On February 8, the Kazan Expo hosted laser tag show matches, where an authentic multi-tier range was specially constructed for the athletes.
The rules of the game in short: two teams of five persons each face off against each other on a lasertag range. Before the match, the athletes are to select their game weapons. The sensor on the helmet of each player sends a vibration once the player has been hit. If the hit is a successful one, the weapon of the player is deactivated and the athlete can no longer take part in the game, touch key objects on the range or communicate with other team members. The format of the tournament is “Set a phygital flame”. One round lasts two minutes during which time the team on the offensive must have the time to set up the phygital flame and keep it from being deactivated. The task of the other team is to neutralize the opponents and have enough time to enter the flame deactivation code before time runs out, or until all of the team members have been eliminated. A team is awarded points for winning each round. In order to win the tournament, a team must score the most points by the end of all rounds.
The first to learn more about the lasertag game were the teams that participated in the Speedrun discipline of Phygital Games-3. The teams Paid actors and Cumovstvo i blat (CIB) were the first to compete in the show match.
During the first part of the game, CIB led with a score of 7:1 but the Paid Actors team members were fighting real hard for their victory. The CIB team went with a universal game strategy i.e. to set up a phygital flame just a few meters from the starting position that would be followed up by a sturdy defense. The players didn’t just know how to go on the offensive but they had a plan how to work around their own tactics if they were the attacking team. This is exactly what they took in their stride in the first round once the teams had switched sides by deactivating the phygital flame of the opponent. Paid Actors managed to win 3 more points during the second half of the game but that was not enough to change the course of the game.
The CIB team won an unconditional victory with a score of 24:4. A member of the winning team whose nickname is Dogmeat chalks his team’s up, quite modestly, to his CS:GO playing skills, and he says that they have literally stuck to the technique: “if something works, don’t change it.”
The day ended with a show match for the teams which took part in the Dota 2 tournament. Each of the team had five players which they were used to. A major battle at the lasertag range broke out between One Move and Roise Noire. The match featured lots of of close-up fights which called for a lightning-fast reaction. It even involved a few one-on-one shootouts. It should be noted that both teams managed to deliver a lot of entertainment and immersive shootouts.
The show match ended with a score of 14:6. Roise Noire, the winner of the MLBB digital tournament, adopted a rather aggressive game strategy from the very outset of the match which gave them the lead right away and made their opponents pretty nervous.
During the second half of the match, One Move managed to win only one round. Unfortunately, the guys failed to make a splashing comeback. As one of the players from One Move put it, the one thing that laser tag and Dota 2 have in common is frustration with defeat. Still, the One Move guys have not sunk into despair. After the match one of them joked that he would now play laser tag every day and even went further to say in jest that he would leave Dota 2 for laser tag.
The CS:GO and Warface teams which are yet to show what they’ve got in laser tag, do have a slight head start as they can watch and study the previous show match and learn some of the tricks of the game. The price of defeat will be too high as these matches are what stands between the teams and their much-desired prizes in their disciplines.