More than 100 Auburn students have spent the last two weeks systematically hunting and shooting friends and classmates.
Fortunately for the Auburn Police Department, the weapons of choice were squirt guns and a part of Campus Ministry Shenanigans, hosted by Reform University Fellowship.
"It's a game we play once a year," said Scott Morrison, junior in biomedical sciences and one of the organizers of Campus Ministry Shenanigans. "It's pretty much like Assassins, but I don't think we're allowed to call it that."
The game of Shenanigans, Assassins or Killer, as some may know it, is a game where participants are assigned random people to "kill" with water guns, Morrison said.
For Reform University Fellowship's version of the game, participants were given 72 hours to find and squirt targets.
The game was played 24 hours of the day and people were only exempt at certain times such as while at, or en route to, Reform University Fellowship functions or while the target was in an Auburn University classroom.
"You have to constantly be on your guard," Morrison said. "A lot of people were very paranoid for a while."
One hundred and sixteen people participated in the event, almost double the 60 participants from 2009.
Morrison said the high number of participants increased the tension of the game as most people were not acquainted with their would-be victims and assailants, which forced every Shenanigan to be extra cautious.
"Some people took a lot of extra steps to not get caught," Morrison said. "There was one girl who used a different car every three days or so, so she wouldn't get caught. She'd borrow her roommate's or someone else's. I know one guy who was supposed to kill her died by default because he could never find her."
Matt Guffey, junior in mechanical engineering and co-organizer of Campus Ministry Shenanigans, said even though people took the game so seriously, there were not any major issues or confrontations during the playing period.
"Typically when people respond negatively, it's more because they're mad to lose," Guffey said. "We didn't have too many of those this year, though. A few times people got angry about something, but we dealt with it on a case-by-case basis. Fortunately, we didn't have any problems with legal issues or something like that."
This year, Matthew Howell, senior in philosophy, won the seventh annual Campus Ministry Shenanigans event through careful planning and strong alliances he formed early on.
"I tried to make the minimum number of kills," Howell said. "Everytime you go out you put yourself at risk of getting killed. Same for when you gather information. It's hard to find trustworthy allies with good information. I found three early on and I didn't trust anyone after that."
For his efforts, Howell was awarded a gold spray-painted water gun, but his trophy was secondary to winning.
"It feels incredible," Howell said. "It's more about the bragging rights than it is about any reward."
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