Georgia On My Mind, Urban Jungle On My Map

Another whirlwind tag weekend (playing ---- sites over four days across four states while crossing the country and several time zones) started with me setting out for Atlanta, GA. My destination was Urban Jungle in Peachtree City to play in a little local tournament. My flight landed around lunchtime, so before heading over I decided to stop for lunch at a cute little eatery that features locally sourced foods and enjoyed some local mushroom risotto followed by peach panna cotta because this time around I did not want to miss out on the Georgia peaches. Last time I was in Georgia I settled for a peach slushee...NOT the same, lol!

By the time I was done with lunch the tag site was open for business and I met the manager, Landon, who I had been communicating with. When I asked about their offers he said a wristband would get me all day tag and entry to the tournament, which I thought was an exceptionally good value, so I hung out all day playing LF Gen 6 with my "practice squad" including Reagan, Aaron, Marcus, Celeste and Trevor.

Little did I know at that point that the tournament would be me vs these guys and the other laser tag staff employees! But that was fine. I got in a lot of good tag games in a nice, double level arena.

The theme was a familiar CW jungle aesthetic, but the design had some interesting elements too. My favorite element would have to be this awesome archway on the upper level housing a base that can be easily targeted from the lower level.

And look...it's my old friend the CW tower, lol! The wristband contest is still open if someone wants to tell me how many tag locations I've played with this particular structure.

The generator targets were located on the tower on the lower level and red and blue bases were housed in opposite corners under the robot housings.

It's a fairly open map on the upper level (there's one path from the arch to the ramp with no cover at all as the maze is behind you) and I liked the way certain structures would give you cover from one side while leaving you completely exposed to other parts of the arena (like on the left edge of the upper level...cover from the corner means watch out for tags from the ramp).

And from their observation deck I noticed they even had the pod station! Very nice to see this as non-players can enjoy being interactive with the game as well.

Tagging all afternoon was certainly a great way to spend the day at Urban Jungle.

Before the evening event started I decided to enjoy a peach waffle for dinner because when in Peachtree City that seems like the right thing to do!

When I returned there were about a dozen staff members suiting up for the tournament (although we couldn't get them all in the pic).

Although I had expected to play with members or public regulars, a staff game really upped the competition level. It made me think about how things would go if an outside player walked in off the street to play with our staff in 'cuse. I'll say it went better for me than that scenario, although I didn't deliver quite up to my normal standards...let's attribute this to being out on the lake all of the previous day and then up at 2:30 that morning for my flight! But, hey, fresh off an Armageddon I can't use tired as an excuse.

The tournament was not done in a typical tournament format, but it was fun. Three games of color ranked individual supercharge were played and the scores from each game would be added together to determine the results.

The first game went well. I toggled back and forth for the first place spot (red pack lights) and came reasonably close because in the final few seconds I saw my pack flash red...then I took a hit and by the time my back was back up I was orange (aka second place). Ok, I can live with that in a game like this. I figured there was a good chance to make up the difference of a couple hundred points in the next game.

Since this is not a site that utilizes memberships we just had to keep playing with the same packs. Mine was Warrior (yes, I would have picked Legend except the straps were too loose for my liking). In the next game I took fifth. No excuses. That wasn't up to par for me. However, my pack was completely dead before going into the next game so I have to wonder if that factored in any way. But again, I hate when people blame the pack, so no excuses.

The final game I took a replacement pack and a different approach. Because it was clear that most players were hovering in one upper section of the arena I shifted from sniper to dogfight mode and went where I thought I might secure the most pack points. I took a hard fought third in that game, but in hindsight the tactic was all wrong. My forte has always been playing long range games and I should not have veered from that. I took third in that game.

Ultimately that landed me in fourth place (that's three in a row...I guess now the league has got to be what breaks this streak), but it was a fantastic time. I'd rather play with a group of competitive staff members like that any day because they put their heart into those games. Congrats to Kai who took the win last night...very well played. And thanks to everyone at Urban Jungle for making it well worth the trip to Atlanta before I set off on the rest of my very full weekend of laser tag.