He looked at his map, players were everywhere. Senior Richard Beal was ready for a fun day as he packed up his water gun and put his goggles around his neck. He found his first target, senior Ethan Diaz eating lunch at Crust Pizza. With a quick shot, Diaz was out of the game, and Beal got another elimination in Senior Assassin.
Senior Assassin is a game where players compete to try to win a prize pool of $645. The game, which is not affiliated with the school nor allowed to be played on school grounds, starts with each player being assigned a target at the beginning of the week, which they have to try to get out. Players can eliminate their targets out by squirting them with a water gun. If a player is shot, they are out of the game. The target they had is passed on to their assassin.
However, the players have opportunities to stay safe by either wearing swim goggles on their heads or floaties around their arms. At the end of the week, players get assigned a new target to eliminate, and a new round begins. This cycle continues until only one player remains.
With a major cash prize on the line, there had to be a way to make sure the game was being played fairly. Senior Isaac Lee is the game’s admin, who is in charge of approving eliminations, assigning targets and providing and maintaining the rules of the game. Lee, originally excited to play the game, decided to run Senior Assassin instead to guarantee it was done in the right way.
“I heard that they weren’t starting it this year,” Lee said. “I wanted to make sure it happened, so I took matters into my own hands and just did it myself.”
Being the game admin has forced Lee to make some difficult choices about the game. Whether it’s cancelling out an unfair elimination or kicking someone out for breaking the rules, these choices have led to some controversy.
“There’s been a few instances where there’s been a special case, and I’ve had to make a decision,” Lee said. “It can be stressful because no matter what, I’m going to have some people mad at me.”
This year, 129 people decided to play Senior Assassin. With so many participants, the number is always going down. Friends were bound to get each other as targets, leading to betrayal becoming a big part of the game.
Seniors Sebastian Bolivar and Emily Pavel were sitting in a car together. They were waiting to try to get Bolivar’s target out. Everything was fine until Bolivar felt a squirt of water hit his arm. It was a trap. Pavel had gotten a kill, putting her one step ahead in the game, while Bolivar’s time playing Senior Assassin was over.
“It felt bad because we were going to get my target out because they’re friends,” Bolivar said. “But I thought she was going to help me. But she just did it.”
Before getting out, Bolivar had managed to eliminate three people and was planning on more as he was set on moving the game further. Ironically, Bolivar used the same method as Pavel to get out one of his targets, who was also his friend – senior Aubrey Keenan.
Even though he is no longer in the game, Bolivar had fun and did all that he wanted to do in the game.
“You have the whole pressure, you don’t want to lose, you want to eliminate a lot of people so the game can finish faster, so it was pretty fun,” Bolivar said.
One part of Senior Assassin that has gotten the majority of the players out is Purge Day. Every Sunday, players can get any player out, regardless of who their target is.
This change in the ruleset has allowed players to go for players normally safe from elimination. The only way players can be safe on Purge Day is by eliminating their target for the week, as that grants them immunity. With these special rules, some players have been able to rack up a large number of eliminations.
Senior Richard Beal got 10 people out in Senior Assassin and currently leads the game for the most eliminations. Beal’s main strategy in the game was to gain immunity during the week and then to go on a hunting spree during Purge Day.
“I just went around, looked on the map, and saw random people that were out and just went and tried to get them, everything kind of fell together,” Beal said.
Despite his high number of eliminations, Beal’s time in Senior Assassin came to an end. Early in the game, Beal made a deal with senior Flavia Salima Marcano to not get each other out.
Beal and Salima Marcano had planned on setting senior Ciley Laskowski up for elimination in a joint effort, but unbeknownst to Beal the deal had changed. Salima Marcano knew that Laskowski was not able to make it to the set up but did not tell Beal.
When Beal got to the set up location, he rushed inside to gain another elimination, but instead a splash of both water and betrayal greeted him.
“I was really angry because I feel like Flavia and I are pretty close friends,” Beal said. “There was an exchange of money, and we had a handshake. I just felt really bad that she turned on me.”
With 25 players remaining in the game, the competition has become tighter than ever. Many players have resorted to hiding out in their houses, waiting for the right moment to strike. Others have been getting eliminations as fast as they can. Regardless of the strategy, only one player can walk away with the cash prize while the rest end up soaked.
“I think it’s getting a lot more competitive, and it’s kind of slowing down,” Lee said. “I think people are going to take it more seriously once they realize that they have a shot at winning.
