By: Helana Mulder, senior reporter
The hallways seemed eerily quiet. There were no huddles of small talk happening in the commons or people walking around with headphones. Everyone was on high alert.
On Monday, January 28 at 12pm, Sticker Tag began.
Screams were heard throughout the classrooms as contestants were tagged unexpectedly by their hunters. There was running—but not in the hallways, of course. There were tears. There were victorious fist-pumps.
Robin Chan, a second year and self-proclaimed professional sticker tagger, was on a high after making two tags in under two minutes on the first day of the game.
“I thought I was going to win. With such a great start, how could you not be a bit confident?” Chan recounts, wiping away tears.
But sadly, later that same day, Chan was playing a game of Jenga in the Rec Center when Emily Bootsma, one of his own peers, came up to him and slapped a sticker on his back.
“The realization hit me in the face that I would have to wait another year to claim victory. I was devastated,” he comments.
Day by day, more and more contestants were losing their chance at the prize of $150 as two players, Jeremy Thudian and Kennan Benjamins, pulled ahead.
Jeremy Thudian, a third year at Redeemer, is currently the leader in individual tags—with eight of them—as of Thursday, January 31.
Thudian shares a bit of the strategy that he and his dorm created at the beginning of the game:
“Predator or prey, the most valuable asset one can possess is an ally. Our dorm mates were in constant communication with each other, which gave us eyes and ears everywhere,” Thudian explains. The goal for Dorm 29, Thudian’s dorm, is to win both the prize for most individual tags and the prize for most tags as a dorm.
“The battle’s turning point was when Ryan [a member of Jeremy’s dorm] managed to obtain Jeremy’s name from another contender, ensuring Jeremy’s safety and allowing him to go fully offensive,” a member of dorm 29 states.
Kennan Benjamins, Thudian’s co-RA, is currently placed second for individual tags with seven tags. At this point, victory seems out of reach for anyone who is not in Dorm 29, as the members of the dorm continue to dominate the game with over twenty-five tags.
But who will win? Come to the commons on Friday, February 1 to witness a showdown like no other.