The weird battle to see who can avoid the Super Bowl's outcome the longest

 By 
Max Knoblauch
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Drawing an average of 114.4 million viewers, Super Bowl XLIX was the most watched program in the history of television.

For 112 competitive luddites, this impressive number only makes their contest more challenging.

The "Last Man in America to Know Who Won the Super Bowl" contest, or simply "Last Man" is a competition which pits participants against one another in a battle against knowledge. The knowledge in question concerns the outcome of the Super Bowl -- if a contestant learns either the game's winner or its final score, that person is eliminated.

The Last Man contest has existed as a game since 2008.

The 2015 competition can be followed with the hashtag #LastMan -- a depressing field of sad competitors posting the causes of their elimination.

This is the way #lastman ended for me. It's all @cullenroche's fault. (LINK & IMAGE #NOTSAFE) http://t.co/mShzyzxcy6 pic.twitter.com/xzTNCULXeI— John Carney (@carney) February 4, 2015

I must be honest, in the spirit of the game. I am dead. #lastman #DeathBy a stupid Disneyworld commercial. I feel like such a failure.— Jeff McReynolds (@j_mac21) February 3, 2015

Of the 112 entrants in this year's game, only 7 remain. Of those 7, only 2 are regularly tweeting.

We're down to 7 runners, but only 2 are tweeting on a somewhat regular basis. #Lastman— Last Man 2015 (@findthelastman) February 13, 2015

Twitter-avoidance is an obvious yet disappointing side effect of a game requiring competitors to cast away all media.

As for how long this competition could go, the current all-time record holder is J. Scott Fitzwater, who allegedly went without learning an outcome for several years. This year, Fitzwater was eliminated by John Oliver on Feb. 12.

I'm out. Curse you, John Oliver! #lastman— J. Scott Fitzwater (@jscottfitzwater) February 13, 2015

Only time can reveal this year's most uninformed person.

[H/T The New Yorker]

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