Water Wars competition aims to relieve stress

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Story by Claire Sullivan, Writer

Friends are turning against friends in order to avoid being eliminated from one of Baker’s most creative competitions, Water Wars.

Minister of the University Kevin Hopkins said Water Wars has continued for 20 years because it is a good way to get “people on campus to know each other.”

Water Wars officially started on April 4. Water Wars is a game of strategy, logistics and elimination and can last for weeks. Each participant is given a target. When someone “assassinates” their target, they must take over the responsibility of taking out that person’s target. Participants have to use some method of water to get their target out, whether it be a water bottle or a squirt gun.

The Baker Ambassadors and campus chapel staff give each of the participants their assignment, a mugshot and name of another participant, and they must keep this information with them at all times.

Junior Kiana Turner said she has participated in the game since she was a freshman and that it is always fun. She likes that it is a campus-wide event, and the she knows the identity of her targets.

Turner’s favorite part about the game is actually shooting people with water. She plans to get her targets when they least expect it by observing them. Her method is using a water bottle, with a hole in the cap, because it is a discreet and she did not have time to get a water gun.

Turner said Water Wars is a way to escape stress.

“It gives me a chance to break off from school a little bit and relaxes me in a way,” Turner said.

Freshman Lela Hautau signed up because the Baker Ambassadors were sponsoring the event and she wanted to support the activity.

Hautau’s favorite part of the game is not knowing the identity of the person who is trying to take her out. Hautau said she planned to do reconnaissance on her target by talking to her friends to learn more about her.

Senior Layne Wilson is a Baker Ambassador and helps organize the event. Wilson volunteered to help because she participated in it last year and thought it was really exciting.

Wilson became a Baker Ambassador because she likes the atmosphere. She likes that she can be involved with a group of people whose beliefs and values are similar to her own.