Fall 2025 Assassins game keeps students with their “eyes up and…spoon in hand”

Assassins champion sophomore Isaac Herrington.

Photo credit: Isaac Herrington

By Natalie Guske

The week of Sept. 15 was marked by both triumph and tragedy as students battled it out for the title of champion during this semester’s Assassins game. In the end, sophomore Isaac Herrington was the last man standing after 109 hours of participation and nine successful kills.

Armed with socks, spoons, and “poison,” each player was assigned a target to eliminate while also trying to stave off attacks from whoever was secretly pursuing them. After a successful elimination, the assassin inherited their victim’s target, keeping the game going until only one player remained.

The game, spread by word of mouth and flyers around campus, attracted 68 players.

“Sending out the emails gets tedious as more people play the game,” said junior Nathan Sollberger, this semester’s assassins organizer. “We had 68 players this year [and had to] be sure that everyone got his/her own target, that there were no repeats or overlaps, and that everyone who signed up actually got to play.”

As the week progressed and the number of assassins left in the game dwindled, players were provided daily updates about those who had fallen through the mysterious “cune sock death” email account.

“My favorite part [of organizing Assassins] was sending out all of the emails, before and during the event,” Sollberger said. “The players never know who is behind the emails, since we have a specific Assassins address. So I enjoyed making my messages vague, cryptic, and often humorously sarcastic.”

For players who survived for multiple days, strategy was key. For sophomore Michal Black, this consisted of feigning normalcy, which served her well until she was killed by a thrown sock on day three.

“I wanted to look like I was unaware that the game was even being played,” Black said. “I used this strategy both for killing and hiding. I have a pretty odd name, so I used that to my advantage and hoped that the person who had me didn’t know me personally, since] they probably wouldn’t think that Michal Black was a girl. For [killing], if I knew the person, I just wouldn’t let on that I was looking for them. I would act normal [when] sitting near them and walking past them, till the time was right and I let the sock fly.”

Although players faced the dangers of death in most public spaces around campus, the Borland Center proved to be the bloodiest battlefield, with many meeting their demise in the minutes before and after ensemble practices.

“Watching Assassins is almost as entertaining as playing it,” Black said. “I watched so many deaths take place in the Borland, [especially in the] passing period after chapel [when] students were headed to Cantamus, Male Chorus, and A Cappella. People were killed as they entered the front door, socks were everywhere, there was even a girl hiding in the cove between the main hall and the recital hall, waiting for her target to head into class.”

While socks and spoons were valuable weapons in the heat of a sudden confrontation, it was “poison” that proved to be the secret weapon of this semester’s Assassins champion. Targets were “poisoned” when they unknowingly ate or drank something that their attacker had labeled “poison.” It is the only attack method that grants the perpetrator 24 hours of immunity, according to the official Assassins rulebook.

“Every single day I had immunity,” Herrington said. “That means I poisoned four people, [one for] each of those days, which gave me 24 hours of immunity. For [three of those] times, I used a little mint container with “poison” written on the inside of it, eliminating the targets who ate a mint. [For the other time] I found the girl’s water bottle during chapel and put it under there.”

Although poisoning had been effective in taking out a number of his targets, it was a sock that made Herrington this semester’s “master of murder,” according to Sollberger.

“Grace Marshall was a very worthy opponent,” Herrington said. “She was very, very hard to find. For 24 hours, I didn’t see her once, and I was hunting for her so much. Eventually [though] my immunity ran out, [and] it was after Cantamus [when] I was walking back with my fiancé to eat that she ran up behind me. I had three socks in my pocket, and I missed the first two and hit her on the third one.”

The winner of Assassins receives bragging rights until the next game, traditionally hosted once a semester.

“Provided Christ doesn’t return between now and then, we’ll see you next semester for another rousing game,” said Sollberger in his final email to the Assassins participants. “Keep your eyes up and your spoon in hand.”