Once more, into the breach...





That's not me in the above pic, but rather some excited participant!

I did indeed go inside and play a scrimmage. I feel the only way to truly represent something and write about it is through experience. You won't see me writing about how to bake a cake unless I do it. In the same thinking, I could not bring this news about the NDTL and the Furyfire without putting myself in someone else's line of sight. Once more, unto the breach, dear friends - literally. The NDTL Arena had a netted portal to enter, I would be lying if I didn't say getting inside had a touch of intensity to it.

The videos and shots I've provided already show what I was looking at: a sea of orange/red/yellow inflatable objects littered around me. In the center, a large inflatable pyramid. A penalty box to the left, and the flag station to my right. Netting served as ventilation and spots where onlookers could observe the nerf hopefuls in their quest for supremacy. Goggled and jersey'd I was run through a quick briefing of the rules and how to operate the new Furyfire blaster.


Pumping rotates the barrel and primes the blaster. Pull trigger. Reloading means putting darts straight back into the cylinder assembly, nothing pops out. Got it. Return to the box when hit, wait for the light, etc. etc. etc. It got increasingly apparent to me that here I was, and I wanted to rock. At that moment, the flag was my objective, and the other four people on the other side were in the way.

Quickly introducing myself to my teammates, we called our assignments. 1 to defend, 1 up the middle, 1 down the right, and I would be heading down the left wall.

Locked, loaded, and crouched behind cover... the siren couldn't come fast enough.

The first round was pretty fast. In a few seconds I had hurdled over a couple of barricades and ran the flag back in a few seconds. The other team had been preoccupied with my teammates on the other end of the arena.

Round 2 saw more of the same, only this time I ran smack dab into the entire team and ended up cooling my heels as they tied things up. We were getting our own points off of dart hits, but it wouldn't be nearly enough to make a good show of it.

Successive rounds involved a lot of scrambling, jumping over darts, ducking others, and more flipping/hurdling over obstacles. It was up close and personal, down and dirty to make sure you got your hits and that they stuck. It was fast, manic, and awesome. The score? Unimportant. The fun? Best part of the entire thing and IMMENSE.

It was only five minutes, but in those five minutes we were heroes, fighters, and competitors. Bring on more Nerf Dart Tag League! We lived the dream, and I wouldn't mind not waking up for a bit.

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