Over the last two months, Flintridge Prep students have taken part in a thrilling, fast-paced competition known as Senior Assassin. This notorious game, played by many high school seniors across the country, is a way to add a memorable, fun-filled experience to the final stretch of high school, allowing the whole class to participate in something that adds excitement to their days. 

Each contestant in the senior class is given a name, a water gun, and a pair of goggles. The name, a different member of the grade, is one’s target, the person they are responsible for “eliminating” before the round is over. To eliminate someone, you must shoot your target with the water gun while they have their goggles off, capturing video evidence of the knockout in the process. The goggles, which represent your protection from potential assassins, are valid at all times, except for purge days, in which the goggles don’t protect you. Since the rules of the game prevent students from eliminating each other on campus, seniors began adding their goggles to their daily outfits, keeping them on almost all the time, wherever they went. While it may seem simple, the stakes were high, and just about everyone in the class had a burning desire to win, as the winner would take home $300, a sum equal to the $5 buy-in. 

As Senior Class President, it was Nico Chapman’s ‘26 job to run the whole event. As he put it, “I thought that the game added a great spirit of bonding and competitiveness among our class. Because it’s a senior only tradition, it definitely added positive vibes to this year overall, and it felt good to finally earn our right to play as seniors.” When asked about the trickiest parts of setting it up, he said, “the hardest part about running it was the gray areas in some of the rules, but it was fun to see who had who, and all of the strategies people used to eliminate their friends.”

This competition brings out a wide variety of emotions that are felt among players. There’s the usual adrenaline and excitement that tracking down a target brings, as well as the tension that builds when secrets are broken and friends are double-crossed. There are natural alliances that form, as well as betrayals among friends who thought they were trustworthy. Either way, Senior Assassin provides a good mix of laughter, chaos, and memories that give the game a lighthearted atmosphere among the intense competition. 

During the competition, seniors employed a variety of strategies to further their chances of victory. Bahia Khoury ‘26 described herself as “extremely invested” in the game to an “unexpected” degree. She thought it would behoove her to form a tight alliance early on, leading her to join forces with Charli Marx ‘26 as “number ones [the] entire game.” The two of them successfully executed a crafty plan to eliminate both of their Round 1 targets, with Bahia saying that she was “really proud of [her]self and…Charli.” Liam Carrig-Braun ‘26 opted for a more hands-off approach, making “no eliminations” while still finishing “top-15.” His conclusion? “[I]f you’re enough of a coward you can get kind of far.”