Sunday, August 30, 2020

Final Episode of Chicagoland Grand Scrim Laser Tag Audio Drama

It’s time to find out which team will win the tournament!


If you’ve been following this series and want to find out how the Chicagoland Grand Scrim turns out then please enjoy episode four, the final episode and conclusion of this laser tag audio drama production…

 


I’ve been delighted to voice the part of color commentator Renee Roccasalva and thank the author/creator of the series Daniel Leach (aka MamaHydra) and Tiana Daniels for being so great to work with. Also, shout out to Anagram Sound for the excellent audio production work!

 

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com

Sunday, August 23, 2020

“Ladies Do It Better” Win at LASERTRON Battle Royale Squad Tournament

The first ever LASERTRON Battle Royale Squad Adult 18+ Tournament Event was recently held at LASERTRON Buffalo. The winning squad called “Ladies Do It Better” certainly did live up to their name by taking the win as well as a nice share of the $1000 in total prize money awarded at the event. Team members Emily “Shadowdragon” Faltisco, Sheila “Mooncalfe” Heinrich, Janine “Sixtoes” Nayda and Brooke “Butterlamb1” Kress were the players comprising this all-female team, which is notable not just for their achievement in the arena, but also for the fact that they may have made a bit of history in the process.



Over the past few days I’ve been reaching out to the laser tag community across various systems for some assistance in determining whether there has ever been an all-female team to win a tournament event in any system in the past. Jim Kessler, owner and CEO of LASERTRON told me he has never heard of an all-female team winning a tournament in laser tag before and, as of this writing, I have not been able to identify another similar instance resulting in a tournament win. Even though there have been all-female teams to compete in tournaments, taking the actual win might just make this historical. I welcome any feedback from laser tag historians who may be able to verify this one way or the other. Regardless, such an achievement is rare and worthy of some spotlight, so I invited the Ladies Do It Better team members to talk with me about their experiences with laser tag and being part of the very first LASERTRON Battle Royale Squad Tournament.

This first ever squad event was preceded earlier in the year by two solo tournaments prior to the facility temporarily shutting down during the COVID pandemic. LASERTRON re-opened recently with some new safety measures in place and Spectrum News reported on what steps they have been taking.

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/buffalo/news/2020/08/21/lasertron-balancing-fun-and-safety-in-pandemic#

Congratulations once again to the Ladies Do It Better squad for their win!

 

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com

Thursday, August 20, 2020

Direct from the Source: Laser Quest President, Jeff Morris

This past week there has been a great deal of speculation among the laser tag community about the future of Laser Quest (Versent Corporation) and their centers in North America. I believe it’s best to get the facts directly from the source, which is why I reached out to Jeff Morris, president of Laser Quest. Here is what he had to say...

“We will not be selling equipment to the general population.

There are a number of groups of people who are looking to take on various centers.

The negotiations are often not with us, but rather with the landlords, so the delay is that they are dealing with the landlords.

Groups are looking at centers in both Canada and the U.S.

Laser Quest is not a franchisor in the traditional sense. We may be interested in letting potential business owners purchase equipment to operate businesses.”

    - Jeff Morris, president of Laser Quest (Versent Corporation, North America)


I want to thank Jeff for sharing what information he could at this point in time to address some of the questions that people have had. Only time will truly tell how things may evolve in the future, but there is one certainty, which is that what you read quoted here can be attributed to an authoritative source rather than to rumors. I greatly appreciate the trust and candor that accompanies that.



Comments or Questions?
Contact:
Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com
Websites:
www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com
www.photonforever.com

Sunday, August 9, 2020

Saying Goodbye

Update: I have confirmed this with my own eyes and with a former staff member. Goodbye Zero Gravity.

This has been a VERY hard week. Although I’m not going to peel back every layer of the onion regarding what’s been happening, I am going to share the one part of it all that I think is probably relatable to a lot of laser tag players right now who are unable to play because either their local arenas are temporarily closed or…(sigh) permanently closed.

I didn’t write about this immediately because it’s tough to know what is really “permanent” in the middle of all this uncertainty, but from all indicators and according to what I see on Google it appears that my home Zone arena, Zero Gravity, has indeed closed down for good. The removal of their FB page further reinforces that this is likely correct. This really hits me hard right now because, after the week I have had, what I really need most right now is to have someplace to go and tag out all my frustrations and I simply don’t have a place to go and do that right now. And this is now the second time that I have had to look back on the last night I had at one of my favorite spots and shake my head at the fact that I had no clue it was the last time.

