Aliens institute a great Laser Tag battle (RAR!)

[Zor]

In this scenario, an alien starship arrives in earth orbit and deploys a prefabricated floating station into the pacific ocean and a space station into geosynchronous orbit. They inform humanity that they've decided to offer a boon to humanity, specifically once a month they'll be willing to transfer up to 2,000 tonnes of cargo to geosync orbit for the governments of earth using a set of automated drop ships. Which governments get the services will be determined on the floating station in a competition similar to laser tag.

Each UN member nation can provide a team of 16 men and 16 women to be delivered to the floating station, which is disc shaped, 3.12km in diameter with a domed game environment 2.74 km in diameter and has a series of four storey interconnected buildings and trees and padded pathways laid out in a hexagonal grid under a dome. Each team needs a uniform which can either be simple textiles and similar or armor (more on this in a bit) but each team WILL be required to be fitted with a rig. Said rig has a tracking sensor, a modular camera that needs to be affixed to the head somehow and a series of lighweight restraints and sensors. Each soldier is also given two Tag-Guns (one carbine and one sidearm), five tag grenades, a squad comm and one medkit. Tag Guns are the most straightforward part of this: if you are shot with a Tag Gun your Rig will lock into place. If you are shot in the arm or leg, those parts of you are immobilized. If you are shot in the head torso, your out of the game. Said individuals entire suits cease up and a drone will fly over them and deposit them in a waiting room with some chairs, an alien soda machine and some TVs to catch the rest of the match. If your uniform has armor in your uniform, armored parts can take an extra hit before going inert, though a red indicator will show. Tag guns are semi-automatic and fire a beam which is visible. Tag Grenades tag everyone in a five meter radius three seconds after they've been set off. Med packs are three shot ink cartridge cartridge shaped thing which can unfreeze someone's arms or leg by pressing it against them. The squad comm allows squads to talk with each other and cameras provides a live stream feed to the internet so people can watch how their favorite dudes are doing on the internet.

The battle begins with all teams being released into the arena and a five hour timer going down. The objective of the game is simple: take out as many people from other teams as you can while keeping your own dudes in the game. The game wins when either only one team is left or if times runs out and then a matter of points. There are five winning nations in these matches. First place winners win the right for the aliens to bring up 1,000 tonnes of cargo to orbit for their nation, second place gets 500 tonnes for their government, third place gets 250 tonnes, forth place gets 150 and fifth place gets 100. The aliens are honorable in their intentions. There are some rules enforced by a referee AI...

• No tampering with Rigs. Penalty: Automatic ejection of individual from the game. Said individual will be barred for a year.
• No removal or obstruction of cameras. Penalty: Automatic ejection of Individual from the game if not quickly corrected.
• All defecation must be done in toilets. Penalty: automatic ejection of individual from the game, though there are some extenuating circumstance provisos in there.
• No unauthorized gear (these includes comm hacking equipment, actual weapons). Penalty: automatic ejection of individual from the game. Individual barred for for either one year to life depending on weapon
• No actual violence. Penalty: automatic ejection of individual from game. Individual will be barred for one year to life. National team disqualification for up to ten years for repeat offenses or serious attempted assault.
• No attacks on the station. Nations found doing so will be permanently barred.

There are a few more reasonable rules to the effect of which.

What happens and would you watch the event?

Zor

[U.P. Cinnabar]

The US Armed Forces(and others) send in platoon-sized units for combat training the taxpayer doesn't have to pay for, as the gear you describe is a highly advanced form of the MILES system already in use for training by the world's militaries.

Of course non-state actors could use this as an opportunity to train up private security forces in infantry and small-unit tactics a platoon at a time.

Would I watch? Only if Poldark isn't on.

Question: Why don't the aliens add armor, artillery or mechanized units to the mix? Modern MILES gear can simulate attacks with these.

Also, why couldn't the aliens transport thr combatatants to exotic locales. Or can their arena simulate any enviroment?

Finally, do latrines count as toilets?

[KraytKing]

The point seems to be "what could the United States, Russia, and three other countries do with a few hundred tonnes of free Earth-to-orbit freight?"

I have a question: is this a competition held every year?

Either way, I imagine a lot of Korean, American, Chinese, and Russian wins, not necessarily in that order. What could we do with all that free cargo? New space stations might be in order. A moon base might be a possibility; one thousand tonnes is a lot. Of course, we still have to get such a base from orbit to the moon. A Mars mission might come quickly, if we need only send enough fuel for travel and escaping Mars orbit. But I'm just spitballing here. I don't know enough about this subject to really say.

[bilateralrope]

I expect several major countries to come to an agreement about how they split up their mass quotas. One that ignores how much they actually won, except maybe in a bit of money changing hands.

Oh, they will still compete and try to win. They will probably figure out how to profit from televising the competition like any other sporting event. But they won't have their space plans disrupted by the results.