Camping out in your car, engine off so as to not attract unwanted attention, melting in 100 degree weather… but it’s all worth it.
Any moment now, your target will pull into their driveway, unsuspecting, and completely unaware that you’re waiting for them, water gun in one hand and your camera in the other: The thrill of Senior Assassins.
Senior Assassins has been a tradition at Sunnyslope for just over a decade, as confirmed by English Teacher Amanda Morari, who stated that it did in fact exist in 2013. And ever since then, the seniors here at school have loved the excitement of partnering up and receiving their target to try and eliminate them.
The rules have always been pretty simple and straightforward: every participant must acquire a “safety item” depending on the theme of the game; this year’s theme was “boss baby,” so you may have seen students wearing pacifiers around their necks or wrists.
The goal of the game is to get your target out via shooting them, or “assassinating” them with a water gun.
If you cannot get your target out by the end of the round, then you and your partner are eliminated; you receive a new target every round.
As long as you have your safety item on your person, you can’t be eliminated.
However, there are some exceptions to this: during “purge days,” “safety items do not keep you safe,” as it is explained in the rule book.
“Anyone who is remaining in the game can eliminate anyone else, even if they are not your target.”
“Apocalypses” are similar, except that when they occur, teams that are already eliminated are given the opportunity to get back in the game by “assassinating” a team that has not been eliminated yet.
By doing this, they replace the team they assassinated.
Every elimination must be filmed in order to count, and the videos are posted to the Senior Assassins Instagram page.
It should be noted that admin has done their best to make it known that because Senior Assassins is happening off campus, it is outside of their jurisdiction.
“I think it is important to be clear,” explained Principal Parker, “that SHS and SHS administrators are not involved in this game in any way…we do not sanction it, so we play no part in regulating the rules of the game.”
“Our main concern,” Parker continued, “is ensuring that a game that occurs off campus does not distract from our learning priorities at school.”
It has been made understood that the game is not welcome on campus, which is one of the reasons why eliminations on campus do not count.
But just because something is disallowed at school doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.
Every year, dozens of students from the senior class enter the game in hopes of winning the cash prize.
However, some students just enjoy the experience, like one student who wished to remain unnamed, who said, “[Senior Assassins] is fun because it gives me an excuse to stalk people.”
Of course this senior is being a bit facetious and wouldn’t cross any legal definitions of stalking, but instead is referencing the fun of acting like an investigator: putting clues together, collecting information, looking at social media very closely… It’s the challenge that makes it entertaining.
But whatever their motives are, every senior unarguably loves Senior Assassin and the hunt it brings.
So what makes this year different?
The competition seems to have been shaken up a bit, and we have found that a lot of students are upset with the moderators of this year’s game, and many are complaining that there is a lack of clarity on the rules.
When asked what she wishes the moderators did differently, senior Addison Orihuela said, “I wish they had been more organized… There was a lot of back and forth on the rules.”
Orihuela’s partner, Anna Poppen, agreed with the frustration and said,“[the moderators] weren’t clear in the rules. It felt like they kept changing them and that made it impossible to actually get my target.”
Orihuela and Poppen had originally devise a plan in order to get their targets out, but due to rule changes and the lack of clarity on safe zones, the first elimination didn’t count.
According to many irritated students, the parking lots were never safe zones in previous years, which ultimately begs the question of why there were so many rule changes.
This lack of communication caused a lot of confusion, and left many students wondering where the boundaries of the game actually were, and questioning what other rules would be changed next.
So what did the moderators have to say?
When asked if the administration implemented any rule changes, they explained that admin doesn’t really have anything to do with the game; they only get involved “if they get too many complaints about it,” which leads to the game getting “shut down.”
Admin has already expounded on their opinion of the game, and has explained that they choose to take no part in it whatsoever, essentially meaning they do not have the responsibility of implementing changes… that is unless the game gets to a point where it is interfering with the school day.
“A lot of complaints happened when we said you couldn’t get out on school grounds, even after school. However, this was a rule that Dr. Lovell made us enforce,” moderators explained, referring to the school parking lots.
Admin’s only involvement with the game was to make sure that previous rules, such as making school grounds off limits, were enforced, so as to not interfere with the school day, like Principal Parker explained earlier.
And although many students believe the moderators failed to make it clear in the rulebook, this is a rule that should be commonly understood amongst students when they agree on the terms of the game; school grounds are entirely off limits, whether school is in session or not.
In the end, rule changes were only applied to make the game fairer and safer for everyone participating.
The only additional rule that moderators imposed was that student’s safety items had to be tied around their neck or wrist to be made visible.
Moderators must be able to determine whether or not each elimination counts based on the footage they receive, and if they can’t see the participants’ safety items, it can be hard to tell if the eliminations really count.
“It makes it difficult for us if we can’t clearly see the item,” said one moderator.
Making sure the safety items were visible was only enforced to make the game more convenient for everyone involved.
Although many students found this rule to be tedious, quite a few were extremely understanding.
“It makes sense,” said Senior Peter Buskirk, “they don’t want anyone being able to quickly take off someone else’s item and get them out.”
Despite the moderators’ best intentions in running the game this year, they explained that “there have been some pretty hostile complaints from students.”
They continued to expound on the confusion when they said, “we don’t really understand [the hostility] because it is a game.”
Additionally, the moderators have made it clear that running the account hasn’t been a piece of cake.
Regardless of the complaints, one moderator explained that “it has been pretty stressful, because there is unexpectedly way more to do than it seems.”
In the end, despite the lack of clarity and the confusion it caused amongst students, any rule changes that were enforced have had little interference with the game.
Rule changes are somewhat expected because every year, the game brings different circumstances and new competition.
Although it was difficult for students to know what to expect, Senior Assassins is a friendly competition, and every year, the moderators do their best to make it fair.
With the start of a new round approaching, students interested in updates should follow the official Senior Assassins Instagram page @slope.senior_assassins2025.