The Drive Part 3: Hunter Exam!!!

Before you start reading: This post is quite word heavy as it is a detailed story of my time at this event. If you'd prefer something more visual, this video gives a summary of my experience. However, it doesn't include the personal interactions I had and the cool people I made, so for those wanting a more in-depth look, read on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-hvwPjnkZ4

After ten days of back to back driving and working out, I had finally made it to Saugerties, New York-home of the Hunter Exam. I had arrived on the 10th and the exam didn't start until early morning on the 11th, but luckily check-in opened at 5 pm on the 10th, so individuals could skip the inevitable lines that would appear the next morning.

I decided that would not only be nice to have everything ready early, but that this would give me a chance to scope out the location before everyone else. However, when I arrived, I got a special surprise: I was the first person to check in. Not only did this mean I got to choose my bib number, but I also got to personally meet and converse with the people who organized the entire event-Matthew and his family.

The Hunter Exam was actually created earlier this year when a 20-something year old Matthew decided to run a real life version of an athletic competition from an anime he liked called "Hunter x Hunter". He was originally envisioning him and like 20 guys running around a parking lot and just goofing around, but when he put tickets up, almost 1000 people signed up. In that moment he decided that he was actually gonna treat the event with respect and so he put a bunch of work into actually organizing a serious event. The result was astonishing. Not only did almost 900 people actually show up for the event, but the entire thing was livestreamed and essentially went off without a hitch. This was the guy that I met when I checked in. It's safe to say I was pretty excited.

After meeting his family and getting all signed in for the event, I continued the rest of my day with much anticipation. I woke up around 7 am the next morning to make sure I could arrive at the 8 am start time. When I got there, I quickly found a place to set my bags and looked out over the crowd of people before me. I was determined to make some friends at this event.

Upon a quick scan, I saw two guys who looked about my age and were experiencing a lull in their conversation. I approached, introduced myself, and-after discussing our thoughts on the event-I had made two new friends: Cameron and Gavin. These chaps were from Tennessee and Gavin had actually participated in the first exam. We talked for a good 30 minutes and eventually picked up two other lads who would be part of our friend group: Sai and Dillon. Note: I feel like a real airhead, but in the excitement of the event, I barely took any photos. In fact, the only photos I took were of my outfit (pictured below). I wish I had captured some pics with my buddies.

Feeling confident at the start of the Hunter Exam

Getting hyped for the first phase

Doing an anime pose to fit the anime setting

Socialization could only last so long, though, as the first phase eventually began. On their website, the event runners-The Hunter Association- had made it clear that no one would be eliminated in this first phase. Instead we would all participate in a run, and our performance would decide advantages in the next phase. We were told that we would have between an 1-1.5 hours to run around a .8 mile track. For every lap we ran, we would get one playing card (plus one that was given regardless). With that information-or lack of information-in mind, we began the run.

When all was said and done, I had ran about 6.4 miles (or 8 laps) with an average pace of 8:33/mile. Unfortunately, they had actually called the run early at about 55 minutes-which was not between 1 hr and 1.5 hour. However, I was still quite impressed with myself. 6.4 miles is easily the longest I've ever run without stopping and I definitely pushed myself. I had actually drank a Monster energy drink before the run, because I though it would give me a boost, but upon reflection, I think it hindered my performance as I crashed about mid run.

Luckily, after so much running we were given a break before phase 2. We had about 30 minutes to catch our breaths and strategize for the next event. Given the information we had been told, me and my buddies were pretty sure we could imagine the general idea behind phase 2. We theorized that we would be give our cards at the start of the phase and we would have to barter those cards with other individuals to get specific cards. Low and behold, when Matthew told all the participants the details of phase 2, me and my buddies were spot on. The cards we were all given had different suits-the cards were actually all depictions of the nine people who has passed the first exam (called pro hunters)-and our goal was to score 20 points through a combination of various suit pairs. The scoring system is below:

9 cards of the same suit=20 points

5 cards of the same suit=10 points

3 cards of the same suit=5 points

I was in a pretty good place as I started with 9 cards (my 8 laps+1 card), but all of four friends has less than that-Cameron had 3, Gavin had 6, Dillon and Sai both had 8-so they were in scarier circumstances. I had a rough-ish start and, at one point was pretty sure the bell was gonna ring, but after trading with a number of people, I got all nine cards of a guy named Will. A little while after I finished, Dillon, Sai, and Gavin all finished. You may be wondering how people who started with less than 9 cards scored 20 points. After inquiring from my buddies, I discovered that the most common method was to buy the cards off of other participants who didn't think they were gonna pass or to play rock-paper-scissors and use cards as the stake. Unfortunately, Cameron fell to this very ploy. He had gambled his 3 cards on rock-paper-scissors and lost. As unfortunate as it was that he was out of the competition, he was still a good sport about it and stayed to keep us all company as we continued to compete.

