Summary

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) has a long and storied history with HvZ, being one of the first colleges to adopt the game after Goucher. Apart from their myriad of evening and week-long games for students and locals throughout the year, UMBC usually hosts a single-day invitational every April. With its pedigree and central location on the East Coast, it has quickly become one of the largest and best-organized annual events.

They held their latest Invitational in mid-April 2024 as a part of the Maryland Mayhem weekend of events co-hosted by the Maryland Foam Alliance. We have had the privilege of sponsoring and attending the last two years of Maryland Mayhem, with the invitationals led by the UMBC HvZ Club and its outgoing president, David Gaiano. These events have been fantastic; we can’t wait to see what the club cooks up next year!

Some features include…

Limited Starting Loadouts 

One of the unique things UMBC does is limit the humans’ loadouts for the first few missions, usually in capacity. This increases the chance of zombies getting a tag while you’re reloading, providing a better balance earlier in the game.

Power-ups Galore! 

UMBC has perhaps the greatest number of power-ups available to players – especially zombies. From flag bearers as spawn-time-reducers to shields, throwables, and even zombies with blasters, you’d be hard-pressed to find another horde with so many buffs and bonuses.

Transferable Power-Ups

This year, some zombies with special abilities could pass on their buffs to whomever they tagged, counterbalancing some of the disappointment of being tagged with an instant bonus when they join the horde.