Season 9 is off to a STELLAR Start!

New Park, New People, same awesome game!  The Midwest Laser Tag Association has kicked off it's 9th Summer Season of weekly games with a wonderful potluck cookout followed by a great set of team games.  I think I was most happy with the turnout of new players, who proceeded to school the veterans in the "Vets vs n00bs" game we did midway through the event.  There were 30 total players, many of which we picked up at a game I helped host for a group of high school and college kids at the beginning of the month.  It was great to see that kind of retention and interest from that group.  In general, there are more new players inviting other friends to this.  I'm sure if we played the "7 Degrees of Separation" game, we'd see a much more diverse group today than we did when we started 8 years ago.

Because we had a bigger group, we weren't able to get a ton of games in.  We started with a classic Team vs Team battle in the middle of the park.  Next, we did that "Vets vs n00bs" game which, while still a lot of fun for the 8 veterans we managed to have... was more of a wash than we expected.  I managed to take out 7 players before I was finally tagged out but we just couldn't hold 'em!  After that we did another Team vs Team game followed by a "Protect the VIP", which we haven't done since... like... Season 2 or something.  I was the VIP, no weapon, wearing a Laser Challenge Team Force front and back vest with 10 hits on it.  My team was supposed to get me safely to the other side of the park.  As it turns out, my team wasn't so good at protecting me.  5 minutes into the game, I had already been shot 4 times with no real successful plan to get me safely through the park.  As the team started to fall apart, I decided to disappear into the park by myself.  I had made it pretty far, and even managed to get past several of the other players, who were more focused on shooting up my team than finding me.  Eventually, I was caught (after I was about halfway there) and then gunned down.  Still had a great time!

The other bit that made me a bit proud was the next morning.  Our youngest player (the one in the red shorts next to me in that first photo up top) is one of my neighbors.  Great kid, super enthusiastic about this, and he always has some super secret plan to fill me in on.  He even brought some Pop Ice popsicles to share with everyone at the end of the game.  His mom shared a picture of something he wrote at school and my heart kinda melted.  The message reads "Iikec mic becos he has lasr tag gamse." which, when translated, reads "I like Mike because he has laser tag games."  I'm pretty sure that's also a picture of someone shooting a laser tag gun above it.  Good to know I've got a pint-sized fan thinking about this stuff even when we're not playing the games.

So between THAT, the games, the turnout, the food, and everything else... I'm incredibly happy with how things have turned out so far!  Next week is our 8th Anniversary Game where we'll have our throwback gear and return to our old stompin' grounds.