Last man standing (video games)

Last man standing (LMS) or last team standing (LTS) is a multiplayer deathmatch gameplay mode featured in some first-person shooter computer and video games, and is also the essence of battle royale games. The aim of a player in a last man standing match is to neutralize their opponents and remain the sole survivor; the basic rules followed are generally the same of the death-match game type, with an important difference: respawn is limited or not allowed at all. Each player is assigned a specific number of lives per match (or just one when there is no respawn); once these lives have been expended, the player will no longer be able to return to the current match and remain as an invisible spectator until there is a winner and the LMS round is over. Within several games players are called to buy or pick up items, while other titles will have the players spawned with full weapons and ammo and there are no powerups available on the map.

Several different variations of the last man standing mode exist, with the most common being team LMS. The rules are the same of the standard LMS and the winning team is the one able to eliminate all the members of the opposing teams and keep at least one of its components alive.

The first last-man-standing video game with a shrinking play zone was the 1983 action game Bomberman.[1]