You’re out!”
These words have been uttered hundreds of times in the past few weeks by victorious senior elimination hunters standing over their fallen targets, who had no more lives, no more second chances and no more beach ball.
Senior elimination is a yearly tradition where the senior class attempts to tag randomly selected classmates with small, colorful beach balls. At the start, seniors can stay safe by simply holding their ball — but as the game progresses, the safety conditions become gradually more difficult to fulfill.
Senior President Kennedy Do said the game is a great way to for students to expand their social network.
“You don’t know who your target is going to be,” Do said. “It’s a great way to meet new people and talk to people you probably wouldn’t have otherwise.”
Senior Aavriti Kataria said the game challenged her to strategize with friends to tag targets.
“Yesterday we tried to get him during lunch, but he got suspicious,” Kataria said. “There’s just been planning about what classes he has and when he is most vulnerable. We have a lot of mutual friends, so they tell us everything.”
While previous years have had manually assigned targets, this year’s organizers used an app called Splashin to coordinate targets.
“It’s more efficient this way,” Do said. “There’s less room for error, and you’re able to upload physical videos to see the eliminations happen.”
For many seniors like Do, elimination has been a long-anticipated experience. Do said she has watched the games since freshman year.
“It’s always been fun to watch,” Do said. “Actually being able to lead the events and participate has been so fun.”
Senior William Tu said he looked forward to senior elimination throughout the school year.
“It’s a fun game that almost everyone plays every year,” Tu said. “Both of my siblings who graduated played so I thought it’d be fun to play too, especially because it’s a very important part of senior year.”
Tu said his advice to future players would be to prepare for the unexpected.
“You should expect anyone to have you,” Tu said. “Never let your guard down no matter how much you believe no one’s going to be there.”