On Thursday, Feb. 21, Fordham Lincoln Center’s United Student Government (USG) will officially launch The Battle of Fordham, a month-long cross-campus game that will engage 71 Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) students.

The game is the brainchild of USG President Demetrios Stratis, FCLC ’19, who has been planning it since his sophomore year. In fact, launching it had been one of Stratis’s campaign promises.

“It’s known widely as ‘Assassin’ in its most common form,” he explained. “I figured that I would take a tradition from my high school — we would play this game every year — and, when I ran it, I got 300-something people to play it.”

According to Stratis, each participant in The Battle of Fordham receives a clothespin, which has the name of another participant on it. The goal is to find that participant and place the clothespin onto an “appropriate” article of their clothing. If they do not notice for more than five seconds, then they are out of the game. The participant’s next target will be inherited from the target they most recently eliminated.

All Battle operations must occur within Fordham grounds, excluding Martino Hall. A full list of rules is available on the official sign-up sheet.

“It’s very dynamic,” Stratis said. “It forces you to meet people who you otherwise would not have met.”

Stratis also promised to be an “umpire,” who will moderate the Battle’s events, catch any cheaters and ensure that the game runs smoothly.

The Battle of Fordham will continue until March 21, a full month after its initial start date. Any participants not yet eliminated at that point will then become part of a final elimination round.

Stratis said that the primary reasons for organizing The Battle were to drive up school spirit and to foster a more engaged community on campus. “Fordham Lincoln Center is a community of individuals,” Stratis said. “Even though we know of each other, we don’t really know who we are.”

As for how he expects the “infamously lethargic” community of Lincoln Center to participate in the game? “I have faith in them,” he said. “I have had people who I never would have expected sign up for the game.”

Currently, Stratis said, there are 71 students who have signed up to participate in The Battle of Fordham, though he also explained that some more are “trickling in at the last minute.”

“I want this to be a tradition,” he said. “I want people to keep doing this after I graduate. That’s the most important thing for me.”