Friends in Zone Places

One of the best things about playing laser tag all over the country is the great people I have met along the way. On my last trip to California a few years ago I met some wonderful guys and hardcore Zone enthusiasts including “General Nicolas, grand master of Infusion” (who couldn’t join us last night, but shout out to him anyway), Noah, Ricky and Josef. I guess you can say I’ve got friends in Zone places (pause for the groan for my terrible pun)!

Well, when Josef heard I was coming back to California for the weekend he was kind enough to coordinate a group for some specially arranged AYCP time at Infuzion Zone in Chino Hills, CA. 

It was great to play some Helios Pro again since I no longer have nearby options to enjoy this system back in NY. And it was also exciting to check out an arena I had not been to before. The staff at Infuzion Zone were really accommodating and made sure we had a full night with plenty of games.

The arena had a very familiar CW aesthetic with a raised platform area on one end with a short flight of stairs, which I am always cautious about. 

The focal point in the center is the skyscraper type building structure, which serves as a practical addition in this case because it also works as an additional barrier.

We played some standard games with the public and once it was just our group we moved into some eight life elimination games. 

I rarely get to play this format, but these guys are tournament players who run these games a lot and it’s always fun to play with experience. It made for a great night!

I also met some new people including Doug (a former Photon warrior) and Kevin as well as Noah’s girlfriend Miranda, so it was a nice social night as well.

My thanks to Josef for putting it all together! 

And also big thanks to Infuzion Zone for the accommodations and the staff who were so great to us all night. I had a blast and would love to return next time I’m on the west coast!

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com

The Mini Experience

If I had been looking to spend the day at a mini-amusement park I would have found plenty to do at Fiesta Village Family Fun Park in Colton, CA. However, since I was only looking to play laser tag I had only a fraction of the experience of what this place had to offer. I actually usually skip the arenas that are located inside big amusement parks because it’s generally more hassle to get in and out for just one attraction. However, the Orange Julius sign lured me in (as they have smoothies and a DQ right at the front entrance) so I went in and got to play a little more Lazer Runner.

Laser tag is in fact a small part of the big, mostly outdoor complex and I am not doing it the best service to gloss over all the other activities they offer, but I do tend to get tunnel vision for tag. This place looks and functions more like a small amusement park, which I reiterate mostly to frame the context of this site. Sometimes a rose is just a rose and an arena is just an arena.

I bought my ticket in one building and had to walk across the grounds to get to another where I found their arena, which they call their Lazer Odyssey. This was exactly what you would expect to see in this setting. The tag was a more typical Lazer Runner experience taking place inside a neon airbrushed arena with two “rooms” and a base in the corner that went basically ignored.

The one thing I took note of as being a bit interesting was this one base located high above the arena where I’m sure nobody else even saw it. I wondered why the decision was made to put it here?

For the amusement park patron this is fine. They kept the game atmosphere running non-stop and just cycled in groups for five minute intervals, so the indicators of starting and stoping were from the vest. Mine had a problem and had to be switched out, so I had about a minute more time before my vest timed out, so I was the last one out (as I would have been anyway…gotta get my selfie!), but because there was no other indicator it seemed like the game just kept on going.

I left thinking that it was a mini-experience as a five minute game barely feels like you’ve played. And yet sometimes you can get all you need to out of just a sample of what a site has to offer. Time to get my smoothie now!

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com

The Real Lazer Legacy

I found my visit to Lazer Legacy in Yucaipa, CA to be a real delight on a lot of levels. This was a good reminder of how laser tag can transcend differences and challenges and bring people together in the sheer enjoyment of the game.

When I arrived I purchased a game with a small group. I was placed on a team with two young boys, one of whom was non-verbal, perhaps autistic, but who did not need words to express how excited he was about getting to play the game. We were joined by the other team made up of a dad and a really tiny young boy who told us they were first timers.

The staff member was really on top of things. He gave a very thorough an proper walkthrough to show the new players what they needed to know about playing Delta Strike.

I was impressed by the arena, a nicely done (albeit overly familiar) CW design with two very useful raises platform areas, so basically a one and a half level field.

