Armageddon 2022 was the first chance many of us have had to gather and to play a multi-system laser tag tournament since prior to the pandemic, so the return of this event was highly anticipated to be a fun time, which it was. However, the unexpected passing of our friend, Katt, two days before the start certainly shifted the mood and it instead became a celebration of her life. To that end, everyone played hard, but with more of a “we are all family” approach to the events, both in and outside of the six arenas we visited to play seven different laser tag systems over the course of four days as we traveled across Michigan and Ohio.
The first morning of Armageddon started early (as they all do) with most players loading onto the bus and a few traveling by car. We headed to Revolution in Clinton Township, MI, a site that is quite popular with the Laserforce community to play Force and Q-Zar to start things off.
Five teams represented at this tournament. I played a team we called Plausible Deniability… we didn’t do it, nobody saw us do it, can’t prove anything!
Our team was once again mostly comprised of Tron players (and THAT irony is not lost on me). This time around the team included our core returning players like captain Wil (Slayer), Steve (Scuba), Dave (Ski Partrol) and me. Then (after losing Emily and Cecily to injuries) we added a few first-time Armageddon players including Josh (Axman), Kassisy (Miss Piggy), Chris (Cookie), Brenden (Fenrir) and Snake Eyes.
Other teams included Legacy, The Limey and Crew, Galactic Longshots and Blood, Sweat and Beers.
Our team took over a party room and settled in for the day. We took some time to determine our positions for the Force leg of the tournament and I was designated to play the 3-hit role of Commander. That is my preferred class to play in SM5 and we were ready to get things started. However, we first had to listen to the system briefing.
I have only one thing to say about that, which anyone there will understand with no further explanation…Cody, that is NOT how you hold a phaser!
Time to play!
We started the tournament off with some success right out of the gate. We won our first game (played against Galactic Longshots) and that was a really nice way to kickstart some momentum, and that game we eliminated all but one player (ironically, that player was our former teammate, Dallas).
The next game we played against the Limey Crew, which included one of the funniest/most memorable moments I had during the event. As I mentioned, I was playing Commander, which is a 3-hit class just like the position of Heavy. Early in the game it’s a little tough to distinguish between the two. George (Icarus) is playing Scout and has made his way up to the top level, while I’m taking out a base in the lower level. He tries to tag me and realizes I am a 3-hit, but guesses my class incorrectly and starts shouting out in a loud, booming voice “Tivia is Heavy! Tivia is Heavy!” The game proceeds and by the end I am standing near the entrance (when I get eliminated in the final 15 seconds…sigh), so I am in a place where I am walking out along with the other team. I turn to George and tell him “I have two things to say. First, good game. Second, when a lady is playing Commander, the one thing you NEVER say to a woman is is that she is heavy!” Lol, I’m just kidding with him, but I do think that was the funniest moment I experienced during the whole event!
The hardest game we faced was against Legacy. I was proud of our performance and pleased that I personally top scored for my team that game, but realistically there was no chance we were taking that particular game, especially after our resupply had been taken out.
I really enjoy playing at this arena and it was nice to be back at Revolution once again.
Following the Force games we took a short lunch break. As the only one on my team driving a car (as opposed to riding the bus, I preferred the autonomy of driving myself) I was able to take a few of us over to the nearby pizza place to pick up lunch for the team. We had played hard all morning and were all really ready for some food besides the box of granola bars I made sure was always available because sometimes you just need a sugar kick to keep you going!
Q-Zar was up next and the interesting backstory is that (seemingly as a result of the previous owner) Revolution had a Q-Zar system available at their business (as opposed to having to import the system, which would be less feasible with the absence of RNT). So we got to play in a space that already had built in energizers and bases in place. Time to get “active, active, active” again!
I don’t get to play Q-Zar very often, but I enjoy it on the rare occasions that I do. I’m not saying that this is my best system, but it was heartening to pull the top score for my team in Q-Zar nearly every game and later be sent a screen cap of player rankings by team contribution and see my ranking on this list within the top five for this event.
Screen cap credit and full Q-Zar stats are on The Brit’s website at http://stats.trikkitt.com.
Props to Cookie for edging over me by 200 points in the game where we beat Blood, Sweat and Beers.
Our team really started to feel like a team after hitting it hard on Armageddon Day 1. Once competition for the day was over, I did what I often do during tournaments…went off in search of more laser tag. But morning would come bright and early for the next day of Armageddon 2022.
Comments or Questions?
Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com
Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com
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