Returning To Rochester

I'm going to post this at the top because, well...who knows if this will ever happen again...

This was at Lasertron in the sport arena where I got an especially worthwhile education out of my game play. However, that's fast forwarding to the end of my day. Let me start at the beginning.

I decided that another trip to Rochester prior to Snowmageddon would serve me well, so I first headed out to the Laser Quest arena. First game out was a chance to warm up, but I ended up in second place. First and third place players were clearly regulars here as were a couple others who seemed surprised by the outcome. :) Getting some practice time with those packs and phasers (which are so large with triggers that I really needed to get accustomed to again) was such a benefit. I figured out how to tweak my aim a bit to get better target accuracy and I also got some quality time scoping out the arena.

One of the employees who remembered me from a month ago commented to me "I really want to watch you compete." The next game I came in first place, but I played it stealth and with less gusto, so I'm not sure I really gave him the show he expected. I took less shots, but I also hid myself better, so my score was the highest of that round, but not by way of terribly aggressive playing. Still using this time to get familiar. The third game does not count or merit discussion...I pretty much ended up just walking the arena that game. Trust me, that was the right thing to do. However, the final game for me at that arena I saw a group of teen guys come in very confidently and I decided I was going to really go for it. To quote one of my coworkers...aww, yeah!

After four games of Laser Quest (which neatly utilized the four free passes they gave me last time) I moved on to Lasertron. When I arrived I was told that the first game of sport Lasertron that I could get into would not be for an hour I decided to have some fun and try my hand again at tactical. They advised me that I could get into a tactical session, but because of the schedule I would be going directly from my four games of tactical straight into the sport games. That's basically like an hour of consecutive tag...damn, I'm a glutton for punishment because I said yes!

I found myself consistently doing well at tactical (which made me feel good to know that the last time wasn't just a fluke). Then right on into the sport round, which I have said many times is my least favorite and the format where I feel I am the weakest. I was told I'd be with a group of about 34 people, but the majority of the group didn't actually show. So instead we had two smaller teams. This actually was a tremendous help. It offered a much better simulation of what it might be like in the tournament with six man teams and gave me some valuable insight to how to work that to a mathematical advantage. I won't detail my thought process now, but after having seen how to do it with smaller numbers I think I have a much better handle on what to do next time around (which will be at Snowmageddon) so it was not only a cool ego boost to be the leader on my team at this format (which was unexpected in and of itself), but also a confidence boost to see what I was capable of and what was possible. All in all, this was a really worthwhile return to Rochester.

Comments or questions? Contact: tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com Blog: tiviachickloveslasertag.blogspot.com