It took me over an hour and a half to get to the laser
tag arena last night because the snow was coming down hard and the slippery
roads did not make for easy driving. So upon arrival I really hoped that I
would not be the only one who had braved the weather. Fortunately, there was a
packed house and an interesting mix of players and situations that took place
in the arena throughout the evening.
I had decided before I got there that if the first game
didn't feel like one where I had "something to prove" that I would take
it as an opportunity to experiment and try out something that I read about on
the internet. Most people hold their phaser from the bottom (I'm right handed,
so right hand on the trigger, left hand on the bottom touching the heat
sensor). Pros often play with a thumb on the heat sensor and the rest of the
fingers wrapped around the top for more protection of the phaser as a target.
But what I was interested in trying was a little different...I had read about
playing with the phaser upside down and I had never done that, so I thought,
why not try it out in a game that doesn't matter and just see how it goes? So
I played the entire first game of the night holding my phaser like this...
...and occasionally repositioning my hand to play like
this...
To be honest, I found this to be a bit burdensome. I'm
not sure how accepted a practice it is to play this way, but it's not a position
I felt had tremendous value for me anyway. I did notice that, at least when
playing Darklight, that this practice is not permitted, though so far I have
not been able to find anything definitively addressing it as endorsed or not
for other laser tag systems.
Side note...I found this very interesting breakdown of
laser tag rules by system that is worth reading:
I have played most of these systems including Zone,
Laserforce, Darklight, Laser Quest, Lazer Runner and Laser Blast (and of course Photon, which for obvious reasons is not on this list), but honestly I learned a
few things by reviewing these rules and want to thank whomever put this page
together for doing a great job!
I didn't find a whole lot of value in flipping the phaser
anyhow, but I did relish the fact that I seemed to be a trendsetter this game.
Several players made comments about "check out how she's holding the
gun" or the like and I had a very quick moment of eye contact with one
player who checked me out, paused for a
split second, flipped his phaser over like mine and continued on his way in the
game. Kinda made me feel like one of the cool kids leading the pack with a trend...but
that was purely my experiment for one game just to see how it would work.
My score that first game was not great...I believe I
ended in fifth place...but I cannot attribute that to playing with a flipped
phaser. No, I have a REALLY good excuse for why my focus was off that game and
it had nothing to do with the equipment. It had to do with something sharp that
I ran into in the arena.
In the middle of that first game I brushed up against a wall of the arena
and I got caught on a sharp edge and it ripped a really big hole in the side of
my jeans at my upper thigh. It was all I could do not to curse out loud when
that happened. I took a split second to assess the damage. I couldn't keep
playing with this rip in my jeans all night, but I was in the middle of the
game and didn't want to forfeit and walk out, so I un-tucked my t-shirt to
cover the hole and kept playing. You know I am not one to make excuses, but in
this case I think I have a pretty legit reason for why I couldn't get my head
back into this game!
When I left that game I was appreciative that the arena
was located in a mall. I heard a voice
call my name as I was walking away and I turned around and said "I'll be
back for the next game" then I high-tailed it to JCPenney's to do the
fastest clothes shopping I've ever done, returning in a new pair of jeans and
completely out of breath just in time to get into the next game of the night.
From here on in my night was not quite right. I can't
recall a single night previously where I haven't taken the top score at least
once...but this was the night. I was actually playing pretty well and the arena
was packed, but I kept getting second place (and occasionally even third place)
for the entire course of the evening. I know full well which player was beating
me too. And I congratulate him for doing a good job (one of his buddies told me
"he really wanted to beat you")...well, successfully done as he
managed to do so several times. To that guy, if you are reading this now, my highest
kudos to you is that I will give you the nickname of Bhodi Li and that's how I
will refer to you in this blog from now on...I will also pause to feel old as I
recognize that you were not even born when that reference had mild relevance,
so moving on with my story...
