I woke up around 0600H, still quiet in the whole National Airsoft Festival 2017 camp, though some were already stirring up with a few early risers already at the burger fan to get some “light infantry breakfast”. For me, it was coffee first, breakfast second. So after getting a cup from the burger van, I went back to the tent to get my laptop and did some work like putting some updates to the Popular Airsoft website as content should always be fresh and Popular Airsoft is always hungry for fresh content for almost 365 days a year.
I was just finished with site updates when Master Chief woke up at 0730H and back to the burger van for us to grab breakfast. We were joined by Gavin of Viper Tactical who looked so fresh as he had a shower set up behind his van. Good for him. We’re not stinking yet, but after breakfast it’s time to do the hygiene part and of course, gear up with stuff to shoot the players for most of the day --- our cameras.
By 0900H the marquee tent area was already teeming with players, all excited to head into battle. But first things first, a briefing from H was a must before everything starts. Without any go signal from H, no game will take place. It’s more of house rules and players conduct which everyone needed to be reminded of. H went up to his perch that overlooked the whole area at 1000H to say what the players needed to hear and finally gave his blessing to let the games commence. The groups split up to go to their staging areas, and since we have been playing with The Others since we started covering the event, we joined them at Firebase Charlie, our staging for the first day of battles of the National Airsoft Event and it was Woody who was back in command of our group.
Woody definitely knew how to inspire the troops as The Others were raring to go into action with Woody just holding the leash. But before he let go, we had to wait for the grand blast, a series of explosions that signal the start of hostilities. For this year, the bangs were really loud, almost artillery barrage loud, though you may think that I am exaggerating. With the explosions over, the players started running in different directions to start capturing objectives and pick up stuff such as drugs, gold and uranium rods for points. For me and Master Chief, it was time to start shooting the players in action for posterity with our cameras.
As always, there are certain locations that draw the most number of players, and those are where the action took place for the next two days and these are right smack in the middle of the staging areas: The Prison Camp, The Fort, The Village, The Trenches, The Nest, and The Church. That’s where we went to immediately, and the action was already hotting up when we arrived. A big bulk of Delta players was sandwiched by The Others from the North and Bravo from the South as they quickly occupied The Chapel and The Trenches. By around 1130H Delta were entrenched firmly in these areas as they were able to swat away a determined offensive by Bravo. For The Others, it was The Prison Camp with their snipers perched on the rooftop to get a better view and better shots at hapless players from Delta and Bravo. As for Bravo, they were able to have a good grip on The Village and The Fort.
By 1230H, the groups have settled in further solidifying their hold on these and waited for orders from their commanders if they needed to abandon these objectives for newer ones and more points. For us, it was back to the safe zone for lunch and change our shooting gear to airsoft guns. We usually play in the afternoon of Saturday so we can have trigger time too.
Now armed at 1330H, we followed some The Other players from Belgium and The Netherlands who were surrounding The Fort. The place is hard to capture as the approaches are narrow and any attacking party will suffer a good number of players getting hit. We just arrived at The Fort already I got hit without me firing a single shot. Master Chief got hit as well so off to the nearest respawn point for us. Respawning is 5 minutes for this year and after 5 minutes we went to Firebase Charlie and we were ordered towards The Fort again. We peeled away from the group moving towards The Fort and we checked The Prison Camp which was abandoned. We decided to move to the perimeter of the Prison Camp and as The Other players who were with us moved to other areas, Master Chief and I were left only to spot a heavy number of Delta players. We decided to allow the main bulk go on their way (no sense taking them all) and took out Delta players who were trying trying to catch up until our area went eerily quiet and that meant we were able to rid the area of Delta players.
We moved forward to see Delta players with their backs behind us defending The Trenches. We were stealthily making our way towards The Trenches when a lone The Other player decided to join us and started shooting at The Trenches even if it was still out of range. That alerted some Delta players approaching from our six unaware of our presence and one of them got us. Back to the Respawn area and to Firebase Charlie.
By 1500H we were ordered to hold The Prison Camp as a special mission. We were successful fending off attacks from Bravo and Delta until 1530H where were then ordered try and retrieve crates of gold at the Fuel Dump and The Nest and Laptop at The Fort and The Compound. We were hit on the way to The Fort so back to respawn. After respawning, it was already 1630H and the task for all groups is to try and hold The Village by 1700H. We were in a small group making our way to the Village that was already held and tenaciously being defended by Bravo when a large number of Delta players coming from the direction of The Prison Camp started making a big push toward the village, allowing us to put up a hasty ambush position on their flank. It was a turkey shoot as the Delta players were unaware of our positions to pick them one by one on their way to the Village. We remained there until there was 15 minutes remaining for us to take The Village. We broke up the ambush and we made our way to The Village with Woody exhorting all The Others to push harder to take the village. We obliged and were able to make a foothold, occupying some of the huts in the periphery though I was hit when we made our push further in to the objective. I went out and just watched those who have not been hit make their way until the clock hit 1700H and back to the safe zone for us. The first day of hostilities has officially ended with Bravo holding The Village.
Tossing our gear and putting back our airsoft guns back into their cases, we rested our feet until 1815H when we changed into more comfortable clothing and picked up the cameras again. We milled around taking photos of happy faces of people talking about their experiences and missions on the first day of battles. Some were already queuing up at the various dinner vans already hungry after a long day of airsoft action.
At 1900H, H went up his perch to inform the players that he won’t be handling the raffle draw as he had to attend to an urgent matter of electric power in the camp. He told them that his second in command, Rich, will be handling the raffle draw session for this year and promised players that that he won’t disappoint. So up went Rich and I joined him there to take photos of him and the crowd below.
Indeed, Rich did not disappoint and held what was one of the funniest raffle draws ever held at the National Airsoft Festival. Lots of prizes were given away, from gear to airsoft guns. Rich even tossed in some prizes that he personally guaranteed, a free entry to next year’s National Airsoft Festival was one and another was 3 pints of free beer to the lucky winner after the raffle draw. Once we get to upload the videos at the Popular Airsoft YouTube Channel, you will get to see how Rich handled the raffle draw.
After the raffle, it was dinner for the whole Festival camp, with long queues to the food vans which luckily offer a variety of food, from the usual British fare to pizzas, German sausages, French crepes, and Greek wraps. Hopefully, next year they add more such as Chinese as well. For us, it was the pizza and we were joined by Filipino airsoft players from the various groups for beer at the bar and inside were all sorts of people from the usual players in their tactical clothing, to a group of blokes dressed up like whatever characters from Disney and Borat that they looked like having a stag night.
The Filipinos decided to end the night and we joined the group of Brent Cooper of 1066 Airsoft outside of the bar and until we called it a night at around 0030H, had some nice chat and friendly banter. It was already getting chilly by midnight decided to call it night as we were all knackered by now and we might as well rest our backs.
As always, we slept like logs inside our tents on the second night of the National Airsoft Festival.
More Day 2 photos at the Popular Airsoft Facebook Page.