Senior Assassin has become increasingly popular throughout recent years due to numerous clips from high schools nationwide going viral on TikTok. Now, it’s been brought to the school, pitting its seniors against each other.

The game started on March 1 and consists of one senior being assigned a target with the intent to shoot them with a water gun, thus “assassinating” them. After numerous requests from seniors to hold a game of Senior Assassin, senior class president Ainsley Harlan put the entire event together. With 176 seniors participating in the game, preparation was difficult, according to Harlan. Since the game isn’t affiliated with the school, Harlan had no access to schoolwide communications to reach all seniors.

“It was a little stressful,” Harlan said. “But I know it’s going to work out, and this is part of my job description when I ran for senior president. So I was mentally prepared, it’s just stress[ful], making sure that everyone gets the communications. It’s really hard, I know I’m not automatically getting to everyone in the senior class because there’s literally no way to reach them.”

Many friend groups formed teams together, while others only banded together as duos or competed solo. Senior Parker Grabbe is one of four seniors playing by themselves. Working alone could end up being the advantage that leads to the win, according to Grabbe.

“I was at this point of time in the year where I just felt better off by myself,” Grabbe said. “I think I might have a better advantage than some of the other groups, also I don’t know anyone else doing it alone. So, doing it alone might end up helping me win it all. I’m definitely not giving anything away, but I have looked at all of the strategies and how I’m going to beat other groups because groups definitely have an advantage over me in some ways. I think I’m definitely going to have to take the name of Bruce Wayne. Why Bruce Wayne? Because Batman is the best vigilante out there and being alone is the mood.”

The stakes are high, with a $900 prize pool on the line. The first kill of the game took place 10 hours after the game began. Senior Paisley Schalles staked out her target, senior Dominic Ridder, at his house and successfully got him out. According to Ridder, he was drained that morning.

“I was so tired,” Ridder said. “I was kind of just surprised at first because I live pretty far, so I didn’t expect anyone to be out there. I mean, it was interesting, I was just super tired so it surprised me a little bit. But I’m still going to help out my team and everything. So far it seems pretty cool, the water guns are the best option.”

The number of competitors will dwindle as the game progresses. Even though Senior Assassin is for fun, there have been many complications, with late registrations and new rules needing to be added to ensure the safety of everyone. There have been reports of students asking teachers and counselors for their target’s schedules and being refused. Balancing everything has been strenuous, according to Harlan, but she hopes everything will pay off.

“I know it’s a pretty frequent senior tradition, and a lot of people do it,” Harlan said. “It wasn’t done last year, but I wanted to get it going for this year. It is a lot of work, but I’m hoping it’ll be worth it.”