It was a good decision to call it a night early. I woke up with a full bladder at around 0600H and had to run to the loo to empty whatever was left last night. After getting out of the portaloo, I was humbled by the view I saw as the morning sun's rays were hitting the Ringwood grounds, with the fog slowly dissipating, and creating a fantastic effect. I rushed immediately to my tent to grab the camera and take photos. I wouldn't miss this scene as it just showed me how wonderful the world is, especially early in the morning when everyone's asleep and the surroundings are quiet. I regretted not bringing my tripod as it could've been better. But the view was just amazing.

A few groggy souls were up and walking while the rest were still in dreamland. Masterchief's snoring still at full power and I had to shrug and point to his tent when some people passed by and wondering where the noise was coming from. Sometimes I had to reply "the cows" and pointed over the the fence as there were mooing cows out on the field. I then decided to walk around the savor the morning scene as it' was so serene. The grounds were quite, but then they were about to witness a stirring up of a camp of over 1,400 airsoft players --- all with itchy trigger fingers.

Please do bear with me if this page will load slowly as this is our account of Day 2 of Ground Zero Weekender 2010, and the longest day of the event. This is loaded with photos and as such we do require your patience when reading this page.

By 0700H the camp began stirring up to life. Many were already donning on their gear while breakfast was cooking. Many veterans taking it easy stretching and treating themselves to warm cups of coffee. Since I don't cook, I had to wait for Masterchief to wake up from his deep slumber and start preparing breakfast. The sun by this time was fully up and whatever coolness of the morning still had was quickly going away.

Masterchief finally woke up and started breakfast, while Carl busied himself with all the hand-me-downs from his dad and me to get himself fully kitted up for the game. Over some hotdogs, and darn, we forgot to bring eggs! We discussed how our job as blokes from Popular Airsoft should be for the day. We agreed that we both take photos during the morning ceremonies, and I will take the first the duty of taking photos when the games start. As mentioned it was Carl's first airsoft game, and the dad would be right beside him helping him take his shots.

While we geared up after having breakfast, players started the throng towards to Big Tent, small groups first, then the bigger ones. Who can forget about the Lego Men? We saw them too already geared up and on their way. All different sizes and colours of clothing, players from Bravo, Delta, and The Others made their way to be briefed. We followed them and by the time we got to the Big Tent, many players have already amassed.

It will be a short while before all got called to proceed to to staging area. I went to the Marshals as they were having their briefing and delegation of tasks. It didn't take them long to conduct the meeting, and I hollered to Masterchief that I'll proceed to the staging area and wait for the players there.

"The Airsoft Weather Gods have come back again, and they're on our side!"

Those were the first words from H, as he started his briefing of players. Words that indicated relief as it rained in the days leading up to Ground Zero causing some flooding at the shop, and hampering preparations. Those were words also that would remain true for the rest of the day as the weather cooperated. I was wearing my soft shell jacket and had to take it off as I started feeling the warm inside.

H proceeded to give his evaluation of the first day, generally praising the players for their great conduct, save for some who of course had too much to drink and were assisted back to their tents. The briefing for this year was not long, no flyby by a plane dropping off some vouchers that would just land somewhere else, and he was more concerned about starting the game as soon as possible. As if I were listening much as I was more focused on the players gathered for the Weekender looking at their excited faces.

All the players were in high spirits, and as always some bantering of the groups towards each other, which was a good sign, as it indicated players were ready to do the battle, and try to garner as much points and win this year. Last year, Delta won with 36,195 points, the Others came in second with 25,055 points, and Bravo at the bottom with 23,025 points. Delta was now in the crosshairs of both groups this year.

The photoop before the groups breakup and proceed to their starting points with all players raising their rifles for the official photographer to take and for the rest of the airsoft world to see. Since we were part of The Others, we joined in the beeline towards the Burrows, our starting point, to be given orders by the group commander, Woody.

