The final countdown to Armageddon 2024 began bright and early on Monday morning as we gathered once again in Syracuse.
Systematic Chaos looked forward to playing three more laser tag systems before the day was over as we took our team photo.
This day was going to be long. We started at 7:00 am by playing several hours of Laser Blast. The Blast format had been imported by the Michigan players and we need to give some big thanks to the manufacturer for coordinating the access for us to this equipment.
We played an elimination format, each starting at 12 lives with the goal being to deplete the lives of all the opposing team players. This format is a bit different from the others we played and there were some unique quirks observed that led to a very thorough discussion where I was required to participate in a decision that was taken quite seriously. This year I was put into the role of the consultant, aka one third of the Triumvirate which settles disputes raised during impacting the tournament. Early in the day things were still easy.
By the time we finished playing the Blast system some concerns over anomalies had been raised. I’m not going to rehash it here other than to say it was decided that the system would be dropped. All I will say is that the decision was definitely not made lightly.
Moving on, Marc Mueller once again brought in Battle Company for our tactical format. We played a simplified version of tactical (no bases, no special game formats) and it was interesting to see how often this became a game of win, lose or draw.
The game prior to this had ended with a tie also (other teams, not ours), but in that case the score was 1:1 so at least our tie represented that the game had been fully played. :) And we won our final tactical game, so we were feeling good by the end of the format.
Our final system was Laser Storm. Our team only had one real Storm player, so this was an uphill battle.
We only won one of the games in this format, but my thanks to Cope for pointing out that I had some personal success to celebrate along with our team result.
It was after 10:00 pm by the time all the games were completed and even longer before all was said and done. The scores were being tabulated VERY carefully. We waited for the results at the end of this 16 hour day and eventually the special awards were given before the final placements were announced. I’ll share this part in reverse order and start with congratulating the 1st place winners, Fatness’s Angels.
Congratulations also to the 2nd place team, the Axmen.
Now, who took 3rd place? In an Armageddon first, the third place scores were so dead even that even the tiebreaker guidelines couldn’t separate the teams. So for the first time in over two decades of the U.S. Armageddon there was a complete tie for third between Systematic Chaos and Koalified Bears!
Congratulations to our co-placement recipients and also to both team captains, Scuba and Lanari.
We celebrated our placement as a team.
Shout out to all my teammates…
Scuba - Thank you for the pick! It was a genuine pleasure to play tag with you again.
RNT - Thank you for all you do and for being so insightful and positive in how you share the benefit of your experience. I gleaned much more from this experience because of you being part of this team.
Jackal - How far you have come since I first met you! You are not only an incredibly talented player, but you understand and express strategy really well. Glad to be tagging with you again.
Scitchy - How nice to have you traveling to our country and brining your amazing laser tag skill set! It was wonderful to meet you and I hope we tag together again.
Masterboy - It was also a joy to meet you and be teammates. Trading laser tag knowledge with international players was a particularly special thing for us and I enjoyed our game time tremendously.
Grumpy - It is always so much fun to have you around! I will try to make another tag trip in your direction before too long.
Woz - I will seriously be starting the Book of Kassidy! I admire your deep desire to keep growing and improving within the scene and it was really wonderful to be teammates again.
And that was the conclusion of yet another amazing year (and a unique team draft experience) for Armageddon. Congratulations to everyone and thank you to all who were part of the experience!
Comments or Questions?
Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com
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