Laser Tag was the “Main Event” of the Night

4 hours ago
4 min read

It’s no joke that southern hospitality is a real thing, and I experienced it as soon as I arrived in Arkansas. I made a beeline straight for Main Event in Little Rock as soon as my flight landed, timing out perfectly to tag with this awesome group, made up mostly of students from Arkansas State University.

I’ve been around a Main Event or two (or actually 26 of them) before, so I’m quite familiar with what to expect, so I was looking around for the counter to buy my game pass. I didn’t see one, but I did run into shift supervisor Jason who accompanied me to a kiosk and walked me through the new process. This is the first ME I have visited that was entirely switched to the self-service kiosks. I’m old school, still looking for the human being every time, but I appreciated having someone take the time to go through it with me. For the record, I know this process is not hard, but I’m just clinging to the ways I know and will always prefer doing my transactions with a real live person.

Anyhow, fast forward a couple of minutes and I’m in the vesting room eyeing the wall of Delta Strike Genesis packs and preparing to play when I learn they have coordinated for me to play with this group of college students who were already enjoying some games there. This made for one of the best nights I have ever had at a Main Event and a really fun laser tag experience!

Now THIS was a great way to kick off the first night of my trip! We entered a sharp looking arena (kudos to Art Attack for this one) and I headed over to the bridge.

What I noticed under my feet was turf. Jason explained that this location had been on deck to switch over to GBN equipment, so they had taken out some walls and put in the turf flooring in preparation for the swap, but the plans changed and it was decided that they would continue to use Genesis, just as they have since the arena opened about three years ago.

So I vested up with my DS pack and got ready to start the game.

Power ups were available at the video base stations located under these vehicle-shaped housings (which glow vibrantly under black lights).

There were lots of small targets scattered around the arena and a staff member advised me that they could be tagged for extra points. I noticed that they all seemed to be green targets and I must admit, since I’m accustomed to seeing them usually a glow rainbow while waiting to be captured by a team color, I didn’t immediately realize they are all set on green as the default. Since I was on the green team I just figured we were really killing it with capturing targets, lol!

But with all these people playing a fast paced game I focused more on the live targets anyhow while taking aim from the bridge.

I found all the little nooks for making covert tags around the walls and structures throughout this 3025 square foot single-level arena.

Jason told me they can run approximately 33 vests. Based on this game, it looks like they are prepared for bigger groups. We had over 20 players in the arena (a very good size game) and everyone had such a great time!

The entire staff were so engaged and enthusiastic. I really feel that the right staff members make a huge difference to what kind of experience customers have and the team that I saw here was excellent. Maybe that’s why I’m still so big on human interaction. Engagement between players is also why I feel that laser tag is such a great game that has stood the test of time for over 40 years. People are engaged with people and laser tag lets you step away from the screens and have real-life interactions with other players during the game. The college students I interacted with were also a fantastic group. Start to finish, this was an excellent laser tag experience.

When the game was over I placed a snack order to go. Pizza and pretzel sticks were a must! I ordered the pretzels in solidarity with my coworkers who were all attending a Seinfeld performance this same night back in NY that was happening at roughly the same time I was getting my tag on here in Arkansas. I really just wanted an excuse to say “these pretzels are making me thirsty”, lol. But the snacks were the perfect late night treat to take back to my hotel in preparation for the second thing I wanted to do while in Little Rock.

This is a bit of an aside, but it would not have happened if not for this tag trip. As a fan of the tv show Designing Women I was delighted to learn that the exterior house they used in the series to represent the fictional Atlanta-based Sugarbaker and Associates design firm was actually located right here in Little Rock, AR. So of course I had to pay a visit to see the Villa Marre while I was in town.

This made my heart happy to see. What a delight to have two exceptional experiences while visiting Little Rock. This building was definitely a cool side quest, but as always, laser tag really was the “Main Event” of the night!