Ultimately a very full day ended with me getting to play
some excellent tag with this awesome group celebrating a birthday...Happy
Birthday Brandon!
However, before we got to this point in the night I
started by taking a drive up to Ocoee to visit the Ultrazone that had recently
been taken over by new management.
If this were a Friday or Saturday evening I'm certain
this place would have been packed. It's a good size arena with an upper level
overlooking the whole space.
However, since it was a Thursday night I knew it would be
hit or miss (like most places on a weeknight), so when I arrived during a quiet
time I was appreciative that game master Matthew was willing to go in for a 1v1
so I could still experience the arena.
I circled around the arena once, checking out the top
level view and I could tell that this is the area that a lot of people would
find the most interesting. It's an upper level corridor on only one side of the
arena. If there had been more players this could have been a place to find some
excellent vantage points. However, with a one on one game it was better played
on the lower level where Matthew and I played a pretty solid cat and mouse
game. I found cover throughout the maze of walls.
With only one opponent to seek out I focused my attention
on trying to predict his patterns. He was quick and I was quiet on my
feet...until my leg brushed against something unexpected. For a moment I jumped
thinking that I might have brushed up against a spider web, but it quickly
became apparent that what had actually touched my leg was a string of holiday
garland. That didn't make much sense to me until the next day. You see, after
the game the employee at the counter invited me to come back for a busier game
on one of the weekend nights and was kind enough to give me a free game and the
new owner's card.
The next day when I was at the Zone booth at IAAPA I got
to meet Jeremy (the owner) and tell him I had a great time visiting his newest
site. That's when he shared with me that they were still working on it and part
of their transition including clearing out some Christmas decorations...a-ha!
So THAT explains the holiday garland! Even though it was quieter evening, I
definitely enjoyed my visit to Ultrazone Ocoee and really hope to get back
there to play again.
Once I was done with Nexus in Ocoee I headed back to
Orlando to get in a game at Whirlydome.
These were the two sites that I found that were open on a
Thursday, but similarly it appeared that they were having a slow night.
Unfortunately the staff at Whirlydome were not able to accommodate me with a
one on one game (which I always find a little dubious if there's actually nobody
there), but I accepted this and left to do some shopping. After getting my fill
of Florida souvenirs to take home with me I decided to swing back around to see
if anyone had shown up for tag in the meantime. I was lucky to find that in
fact a great group came out to play tag and celebrate Brandon's birthday, so I
got to join them in the arena upstairs above the bumper cars and the bar.
The vesting room was across the hall from the ocean themed
arena. They were also using Nexus at this site. When I entered the arena I
found that it was narrow, but quite long with bases at each far end. I liked
the fish decor hanging from above.
We had a couple of false starts (the game master
restarted the game twice), but when we got into the game this group definitely
played hard. I was really impressed! A couple of the guys were quite good and
one especially stood out as being a top player. I later came to find out he
plays a lot of tag and is usually the top score, so when he got to the
scoreboard before me and asked "who was Krieger?" I knew that I had
taken him by surprise by pulling the top score. However, we left that game
giving each other mutual props for being good competition. I was really glad
that I got into a couple of tag games on an evening like this and it was a
great way to end the first day of my trip to Florida.
Comments or Questions?
Contact: tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com
Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and
www.photonforever.com
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