Merry Christmas and a Zappy New Year! Comments or Questions? Contact: tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com

Tivia traveled to Tamworth to tag for a TV...say that three times fast! This past weekend was the conclusion of the ongoing fall tournament that was organized by White Lake Speedway over the last couple of months to promote fall/winter participation at their CyberBlast laser tag arena. As I always say, you have to be in it to win it, so seven weeks earlier I threw my hat into the ring and qualified with scores meeting the designated accuracy levels in five formats including standard with trackers, standard without trackers, Domination, Rabbit and Zombies. At the end of it all my qualifying scores are what won me this 43" Vizio smart TV. I want to say thank you to Bob and the staff of White L

I've been an Ironman winner on several occasions at several different Laser Quests, however my recent visit to LQ Danvers was the first time I've ever played two back to back Ironman games and taken first place in both! I got to Danvers in time for the 9:00 Ironman and it was a very full game. Fortunately I called ahead to reserve a spot. When I got there I was interested by their latest offerings for the holidays. There was a display of holiday themed gift cards and simply for the sake of taking home a card as a souvenir I bought one and then used it to pay for my first game. Once in the briefing room the crowd of players was incredibly energetic...and loud. As the game marshall explained t

Every time I've passed through Massachusetts in recent years I've wanted to detour over to Fall River to play at Laser Gate...apparently home of the Lazer Gator. Up until now the detour would have taken me too far off my path each time. However, on my most recent trip Massachusetts was just a stopover on the way to New Hampshire, so this time schedule was not so much of an issue. I drove to the southernmost part of the state and found myself in a parking lot that...well, let's just say did not inspire confidence. That's not a slight on the business itself, just on the fact that the locale did not appear to be in the greatest area and I wish that the parking lot had been a little better lit.

I had planned to end the evening at Laser Storm Pittsburgh and this was a really great conclusion to my trip. Not only did I really start to get a much clearer picture in my head about the game, but I also felt very welcomed by the Mator family. Matt and Debbie were both there when we arrived (unfortunately John was away the weekend I was in town) . Matt showed us around and this is where the importance of the divided arena really started to gel in my mind. I walked through the arena first, which gave me an opportunity to appreciate how the layout works and how to try to access the bases. The divided arena makes such a difference and now I can really appreciate how true it is that we're play

When we walked into Wildwood Highlands it was obvious that this is a very popular local amusement attraction with a lot more to offer besides the laser tag that we had gone there to experience. With arcade, bumper cars, kids zone and more there is plenty of family fun here and a lot of different activities coming together. Ironically, there were also a lot of different laser tag messages coming together too! The system they were running was Zone Rift, but I really got a kick out of playing it in a Tron arena. I really love the mixed imagery here. :) They had previously used the Lasertron system at this site so it made sense that they had kept the arena design. However, Logan and I both recog

I believe Main Event Pittsburgh has been open for a little over a year. For the most part I find Main Event locations to be pretty similar (although to me this one beats the last one I visited by a mile for one reason alone...in Orlando where I was told they didn't have laser tag). However, there is still a "new vibe" here and I did feel like this one had a more impressive arena (albeit a single level) than many of the older locations. Logan was not quite as enthused about this stop as I was, but was nonetheless a good sport and ready to go in and try Delta Strike again. Although the arena still looked new and attractive, there was nothing dramatically different here. They had the video scre

I'm going to call my visit to Xtreme Laser Storm in Robinson my first experience in a real Laser Storm divided arena. Let me explain why...my Laser Storm experience up to this point has been as follows: *Playing it as an imported system at 'geddon events *Playing Laser Storm once previously in an arena in Iowa, but it was definitely NOT in a divided arena *Playing different systems in spaces that previously operated Laser Storm and kept their arena panels up This was my first opportunity to really get the full Laser Storm experience start to finish. Logan arrived here first (somehow my GPS took me WAY off track) and let owner Tom know that we'd be playing. Now, this is Logan's main system an

Spencer and I met up with Logan at the newly opened Scene 75 in Pittsburgh and I was struck by something interesting (and I say this with humor)...with the three of us getting together here we probably had more Syracuse members playing Laserforce in Pittsburgh than made it to members night that week! (Lol...just a joke guys) Scene 75 was running Gen 7 LF in an interesting double level arena. Logan and I were able to log in with our RFD cards, but Spencer will need to get his card updated from 'Cuse because for the moment as it does not appear they are focusing on membership cards here. When we entered I took a few moments to meander the maze and locate the bases. There are ramps to access th

