Paranoia, a Nerf tournament amongst South juniors and seniors, has become an annual tournament for some competition, fun and disruption within the community, according to South students who took part.
This tournament, which started on March 3 and went on for three weeks, was run by seniors Daniel Schwartz, Austin Okuno and Katie Fakhouri.
“Paranoia is when you have a team of five people, and each week you are up against another team,” Fakhouri said. “It’s a fun way to meet some other people, bond with your friends and have fun.”
The surprise and unawareness factor of the game is the best part, according to Fakhouri.
“The adrenaline that you get from it [is] so much fun [when] you go out and you’re [a] spy, and you bond with your friends,” Fakhouri said. “The sabotage and unexpectedness of it all [is something that] I like a lot.”
The rules of the game are made to keep everyone safe and maintain fairness. Some of the rules include no breaking into anyone’s property, no Nerf guns at school events or special events and no shooting when someone is naked. The “naked rule” was developed because people were shooting others coming out of the shower.
According to the organizers, Paranoia can be all fun, but there have been some instances where the police have been called.
“I was outside a person’s house for a couple hours and they called the police, and the police were really upset,” Fakhouri said. “Because it’s a game [they] signed up for, they can’t call the police. [The police] thought it was a real emergency with actual guns.”
According to Okuno, he hopes that people would rather enjoy the game and not take the game too seriously or too far.
“People always have an inclination to lie, cheat and do a lot to win,” Okuno said. “People threaten and actually call the cops for no reason at all [other than] to make sure their opponents leave. Personally, I think people need to keep in mind that it is just a game, and [sometimes] people forget that.”