Buzz: Spoon-wielding assassins ‘kill’ for prize money

You may see several students around campus with red spoons braided into hair, strapped down to wrists or gripped tightly in their hands as if their lives depended on it.

In an effort to build staff chemistry–and have some fun–The Falcon newspaper is hosting a game of Assassin. Each player is assigned a target to kill. Targets “die” by the tap of their assassin’s spoon when not carrying their own red spoon. When assassins successfully murder their assigned target, they assume their target’s target.

“I stalked down my target on the Falcon server so I have their whole schedule memorized, but I haven’t actually been able to find them yet,” junior Jackie Gu said.

The staff of SHSTV also played a version of “Assassin.” Senior Nicole Shadman won the game, so teacher Tony Palma will treat her to lunch. The only difference between the two staffs’ games is that SHSTV used “safeties”—items students hold on to in order to be safe instead of spoons.

“The safeties were so random each week. Going along with the safeties made it exciting,” senior Priyanka Arunkumar said. “One week we had to carry around a pet rock that was required to have a face on it.”

Not all attempts to assassinate have been successful. According to junior Brandon Judoprasetijo, on his first attempt to complete his mission, his spoon shattered upon impact, thus alerting his target who to watch out for.

“From that point on, [senior Roy Bisht] kept stroking my face during newspaper with his spoon to taunt me,” Judoprasetijo said.

The current prize money is at $90, but jackpot continues to increase because spoons are constantly being stolen. Since people need spoons to avoid being assassinated, they need to repurchase one for $1.

“Last year Uttara [Sivaram, last year’s editor in chief] would buy donuts for the staff so if I win I think it would be pretty cool if I did something like that to make everyone’s money contribution count,” Judoprasetijo said.