Street Wars Around London

Now this appeals to my sense of humour. This article in today's Independent talks about a new game called Street Wars, a three-week water pistol assassination game played out around London. When you sign up, you are given the mobile number, name and address of someone you have to 'assassinate', and someone else has got yours, and it's then down to you to find your victim before they find you. Survivors from this round go on in a knockout tournament until just one person is left.

According to the article, one of the players spent from 4am waiting outside their opponents home to get them on the way to work, another set up a fake job interview just so he could squirt someone and take them out, I've read elsewhere of people literally hiding in bins for hours just waiting to get their target.

"But for Billy S - not his real name - a thirtysomething City IT specialist, talk of danger was overblown.

He spent the morning from 4am lying in wait for his target outside his London flat. Dressed in a business suit in order to blend in with his surroundings, he shot but narrowly missed but then as his quarry fled, he trained his fire on another member of the rival team who popped her head out of the window to see what was occurring. She too survived ...

...In the United States, one player lured an opponent to a fake job interview before literally "hosing" them down. Others have rummaged through rubbish bins for clues about their targets or tricked their way into apartment blocks.

... Hamish Moseley had taken the precaution of wearing a wig on the way to work yesterday. Having been summarily appointed team leader of his "assassination squad", Death Aquatic, he was a high-value target for would be assailants. If he is "killed" the entire three-man team is out.

"Frankly I'm crapping myself. I was looking outside my house this morning to see if anyone was there. I wore the wig when I went to the pub at lunchtime and now I'm just keeping a low profile. The attraction is living on the edge. The thrill is going up to a complete stranger you only know from a photo and soaking them. But you do think, 'what if I get someone's surly brother by mistake and they beat me up'?"

But the tension was already starting to show. "It is only one day into it and I'm having a bit of a miserable time at the moment hiding here in the office. I'm worried that there are a lot of serious people without jobs out there and a lot of time on their hands who are looking for me."

Of course given what happened last year, you'd better not make your water pistol too realistic. Sounds fun though, shame I live down in Brighton as you have to live within London to take part (and of course I'm not sure I could spend hours waiting in a bin, not with clients to visit. But still...)