The game is called “Killer” at some schools, but at Archie Williams High School (AWHS) it’s called Assassin: a water gun, prize money fueled game that is a rite of passage for AWHS upperclassmen. Through a variety of strategies, teams of three compete each May by hiding from their assassins and killing their targets until they are the last team standing or are eliminated. Strategies are a paramount feature of the game, and as upperclassmen are assassinated, they begin brainstorming for new ideas for the next year.

The rules of the game are simple: assassinate your target and avoid getting assassinated. Teams don’t know who is trying to assassinate them, so they must be wary at all times. The most popular way to assassinate someone is to squirt them with a water gun outside of school grounds. 

Assassin teams always have three members, one of which being the captain. If the captain is assassinated, the entire team is eliminated for the rest of the game. AWHS junior Jake Barnes competed in this year’s Assassin and says that this rule made his team very cautious.

“We tried to stay inside as much as we could and, when we did go outside, we would bring water guns for protection,” Barnes said.

Despite this precaution, Barnes’s captain was “time-bombed,” a method that involves putting a timer on someone’s person without them noticing. This method of elimination was used solely at school during classes, but assassinations have since been banned on school grounds. In hindsight, Barnes says that his team should have worn their backpacks on their chests, as they could have known when someone would try to plant a time-bomb.

There is a point where some teams become too cautious. AWHS junior Annie Enbom says that “hiding will get you eliminated,” because if your team fails to assassinate your target before the end of each week’s round , then you are eliminated.

Enbom says that to assassinate someone, you have to “put in the time.” This means knowing exactly where your target is at all times. 

“I know a lot of teams find out sport practice times, or follow their target home after or before school…they also find out addresses, and wait for their targets to leave their house,” Enbom said.

AWHS senior Meleah Silverstein agrees that it takes a lot of effort to assassinate another team, but also says that there is a degree of luck that goes into it. Silverstein’s first target happened to be on their way home from a sports practice at AWHS, so Silverstein assassinated them at that time. 

“You have to be at the right place at the right time,” Silverstein said. 

Silverstein and her team were assassinated by their friends, who previously said that they were going  to assassinate another team. Silverstein’s whole team was assassinated while spending time with them, something Silverstein describes as a “rookie mistake” on her part.

Assassin may seem like a juvenile game, but AWHS students put a lot of thought and planning into their strategies, making it a highly competitive and intense game. Strategies could potentially win this year’s players money and bragging rights until next year, when a new group of upperclassmen will strive to keep the tradition of Assassin alive.