Bullitt Bar breaks the Easter brunch eateries PAGE 18 Solillaquists

Easter brunch eateries
ateries PAGE 18
Bullitt Bar
Solillaquists of Sound:
k to
breaks the
from Austin back
mold PAGE 19 Orlando PAGE 24
Tonight’s TV listings PAGE 43
Orlando Sentinel
MARCH 26-APRIL 1, 2010
Cover Story: On a mission
I TRONORAIL: Disney World’s monorail train is all
wrapped up in a ‘Tron: Legacy’ promotion. Video at
TheDailyDisney.com.
The magic date: June 18
At last, we have a date. The grand opening of the Wizarding
World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure will be June 18,
Universal Orlando says. See other Potter-related facts, photos
and videos at OrlandoSentinel.com.
I CHEW ON THIS: Ripley’s will feature portraits of
Beyonce and Marilyn Monroe that are made entirely of
candy. Photos at OrlandoSentinel.com.tpr.
Preview
Chen Hutson
finds refuge
under a desk at
Hark Knocks. She
was taking part
in a team-building exercise with
co-workers from
RSM McGladrey,
an accounting
firm in Orlando.
JACOB LANGSTON/ORLANDO SENTINEL
THE SCHOOL C
OF HARD KNOCKS
By Dewayne Bevil |
Players aren’t really at war, but it seems like it
ORLANDO SENTINEL
ombat is on the rise in Central Florida, and that makes Joe
Wheeler happy.
He’s no war monger. He and his wife, Dena, are the owners of
Hard Knocks, an indoor combat-simulation arena just off Alafaya Trail
in Oviedo.
There you’ll spy little girls engaged in mock battle, strategizing behind big crates in the warehouse-designed venue — or college guys teaming up to deactivate a hidden bomb. Nearby, grown-ups lurk amid the pod
of Hard Knocks’ abandoned-office arena as piped-in music blares from
above.
PLEASE SEE COMBAT, 4
3
4 Orlando Sentinel
MARCH 26-APRIL 1, 2010
Cover Story: On a mission
COMBAT
FROM PAGE 3
“People love shooting in the
office,” Wheeler says.
With more sophisticated
tactics and missions than paint
ball or laser tag, Hard Knocks
equips patrons with authenticlooking weapons and assigns
missions staged in the warehouse or office space. The
firearms may look real —
think M16, M4 or P90 — but
shoot only infrared beams.
Players are eliminated when
sensors on their bodies meet
those beams.
“We didn’t want the feel of
laser tag,” Wheeler says. “We
wanted real combat experiences — well, that starts with
the guns, the equipment. We
wanted them to be an accurate
weight, and we wanted them to
sound real and have that real
feel.”
Missions fluctuate with the
number of players or type of
group involved. The goal may
be to protect the team leader or
to discover a secret saboteur
among the cubicles. Or it may
be a free-for-all amid giant
crates and barrels.
“Imagine a 30,000-square-foot
combat arena with 80 to 100
people in it — and everyone’s
on their own,” Wheeler says.
Hard Knocks’ clientele splits
into three categories: pure
recreation, corporate team
building and law-enforcement
agencies that tailor the space
for training exercises.
Carissa Burgos threw a
birthday party for her husband, Carlos Burgos, at Hard
Knocks. She invited about 10
friends to celebrate and compete.
“I just wanted to do something different for him,” she
said. “He plays enough video
games. I wanted to put him to
the test.”
Carlos Burgos said he had
played paintball before but “it
wasn’t really this extensive.”
He and his pals dished out
some trash talk during the
competition and beforehand on
Facebook. They finished several missions in a two-hour
stretch.
“We’ve been creaming them
every time,” he says. “Obvi-
ously, it was awesome.”
Sherri Lava, human resources manager for the Orlando office of accounting firm
RSM McGladrey, arranged a
team-building outing for 80
employees. One mission was to
secure a powerful key.
“We really had to work together to find the key and
place the key in an area where
the next person would pick it
up and eliminate our opponents,” Lava says. “It just fostered great teamwork.”
In the one-on-one events, she
was eliminated quickly.
“When we worked together
as a team, our team was able to
keep each other alive and stay
in active combat,” she says.
Women are successful in
Hard Knocks’ league nights
and tournaments, not just
during bachelorette parties,
Wheeler said.
“They’re more patient and
disciplined when it comes to
combat,” he says. “A lot of
male customers like to run and
gun.”
Before each mission, players
go into the armory for instructions and preparation.
Selecting a weapon that works
with your body type is important, Wheeler says.
“I chose the wrong weapon
at first,” Lava says. “I chose the
really big, heavy gun. It was
hard to move around and just
to carry it.” She switched to a
smaller weapon for better
maneuverability.
A new mission is introduced
monthly, Wheeler says.
The average person spends
$20 to $40 for several hours of
entertainment, he says.
Players pay for the time actually involved in a mission. If a
customer buys an hour of time
but is eliminated after three
minutes, there’s still 57 minutes in the account. Group
rates and other discounts are
available.
The business hasn’t felt
push-back from the anti-gun
crowd, Wheeler says.
“We have always been ready
for the inquiry about how this
ties to violence and that piece
of the puzzle. But it hasn’t
come,” he says. “It’s entertainment and not that different
than the action movies that
come out or the action video
Missions
at
Hard
Knocks
Hard Knocks
missions carry
rough-andtumble names.
It’s part of the
overall philosophy. “Our brand
is edgy,” owner
Joe Wheeler
says. Here are
descriptions for
four of the available sessions:
I Sabotage:
Each team tries
to eliminate the
opposing team
before time runs
out. But traitors
are secretly
placed on the
teams with
orders to eliminate their own
teammates —
without being
discovered.
PHOTOS BY JACOB LANGSTON/ORLANDO SENTINEL
A team from RSM McGladrey plots its strategy during a team-building exercise at Hard Knocks.
See for yourself
I Detonate:
One team plants
a bomb in a
designated
bomb site, then
defends the site
and keeps the
opponent from
defusing the
bomb.
I Shrapnel:
Two teams
search for hidden grenades to
increase their
arsenals and
battle power.
Hard Knocks
Where: 5707 Dot Com Court,
Suite 1025, Oviedo
When: 4 p.m.-11 p.m.
Mondays-Thursdays;
4 p.m.-midnight Fridays;
1 p.m.-midnight Saturdays;
1 p.m.-9 p.m. Sundays
Cost: Prices range from $22
for 30 minutes of combat to
$75 for 180 minutes. Group
rates and discounts are
available.
Phone: 407-359-9091
Online: indoorwar.com
Owners Joe and Dena Wheeler in the weapons storage room.
games that come out.”
Hard Knocks opened in May
2007 and reached profitability
within months, Wheeler says.
“Since that time we’ve had
year-over-year increases in
revenue in the high 20s,” he
says. Hard Knocks has put
more than 80,000 individuals
into action, he says. On a busy
Saturday, they can have as
many as 3,000 customers.
The company is working on
franchising in other cities
Dewayne Bevil can be reached at 407-420-5477 or [email protected]. Read the Theme Park Rangers blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/tpr.
and receives several inquiries
a week, he says.
“We’re really starting to
probe those and look at a few
different big markets and start
to figure out which will be our
first franchises,” Wheeler says.
I Assassination: One team
must escort
their VIP to a
designated
point. Once
there, it fights to
keep that VIP
alive. The other
team’s goal:
eliminate the
VIP.