Heading to Utah for Some Fiesta Fun

I ended up with an unexpected free day in my schedule prior to the convention, so I continued on towards St. George, UT where my first stop was to Fiesta Fun Center.

I took a look around and there were a lot people out enjoying the activities here on a Monday night. I’m pleased to see so many of the locations I visited this trip have enough business to sustain good weekday hours. I headed over to the laser tag and got ready to see what was behind door number one.

Inside I found the rack of Helios vests and put one on.

And since I’m wearing Helios here, it seems like a good time to mention a bit of news. I recently adopted a new little sweetheart, this leopard gecko who I have named Heli…short for Helios!

But back to the Helios at hand, I entered the arena to find another familiar CW aesthetic with a double level build. The walls were common, but the faces painted on the walls added the most distinctive part of the arena design.

The upper level has metal barriers and a very open floor plan overlooking all sides of the arena and space in the middle to look down over the center structure. Easy targeting from many angles.

There was not a lot that really stood out about this particular arena, although I always enjoy getting to play Helios because I really love the Nexus-style phaser. However, I did take note of one thing that I really liked and would love to see more arenas include, which was the lighting along the sides of the ramps.

Each ramp has  lighting to match the team color of the base that the ramp is leading you to. It helps identify sections of the arena and it also seems like a really good safety feature to make it easier to see the slope of the ramp and the points where it wraps around. The lighting was brightly vivid and I was the most impressed with this one feature.

I thanked them for a great time before continuing on, glad to have had the chance to experience some “fiesta fun” at Fiesta Fun Center.

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

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

Taking Tag 4 A Cause from 'Cuse to Colorado

I am delighted to announce the start of the third Tiviachick’s Tag 4 A Cause Laser Tag 5K Challenge, which will support a cause that has been close to my heart for several years. Now through September the challenge is on and donations will benefit the Doreen Katz Memorial Cancer Foundation, which focuses on helping children with a parent diagnosed with any form of cancer.

The Doreen Katz Memorial Cancer Foundation helps to cover anything a school charges directly to a family, K-12, and also provide therapy for the children so they have a voice outside the home and it is operating in several states including Colorado. That’s why I’m so pleased to have Loveland Laser Tag in Loveland, CO hosting the next Tag 4 A Cause Night on September 18^th from 5:00-midnight. During this event we will have door prizes and another high score trophy competition! This will be a rare opportunity for someone to take home a custom trophy topped off with a golden laser tag phaser. :)

 

Want to get involved? Everyone can Tag 4 A Cause because you can participate at any time at ANY laser tag arena with just three easy steps.

 

1.      Accept the challenge. Pledge to laser tag 5K (5 kilometers = 3.1 miles) in ANY laser tag arena.

2.      Donate to the cause

3.      Earn the medal

 

That’s right, everyone earns a cool resin achievement medal for completing the challenge. 

Find out more on our official event page here: To Benefit Doreen Katz Memorial Fdn | tiviachicklovestag (tiviachickloveslasertag.com).

 

For some extra fun this time around we’re also going to be holding a bonus event during “Fake Nats” taking place later this month at The Fun Warehouse in Syracuse. Participants will have the chance to compete in a mini high score contest following the Tuesday night tournament games and, yes, there will be another one of those rare custom phaser trophies up for grabs at this event.

 

So if you love laser tag, want to support a worthy cause and don’t mind adding some new hardware to your trophy shelf, it sounds like Tag 4 A Cause is for you!

 

P.S. I hadn’t even finished typing this before seeing that our first participant for this round has already signed up! Big thanks to everyone who has shown support to help Tag 4 A Cause continue to grow!

 

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

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

The EXO Experience

EXO laser tag is a new system from Russia that was founded by Petr Putkoff, a laser tag enthusiast and collector who shares all things laser tag on his well known “Go Lasertag” YouTube channel. At the moment there is only one place in the United States where you can go to play using this system and that is LaserLand in West Covina, CA. I enjoyed having the chance to sit down and chat with the EXO founder as well as Alexander Nekhaychik, co-founder of LaserLand, at their recently opened first site and I was really looking forward to trying out this new laser tag system!