The younger of the two boys on my team immediately and very confidently took the lead, which was really kind of charming. His brother followed him out and I walked in right behind them watching to see how things would play out.

Occasionally laser tag can be an intense experience for some players because of the lights and overstimulating effects, but that was not the case here. Both boys were having a blast and the one who could not speak was definitely still able to express how much fun he was having. It was great to see!

Then the father and son were having more of a bonding experience. The dad was acting like a paratrooper and the son was following his lead, but in a way that was appropriate to the light competition at hand. I only tagged the dad and as soon as I did would turn my back to slowly walk away so the son could “defend” his dad and tag me out. It was sweet to see how that little boy reacted to those moments of success.

 

All in all, everyone came out of the game smiling and clearly we all had a great time. This was a game that really showed how much fun laser tag can be for everyone regardless of age, experience or other challenges and you don’t have to take it super seriously to still have a blast, and that right there is the real Lazer Legacy.

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com

This Is How You Do It

I left Las Vegas to spend a couple of days in California and my first stop was to the Monarch Fun Zone in Victorville, CA where I met the owners, Brian and his son Bailey. They told me this business only re-opened a week and a half ago.

They are new owners who took it over from the bowling alley next door and they had been renovating the arena a bit during the shutdown, which hit California laser tag businesses particularly hard and kept them closed longer than sites in other parts of the country. They told me this site has been continuously operating with Lazer Runner equipment since 2007 and that the equipment still works well for them, but during the shutdown they wanted to revamp the inside to give it a new look. 

However, when things are shut down for so long how can you make aesthetic upgrades that improve the look of you arena without using a pro designer or spending a lot to achieve some style? THIS is how you do it!

The arena at Monarch Fun Zone is proof that you can have an eye catching arena design without breaking the bank. Look what they did with nothing more than a repaint and some neon tape! With a simple, but incredibly effective technique they added some unique geometric designs to their walls and the result is fantastic!

These designs really pop under the black lights and give it an 80s nostalgic feel that I like. I’m a DIY girl and I think this looks really impressive and definitely dressed up the walls around the typical Lazer Runner structures that make up the main body of the maze. 

It’s not unusual to find this same arena structure in a site that has had the Lazer Runner equipment for a long time, but what was unique was the floor plan and how the arena played. This is honestly the best Lazer Runner arena I’ve been in recently…maybe ever. The flow of the arena is intuitive, but still allows for some challenge and plays well.

Bases are located in each corner and do have a bit of coverage depending on the angle from which you come at it.

The game played very smoothly and I really had a great time. Based on my previous travels, if I was looking for the best place in the local California area specifically for Lazer Runner I think I would say that Monarch Fun Zone is it!

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com

Back From Extinction

I remember a few years ago the guys I know in Syracuse were talking about the recent installation of Laserforce at a site in Las Vegas called the Rex Center with a larger than life dinosaur theme. It sounded like a really cool site, so I looked it up the last time I was in Vegas, which was prior to the pandemic, but at that point I learned that the business had closed down. But when I returned to Vegas this week leading into the Laser Tag Convention and Amusement Expo I did a search for laser tag sites and was delighted to find this center was open once again, now under new management, and back from extinction!

Apparently the new owner bought the site last March (what timing) and was eventually able to reopen it. There are huge dinosaur props all throughout the center, which also includes go karts, mini golf and climbing.

When you enter the single level laser tag arena you run across new friends at every turn.

And you also find some other unique touches. I really liked the way the three bases were positioned above archways like this.

This allows the bases to be tagged from clear across the arena rather than from right underneath as is the more common placement.

There were several beacons and a generator scattered around the maze as well.

I played two games using the “Raptor” pack. I didn’t look to see if all the packs were named after dinosaurs or if I just picked one with a really fitting name. The speakers on my pack seemed to have a loose connection, but otherwise it played well and my first game was a lot of fun!

