100 Games Later

We started things off on June 6th, 2006.  Mission Park West, 8pm.  Myself and a few friends had managed to gather up a bunch of folks we knew, loaned out some Laser Challenge-brand gear for free, and started something that has become a tradition now ever since.  7 years later to the date, exactly 100 games planned, and we're still playing.  New faces, old faithfuls, but the same great game.

The game itself was quite a bit of fun.  As a "Throwback Thursday", we broke out the old Laser Challenge gear, equipment that we have since retired for the past 2 years, and played 4 rounds of laser tag.  But not before we had ourselves a nice lil cookout!  We fired up the grills, ate some burgers and hot dogs, and devoured some "camouflage" cupcakes my fiance and her friend made for us.  On the one hand, you'd think that stuffing your face with food before running around in a park would be a bad idea.  On the other, we've been doing this for 8 summers now... so who's to question that?  

I was expecting a little better turnout, but dumb luck would have it that a few folks were out of town on vacation and a few others ran into conflicts with work schedules.  It was still a good group, though.  We still managed 4 awesome games before the park closed at 10.

With the return of Laser Challenge gear came the return of some scary-awesome blasters.  Probably the king of them that night was this fella to the right.  That's my friend "Sundawg" with his blaster he built from a Nerf Recon CS-6.  With a great interchangeable barrel system that allows him to switch from a Combat barrel to a long-range sniper barrel, an adjustable Raider stock, and a quick reflex sight, nothing really managed to stop this guy.  That's business as usual for him, though.

Because we were using Laser Challenge, we also got to "mix" things up a bit.  LC sensors can still take hits from Lazer Tag-brand gear like the LTX, LTAR, and LTTO blasters.  This guy managed to dual wield with these blasters, making use of a Phoenix LTX in one hand and a Laser Challenge EX-D that had been recased into a Nerf NiteFinder shell.

There were also quite a few snipers running around... to the point were it was kind of scary seeing so many of them out and about.  We had loaned out 4 of our prized V2 Firestorms, as well as a custom-built V2 Firefly, Sundawg's RE-Con Mk IV, and Eleri's Tag Master Blaster... so there were 7 Snipers total at the game.  A bit overwhelming?  Maybe, but it was nice to have some long-range engagements going on amidst the chaos.

I'd say we had a pretty excellent evening.  The rest of the season will chug on and I'll keep finding ways to get more folks to show up.  I'll take quality over quantity any day, though.  Ironically, this is my 600th post.  100 Games.  7 Years.  Jeez!  There's gotta be a paradox somewhere...