Joined by the Laser Tag Museum curator, Erik Guthrie, we paid a visit to LaserLand and sat down with Petr, Alexander and LaserLand manager Chris Priddy to discuss laser tag and hear all about their new venture in launching their first U.S. laser tag center. They have their sights set on growing into additional locations, including a couple of former Laser Quest arenas. This was a wonderful opportunity to learn about their projects first hand before we got a private tour of the arenas and a chance to play the EXO system ourselves.

Putkoff is no stranger to laser tag operations with 12 EXO sites using his equipment in Russia as well as owning several sites in his home country using a variety of other manufacturers’ equipment. This has afforded him the chance to learn what he likes about various other systems for an informed perspective. He is now joining the legacy of laser tag founders, however he is in equal part a fan of all things laser tag and an avid collector. Before we tried out the EXO system for ourselves Erik gifted a special item from the Laser Tag Museum collection to Putkoff who is very much like his Russian counterpart when it comes to laser tag collecting. The gift was a very rare Q-Zar IQ pack to take home to Russia.

How rare is this pack? To quote Erik Guthrie (from the tour of the Laser Tag Museum video on my website)…

“Laser tag is not an Olympic sport…yet. But it came close in 1996. Laser tag was an event that the Olympians could play at the Olympic Village in Atlanta, GA. There were only 16 laser tag packs manufactured for the ‘Q-Zar Olympics’ and (the Laser Tag Museum) is proud to have four of them in our collection.”

After our laser tag cultural exchange we began with a tour of the LaserLand facility and a close-up look at the Mark 1 EXO equipment.

This is a really attractive looking system. The colors gradually changed while we took our first look at them on the rack.

The phasers are stored inside charging  tubes with the vests draped over them as the charging happens right on the phaser itself. 

They are made of a crystal clear plastic with sensors all around the phaser with a selection button on the left side and a bright digital screen on the back. There is a lot of data provided on the digital screen at the back of the phaser.

Using lithium ion batteries Putkoff says the packs can sustain a very long life between charges.

EXO has 15 game formats to play and the phasers can display six team colors. Putkoff says that in his opinion “more than six colors is not useful.”

However, for LaserLand they find two arena spaces to be very useful and they have 24 packs for each of the two arenas, each approximately 3000 square feet in size, which can be opened up into one large playing space. We put the packs on and got ready to play our first game.

Playing alongside Petr, Alexander and Erik as well as several public players, we got our first look at the inside of the Zombie themed arena.

There are some notable elements to be found inside this arena including a car in the back right corner.

We played two five minute rounds of Zombies (an infection style game) to add up to a complete session and then went to check the scoreboard.

In the second round I was the last human standing.

Then we played some games in the other space, the End of the World arena. This one had some really beautiful theming and decor. Some of the arena utilized full mural style sublimated walls and some of it they painted themselves. This was impressive!

One of the unique touches I absolutely love it the really cool custom carpet that carries the theme (and the lava) from the walls all the way through the arena.

Erik and I struck a Charlie’s Angels pose by the volcano before breaking into separate teams to play a game format called Counterstrike. 

This is a strategy game like a Domination where the teams are policemen vs criminals. One person on the criminal team will have their vest turn yellow indicating and they have to place the “bomb” by standing near the base for ten seconds and the other team’s goal is to retrieve it.

This game is played in a series of short rounds, before which you can use the button on the phaser and toggle between special features to “purchase” before each round using acquired points.

As you can see the policemen easily took the win from the criminals!

It was a lot of fun to experience EXO first hand and sample a couple of the game formats that can be played on this system. We also checked out some nicely decorated party rooms.

Before the night was over there was one more experience I wanted to try at LaserLand. They also offer VR trampolines. For all the times I’ve played laser tag in trampoline parks I have not actually been on a trampoline since I was a kid, which will soon become very apparent!

Chris challenged me to a Stomp game where he was on one trampoline and I was on the other. Then we would watch a monitor and try to jump in such a way as to “stomp” the opponent. How did I do? Well, you can watch for yourself as they provide the option of sending a video file of your experience.

https://valomotion.app/user/videos?video&video-id=HcHecHxFcvKWUc4dD

Laserland was such a fun time! It is not everyday that you get to hear about a new laser tag system directly from the founder, let alone play the game with him, so this was a really special experience. The timing for my visit was perfect as Petr and Alexander were both available to meet because we would all be at the Laser Tag Convention and Amusement Expo in Las Vegas later in the week. So I am truly lucky to have had this amazing experience with EXO laser tag at LaserLand in California.

