Sometimes walking into a laser tag arena feels
like you’re entering a live action video game. Other times it’s more like
exploring the labyrinth of a maze. Occasionally, it even feels like you’re
going into a (friendly) battle. However, when I first entered the laser tag
arena at Level Up Entertainment in Columbia, MO it felt to me like I was
stepping into a movie set. In my opinion, what this site did best was execute a
theme that I have not seen done before (and that’s quite an accomplishment
because at this point I think I’ve seen just about all the standard CW themes).
This one has a touch of “turtle power” (while being careful not to be so overt
that it crosses any copyright lines). But you immediately get the idea when you
see all the pizza everywhere!
The two things that really make this particular
arena pop are the unique design elements and the lighting. Lighting really
makes such a difference! Check out how these effects really work hand in hand.
And did I mention all the pizza?
This arena uses Zone Helios packs and so I
looked forward to the game and my first move was to seek out the base housing…which
I found decorated like a pizza parlor complete with awning, open sign and menu
posted on the outer walls (detailed right down to the A restaurant rating on the window).
There were also plenty of targets lit up throughout
the arena. The best view was from the raised bridge against the back wall of
the arena. Again, it was the little details that made this feel more like a
movie set than a typical laser tag arena.
This is definitely a place that I can see would have tremendous
appeal, especially to a young player base. This arena was just a lot of fun
overall and a great way to begin the rest of my weekend of tag travels. Many
thanks to Nick, Dana and the staff at Level Up for kickstarting my day tagging
with some turtle power!
I arrived at Laser Trooper in the West Ridge Mall in Topeka, KS
just in time for the start of their first ever Valentine’s Day Massacre
Tournament, a fitting name for an event that was held on February 14th.
The owner, Kip, was the first to greet me when I arrived. When I walked
up to the counter Lane handed me my souvenir token for the event, which was a
very nice surprise, as I always enjoy taking tag swag home with me. I think it’s
very smart for them to offer something collectible as a takeaway for participation.
If I know that there is a special tag swag item that is only available at
special events it encourages me to make a little more effort to get there and this
is EXACTLY the kind of thing that I know lots of people collect from tag sites…just
ask anyone who collects the LQ magnets, for example.
Within a few minutes players started to arrive and the
first players I met were Thomas, a semi-regular here, and his friend who
arrived just in time to enjoy really nice start to the evening. This tournament
began with a BBQ dinner that was included with the registration. Kip invited us
across the hall to another suite in the mall which serves as his party room and
we got ready to enjoy a delicious catered spread of BBQ, mac and cheese, sides
and desserts so the players would have a chance to socialize before the
competition.
It was here that I met more of the players and took a seat at a table
along with Theo, Rachel, Rufflez and Theresa. While chatting I learned that
Theresa and I both grew up in the same hometown in upstate NY and that we graduated
from the same high school! What are the odds of us both ending up playing at a laser
tag event in Topeka?! It was really nice to get to know some people before we
got started.
Kip briefed us on the games and how the Laser Trooper equipment
works.
Then we prepared for what would be our practice round.
This was a first chance, even for the regular players, to see the
new addition to the arena…a newly built raised platform area that had only been
completed that very same day and offered a pinnacle point for players to gain
height during the game.
Then the games got underway and we played in four consecutive rounds
of solo format game play where cumulative scores would determine the results
for the event.
We entered the arena, a dimly lit space with movable walls of
coroplast and pulsing music emanating from the speakers. In order to be able to
hear the feedback from the more pertinent speaker, the one located on the stock
end of my tagger, I kept the phaser rifle held high and supported the back part
on my shoulder. That way the speaker stayed close to my ear and I could hear
the system tell me “well done” when I made a successful tag on another player
or “hit, don’t give up” before a series of three “woosh, woosh, woosh” sounds
to give you an aural indication of when you can take your courtesy shot. In
this system once you are hit your phaser goes down for six seconds, however at
the fifth second mark (indicated by the end of the third “woosh”) you can take
a courtesy shot while you are still shielded, but before the phaser can again
be tagged by an opponent. I tried to use this feature to my advantage.
