Scott Kreuger, a sophomore at Simpson College, walked into the Kappa Kappa Gamma formal on Nov. 6 around 9 p.m. Within fifteen minutes of arriving, Kruger was stabbed in the back and died immediately. 

Thankfully, his fatal stabbing was not a literal death but rather one in the Greek Life Assassin Game. 

At first glance, the game seems grim. The goal is for players to kill their friends and Greek family. Each of the 43 players at the beginning of the game received the name of a person they were to kill. Failure to kill that individual fast enough resulted in being kicked out of the game and having a bounty put on the head of the unsuccessful individual. 

There are four ways to kill a target in the game; stabbing, shooting, poisoning and bombing. Obviously, nobody is walking around campus with knives, guns, and bombs. Stabbings are carried out with special spoons painted red at the tip. Shootings take place with red rubber bands. Poisonings occur when somebody eats something unexpectedly filled with hot sauce. Bombings happen when a target opens a letter with the word ‘bomb’ written on it. 

The game’s founder and coordinator, David Hollingsworth, said the game isn’t as bad as it seems at face value and that it’s just for fun. He started the game at Simpson after seeing videos online of other schools playing it. 

“I just, in general, like running events and I want more people involved this year,” Hollingsworth said. 

The game started with a small game involving just the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity brothers, but as other students, like members of the Kappa Kappa Gamma and Delta Delta Delta sororities saw signage for the game they asked about getting involved, leading to the creation of the larger game which also included Alpha Tau Omega fraternity members. 

On Tuesday, Nov. 16, Peter Walkwitz killed his last brother and won the game, bringing the bloodshed to a close. Walkwitz is a stand-out assassin, having killed eleven targets. The next highest total was just four. 

“I was really paranoid for two weeks straight, so I probably won’t put as much effort in next time,” Walkwitz said. 

Due to the popularity and success of this game, Hollingsworth is planning on holding a third game during Greek week which will involve all members of Greek life. If that game goes well, he intends to create an assassin’s guild or a club in which anyone on campus, Greek or not, can play the game regularly.