Sometimes I feel
like I am a trophy to be hunted when we go in to the arena. Whether or not this
was the case with this one player is irrelevant, but I know it occasionally happens each
time a player reacts with a little extra excitement if they tag me. A few of
the younger players saw me getting second place several times in a row and they
were impressed by that. This is a bit of an ego boost that helps me to not
grouse in my own mind about not getting the number one spot, because
they think number two is equally cool. Some of them asked me if I play Call of
Duty. When I said no they asked "oh, then what do you play to get so good?"
and I have a simple answer... "I play laser tag."
Someone else was really good last night too...and apparently
it was inadvertent! Midway through the night there was a really intense game
going on with the arena at nearly a full capacity. I played hard on the green team that
game and I came out of it quite certain that I was going to be the top score. In
fact, my score was over 11,000, so I was shocked to see that I actually came in
third...WHAT? My player name that round was Kestrel. Since "Bhodi"
was playing on the red team I figured he had to be playing as Cyclone. But
someone on my team hit 16,000 points that game...and I had no idea who!
I don't mean this arrogantly, but I thought I knew who
all the really good players on our team were and I hadn't the foggiest idea who
was playing as Shadow. Even though I don't like to lose, I have to give respect
to a player who can do that. Now, I don't have empirical numbers of how high
the scores typically go for Zone players. I have stumbled upon videos and
entry information for the Zone Laser Tag Nationals and World events (unbelievably
it appears that in 2011 the Zone World Championships were held in the local area
where I play often, so I wonder if it happened to be held in our home arena? I'm
really going to have to do some more research on this!) and I don't have enough
stats to say what is common in other places using this system, but I will say
that in all the time I have been playing Zone with Rift Blaster in this particular
arena I have never seen someone get a score that high, so I was impressed. So I
had to find this player and congratulate him.
I asked around to see if anyone knew who played as Shadow
and someone said "I think that was my buddy over there in the white
shirt". So I went over to the guy and complemented him on his achievement.
I told him I write a laser tag blog and asked if I could include him on it and
was very surprised by his answer. He quite modestly declined because he didn't
feel like he really did anything. He said "I just stayed in one spot the
entire game and shot at people when they came by". Whew...now that goes
against all my traditional laser tag logic. The basic thing that was drilled into my head
from the very first time I ever played laser tag was that to get high scores
you must keep moving...but, how can I argue with a result like that? Now, Paul thinks that he plays better when he does this same thing. Sometimes it
can work (obviously). However, I am a more aggressive player and I don't like
the idea of waiting for players to happen by. I prefer to believe that you make
your own fate, both in laser tag and in life, and the only way to do this is to
go after what you want (i.e. points by finding other players to tag) instead of
waiting for them to come to you. However, I will not diminish the fact that this
player managed a score that I have not achieved in this particular arena (those
words are key, because a number is only impressive in context and in another
arena there may be an entirely different scale to measure by), so I offer my
sincere congratulations on that.
Fast forward to the final game of the night. Also in all the
time I've played in this arena I have never been offered the chance
to play anything other than standard team games. Of course I know that the system is
capable of other types of games, but the game masters here have never (in my
experience) given players the choice of any other format. So I was a bit
surprised when the game master offered the choice of playing free for all for
the last game. However, I'm sure I was less surprised than most of the other
players who had no idea what free for all is. Mind you, I just returned from
playing several arenas in Canada where all I experienced up there was free for all (and
when I've played Laserforce I've experienced other game formats as well), and
even though I'm not generally a fan of this format, I did think it could be fun
to play this way against others who had never experienced it before. It was a
good final round (interesting how people seem to forget the basics...like
positioning on the bridge...when they don't have the security of a team to back
them up) and I enjoyed it. However, since we were playing as individuals, top
player names were announced over the loudspeaker as we left rather than
announcing the team positions. When my name was announced third place that game
I resigned myself to the fact that this was simply not my night. But you know
what? Like Arnold Schwarzenegger...I'll be back :)
If you have comments or questions please visit my website
at www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com or email me at
tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com.
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