rock paper scissors challenge. The contestants were told to gather into pairs, where each played rock paper scissors with the losers eliminated.
“It kind of stings,” said Abbie Peters, a senior, who lost her rock paper scissors game. “It hurt worse because it was by one of my closest friends.”
Eventually, the number of contestants dwindled down to seven. Seven boxes were brought out and each remaining contestant picked one of the boxes to take home, but only one box contained the Beats headphones.
Austin Parks, a first-year, came away with the Beats; citing his friend as inspiration for helping him win the challenge. “I feel happy,” Parks said. “I got my boy Thomas over here; he helped me pick out the box with the beats in it.”
Marissa Blake, co-director of this event, was extremely satisfied with how the challenge went. Last year’s “Last To Leave The Circle” challenge “had a very good foundation, and this year we were able to improve on a lot of the things,” said Blake.
Blake is excited for the next “Last To Leave The Circle” challenge. “You will definitely see the circle challenge again next year, and we’ll see what changes inside of the circle.”
