Strategy Session

I feel compelled to write about strategy this morning, even knowing full well that by putting this out there it may come back to bite me next time.

This is a map of the arena where I was playing laser tag last night. The goals are two-fold...tag as many players as you possibly can while making sure to tag each of the opposing teams' bases once per game. Let's assume for the sake of the following examples that I am playing on the red team (FYI, my strategy will change based on which team I am on and I suspect next time I will end up selecting a different team just to keep a few surprises). There are several things I can do right out of the gate. Mixing them up so the other team doesn't know which is about to happen is key to not having a tactic predicted by an opponent. My first strategy might be to make a hard run on one or both of the bases immediately. If I'm going after the green base I will "walk quickly" from the red entry door directly to the base. However, if the green team is smart they will have already sent some of their players up the bridge, so I will pause at the first X, look and shoot left for protection and then storm the green base (second X), which may also have some players there to guard already. In my opinion those guards are simply acting as martyrs because that frees up other players on their team to go after points, which is how the game is won. If I am quick I will take this base right away. If I am not and there are more guards than I care to take aim at then I can skirt around to the next base or just kill time tagging some players while I wait for them to clear out.

Now, to mix things up I might start out differently and go for the blue base first. This is actually easier and I don't know why more people don't start here more often. You could call this a patience play because once the doors open if you patiently await the others getting deeper into the arena first you can scoot around and the blue base is generally open right there. I would anticipate there could be a guard, but I would also expect that the team is more interested in getting the red and green bases for themselves this early into the game, so it's not a bad place to begin.

An alternate tactic along this same route is to perform a sneak attack. There will be a grace period while players are entering the arena when the packs are not armed, so if I enter and then simply follow behind or mix in with the blue players (or any team...this is just a for instance) then I might catch them by surprise when the packs turn on and I have several of them with their backs turned to me. I performed this maneuver several times last night and was surprised that only the last girl in line seemed to catch on and try to give her teammates a warning, while the others were asking "how'd you get here so fast?"

I like this arena because there are two levels and those levels are the bridges. If you are on the bridge there are advantages and disadvantages. On this first bridge if you stake out the spot with the X you can see a direct shot line down to the outer part of the green base. If you are a good marksman this is a place where you can rack up points. However, it is also a vulnerable spot and, in my opinion, it's easier to get a shot from below aiming up the bridge than the other way around. So use this position, but don't stay open for too long.

Undoubtedly, there will be opposing players trying to stake out the other bridge. There is a sweet spot where you have a double advantage if you head down the first bridge and cut across. Hiding behind one barricade by the X until you are ready, you can often catch one player on the top of the bridge off guard (because they don't tend to suspect fire from below) and you can also aim directly into the blue base, which by this time probably either has someone guarding or someone trying to capture it. Either way, catch them while they are distracted and you can rack up some points by ducking back into this hidey-hole and repeating the process. Just watch your back, as this is another spot where you could become vulnerable if you hang out for too long.

Last night I was fairly consistent in my playing. Almost every game I was either in the first or second place based on points. I was not concerned with team ranking as the teams ended up being a complete mish-mash with no particular coherence. Our team from last week ended up splintering between the three team colors so I felt the teams were less coordinated and more effort was put out by individual players, yet every team had at least a couple of really solid players, which always makes things interesting. There was only one game where I really slipped up and I put the blame squarely on myself...and my scores reflected that (I think I was in 7th place...I didn't even bother to document that game). I fell victim to another team's strategy that in hindsight may not have actually been a strategy at all.

There was one guy and a group of three girls who were staking out a corner in what used to be the blue base reload station (reloads are no longer used here). They did not appear to be playing very intensely...rather they seemed to just be idly hanging out, which is why I thought this would be easy. I had the same preconceived idea about these girls that other players sometimes have about me. That said, I was hoping for fish in a barrel, but that's not what I got. I came around from the far wall by the doors and tried to shoot into the reload station. I knew they were there and they knew I was there. Unfortunately, each time I'd go for a hit on one, another would tag me. I'd try it again...same thing. They say insanity is the act of repeating the same action and expecting a different result...I should have remembered that. Instead I wasted too much time and took too many unnecessary hits while trying to prove that I could take out this corner single-handedly. If I had some team support it could have happened, however this game was part of the splintering off and I was working this area alone. Precious seconds of game play were lost.