If only my birthday had fallen on a Thursday I would have gotten one more opportunity to play there. You see, my birthday was in early March and all I wanted to do was play tag and go out for sushi. Every time I played at ZG I would also go out to Sushi X in Latham for dinner because they have THE BEST all you can eat sushi menu in the capital district. But this year my birthday fell early in the week when both places were closed, so I settled for eating at a lesser sushi restaurant and playing laser tag at a bowling alley instead. Then two weeks later COVID shut down the country and I never got the chance to play at Zero Gravity again.

Even though at the time I didn’t know it was my last night there, a couple of weeks prior to that birthday evening I do remember going out to ZG on the weekend and having a killer night of laser tag and driving home feeling very happy. I’m grateful that at least I have that as my last memory of this arena where I have played regularly for over five years. In fact, I am lucky to have many wonderful memories of Zero Gravity, so let me take a moment to reminisce with you and say a proper goodbye to one of my favorite laser tag arenas as I reflect on some wonderful memories from the many nights I spent there. I’ll always remember the smell of the briefing room and the vortex gate opening into the vesting room.




My very favorite memory was starting a huge weekend-long party with friends who were visiting from all over the country and going out to play for what would be the very last time on the Infusion system about one week before they upgraded to Helios Pro. Big thanks to Mike for making sure we had a party room available to hang out in for our official pre-event gathering!



This is where I taught my mother how to play laser tag (her first and only time doing so).



Spending International Laser Tag Day playing laser tag with French foreign exchange students was a truly international tag experience.


I had a blast tagging with the Royal Rangers.


Big thanks to Donnie for hooking me up with the very first ZG membership card slightly before they were officially available to the public.


And I'll always remember ruling the ramp!



ZG was my first stop just after I got my new phone in February and I tested it out by taking some arena photos, so I can share with you what this 5000 square foot arena really looked like.







And if memory serves me correctly this may have been the very first laser tag shirt I ever acquired, starting out what would become a pretty massive tag t-shirt collection!


I want to thank Donnie, Mike, Samantha, Josh, Justin, Brendan and all the others who were part of making this place so special for all of us who got to play there over the years. Reminiscing about it is bittersweet. Perhaps it’s just as well that I didn’t know that my last time there was really my last time because my memories can still stay in a “perfect bubble”. Goodbye Zero Gravity.



Yesterday I took a different approach by deliberately going back to say goodbye to my childhood home. The house I grew up in will likely be sold by the end of today and, so long as I’m already walking down memory lane, let me throw in a couple of pics of my childhood bedroom (where I social distanced myself LONG before it was a thing) and the view out my window to the lake, which I have just visited KNOWING it was for the very last time…which is a whole other kind of bittersweet.





So, to both of these places that I considered my “home” in different ways, I fondly reminisce about all the good times now that I am here in a new world having to say goodbye.


Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com

Saturday, August 1, 2020

Tiviachick’s Top Ten Laser Tag Arena Contest – Vote Now!

Join me in recognizing some amazing laser tag arenas with a fun contest to showcase a few really impressive locations! Please cast your vote!


“Tiviachick’s Top Ten” laser tag arenas are all locations where I have personally played and each was selected for being particularly impressive in their respective category. To see which arenas were chosen and cast your vote please visit https://www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com/tiviachick-top-ten-contest.

You can also view photos of each of the top arenas to help you pick your favorite!

There is an opportunity for ANY laser tag to be chosen as our People’s Choice favorite. Just type your vote on the ballot for your favorite laser tag arena. The People’s Choice favorite will be the arena which receives the most write-in votes. Contest runs 8/1-8/31/20. Votes will be accepted by entry form located at www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com with one vote for each category and limited to one vote per email address.

Please feel free to share this to build excitement and participation. Keep in mind, this is JUST FOR FUN! What do the winners get? Essentially, bragging rights. And maybe a little bit of publicity. For being chosen as a “Tiviachick’s Top Ten” laser tag arena the selected locations will receive a certificate of recognition at the end. Based on the votes, the top three winners in each category will receive awards of placement. I just want this to be a way to give a nice shout out to some arenas where I have personally enjoyed playing during my travels and found them to be particularly memorable and worthy of sharing. Have fun and please vote!


Comments or Questions?