It's survival or elimination for Senior Assassin

The 2026 Senior assassin game continues to bring competition and chaos to seniors as students attempt to eliminate assigned targets using water guns while following strict safety rules. This year’s game began with 63 participants, each paying $5 entry fee that will eventually go to the winner.

Senior assassin is a popular, voluntary game played by seniors where students pay $5 to enter, and all the money then gets added up and awarded to the winner. Players use water guns to “eliminate” their assigned senior. Players track down their targets to then douse them with water, which requires video evidence to prove their assassination. 

Video evidence then gets sent to senior Gabrielle Rippe who helps manage the game through the Splashin app, which automatically assigns targets to players. 

“My role is mainly to make sure everything is going smoothly and to confirm if someone is actually eliminated,” Rippe said. “I also control some of the game settings like bounty rounds and purge rounds.”

To keep the game safe, players can only use water to eliminate targets, headshots are banned, and eliminations are not allowed to happen while someone is at their job, at school, playing a sport or participating in school activities.

Senior Jacob Hall said surviving the game mostly comes down to luck and timing rather than strategy. 

“Honestly, I don’t really have a plan,” Hall said. “ I just try to have my goggles and floaties when I need them, but there’ve been so many chances to get me out.” 

While some players spend hours planning eliminations, Hall said he usually only targets people when he comes up with a realistic plan. 

Although students are having a fun time, students' experiences in other areas vary. A student in Indiana was charged with felony intimidation after police reported that his water gun used in "Senior Assassin" looked like a real firearm. This incident, in April, sparked a large police response where authorities prompted warnings about realistic guns. 

The game is set to end on May 28 but Rippe reports that the game is currently going slow. 

“Thankfully there hasn’t been any problems or violations so far,” Rippe said,  “except for a few people trying to get the target out at an inappropriate time, but that’s it.”