Brogan Rooney is absolutely furious.

For the second consecutive year, our seniors are playing “Senior Assassin,” one of the newest trends for the final year of high-school. The game involves being assigned a “target” to which you need to eliminate with toy water guns to completely take them out for the rest of the game. You have your target for one week which is equivalent to one round, after which you’re given a new person for another round.

One of the only ways to counter being taken out is to have a pair of swim goggles visible on your body, or if you’re in a safe zone, such as an area or event at school grounds. One aspect of the game is the ability to start a “purge”, a time period in which any participant who hasn’t been eliminated yet is allowed to get out anybody. The rule of wearing safety goggles does not apply for protection during this process. The first elimination of the game was caused by this purge, which led to Brogan Rooney getting taken out while sitting in his car with his goggles still on.

Senior Assassin is also being assisted by an app designed specifically for the game called “Splashin” which serves to explain rules, provide live location with a real-time map, as well as add its own interesting quirks and mechanics, such as the just mentioned purge. Under this, you have to be within school grounds or at a school affiliated event in order to be safe from elimination. Which can include sports practices, home and away football games, or fundraiser events for your clubs. The purge can last multiple hours at a time making it a large risk for players to be outside during this time. 

The other important component of the game is a 24/7 near live location on your target that refreshes every 10 minutes and shows them on a map unless you’re in the designated borders of the school safe zone. Another component added includes the ability to put “bounties” on certain players which allows any participant interested to hunt for that person, except the goggles rules do still apply. These bounties can be placed by players or directly by the game manager.

The game is being managed by Jaelyn Carter, a Pottsville Senior and participant. The only aspect not being handled by the players was the $20 dollar buy-in from every participant. This buy-in was then put towards a large cash prize for the one and only winner of Senior Assassin. The prize currently lies at around $1000 in cash that is being held by Pottsville staff member Ms. James until the games are over. 

How is the winner decided? The game is played in a “battle-royale” style of elimination, meaning every player has to work by themselves until a last-player-standing situation occurs. At the time of publishing this article, the only three players eliminated were Ella Selinko, Mackenzie Wessner and the furious Brogan Rooney.