I decided upon my arrival in Texas that I would play more laser tag arenas during the course of this one day than I ever had in any single day before. The only way I could see to do this was to fill my day with multiple stops at Main Event locations among my other arena visits around Dallas. There are quite a few! Now, normally I tend to think that most Main Events are quite similar to one another, but on this day I had four very uniquely different experiences.
The very first location I visited was Main Event Lewisville.
What I didn’t realize was that this happens to be the very first Main Event location ever opened back in 1998. This was a delightful surprise to learn from operations manager Alexi who has done her homework on the history of this company’s origins in Texas. What a cool tidbit of info that she had to share with me!
Now, I walked in at exactly 9:00 am (right when they opened) and obviously I knew that I would likely be the first person through the door, but my reasoning was that I needed to start my tag visits as early as possible to achieve my goal and hit all the stops on my list.
I walked up to the counter and said “I’d
like to play a game of laser tag” to which Alexi said “no problem, I have a marshal who just got here. I’ll have him start a game.” Excellent! You would be amazed how many times I have to “make a case” for having a staff member freed up when I arrive at laser tag arenas at an odd hour (which I often do).
She set me up to play against Mark and we donned our Delta Strike Evolution packs. So far this had all the indicators of being a more classic game experience like I became accustomed to early in my tag travels. To play with this version of DS really takes me back.
However, when I saw the arena, I loved that I was being taken back even further. The “Tron tubes” were scattered across both the upper and lower levels, making this arena feel retro and different from most of the others. Even better, Alexi told me she believes this is the original arena build that this first location has had since they launched, which makes it all the more special in my mind. I do love laser tag nostalgia!
Of course, since this arena is running Delta Strike for their equipment there were additional targets added for that experience.
I get a kick out of finding blends of different tag elements inside an arena because it tends show me a throwback to the past coupled with whatever progress has been made with new additions. That’s what made this a memorable game.
A visit to the very first Main Event location was a great way to kick things off!
During the course of my day I stopped in to play at other Main Events as well including Main Event Frisco, which has just replaced their previous laser tag equipment with Gel Blaster Nexus.
I knew from Gel Blaster’s app that this was one of the locations that had the new gear, so I specifically requested a laser tag game (meaning the non-gellet projectile version).
I also asked the game marshal to scan my profile QR code so that my visit would count on my “sites played” list on the app. He signed me in and then we did the pairing, tapping my phaser to vest to connect my specific equipment to my profile to track this game.
Time to enter the arena!
We played a team game in another Tron-style arena, which again meant this was a unique blending of old meets new with the GB portals scattered throughout the space.
This game was fun. The object is to tag the sensor panels on an opponent four times to completely deplete their energy enough to temporarily deactivate them while also seeking out the portals for extra perks.
Our team was victorious!
And a couple of stops after that I found myself at Main Event Plano. This is another arena using the older Delta Strike Evolution, but a completely different two-story floorplan. This is notable to me because in recent builds a lot of the Main Events I have visited have used exactly the same CW arena design. This is true to the point that many of my past pictures look alike because I have taken the same series of shots in exactly the same spots in multiple arenas. However, that was not the case here. The Plano location appears to have a bit of a hybrid arena going on as you can see here.
There are definitely some newer elements and the build is different from what I have seen elsewhere.
I am definitely seeing some different things going on at each of these locations, which is a really pleasant surprise. I am much more interested when chains do different theming at different locations. It gives me more of a reason to want to visit/see/play them all!
The biggest surprise of all the Main Events was during my final stop of the day (which turned out to be lucky number 13) when I visited Main Event Grapevine.
I have NEVER seen another Main Event using Laserforce equipment. This was unusual!
I went in expecting they would have either Delta Strike or Gel Blaster Nexus, but instead this location is operating with Laserforce Gen 8 gear. I was really not expecting that! In fact, I was perplexed by how this happened to be here…just not as perplexed as Caitlyn who was running the laser tag attraction when I signed in using my membership from Syracuse!
Talk about an unusual pairing. I simply had to take a photo of this phaser next to the DS phaser image on the wall.
I signed in as a level eight. Yeah, yeah I’ll be back at my level nine shortly, but I can’t fix my average when I’m doing all these travels, lol!
Anyhow, Caitlyn had never seen a membership in use, so I explained how the handicapping system works and that when playing as a level eight I have to tag a general public player (level one by default) four times in a row to deactivate them instead of the one tag they have to get on me. It’s a way to balance out players with varying levels of experience. This actually made it a much more challenging game, as I went in with a group of players who, even at 11:00 at night, were still taking their games quite seriously!
Meanwhile I was just enjoying checking out this two-story arena with a few hybrid elements.
Frankly, I’m a bit overly fascinated by taking pics of the gear in an atmosphere where I didn’t expect it!
Before the end of my first game Caitlyn had brought over Hutch (the manager) to see how I logged in with membership, which was a first for him to see as well. When I travel I use my RFID button keychain for convenience, so I demonstrated the process of logging in, seeing my custom code name and avatar and showing them the info about my level on the phaser.
I also explained that I am interested in the traveling achievements that I get from logging in at different Laserforce sites during my travels.
It turns out that Grapevine was sort of a “test location” so to speak, accounting for this LF gear being here. I think they found it equally interesting to see the capabilities they do not use as a non-member site. Any way you slice it, this was by far the most interesting visit of all the Main Events I had been to on this day. By the time the clock struck 12:00 midnight I had completed my goal to beat my own number and I had played laser tag in 13 arenas in one single day, adding to my overall count and my goal to be at 700 arenas before Amusement Expo next year. I finished out my day with a flatbread pizza in their food and beverage area before heading off to the airport to fly home. What a great beginning, middle and end to this day and there are plenty more stories to tell about all my other stops while tagging my way through Texas!
Comments or Questions?
Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com
Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com
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