Haha I got dethroned rather quickly though ! But competition does not scare me !
I think I started with trying to get as much weight and speed as I could, to get rid of enemies quickly, and then started getting survivability, which I got quite easily as I could kill enemies fast enough to get 3 upgrades almost everytime. At this point it felt like I increased in strength faster than my enemies so it got pretty smoothly, until I got one shot. I got rather early a combination of stun + lots of projectiles which allowed me to freeze almost everyone I could not kill.
For the laser enemies I think there are a few things to try. First, the main frustrating thing is that you cannot really hide as you don't know where they will be after they move. I would try to make them shoot before moving instead of at the end of their movement. You can also reduce their range so that you cannot be shot by someone you don't see in your screen.
You can also try to make them shoot in a fixed direction instead of directly at the player (in a cross pattern for example ?). If you have a clear indication of where they will shoot, it would give some breathing room for the player and allow him to see which places are safe.