If I had been playing it smart I would have just left them there and found my points elsewhere. Especially considering I could have better viewed this situation in a different light. I should have banked on the universal truth known by every soul living on planet earth...teenage girls are a tremendous distraction to teenage guys. If I had just let them keep him distracted over there I would have had one less aggressive opponent and could have just focused on the rest of the arena. Chalk that one up to "things I'll do better next time". And truth be told, this wasn't my only mistake that game. I also didn't properly recognize what an excellent marksman one of my fellow team members from last week was until I was opposing him (props to you Joe), so I take that entire game as my learning experience of the night. It's good to have those now and again to keep you analyzing things and striving for success in the next round. This morning I feel like a football coach reviewing my own plays in my head. I know what I'll be doing differently the next time I play this arena. However, I have at least three new laser tag experiences in my sights in the meantime, so my next strategy for this map may just have to wait :)

If you have questions or comments please visit my website at www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com or email tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com.

Words To Live By

This t-shirt has some good advice for life...

It's also good advice when you consider it relevant to strategy, which I will address further in my next post. However, that will wait until morning as I have just returned from a full evening of laser tag and an extra long drive back on some very slick roads, so I am ready to call it a night!

Out of the Past

Yes, Team Toronto...that title is for you ;)

I came across a neat little blast from my laser tag past...the key tag that I was assigned when I first started playing laser tag years ago. In an earlier post I mentioned that some years back I played at a center that used a code name system, but in the years since they had updated their system and these key tags are no longer used there. But if you roll the clock back a few years, this tag contained all the statistical data from when I first began playing. It was given to me upon my signing up for a membership. Back in the day I would attach this button to the front of my laser tag pack and it would retain my player information and the results and statistics from how I had played in that game as well as all my previous games. At the time I played under the name Tivia2 (that's not a typo...I added a number 2 to the end because just "Tivia" must have been taken...presumably by someone else paying homage to Photon?) and this is what the tag looked like...

I can't believe I still have this! Not that it's of much use to me, but I have to wonder if somehow my old scores are still encrypted on it? I wonder if the information stored on it makes it unique to just the system that it was originally linked to or if it could be pulled up if you found another location using similar hardware? Ah...wishful thinking. But I was curious and upon closer examination I can see some writing etched on the surface of the tag...

It's a 1-wire device with the website ibutton.com on the surface. So, what is ibutton? Here's what I found when I did a quick search...

http://www.maximintegrated.com/en/app-notes/index.mvp/id/3808

Apparently there are plenty of applications for these little tags. I'm certain there are still laser tag centers using similar progress tracking tags elsewhere (it's not like I kept this from all that long ago...in fact I think they had something very much like it for game to game player tracking when I last played in Mississauga), but I'm just guessing that they wouldn't be compatible with this one. Still, it would be interesting to take this back to the same center where I played before and still go to play all these years later and see if they have any means of retrieving those old scores to compare and contrast the progress over time. It would probably be like comparing apples and oranges, but it's an interesting thought...and makes me a little nostalgic too.

If you have questions or comments please visit my website at www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com or email me at tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com.

Attack of the Jim Jim Squad

Some nights you get a feel for how the games are going to go...and other nights you get some cool surprises. I showed up at laser tag right at the start of the night and in the briefing room I was the only woman (not entirely unusual) among a swarm of overly confident high school jocks who came to the arena as a group and loudly determined that this game would just be their "warm-up" until more people started to arrive. I'm not sure if they even noticed me...yet.

I do love being underestimated and they sure didn't see me coming. Typically I can tell when players don't expect for me to have any laser tag skills and I love the moment of realization that hits at some point during the game. I won that round on points and that set the tone for the evening, but things got better after the next game. A few more players arrived and I found myself playing on the red team with three young guys who just showed up while all the jocks joined together to make one big team of double our size...clearly they thought a victory was imminent. What was really cool about the guys on my team was that they too were flying under the radar at that point...all were great players and our little team easily dominated the game in spite of having significantly fewer participants on our side.

