After four, long, anticipation-filled weeks, one team of Oak Park High School seniors pulled ahead of the rest and took home a $3,000 pool for winning first place in Senior Water Assassins.
The last week of the game got messy fast when three teams, the first place, second place and third place ending teams, were tied toward the end of the competition. Ultimately, the team that received five kills first was declared the winner. This was after some drama involving a potential sudden-death round to break the tie.
“They posted on Instagram that the first team to five would win the game, and then went against it by trying to have a sudden death round,” senior Sophie Casaza from the third-place team said. “It was honestly just an underwhelming ending.”
Colin Bruns, Luke Sater, Josiah Martinez, Shant Mazmanian and Cyrus Javadi took home $3,000, $500 less than the original amount promised of $3,500, as the student coordinators took an increased cut due to how much work they put into running the game.
“The first two weeks were easy. We were just trying not to get killed,” Martinez said. “Then week three and four hit hard and we started to give up. Especially week four when we had to hide indoors and overcome challenges we weren’t expecting.”
Week four of the competition was difficult and different from the rest, as it contained a shocking twist—a purge day. Instead of only being allowed to eliminate their target team, any team in the game could shoot any member of any other team in the game, increasing both the chaos and the stakes.
The second-place team made a plan to advance to first place by getting five kills on the purge day, tying them for first place. On the final day of the game, they eliminated an additional five people from their target team, bringing their weekly kill count to ten. What the team failed to realize was that there was a cap on how many points could be achieved.
“There is a rule stating that each team can only have a max of five points,” senior Mark Hodges from the second-place team said. “We argued that this rule should be overturned due to the instance of the purge day, however, the student coordinator declared Josiah Martinez’s team the winner of the game for being the first to five points.”
With the game officially over, seniors are excited for big, upcoming events such as senior week, prom and graduation.
This game is entirely student-run and is in no way endorsed or affiliated with Oak Park Unified School District. Participation in this game is strictly prohibited on school campuses, to and from school-sponsored events, and at the events themselves. Any students who violate this policy will face disciplinary action.
