Time To Armagedd-It-On! (aka the U.S. Zone Nats 2026)
This is a story less about a tournament and more about a group of ‘geddon players who pulled together an unexpected team to compete in the U.S. Zone Nats and have a weekend to remember. Time to Armagedd-It-On! :)
Lonewolf captained and organized this team including Sniper, Bhodi Li, Sandman RD, Tavas and me, affectionately noting “you gotta be 40+ to ride this train”. So we showed up in a different kind of starting place compared to the top US teams like Legends and Valhalla. Still, we brought plenty of experience from other systems, including rostering three Photon warriors, a couple of local Zone players, an eclectic chick and even an unusual alt. Yep, even Laser Tag Larry came along for the road trip to Ultrazone Bensalem, PA!
We set him up next to the viewing monitors as something of a mascot for the weekend.
I arrived on Friday evening at the start of the public hours to set up a Laser Tag Museum Collection traveling exhibit of the History of Zone.
I am continuing to take smaller in-person displays to even more tournaments and events so that players can see the history of various systems up close. I wanted to provide an opportunity for both the tournament players and casual customers to be able to see these items in-person, including some of the oldest phasers from the beginning of the system.
It was heartening to see the interest and also to have some really informative discussions!
Once everything was set up, it was time to fuel up for the night. Randy and I were the first to arrive, so we went two doors down to La Hacienda for some dinner…and to make our t-shirts true! ;)
And if you’re going to be dressed stylin’ in a shirt you need the nails to match (trying out my IAAPAcure)!
By the time we were done, the rest of the team had started to arrive and prepare for the first night of team competition. The evening began…well, in the morning. This was an overnight tournament with the events running from midnight to 7:00 am. That’s an endurance challenge event before stepping into the arena!
To set the stage, there was an incredibly high caliber of Zone competition showing at this event, though in the U.S. that talent is predominantly coming out of two main sites. So, the number of teams was small, but the level of game play intensity was tremendous, which we understood walking into this event.
While waiting to start, Lonewolf came up to me and asked me to sub for him in the captain’s meeting. I’m not sure where he went, but for about 20 minutes I served as team captain in good company with the others.
However, when we still didn’t know where Jeff was, there was a brief time when we thought we might actually NEED to take Laser Tag Larry as an alt!
But Jeff made it back in plenty of time to start the night with Team Elim competition. Believe me, if I could have sent Larry in my place for Elims I would have, as this is not a format I am wild about, but the good news is Elim games tend not to last very long, lol!
But once we got through this side event we could move on to the main tournament and the Team Comp. I’m sure nobody will be surprised to know I showed up very prepared with the schedule breakdown and map all ready to track and plan.
A dry erase board of the arena map comes in handy for strategizing, so I have prepared several already to have on hand for a few of the key competitive arena sites.
We had to go through two complete round robins playing all the teams before going into the three game match ups that lead to finals. On this first night we made it most of the way through the first RR before the sun came up. However, 7:00 am was a hard stop time and they actually let us go a tiny bit early once it was evident we wouldn’t finish on time. The remaining games got pushed to the next night.
So at 7:00 am (Saturday at this point) I am checking into my hotel with hopes of catching a few hours of sleep. Yes, like with every tournament I play there was a side tag trip (details forthcoming), but at that moment all I wanted to do was rest, knowing we would have to do it all again at midnight the next evening. May I highly encourage power naps whenever taking on a tournament with this kind of crazy schedule!
The second night started with a completion of the first round robin and jumping right into the second. What I will say about this is we had fun and took this opportunity to try completely out of the box ideas…Pinwheel strategy anyone? Lol, yes we did! I quote the brilliant comedian Anjelah Johnson all the time when I say we too were like Ryan Lochte…just here for the party! JK peeps, don’t take me too seriously. I’m STILL catching up on sleep!
I was also using this time to catch up with friends. It is so great to have a laser tag community that brings people together from all over the country, like my friends from Fort Wayne, IN and Chino Hills, CA, just to name a few.
For me, one of the best things that came out of this tournament had absolutely nothing to do with the competition. It had to do with getting to know my teammates better and hearing some amazing stories. Remember, I mentioned that we had three Photon warriors on the team. That is a big deal! I absolutely love hearing their stories from Photon back in the day.
Ultimately, round robin is fun, but nothing determines an outcome until the three game rounds to advance. So when our group was called and we were matched alongside BSO and Yeah Laser Tag we knew the only way to go forward was evident. Now, of these three teams, only ours carried an alt, so whoever sat out a game had to remain in the briefing room for the entire time because they don’t want anyone to have a heads up to scores mid-set (I assure you, that would have made no difference anyway). Tavas sat first and when we went in I felt pretty good about the first game. From a personal standpoint I had taken my bases, felt solid on getting pack points and could hear the frustration out of one of my CA buddies. I knew we hadn’t beaten BSO, but thought it was conceivable we could have taken second against Yeah. Not that we could know one way or another at that moment. During the second game I sat and could tell from the sounds I heard coming from the arena that things were not going well for us. I don’t know exactly what happened, but one of our players got a penalty for being on a knee too long when his shoe fell off. So, I had a bit of a resigned premonition for the third game. We didn’t advance and that’s fine. We were a madcap, underdog, under-no-pressure, here-for-the-party team that helped make the necessary numbers happen and we had a great time in the process.
When I look back on this tournament I am not going to remember the individual games (it’s a blur and if you want the details, I’m sure the boys on the Discord channel will happily fill you in), but rather I will look back on this as an experience where I learned, played with guys I have never been on a team with before (seriously, Bhodi Li and Tivia had to land on the same team eventually!) and simply enjoyed the opportunity to be there among some of the best Zone competitors in the country and be part of the game we all love. And I would do it all again!
Comments or Questions?
Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com
Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com
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