Ok, so there’s the positive takeaway, and I kind of wish I could just leave it there, but in my second game something happened that I can’t ignore. I can’t believe I even have to write these words, but I guess it needs to be said… 

There should NEVER be a case where a small dog (or really any dog) should be permitted to roam free in a dark laser tag arena while a game is in progress. Yes, that actually happened while I was there. Mid-game I noticed this little dog (only a tiny bit bigger than Bruiser Woods for size reference) as it ran across my path during the game. I was shocked and honestly scared for the animal because it would have been VERY easy for it to accidentally have gotten stepped on. Or it could have tripped someone. I followed it around a few walls in an effort to both calm it down and keep it in my sight so I could help keep him safe, but he was too excited and of course wary of me as a stranger. At one point a woman in the game told me “he’s fine” and I assumed it was her dog, but then I asked the staffer out front if it was the “property’s dog” and was told it belongs to the owner who had friends there that night. Well, I don’t know if this was a common occurrence or a one time isolated incident and I can’t tell you what to do in your own business, but I can repeat my very strong opinion that I feel there should NEVER be a DOG in the laser tag arena! Drop mic.

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com

Never Underestimate a Chick with a Barracuda

The catalyst for my trip to Tennessee (as Memphis was the easiest point for me to fly into to get me to my primary destination in Kentucky) was to head north to compete in a high score laser tag competition that was being put on by Patriot Games Mobile Laser Tag at the Murray-Calloway County Fair in Murray, KY. Spoiler alert…the trophy went home with me.

I had seen photos from previous events that Patriot Games (formerly Red Dragon) Mobile Laser Tag had put on, the most recent being in Florida, and I was intrigued. I reached out to Micah who runs the events and he gave me some info about how they would be running a daily high score contest at this fair using iCOMBAT Barracuda model laser tag boxes which attach to the top of a Tippman paintball marker.

I must say that iCOMBAT is my favorite tactical equipment, but it has been several years since I have played at any site where I could enjoy the simplicity of tagging with a Barracuda. Most of iCOMBAT’s tactical line is more robust and realistic looking, but the Barracuda is still a lot of fun and a good choice for a mobile situation like this, so I welcomed this opportunity to return to the first model I had ever played from their line.

The competition was to take place between 6:00-9:30, so I arrived a bit early and found there was a line already forming at the gate to get into the fairgrounds. This looked promising!

Here’s how the contest worked…

They had set up inflatable paintball bunkers all throughout an open-air pole barn so players had places to hide for cover as they tagged their way around the obstacles. 

Each game was a five minute free for all with up to ten players per round. Players all start with 650 ammo and 75 lives, so once you get shot 75 times you are out of the game. The high score is not determined based on surviving the game, but rather you get one point for each successful tag on another player. The player with the most points from one single game would take home a trophy, appropriately topped with a paintball figure.

Each player could participate in as many games as they like for nothing more than the $12 price of admission to this fair. I played in every game of the night, so I thought this was a tremendous value for a full night of laser tag!

Things started out a bit slow, but ramped up quickly as word spread about the laser tag and by the end there was a line all the way out the door! I counted well over 100 people who participated in the contest over the course of the night and many, like me, were playing as many games as possible.

Micah, joined at this event by his mother Gina, explained the rules and kept the players cycling through back to back games all night. I had gotten a high score in the 200 point range right out of the gate, but topped my own score a couple of games later, so he put my new point total of 239 on a dry erase board hanging up at the front. Now I was playing just to defend that score.

Things were going well and I played hard in every game. These games were open to players of all ages, so plenty of teens and adults competed, but ironically my biggest challenge came from one of the younger players named Logan who came in with a very similar competitive drive like mine. I would guess Logan to be about 12 years old and the kind of kid who probably plays a lot of Call of Duty. I may have age and experience on my side, but he had two big things going for him. First, he was just naturally very good at the game and second, he brought his whole family into the competition and they were definitely gunning for me! Someone observed that the main objective looked like it was all about taking me out of the game as several of them (led by a guy in a cowboy hat who I presume to be Logan’s dad) swarmed around me to try to tag me out of my 75 lives. It only took one off game before the tables turned and things got interesting. Yes, they tagged me out and I returned to the front singing “nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I’ll go eat some worms!” Lol. But with me out of the game Logan was able to clean up on points against the weaker players and came out of that round with 269 tags. Nice job kid!