With sensors on both sides and also down the front of the barrel, I
also held the phaser turned on its side to reduce the amount of visible access
to the side sensors during the game. This positioning made it a bit harder for
me to make proper use of the red dot sight, which was actually not a big deal
because I don’t typically play tag where sights are necessary. In fact, some
players didn’t even bother using one at all.
The further away you are from an opponent the wider the splay of
the IR beam, so for me playing as a sniper was a greater advantage than playing
close up because the sensors are so small.
In the first of the four games I played especially hard and ended
up getting the top score of the entire night with 4662 points. However, that also
gave the other players a heads up that I came to play and the next game everyone
else really focused their attention against me, which knocked my next score
down significantly and giving the edge to Mystamaris and Push. The third and
fourth games were much tighter. Mystamaris in particular was really bringing
his top game and since this was going to be based on cumulative score at the
end, I really couldn’t say for sure how things were going to play out. This
made it much more interesting and it was great to play against players who were
really bringing it!
Something interesting about the fourth game was that the staff had
us take a short break, during which they rearranged several of the movable walls
inside the arena. It was intended to be a surprise, however they forgot that the
monitor in the lobby gives a full view of the activities in the arena. So, we
knew the walls were being moved, but didn’t totally appreciate how that would impact
our playing patterns until we got into the next game. I couldn’t tell you which
walls they moved, but I was definitely aware of a change in the flow of the
arena. This was a really cool capability and an advantage to their light walls
as I have never before experienced an arena that could change their layout on
the fly like that in between games. Mystamaris and I were still neck and neck
and pulling out all the stops, playing hard and targeting me at every turn. Actually,
the top three players for the night rotated placements in several games, which
made it a very close contest between Mystamaris, Push and me. I love a good
competition!
Once the four qualifying games were completed, we were invited to
play a bonus game of Infection while they tallied the scores. A special award was
presented to Rachel, who was named the “assassin” with the highest overall
accuracy. She was given a really cool hot pink sight of her own!
Then the scores were announced.
In third place with 11,490 was Push.
In second place with 13,041 was Mystamaris.
In first place with 13,499 was Tivia!
With only a 458 point difference between first and second place I
want to extend my congratulations to Mystamaris on a really close competition,
Push and the rest of the players who came out for this event. I had a wonderful
time playing a system that is particularly special because it currently is only
available to play at this location (or if you happen to be lucky enough to
attend one of their mobile events) so this was a rare treat to get to play
Laser Trooper with a really great group of competitors.
I had a wonderful time from start to finish. I look forward to the
next time I get to return to Topeka and play Laser Trooper again!
I’ve just arrived back home from an incredibly
memorable weekend laser tagging back and forth between Kansas and Missouri over
the last several days. I’ll have plenty to share very soon about the entire trip
and all the sites that I visited, but until I get a chance to write up all my
adventures let me just give you a quick overview of some of the highlights and
surprises that were part of my most recent round of tag travels.
This trip certainly had a few unexpected turns!
I had spent the early part of the week covering the ECT event in Syracuse and
talking with the players about why they choose to travel for laser tag
tournaments, but on Thursday I was getting ready to begin my own travels to play
laser tag out in the midwest. Unfortunately, weather was not on our side and on
that particular day none of us were going to be able go anywhere, at least not
by plane. I ran into three of the ECT players at the airport as we all
navigated around the challenges of our flights being cancelled. We actually were
all scheduled to be on the same cancelled flight to Chicago. They were trying
to make a connection there to get back home to Sacramento and I was trying to
get myself out to Topeka, KS in time to play in the first ever Laser Trooper
Valentine’s Day Massacre Tournament, which was set to take place on Friday afternoon.
However, a snowstorm in that part of the country prevented any flights from leaving
that day. We went our separate ways in the airport after speaking to the
airline representative and I hope they were able to get where they needed to
go, but as for me, I had a decision to make. It looked highly unlikely that I
would be able to get on any flight that would result in my getting to Topeka on
time. I could take my chances and wait in hopes of being re-routed the next day,
but that would be a bit of a gamble and it looked like chances were slim that I
would get there prior to the event. All that was certain was that there was no flight
available that would allow me to fly west that same day. So, I took stock of my
options and made the decision to rent a car instead and just drive to Topeka…ROAD
TRIP!
