It was back in November that I first heard about a laser tag tournament fundraiser that was being planned in support of Whitney, a brave little girl from St. Joseph, MO facing a rare form of brain cancer known as Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). This captured my attention in part because cancer has directly impacted my family as well, so causes like this really resonate with me. Then of course hearing that I could support her fundraiser while playing laser tag sounded like a wonderful way to help while enjoying an afternoon of friendly competition. This event was to take place at Belt Entertainment, a bowling and laser tag center in St. Joseph, MO just outside of Kansas City and was

Because I love visiting laser tag arenas and I play to appreciate what’s unique and different about each one, I feel somewhat of a let down when I see the cookie cutter formula that is being adopted by a lot of corporate laser tag operations. I just find it unfortunate when I see the same design aesthetic repeated in arenas over and over again, knowing that there are so many ways that a space could be customized to make it special or distinctive. It’s like fast food…you always know what you are getting, but that doesn’t always equate to a gourmet experience. So, when I recently played in three identical arenas nearly back to back over the course of two days I felt compelled to address this.

There’s no better way to close out a full day of laser tag travels than to play even more laser tag with good friends. After visiting a few sites around the Kansas City area I met up with Miranda and Elaine for dinner and we decided to play a few games at Epic Fun in Lawrenceville, KS. We were treated to some free play in the arcade while we waited for the final session of Lasertron to start. Elaine opted to continue her winning streak in the arcade while Miranda and I suited up for some Tron. This was Miranda’s very first time playing Tron, so I gave her an explanation of the standard base game…and then found out we were going to be starting with a team shield game so none of what I said re

While passing through Kansas City I had an opportunity for a behind the scenes tour of Survive KC, a unique haunted house style experience that incorporates iCOMBAT laser tag equipment, which is why I was interested in checking this out. Located on the top floor of Kansas City’s historic Union Station, you can purchase a ticket for the experience on the main floor and then you will go up to the seventh floor that circles all the way around the grand hall where you can “battle the zombie apocalypse.” I arrived during a window of time when the zombies were on break, so (full disclosure) I did not go through the complete experience here. Instead I got a tour of the facility from the manager, Gi

I had to go a little out of my way, but it was absolutely worth the trip to visit Lazer Force Lazer Tag of Osage Beach, MO near the Lake of the Ozarks. No, that’s not a typo…this is Lazer Force with a Z. Although they currently run Gen 6 Laserforce equipment at this site, owner Ron Wilson told me that when he and his wife Debi opened for business 18 years ago they actually began operating with a different laser tag system and the name is purely coincidental. At the time when they named the business they had not even heard of the Laserforce laser tag manufacturer, but liked the name and opted to spell it with a “z” in order to purchase the corresponding website domain (www.lazerforce.com). It

Sometimes walking into a laser tag arena feels like you’re entering a live action video game. Other times it’s more like exploring the labyrinth of a maze. Occasionally, it even feels like you’re going into a (friendly) battle. However, when I first entered the laser tag arena at Level Up Entertainment in Columbia, MO it felt to me like I was stepping into a movie set. In my opinion, what this site did best was execute a theme that I have not seen done before (and that’s quite an accomplishment because at this point I think I’ve seen just about all the standard CW themes). This one has a touch of “turtle power” (while being careful not to be so overt that it crosses any copyright lines). But

I arrived at Laser Trooper in the West Ridge Mall in Topeka, KS just in time for the start of their first ever Valentine’s Day Massacre Tournament, a fitting name for an event that was held on February 14th. The owner, Kip, was the first to greet me when I arrived. When I walked up to the counter Lane handed me my souvenir token for the event, which was a very nice surprise, as I always enjoy taking tag swag home with me. I think it’s very smart for them to offer something collectible as a takeaway for participation. If I know that there is a special tag swag item that is only available at special events it encourages me to make a little more effort to get there and this is EXACTLY the kind

I’d like to say a big thank you to Derek Petit, founder of Adventure Sports HQ for taking the time for an interview with me. He is the latest industry leader to be featured as part of the Laser Tag Museum’s oral history video collection. Check out what he had to say here! http://www.lasertagmuseum.com/oral-history/industry-leader-interviews/463-tiviachick-interviews-derek-petit-with-adventure-sports-hq Remember that new industry leader and collective interviews will be added to the Laser Tag Museum website each month at www.lasertagmuseum.com. Comments or Questions? Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com

I’ve just arrived back home from an incredibly memorable weekend laser tagging back and forth between Kansas and Missouri over the last several days. I’ll have plenty to share very soon about the entire trip and all the sites that I visited, but until I get a chance to write up all my adventures let me just give you a quick overview of some of the highlights and surprises that were part of my most recent round of tag travels. This trip certainly had a few unexpected turns! I had spent the early part of the week covering the ECT event in Syracuse and talking with the players about why they choose to travel for laser tag tournaments, but on Thursday I was getting ready to begin my own travels

How far would you travel to play laser tag? For Laserforce players looking to enjoy the competition and camaraderie of this year’s East Coast Tournament (ECT) all roads led to The Fun Warehouse in Syracuse, NY and many of the competitors came from much further away than you might expect. Some players arrived from overseas and others from across the country to participate in three full days of Space Marines 5 games during this annual tournament event that had a few particularly notable elements this year. The distance that many individuals were willing to travel was impressive and the tournament included international players from Germany and the United Kingdom as well as competitors from acr

If you understand why that title is funny then you probably already know all about this weekend’s Laser Quest five man team tournament in Mississauga. If not, let me tell you how things went. :) Ultimately, we had a wonderful time and I’m really glad that I made the trip. It was great tagging with these guys and Hot Dice organized a really terrific event, even though we encountered a few bumps along the way. The day before the tournament there was a really bad snowstorm where I live, so bad that my car got stuck in the parking lot at my office. I wasn’t even certain that weather would be reasonable for me to make the trip. And we had one player who had to work and would end up missing the fi