Native Hunting Competition

The Native Hunting Competition is a triennial contest partaken exclusively by the World Nobles. It involves an island-wide Manhunt (人間狩り) where the slaughter of the resident population is translated to points, leading to victory for the top scorer.

So far, the only seen edition of this event was the one that occurred at God Valley in the West Blue 38 years ago.

Overview
This tournament occurs once every three years in individual islands unaffiliated with the World Government. Once an island is chosen for the contest, it is forcefully claimed by the government, regardless of consent of its actual rulers.

The native population is rounded up and kept captive in cages to be later released and hunted down for sport throughout the tournament, with problematic slaves and criminals also being employed as additional game if necessary. For the purposes of the event, the hunted all have a target symbol on their back and are referred to as Rabbits. The edition of the tournament held on God Valley featured around 100,000 civilians as Rabbits to hunt, including 150 Rare Rabbits and 13 Super Rare Rabbits.

The competition seemingly lasts for three weeks, with civilians being told that they get to be freed if they manage to survive for that long. According to Emporio Ivankov, this is a lie meant to motivate Rabbits with a false hope of escape and trick them into immersing themselves into the hunt as prey. Also according to Ivankov, previous editions of the tournament have ended with zero survivors, further reinforcing that there is no real way to survive the competition outside leaving the island somehow. Marines are tasked with encircling the island in order to prevent just that.

A points system is used to determine the winner. Rare rabbits are seemingly worth more points than common ones and super rare rabbits are worth 10,000 points each. Also, single hit kills receive bonuses. Penalties also exist, as Figarland Garling was struck with negative 10,000 points for false starting; he ended up slaying God Valley's king before the starting signal. Among the winning prizes of the tournament, there were two known Devil Fruits: the Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu and the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi. The former would end up being stolen by Ivankov before Charlotte Linlin took it to herself by force and later gave it to Kaidou. The latter was stolen and eaten by Bartholomew Kuma.

In the God Valley edition of the event, there were approximately 200 Nobles participating, including members of the God's Knights, with the hunt being broadcasted live in Mary Geoise for other World Nobles to watch. The competition itself is a secret not meant to be known to the outside world.

History
At some point throughout history, this custom of cleansing islands of its natives became a popular event among the World Nobles.



38 years ago, God Valley was chosen as the venue for a new tournament due to its name, considered sacrilegious for carrying the name of "God" in it, and its rich natural resources. The island's king was slain by Saint Garling for protesting the event while the population was mostly caged to be used as hunting game.

Kuma was among the slaves that were to be used as game as well, but he managed to briefly escape only to be later found by the slave group he was part of, who then proceeded to beat him up until he lost consciousness so he would be dragged back to the event by force, lest them all be executed otherwise. It was then that Kuma was approached by fellow slaves Emporio Ivankov and Ginny, who had plans to escape the game.

Ginny, who had managed to leak the tournament's existence to the outside world, was able to attract the eyes of the Rocks Pirates towards God Valley. The Roger Pirates also learned of this and made a move as well to confront Rocks, with Marines led by Monkey D. Garp following soon after. By taking advantage of this battle and the World Nobles' retreat, Kuma and Ivankov were able to sneak into the tournament's prize venue and steal the fruits, although Linlin managed to swipe the Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu from Ivankov. Kuma ate the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi however, and later used its powers to save around 500 victims of the hunt before escaping himself with Ginny and Ivankov to the Sorbet Kingdom.

Aftermath
Most of the events that took place at God Valley were covered up, with few details leaking to the public besides Garp's late involvement, which would grant him the title of "Hero of the Marines". The Native Hunting Competition itself was seemingly completely glossed over, especially due to Morgans, a journalist at the time, not reporting on anything beyond Garp's actions.

God Valley would end up erased from history somehow, with only some veteran Marines having any sort of memories or knowledge of the God Valley Incident, let alone the Native Hunting Competition that served as its backdrop. It is unknown if the tournament is still practiced to this day.

That said, Figarland Garling, a participant of the tournament, would become known as the "champion" of God Valley. It is unknown if that title is a form of acknowledging his victory in the competition or something else related to his involvement in the battles that took place there.

Trivia

 * This competition seems similar to the premise of The Most Dangerous Game, involving wealthy hunters chasing after humans as if they were animal prey.