After the game the guys from my team came over to me, offered me a congratulatory Mountain Dew and introduced themselves. They suggested teaming up again and it was the start of a victorious night for what became called "The Jim Jim Squad" (I don't know what it means either...they came up with the name and some little rubber ducks from the prize counter became our mascots...cool by me).

(Tyler, Joe, Will and me...The Jim Jim Squad)

Our team had a few things going for us. Besides experience, there was some decent strategy involved with playing on a team with people who knew the arena and understood the scoring values. We anticipated what the other teams' players might do and we knew what had to be done in a logical order to keep the scores high. Plus good teamwork makes a tremendous difference in trying to scoot a group of opposing players away from a base you need to rack up team points. Our team continued to be a powerhouse all night long. I had a particularly good streak personally (top score every single game of the night...I'm not sure if I've ever had an unbroken streak that good happen before or not, but it sure helped me keep my momentum strong). Credit goes to my team for that also because I know I had solid players watching my back too. Thanks guys! One game I hit a personal best for the night at 12,300 (playing Zone) which I was really happy with. And we all had very good rankings. Every one of us was always in the upper tier of the scores and our team solidly held at least two out of the three top placements in every game. So it was a really good night for the JJS! :-)

During the height of the laser tag night there were around 30 players in the game, but by the last round we looked around and realized that there were only six of us left. The four of us, plus two additional players who teamed up with us somewhere in the middle. Since we had been playing together all night and were all quite good we knew that this would be interesting. We split up into three teams of two and had a great final round. The scores were all really close and it was a fun match playing against each other since by that point in the evening we pretty well knew each other's playing strengths and strategy. Of course I prefer to play in a packed arena, but sometimes the smaller games are better when you are more evenly matched across the board.

By the end of the night we had played hard and won all of the games (well, ok, there was one round where technically our team came in second to the jock team, but that was really just a numbers variable...our players still held the top three individual scores that round...but our team collectively won every other game of the night outright). And, as testament to the fact that I waste WAY too much cash killing time in the arcade in between rounds, I took home an extra goodie tonight...a giant stuffed Butters from South Park.

So we took a victory photo with Butters and the Jim Jim ducks. Awesome night of laser tag!

Side note...my teammates are part of a band called Dusk Till Dawn. Here's their Facebook page...www.facebook.com/vengeanceofficialbandpage.

If you have questions or comments please visit my website at www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com or email me at tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com.

How to Not Be "That Guy"

If there's any question about what I mean by "that guy" I invite you to read this before proceeding. If you already know about it from my last post then please continue on to read about the experience I had this evening...

I recently discovered that there was a place right in my own backyard that offered laser tag and various arcade amusements. I had learned that they use the Laser Runner system and, after having played that system just last week, I was curious to compare and contrast the different facilities using the same game. With all respect, the experiences I was comparing turned out to be like comparing apples and elephants, as the place I visited tonight was not a facility on the same scale of what I am accustomed to playing in any way. In fact, it was a portable structure with plastic tarp walls built inside the center of a large room, more on the scale of what you might expect of a mobile laser tag set-up at a fair. That's fine. The owner told me they cater more to kids and small birthday parties as 6-8 players is about what it would comfortably accommodate. So we are not talking about an arena. Although for kids it would be a nice introductory place to learn the game. 

Because the places where I usually go have unlimited game play on the weekends I typically expect to see around 30 people on a Friday night. However, when I walked into this facility there were only two other players in the entire building...so with me, that makes three. There was a man about my age and a young boy who I would guess was around nine or ten years old. The owner told me privately that they were part of a local charitable organization that helps to empower at-risk youth and at first glance I assumed that the relationship was that of a mentor or big brother kind of situation. When it was time to play the three of us sat down in a row of chairs outside the "arena" for briefing and the following dialogue occurred...

Man: "I've never played laser tag before."

Owner: "I think you're playing with a pro." (while nodding to me)

Boy: "I'm going to win!" 

