LaserBall Tournament with Frappuccinos Forever
- 15 hours ago
- 5 min read
I am proud to have captained Team “Frappuccinos Forever” to second place during last night’s LaserBall Tournament in Syracuse. That placement came after an interesting series of preliminary games just to get us to the finals, so let’s talk LaserBall!
This was a very nicely put together local tournament that provided an opportunity for some new blood to experience a taste of laser tag competition. We had enough participation to form five teams, all playing round robin, two game matches for the preliminary rounds.
When I arrived, a few of the teenagers signed up were asking “What’s Tivia doing here?” before being assured of my eligibility. Perhaps they had a preconceived idea about me now that the Top 10 player board has FINALLY been updated (thank you, Beanz).
But all of that dissipated as we were divided into teams. I really like the way the teams were determined for this. FWH staff started by breaking the players up into tier groups based on experience levels in an effort to try to balance the teams as evenly as possible and also make sure new players were given equal opportunity to be on even footing. I like this random team style because it allows opportunities to play with people you might not otherwise get to and it also avoids stacking teams with just your own circle of friends. I prefer to have things mixed like this…let the chips fall!
Before arriving at the event, I saw a message indicating that I would be one of the team captains. I made a point of getting there a few minutes early, but not before stopping for the drink that would inspire my team’s name! ;)
After all, the Unicorn was back for this weekend only! :) However, I also downed two shots of espresso before getting to the arena, so my energy was UP!
My team included Primus-Raven, Pomervillain, Bob and 67 (six-seven).
We entered the first game going up against Mama Bear’s team and won our first match, which is a nice way to start things out.
Second round we took another win against Team Deathnuke, so two for two on our wins.
Teamwork makes the dream work. I stressed to my team that success comes from a team effort and individual glory does not matter at all. So let me wax philosophical for a moment about hockey’s great on, Wayne Gretzky. Did you know Wayne Gretzky holds the NHL record for most career in history, with that number being more than double his number of goals? THAT is a great parallel to team success in LaserBall.
I don’t remember which game, but at one point I remember holding down three defenders on the opposite team by tagging them in a rotation, which allowed for 67 to run the ball right into the base. I loved the way we could see a team synergy in play when things were going well.
We had the bye in round three so we took the time to chill, strategize and socialize.
We were back in the arena for round four. We lost a match to Doge’s team and then faced off against team Maddie, and this is where things got interesting!
We tied against Maddie’s team in the preliminary rounds, which necessitated us going in for a tiebreaker match.
We tied again in the tiebreaker. That meant we had to play them again for a third time in a row. Want to guess what happened?
Yep, we tied it up AGAIN!!!!
Ok, some of us have to work in the morning and can’t keep playing to ties all night, so it was decided that we would do a 1v1 and each team would send one player into the game to break this tie. Maddie was playing for her team and several of my teammates were saying “Tivia, Tivia will play.” However, I made a captain’s decision for what I thought would be the best strategy here. Of course, I can tag, but this situation required a speed and agility that I knew would best be delivered by 67. He’s a young track star and demonstrated incredible skill as our runner all night. So I pointed at him and said “you’re going in” with absolute confidence that this was the right move. Sometimes you need to know when to leave ego behind and make the decisions that are best for the team and I wholeheartedly stand behind this decision. So it was Maddie vs 67 going in to break the tie with a 1v1.
Not gonna lie, it was an intense game to watch that came down to a final goal scored in literally the last second!
That final goal by 67 broke the tie and moved us into the finals. I am officially declaring him our Team MVP! Nice job!
Ok, so we are in the finals against “Who Ya Gonna Call?” (Dogebusters) who have gone undefeated all night. We are tired (especially our runner) but still ready to take it on. I move to defense, swapping goalie position with Primus-Raven (as we did during the tie games) and we give it our all.
Well, this match didn’t go our way and we ended up in second place, happy with that knowing simply getting into the finals after all that was the real challenge! Congratulations to Doge’s team, they played exceptionally well this night.
Even though this tournament only lasted about five hours, I do believe some team shout out are in order.
67: Whenever you come out to tag on a casual Saturday night, I really enjoy how good of a sparring opponent you are. You always bring good competition into the arena and this time I was glad to have your speed, agility and skill benefiting our team. It was a pleasure to get to play with you instead of against you, lol!
Pomervillain: it is always a blast getting to tag with you and the Buffalo crew. This tournament you were definitely stepping things up. Your ease of shifting between positions as needed, going from defense to backing up the offense made a big difference, and I was glad to have you on my team!
Primus-Raven: for all the times that we have shown up on the same tag night, this was the first time I really felt I got to know you a bit. I have watched you grow in this game in the last few months and that is awesome! You did a great job defending as our primary goalie and I look forward to tagging with you again!
Bob: You were a really cool new surprise addition to our team! I am so glad you have become a member and I can tell that you have lots of potential to be an excellent laser tag player. It is a privilege to get to say I was there for your first tournament and I hope you will compete in many more!
I want to give a shout out to Beanz for organizing this event and actively working to grow the laser tag scene at our local arena. While larger tournaments can be a lot of fun, local opportunities to cultivate new blood in the laser tag community are, in my opinion, the best way to organically bring new players into the fold and let existing players grow their skills in a small pond before jumping into the deeper waters. Thank you for recognizing that and making these opportunities available. They have been few and far between in the past, but I hope the Fun Warehouse will host more local tournaments like this in the future.
Also, thank you to Axman and Alex for being the refs. We appreciate your time and dedication as well.
In short, this was a really well done local tournament. Fun to play with a nice mix of people and skill sets. This is the kind of event that starts to bridge the gap between casual fun with competitive excitement, and I thoroughly enjoyed. Now, it’s time for it’s time for another Frappuccino!
Comments or Questions?
Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com
Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com
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