How To Play Games If You Have More Players Than Taggers

Introduction

If you are running an event with more people than laser taggers, there are several ways to manage the group without stress.

The three most common ways to handle who plays which games are:

• Round Robin Teams
  
• The Queue
  
• Mix ‘n Match

Round-Robin Teams

 As can sometimes happen, when people hear that you are playing laser tag in the backyard for your party, everyone wants to come and have some fun. So you can end up with more people than you originally planned. 

 What to do?

For this example, imagine you rented a set of 8 taggers (four on the red team and four on the blue team). 

But you have 16 people who want to play. Here's how you handle it: play in round-robin teams. What is a Round-Robin format?

 Round-robin formats see players split into groups. Each player plays against other team players, so everyone gets a chance.

Not sure how to split up the players without arguments?

Try a lucky dip.

Put all the players' names into a hat. Get 16 wristbands or lanyards, 4 of each colour.

Such wristbands from The Wristband.co your local Officeworks or even Amazon!

In other words, for example, you would have

• 4 black wristbands,
  
• 4 green wristbands,
  
• 4 purple wristbands and
  
• 4 white wristbands.

(I recommend not using red or blue wristbands because these are the colours used in the taggers themselves.)

Place all these wristbands in a hat. Players randomly pick one out. Now you have your teams, and there's no fighting about which players will be on the birthday boy's or girl's side.

Then each of your teams plays against each other in different combinations.

Make the games short, like 5 minutes, so you can cycle through the groups quickly.

So, you'll have two teams on and two teams off.

But the spectators are not idle! Encourage the gamers on the sidelines to offer advice to the competitors.

You know, stuff like:

• "He's over there!" or
  
• "Watch your Six!" or even
• "Behind you!!"

You get the idea.

There's always a lot of action and movement in a laser tag game.

Have Fun With Your Team Names

You can also name your teams to keep in your party theme.

For instance, if you are doing a Star Wars Party, then you can name your teams like this:

* 4 black wristbands - "Tatooine Team"

* 4 green wristbands - "Coruscant Team"

* 4 purple wristbands - "Naboo Team"  

* 4 white wristbands - "Hoth Team"

Or choose whatever names you like!  

If you add a game box to your rental you can score each round.

Say you are playing your 5-minute game and the purple team is playing versus the white team. In this "capture & hold" game team the players need to tag each other and the game box in the middle.

In this case, the Naboo Team has the Red Taggers, and the Hoth Team has the Blue Taggers. When the players on the Namoo team shoot the box, it flashes red. And when the players on the Hoth Team shoot the box, it flashes blue. 

During the 5-minute game, imagine that Hoth has control of the box for 4 minutes. At the end of the time, the box will flash blue, so everyone knows that Hoth won.

In this example, the Hoth team gets one point.

You will need to play 6 rounds, so each team plays every other team once.

You might want to play Game 1 and Game 2, then break for some drinks and or maybe a group photo with all the kids and their taggers. (Remember to tag your photo on Facebook or Instagram with #Lasertaginabox.)

If your rental includes the "Level-Up" bonus, you can use the camo net as a photo backdrop.

Next play Games 3 and 4 and then take another break for the Birthday Cake and singing "Happy Birthday".

Finally, play the last two rounds, Game 5 and Game 6, then afterward, you can have a pinata or the birthday boy or girl open their presents. Alternatively, you might want to do Games 3 to 6 and then break and do the cake & pinata and free play.

That way if some kids get collected early, they won't miss out on any laser tag games.

The Queue 

Managing A Huge Group Of Players

Mix n Match Individual Players

A more laissez-faire way of managing the gameplay is a hands-off approach.

The organisers can leave the players to do their own thing without interfering:

If gamers have access to the laser taggers throughout the entire day, like in a vacation care program, you might want to let the kids play and take turns. They can play laser tag, then do some other activities, and come back to the laser tag throughout the day.

They might play on the red team and sometimes on the blue. You can even set the taggers to a "free for all" so the gamers play as individuals rather than on teams.

However, this approach has the drawback that some players might try to ‘hog’ the gear and not let others have a go.

After all, we want everyone to have fun!

Conclusion