A game of cat and mouse: Senior Assassin

"Maximilian Schroeder getting eliminated at the hands of multiple seniors" (moi) ( Evan Peltz/ The Puma Prensa)

By Logan Budlong, staff writer

Senior Assassin is a yearly event held by the student body of Maria Carrillo High School for any and all seniors who want to participate. Taking place from February to nearly the end of the year, Senior Assassin is a competition using water guns as a means of elimination.

Each senior that wants to participate pays a five dollar entry ticket that goes towards the prize pool for the winners (yes, there are multiple winners). The first winner is the person who eliminated the most people over the course of the game, and the rest of the money is divided among the last people standing.

In order to make sure people can be eliminated, one of the more important rules is that students participating must have Snapchat so they can turn on their location periodically and the person targeting them can attempt to eliminate them.

Eliminations work through a bounty system in which everyone is given a target to eliminate. Once the target has been shot with a water gun, the player takes their victim's target, continuing the chase.

The rules of the game are strictly enforced, particularly those concerning when players can eliminate each other. This is because many seniors have jobs and extracurricular activities where performance is important.

This year's Senior Assassin is being run by senior Annie Lee. She works to organize and run the event by creating the rules, assigning targets, and collecting the entry fee for the prize pool, ensuring that everyone can have a fun time.

She has to work hard at this because Senior Assassin “[is] not school affiliated,” meaning the school provides no support. She just uses the school’s name on social media to ensure people know it's the correct account to follow for updates on the event.

Managing all of this usually falls on Leadership, and in past years the class president has run it; however, this is not an official duty, so anyone can choose to organize and run it for others. 

The individual running the event cannot participate in the game themselves.

The general consensus from seniors is that this event is a fun way to spend time, and senior Austin Garcia Villalpando said “it was super funny” and “I was really looking forward to playing with my friends.”

Another point Eillalpando raised was that “people have fun during” the game, “but arguments happen, disagreements happen.” Having witnessed a few of these, Austin believes that patience is a key factor in this game, both for the event itself as well as the people participating.

This annual event is a part of MCHS culture, as it has been taking place since the end of Covid and continues to draw in eager students looking to have fun. It will likely continue to take place for years to come, so juniors, sophomores, and freshmen will all eventually get a chance to participate in this memory-making experience.