The Shooting Starts

The artillery barrage signalled that the game was on. Woody had barked his orders early on, and the Others players spread out to objectives that must be accomplished within specified times. Over at Artillery Hill, The Delta Players were also moving out with some remaining to protect their area as they've spotted the Others players already making their way up. Some of the Deltas have positioned snipers at the Heartbreak Ridge. Immediately Delta and the Others made contact. While a squads of The Others attempt at getting objectives such as the Gold Bullions and Laptop at The Compound, Outpost 7, Mortar Base, and Artillery Hill, a group went to take The Nest where they get to have a strategic view from there to the roads below, a good defensive position. But then The Deltas and Bravos also have an eye on that piece of real estate. That's where I positioned myself in the early part of the game, after taking photos of The Deltas moving out towards The Nest.

The battle is now in full swing as the Deltas and The Others started getting some hits of their own. "Drug packets" lie on the ground for players to retrieve and bring back to their respective basese by 1700H which can then be used. Group commanders also assigned 25 players from their respective groups to be "Intel Holders" and if they get hit, they remain where they got hit and announce that they are Intel Holders and players from the opposing group should reach the Holder within 10 minutes without getting hit and retrieve the intel documents.

Group Commanders also sent out 2 Bomb Disposal Teams whose task was to retrieve IEDs and bring back to their bases. The Bomb Disposal Experts wear vests and are protected by other team members. Some items, when carried, and the player carrying them gets hit, they have to drop them when they go to the regen areas.

The Bravos were also busy as well, as they started moving towards their objectives,  and had actually reached the Prison Area. The firefights were now getting more confusing me as all groups by this time, have made contact with the other groups. Sometimes I get to see a group of Bravos bunched up as they're sandwiched by the Deltas and The Others as they proceeded to various points of the Ground Zero  Woodland. The Bravos were putting up stiff resistance and their progress was quite good with some of their players making some of exceptional plays which I shall mention further on.

Completing a full circle making my observations and taking photos, I got back to The Nest where the The Others holed-up in there were making a tough stance, repelling attempts by the Deltas from the West and the Bravos from the East. They were effective at such, that for a time, everything went a little bit lax, as efforts from the opposing groups faltered even before they got to the base of The Nest.

I happened to bump into The Pope who has been a Twitter friend of mine since last year. So there we were at The Nest sharing information and catching up on what has been happening with our lives. In front of us were a group of The Others, about 10-12 in all, making a determined defense on the area they have captured...

... then suddenly, out of the bushes behind us came a lonewolf from Bravo, firing all over, rifle and grenade launcher all at the same time. He may have crept there for a long time, slowly inched his way towards The Nest from the South, not going via the trail. He took out most of the defenders until the SAW gunner of The Others who was facing in the direction the Deltas were coming from turned around and they took each other out in an even duel. That left only one The Others on the nest, and who seemed unaware on what happened several seconds ago. It was a well-done job and I congratulated the Bravo player from Peterborough, who I hope would forgive me for forgetting his name, for such an attack. IMHO, it was the best play I saw before my eyes this year.

He casually walked away from The Nest back to the Regen area. He is the person at the bottom right corner in the set of photos below.

The Bravos were not able to follow that attack and occupy The Nest. The area was teeming with The Others as it sits smack in the area where they have set-up base, The Burrows. The Others with MasterChief and Carl in this group, went back to re-occupy The Nest. From there until 1300H, they were able to stand ground. Carl was having a great time and was more gungho than his dad who was careful going around in his brand new Claw Gear Stalker Version 2 Trousers which he reminded me to take photo of him in action before he starts doing a review for the website on it.

I moved from different points to have a good vantage point as the area around The Nest has great vistas. I brought along a cheap-o HD video camera which I got from a mate in exchange for some unused airsoft stuff I had lying around the house and tried taking some videos. I got really disappointed with the Jell-O I am getting with the video camera and if I get to find some decent clips I will post them soon. But don't count on it.

For those manning The Nest, things have quieted down as the major firefights were happening in the Village which seemed the Bravos have taken over and would not budge an inch, and The Deltas were still holding up well up Artillery Hill giving The Others a big headache.

Since there wasn't much action where I was standing. I informed Masterchef that I was breaking off from the group and take photos where more firefights were happening and we'll meet at the Big Tent by 1330H for lunch.

