Back from the dead: Humans versus Zombies brings people together on campus
Story and photos by Britany Adorno-Alicea
The inspirational speech was given by the de-facto leader of the Human team on Saturday, September 20, 2025.
This year’s game of Humans versus Zombies bewildered campus last week and gave people a lot to talk about with the array of students walking around with strange orange ribbons and nerf guns.
A national game that's existed since 2005, Humans versus Zombies serves as a good way for new or old students to socialize with their peers and make new friends in a way that's fun and exciting for everyone. The first year that the University of Alaska Fairbanks participated in the HvZ games was 2015, marking 10 years that the elaborate game of tag has been done on our campus.
Strategic project administrator Joel Stone, who is the event organizer, was himself a player when he attended UAF, gives a rundown of what truly entails a game of HvZ.
“It’s a lot similar to LARPing,” Stone said. “There’s almost like a societal shame when people hear that and say that's nerdy or that’s embarrassing, but I think once you see it and once you’re involved with it, there is a fun with it that you don’t get in any other way.”
Last three survivors of the human’s team, Group One, walks during a strategic split to evade the zombie team.
The human and zombie players are all given missions and tasks across campus to complete, essentially creating this big game of outdoor tag. Most indoor buildings serve as a neutral space, allowing for truces to be called so that students may continue on with their usual activities outside of participating in this game of tag.
“We want everyone to be on the same page, that we’re having fun and we also want campus to be safe,” Stone said when bringing up the safety meeting that occurred prior to the start of the games. “We’re having nerf guns on campus, so as a part of the safety meeting we have a safety waiver that we have folks fill out.”
There are no recollections of what the number of participants were in previous years, but it is safe to assume that the years affected by COVID had significantly diminished the amount of students that would have likely participated in the games.
Last year’s turnout was estimated at around 40 to 80 players, while this year saw an increase of players at around 100 to 150 active participants, but the numbers grew as the game went on. With the event last year having only lasted three days, this year’s full week long game was a huge step up.
With HvZ once being a student lead event, Stone hopes to one day put it back in the hands of the students rather than it being run by an administrator like it had to be once the COVID restrictions were lifted.
The entire zombie team celebrates their victory over the human team after the week long game on Saturday, September 20, 2025.
“With COVID, it ended up being staff running it, what I would love is to see the students take it back and run it to what they want it to be,” said Stone when asked about the possibilities of extending the game to be longer than a week or making the event happen once every semester as opposed to once every year; but those decisions are up in the air.
The event was wrapped up in one spectacular finale on Saturday, ending the week off in one epic game that took the human team all over campus to avoid getting tagged and turning into zombies and had one final showdown to determine the final winners.
The game’s finale saw an epic win for the zombies team, a bitter defeat for the remaining human survivors, and an amazing end to a fantastic week of making new memories and friends.