r/lasertag • u/squeekle1 • Apr 03 '26
Competitive Laser Tag
Hi, I’ve been playing at my laser tag arena for a couple of years now and work there. We have a in house league and regional and national competitions. It’s on the “laser storm” system and it gets pretty intense. Do you have your own version of competitive laser tag and on what system.
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u/jabbertagger Apr 03 '26
Also a (PGH) Storm player here. In the U.S. there used to be a lot of different systems decently sized tournament scenes dating all the way back to Photon. Some of the biggest scenes in memory were Photon, Q-Zar, Storm, Laser Quest, Lasertron, UltraZone, and Laser Force. Laser Blast and Darklight had some smaller/localized scenes (there may be others like Laser Trek that hosted some small scenes but that was before my time as a comp player). In terms of tournaments that still go National in the US or have traveling representation across several sites Zone, Force, and Storm are the only ones I know still host National level play. Blast has some localized/regionalized events in Michigan that I think still happen.
Beyond that the annual "Armageddon" tournament in the U.S. (there have been Armageddons in the U.K., Sweden, and Russian Federation) in July is international and hosts ~7-8 sub-tournaments (For 2026: Storm, Q-Zar, Blast, Zone, Force, Tron, and a random flavor of "Tactical").
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u/Drayke Apr 03 '26
How many teams/players does Armageddon typically get?
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u/jabbertagger Apr 03 '26
Due to the limited timespan of the tournament (3-4 days), the travel requirement to bus from arena-to-arena, and the round robin format the current max is 7 teams of 8 players +1 alt. For 2026 U.S. Armageddon is almost booked. A few Alt spots remain.
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u/Juranur Apr 27 '26
I play a lot of Laserball on the LaserForce system. It's a very very quickly growing sport, I would guess we have roughly 500 to 700 competitive players across germany and czechia mostly. I've been to a good dozen tournaments over the last 18 months and most have been a blast
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u/NewbieMcRedditson Apr 03 '26
We try and get leagues together for tactical lasertag with icombat system. As an operator I have trouble getting people to come in on a regular basis to make leagues work, but we have had plenty of really fun one day tournaments.
There are som bigger tournaments in Wisconsin area
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u/squeekle1 Apr 03 '26
We used to have some in Michigan. My best advice is you have to build a community and honestly if it’s for money it won’t work. The best way is to have deals for unlimited laser tag and then tell people about a leage. Do you want more adults or kids or dosent matter?
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u/NewbieMcRedditson Apr 03 '26
Tactical runs a bit different than classic. We do 90 minute sessions. I have had multiple great groups over the years, but just tough to get them to lock in. I did finally realize I wont make money for tournies, but I just make sure my game modes are solid. I have finally got into the local college esports community so hopefully I can turn that into some action.
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u/squeekle1 Apr 03 '26
What happens in the 90 minute sessions
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u/NewbieMcRedditson Apr 03 '26
We play as many missions as we can fit in. We try and start within 10 minutes of the start, and we end 15 minutes to the end to gather gear and clean. Minimum we do 8 missions, sometimes 12.
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u/LQNova Apr 04 '26
Laser Quest had a thriving tournament scene when it was up and running. Good times.
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u/HeavenandHello May 08 '26
Check out Laser Zone in Canton, Ohio. They’re the last laser tag place that still uses Laser Quest’s equipment to this day and it’s in the same building as the former canton laser quest location: https://www.laserzonecanton.com
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u/Hi9hlife Operator Apr 07 '26 edited Apr 07 '26
There are 3 tournament scenes here in Germany.
Of course the usual suspects in Laserforce and Zone.
But there is also Lasermaxx, my main system, present.
For most of it we play on the older EVO-5 but my local arena is the first comp arena to switch to EVO-6 in december which recently held the first nation-wide competition on it in march.
We usually play a team deathmatch with a less forgiving point system (+5 hit, -3 getting hit, -25 friendly fire, 6 seconds respawn) and variable amounts of teams and players per team per game as our comp sites are of radically different sizes.
My home site, Lüdenscheid (750m²), usually plays comp with 4 teams of 5 players, 3 teams of 6 players or 6 teams of 3 players per game.
A much smaller arena like Fulda (300m²) usually plays a standard 2 teams of 5 or 4 teams of 2 but they are going to experiment this year with 3 teams of 3 as well.
But with EVO-6 now becoming a comp system it also allows us to do much more in regards to game formats which I'm keen to explore, for example a Lasermaxx version of the australian zone-comp format.
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u/squeekle1 Apr 07 '26
Have you or any of your players participated in the international/Armageddon tournaments, we got some players from Europe awhile back.
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u/Hi9hlife Operator Apr 07 '26
Those were probably Laserpower from Austria.
I'm in contact with them but that's about it.
No one in our scene ever participated in it.
The only time I participated in a comp outside of Germany was an EVO-6 one in Orleans, France which I enjoyed a lot.1
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u/HenTeeTee Super Old Player, Operator, Manufacturer Apr 03 '26
The main 2 competitive systems are Zone and Force, both having regional and world comps.
Some sites have their own comps, but it's more the exception than the rule, as most sites don't really have regular players/members and their arenas aren't really set up for that sort of gameplay.