What is the Game of "Gotcha"?

Have you noticed all of the kids wandering around Lynn Valley with swim goggles around their neck or carrying durian fruits around?

They aren’t headed to the pool, instead, they’re competing in a game with high stakes. One where emotions are tested and friendships are broken. A staple of British Columbia high schools.

The game of “Gotcha!” or “Senior Assassin,” as it’s called in the United States.

Teenagers, mainly twelfth grade students in secondary school, will play said game where a coordinator, who is generally a fellow student, will assign “targets” to each student participating. Is it vital to mention that the rules can vary per school but these are the most common rules. They must tag their target, and once they are tagged the person is disqualified from the game. While this may seem like the end of the fun, fortunately, there is a chance to re-enter. To do so, a student can jump into an outdoor body of water, or of course, pay the entry fee again. The entry being a sum of dollars to enter the game. At most schools examined, including Windsor, Sutherland, and Argyle, the price was around $20.

Teenagers enjoy the chaos that emerges from it. In fact, some get so into it that they want to enter their target’s house. Unfortunately, many schools have created a rule that you must have the permission of somebody in the house before the player can enter and tag them.

As evidence of the level of intensity students take to this game, one argyle student said, when asked about a humorous story in reference to Gotcha, one Argyle student said “My funny story is someone falling into a bush when I tried to tag him”.

On top of that, for a tag to be valid, the target must be on video being tagged.

Once a player has tagged their target, one might think that they would be safe until the next round. Regrettably, this is incorrect, and the player must still remain untagged until targets are reassigned by the coordinator or the player is tagged.

At Argyle Secondary School, a notable rule is that “As per tradition, the assassin must say the word ‘Gotcha’ when tagging the target. IMPORTANT- If the assassin does not say the word ‘Gotcha’, the kill does not count.”

But the real question is, why do students play this game?