event STIRLING AIRSOFT ENGLAND V SCOTLAND 2017
“THE STREETS SEEM DESERTED, THE ODD SOUND OF SHOOTING IN THE DISTANCE, A GRENADE OR A TORCH. EVERYTHING BECOMES A LITTLE BIT MORE PSYCHOLOGICAL FOR BOTH TEAMS.” other team. Then both shut for 5 minutes and switch around. This keeps the flow of battle moving and prevents a solid front line being formed. The battlelines are probably closer to Stalingrad than anything. Pockets of players dotted across the site, cut off, hiding, sniping in places you would never expect are all too common. Blue on blue or friendly fire are also equally commonplace despite the camouflage differences and people sometimes just react when tensions are running high. The scene is set, the players sign up then the most amusing part of the weekend begins. Players arrive and hang out in the court yard where HR4K were offering T Shirts and high quality black stuff from Black Rifle Coffee Company. The Land Warrior Airsoft store was also there as they sponsor the event, making sure players had the last few items they needed to enjoy their weekend. Sleep deprived (generally from someone snoring) and feeling a bit rough the next morning is not uncommon and can require a few more of those coffees to help you wake up fully. The social evening is an important part as airsoft is a fairly sociable game whilst being a competition. It gives friends from both sides of the border a chance to catch up before the gloves come off and the carnage begins. With 87 players signed to the English side wearing desert gear and 87 to the Scottish side in green gear the game kicks off at 11am on the Saturday. This gives time for the standard safety brief, which covers site specifics such as no full auto indoors and then there is a team specific brief just before game on. The way each team is managed is a personal choice of the commander. Ben Watt, the English commander and a good friend, has probably commanded more Catterick events than I have played and he has a Darth Vader approach to failure. Mistakes generally mean you end up on the back foot quickly and that’s when you lose points. The best plan is to push hard and not to stop, as soon as you stop you lose ground. Sounds easy doesn’t it? I head up the Scotland team alongside Stuart Anderson, both of us have played Airsoft for a very long time and love the big events Stirling offer. Holding key buildings at certain times scores points, all players have a list of these buildings and presumably they can tell the time. Think of it like orienteering for 18 hours, over two days, with very little sleep and everyone is trying to shoot you or blow you up.
GAME ON!
The start is always furious until the game settles into a rhythm, with players mad dashing around the site shooting the place up. It’s quite skirmish-worthy! Most of the afternoon was toe to toe fighting for both teams but Scotland wavered very early on with a lack of cohesion. England pressed at these points gaining slight advantages. The firefights formed, finished, moved and reformed very quickly. This is where a team can unravel and it was at this point in the last couple of years that Scotland would slowly pull away from England on the scoreboard. This year was different, Scotland didn’t pull away and England kept coming. Then England edged ahead slightly and continued to push hard into Scotland.
WINTER IS COMING
Being a December game you are always against the light but thankfully the weather this year was mild and bright. The insides of the buildings are dark early with very few windows having the wooden shutters opened, trying to play without a torch is almost impossible. Many players sport night vision of various types but these are not entirely necessary in my experience as it is all about adapting what you do at night. It’s not uncommon to see a Navy Seal wandering down the road, bobble headed in plain sight because he doesn’t realise everyone can see him. A quick BRAAAP! and they go back to regen. At night you simply move in areas you know are secure, if you suspect there is enemy in an area treat it as hostile and use your challenge and responses if you can. In the evening, almost every Catterick event is the same in that everyone seems to disappear. The streets seem deserted, the odd sound of shooting in the distance, a grenade or a torch. Everything
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