Tezma Victor had never held a gun before, but she turned out to be quite adept at it at G-Sector’s Summer Cup Laser Tag tournament. Held on Saturday and Sunday at its branch on Khader Nawaz Khan Road, the tournament welcomed teams of all ages to participate in a newly designed arena. “When I got in, it was all very exciting,” says Victor. “I also took it out personally on my opponent, and in the trial round, I scored the best out of eight people.”
There wasn’t much time to keep track of scores inside the arena — opposing teams ran around in complete darkness, manoeuvring their way around UV-painted barrels, punching bags and stacks of tires, with only their guns and instincts to rack up as many hits, kills and captures as possible to beat each other.
For some veteran laser tag players like Rhythwyn Barnabas, the design of the arena took them completely by surprise. “We’ve come and played before,” Barnabas said. “But it’s our first time playing in these camps; we’ve never played with bases. There’s more strategy now, so it’s tougher.”
The novel part of the tournament was that the two teams who went in were not familiar with each other. And that was the idea, said Girish Subhash, the owner of G-Sector. “People usually come with their friends, so they know who’s good, they’re familiar with it and they don’t get a chance to play with anybody else,” Subhash said. “Two groups of strangers playing against each other is much more fun than friends playing against each other.”
The tournament was the result of demand from players and teams had been streaming in since noon on Saturday to compete, says Subhash. The semifinals and finals were held Sunday with the winners receiving cash prizes and goodies from the restobar, Boats, Wink, Spykar jeans and membership cards.
Most of the time, the arena is just a vast space with no obstacles barring the participants from hitting their targets. Subhash worked six days to turn the 2,000 square foot space into an explosion of neon and UV-paint specially for the tournament.
As a result of the effort it takes to put together an arena, the tournament takes place only once a year. Subhash and Roshni Hemdev, who handles public relations for G-Sector, want to bring something different to the entertainment avenues in the city to draw more crowds.
“Our city keeps complaining that there’s nothing to do here in town, so let’s have something new,” Hemdev said. “This is the best escape for everybody because you’re in an air-conditioned environment, which is very comfortable for all of us in the summer. The game in itself is such an adrenaline rush.”