Once again, there was a break between phases, so I used the time to strategize and socialize. From the Hunter Association Website, I knew that phase three was called assassins and was essentially a game of free-for-all capture the flag in a 50 acre forest. Every participant would have a belt with a flag on it, and our goal would be to steal other people's flags. However, we didn't know the specifics of said flag stealing. Me, Dillon, Cameron, and Sai all decided that we would team up in phase 3 and use our numbers to overwhelm other participants and steal their flags.

Luckily, before the phase started, we were given the low-down on the details. Our goal was to gain a total of five points and make it to the safe zone in an unspecified time period between an hour and and hour and a half-that feels a little familiar! Each flag was worth two points and, in addition to flag points, there were little blue cards scattered throughout the forest. However, in a surprising twist, we were given two additional pieces of information: the forest was only 15 acres and the nine pro hunters would be hunting us. However, they wouldn't have flags, and if they touched you when you didn't have a flag, you were immediately disqualified.

With all that in mind, the start bell rang and we were given a two minute grace period to spread out in the forest. Me, Dillon, and Cameron had lost Sai in all the commotion, so we decided to just continue on without him. Immediately upon entering the forest and seeing the outer limits caution tape, we realized that the arena was definitely not 15 acres-in fact, my buddy Cameron doesn't even think it was one acre. On top of that, there was a pro hunter about ten feet in front of us. In desperation to get away from him, our team scattered. From that point until the end of phase 3, I didn't see Dillon once. Luckily, me and Cameron regrouped almost immediately after we were clear of the pro hunter. Upon meeting up, we found a small forest clearing with super tall grass and decided we would wait the initial commotion out for a little bit or attack an unsuspecting individual. We did end up surprising an unsuspecting individual, but we didn't end out on top. We had run into a content creator named WingedC who didn't even realize we were there. My buddy Cameron popped out to surprise him and get his flag, but he was hard pressed to discover WingedC had already lost his flag-and really wanted Cameron's. While they were tussling, I tried to go behind WingedC to take care of him, but by the time I got over there the scuffle was already over and WingedC didn't even have a flag we wanted to begin with. Since WingedC is a content creator, he actually had his brother recording the entire exam, and got the entire moment on video. You can see me in the background stumbling to get behind him.

With Cameron's flag gone we were already in a dire situation. We ran into a variety of different people and always tried to take their flags. In one such situation, we actually chased a guy into some downed trees and he lost his shoe. Unfortunately, he ran out into the open and we decided it wasn't worth it. We spent the next ten minutes just patrolling that forest clearing and trying to get people. There were multiple instances where people with no flag would team up and try to get me, but I always managed to slip away. One time I was being hunted by four people without flags and I noticed a pro hunter was nearby. Through the power of quick thinking, I called out to him and told him that I had a bunch of guys without flags. Luckily, it worked like a charm. He approached us and the flagless individuals scattered. However, in comedic twist, our shoeless foe returned a little later. But this time he didn't have a flag. In a final showdown between the two of us, he chased me around the clearing for a little while and eventually managed to snag my flag. With quick reflexes, I grabbed it back from him and we ended up in a russle on the ground. Neither of us were kicking or hitting the other, but we were desperately rolling around trying to maintain possession of the flag. Unfortunately, after rolling around for about five minutes the bell rang. We were both shocked because we knew there was no way it had been an hour or even 50 minutes at the least, but despite our shock, we kept fighting for my flag. In retrospect, I think neither one of us wanted to accept that we had lost and my flag was almost like our salvation. Maybe, just maybe if we maintained control of the flag we would still have a chance. Eventually though, my adversary gave up and we both walked to the safe zone in disappointment. I had a total of three points in the end-two points for my flag and one point for a blue card I had found when we were attacked by WingedC. Alas, I had not passed the 3rd phase.

