Putting It All Together at Laser Storm Pittsburgh

I had planned to end the evening at Laser Storm Pittsburgh and this was a really great conclusion to my trip.

Not only did I really start to get a much clearer picture in my head about the game, but I also felt very welcomed by the Mator family. Matt and Debbie were both there when we arrived (unfortunately John was away the weekend I was in town) . Matt showed us around and this is where the importance of the divided arena really started to gel in my mind. I walked through the arena first, which gave me an opportunity to appreciate how the layout works and how to try to access the bases.

The divided arena makes such a difference and now I can really appreciate how true it is that we're playing an altered form of the game when the system is imported into other arenas intended for different systems. Not being able to cross the barriers means that you have very different dynamics with how the players interact.

Once I realized where I had to go to try to tag the base I had a much clearer objective.

I have to give props to Logan for defending while I shot the base multiple times (which I didn't realize he had been doing until afterwards). You can pretty much tag the base as many times as possible so long as you aren't tagged out in the process. If you are tagged out then it's a long trek back through the maze to get to a recharge station.

I thought things went pretty well the first game.

I looked at my accuracy and said I probably wouldn't post this because 10.24% accuracy was WAY below my norm (says the woman who always claims not to care about accuracy). However, Matt told me that in Laser Storm anything over 10 percent is actually very good. Well...ok, if he says so. I'm sure he would know based on all the tournament hardware this site has accumulated.

Something interesting about Laser Storm is that their national tournament is one of the longest continuously running laser tag tournaments in the United States. And there are regional Storm tournaments that continue to take place as well.

Matt gave me some helpful tips as well, suggesting that I point my index finger down the side of the phaser to help control my aim. This seemed to work well. The next game my accuracy was fairly close to the first round, but rather than make a run for the base I found a spot in the red corner where I was arm's length from the energizer and had a good position for tagging players en route to the base. The other team basically came to me, so this seemed like a sweet spot that served me pretty well.

Before calling it a night I had one more very important thing to accomplish here...shopping! I loved that they had so much tag swag for sale so I could take home some awesome Laser Storm souvenirs.

I had such a great time playing at Laser Storm Pittsburgh. I appreciate Logan and Matt helping me to learn and navigate this system. I think I'll have a much better go around with it the next time I get to play, which will either be at a site I've just learned about in Franklinville or at the next Armageddon, but either way, I'm very excited to play Laser Storm again.

Comments or Questions?

Contact: tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com