Lights, Targets, Action!

My last stop while in Indianapolis prior to driving up to the tournament site was a visit to Ultrazone Xtreme Laser Tag of Avon. This gave me a chance to talk tag with Erik who co-owns the site with Simon, two familiar names from the world of Zone, and see what they had done with the place since taking it over from the previous ownership about a year and a half ago.



While there is nothing dramatically unusual about the build of the two level arena (except for strikingly high walls on the second level that I am too short to peer over), the signature element that they have added are the lighting effects that are triggered by tagging various targets throughout the game. Erik showed me some of the features that can be activated, starting with what happens when you destroy a base.



At first glance this base housing looks like a typical Creative Works design, but check out the lighting tubes at the top.

This is what makes taking a base here a little more interesting…

So that’s fun!



And throughout the arena there are plenty of targets to aim for and a few of them will trigger other effects. When you hit one target on a far side wall there is an LED light bar that glows brightly with lights that appear to move in the direction of the hit.

And another target when hit will make the barrels near it come to life with a vibrant, colorful reaction.

We jumped into a game with a couple of kids who came out to enjoy the night. I used the game as a chance to explore the arena further.

I picked up some special features at this game station tucked inside a little corner nook.

Before I left Erik hooked me up with a t-shirt for my tag swag collection...he knows a little bit about the importance of maintaining a good tag collection!

Then we grabbed a bite to eat and took some time to visit and talk tag before I made my drive two and a half hours north to enjoy playing some Zone in a more competitive atmosphere as night one of the Battle For The Fort Tournament was about to get underway at 1:00 in the morning…time for coffee to make it through tonight! What a great way to round out my visit to Indianapolis area. Many thanks!





Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

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

Three-Two-Fun...Go!

When I called ahead to Three-Two-Fun at Bowl 32 in Noblesville, IN and was told that they have a “first of its kind in the US” 4D interactive arena where the arena fights back and you can play it alone if you show up at a time when there’s no group playing I was intrigued. This site uses Laserforce Gen 7 and I thought I was sufficiently familiar with what this system had to offer, but this sounded interesting to me.

What they are actually referring to is a “Living Arena” which does feature some elements that can “fight back” (like a warbot), however in my opinion these elements simply enhance a typical group game. It’s great that they have the extra target hidden inside this spaceship.

However, I don’t think I would find it very satisfying to try to play this arena by myself, even though they said I could. So, it’s a good thing that the in-house laser tag pro Craig was willing to jump into a game to make it interesting. :)



First Craig showed me the various games that they feature at this site.

Although a few of my favorites were missing (no Photon emulation?) it was good to see that this site is working towards building leagues and competitive play. Perhaps as they grow they’ll add their SM5 players into some of the tournament scene. But for now we played a basic 1v1 or “Lone Stars” game. I wonder if it’s called that everywhere and I’ve just never noticed or if they got creative and came up with that name themselves? We entered the arena and the first thing I noticed was…MY BUDDY!!!

OK, for those of you keeping track the total for the wristband contest just went up by one, lol.



Most of this two level arena had typical CW elements I am very well familiar with seeing.

However, I LOVE artistic walls and they had some absolutely beautiful art painted on the side walls. This waterfall actually made me a little nostalgic because it resembles blue lightning.

Kudos to Craig on a well played game. I signed in as a level six and he signed in (for only the second time) using his card as a level one, which is an interesting dynamic when there are only two people in the space and yet in spite of my three shot handicap his final score was only 200 points below mine, so I call that a decent 1v1 for sure. Then we chatted a bit about his plans for growing the player interest at this site and I wish him all the best. Hope we get to play against each other again sometime!

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

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

Arrr...Off On A Pirate's Quest

Royal Pin Woodland is home to a Pirate’s Quest themed two story laser tag arena and I was ready to check this site out next.

I’ve got to say, this is a beautifully done arena. I inquired about who designed the aesthetic because part of it looked like Creative Works (which it was), but some elements were their own design as well. Let me say, the new LED black lights really make this arena pop!

Manager Isaac set me up to play a game against Sam and, although there were a couple of false starts, we enjoyed a really nice game using Nexus.

Isaac told him he was playing for the honor of Royal Pin. Smile…that was a good vote of confidence for him going in, but I could tell that Sam was from a different department because we played a game that was set for stuns and I’m pretty sure he didn’t have that piece of info going in. Well, regardless, it was a good cat and mouse game in a space that did the theme well.

And since we had just played some tag with a pirate ship theme I figured lunch from the sea was fitting, so I went over to a local sushi restaurant for a bite to eat before continuing my afternoon of tag.

