Timing is Everything

I think it has probably been about a year since I last played Nexus. Walking into PlayPort in Erie, PA I was ready to enjoy it again and when they pegged me as a “professional” and started (jokingly) making bets on whether staff member Rob could beat me I felt like I was going to really have some fun with it here.

Side note: I always feel the need to hammer this point…nobody is a “professional” laser tag player if they aren’t getting paid for it (which I certainly am not). I dislike when players use that term when they really mean “competitive” or “hyper-enthusiast”, however I did take it as a compliment and went in ready to live up to it. Game on Rob!

I walked the arena and noticed two base housings right away, but vests configured for three teams.

When I asked the game master, Steven, if there were three bases in there he said no. In actuality there are, but one he called a target is just positioned differently without a structure around it. This became a central playing location during the game, so it bears noting.

This is a smaller arena with a narrow floorplan that plays lengthwise, so after I took both bases, most of the rest of our game was played between the red and green bases on the far side of the field.

Rob and I did a 1v1 and he brought some excellent skill to the game with player tags.

However, I knew that I could take this because I immediately figured out his Achilles heel…distraction.

Timing is everything in Zone and with only two of us in the game it could have gone differently if not for those bases that I mentioned. We were fairly close intrading player tags, but on the occasions that he tagged me out and then tried to take the base a fatal flaw became clear. He would tag the base once, sometimes twice and then see me hovering around and pointing my phaser at him while I was still down. The timing is such that once a player is down you have exactly enough time to get three tags on the base and deactivate it before your opponent is back up…unless you lose your focus and turn attention to the player instead while they are acting like a dancing monkey…or maybe an angry gorilla if you prefer an analogy that fits the theming on the walls. :)

In any case, my antics more than my game may have been what prevented him from taking his second base, but I commend him for bringing me a good challenge. This game was a lot of fun and I had a great time at PlayPort!