Teenagers with pool floaties and squirts guns doesn’t mean the start of summer—it’s time for Assassins.

Each year juniors and seniors from Beaver Area High School have the opportunity to participate in an Assassins tournament.

This year’s Assassins game is being run by senior Matthew Bickerton through the Beaver Assassins Twitter page (@BeaverAssassians). On the Twitter Page, participants found information on how to sign up along with the rules on how to play.

Participation costs $20 per two-person team for the tontine competition in which “survivors” receive 85% 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 (i.e., school, work, residences, and places of worship) where a player cannot be eliminated. If someone is squirted while at one of these safe neutral sites, the shooter is eliminated from the game.

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 Bickerton for verification. The pictures are then posted on the Twitter page for all participants and followers of the game to see.

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 member 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.

It seems like technology impacts everything we do these days, and that means Assassins isn’t immune from technology’s impact. That’s why this year a new rule was added: no tracking devices. Any player who uses a tracking device to track their opponent will automatically be eliminated from the game.

The first round, which eliminated over half of the teams, ended March 27.

“While [junior] Olivia Wooley and I quickly found out that we were not cut out to be assassins, we still had fun trying to get out targets and avoiding the people hunting is,” shared junior Abby Noah, whose team was eliminated in the first round.

After the end of second round, April 3, 10 teams still remained in the hunt for the $600 prize. Who will be the true Beaver Assassins?

“I love Assassins and I think it’s so fun! If [junior] Constantina Krzeczowski and I win, I’m probably going to put the money toward spending cash on my vacation this year,” shared junior Ana Avdellas.