And if ever you are near the Naked Tchopsticks restaurant in Indianapolis let me say it is definitely worth taking the time to stop…this orange specialty roll was delicious!





Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

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

Incrediplex Lives Up To Their Name!

Last weekend’s trip to Indiana began with a mid-morning arrival in Indianapolis on Friday. Although many laser tag sites don’t open until later in the day, I was really pleased to know that Incrediplex was not only open early, but that the facility manager Kyle was willing to make sure I could get in a game and give me a tour right away so that I could make the most of my entire visit to Indianapolis. So this was my first stop on a whirlwind 48 hour adventure!

Let me tell you, this place really lives up to its name! While laser tag is only a small piece of their business, this 200,000 square foot facility is really impressive! This was evident even before I got into the building when I saw the list of all the attractions that are offered here…

…and when I saw the map. Yep, when a place needs a map you know you are entering something enormous!

With four basketball courts, five full size turf fields, a fitness center and even more attractions on the way (keep an eye out for a spots simulator coming soon) this is a place that offers lots of options for athletics and fun. At this hour of the day there were a few guys playing on the basketball courts when I arrived, however there would probably not be too many kids around until later in the day. However, when they arrive they have a full assortment of arcade games, a four story playground and bounce houses galore.

Kyle showed me the Eurobungy attraction which looks like a blast!

There’s also a café and bar to enjoy, so this facility is accommodating to entertainment for all ages.



As always, my main interest is the laser tag arena where they have up to 20 Helios vests available for use in the 1800 square foot arena. It’s a smaller space, basically all built within a narrow rectangular space, but it had a few really unique characteristics.



First, they are using a Lazer Runner arena set-up even though the vests are Zone. This aesthetic is familiar looking, however it also adds a little bit of a twist.

I’ve played with Zone equipment in Tron arenas several times now, but I believe this may be the first time I’ve had the experience using it in a Runner arena and what makes this a little different is the way the lights on the vest appear throughout the game. Check this out…

While Lazer Runner vests use fiber optics and the strips on the vest only glow with their color, the bright LEDs on a Zone pack reflect vibrantly against the reflective surfaces in this arena. That means you can see the lights in the dark, but you can’t necessarily tell which direction they are reflecting from. This made things interesting!



Also, the cut outs in the arena walls play a little differently with these packs also.

So the juxtaposition of the two system elements made this a more interesting experience.

I want to thank Kyle for taking the time to get in a game with me and show me around this amazing facility. Incrediplex is an incredible complex and I had a great time starting my visit to Indianapolis here!

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

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

Indiana and Beyond: Battle For The Fort and So Much More

This is going to be the quick overview of an amazing weekend I spent in Indiana and Michigan anchored around competing at the Battle For The Fort tournament at Ultrazone of Fort Wayne, IN. I will write individual posts in greater detail about all the places I visited and the experiences I had as soon as I have a chance to sit down and process what took place, but for now let me give you an idea of how it all went.

I woke up at 3:00 am on Friday morning in New York and rushed out the door to drive an hour to the airport. A quick change in flight plans routed me through Chicago and got me into Indianapolis early in the day, so I went off and played four arenas in Indianapolis area and had a couple hours of tag chat with Erik before continuing on two and a half hours north to Fort Wayne to play my fifth arena of the night, Ultrazone Fort Wayne, where the BFTF tournament was starting night one and playing overnight from 1:00-5:00 am. It was a wonderful night of Zone competition and I had a blast, but it was 6:00 am before I was actually settled in my hotel and going to bed…for those counting that was a solid 27 hours of travel, tag and simply being awake for it all, so even though it was worth every moment, I was really ready to rest. However, my internal clock woke me up at 10:00 that morning, so I really only got four hours of sleep.

Since I was up and ready to go again, I decided to make the most of it and drive up into southwest Michigan. Four more arenas played (and one left unplayed for reasons I’ll explain later) and I was on my way back to Fort Wayne for a late dinner with Amber (aka RivalBlue) before starting night two of the tournament at 1:00 am. By 6:00 am we had completed another intense night of tag, which I will break down in more detail because there were some VERY interesting things about this event (semi-finals…WOW!), but right now I’ll just say this…(spoiler alert)…our team had a great night and we took first place in the team comp main event! I am so glad I was part of this team, not because of the outcome, but because the guys I played with (BoB, Leggs, Phoenix and C.K.) were all incredibly cool and welcoming and I got a lot out of playing with this group. Thanks guys! And thanks also to Luke (Skywalker) for organizing an awesome event.