Of course, Topeka is about halfway across the
country and an eighteen-hour road trip in total. I did the calculations and
realized that if I didn’t commit to that decision right then and drive all
night there was no way I could make it there by the following afternoon. So, I
took the plunge, rented a Jeep Cherokee (a very solid vehicle in case I was
about to drive right into that snowstorm) and began driving. I drove for a
solid twelve hours on Thursday and stopped at a hotel when I got too tired to
go any further. Then the next day I was up bright and early making the
remainder of the trip. With less than an hour to spare before the start of the tournament
I arrived at the Laser Trooper site in the West Ridge Mall in Topeka, KS.
I’ll fill in all the details from that event
in a separate post, but that was the beginning of an amazing weekend that
included playing at eight more laser tag sites, a nice visit with friends and the
chance to play in two fun, local competitive events. The second of these was a
charity laser tag tournament in Missouri raising funds for the Whitney Kate Wells
Memorial Foundation in honor of a young girl who had recently lost her battle
with a rare form of cancer. For those who don’t know, my brother passed on from
cancer so this is something I care about deeply and I have been involved with
several laser tag fundraiser tournaments that have raised money for similar
causes. I commend them for putting on an excellent event and raising around
$1000 in support of the Fight for Whitney. I’ll also post in more detail about
this event as soon as I have a chance to organize all my thoughts, photos and
memories from this weekend.
When all of my adventures were over (almost) I
got the very last seat on a plane bound for Charlotte, NC where I was going to
have to make a connecting flight back to Syracuse. However, my flight was delayed
by about an hour with us just sitting there on the runway. I thought I was sure
to miss the connection, but by an absolute miracle the Syracuse flight was
delayed by ten minutes. This was EXACTLY enough time for me to exit the first
plane and rush across the terminal as they were just finishing boarding the
last of the passengers. I got there with absolutely no time to spare, but in just
the nick of time I boarded the flight that got me back home. Whew!
How far would you travel to play laser tag?
For Laserforce players looking to enjoy the competition and camaraderie of this
year’s East Coast Tournament (ECT) all roads led to The Fun Warehouse in
Syracuse, NY and many of the competitors came from much further away than you
might expect.
Some players arrived from overseas and others
from across the country to participate in three full days of Space Marines 5
games during this annual tournament event that had a few particularly notable
elements this year. The distance that many individuals were willing to travel
was impressive and the tournament included international players from Germany
and the United Kingdom as well as competitors from across the United States who
arrived from as far away as California and Colorado to spend up to 15 hours of preliminary
round play each day leading up to the finals. Considering this was not a
national level event it’s really quite a testament to the enthusiasm these
players have for the game that they would come so far just to have an
opportunity to play.
An interesting observation about this
particular event is that this year’s tournament drew a significant number of
female players who accounted for 25 percent of the field of competition. Now,
laser tag is a game for everyone to enjoy and there are no age or gender
limitations, but the reality is that in tournament play the competition
typically tends to skew far more heavily towards male players than female. So,
to have 12 women competing out of a field of 48 players was what many
participants perceived to be a record percentage for a tournament like this.
Some see this as an indicator that the competitive scene is expanding and encouraging
more players feel welcome to get involved. And if you have 12 players that is
exactly enough to fill out a game of Space Marines 5, so prior to the start of
the tournament an exhibition game was played just for fun with teams made up
entirely of the female competitors. A few participants considered this to be a
bit historic, while others just enjoyed the fact that new friendships were
being made by all.
Space Marines 5 is considered the official
Laserforce tournament format and players are assigned to play a specific role
on their team, which requires good communication for the team to be successful.
Positions including Commander, Heavy, Ammo, Medic and two Scouts make up the
roles that must be filled on each six-player team. For this tournament teams
would do a blind roll of dice to pick their positions, so while a player’s
skill level is important there is also an element of luck at play because competitors
are often times more experienced in playing one position versus another. This
is one consideration that could impact a team, but perhaps an even larger
factor is the make-up of the team itself.
A first for this Laserforce tournament was the
implementation of a salary cap on the teams based on the skill levels of the
players. Prior to the tournament all players were assigned a numerical value
for their skill level ranging from 3-10. Teams were able to assemble any
combination of players so long as the team’s total “value” didn’t exceed 38.
