Game keeps students on constant lookout
Dave Barnes can finally relax. He just won an intense game of tag called Gotcha. He is done sprinting and hiding behind buildings and cars.
Gotcha is a competitive game, involving a group of people trying to eliminate each other with a stick of chalk. All participants begin as both a target for one person and the assassin of someone else.
Once someone eliminates a target, they inherit the target’s target, which is printed on a laminated index card and the game continues.
Barnes, junior in business administration, eliminated six people during the course of this game, the last five of whom were caught in the final 24 hours.
“At first my strategy was to hide and steer clear of everyone playing the game,” Barnes said, “but then after I had my first kill, I went on a rampage.”
Barnes was the final person standing when the Gotcha game concluded so he is now $100 richer, having taken the grand prize money that came from the entrance fees.
Almost 30 Old Farm tenants paid the $5 entry fee to participate in the Gotcha game, which began in October, with the goal of ultimately winning or getting the award for best elimination story.
“Gotcha is the ultimate game of tag,” said K.C. Bell, organizer of Gotcha. “You are always watching your own back while trying to get someone else out.”
Bell, junior majoring in computer science, organized this community game and was known as “The Gotcha Guy.”
In order to eliminate a target in Gotcha, Bell said the assassin chases their target, marks them with sidewalk chalk and yells “Gotcha.”
“Before the game officially began, everyone signed a waiver that wouldn’t hold me responsible if they got hurt,” Bell said. “Some people get really into it.”
Although Barnes won the game, many of the Gotcha participants said they didn’t expect it because he seemed so passive in the beginning, avoiding his first target for weeks.
Barnes said his initial theory was to just hide and gather intelligence about who was left in the game while watching everyone else kill each other off one by one.
Bell said he loved watching the game, hearing the elimination stories and wondering who would win.
Participants said two of the early predictions for who might win were Brittany Ford, sophomore in liberal arts, and Cam Lewis, sophomore in business.
Ford, who called Barnes a wily snake and the master assassin, said she is glad a winner has been declared.
“I’m glad I can have a few moments to breathe without looking over my shoulder,” she said.
Ford said her main strategies in this game were to form alliances and run as fast as she could everywhere she went.
On the other hand, Lewis had a strategy based solely on eliminating as many people as possible.
Lewis, who had the most kills until Barnes went on his killing spree, said, “I’m still bitter I got out, I was totally going to win. I’d already killed five people.”
One of Lewis’ prouder moments was when he broke his sidewalk chalk on the arm of his target in front of the library because he was so focused on not getting eliminated by his assassin, who was standing right beside his target.
The Gotcha game will run a second round in the spring and Bell said he is already making preparations. He said everyone should remember to keep a lookout and all is fair in love and Gotcha.
–courtney.schoen@aggiemail.usu.edu