After that I left straight for the airport and made my way back to New York…day one 27 hours, day two 28 hours separated by only four hours of sleep…whew! Even my rental car was telling me to take a break at this point…yes, this actually popped up on the dashboard!

I can’t wait to share all the weekend adventures more thoroughly, but since so much happened over the course of 48 hours I want to do it all justice and it will take me a little time to get it all posted. So until then, just know that my trip to Indiana and beyond was absolutely amazing and I’m really glad I went.

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

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

League Finals: Victory for Game of Groans

After a long weekend on the opposite end of the state I was driving back towards Syracuse watching the clock the whole time as I knew I’d be cutting it very close to arrive in time for the start of our league finals. At the end of six weeks of playing (every other week) we were in second place by points standings so we would not be playing until the second game. I figured that at least would buy me a couple extra minutes of cushion time to ger there. When I walked in the door I was met by several people telling me I was in a three-way tie for the sportsmanship award along with my teammate Axman and also Ragnar, so we had to revote to break the tie right before I was called into the captain’s meeting to iron out the final rules and details before we started. Barely a minute to get settled before things got underway!

The short version of the rules for advancement is this…as soon as your team gets two first place wins you are guaranteed a spot in the final game. As soon as your team gets two third place losses you are eliminated.

As we have played a variety of game formats over the course of the league the formats were all placed on a wheel to be spun before each round to randomly determine the format that would be played for each game in finals. As the second place team going in we got to watch the first game as our major competition THP went up against teams Psychopaths and Rainbow Six in my favorite game format, Photon emulation. Whichever team came in third would take a spot against us in the next game.

Watching this game from the sidelines was actually a nail-biter because, even though the odds favored THP to win, for a solid half of that game they were trailing in third place. I actually worried that they were going to lose and we were going to have to start the night playing against them right off the bat! But they had a remarkable turnaround and took the lead in the second half, finishing strong in first. Rainbow six was second that round and Psychopaths moved into the next game against us and team Oof.

Our format for the second game was Gladiator. This had been a good format for us previously and we had a nearly clean sweep with it on the first night of league play, so we went in optimistically and came out in first. Unfortunately for the Psychopaths they took their second third place spot that game meaning they were eliminated early on in the night.

The third game pitted the second place teams against each other in Photon emulation and it looked like Rainbow Six was going to take this round, but in the final 15 seconds of the game the score and team placement flip-flopped at least six times! That was a really exciting finish and as it turned out Oof got the win in the very final seconds!

The fourth game was Z-Game and to be honest, we really thought we were going to take this round…and then we didn’t. Second place that round. Not everyone was chill about the outcome, but there is absolutely no sense in playing the blame game. It didn’t knock us out of anything and was not the end of the world or the tournament. Mental reset…next game.

We were now up again for the fifth game, which was our best format, Gladiator. We took first place this time which meant moving into the final round.

The final game format was Masters and we were up against teams THP and Oof. This round was a bizarre mind game. We played our hardest, but I don’t know if any of us thought we were actually going to beat THP. After all, they had been the one team consistently killing it every week. This was just one of those “give it your all and pray for a miracle” kind of rounds where you have to leave it all in the arena. We came, we saw, we hit it with a laser…and we gave it everything we had left. As we made our way back to the vesting room I heard the speakers on my pack say “…and your team came first”, but I didn’t believe it until I walked out to the lobby and actually saw it on the scoreboard. OMG, we won!

Next it was time for some pizza and awards. There were a lot of accomplishments recognized for each of the various formats from the past six weeks.

Accuracy awards are as follows:

Photon – Jackal

Gladiator – Unnamed Kevin

Masters – T-Cow

The Melted Gun award for worst overall accuracy went to MJ Slaughter and the Golden Gun for highest overall accuracy went to Virm.

Then there were high scores by format. I took the high score for Photon with 1192…which for the record I never even get close to on the few occasions I get to play actual Photon!

Other high scores by format are as follows:

SM4 – BladeZ

Gladiator – Virm

Masters – Magamutt

Z-Game – Virm

And top average awards were as follows:

Masters – Magamutt

Photon – Virm

Z-Game – BladeZ

Gladiator – Savage Ari

SM4 – Axman

The player voted awards were as follows:

Most Improved – Little Blaster

MVP – Virm

And once the tie was broken Sportsmanship – Ragnar

And to close the night out our team was presented with our trophies for being the league champions.

It was a good night for Game of Groans and I want to extend big thanks to my teammates T-Cow, Axman and Saiyan Prince (as well as to Slayer who had been our sub for the last couple of weeks). Also congratulations to all the players involved and thanks to Beanz for organizing this league. It was a great time from start to finish!

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

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