Defender of the Little Ones
Where is everyone tonight? It seems I will not be getting much practice time, but I'm already here so we will make the most of it.
Being the defender of the little ones...this is actually a lot harder than it sounds. I am for all intents and purposes playing alone right now among a swarm of young kids. Well, not all of them, but enough that it's not really fair to call this practice. So, I thought instead I'd practice something different. I am practicing "selective" targeting...i.e. only aiming at people over four feet tall. I waited until the kids had chosen their teams and then hopped on the team with the smallest players (meaning they would already be out of the way as targets). I walked the game and tried my best to avoid targeting the kids (well, unless they were aiming their phaser directly at me...it wasn't a suicide mission). I can't say there wasn't collateral damage, but the effort was made.
Second game, harder to get on the appropriate team, but let the record show I tried. I waited until all the kids had picked teams and based on that I intended to play on the blue team when I saw a few older players switch over to green...and then all the kids followed and the older ones switched back to blue! No good. So forget it, I went red...less players and a few kids. I made an EXTRA effort to not aim at the kids...but the older ones are not seeing this as a nice gesture and my personal attempt to not be "that mean lady". Clearly they think I am just targeting them, which is true to an extent, but it's not out of malice.
Interestingly enough, the kids think I am a rock star. Good for the ego. A few of them have taken to calling me "the master". This night has a few perks after all :)
A couple of games later a group went in and evenly split up between red and blue, so I went green to be a team of one. Then the littlest player of all comes over and says "I'm on your team". So sweet...so this game I had a shadow the entire time. I think I'll nickname him "the intern". :)
"The intern" stayed right underfoot all night, but that was fine. I'm actually surprised a child that young kept going until 11:00. I chatted with his godfather who brought the young boy and his brother. Very nice person and it was nice to watch his interaction with these kids in the game. The evening was not challenging, but it was heartening. Sometimes a night like this is a good thing.
Comments or questions? Contact: tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com
Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com
Blog: tiviachickloveslasertag.blogspot.com