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

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

The Storm Factor

I suppose once a laser tag site has a name that has already been branded around the name of their equipment then there are some good arguments for keeping it, even if you change the system in use. I can think of a few examples where this idea holds true. Nonetheless, it always makes me wonder a bit when I run across a location that was very clearly once a Laser Storm site, is no longer, and yet keeps on using the Laser Storm name and image. I paid a visit to Laser Storm at Gable House Bowl in Torrance, CA and I speculate it probably wasn’t so much a decision as a shrug. I know some people think “laser tag is laser tag”, but I always hope I am going to actually stumble upon more Laser Storm out in the wild. However,  this time I ended up playing some 1v1 Lasertron with a staff member instead.

The briefing area was pitch black darkness as I stood there alone watching the briefing video. Then it remained pitch black as I headed to the vesting area. It was actually a little eerie. Lighting makes a big difference, not only to the aesthetic of an arena, but also to keeping people from taking a tumble in the dark! 

One we got into the arena it was the typical Tron design for that system. 

It was actually sized perfectly for a 1v1 game. The staff member I played against asked me if I had ever played here before. I said no (as it’s true, I have not played HERE, but I did not elaborate) and when the game was over she looked dazed and asked “are you SURE you’ve never played here before?” at which point I told her a bit more about my blog and background. :)

One game was plenty to get the feel of this arena, but that was not the most interesting part of the visit. As I was leaving a display shelf in the lobby caught my eye and I took a closer look.

I smiled at the Laser Storm (and other random items) that were theoretically “for sale” to improve your game!

However, when you look to get a magical advantage there is always a catch and you had better read the fine print!

Although I could tell the staff did not appreciate what was in this case, I certainly got a giggle. When I got back to my car I shared these pics with Gord Armstrong (the current head of Laser Storm) and he immediately knew which location I was visiting!

If ever you pass by and want to play some Tron they have you covered. Just don’t let the name or the sign fool you.

And don’t forget to take your Hyper Phaser and magical powder, lol!

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

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

And I Shall Call It Little-Cuse

You can’t imagine how happy I was to discover that Thrill It Fun Center in Orange, CA is actually located at a beautiful, open-air outlet mall. Tag and shopping…what could be better?

I was literally the first person walking in the building, arriving as they were unlocking the door for the day, because I had a schedule to keep and needed to get in on an early game. While I waited I looked around. I’ve developed a bit of intuition about what system I’m going to find in certain arenas when I walk in cold with no advance info. Somehow I just knew as soon as I saw this spaceship outside of the arena that I would be playing some Laser Blast at this site.

A staff member joined me and we walked into the briefing/vesting area and, sure enough, there were the Blast packs. And there was something else.

As soon as I saw this guy on the wall I had my second premonition. Call me Kreskin, but I just knew without a doubt that inside the arena I would find the walls…THOSE WALLS! 

These are a CW staple that I am hyper-aware of finding because they match the walls in my home arena back in Syracuse. I see them quite a bit in other arenas. Awhile back I posted a little contest to see who could guess exactly how many times I’ve come across them. And sure enough, I was right, so the number has just gone up again! But even more than that, this really looked like a compact version of my home arena from the walls to the base housing to the little towers (which to be fair we’re not identical, but this theme typically includes the same elements, even if there are slight variants).

Although this is a two level space, it feels a little snug. I realize they won’t be running as many players through and the customer base for the outlet mall will certainly be different as well. However, the similarities were otherwise solid so I shall call this Little-Cuse! 

One distinction however is they had some nice space theming on the walls. I like that and it works well with the aesthetic. It provides the space with a little more personality to have some wall art.

We started the game and there were a few  equipment issues. I’m not going to dwell on that because I know the girl who helped to make an early game possible does not normally run laser tag and she certainly did her best to handle the issues. So instead I’ll just say it was fun and the fact that I was able to enjoy some shopping during this stop made the experience even better!

Comments or Questions?

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

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