Being new to airsoft and an OZ1 virgin, I was beyond excited to finally get on the plane to NZ see what all the fuss was about. Gelball is good, but I know Airsoft is gonna be better!!
Iggy attended OZ1 2018 and didn’t stop raving about it all year, honestly comparing it as one of his best airsoft experiences of his 15 year airsoft career. This is the main reason as to why I simply had to attend this year no matter what.
Early in the booking period for the event to be in October, Iggy and I, along with 2 of our other Azrael Assassin gelball team members Mitch and Jacob were invited join in with the Aussie Assassin Milsim (AAMS) groups accommodation and weeks events, which was a truly superb group to join, full of outstanding gentleman, all of which I hope to stay close to for ever and a day!
So there we were landing at Christchurch airport at 1am, to be welcomed by a super friendly face who turned out to be a truly outstanding fella that I hope to stay great friends with for life, You know who you are….David!!!
The accommodation the AAMS booked was excellent, hostel style and absolutely superb for the money. Entering our room at 2am, we woke another fella Jason, who I also hope to be a life long friend.
Thursday, along with some of the AAMS crew we went to Unlimited Airsoft, Aka Area67 for a looksie.
It is a well stocked reasonably large shop, and a well sized indoor CQB playing field. Which unfortunately we didn’t actually play at…but we did go back to UA 4 or 5 times through out the week for various reasons. We bought our BBs and some of the guys needed to grab some other bit and pieces.
From there we jumped back in the car and headed out to “Greenfields” which is the venue of the whole OZ1 Conquest event. The playing field is signed Delta Strike Paintball but used by OZ1 for this weeks activities. Heaps of the other OZ1 guys had arrived in NZ earlier in the week and had played the day before so decided to have the day off, which meant there was only 8 or 9 of us out there for a short game or 3.
Phil, one of the AAMS organisers (another of the guys that truly made the week amazing and I thank whole heartedly for some truly wonderful times) took us out for a run around, being the first time a few of us had played airsoft, we took a few minutes to get set up. Unfortunately the clouds started to leak and the weather turned kinda mildy wet. It gave us enough of a reprieve to have some small 5 on 5 games, and get a feel for the power and range of airsoft guns and gear. It was at this point I really started to appreciate the range and accuracy of the BBs from the AEG powered ICS M4s.
It was also the point that I realised that the hire guns has 55-60m of range…..but the likes of Phil, remember the legend of a bloke…who was to be on the opposing team for Conquest….has range and high accuracy of nearly double of us. His Ares Airsoft L1A1 SLR was ridiculously accuracte, slightly later proved easily able to get a head shot on Iggy, standing un supported at around 70m……when all he could see was Iggys hat and thats what he hit with one shot.
So we ran around under the pine tree cover for a few hours, but the drizzle turned to rain and the cover wasn’t enough to stop the water coming in. We couldn’t get the UA Hire guns wet, so we opted to wrap it up for the avo. A shame, with just a few hours under our belts. But it was at the point that Joseph from UA did us a real solid. He offered us our money back for the hire guns as we hadn’t used them for very long at all. Which was a seriously awesome gesture. So we back up, went back to UA and proceeded to spend our refund in the shop to give the money back to Joseph anyway.
This brings us to the end of the field fun for Thursday, bar heading out for dinner activities with the AAMS of course.
More importantly this leads us into Friday, which was the start of OZ1 Conquest 2019. Of which I’m not talking about in detail here, as Iggy is covering it in Issue 3. But I can say YES, YES and YES reoccurring. I honestly can’t say a bad word about the crew that ran it, the organising and the overall event. I absolutely loved it and would happily have had played out another dozen hours of gun time if we had it!!
The weekends gaming was outstanding, 1 overall out right objective, but many additions thrown in for fun by the event crew and facilitated by the 3rd team, the ‘PMC’.
TSIs own Iggy had bee pre assigned the Global Coalition (GC)Commander, which for Alpha section (our squad) meant our game play role was to be the support act for the every whim and need of the Commander him self.
My main role (being attached at the hip to Iggy) meant I was kinda unofficially- self appointed - kinda commander requested but done anyway -2 IC of the GC. Spending a lot of time relaying radio comms to the Commander from the rest of the sections on the GC.
To be honest I loved the role. It meant I got to converse on strategic decision with Iggy, help plan the attack or defences, but it also meant we did miss out on some of fun as we were “back from the front line” at times. Regardless, I couldn’t have asked for a better game, I absolutely loved it.
The Unlimited Airsoft supplied ICS RIS M4s hire guns were great, with the hop up adjusted, using .20 and then .25 BBs with my Aimpoint optic added I was able to very easily adjust the optic to the exact point of aim point of impact out to 50 or so metres when the wind dropped. Once changed to .25s, I did have to add a click to the hop to allow for the heavier BB but I did definitely notice reduction in wind effect keeping the BB straighter for longer in a side wind. For some of the Sunday I had the pleasure of Using Lucas’s (C4s) Light Machine gun with its full auto burst capability and massive box mag, hell was that fun, quite the different experience, working as more cover fire or suppressing fire than the previous day.
Sunday night we all, being nearly all 100 or so players attended the organised dinner at Lone Star restaurant, a super dinner followed by the OZ1 event wrap up announcements and awards. Was truly awesome to see some of the best and fairest guys awarded the coveted OZ1 Dingo award. Some thing one day id love to achieve.
Monday was a whole different day. It was time to let our hair down, ditch the Milsim combat strategic mind and run around the phenomenal CQB field at The Area. I have covered the Arena in far greater detail in Issue 3.
But in short, I was absolutely impressed by the Arena field. The layout of the field was just absolutely superb, like no where I had played before. All I can say here, is I cant wait to play at the Arena again….. and for more. Look out for issue 3.
And that was Mondays adventures done, bar another walk to the eatery for an absolutely top notch burger!!
That is my OZ1 Conquest week done. 53km on foot during game time in the 4 days, that’s quite a few steps for an office bitch by day!!!
I would like to drop some names to finish, these boys are absolute legends. I simply cant wait to see these dudes again. Phil- mate, thank you. I cant thank you enough for everything you did for us in AAMS and OZ1. Tyler- absolute legend for everything!! That was some epic organising. Rob & David, Thank you for everything, airport runs and all! Candy, Jason and Ryan – Boys, you all played a huge part in my week, Thank you.
To the OZ1 Crew, fark me dead. What an event, you guys deserve a medal!!!
Cal, Kurt, Josh, Koala, Shannen and Carl I
salute you and I will see you in 2020!
That is a promise!!
Zen and Dayna!! Cant wait to catch up!!
And my boys Mitchos & Jay!!
What a farkin Rad week we had.
And to my TSI boys, OMG, Iggy and C4!! Love you guys
Thats it for this blog.
Peace out from TEAM TSI
Lets do it again in 2020!!!!