The Dangerous And Wet World Of Street Wars

 

What are the Street Wars you ask?  Simply put, it's a game of survival, where players are locked in a deadly game of assassination...with water guns.

 

The NY Times has a great article online about the Street Wars, a game where players are given targets (real people who are also playing the game) that they must kill.  Killing here means they get sqirted with a water gun.

 

When StreetWars started on Sept. 7, each of the 250-plus contestants was handed a black envelope marked “Shadow Government,” with the name, home address, workplace, e-mail address, cellphone number and photograph of a player to kill by squirting. After each kill, the shooter acquires the dead rival’s target and begins stalking this new person, all the while looking over a shoulder for whoever is hunting him. It is permissible to shoot in self-defense.

 

The last person standing is declared the winner and is given a $500 prize.  But winning is far from easy.  Players will stalk their prey for days on end, sitting outside their homes waiting for their target to appear.  People will change their appearance from what they look like in the photos they provide.  They'll use umbrella's as shields.  They'll throw water ballons like hand grenades.  It's a dangerous, and wet, world.

 

The article follows player Michael Deane, one of the last 16 players left in the game, and in it he discusses some of his past killings.

 

He and a teammate — up to five can play together — staked out the target’s apartment for an hour and a half on Sept. 8. They grew bored and thirsty, and drove to a nearby CVS for cold drinks.

 

“Randomly, he just pulls up,” Mr. Donellan said of his prey. What followed is best described as a low-speed chase.

 

“Up and down two highways on Staten Island, just going,” he recalled. “He thought he lost us and went back home. We beat him back to his house.” Mr. Donellan squirted the target as he parked his car.

 

Street Wars was created in 2004, and tournaments have been held in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, London and Paris.  I will definitely sign up for this if it ever comes to LA.  It sounds like amazing amounts of fun.  Paranoid fun, sure.  But fun nonetheless.