This is a variation on the way random draw tournaments have been done in the
past, however they key difference is that it allowed for teams to select the
players they wanted to play with while simultaneously balancing the field so
that there was a more even spread of abilities and player strength among the
teams. Markus “El Diablo” Welsch of Germany noted that this tournament in
particular caught his interest because of the balanced teams and random draw
for positions. He also commented “I love the atmosphere and enjoy challenging
games very much.”
A few other players took some time out from
the competition to share their thoughts about why they traveled so far and what
they love about laser tag and the tournament experience.
Over the course of the preliminary days the eight
teams competed in two groups with teams known as Impaired Hybrid, Misfits, -24K
and Hart Foundation playing in Pool A and Meme Teme Extreme, Rick Rollers,
Taghub Play Hard and Sanch Cult in Pool B. All of this competition was leading
to the third day finals where the intensity really started to ramp up. Every
tournament gets a bit more intense during the final games as everyone wants to
take home the trophy, and let me say, these trophies were particularly
impressive as several were custom created with the symbols for each of the SM5
game positions.
When all was said and done the final outcome
was the result of many hard-fought games and incredibly intense competition. Michael “Beanz” Brandt, manager of the Fun Warehouse, observed that
“All the games for the
tournament were fairly close in score. Most games were within 3,000 points of each
other and came down to who had their bases.”
Congratulations to the top teams and players. Results are as
follows:
Congratulations to the Hart Foundation team for taking first place
in the tournament.
Sanch’s Cult came in second place.
And the Rick Rollers took 3rd place.
The All Star Awards were given to the top players for each SM5
position including PHNTM (Scout), SCYTHE (Ammo), Beanz (Heavy), Brew
(Commander), Princess (Scout) and Ghostyy ox (Medic).
Brew was also the stats based MVP and took home a very special
trophy.
Ultimately the sentiment that was expressed
the most during this tournament was that the players feel like they are part of
one big family in the Laserforce tournament community. And so the tournament
concluded with the players doing just what any family would do at the end of an
intense experience…they all went out to dinner. It was wonderful to observe
this tournament with a bird’s eye view of the distinctive factors that made the
event both a destination and a journey for the players from across the nation
and the globe who have found a shared experience through laser tag that has
left them with wonderful friendships, the feeling of having an extended family
and lots of tournament memories.
If you understand why that title is funny then
you probably already know all about this weekend’s Laser Quest five man team tournament in
Mississauga. If not, let me tell how things went. :)
Ultimately, we had a wonderful time and I’m
really glad that I made the trip. It was great tagging with these guys
and Hot Dice organized a really terrific event, even though we encountered a
few bumps along the way.
The day before the tournament there was a
really bad snowstorm where I live, so bad that my car got stuck in the parking
lot at my office. I wasn’t even certain that weather would be reasonable for me
to make the trip. And we had one player who had to work and would end up
missing the first couple of games, but in spite of all that we decided to proceed anyhow, so I set
out from my house around 10:00 Saturday morning bound for Canada. I hoped to
take a leisurely drive up (of course stopping for some excellent shopping as there
are two major outlet malls along the route), then I had dinner plans with friends
in Toronto before meeting up with my team for the overnight tourney that
started at 10:00 that night. I was going to be driving back immediately
afterwards, so this was already a long day before we even got going.
My team was set to include my ‘geddon teammates
Slayer, ShadowDragon and Ski Patrol (Wil, Emily and Dave) and a local Quest
player I had not yet met, Frieza (Marshall). Well, nothing ever goes entirely
according to plan and one of the challenges we encountered before even crossing
the border was losing Emily to the flu, so with only a couple of hours notice
we were down a player. I tried to find a sub, but fortunately Justin was able
to rearrange things so that Clueless joined our team at the last minute. On top
of that we were scheduled to play in the first two games of the night which Dave
would miss because of the work conflict. So, yeah…there were a few challenges.
When I got there Wil was already waiting and
we were among the first players to arrive. However, it wasn’t long before a
familiar face walked in and we got time to visit with our old teammate Giorgio.
So great to see him again! And we were appreciative that we were able to “borrow”
him as Dave’s sub for the first game and then take Eli as the sub when we
played against Giorgio’s team in the next game. Will the real Ski Patrol please
stand up?
