On April 11, 2023, at 2:45 PM, the two most anonymous entities within the Berkeley High School community met for an interview. In light of Juan Raygoza's recent hit piece of an email, the contemporarily anonymous "WatchYourBack2023" admin made it clear that the protection of their identity was crucial. Thus, the interview was conducted over the phone, utilizing state-of-the-art voice-modulating technology.
I immediately brought up Raygoza's letter, in which he condemns "Assassin," as it was sent out to all BHS seniors just hours before our interview. To my surprise, this was the first WatchYourBack2023 had heard of it, and following my dictation of said email, they quickly responded, "What holds high school community together is tradition. At a time in which stress regarding college and AP tests is at an all time high, it's essential that we have communal outlets for students to decompress and simply have fun." I could tell that the contemporarily anonymous admin had felt attacked after Raygoza implied that their organization of this year's game didn't uphold "values of respect and community".
The admin behind Assassin makes it clear they host the event with integrity and fairness. They know that money is at the top of readers' minds and want to be "as transparent as possible" with how they are running the game. With a first place prize of $1000, a confirmed 70 teams, and a $10 contribution per player, you can do the math concerning their profits. But the admin wants it to be known that when considering that they have "spent 6 plus hours a day so far, and will continue to do so for a good few weeks" their "profit works out to be a very humble and noble hourly wage." It should also be made clear that if you are still sour about their earnings you may just be "pressed you didn't do it first" and need to consider, "People are too lazy to actually execute stuff like this anyways. Although you have to make really tough decisions and take a lot of shit." The admin was happy to report that running the event has been a joy.
They were excited to announce the introduction of a "Redemption Night" in this year's game. On a to-be-announced night when the remaining team count is "around 20 or 30", the admin will post their location to the watchyourback2023 Instagram page, at which point the first formerly knocked out player to come find and assassinate the admin will revive their entire team. What a reason to turn on those post notifications! It was following this explanation when I heard the admin mutter something like "I can't wait to see the look on peoples faces when they come find me and realize it's actually just been me, Juan Manuel Raygoza, behind the game this entire time" but it was hard to tell through the voice modulation.