Students gathered to watch people change frantically into each other's clothing Thursday night at Paternoville, screaming at them to go faster.
"Let's go, let's go," one student said, cheering. "Don't rip the tent!"
At Gate A students watched the Survivor Paternoville competition unfold.
In the first round, participants voted on the candidates that would compete. Those participants then had to compete in a series of challenges, hoping to win the title of "survivor" and the $100 prize that came with it.
All participants received winter hats from the company that sponsored the event -- Tundra Gear.
The first challenge the students faced was fitting their team of four into a tiny tent. "My head was crushed," Cory Ingram (sophomore-actuarial science) said. "I thought I was gonna die."
The final two teams then had to go back into the tiny tent, two-by-two, strip their clothing and change with their partner. All while the audience watched.
"It wasn't supposed to work out this way" Brook Geraghty, one of the event organizers said. Geraghty is a partner in Tundra Gear and a former "Survivor: Vanuatu" contestant.
The door on the tent was open -- a turn of events they did not anticipate.
"Sitting side-by-side, ripping clothes off and throwing them across the tent," Chris Grassi (graduate-law) said. "That was very awkward."
Students watching snapped photographs and cheered.
"Start loosin' 'em," one student yelled during the clothing swap.
After swapping clothes, the competitors set off to the next challenge -- a race around Beaver Stadium. "I just looked at them and said 'no'," Grassi said, describing his reaction to the race. "Then I ran anyway."
Grassi won the title of Paternoville survivor, much to his surprise.
True to form, in order to win the title, contestants had to appease the judges, who were previously eliminated contestants. The final contestants delivered a speech to sway the judges' opinions. Two of the three candidates promised to buy pizza and wings for the residents of Paternoville, who had to sleep elsewhere Thursday night because of cold temperatures Grassi took a different approach.
"Well, I haven't eaten in about two months." Grassi said, joking. In his speech, Grassi said he would celebrate with pizza and champagne.
Many other students said they also enjoyed the event, in spite of the temperature.