It’s tough to jump into a system that you don’t
get to play often when you go up against players who get to practice at an LQ
site every week, but it’s also nice to meet some new people. I was glad to see
there were two other female players in the event and I enjoyed chatting a bit
with Kathleen and Victoria from Toronto East. We are all fairly new to the
scene, so I think it was easier for the newer players to find common ground. Before
things got underway we sat in on the briefing and then we toured the arena.
The last time I was actually in this arena was
about a year ago when they really rolled out the red carpet for me with a nice
welcome and a photographer following me around the arena for some promo pics.
Let’s just say it was a completely different experience looking at the same
space this weekend! However, with the low light camera on my new phone I got
some pics that showcase how impressive the LQ Mississauga arena really is. It’s
a great space for a tournament!
The bottom level was taped off so that three
teams could play on the floor while three other teams simultaneously played on
the upper level. This worked MUCH better than the last time I experienced this kind
of structure. It also kept the flow of the event moving along pretty well…until
someone stopped the second game. It was a simple mistake, but someone had
noticed Eli playing on our team (as a sub) and thought the wrong players were
in the arena. Unfortunately, the player stopped the game without authorization
or realizing that everything was as it should be, so that game had to be reset.
Back into the arena…
During prelims my showing in this tournament was
marginal at best. However, I was really there more for the experience because I
so seldom get an opportunity to play against serious players on this system (since
there is no LQ to play at in all of New York and I have to travel so far to get
to any LQ usually the best I can hope for is to get into a good Ironman game).
So, I just enjoyed the experience for what it was and took away what useful things
I could. I tried to be more conscious about side positioning and a few of the
tips players have given me along the way, but this is not my primary system so
I didn’t have any crazy expectations about our placement. We were not the
weakest team, but we were a far cry from playing out the full course of the
night (which is why I figured I could power through driving back that night as
our team was done by 2:00 am).
The top four teams were going to play on,
however for our team to go any further we would have to succeed in the Quad-Quest where the
four other teams would go against each other in four blind rounds, meaning we
would play the arena on one set of packs, return to the vesting room, swap onto
another set of packs and repeat until we had gone four rounds without seeing
the scores in between. This means you really don’t know how you are doing based
on anything but your gut feeling.
When we went into the Quad-Quest that’s when
things started to feel real and like it was time to pull out the stops. It also
felt like the time in the evening where we were starting to play with some team
synergy. One example of this came from Dave directing me in the tower to
control the ramp while he “kept this guy busy” in a dogfight with a player
vying for that location. So while Dave did his thing I did my sniper thing,
which is typically my strongest position when I play other systems. That seemed
to work well.
After the second game I turned to Wil and said
“no matter how this shakes out I feel good about that,” meaning how that game
had gone. After the fact when we could see the scores I learned that this was
my strongest game all night.
At the time I just played as best I could
against some competition that had pretty much leveled out at this point. What I
mean by that is that every round played out with very similar results. For the
plate cup there was no beating the NexGen team. Montreal 2 was the next
strongest followed by us and then the Toronto East team in that order nearly
every time. So, the outcome was not exactly a surprise, but the scores were
interesting to hear at the end anyhow. Kudos to all the teams who played in the
Quad-Quest rounds and also to the top solo players after prelims which included
Yoda in second place with 646 and Dark Fenix in first with 701.
At this point in the night (or morning as it
was abut 2:00 am) I had been on the road all day and had a five hour drive ahead
of me, so I thanked Justin for putting on a really nice event and made the
rounds to say goodbye to my team. Ordinarily I would try to stick around
through the finals, but this time it just made better sense to get on the road
and home as safely as possible as there were snow squalls as I made my way
through western New York. So, I learned of the final results after the fact.
The Chicago team won the whole event and I want to sincerely congratulate them
and all the other teams who came out to compete. It is a pleasure to play in
the company of really talented players and to learn from the experience how to
come back stronger the next time around. I really am glad that I made the
decision to join my team for this event. I had a great time!
I want to thank Jim Kessler, CEO and Founder
of LASERTRON for taking the time for an interview with me.
I hope you enjoy this as the first installment
of the Industry Leader Interviews in the Oral History of Laser Tag for the
Laser Tag Museum. Watch the video here...
