“If you believe you can accomplish everything by ‘cramming’ at the eleventh hour, by all means, don’t lift a finger now. But you may think twice about beginning to build your ark once it has already started raining.”

– Max Brooks, The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead

1. Organize before they rise!

If you were given a month’s warning that the zombie apocalypse was on its way, would you just sit there, doing nothing? NO! You would start preparing now. Why should this be any different for the National Cyber League (NCL)??!!

The NCL Gymnasium opens a full month prior to the first competition AND it is included in the cost of the competition.

2. They feel no fear, why should you?

Once you understand a zombie’s weaknesses and how to leverage them, you fear them less. So, learning more about something can help reduce your fear of it. Why not apply this to the NCL?

The NCL Gym is designed specifically for this purpose:

• You learn how to navigate the Cyber Skyline platform (which is the same platform all of the NCL challenges take place on).
• You become familiar with what the challenges look like and, more importantly, the form of the answers that they are looking for.
  • Is it multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer, or true/false? It is good to know ahead of time!

3. Use your head: cut off theirs.

I will leave it up to you to decide the tool you require for zombie head removals. But, you will learn from the Gym about the tools you will need for the NCL. How do you go about doing this? Well, almost all of the NCL Gym challenges come with a solution guide presenting you with the tool used to find the solution.

Let me know if you find any tools that can be used against both zombies and NCL challenges.

4. Blades don’t need reloading.

This won’t help with the NCL, but it seems important enough to note.

5. Keep moving, keep low, keep quiet, keep alert!

Don’t complete just some of the NCL challenges; move through all of them. Once you are in the zone, time and place will no longer have relevance. So, find a safe, zombie-free space, tune everything else out, and go to town destroying the Gym challenges.

6. The zombie may be gone, but the threat lives on.

The NCL Gym will turn you into a zombie- / challenge-crushing machine. You will be prepared to take on all three phases of the NCL: the Preseason, Individual Game, and the Team Game. Plus, the Gym’s scoreboard will show you where you need to hone your skills.

Still confused on how to start? Check out this zombie-free blog post from last year:

Everything You Need to Know About the NCL Gym (but Were Too Afraid to Ask Someone)