On March 1, Instagram account @aragonseniorassassins24 announced the beginning of Aragon Senior Assassin. The popular game is played in high schools throughout the country, and involves students attempting to eliminate their assigned targets with water guns.
80 teams of two signed up for the student-run game starting in early February using a form posted on the account’s page. Teams were then posted before the beginning of the game.
“[The sign-up process] was the easiest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” said senior and participant Adam Garcia. “You just put your name, team name and then who your partner’s going to be because it was in teams of two. And then [you pay] a $10 fee.”
The $10 fee paid by each player goes to a pool of cash that will be split between the first, second and third place winners at the end of the game. The pool started at $1600, and has continued to grow as players place bounties on each other.
“Our [money] pot is double that of our neighboring schools,” said senior and participant Enya Yuan. “Ours is [over] $1800.”
To place a bounty, players fill out a form, pick a person to place the 48-hour bounty on and pay at least $10. Anybody can eliminate a person with a bounty, and whoever does so gets half of the bounty amount, with the other half going to the prize pool.
“At first it was kinda lame because you couldn’t see bounties on your map,” Garcia said. “But they updated it so you could see bounties, so I think it’s better now.”
Players have many ways to stay safe during the game, detailed in the rules posted on the Instagram account. This includes how eliminations cannot occur on school grounds during school hours, while someone is at an extracurricular activity or at their job. Additionally, eliminations have to be recorded and uploaded to an app for proof.
“We use the app ‘Splashin’ which helps us [play] the game itself,” Yuan said. “Whether that be seeing where your targets are on the app or being able to upload an elimination.”
Players can also stay safe by wearing items related to swimming like goggles, floaties and swimsuits. These items give a player immunity to being eliminated.
“It’s not too hard to stay safe,” said senior participant Evan Li. “You just have to keep your safety item on you, and a majority of the people who have gotten out so far are just people who are too lazy to do that.”
But these safety items become ineffective on random purge days, when the game also becomes free-for-all.
“On purge days, you just have to be more careful,” said senior participant Eric Laguna. “It’s kind of hard when you have [things] like baseball games, because I have a game on a purge day.”
Purge days are not the only random event happening during the game. During reboot days, players who have lost their teammate can go to a reboot zone posted on Instagram, find one of three reboot cards and take a picture of it to revive their teammate.
“[Special days make] the game more fun,” Laguna said. “When there’s bounties and purge days, people are more motivated to go out and get their targets.”
Li agrees with the fun and light-hearted nature of the Senior Assassins.
“I’ve talked to people from other schools that are running their own Senior Assassins, and they’re always excited by all the events that we have and the way that ours works, so I’m pretty happy with the way that our Senior Assassins is being run,” Li said.
Yuan has also noticed people talking about Aragon’s senior assassin game.
“Every time we go out, there’s always people talking about it around us, or the teachers are talking about it in a positive light,” Yuan said. “One time I went to a restaurant and I heard the neighboring tables being like ‘Aragon senior assassins is so well put together, I wish I was playing their game.’”
However, others believe the game could be dangerous, and some games have already caused problems. There have been two incidents in San Mateo in which players had water guns that looked nearly identical to Glock pistols. One of these took place at Hillsdale Mall, drawing local police attention and news coverage.
“In the major response that happened around Hillsdale Mall, when we contacted the individual that had the water gun, they put it down [and] we were able to de-escalate that situation very quickly,” said Jerami Surratt, Public Information Officer for the San Mateo Police Department.
Despite these concerns, many still believe the game can be played safely.
“If you’re just using a toy water gun, I don’t think you have to worry about anything,” Garcia said.
The Instagram account will continue to update bounties, special days and eliminations until one team remains and wins the game and cash prize.
