As part of Valentine activities, my fiancee and I took her to Cincinnati’s Dillards Clearance Centre. She had a great time. Instead of torturing myself for hours, however, I was able to visit Foam Warriorz NKY to see how things were going despite the pandemic. It appears so far, so good, especially when opening the entire arena space and being attentive to various protocols.
Rival Rules
There are actual dart blasters, of course, but part of the business model at Foam Warriorz is being able to pay to use better blasters. Because the ammo they use is primarily Rival, they have plenty of blasters available for customers to use. You can, however, bring your own blasters from home and use those without any extra fee. My Curve Shot Sideswipe, and Fauxmetheus were in my case. Partly for saving money, and partly for more war-testing.
The building has other amenities, from video games to axe-throwing. However, those werent seeing a lot of use when I was there at the time. It was mainly people signing in to fill out the usual waivers for playing a sporting game, paying at the counter, or playing. Everyone received a team vest and eye protection, which they could drop in separate bins. Shoes were placed on a shelf while they played.
Gameplay
The arena is decently sized, especially for stock Rival ranges. Although it is possible to split the arena in half, this was not done. Box barriers in team colors are placed on opposite sides of the midfield line. This can be crossed halfway into each game type. Blaster shots and headshots do not count.
During the time I was there (most matches take five minutes, followed by a minute or two to gather ammo), we played Freeze Tag, Medic, and single life Team Deathmatch. You can pivot to reach teammates and tag them back in. Reaching and tagging with blasters was highly encouraged, as to both reduce contact and extend reaching distance.
Somewhat important especially with the spacing of the cover. Medic reduces that to one person who can save teammates, and whose death ends the round. The last gametype? It sounds exactly as it does.
The Fauxmetheus performed well after being rewired and placed on a 3S Lipo to ensure it could reach stock Rival speeds. The lack of a hop-up tab was noticeable at distance, as the balls all did their own thing that far away. The Sideswipe was great, especially when I had my top priming handle. It fired when it did. This is an issue with ammo, as the arena ammo in this case is extremely well-used (not to say always the standard diameter), so it doesn’t work well with certain breech types. It was easy to spot feeding errors because we played conservatively. Pull back the magazine as necessary and close the breech.
A Fun Time
If youre in the area, Foam Warriorz has locations in Florence, Louisville, and Lexington. For prices and times, please visit the Foam Warriorz website. Be kind to everyone, especially during a pandemic. Don’t be afraid to bring your Rival blaster for combat. Although I doubt they would appreciate you bringing a Proton Pack to the arena and trying to get all the ammo out of it,
