2026 Tactical Games Phoenix Regional, 21/46 Men’s Intermediate

After telling myself that I was done with the Tactical Games, of course it makes sense to drive 7 hours to Phoenix and do double the work, right? Regional events are 8 stages over two days as opposed to the single day 4 stage Skirmishes I had competed in previously, and the first thing I noticed about a regional is that it’s just more. More days, more stages, more people (over 200 at this event) more reps, more weight…. It’s just more. I started the event with something that should have played into a strength for me; the longest targets of the whole match at 380 yards and while I did shoot well, it was the physical aspect that got me burned out early. Day 2 started with the stage I had been dreading the most, where a 70lb (for Men’s Intermediate) bag had to be drug in a sled to a long over/under obstacle and maneuvered through it just to get to the shooting, and then back and forth you’d take this bag for extra magazines doing penalty work for missed shots, and somehow this was one of my better stages of all. My Atlas had just come back from the shop the week of the match, and at some point on Saturday the red dot came loose. Remounted in the hotel room, there was no opportunity to rezero on Sunday and it wasn’t until my 3rd stage of the day that I finally had a stable shooting position on paper to see it was about 8” low. Overall it was more important than ever to keep a solid attitude through the wind, rain, sweat and pain, and just like the Skirmishes I couldn’t believe the amount of support from actual strangers. The 2027 Tac Games schedule just got released which I don’t care about because I’m absolutely done with Tactical Games. Right?