The Ides of March is the 74th day on the Roman calendar, or as we know it today, the 15th of March. This day gained recognition as the day that Julius Caesar, a Roman dictator, was assassinated. And what better way to celebrate the death of a political figure than to have a gladiator-style set of games in the EMU gymnasium where the losers get eaten by Herm, the ferocious lion, notorious for punishing those who do not appeal to Caesar.
Each team would receive points for how well they performed in each game, and the team with the most points at the end would receive laurels to commemorate their victory, and by laurels, I mean 40 dollars in Common Grounds gift cards. Those who lost would plead to Caesar to give them mercy, which rarely ended well for them.
The games started with a ruthless game of tug-o-war, the four teams playing it out tournament style to see who would earn 10points to start off the event. The first two teams lost quickly, but the two winners from the matches went for almost two minutes pulling the rope back and forth. They were very evenly matched, but eventually the Ramp Bois, a team consisting of freshmen Adam Hoover, Aidan Weaver, Doran Kennedy, and Micaiah Landis, came out victorious!
“Going into the first match, I was confident of our victory,” said Aidan Weaver, member of the Ramp Bois. “Going into our second match up, I was more worried. We were fresh out of our first match and with no breaks, we had to go up against the other team. This round went into what felt like an immediate stalemate, neither side giving any ground. After what felt like the longest 30 seconds of my life, we finally pulled through, and gained out hard-fought victory. A victory that left me weak and tired.” It was an incredible first round, but it was nothing compared to what was to come.
The next game was all about agility; it was tag… but everyone was it. People were flying down left and right at first; it was chaos. Eventually, it came down to about four or five people who seemed like they didn’t quite know what to do. Then, all of a sudden, someone would leap out and tag another person, and it was a frenzy for a couple of seconds People were tagging and trying to get away from one another. It was crazy to watch, and probably more so to experience. Eventually, a team prevailed victorious and participants moved onto more games.
There were many more games, such as Caesar Says (a version of Simon Says, but with the vastly superior Caesar), a maze that you had to go through blindfolded, and a roller cart musical chairs, which was intriguing to watch and participate in. “My favorite games were the scooter one,” said Ella Brubaker, a member of the Blues Clues team. “Our team overall did not do too great, but we did the best in the scooter one and Caesar Says.”
The event concluded with a twist: the winning team did not get to split the prize, there could only be one! The last team had all four members battle using the bubble balls to slam into each other to try and knock each other down and out of the playing area. The rest of the team who did not win did not find favor with Caesar and were, of course, eaten by their prized lion, Herm.