Can you picture this scenario? So obviously I realize that playing full out is not an option. Even taking it down to half would have been disproportionate to this situation. I'm not "that guy" (or that girl). As a competitive player it was a time to check my ego at the door and do what was right...which according to Paul would have been walking around the whole game loudly shouting "why won't my gun work?" I actually did walk around the arena with one hand in my pocket while shooting just enough to be "in the game" and trying not to rack up too many excessive points. I allowed myself to be more of a target because I genuinely did not want to beat the boy, but I also didn't want to appear that I was not really playing. It was an interestingly delicate balance to play the game and be an active participant without trying to over-play the game. I'm not saying that it teaches real life lessons to just let a child win every time, but I certainly can recognize that this was not the time to unleash what I know that I am capable of doing.

When the game was over we exited and looked at the monitor. Thankfully the boy had done nicely and his score was 5025...25 points above me (this 25 point margin is getting to be an epidemic, but I was thankful for it tonight) and he was very happy about his win. So was I. It worked out well. 

As I was removing my vest the owner asked "what happened to you in there?" We had previously discussed my laser tag experience and I wasn't shy to let him know that I take it quite seriously. But surely he didn't really expect me to be playing aggressively in this circumstance, could he? Once the others were out of earshot I quietly said to him "I didn't want to be Jim Harbaugh in there." I hoped he understood what I meant, but regardless, I wouldn't have played it any other way. Laser tag can be a sport and in that context you certainly want to play your heart out, as I normally do, but it should also be fun for all players as a means of building confidence and self esteem. I hope that boy enjoys every moment of knowing he beat the two adults he was chasing around tonight. :)

If you have questions or comments please visit my website at www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com or email me at tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com.

Quit While You're Ahead? Never!

I recently revisited another laser tag system that I haven't played in quite awhile. More as a matter of convenience, I was killing some time while waiting to meet a friend for dinner and the restaurant was located in the same mall that had a laser tag center using the Laser Runner system. I had played here before and deemed it ok, but all things being equal (and distance being the big equalizer) not my very favorite. I had only played in this arena once, but decided that with some time on my hands it was worth trying another round.

I purchased three games and went in for the first. I must say, I like the aesthetic of the vesting room better than most. It was dark and the lights of the vests with a few fluorescent touches made for a cool atmosphere (although briefing and vesting happened in the same area and no place to sit, but it was short). I received my pack with a one handed phaser (I usually play with two hands) I went through a lighted and strobing archway into the arena.

The first game was a free for all. I was immediately pegged by a group of teenage girls as their target and, teams or not, they organized once inside and worked well to collectively come up with a strategy. In the end I had more experience on my side, but really enjoyed watching them play hard and I got a good workout myself, ending in a score of 9075. As this system was not very familiar to me I asked the game attendant a few questions before going into my next round. Of course there are so many variables that this is a skewed question to begin with, but I wanted to know what she felt was an average score range in this arena and what a high score range would be here as well. She said most people average around 3000-5000 points and she'd say anything in the 6000-9000 range was really good. So, my top score of that game would put me in that range, but their display ranking needed a bit of interpretation also. The monitors at this center show your score, but not in order of highest to lowest, so my high score of the individual game was at the bottom of the field of that group of players. Meanwhile, the high score of the entire day is always present at the top of the screen no matter what the outcome of each individual match. So I realized that my score was not too far from the top score of that day which was sitting at 9950 points. If you've read much of this blog (or know me at all) I'm sure you can guess that I could not let that silent challenge go by. I wanted the top score of the day and thought that I could do it. So I went in for a second round.

During this round the teenage girls were gone and were replaced with more older players in this game...and by that I simply mean adults (sure it's an all-ages game but when I'm in a competitive mindset I am not looking to unleash my top game against little kids...that's not particularly sporting and if you don't already understand why then you might benefit from reading about the San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh who made some press for this kind of thing here). But back to this game, it appeared a couple of guys in their mid-to-late twenties had arrived with women who were their dates and clearly one of the guys was as competitive as I am and ready to impress his lady. Little did he know that I was there with an agenda of my own. For me to get the top score of the day I was going to have to take this guy down...sorry about that, nothing personal.

