Tag 4 A Cause at the 2026 Laserforce Internationals
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
The 2026 Laserforce Internationals tournament was recently hosted at my home arena, The Fun Warehouse in Syracuse, NY and it was an exciting week for all involved, both in and out of the arena! I was there to interview the players and occasionally hopped in on the live stream with Guy Next Door to promote the Tag 4 A Cause fundraiser we were hosting to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association, Central New York Chapter. Let me walk you through the week from my bird’s eye view (featuring excerpts from the live stream used with permission, courtesy of Laserforce Tournaments).
10 teams were competing from across the United States and internationally (nod to the Australian competitors).
I showed up on Monday night to interview the players for my Laser Unfocused Tag Talk podcast.
However, before I had even started interviewing anyone else, I was delighted to join GND on the live stream where he interviewed me right before jumping into the second half of Day 1 game commentary. Check it out!
It was great to get to hang out and talk tag with a fellow podcaster (from The Resupply) who I felt like I knew even before we met in person.
When I looked more closely at the banner behind us I realized that several laser tag podcasts were showing their support to this event. Great to see there are so many of us!
GND and Luke, both fellow laser tag podcasters, took note of the content creators involved during the live stream.
And throughout the week the live stream was an exceptional vehicle for getting the word out to help the Tag 4 A Cause challenge in raising funds and awareness for the Alzheimer’s Association. We had video segments with interviews featuring Alzheimer’s Association representatives rotating throughout the week, providing information about the fundraiser and the cause.
I had a display set up that included a QR code for people to make donations directly to the Alzheimer’s Association. They also had an informational display table there all week long.
The Fun Warehouse has been actively promoting the Tag 4 A Cause event on their monitors for the last few weeks as well.
Pedro was on hand volunteering on behalf of the Alzheimer’s Association and we tracked the progress of the fundraiser on our goal thermometer as the tournament continued.
We had ambitions of making this the biggest Tag 4 A Cause ever and getting the most support possible for the Alzheimer’s Association. My thanks to all the people who really stepped up to help get us to our goal!
Anyone who made a donation to the cause received a laser tag medal as a thank you. I even got to thank GND for his contribution live on the stream.
As the evening went on, the tournament competition stayed intense while we kept working to get closer and closer to meeting our fundraising goal.
Those who were on site on Thursday also had an opportunity to compete in the Tag 4 A Cause Highlander high score trophy challenge. The tournament is an intense few days, so I was delighted to have so many players participating in this special game!
I always provide a golden phaser trophy as a prize for the high score winner.
However, there was an extra incentive for the top Highlander player this time around. I promised that if this became our biggest Tag 4 A Cause ever that I would let the Highlander winner soak me with ice water in an ice bucket challenge following the game.
There was some fierce competition in this game, but Alex Boxes took the top placement and earned his trophy.
My thanks to Alex and all the participants for helping the cause and being part of the event!
Before the proceedings, we took a photo in the Care Bears wading pool that Beanz had set up in the arcade area (yes, we did the ice bucket challenge INDOORS!) with a camera aimed front and center.
I went back on the live stream to offer thanks to all the contributors and get some last minute tips about the ice bucket challenge from GND, who had recently gone through this himself, inspiring me to do this after I saw the success of his own charity marathon done with The Resupply. He gave me some great advice before I headed out to the pool to get soaked by Alex!
Success for the Alzheimer’s Association made this absolutely well worth it! I had turned a phaser shell into a squirt gun and soaked Alex right back. This mod was unbeknownst to Sanch who saw me walk by with the squirt phaser and asked me “what happened to my equipment?!” Lol!
I am delighted to say this fundraiser generated a total of $2575 in donations directly to the Alzheimer’s Association, making it our BIGGEST Tag 4 A Cause yet!
When all was said and done, I returned for a final thank you to our supporters on the live stream after the challenge.
When Tag 4 A Cause was done, the Laserforce Internationals continued on. I listened to the live stream all evening on Friday while baking phaser-shaped sugar cookie phasers for the banquet on Saturday.
And, as has become a Tag 4 A Cause tradition, we had to have a rubber chicken in attendance as well!
As the tournament drew to a close and all the teams had given their all, the results were decided.
Third place went to Team Olympus.
Second place went to the Utah Heatseekers.
And the 2026 Laserforce Internationals Champions were none other than our own Hidden Valley Sanch (aka Syracuse A)!
My congratulations to all the players on their tournament accomplishments. I also want to sincerely thank The Fun Warehouse, Beanz, Sanch and everyone who made Tag 4 A Cause for the Alzheimer’s Association, Central New York Chapter such a tremendous success while being hosted during this year’s Laserforce Internationals!
Comments or Questions?
Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com
Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com
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