The perils of zapping

[jethrien]

One of Chuckro's friends from high school is a big laser tag fan. So when he invited us to come play laser tag in a tournament he was organizing, we thought "Sure!"

I figured that we were talking ten or fifteen friends from the area. It wasn't until we got half an hour down the road that I started getting an inkling. He was ranting about the Pittsburgh people refusing to come, not because they didn't have enough people to play, but because they couldn't put together their perfect team and so might lose.

Umm...Pittsburgh? Connecticut? Not playing because there's a chance you might lose? How many people are coming to this thing? How crazy are they? You realize most of us have played laser tag, like, once, right?

"Oh, 45 people said they were going to come, but then they all started backing out. We'll be lucky to get 25. Yeah, I know, they're being assholes, but these guys play four or five times a week."

Oh. Shit.

Well, as can easily be predicted from the above conversation, we got totally creamed. Which I didn't particularly mind. The full hour of rules lawyering I did mind, and I felt similarly about the arguing and the whining during the tournament. Wow. These guys seriously need lives. They were taking it waaaaay too seriously. And some of them were kind of scary - apparently if you have enough practice, you can bounce your way across an arena in, like, five seconds, all while shaking your head around like a crazy person so no one can get a bead on your headset. Sheesh. I tried chicken-dancing - I was so dizzy I thought I'd fall over.

For the most part, we had a pretty good time. Marc, however, had some issues. You see, you tell who's who by whether their headset lights are green or red. But there was something no one quite put together until after the first game when Marc asked us how on earth we were telling who was on which team.

Marc is red/green colorblind.

Oops.

Anyway, good evening, but I don't think I want to play against those guys again. The best game of the evening was the two bad teams against each other. That involved less ass kicking and more actual playing.

But yeah. Those guys need to have a little more to do with their lives that is actually important.

Comments

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

Agreed. My other complaint is that I don't like that style of laser tag, with the 1-handed weapon and only head sensors. I prefer the vests with targets on the front and back torso, and both shoulders. Gets rid of the chicken dancing, among other things. Also, those guns usually use visible lasers rather than diffuse lights for targeting.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I prefer that style of laser tag--I find the vest too ridiculously easy to get hit in, and the two-handed guns are uncomfortable to use. Of course, I grew up with the 1-handed/headphones style, so I'm more used to it.

Also: I hate laser tag with limited ammo. Only played that once, and it annoyed the crap out of me.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Ok, that I totally disagree with. I much prefer the headsets. It should be hard to hit people - otherwise everything just degenerates into sniping, which is no fun. If you want any chance at all of getting to a base, you can't die every time someone vaguely points a laser in your general direction.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I like laser tag well enough, and did it once with some mates in Oz that was pretty fun for the most part.

Man oh man did I rant like nuts afterwards, though. There was this kid on the opposing side who was headhunting. That is, I was obviously the newest at it, and, on top of that, I was wearing my dominatrix boots of heeled doom. The guys on my team were way impressed when I vented about the twat in a beanie who was gunning for me in particular and returning to me when my sensor activated again.

But vest-shooting is more fun for novices than this sounds. Plus, yeah, no fair the 'pros' ganging up.

[cubby-t-bear.livejournal.com]

There *are* people who play this regularly? Wow! I thought that sort of fanaticism was reserved for computer games ...

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Well, given that I almost didn't make my concert today anyway, I'm figuring it's a good thing I didn't get my ass kicked with all y'all.

Poor Marc!

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

At some point, we'll organize a tagging trip that doesn't involve insane people who will kick our asses. We bring ten or so people we know, and happily challenge each other to fair fights.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Woo fair fights!