I subscribe to the Groupon e-mail and that's how I heard about Chesterfield Sports Fusion. (If you've never heard of Groupon, it's a daily coupon sent via e-mail that has a fantastic deal around your city. I suggest you check it out and see if your city is on there.) I missed the actual Groupon for this, but when I saw laser tag mentioned, I was intrigued. I visited their website and saw that this place has a dodgeball court, rock climbing wall, 18-hole mini-golf, a crazy tunnel playground thing, an arcade and the laser tag court. In mentioning it to my coworkers, we all agreed it would be awesome to head there for Jonathan's birthday.
It looks like it's in an old warehouse, so if you head to Chesterfield, keep your eyes peeled. We drove right past it and didn't realize it was there. Fortunately, we got there around 8:30-9, so it wasn't crazy packed with kids. It was actually fairly empty, which was great. We each paid for a laser tag session and a round of mini-golf, both for under $15. A laser tag game was just getting started, so we had some time to kill and headed over to the arcade.
I do love me some racing games, so I naturally headed straight for those, while the boys pretty much stayed at the football toss the entire time! It was soon time to head to laser tag, and we waited patiently for the other game to end. They have a score card screen outside the room showing each person and each time they scored a hit. Each person is given a code name and someone at the facility decided to use Star Wars characters, like Yoda, Darth Vader and Han Solo sprinkled with a few random names like Spongebob, Robocop and Chuck Norris. Someone was smoking something that day! Each game reuses the same set of names, and I ended up with Mace Windu. I had to be reminded who that was, since it's been awhile since I've seen the Star Wars movies. (And appropriately named, whoever got the Chuck Norris code name in the game before ours, was kicking major ass. It ended up being a 10-year old kid.)
Finally, it was our turn to go and we realized that we would be playing against a group of 9 20-year olds. Fortunately, we had 9 on our team as well, so we thought we would be evenly matched. Especially considering one of our guys was in the Army. However, we should have been forewarned when they were all in dark workout gear and tennis shoes. They were out for blood.
We had to watch a quick cheeseball video on how to use our gear properly and the rules of the game. All important information, just presented in a way that we couldn't stop laughing over. So, here goes. Everyone gets their vest that has lights on the front and the back, and a gun attached to the front. The gun also has a light on the front of it. These lights are basically sensors that start flashing when an opponent's laser hits it. Once you've been shot, your entire vest blinks for 6 seconds, at which point you can't be shot again, and you can't shoot anyone yourself. (The not being able to shoot part really sucked.) There's an LED screen on the back of your gun that tells you your name, rank in the game and who just shot you. Oh yeah, and there's to be no running. Because apparently, there are walls and obstructions you could run in to. Really? I thought laser tag was just a free-for-all in one big open room.
We each then proceeded to get our equipment and initialize our guns and then it was on like donkey kong. We were at a distinct advantage because no one in our group had been to the course before, so it took us a few minutes to get acclimated to our surroundings. And in those few precious minutes, we lost our advantage. The other team headed straight for higher ground and as we were running around like headless chickens, they were popping us off one at a time from the balconies. They were also stationed at each of the ramps to the upper decks and would pop off a few shots if you even attempted to enter their territory. After a few minutes, I quickly realized that once I got shot, I had 6 seconds to blow past them and try to head for a safer place before getting shot again. It kinda worked unless I ran from one pack to the next in time to get shot again!
So, yeah, that no running rule? Complete crap. We were all darting around, in and out of bunkers like a pack of wild dogs. I was crawling on my knees at one point to avoid capture and I have a gnarly bruise on my knee to show for it. Jonathan was doing some crazy dives and rolls and landed on his pack at one point. Another friend, Brian, somehow tripped (guess we should have listened to the no running rule) and cut his ankle on something. Most other times, we were all just kind of running around looking for people to shoot. I had some kills, but unfortunately, not enough. I swear I'd look around and see no blue lights (the other team's colors) and somehow my vest would light up like the 4th of July. WTF? (Probably the decision to wear a yellow shirt in a blacklight environment had something to do with them picking me off so easily.) Also, I kept forgetting that my gun had a sensor, so I didn't have to be visible behind a barrier, they could just nail the gun. Dave, the soldier of the bunch, was off the chain. He was pickin' people off like it was child's play. He kept running past me and all I'd see was a green blur (our team's vest had green lights). He just came out of nowhere and would get like 5 people at a time, since they were huddling together. That was their strategy. They stayed in packs, so if one of them missed you, someone else would nail you.
It was 13 minutes of complete and utter chaos. But it was also 13 minutes of pure enjoyment. I can't tell you how much we laughed and giggled as we ran around that course. I didn't want it to end. We all felt like we were about 10 years old again. During all the chaos, I never once paid attention to my gun to see my rank, but fortunately, I didn't come in last. I was close, but I still got some kills. The guys from the other team were pretty PO'd when they discovered that Dave came in first place with the most kills. Other than Dave and Jonathan, most of our team was at the bottom of the rankings.
We ended the night with some mini-golf and a few more arcade games, but laser tag was by far the best part of the evening. I will definitely go back, and look forward to taking more friends and family there sometime. It's pretty cheap and makes for a fun evening. Since most of my coworkers were there, they can attest to my boss that it would be a great team-building exercise!
Our group! (The 12 year old taking the picture didn't inform me that my face was half covered.)
My coworker Erin and I with our gear. No idea why I have crazy eyes and look like a sociopath.
