Equipped with guns and armor, students creep through the Memphis streets, afraid that their troop could be eliminated. They cautiously enter and exit each store, understanding that one wrong move could result in their opposition winning the battle. The troops who participate are sectioned into groups of five with a unique war supply set to protect and propel them through each round: a water gun, floatie and goggles. While many groups bring their war supplies to every outing they attend, trusting no one, others take a risk and build alliances with opposing groups. Yet sometimes the person who would take a bullet for their friend is the one holding the water gun, ready to eliminate their peers in order to catapult their team to victory. As senior year concludes, friendships and survival skills are put to the test during Senior Assassin. Senior Assassin is a real-world game where students work to eliminate their peers by using water guns or balloons. The game allows opponents to access their targets’ locations at all times, creating a sense of uncertainty as to when an individual might be assassinated.
“It’s a game amongst White Station seniors where we have access to each other’s location on [the Splashin app], and every week is a new round for us to get a new target,” Brian Franklin (12) said. “We use water guns to go after targets to eliminate them, and the only reason we cannot eliminate our targets is if they have on floaties and goggles. I see the game as Grand Theft Auto but on a PG level.”
During the final months of senior year, Aidan Farris (12) and Dontae Jordan (12) created a Senior Assassin competition, consisting of 162 players in teams of two to five. Every week, each team is given a new group to eliminate. If they eliminate one member from their targeted group, they move on to the next round; however, if they fail to eliminate a player by the end of the week, their team is automatically eliminated. An elimination only counts if the assassin records themselves eliminating their target without wearing a flotation device. To ensure fairness, Farris and Jordan review each elimination video to determine if the elimination is validated.
“Dontae and I try to handle any disputes in the game, but if it becomes a major problem then we make a poll online for people to vote on,” Farris said. “It’s very stressful to be the moderator when people threaten you or get mad, but we try to be lenient and get as many people as we can to have fun.”
In Senior Assassin, players can maintain immunity from a water gun if they have on a floatie or goggles. When participating in the game, students allow the app “Splashin” to track their location at all times, providing their target access to their every step. While assassins can eliminate their opponents if they are not wearing a flotation device, they cannot eliminate an individual at school, work, church or any school-sanctioned event. As game moderators, Farris and Jordan enforced their own rules for Senior Assassin, including allowing assassins to remove flotation devices from their targets and eliminate them at their houses. Another rule the two moderators created was purge weekend: teams have access to all players’ locations and can eliminate any player without a floatie. For teams who struggle to assassinate their assigned targets, purge weekend allows them to eliminate players and move on to the next round.
“The purge is a set day — or two days — that the moderators decide on,” Franklin said. “The purge gives you permission to go after anyone who is playing the game, and if you eliminate them, it counts for that round.”
When Senior Assassin started in early March, competitors strategized with their teams to find ways to eliminate their future targets. Many students planned who would drive to certain locations and who would do the eliminations. However, one player stood out, taking home the first kill of the game and later becoming the competitor with the most kills: Joshua Robinson (12). To start his spring break, Robison attended a basketball game at the park with his friends. Everyone but one player had a flotation device on, and the player without one happened to be Robinson’s target: Dustin Bobo (12). Bobo was the first player eliminated from Senior Assassin and was Robinson’s first of seven kills. Robinson’s strategy to maintain his kill streak is to get a majority of his assassinations during the purge weekend, going after unarmed players.
“I was most excited for my first kill because I knew when the game started that I would be good at it, and I got two kills that day,” Robinson said. “I have more eliminations than some people’s entire team, but I try to stay friendly with it and not take it too seriously because it’s just a game.”
Senior Assassin began with 162 players, but fewer than 20 players remain. As troops take their stations and water splashes through Memphis, Senior Assassin allows seniors to interact with their classmates before graduation. While this is White Station High School’s first year playing, Senior Assassin has allowed competitors to expand their creativity, creating unique ways to eliminate their targets.
“I have never seen anything like Senior Assassin before, and I was really hyped to participate,” Franklin said. “The fact that you get to ride around the city and go after your friends is the thrill of it all. Patience and planning are definitely the biggest lessons I’ve learned from this game. The first six or seven eliminations my team got were from waiting around on our targets and planning things out.”