The morning of Monday, March 11 marked the start of one of CRLS’ most treasured traditions, the Spoon Game. The premise of the Spoon Game is relatively simple: Be the last person in the senior class to remain holding a plastic spoon by the end of the school year. That lucky senior will win a prize of over $1000, half of which must be donated to a charity of the winner’s choice.
The Spoon Game remains an integral part of the senior class experience in a variety of ways, especially by the camaraderie that it creates amongst the senior class, while not ruining the spirit of the competition, to have a good time. “Although I know some people who are ready to win, I feel like it’s more of a senior bonding experience than a stressful game,” explained Amaya Giannini ’24. That sentiment was echoed by Sophia Robertson ’24, who told the Register Forum that, for her, “The Spoon Game seemed like a fun senior tradition and a solid way to procrastinate by planning Spoon Game strategy instead of doing work.” Recent challenges, including wearing makeup and holding a junior’s hand, have added to the excitement and chaos of the game.
The admins, those tasked with the Herculean task of running the game, organize everything from deciding which targets get matched up with which assassins, to managing the challenges and everything in between. “We do it all day. There is always somebody getting out or somebody trying to argue about challenges,” said Sadie Kukkuk ’24, a current admin. “All the admins always have to stay up to date with each other to make sure that everyone is all on the same page.”
This is an amount of work that is unique to CRLS admins—in fact, the Spoon Game’s uniqueness as a senior assassin game was a big reason why admin Isabella Minicucci ’24 decided to join the team. “I know that a lot of other senior assassin-type games don’t have challenges or complexity, so I’m glad that we can make unique challenges for the Spoon Game,” she explained.
The Spoon Game has created its fair share of controversies over the past few years, from disputes over the winner and their usage of the prize money, to challenges that were deemed insensitive or even harmful (for example, there was one a couple years ago about the clitoris, a female sex organ, and having to repeatedly mention it over the course of the day), but many of these issues have been seemingly resolved this time around. Many of the challenges that were most frowned upon last year have been removed and replaced with friendlier, but still silly, ones. For instance, the classic hand-holding challenge went from holding a freshman’s hand to a junior’s, which made for a similarly fun experience that didn’t push any unwanted boundaries.
All in all, the Spoon Game has remained one of CRLS’ favorite traditions, and though the number of players shrinks by the day, there is still a long way to go until a winner is crowned.
This article also appears in our April 2024 print edition.
