Tactical laser tag tournaments
The Five Cornerstones of running successful Laser tag tournament
1. First of all, you should have a proper location.
You should have or build a location that has two are equal sides, that is two teams should have equal tactical possibilities during the game for example to take central control point (in domination point scenario) or to defend their own base (in bases scenario), or for side maneuvers in a deathmatch scenario and so on. So the first you should have is the location with equal sides.
2. The second cornerstone of the good tournament is the game scenario.
Usually, the most popular tournament scenarios are team deathmatch, domination scenario, deathmatch with control point or assault scenarios.
But deathmatch with a control point or control point will be the more suitable. However the best scenarios for the tournament are those that can't be finished in a tie, for example, the deathmatch scenario can be finished in a tie and the Domination scenario can not.
3. Teams score table.
There are several types of scored tables for example playoff scores, double elimination score table and each
vs each score table. Here are the descriptions of these formats. Each vs each means that each team plays with each other team and gets score points, for example, 3 points for the win, 2 for a tie and 1 for a loss.
Usually, it depends on the number of teams. If you have many teams it will ve more suitable to use double-elimination if less than 6 teams than Each vs each. The regular playoff scheme is used very rarely because it does not give a second chance to the team that made a mistake.
And there is one important point. Each game should consist of 2 rounds, it means that teams should play, then change sides and play again.
4. The fewer players in one team the more interesting tournament you'll get.
One more awesome lifehack is that the fewer players each team consists of the more teams you will get in the tournament and the more popular the tournament will be.
For example, we have one very large laser tag operator with about 60 regular players attending Saturday open games, but when they tried to run a tournament they found only 3 teams with 6 players in each (18 tournament players), because someone doesn't want to play in a tournament, someone doesn't have time, someone doesn't want to play with some other persons for example and so on.
Next time they announced a tournament with 3 players in a team and they got a tournament with 10 or more teams (30 players total) because much easier to find two other persons who want to play with you than 5 players.
That's why when they made 2 times smaller teams (from 6 to 3 players) the number of teams increases not 2 but 4 times.
One more advantage is that if the operator runs a tournament with 3 players teams he needs only eight standard guns. For example six guns for the game and two for replacement.
5. Kids love pizes and distinctive marks.
One of the most popular prizes are simple velcro military patches with marks like
-=== the 1 in laser tag championship ===--
- ===summer 2023 === --
Children that got these patches will take them to all your open or private games. The winner of the tournament will constantly use the patches with a uniform.
Kids also like kids like medals, prize mugs, tournament diplomas and so on.
An operator can also make a little prize fund for the winning teams and for example run paid tournaments with all gathered funds will be a prize for 3 winning teams.
Kids also like to name their teams. And not only kids actually.
Team players usually became the most loyal customers because they should practice more for playing in tournaments every week and. Laser tag business owner/operator can give them 30-40% discounts for public games.
What do you need for running a laser tag tournament
- a blackboard with a marker to make scoring after each game
- 8 laser tag guns
- Additional devices (Digital flags, control points, respawn devices)
- proper location or field with inflatables
- referee
- prizes, patches and so on
- a lot of drinking water
- action camera (GoPro or any Chinese replica) to make a video of the tournament.
Here are some videos of different laser tag tournaments
School tournament with inflatables. Control point scenario with 3 points in the center and two respawn devices on the sides
Assault scenario. 3 control points in the building, 3 vs 3 players. Assaulters have 6 health hitpoints, defenders have 4 health hitpoints
Adult tournament, realistic heavy guns. Control points scenario. 3 control points in the center 3 v 3 players, respawn devices no the sides
Deathmatch + 1 control point scenario. 3 v 3 players, woods venue.
Laser Tag OPEN Cup. This cup runs different scenarios. 10 v 10 players.
Standard Laserwar tournaments. Control point scenario with 3 control points in the center and inflatables in 2017
Standard Laserwar tournaments. Control point scenario with 3 control points in the center and inflatables in 2018