We went in and I was in a completely focused and goal oriented mindset. My shots were all landing and in this arena bases could be gotten multiple times so every time I passed one I gave it a courtesy tag, almost as casually as an afterthought and I kept my eye out diligently for the one guy I knew was actively trying to take me down. If that sounds a little "battle-like"...well, we were both in it to win it, so it was. And he played very well, which did make for an interesting and very athletic game. At the end of it I was pretty sure I had won before even looking at the monitors. But was my score high enough to be the top score of the day?

Yes, it was! I came out of that round wearing pack number 15 and I had overtaken the top score pushing up and over to 10,875 points. Goal set, goal achieved. I was in a great mood as I left the arena and headed off to meet my friend for dinner.

We had a great meal and I was still feeling pretty good about having achieved my goal of that top score. However, I had purchased three games and only played two, so I returned to the arena and got a surprise. During the couple of hours I had been at dinner someone else had surpassed my high score and taken over the top spot at 11,425. Sheesh! Now I had yet another round that was more about accomplishing the goal than anything else when I had expected to just enjoy the round without pressure. Yes, it was a self-imposed goal and even though I do enjoy a challenge, for a brief moment I thought that I should have just left before I saw that and enjoy riding the high of the score I achieved earlier that night. But that's not the kind of thinking that benefits anyone because hiding your head in the sand doesn't change the fact that someone else took the victory. 

As for that nonsense idea of leaving before I had played to the fullest...quit while you're ahead? Never! So, the goal was set...beat 11,425 points...and I had been playing well today so I figured the ante had been raised and I would go in and meet the challenge. I did go in...and then proceeded to play more pitifully than I have in ages! I was doing a lousy job of even holding my own, let alone beating the high score of the day. I was getting tagged left and right and I was missing easy shots. I started that game a mess. And do you know why? The space between my ears was consumed so much with "having to win" that I wasn't actually doing the things you have to do in order to win! And after a couple minutes of this I decided to get my mind right.

I ducked behind a barrier in a corner and simply took a moment. I made a conscious decision to turn this game around. It was almost as if something came over me and transformed both my mind and my game. I came out aggressively shooting everything in sight and strategically keeping two very good marksmen at bay so I could make up some ground. And it worked. I was racking up points and barely took a hit after that. I played hard and felt good at the end. I also felt like I couldn't predict for sure how I had done. Although the phasers you use with this system did show scores on the back, not all the numbers showed, so I was not sure if the game had ended high or moderately.

Upon checking the monitor I had to do a bit of math to be certain of what had happened (as I mentioned, they do not list the scores in numeric order). So I watched the other players scores flash by and realized I had in fact won this round, which always feels good. But did I have the points to be the high score of the day?

I got 11,400 points, which means I was 25 points from the high score (face palm). To put this in perspective, I missed it by ONE SHOT, which was all I needed to overtake that number. Sigh. But you know what? I left feeling great anyway. I know I played hard, I got my mojo back and I exceeded both my own score and my own expectations by getting that close after a rocky start to that game. So, at this point I called it a day. Did I quit while I was ahead...not this time, but I did leave while I was riding high. And it reminded me of a line from the movie "Bring It On"..."how does second place feel? It feels like first."

If you have questions or comments please visit my website at www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com or email me at tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com.

An Interview with David Stay

This week I had the opportunity to have a conversation with David Stay (formerly known as David Anthony) who played the role of Mandarr on the 1986 Photon television series. This program was introduced at the height of the popularity of the original laser sport of the same name. In the years since it has become a piece of 80s nostalgia and a cult classic among fans. I remember watching this show as a young girl and it served as my earliest introduction to the concept of laser tag. David Stay is an actor, director, producer and writer. He is also a two time award winning film maker and a best actor nominee for the movie "The Sphere of the Lycanthrope". I want to thank David for offering some wonderful insights about his experiences on the show as well as details about the projects he has been working on since.

Click here to see the interview

It was wonderful to have the chance to talk with David. You can find out more about him at www.davidstay.com. 

If you have questions or comments please visit my website at www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com or email tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com.