I do not want this to sound like I went all try-hard (even though I did), but I had come quite a distance to play and my pride could not allow me to let one fluke game result in my being runner-up to a tween at a county fair (woah, flashback to my pageant days!). Since this kid would no doubt return for the next day’s contest, I felt like it was ok for me to turn it up a notch and I came back out of the next game with the new high score of 312. 

The remainder of the night was simply about defending that new score and nobody else came close. Topping more than 300 tags in five minutes is not easy to accomplish when you consider that five minutes is equal to 300 seconds, so I hoped that what I had done would be enough. 

It all came down to one final game of the night at 9:25. Logan returned and had the same level of focus that I had. There were eight other players in the round, but this was clearly just a showdown between the two of us. Whichever one of us could take the other out first would prevent the other one from being able to do anything to top that last score. Also, I could tell that this had become interesting to the rest of the spectators in line. It’s different playing in a space with an observation area where people can watch and cheer for the game in progress. 

Props to Logan, we both tagged aggressively around that barn, taking every shot we could and ended up both exhausting our 75 lives within seconds of each other. Ultimately that meant my high score won for the night, but I am absolutely impressed with the challenge he put forth. I am also impressed with how the entire event was run. My thanks to Patriot Games Mobile Laser Tag and the Murray-Calloway County Fair for hosting this laser tag competition. It was not as easy as I might have anticipated when I first walked in, but you should never underestimate a young person with drive, determination and natural skill. On the other hand, you should also never underestimate a chick with a Barracuda! :)

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com

Sometimes It’s Like That

I went to one site that definitely stood out to me, but not for the reasons you would want. Let me just say it was a site where they were running Lasertron and the experience left me feeling…meh. 

I had actually stopped twice to visit this center (no need to name name’s) that claims to have “Memphis’ Largest Laser Tag Game” and that is probably correct. 

The first time I dropped by it was during the daytime (but also it was during regular hours when they were open for business) and when I told the teenager at the counter that I wanted to play a game of laser tag he told me he was the only one there and laser tag would not open until 4:00. Ok, I can accept that (even though I also feel like if your doors are open you should be able to accommodate requests for your services when customers walk through your door). So I returned the following evening and bought my game pass at the front counter. I was told to go to the laser tag area and a staff member would be over there. Well, when I got there I found a sign saying “if nobody is here then go to the front counter”…where I had just been. It took awhile before I connected with the employee assigned to laser tag. It was 7:05 and she told me the next game would not be until 7:50. Sigh…but ok. I asked her to please put me down for that game and I would return.

Since there was a bit of time I left (to go to this AMAZING store I found called Sprouts Farmers Market) to get some food to take back to the hotel and I really had no time to spare in order to get back to the laser tag site by 7:50. But they didn’t actually start briefing for about 20 minutes after that!

Also, based on the employees I had encountered I felt like this was the epitome of a staff that couldn’t care less. When I returned there was a different guy behind the laser tag counter. No direction was given. I had to initiate asking him about whether I should be signing in for the game (which is necessary at many Lasertron sites, including this one) and then eventually I entered the briefing room along with a noisy, chaotic group of players who paid ZERO attention to the briefing video about how to play Domination and absolutely nobody seemed to care. After that I wasn’t shocked to realize I was the only person who understood how to play that game format. However, I really WAS surprised by a couple of the code names that were allowed to be displayed up on the board that game. Let’s just say I won’t be repeating them here. 

Once again, there was no direction from the staff. The young guy now running the game did not even instruct people to match the number by their name with the corresponding pack. That’s a Tron specific thing to know about and it is not something that is exactly intuitive for those who are playing for the first time. Or maybe it is because everyone seemed to get their packs figured out. However, that poor employee was very soft spoken and not particularly well suited to handling a loud group so if we all got the correct packs I attribute to luck and following the crowd. At one point, rather than shouting above the din he just waved his arms in hopes that people would pay attention. No disrespect intended towards the staff member, but if you can’t take charge and get your players to pay attention then you are going to have considerable difficulty getting them to follow your rules.

