West Virginia…Check!

24 minutes ago

2 min read

As I continue to tag my way across the country for the third time, this past weekend I had West Virginia in my sights. This state has always been a bit more challenging for tag due to having fewer arenas, but something new has popped up in a familiar location since my last visit to the state three years ago.

The Hive Entertainment Zone is an FEC located inside the Meadowbrook Mall in Bridgeport, WV.

Hmmm…Bridgeport. This feels like deja vu. Haven’t I been here before? This very same mall was where I went to check off West Virginia on my last circle around the 50 states and of course my rule is that if a new business takes over an old arena it doesn’t count twice. Fortunately the arena I previously played was formerly in suite 440 and this new arena is located inside suite 100 of the mall…yes, I actually checked! So I was all clear to have a new WV tag experience at The Hive. :)

I arrived and was warmly greeted by the staff and Zion took me to the upper level arena to play some Battle Company tactical tag.

He passed me my BR Pro tagger and I took a moment to wonder if “glow under UV” nail polish should be part of this year’s IAAPAcure! ;)

The arena is set in a long space that plays lengthwise with plenty of obstacles made of barrels, blocks, hanging drapes, and more.

Zion and I prepared for a game of Deathmatch and I took my starting position at the respawn box at the far end of the arena.

There were three respawn points throughout the arena that features black light glowing paint graffiti for ambience around the perimeter walls.

The fog machine periodically blasted some nice haze throughout the game, which added nicely to the atmosphere.

I could tell Zion was a very good player and he brought a competitive game. I love that! As it was a 1v1 we were matched pretty evenly and continued to trade tags with some degree of predicting each other’s moves. There were moments when I had the edge over him, but he really put up an excellent game!

I had an excellent experience playing at The Hive and was really glad to see this new laser tag arena bringing the game back to the Meadowbrook Mall, but doing it in their own unique way. West Virginia…check! :)