Making another round, and planned to make my route to take me back to the safe zone, I arrived at the crossroads leading to many points such as the Village, Mortar Base, etc., where all groups try to cross and either have some squad from the other waiting in ambush, or encounter friendly fire incidents. Though I was unfortunate to get find myself in an ongoing firefight where I got hit while wearing a hi-viz jacket. That's part of the job though and I'd rather have the bb hit me than my camera lens which would have ruined my whole weekend if that happened.

Along the way I saw a two-tone rifle slowly moving, and behind it was someone wearing a ghillie suit. Hmmm... nice way to be a sniper, that's soooo stealthy. I passed by the Village where the Bravos were really putting up a stiff fight. I had some chit-chat with some of the Marshals who were roaming around checking on the progress of the event then to an area where one was able to retrieve a laptop and now trying to figure out a way on how to make it work.

I checked my watch and it was 1330H and I was already near the safe zone area. Once at the Safe Zone, I proceeded to the UKAPU booth and had some light talk with their officers while waiting for Masterchief and his son. It took them around 15 minutes to get back to the Safe Zone and off we went to our tent to have a quick bite. It'll be my turn to play with Carl while Masterchief did the photo-taking for the afternoon.

Carl and I went back to the game around 1500H, going to The Nest area, which surprisingly was still held by The Others. We remained there until we were all ordered to evacuate the area and rush back to the Burrows. A missile strike was called on our area and we had to retreat.

Going back to The Burrows also meant one of the new introductions as a new feature of the Weekender for this year: Assassins! Assassination squads are to be sent by the enemies and try to take down the Group Commander. The assassins will insert themselves into the retreating units back to their staging areas amidst the confusion of a nuclear or missile strike. Sentries would be on alert and will challenge all incoming players on their tag numbers. If a player mentions a number which was not part of the numbers in the allocated tags per group, he/she gets taken out by the sentries.

Woody also assigned a team for as convoy escorts, destination was unknown to me. The convoy left a few minutes and I never knew what happened to it. It was rest for us at The Burrows, a little bit complacent, until some Bravos started to test the defenses of The Burrows. They were attacking from two areas with small units, and some almost breached from North. Carl and I went furthe forward to reinforce the thin defense in the Northern Area and we were able to take two of the Bravos out, with one remaining and he pinned me down. The rest The others came to my rescue when I started requesting for covering fire and I was able to withdraw and collect my senses.

Carl then told me that an assassin was able to get through and tried to take out Woody, but one of the Others players jumped right between ready to take the BB for Woody. It was a nice move and almost a successful one. After this incident, and it was already 1600H and Woody barked orders for a huge assault group to mass up near the Delta staging area and prepare to attack it after a nuclear strike had been called up. He then assigned the team from Switzerland to take some special operations  at the Bravos and try to make some mayhem until 1700H which shall be the end of the day game. Carl and I decided to join the Swiss team which sounded fun even if it was a suicide mission.

Trousers Down!

Meanwhile Masterchief was taking photos on the other side where there were fierce firefights by the Others with, I guess, Bravo. He came across a group of The Others making their way and then were under attack. Some poor lad might have broken belt buckles and had his trousers go down. But he still kept at it courageously braving fire. The Marshals were about to give him a medal when suddenly one player just went rolling down in a fashion a stuntman would be proud of. The latter got the medal instead (if I got my facts wrong here, please do correct me at once). The smiles of players in the photo show their delight on this sudden change of "scenery".

"Special Ops" team as we were, our team slowly made its way to the Bravo staging area while I covered the rear of the squad. Trying to avoid contact as much as possible in order to get closer . We made certain progress half of the way when we chanced upon a pair of Bravos positioned along the way and we got challenged if we were Bravos or not. Of course, we had to reply "Others" and let loose our weapons. After a brief exchange I was able to take out one and one of the Swiss players made three carefully placed shots with his pistol to take out the other. That was excellent work. The closer we made to the Bravo area, the more people we saw and we just hoped that we get as close as we can before all hell breaks loose. We wear able to avoid a few more until the objective was in sight.

