Shadowland III...is actually my fourth Shadowland

I paid a visit to Shadowland in Chantilly, VA having previously played at the Shadowland facilities in Frederick, Columbia and Gaithersburg, MD.

I was ready to enjoy some Darklight...and so was a huge crowd of other players who had come out to play this night. I feel kind of crabby to complain, but I was surprised that they didn't have more help there on a Saturday night. I waited for a ridiculous amount of time while one frazzled attendant entered the individual code names for this group manually. I'm sure he was not deliberately ignoring me (and he did apologize a couple of times), but after playing as many places as I have I guess my expectation was higher and I was surprised to see that this was how a big group was handled. Sigh...but at least this place has a scoreboard (if you read a few posts back this was the thing I felt was missing from Frederick). After the attendant came back to take care of me I asked to purchase a couple of the t-shirts that they had on display for sale. They had none. Sigh again... By this time I was tired, hungry and starting to feel a bit like the guy on the shirts that I could not buy.

However, in the lobby while waiting to enter the game I overheard a gentleman commenting about my Photon shirt and telling his friend he used to play when he was young. Always cool to meet a Photon player. I introduced myself and told him I was in town for Phocon. Nice encounter while waiting (and perusing the other goodies on display).

And then it was time to go into the arena and play some Darklight. I hoped this would turn things around further.

Yeah, things are always good again when I get to play a competitive game. I held a solid hold on the top score for the first half of the game, but ultimately I ended up dropping to fifth out of 34 players. Sigh again...but this time I was cool with it. Still a respectable placement and a really good game. So alls well that ends well in love and laser tag. :)

And a note about my previous stop...

Prior to Shadowland I also made a stop by Ultrazone in Falls Church. They were out of t-shirts too. But I had a great time playing there. :)