American holds second Hunger Games week
Jacky Tsang
Staff Writer
As American High students were released from school on November 14, they started gathering around the rotunda for The Reaping where 12 tributes were chosen to participate in the second Hunger Games.
Two tributes were chosen from each grade, including a district for the teachers, District 13. Each tribute had to participate in a series of challenges. For each challenge, the two tributes who perform the worst are eliminated from the games.
The Hunger Games were initially started because of past ASB president, Rosemond Ho. This year’s games was a sequel to the games held last year.
“The Hunger Games started out as a promotional event for the movie Hunger Games,” junior class secretary, Niko Montes said. “I was able to continue it this year because of the new Hunger games movie that was coming out, Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.”
The first day started off with a friendly competition of dodgeball, with District 9 tribute, Harmanmeet Kaur, and District 13 tribute, English teacher Ms. Conlon, eliminated. On day 2 of the games, the tributes were challenged to see if they had good precision by having them shoot with a bow.
Many audience members were interested in this challenge because they wanted to see who could shoot like Katniss Everdeen, the main character of the Hunger Game trilogy.
“My favorite part of the Hunger Games was the arrow-shooting event,” Glenn Shaw (12) said. “In my opinion, it was the most related to the Hunger Games and was the most exciting due to the factor of luck involved.”
Tejas Priyadarshan of District 11 and AP European History Teacher Mr. Iglesias of District 13 were eliminated during the precision challenge.
Nonetheless, the games carried on to day 3 where the tributes were required to make their way through an obstacle course to test their agility. Both tributes from District 10, Tabitha Nonog and Dayron Rivera were eliminated from the games for receiving the slowest times. The remaining districts were from 9, 11, and 12.
Despite being eliminated, Rivera expressed satisfaction from the games.
“The games were really fun and they were also really organized,” Rivera said. “I [also] really liked how supportive and nice the other tributes were.”
The fourth day of the challenge required the remaining tributes to test their memory and have them recreate an image that they saw earlier in the week. District 9, Ankit Dey and District 12, Ishan Gupta were eliminated from the challenge. The remaining tributes were District 11 Aastha Parekh and District 12 Jamie Kennerk.
As the remaining tributes readied themselves for the final challenge, many audience members expressed their disappointment with this year’s games. Many believed it to be the lack of spirit displayed.
“Last year, I felt [it] was more hyped up,” sophomore Zeralene Yet said. “I feel like [this year] could’ve been more. Like the events were fun, but—and I’m sure this is the fault of our peers—it wasn’t very spirited.”
On the final day of the games, the two remaining tributes gave it their all and competed against each other to win the grand prize, which was an ice cream party for their class and also two tickets for the 99.7’s Triple Ho Show. The objective of the challenge was a scavenger hunt where they were required to find certain locations of the school and perform certain tasks in order to advance to the next task.
District 12 Kennerk picked up the win, earning the class of 2015 an ice cream party, and picking up two tickets to the concert.
“Winning the Hunger Games felt almost surreal because there wasn’t really a moment prior to it when I actually thought I would win,” Kennerk said. “One of my best friends is super obsessed with [5 Seconds of Summer], so I was also super happy that I’d be able to take her to go see her favorite band because she’s even more excited about going to the concert than I am.”
Although District 11 Parekh was initially disappointed in losing the games, she enjoyed the unique experience she gained from participating.
“I wasn’t too disappointed about losing, because I hadn’t even expected making it far into the competition,” Parekh said. “I’m just glad I got to be a part of it and have fun.”
Eagle Era 