By 1640H, we got spotted as we are about to approach the clearing leading the way to the main Bravo area and the firefight went on for several minutes. I tried to support one of our team members by doing some flanking and getting one. Then we all got separated under a hail of BBs from a superior force. I spotted one Others player, armed with a silenced pistol making his way as a lonewolf, unaware that there were two Bravos about to jump on him. A quick decision for me to take the out the one nearest me and rush while firing the second one who was between me and the lonewolf. I was able to execute the hasty plan, and tapped the lonewolf who didn't know I was nearby and told him to watch his back. He proceeded with what he planned to do while I went back deep into the woods to find the rest of my team only to realise that I was all alone. I was tempted to call a hit even without being hit as it would be futile to remain while the area was teeming with fully alert Bravos.  But it was 12 minutes before the game ended for the day, so I decided to remain and stick it out until the time was up. I was able to pick out some lone Bravos who were on their way to join their comrades, and thought the area was clear-- fade in and fade out, not staying in one position for survival.

About 5 minutes before the game ended, a group of Others was in my area and almost shot me. I told them to spread out as there were lots of Bravos and it wasn't long when a Bravo fired at us and got one. I had to flank again and take him out, hearing him shout "nice one!". We waited for the seconds to tick by and game over was called. Thank god I ended the day unscathed and we made our way back to the Safe Zone.

As we made our way back, I was worried if Carl made it back to the Safe Zone when we got separated during our attack on the Bravos. To my relief, he was already with his father waiting for me. As the players trickled back to camp area, Masterchief and I had a pint and went back to our tents to remove our gear and rest a bit before the raffle portion starts by 1900H.

Prizes Galore and Day Scores

The players were all in good spirits and no untoward incidents happened during the day. Most, if not all, of the players were now back at the Safe Zone for the raffle draw which for this year was an unprecedented 69 prizes to raffle off. H went up the armoured vehicle where I joined him to get myself a better view and Masterchief was on the ground with the other camera to take photos of the people around.

H welcomed back the players and praised them for the good conduct of the event for the day. He then announced the scores garnered for the day that were as follows:

• Bravo: 5580 points
• Delta: 5030 points
• Others: 4100 points

Bravo was in the lead unlike last year where they were at the bottom. Delta had to protect its leadership while the Others would be in the wings to be the spoiler, as always the case.

With a long list of prizes to raffle off, the players hoped that they get any of those AEGs that came from the sponsors. The lucky winners were announced, with a photoop with the official photographer done afterwards. The Marshals went back to their tasks of preparing for the night games as the jump off time was at 2100H.

We decided not to join in the night games as we were not equipped for the games and we did not want to risk our camera equipment, and we're not getting any younger to play in the darkness. I was also (and still I am as of this writing) nursing a bad back I got when I was rear-ended at go-karting in the previous week so I didn't want to risk it. We also wanted to share some beer with our friends from Team Hatchet and exchange stories on what happened during the day. Carl wanted to join in the night games, but us adults were not up to it.

I still loitered around to take photos before calling it day and I was not yet familiar with my flash unit, being an amatuer photographer. I wasn't getting my desired results and just fired away whenever I thought it was a proper shot (which unfortunately, most of my night shots were absolutely terrible). The French were cooking dinner, in the proper French way I guess, and for the Brits, it's beer.

We all agreed that the day was great and the add-on tasks and twists in the game scenarios surely added to the excitement and were much appreciated by the players. We observed the players for the night games march into the darkness and wished them a safe game.

With enough pints in me, tiredness began to set in, but then I was having a jolly night talking with the players at the bar. I realised that I've been standing up for most of the day and even rarely sitting down even if there was an opportunity as my back ached whenever I sat down.

Carl was getting cold and wanted to get back to the tent. We checked our watches and it was 2400H, bedtime for him. We said our goodnights to the people at the safe zone and made our way back to our tents. I fumbled while changing clothes in the dark, worsened by the alcohol, and took me awhile to finally get off my soiled clothes and off to sleep I went even before my head hit the pillow.

• Read Part 1 of the Ground Zero Weekender 2010 After Action Report.
• Read Part 3 of the Ground Zero Weekender 2010 After Action Report.