Sunday, October 7, 2018

Practical Practice

Playing laser tag in a league in Syracuse always seems to be preceded by two or three (or 12) rounds of musical chairs. But I was feeling a little too much like Roger Murtaugh for that last night, so I opted instead to get in some practical practice in Queensbury so that my Cyber Blast skills are dusted off and ready for qualifying in New Hampshire in a couple of weeks.
 
So I headed off to Adventure Family Fun, the closest Cyber Blast site near me in Queensbury so that I could get in some practice time and refresh myself on this system that I really only get to play every few months or so. This turned out to be a great night to be there because they had a steady flow of players rotating in and out with those of us who had the all night wristbands playing consistently all evening. I tend to get in more games at this arena in a shorter amount of time than I do anywhere else because the wristbands just go into back to back games all night, which I appreciate. It's a good value for the money. But it can be hit or miss as to numbers because they have so many other attractions too, both at this site and in the area in general. So having a decent group to play against all night was notable because it is their off season and the long weekend seemed to draw more players in.
 

I played a perfect game streak, which was fun, but I did so while paying a lot more attention to switching modes and making conscious decisions about things that I'm often times a little casual about (when to shield, when to use a photon vs a burst, etc). It will be a couple of weeks before I see if this makes any difference in a different arena where I understand they'll be using a lot of custom settings on their packs (the most notable being that they set them to disallow back tagging). I understand that part of the score considerations will be based on accuracy. Although I am quite consistent with getting my tags, I often feel that my accuracy suffers because the timing is such that I tend to take two shots to make one tag, so that might be my Achilles heel. We'll find out. Regardless, I'm glad I had the chance to get in some final practice before this site closes for the season. This was the only weekend that I would be able to get there, so I'm glad all the stars aligned to make it a worthwhile evening of tag.
 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...
 
The league line-up has morphed a couple of times, but as of tonight it seems like we have landed on our team's final roster of me, Tom, Max, Peanut and Jared. So...let the games begin!
 

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

2 comments:

  1. Tivia, upon reading your post from the 7th of October named ‘Practical Practice’ I became more interested in how laser tag is operated in other countries. Being an Australasian player myself, I have little familiarity with the sites in the United States. Your post regarding New York laser tag sites and your personal experience playing with friends really took me back to the days in which I would go down to my local site with a few friends on a Friday night for a casual game. I’ve gotten so caught up in the competitive scene that I’ve forgotten what it is to have fun with some experimental game types which is something I’d very much like to get back to one day. It is my dream to one day own my own laser tag site which I would construct in such a way that there is balance between the fun game modes and the competitive nature of league formats. Seeing your photos of the Zone packs made me interested as I am primarily a Laserforce player who only dabbles in Zone when it comes time to play in the Zone Laser tag Australasian Championships (ZLTAC). Thank you for your enlightening post.

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    1. It's so nice to hear from another laser tag player in a different part of the world! I have been fortunate to experience many types of laser tag throughout the United States and someday hope to play overseas as well. The packs pictured in this blog post are actually Cyber Blast, but I do love to play Zone as well as Laserforce (and pretty much any other form of laser tag) so it is always nice to hear from someone who enjoys playing different systems as well. Please let me know if you do open a site!

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