Senior Alex Pollan visits the beach on Senior Skip Day on April 18, strapped with a water gun and a dream. This would be his ideal opportunity to eliminate his target and become the victor of a competition that caught the attention of the student body at large. After four weeks of ambitious plotting and enduring paranoia, the second year of the Senior Assassin tradition came to a close, with 93 out of the 126 students in the senior class participating.
“I joined the game because I knew a lot of people did it in previous years and it seemed like something I could do to have some fun and spend some time with other people,” Pollan said. “Going into the game, I had pretty low expectations. Actually, my goal was to make it to the end, and I didn’t think I’d be available that often, so I figured it would be pretty hard for people to get me.”
Senior Gianna Theodoropoulos served as the moderator for the game, planning events such as purge days and assigning bounties. Theodoropoulos also managed the Class of 2025 Senior Assassin Instagram account, where photos and videos of each kill were posted.
“I decided to moderate because I really wouldn’t be able to participate with how many things I was doing in the spring,” Theodoropoulos said. “I had student government and theater, so I decided that I wanted to participate in a different way, which I think ended up taking more time than it would have been if I actually decided to play Senior Assassin.”
Theodoropoulos said she regretted moderating at times because of the tedious nature of the position.
“During round 2 of Senior Assassin, I spent close to three hours a day on my phone on Snapchat or Instagram making the captions, editing the photos, texting the senior group chat and arguing with people who argue with me. So in total, I probably spent literally 70 hours doing Senior Assassin.”
Each of the 93 participants had to pay an initial $2 to play the game. The distribution of winnings involves 1st, 2nd and 3rd place receiving 50%, 30% and 20% of the total prize money, respectively.
“Something I have heard a lot this year is that it should have been more than a $2 buy-in and that everyone would be willing to spend more than that,” Theodoropoulos said. “Increasing the buy-in to $5 would have made the overall prize pool bigger and would have made it more fun for everyone in general because you feel more ambitious to win.”
Seniors received their new targets at Power Hour each Monday. For participants, such as Christian DeLeon, the process of hunting targets involved careful strategizing.
“You have to spend maybe an hour or two planning and trying to find out what you know about them,” DeLeon said. “And then it’s all about timing as far as trying to get them when they’re out and about. It can be a little time intensive, especially if you’re really trying to get your target before you go on bounty or get eliminated from not getting your target.”
Some students, such as Stefania Raffaelli and Rebecca Lorigan, collaborated to get others out.
“Rebecca and I decided to kill Beau and Trey on a double date,” Raffaelli said. “We knew that they were obviously going to go on the double date because they will do anything for girls.”
However, alliances often resulted in betrayals throughout Senior Assassin eliminations.
“My favorite part was getting to kill Rebecca Lorigan,” Raffaelli said. “I drove her to my house because we had to change for flag football, and then right when she got out of my car, I shot her. I felt bad because right when I got her as my target, she asked me who I had, and I had to make up a bunch of lies about how my app wasn’t working, and I couldn’t show her my target. But luckily, she didn’t catch on, and then I killed her. I felt really bad because she was really mad at me.”
Senior Chloe Marrs said that she was shocked when she was eliminated in a set-up orchestrated by Carter Newlin and Sean Doran, who shot Marrs from the trunk of Newlin’s car.
“Carter and I made a pact that we were going to help each other get our person, and I trusted him,” Marrs said. “He has a car with a closed off trunk, so when I looked into the car, I saw that there was no one in there. I didn’t expect somebody to be in the trunk of an actual car. It was heartbreaking to see that they would go to that length just to get me out. I was just an innocent bystander minding my own business trying to get my person out.”
Senior Devin Haave was disqualified during the first week for violating a rule that states participants cannot shoot others while operating a moving vehicle.
“[I decided to play because] it sounded like a grand old time,” Haave said. “A good time between the people to bring the class together. I wasn’t eliminated; I was disqualified because of some hurt egos and some abuse of power. So basically me as a grown man in my own car reversed at a red light and shot my friend’s, another grown man’s car, outside of Senior Assassin. Gianna said it was illegal and then disqualified me. I was sure I was going to win until the government took me down.”
Senior Sasha Garcia was the first to be eliminated in the game.
“I got tricked and Orsonsol said he needed my help to get Fareed out, so he asked if he could borrow my gun,” Garcia said. “He said he needed someone to record for him so I was like ‘OK, I’ll go with you.’ And then he said ‘Oh no, I forgot my goggles too.’ He really made me believe that it wasn’t him. So I gave him my goggles and he went to his car, opened his front door, grabbed his gun. And that’s when I’m like ‘Oh my God he’s trying to get me out.”
Other participants struggled to record a clear video, a requirement for eliminations to count.
“I technically got my target, Lea; I technically sprayed her,” senior Teymur Abdulla said. “But the person I brought to record, he was also excited to shoot, so he got a really bad video so I don’t really have proof that I got her.”
Though Abdulla said he was initially disappointed, he eventually accepted this loss.
“It was fine honestly,” Abdulla said. “I realized after that that I didn’t have what it took to win.”
Senior Reese Armstrong entered the game with confidence, determined to defeat her competition. Though Armstrong was eventually eliminated due to not eliminating her target in time, she was one of the four players remaining in the final week of the game.
“A lot of people who were in the game were kind of dumb and weren’t thinking because why would you not wear your goggles outside of your house?” Armstrong said. “They weren’t thinking. I’m on top of it. I have my goggles on everywhere, I stay strapped. These people were not ready; they just didn’t have their goggles. You just gotta think it through. Like I started to park in the garage for it. I’m determined, I’m set. These people are not ready.”
Some seniors, such as Hannah Talaia, chose not to participate in Senior Assassin.
“I decided not to play because I’m too paranoid,” Talaia said. I was scared that people were going to show up to my house or my work, and I just didn’t want to have to deal with that. I was also scared because the first day I had my senior photos, and I just did not want to get killed on the first day in the middle of my senior photos. Looking back on it, I kind of do wish I played. Seeing everybody have such a fun time, I did get some FOMO.”
Armstrong said she found that the game served as a valuable bonding experience that brought the grade together.
“I think the game is really fun,” Armstrong said. “I think it’s one of the most fun things that the senior class has done this year. It really involves everyone and even if you don’t know people, you kind of have to get to know them in a way if you really want to [eliminate] them. You have to learn their schedule or learn who they are friends with and get to know what they’re up to. And then I think it’s taught me to be really sneaky. I’m really good at lying to people now. It’s a good way to learn how to be manipulative.”
