ZLTAC commenced in 1999 and is now the largest indoor Laser Tag tournament of its kind around the world. Each year players travel to a different state of Australia or New Zealand to play off for the prestigious title.
The main event is the blue ribbon 5 man Teams event. Other events include Solos, Doubles, Triples, Lord of the Rings, Masters (ages 35+), Womens and Juniors (ages 12 to 18).
Check out the Major League Laser YouTube channel for interviews and real life footage from some of the elite players and teams of the competition.
2018 saw the Championships being hosted for the first time by Zone 3 Albury from February 28 to March 9. It was the largest competition to date with registrations reaching 37 teams and 223 individuals.
Joining ZLTAC for the first time was Finland’s highly anticipated World Championship team, “GP”, who took first place in the World Titles in 2017. It is only the second time in history that an international team has competed in the Australasian competition.
Another notable team included “Just Be Better” from Werribee, the first team comprised solely of an all female playing roster. The team was led by Kippy, a seasoned veteran of the sport, and included some fresh faces and upcoming talent.
In a feat unmatched by any other team to date, the three time winners Brisbane’s “Maroons” managed to make it through the round robin part of the draw undefeated once again setting themselves up as a major competitor in the event.
It was Albury’s flagship team “Sovereign” who made the biggest climb of the event, jumping 7 spots on the final day of competition to finish 10th. In an interesting turn of events it was the “Albury Strikers”, comprised mostly of new players to the competition, who took home the wooden spoon, a first for a home team competing in ZLTAC.
2018 was unquestionably the most competitive year to date, where positions within the top 10 were hotly contested. In the end only 3 teams could go through to the grand final and on the day there were 3 teams who wanted it badly enough; “Brisbane Wolfpack”, “Werribee 1up” and the “WA Sharks”.
Next year will see ZLTAC head to the Sunshine Coast where Queensland teams have been tipped as the hot favourites once again to win the event. 2020 will see the Championships being hosted in Darwin, NT.
Once again Queensland sent 6 teams comprising of 35 players. All teams finished in the top 20 of the blue-ribbon teams event and players took trophy positions in all side events, including solos, doubles, triples, masters, womens, juniors and LotR.
Laserzone Sunshine Coast continued the trend of sending 2 teams, the veteran crew “Blue Steel” and the newly comprised team the “Geckos”. Two players made their debut appearances, “Boots” and “Penguin”, where they gained some great experience leading into a home competition next year.
In the side events our Sunshine Coast players once again proved they are fierce competitors. Robo (featuring “Team Andrew”) beat out over 50 teams to once again make triples finals where they placed 9th.
Mad Cans, Blitz and GMI defeated over 160 players to secure spots in Solos finals where they placed 9th, 17th and 20th respectively.
GMI and Mopar went head to head with 24 other players in the Masters event. It was Mopar’s year to finally take a 1st place trophy, where he beat out second placed GMI by 243 points (an average of less than 2 tags per game!).
Womens saw a huge turn out with 29 competitors. Raven beat out last year’s winner Chuch to take 1st place, making it the second time she has won the event.