There was one positive thing I saw in the briefing room…these short Tron tubes. Apparently the top part can be removed like a lid and they were offered to be used for storage of purses and other personal items during the game. That really is a clever idea!

And these larger tubes helped to form what really was a very nice two-level Lasertron arena. 

But a nice looking arena does not compensate for players having no idea how the game works and I attribute that to lack of guidance from the staff who should have at least made some effort to get the customers to be quiet for the briefing video so everyone had a shot of understanding the game they paid for. Once again, since the format was Domination I do not consider it to be a particularly intuitive game without some clarity of instruction.

During the game a few players made comments to me when they observed me tagging a sector for my team…

“Oh, that’s how you do it?”

“Not fair, she knows what she’s doing.”

“You’re the only reason we’re winning.”

That last one makes me shake my head because if you read this blog regularly you know Tron is the system I am the worst at playing. But the bottom line is there is no reason why EVERYONE shouldn’t have walked in with a basic idea of how to play the game. 

Maybe I was tired. Maybe I was frustrated.  Either way, I left feeling like I could have skipped this stop and still been fully satisfied with my trip, but instead I had this as my final experience in Tennessee and I guess I will just chalk it up to, well…sometimes it’s like that.

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com

Totally Top Notch at The City Forum

The City Forum is well named and well worth a visit if you find yourself anywhere near Clarksville, TN. I had a few choices in front of me as I decided which direction I should go for my next laser tag game and I definitely picked the right one. :)

I walked into the entrance and before I purchase my game I was already smiling at the dad joke posted on the wall!

Then when I made my way into the entertainment area I was blown away by what I saw. This place is massive, but with a unique, classy style which sets it apart from many of the FECs I have visited. At 120,000 square feet, the size of the warehouse in which the facility is built makes it one of the largest indoor entertainment centers in the country! What’s more is that this is not part of a corporate chain, but rather a locally owned business started in May of 2018 and operated by owners Trent and Dana Knott and their family including Chase Knott and Luci and Jon Armistead. 

The first thing I noticed upon entering The City Forum was the massive mini golf course with fountains and structures right in the center of it all.

It was surrounded by an arcade, indoor race track, snack area, bowling and of course (my reason for being there) laser tag.

This place is seriously impressive and I continued to be impressed even before entering the arena. You see, this site runs Laserforce Gen 7 and I am very well acquainted with the LF provided briefing video. However, The City Forum has made their own briefing video that included more relevant info, a graphic of the map and better instructions than what I typically see before a game. Their briefing video is very thorough, good quality and actually (in my opinion) better than the LF video.

I asked who made the video because it was so well done and I was told that it was Jon Armistead who was on site and whom I could meet following my game.

I entered the 4500 square-foot, two story arena and continued to be impressed. It is a CW built site, but it had a much more stylized and distinctive look than the standard CW themes I normally come across.

When I met Jon after the game he explained a bit about how the arena aesthetic came to be. He told me his wife, Luci, gave Creative Works her idea and vision for this to represent the city with unique, local touches like the water tower (which is also where you will find the generator).

Her concept was for the first level to represent the city underground with a darker, grunge-style look while the upper level would be bright and showcase the city you  would see above ground.

During the pandemic this business did have to close for eight weeks, but with the family owning the building they were in a better position to bounce back and from what I observed it looks like this is a thriving site. Jon told me they have plans to continue improving with intentions of upgrading to Gen 8 equipment and adding the membership feature in the future. It’s nice to hear an operator who speaks so highly of their chosen laser tag manufacturer as well as Jon told me (unsolicited) that Laserforce is their absolute favorite vendor that they have and they have never had an issue that LF couldn’t solve for them quickly. High praise indicating that laser tag is likely to stay a strong and vibrant part of the landscape at The City Forum.

If you are looking for a fun and varied gaming experience in northwestern Tennessee I highly recommend paying a visit…and apparently so does your mom!

I really enjoyed my time at The City Forum.

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com