This year’s Invites have been a long time coming, and even longer for me. The first ‘unofficial’ competition run by LSNZ’s co-founders was back in 2015, right after I left to live in Japan for 4 years. The LSNZ Invitationals developed from there, appearing for the first time in Dunedin in 2016. I watched on with excitement over those years, but also jealousy – as much as I love Japan, it’s devoid of laser tag. I returned in 2019, a month after that year’s Invitationals, only to begin another long wait.

But we finally got there; we pushed through the lockdowns and our 2020 Invitationals were held over a weekend in June 2021, a year out from their original date. We were even lucky enough for that weekend to fall in a very brief three day window where our Aussie players could join us without quarantining.

The number of teams this year were low – 7 in total – affected by the uncertainties of COVID and the lockdowns that resulted. Dunedin showed their commitment though, bringing almost 2 teams all the way to Auckland to compete, including some new players.

The venue was Megazone West in Auckland, and it has an excellent maze for competitive play. The Site Operators have done a lot to ensure it works well for our sport, and this showed in how the players rated its quality. Red base in particular was rated of very high quality, followed by Blue and then with Green being rated average.

The one thing to mar the tournament was an unfortunate incident with the floors. Part way through the second night, Green base, and parts of Red base too, became slippery and as a result unplayable. The rest of the night had to be cancelled, with the end of Round Robins being shifted onto the following day. It didn’t stop there however, occurring again on the Sunday night, right before Finals. Luckily the Site Operators were able to save the night, coming up with a solution to tape a non-stick surface to the floors. The fix was perfect and Finals was played without a hitch.

And what a Finals they were. The final teams, Mad Scramble, LIIT and Internet Explorers proved to be worthy opponents. One of the games finished amazingly close, with 1st, 2nd and 3rd coming out at 44717, 44557 and 44277. The final scores after the 3-game series put Mad Scramble in 1st place with 48835, LIIT in 2nd place with 46487 and Internet Explorers in 3rd place with 44100.