Every spring, something shifts in the senior class. People start checking over their shoulders. Friends become threats. A walk to the car turns into something to be thought through.
This is Senior Assassin, and for the Class of 2026, it had been in full swing. Hundreds of seniors signed up this year, but the field has finally come down to one: officially ending the game. Senior Emma Brooks was one of the various students who helped organize the game this year.
“It’s just kind of like one last time for everyone to come together and do something as a class,” Brooks said.
The premise of the game is simple. Seniors download an app, get assigned a target and have to eliminate them by squirting them with a water gun. Get hit without a protection item, and there is one less person in the game. Be the last one standing, and take home the prize money. The app handles most of the logistics. It assigns targets, tracks locations and keeps the bracket updated in real time. However, running the game still takes real effort.
“You set the rules, but obviously there’s different exceptions for everything,” Brooks said. “Like, if someone’s at work but they’re not clocked in, they’re just there, it’s hard to stick by the rules when there’s so many different scenarios that could happen.”
The rules exist to keep things safe and fair. Nothing can happen on school grounds, during work hours, in or around a running car or during sports activities. The goal is to keep the competition fun without it happening in places it should not. While most players respect that, staying alive still requires serious commitment. Senior Dominic Weiss knows that better than almost anyone, as he was one of the last three seniors left.
“My main strategy has been wearing my protection item whenever I am going anywhere,” Weiss said. “Even if I am hanging out with people who aren’t playing.”
The protection item, a specific object each player carries to be safe from elimination, such as goggles, floaties or a fanny pack, has become a constant accessory. In the final stage of the game, with so few players left, the pressure is real, and even normal plans feel unpredictable.
Even Weiss had many close calls before his final elimination. After a theater rehearsal one evening, an opposing player spotted him and made a move.
“My friend had to block her from getting to me as I ran away,” Weiss said.
It took quick thinking, and a loyal friend, to survive. That kind of story is exactly what makes the game stick in people’s memories. The chaos, the close calls, the alliances. It turns something simple into memories that last longer than the game itself.
For Weiss, the motivation goes beyond just winning. His older sister won Senior Assassin two years ago, and making it this far feels like more than luck.
“I’m more focused on the tradition of it [rather] than the money,” Weiss said. “Since my sister won, I’d like to carry on that legacy.”
That sense of legacy is also part of why the game keeps growing every year. It is not really just about the water guns or the prize: it is about bringing seniors together at the end of the year, when everything else is winding down, giving them something to share, creating a fun and memorable experience, where they can connect with people they might not have met otherwise.
With only three players left, that thrill is at its peak. The bracket is almost done. The game is almost over, but no one is fully relaxed yet. Until the final elimination happens, one of the last seniors is still watching, waiting, and ready to make their last move. One wrong move and they could get out, while with the right one they could win it all.
“There’s also a thrill to it,” Brooks said. “I think everyone just kind of likes the thrill.”
