Surviving 101

The clock hit 12:00 AM, Saturday, February 1st, 2020. 

My heart skipped a beat. The game had begun… 

… 5 minutes later I see a notification on my phone: “FIRST KILL”

The game: Assassin’s

The players: any Naperville North Senior willing to pay $5

The prizes: 

• Winner(s) – $750
• First kill – $50
• Most kills – $100
• Most creative kill – $100 

The end goal: to survive until May 17th or until no one but you is left

 

Before you get too worried, thinking I am talking about actually getting killed. Assassin’s is played with water guns and silly string. 

Phew!

Now we can get down to talking about the strategy and rules of the game that has completely consumed my life over the past week. 

Here is a quick rundown of the how game works and its rules: 

Assassin’s gets organized by a few seniors each year, they help to collect money and forms of information from everyone that wants to play. Once the registration deadline hits, everyone that turned in their money and forms is now considered to be players. Now, the organizers begin to assign targets to each person playing. The assignment of targets is completely randomized, and you find out who your target is the day before the 1st round starts. 

There are 3 rounds over the course of the next 3 months, all of it ending before graduation. The main rule is that in order to move on to the next round you must get at least one kill. Forcing people to get kills instead of just staying at home hiding until the last day. The only way to stay alive is to stay dry. If your target tries to get you, but you shot them first it gives you 2 hours of immunity. 

Yes, there are many limits to the game. Most importantly, no one can be killed on school property or at a school event. I mean I think that’s pretty reasonable, otherwise the senior parking lot would be a “bloodbath” each day before and after school. 

To put the 3 pages of rules simply: don’t trespass, driver seat is safe, and no kills at school. 

 

Now that you understand the basics of what Assassin’s is. It’s time to talk about strategy for the game. 

What I have learned over the past week is that it is very nerve wracking to leave my house at all. At the same time that I am trying to not get killed, I also have to be planning how to kill my target. Just having to multitask that is stressful enough, but then there are the rumor accounts. Twitter is the platform used to say who killed who for each hit, this way everyone playing can keep track of who is out. The only account that is trustworthy is the one run by the people that organized the game. Every year since twitter has been used, there has always been so called “rumor accounts” that show up. 

These accounts get DM’s all day long, especially on weekends, about everyone’s plans. Then they post these rumors to help their assigns try to get the targets. The issue with these accounts is that you never know if what is posted is true. A lot of times groups of people will DM the wrong address of where they are hanging out to throw off their assassins. 

This makes it even more difficult to decide when to go after your target because sometimes they might be expecting you to try to get them. 

I think I have come to the conclusion that in order to stay alive in this game you need to tell no one your schedule. Learn information about your target from as many people as possible without them finding out. Take help when offered. But still never fully trust someone.

And may the best player win. 

Stay safe 😉