Liberty and Laser Tag at Laser Ops

When I heard there was an arena in Tampa, FL using Elite Laser Tag equipment in an indoor setting I had one more great reason for making a road trip after IAAPA. Outdoor arenas are great, but as I had never played this system in a traditional arena, I was particularly interested in visiting what I am told is Florida's largest indoor arena at Laser Ops Extreme Gaming Arcade. I was impressed and had such a great time enjoying liberty and laser tag!

I want to thank owners Lynn and Ted for their hospitality. I called ahead and Lynn told me she would make sure I had a spot in their next game (which was already full of enthusiastic players on a Saturday). When I entered the briefing room, I saw an enormous video screen.

We were given some game instructions and then the stage was set with a storyline presented up on the big screen. What I watched was not a briefing video, but could have passed for the trailer to a Hollywood movie! It described the state of Earth in the year 2165 and established the premise for the arena game, or rather the impending face-off between the Rebel Cartel (red team) and the Battalion of Hope (blue team). I love seeing an arena put this kind of effort into creating a fully immersive experience right out of the gate. What I found most impressive about this video was that it was locally produced by the site AND very high quality. Well done!

After a final review of the rules the game marshals let an exuberant group of players into the vesting area. This seems like the right terminology because, even though there is no sensor vest in use, players all wore a colorful fabric vest to help identify which team they were playing on. I was on red.

I selected an orange (red) tagger from the rack.

We were directed to our base before beginning our first game, a standard round of Team Deathmatch.

When playing with the taggers only (no headsets here) the plastic bubble on the top of the tagger is the only sensor in play and you must tag it multiple times in order to deactivate an opponent. We chased the blue team all around the 8000 square foot arena, and in addition to tagging players I really enjoyed checking out all the creative props and elements that set the scene with a cool design aesthetic.

The sensor light flashes red while it is being tagged, however, once a player is out it turns solid red and you must return to your respawn where the respawn box flashes green and resets your ammo. You can press the red button on the side to reload.

The red Rebel Cartel took the victory in the first game!

Our second game was called “Operation Liberty” and is essentially their version of Domination. I have never before played a game using the Elite Domination Box, so this was a first for me, even though I have played many other Domination games before.

Trying out this box was cool. When it is unclaimed the circle of lights glows green, but as it is being tagged (and it requires multiple tags to turn it to your team’s color) two teams can actively duke it out at the same time and the color appears little by little like a meter until one overtakes the other and dominates the box. Here’s how that goes.

Domination boxes were positioned in three locations, one on each side of the field and another under the center tower.

My favorite spot to find one was as part of the decorative skee-ball game! :)

At the end of the game scores and code names went up on the scoreboard and it appeared that everyone had a fun time.

This was an excellent experience for me. I have not had as many opportunities to play Elite Laser Tag and I appreciated the chance to get in an indoor game (edging me closer to my 600th arena…this one was #593) and this was a really great time enjoying an arena with excellent, story-driven theming, a great staff and a focus on fun!