Feeling tough after getting out in phase 3

Upon looking back, I have a lot of feelings towards this phase. The most prevalent feeling is that I should have been more aggressive. When I look back on all my failures, running from the pro hunter in the beginning and staying in one area, I realize how scatterbrained I was. In the heat of the moment, I think I locked up and went into defensive mode, even though that absolutely was not necessary. I have no doubt ran around one of the pro hunters-instead of running away-and I also know that if I hadn't been so committed to one area that I would have had better luck. But I guess hindsight is 20-20, because in fairness to me, I was told I had at least an hour to pass. If I was told that I would have less time, I'm almost sure I would have been more aggressive. Upon talking to people later, it was speculated that the Hunter Association had secretly set a pass limit without telling us. Overall, I have really mixed feelings about this. Not only did they lie to us about time limit for the run in phase, but they also lied about the size of forest (twice) and the time limit for phase 3. I don't mind if they lie to us once, it is kind of in the nature of the show the event was based on, but I don't think it's fair that they lied to us so much. If they would have told us what the pass rate for phase 3 was before we started, I would have felt way better. Again, I'm not mad or bitter, but I do think lying three whole times is pretty lame. I also don't blame them for my failure. I shouldn't have spent any more time hunting in phase 3 than I needed to, but instead I was the one who wasted my time and tried to play it "safe".

Alas, it didn't matter how I felt. I had been disqualified and that was that. However, I was quite happy to learn that both Sai and Dillon had passed the phase. It turns out the right side of the forest had a ton of blue cards and both of them had collected three blue cards in addition to their own flags. I wasn't going to leave the exam regardless, because I was going to attend the after-party they were putting on, but I was pretty happy that I would be able to cheer my buddies on in the meantime.

After some good socializing and making up with my shoeless foe, the details of phase 4 were revealed to everyone. The remaining contestants would split up into four groups of 12 and they would play a numbers based strategy game. At the start of every round (they played 8 total) there would be four numbers assigned to four letters. For example: Option A would be worth 10 points, Option B would be worth 8 points, Option C would be worth 4, and Option D would be worth 16. After discussing which numbers everyone said they would pick, the participants would put down what they actually picked on a piece on paper. Everyone would be awarded points based on what number they chose. However, the twist was that if any participants chose the same number, they would have to divide the points from that number equally among them. The 12 players would do eight rounds of this and then whichever three players had the lowest point score would be eliminated. They would then create four new groups and play the game again and again, until there were only ten people remaining.

It was safe to say that this would be a very mental game. Unfortunately, it wasn't really fun to watch. The participants weren't talking loud enough that we could hear and we couldn't see how many points each person got, so we didn't really have any clue what was going on. My buddy Sai got out in his second game, and my buddy Dillon made it to the very last game, but unfortunately he lost. He had shared his strategy with someone who wasn't in the game anymore, and they shared it with their buddies who were still in the game. That definitely wasn't fair, but it was pretty dumb of Dillon to give his strategy away before the end and there was no way to prove that he had been jipped.

At that point, I didn't really have any emotional stake in the results of the Exam, but I was still very interested to see who would win. I was also still having great social interactions with myriads of people, so it was definitely worth it. Eventually phase 5 rolled around and we were informed that it would be a 1v1 with the remaining ten contestants. Each pair of 1v1 would compete in three different challenges: a game of tug-of-war, a game of dodgeball, and a hanging contest. After all the remaining participants completed, we finally had our five new pro hunters.

Despite the fact that the exam was over, Matthew said that anyone who was interested could do a hanging competition over the small pond for fun. I was still gunning to do something and would say hanging is probably my standout talent, so I stripped down to my shorts and got ready to hang. About ten of us ended up competing and I made it to the final three. I think I probably could have won, but I ended up switching my grip and right after that I started to slip.

After drying off and changing into more casual clothes, I went to the exam after-party and it's safe to say I had a great time. The entire event was a great time. I don't think I've really conveyed how much fun I had during the whole thing throughout this post so far. I not only made tons of friends and got to physically challenge myself, but I also got to have so many fun conversations about anime and the exam as a whole. I think one of the things that makes this such a special event is that we all have the shared interests of anime and exercise. Almost everyone wants to have a social interaction, so you always have anime or workout to fall back on when talking. It's also quite a small event in it's early phases, meaning you have the opportunity to be friends with everyone, even the event runners and the content creators that show up. I met and became friends with two content creators while I was there, and one of them I didn't even know was a content creator until later at the after party. Even the pro hunters, who are like mini celebrities within this circle, are totally chill and down for a conversation about anime. Of all my hopes for this event in the future, I hope this never goes away. I hope we grow and become a bigger group, but I also hope we never forget the humble roots that we came from. Overall, the Hunter Exam was absolutely worth the money and I will definitely compete in the next one if my finances allow it!