Game Designer: Unknown
Game Designer: Unknown
Competitive Play
The competitive side of the foam flinging hobby has become popular amongst many players. There is no one way to play competitively within our hobby as a variety of game modes and tournaments have sprung up. Typically these games rely on single life elimination mechanisms although a capture the flag element is often incorporated. Examples include Ion Rush by Atomic Dart League, QuikFlag by Louis Mineo, Send Zone by Foam Pro Tour, Speed Dart and Flag Dash by Maryland Mayhem.
One of the more unique competitive game modes is a variant on King of the Hill by the Blaster Tag Association which allows for respawns. Unfortunately the equipment required to run this game mode makes it less accessible than those previously mentioned. The barrier to entry has been dropped slightly by my guide to build a KoTH timer but it is still relatively expensive to get proper equipment. Recently Hasbro launched their own competitive game mode, Nerfball, which included respawns and had a basketball mechanism.
In the future I hope to create a more standard template from which the rules for the various game modes can be formatted. That is sometime in the future although I have made a good start by helping write and format the Maryland Mayhem's Flag Dash ruleset for 2024.
In the mean time I have been contemplating how causal clubs can help scratch the competitive itch that many of our players are starting to feel. In general I am not a fan of limited life game modes for casual clubs, however having a couple of limited life rounds during an event can help scratch that competitive itch. Additionally a helpful way to make things seem more competitive is to keep stats on players. Below is a thought exercise on how I think casual clubs can keep stats I'm calling the Foam Blaster League (FBL).
FOAM BLASTER LEAGUE (FBL)
Is a causal competitive format for which players to compete locally. It is largely based on the honor system. See video above for overview.
Once per participating event the club will host a FBL game.
FBL games are single life elimination games and consist of two rounds.
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Players score 1 league point for each enemy opponent they tag out.
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Players score 5 league points if their team wins the round.
At the end of each round a player who wishes to participate in the local FBL marks their score on one of the score sheets provided by the admin team (see an example score sheet below). Scoring is based on the honor system and is not regulated by the club admins. The admins will take the scores from each event and post the seasons cumulative score on a Google sheet (possibly a website), so players can see their ranking.
The following stats will be displayed in the Google sheet
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Tag to death ratio
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Average tags per event
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Average league points per event
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Total tags
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Total league points
Additional notes:
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Players can play in FBL games even if they are not participating in the blaster league.
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Blaster league games are not tied to a specific game mode, the only requirement is they are single life elimination and that there is a win condition.
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The purpose of the average stats is so that even players who can not attend events as much as other players can still compete in these categories.
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At this time Foam Blaster Leagues are meant to occur locally and are regulated by local admin teams although multiple clubs may wish to combine.
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The purpose for relying on the honor system is to avoid placing undue work on local admin teams. The structure of the FBL is meant to require minimum effort from the admin teams.
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The FBL is meant as a causal way to compete. However clubs may wish to do some kind of award at the end of each season for the various categories. I recommend keeping any awards simple without any real monetary value.