With $230, 46 people, 46 squirt guns, 46 targets and 23 teams, the Freedom Assassins game began on Feb. 28.
Seniors Bobby Thompson, Mark Zurick, Tyler Shingleton and Sophomore Garin Piehler introduced a new kind of game to Freedom Area: Freedom Assassins. According to Zurick, they adopted the idea from Seneca Valley, whose seniors play every year. This event also inspired other schools, such as Blackhawk to create their own version of the game.
Teams consisted of two people. The rules of the game were as follows: at least one person from the team has to be able to drive, targets could be shot only with a water gun, and no one could be shot while in their car, working or on school property. However, the moment any player stepped out of their car, was clocked out of work or off school property, they became fair game.
Throughout the game, players were upset with some of the technicalities of the game rules.
Senior Jesse Ralston was working one night and heard that his assassins were going to be waiting outside to assassinate him. Since Ralston was aware of this, he walked out of work while still clocked in. He got into his car, called into work and had a fellow employee clock him out. Although Jesse was technically off the job, because he was still clocked in, the rules were not broken. Needless to say, his assassins weren’t happy.
“I just wanted to find a way to get to my truck, and that was the only way they wouldn’t catch me,” Ralston said, adding that his managers helped him escape being eliminated.
Proof of assassinations were key to keep the game running accordingly. When targets were assassinated, picture or video proof had to be sent to Piehler for him to post online. Without proof, there was no way to determine for sure if anyone had actually been assassinated.
Throughout the month of March, the official twitter page of the game, @FHSAssassins, posted and tweeted every update to the game.
The obvious object of the game is to not get assassinated, while still trying to eliminate your targets. To eliminate a target, he or she has to be squirted with a squirt gun.
Over the past few weeks, teams snuck around, followed and did some sleuthing on their competition in an attempt to eliminate their targets.
Some players went so far as to waiting around for hours just to get their target. Sophomores Caley Miller and Madison Kopac hid in Junior Collin Gilarno’s shed for two hours until he got home.
“We waited for [Collin] to put away his dirt bike so we could assassinate him. We heard the door opening, and our hearts instantly began racing. When he came into view, we squirted him and he was out,” Kopac said.
Each round was one week long; the first round started Feb. 28. When the first round ended, each of the teams had an opportunity to buy their way back in if they got out. However, on March 7, there was a sudden death round from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. to determine who would move on in the competition.
Two weeks went by, and during the week of March 17, two teams slid into the third and final round. Senior Gage Kemerer and Junior Alex Howland went up against Seniors Mark Zurick and Trevor Mesing.
At press time, no winner had been decided. Follow the story for final results on FHS-Press.com.