In Session All Weekend

As of this morning I am officially registered for Armageddon again. Because I am ready to be put in my place by the best of the best laser tag players...and come out the other side stronger and better for it. :) By pure coincidence I was wearing my t-shirt from last year's Armageddon when I went out to tag last night in Albany after rehearsal. I was only about eight minutes away from the smaller arena I don't get to much, so I thought I'd check that out first. I think mixing it up and playing in different spaces when possible helps keep you sharp. And I have a feeling what I did in there was the equivalent of what some Armageddon players can do to me...but it is all in the game. As mentioned, this is a much smaller arena. While I've never yet seen it played at capacity, it's really better suited for small group or one on one stealth games anyhow. When I arrived I became part of a group with three other young adults. Very appropriate competition. The game master, Alli, told the others about me saying "she's really good". I'm flattered to have made an impression because I play here so limited. Then the two women said that the guy with them was good too. Ok, so he's the one to watch. We went into the vesting room and one woman said she wanted to play on my team. We made introductions and headed into the arena where she whispered to me "they can kind of be jerks about this" to advise me of the competitive way the others in the group play. I said, "that's ok, so can I" and with that comment it was like she gave me permission to go full out. And so, I did. There were no active bases this game, so all the points were earned from direct tags. I felt like a person dancing a around the arena with the way that game played. So smooth. The opposing team was decent competition, but the benefit of my experience showed and I ran that arena hard and took every shot. I didn't check my accuracy, but it had to have been quite high because the shots came so smoothly. I really like the equipment we use there. They have brand new Rift packs and you can tell they are new and shoot really clean shots. At the end of the round we walked out of the arena and someone commented "I think we all just got schooled." Yes, my points were on top. With no bases and only two targets it was a reasonable score for this situation, but I won't post it like it's the best representation of my playing. Instead I'll save that for what happened next. One game there seemed more than sufficient, so I went over to my Infusion arena twenty minutes away. I arrived to find a pretty decent sized group about to play. I was primed for success. The girl who won the previous game said she would show us how it was done. I smiled on the inside before...well, really showing them how it's done. :) Towards the end of the game one guy was aiming his phaser right at me through a window in one of the alcoves, but I smoothly diffused that with one shot as the game ended. He shook his head and said "you just wrecked me." Thank you and good night. The next day after the show I thought I'd go back. I conducted an experiment...is the power in my hat? I had performed earlier and my hair was still full of hair spray so I played what might have been the only game of laser tag I ever have without my Photon hat (other than in a tournament). Spoiler alert...it's not about the hat.

They told me there was a birthday party with a bunch of 18 year olds and they asked if I wanted to get into that round. I believe I said "hell yeah" with the expectation of a typical laser tag group of rowdy guys to target. I know that was a bit of a sexist expectation...and yet I was still surprised when it turned out that they were 18 year old girls. Now, as a woman who plays laser tag I wholeheartedly support other women playing tag, but I'll just say it wasn't quite the game I was expecting. I won that game by a wide margin and then figured I'd seek out some stronger competition at Zero Gravity. And I found it. When I walked in there was a full house and an intense looking group. I noticed a marine recruiter's card on the counter and wondered if this was a group of potential recruits in the mix? This was some awesome tag...few intense rounds and I left happy I got two days of quality tag in Albany. :)

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