It’s finally time again for pool floaties and squirt guns! No, I’m not talking about hanging around the pool with your friends—I’m talking about assassins.

Assassins is back! After COVID cancelled the annual game at Beaver Area High School last year, it’s back this year and it’s COVID friendly.

“I did assassins this year as a chance to be with other people. My brothers also did it when they were in high school and they had a lot of fun, so I figured it would be an exciting game to play,” shared sophomore Ana Avdellas.

Senior Eden McElhaney organized the game this year through the Beaver Assassins Twitter Page. On the Twitter Page, would-be participants found information on how to sign up along with the rules on how to play. Participation costs $10 per person with the winners receiving half of all money collected.

While there are several rules that make the game more interesting, these are the basics: a partnering pair secretly gets assigned another partner pair to eliminate from play by spraying them with a squirt gun. But if any player is wearing a pool floatie (the floatie must be visible) they are safe and cannot get out.

There also are neutral zones: school, work, residences, and places of worship where a player cannot be eliminated.

If a player gets out a member from their opposing team, the player must take a picture of themself with the player they got out and send it to McElhaney for verification (this year, masks must be worn in the picture for the elimination to count).

During each round of play, the teams must successfully eliminate their opponents before the round is over or they are eliminated. If both members of the a team get out, the team is eliminated. Although, if one member of a team gets out, but the other members remains safe until the end of the round, both team members survive and move on to the next round. Each round lasts one week with random purge days.

Purge days eliminate all floaties, meaning any player can get out even if they are wearing a floatie, but all other rules remain in place. The teams who have eliminated their targets typically stay home during the purge days or avoid getting out.

Since Sundays are days of rest, Sundays from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. game play is suspended.

Competition at times has gotten a bit intense this year—as the number of fender-benders (and one demolished mailbox, sorry Joe) will attest.

As of this writing, after round one, 18 teams currently remain and battle it out to win this year’s $600 prize.

“My partner Natalie [Priest] and I are willing to do pretty much anything, including hiding in bushes and trees for hours, just to get our targets out and try to win the game,” boasted senior Emma Pavelek.