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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

MLTA Season 9 Planning

Since 2006, the Midwest Laser Tag Association (formerly Omaha Laser Challenge Association) has hosted weekly games during the summer months called the "Fight Night".  15 weeks, 15 games, tons of fun!  For the past 8 seasons, we've held games at Mission Park West.  For Season 9, there's a lot of changes in store!

For starters, we're changing locations to a new park that's right behind my home that I purchased in August of 2013.  We've already played a couple of games at the new park to test it out, including our Halloween Game, and things really went great!  There's also a Spring Game coming up this weekend that'll also make use of our new surroundings before we start up Season 9 in May.

The park is ideal for a couple of reasons.  Having a home that backs up to the playing field gives us a couple of advantages.  You don't have to walk half a mile to use a bathroom, there's a nice place to chill out and wait for the next game to begin, there's access to my workshop for quick repairs if needed, the list goes on and on.  Plus, the park offers a unique dynamic of easily being able to be split in different ways to change up the playing field.  There are technically two parks there (you can see it in the map to the left), so we can use the top park, bottom park, or blend the two together depending on what we want to do.

Next on the docket for Season 9 is finally having accessories available for the popular LTAR (Lazer Tag Augmented Reality) blasters that are on store shelves now.  We've been working on adapters that will allow players to easily add on popular enhancements for these blasters.  There's a Lens Adapter that serves as an excellent platform for adding on long-range lens assemblies.  We're also developing a weaver-rail adapter and stock adapter that will be able to mount a Nerf N-Strike Removable Stock.  Players are always asking veteran players to build a blaster for them, but we rarely have time to fill these requests.  With these easy add-on accessories, players will be able to customize their LTAR they way they want to without making a complicated mess of things.  Making modifications accessible to newer players is a key component to getting folks hooked on this game.  It's one thing to show up, borrow a blaster, and go home when it's all said and done.  However, if you OWN a blaster, and you build it to suit your needs, you're more likely to want to get out there and put it to the test week after week.

Lastly, with the new park location, we'll have the opportunity to reach out to a new community, too.  At the few games we've had, there are already local kids joining our ranks and using their park like they never have before!  Since our first two games at the new park, my neighbors have been asking "when is the next game?  We want to come play again!" so it's exciting to hear that.

Between the new park, new players, and new gear, there's a lot to get excited about for Season 9!  I'm working with our players to figure out our schedule for the summer, but it's great to have so many things to look forward to this summer!

4 comments:

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    1. That sounds great! I agree with having your own guns to modify but as someone that is trying to start a group in Nampa, Idaho I figured that if I had a few guns to gain interest first then maybe I could find more players from there.

      Recently I found a great deal on tactical flashlights at Amazon the Mini Cree Ultrafire Q5 is going for about $3.70 and has been getting lower in price each week it seems.

      There are 3 versions available on Amazon and from reading the reviews you never know if you'll get a High/Low/Strobe or just On/Off. I've read that people will buy 5 from the same dealer and get a mixed batch of either.

      These are knock-offs from China, but they are really bright, have focus-able lenses, and the High/Low/Strobe version when pushed half down will switch between settings without turning off. I used Camo Duck Tape and slapped them on the bottom of the shotgun of the LTX. A more permanent setting is on the way.

      While they do give away your position, focusing the beam allows you to pinpoint Taggers hiding behind parked cars and bushes.

      Gook luck on your 9th Season. Wish we had a park with as much bushes/trees for coverage as yours.

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  2. Hey, would you prefer the EAT or the Rampage

    Thanks, Ryan

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    1. Not really related to this topic, but I'd prefer the Elite AT> http://bazookafied.blogspot.com/2013/01/elite-alpha-trooper-see-ya-rampage.html

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