Zombieburgh Lazer Tag is located inside of Ace's Break Away and Play at the Monroeville Mall. Interesting trivia...this is actually where the movie Dawn of the Dead was shot. As a huge Kevin Smith fan I knew that the Monroeville Zombies hockey jerseys showed up in his Zack and Miri film, but until doing a little homework I didn't realize that this mall was also featured in that movie. So for that reason alone this stop was totally worthwhile. You can actually see the outside of this site in the movie during the escalator scene and I took a picture of the business from that same escalator that Seth Rogan and Craig Robinson can be seen on at the 33:45 minute mark in the movie. This site uses L

A couple of weeks ago I found myself with an unexpected weekend off from work, so I put together a VERY last minute plan to pay a visit to Pittsburgh. So I dropped notes to Spencer and Logan to let them know that I would be in the area and we figured out a way to jam pack as much laser tag as possible into a really short window of time. I had a list of places I wanted to visit and since Logan knows the area best he suggested a course that would get me to seven laser tag sites beginning with Zone 28. Spencer met me at Zone 28 at the start of the day...Logan would join us later. It was nice to have some time to catch up for a few minutes before they opened up the tag for the day and we went in

I have had two incredible tag trip weekends in a row...first to Pittsburgh and then to Massachusetts and New Hampshire. There are so many things I want to share, but I have not had enough time to properly organize photos and sit down to write about the trips, so please bear with me until I can get these latest adventures posted..but in the meantime, let me share something really cool. Christmas came early for me today! I arrived home to find a box had been delivered with a very special gift from a "Secret Santa". Inside was a Laser Storm pack accompanied by what I believe is a vintage Laser Storm magnet. This pack is incredibly cool (and it's charging right now as I type this)...I can't wait

Last weekend we played the finals, week eight of the Syracuse fall laser tag league. The Mood Killers went into the night as the third ranked team, but anything can happen in finals. I haven't written much about the league as there has been so much going on the last few weeks. So, let me start with a brief recap. Our original Mood Killers line-up was Tom, Peanut, Jared, Max and me. However, Tom got a job that necessitated him dropping out of the league, so Block stepped in to replace him after the second week. We were playing against Cody's team (CWI), Beanz's team (Boneless Jungle Hams), Fox and Wookie's team (EAS) and Christine, Evol and Zac's team (TBD). Our team had some ups and downs an

Originally I thought I would take some time here to explore an ongoing discussion I've been having with a few people about what constitutes a laser tag arena or, more specifically, how much change is necessary to consider a site a "new arena". However, the more I thought about it the more I realized that this discussion is better saved for another day (in the near future) and I'd rather talk about what a laser tag experience can be like when there's actually no arena at all. No, I'm not talking about outdoor or mobile laser tag. What I'm referring to is a truly unique experience I had using laser tag equipment in a completely different environment when I visited Zombie Outbreak in Orlando. Z

There was one main reason I was interested in playing tag at Hukoo's in Orlando...their projection walls. The last time I played at a site that used the projection mapping on white walls I was in Nebraska where they were only using static images projected on the walls with no video activation. In Nebraska they were really not using the technology to its fullest. However, at Hukoo's I got to really see the projection walls in action. I arrived at the site and was a little unsure of what I'd encounter from the atmosphere. I bought my ticket and the guy behind the counter said I could get into a game of laser tag if I didn't mind playing with kids. You see, this is a VERY kid-oriented site (I'v

Laser tag and tanks together...who would have guessed? When I mentioned that I'd be going to Melbourne, Brandon from iCOMBAT suggested it would be well worth my time to visit Tank America. He said I could play some tag and see some tanks...what?! I really didn't know what to expect, but when I pulled into their parking lot there was no question what they had to offer...Drive tanks and play tactical laser tag. :) The business has a military motif all throughout the lobby, which complements the tag theme very well. I got there a little before their 1:00 game session, so John (one of four partners in the business) explained to me what they do. The most unusual attraction they offer is an opport