With the yearly tradition of senior assassin starting on March 18, many seniors have needed to figure out the safest ways to get to sports practices, work, and even leaving the house to go hang out with their friends, all for a $1,700 (and growing) pot. In case you are unfamiliar with the game, here’s how it works. Every week on Monday, each person playing is sent a target they need to shoot with a nerf gun by the following Saturday. You can use a construction vest for protection, if you are shot with your construction vest on, you no longer get to use it, but you can’t get shot again for the next 24 hours. You must get a video of you shooting your target along with a picture of you with the person you shot. There are additional rules regarding where you’re allowed to shoot people and when, but at the end of the game, the last person standing will get the prize money. “At first, I was very excited to play and originally thought I would take a lot of my time to go out and get my targets. Once the game started, it was not as fun as I thought, and trying to get your targets is stressful. You can’t hang out in certain places or hang out with some people when you’re playing the game,” one of the game players said.  

164 people signed up at the beginning of the game, with some players sticking out as people you don’t want to mess with. Erv Nguyen got four people out before getting shot by Corey Wong but would eventually buy back to keep playing. Currently with nine kills under his belt, Erv continues to hold strong to keep playing. “I really enjoy waiting outside someone’s house early in the morning and scaring them half to death. Eventually people are going to lose interest and I’m going to win it all,” Nguyen said.  

While watching the game is fun, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes. Between handling the money that flows through to enter and get back into the game, setting up the targets, and figuring out who’s on bounty, the game runners have a lot to do in terms of making sure the game runs the best it can. “My buddy Nolan Callahan talked to me back in November about running it. I told him I would think about it but that night he started the Instagram account and told the whole DECA class that me and him are running it. I got roped in really quickly, it’s kinda fun but really hard. I’ve put so many hours into this. Sunday target send outs take 2-3 hours alone,” game runner Matthew Reeder said.