He hears footsteps; the lid is opened, and he pops up and shoots his target right in the chest. 

This is what it took to get an elimination in this year’s Buffalo High School 2023 Nerf War.

Valli was a part of the team “Nerfers in Paris. “They led all teams in eliminations with 29 kills throughout the competition, Valli having 11 of them. Valli’s team finished off the victory yesterday night, beating out 40 other teams.

“After that first elimination, we just got a taste for blood and the frenzy started there, “ said Valli. “ We will win this whole thing, no doubt about it. Lock it in“ .

Valli and his teammates, seniors Karson Peters, Sam Kugler, Colin Field, Max Zook, and Lex Pregchaus, were extremely confident in their ability to take home the title. This did not mean that they were shoe-in winners though; many things could’ve still gone wrong and gotten them eliminated.

Peters is tied with his teammate Valli for eliminations with 11. He knew the risks of becoming a high profile target, and had to watch his back through it all

“You have to break some truces if you want to survive, you can’t trust anybody,” said Peters. 

He broke multiple “truces” to get eliminations, including an elimination that consisted of him jumping off a boat to hit his opponent in mid-air on a wakeboard. Some may say that it seems cheap or petty, but when there was a $1,000 cash prize, the Nerfers in Paris were willing to do anything.

“Sometimes you have to risk being eliminated to get an elimination,“ said Peters. 

Just a week ago, he was victorious in a “Shoot Off “with Nathan Tromm ’23. It was by far the closest Peters had been to being eliminated. “At this point, it’s more than a game; we have fought too hard to lose. “

Other teams knew just how big of a threat the Nerfers in Paris were. The last remaining team consisted of Eli Tiernan, Sam Schaeffer, and Max Barton, and they didn’t go down without a fight.

“I camped outside their houses multiple times,“ said Grady Guida ‘24. “My team was forming alliances to try and take them down. 

But with the onslaught of eliminations and Nerfers in Paris’ wildly aggressive tactics, time ran out to stop the Nerfers in Paris.

Johnson got the chance to experience the team’s success for half the season. He was the starting guard, until he partially tore his ACL against Minneapolis Southwest. “It didn’t feel like it was torn but I knew something was wrong,” Johnson remembers. “I went to the hospital after the game and the doctors told me It was partially torn but a full ACL surgery and recovery was needed, it sucked.” 

Johnson was told he would be out for the year.

Dealing with a similar injury, Kotilinek had been on the varsity bench all year, but was getting closer to playing late in the season, after partially tearing his ACL in August while playing football. During games, all Kotilinek could do was hand out water and cheer on the team. During practices, he would do what he could to stay in shape. “It motivated me to practice harder by myself knowing there is a chance I’d play. I practiced a lot of free throws, which were really hard because I had to use a different shooting form. I also would rebound if they needed me when their putting shots up,” he explained.

Missing both Johnson and Kotilinek to similar injuries had a big impact on the team. Wyatt Jayson ‘24 said that the team was significantly impacted by the losses.

“They both brought so much energy to the team,” Jayson said. “They really held the team together so without them it’d be tough, but we got it done. Even though losing both of them was tough, it motivated us to play harder for them, knowing they couldn’t be out there.”

The team lived up to Jayson’s word. They went on to win their section and made their first appearance in the State Tournament since 2014. Kotilinek finally got in after all his hard work and made some nice plays in the quarterfinals. Johnson has mentioned his recovery is ahead of schedule and is preparing for next year.