The Ground Zero Weekender NAE 2014 Report Part 2

OptimusPrime

28 Aug 2014

I must have been really tired when I went to sleep last night. I usually wake up at around 0630H at the Ground Zero Weekender National Airsoft Event, but this time it was at 0700H. Not to worry though since the rest of the Ground Zero camp sites were just beginning to stir up. Both Master Chief and Cheng were still in dreamland which also meant that I have to do the usual morning process of running to the food van to get coffee before the queue got longer.

I had to do some online updates at the organisers' area as my I ran out of laptop juice. Luckily, there's a free outlet available to allow me to work, and the Ground Zero Weekender crew very much accommodating to my request. With that, I did some work quickly, then off to the food van to get some breakfast.

With the two already awake, we got to packing up our camp since we planned to leave the area by around 1300H to attend to personal commitments back home.

Sunday of Ground Zero always starts slow. With people tired from the first day of intense firefights and a night of partying at the camp sites or night games, most will take their time to get up and put on their gear. Still, the willingness to carry on the business for the day was there and by past 1000H, it was game on and back to racking up points and accomplishing mission objectives.

By 1100H we were almost done packing up and for me it was time to get back to the dead zone, leaving the two finish whatever stuff to put away. The Bravos were now staging their attacks from Fire Base Charlie with The Others starting from Camp Coursey and Delta from the Landing Zone. I walked towards the forest area that leads into the clearing between the Burrows and The Trenches. For this year, the forest was not as dense as the in the previous years where it was such a treat approaching other objectives almost undetected. Thus, stealth was not an option this time and those crossing this area had to slowly fight their way to The Prison Camp and The Village which were already occupied by Bravo by this time.

At the clearing area, it was The Others going after Delta at Heartbreak Ridge which is one of the hardest to attack as it has a nice vantage point for the defender and the attacker had a steep incline to worry about. The Deltas were actually comfortable defending the area, but were having a hard time to take The Trenches which The Others occupied with a significant force.

The fighting at The Trenches, as always was intense with The Others pressed by the Deltas from the South and Bravo from North and Northeast. I lingered far bit longer as there was an onslaught when they were having a Laptop handoff as part of their mission objectives for the day. They were able to repel the forces thrown at them and made sure they controlled this part of the game area.

Just right behind the Trenches is The Nest, which was very much under the control of the Deltas taking potshots at any unfortunate The Others player who gets near. Not much intense action when I went there so I decided to move on towards The Prison Camp and The Village which always was the final objective at Ground Zero Weekender. There, the Bravo have pretty much occupied both and were frustrating the attempts of both Delta and The Others to dislodge them. On this part, the Battletec group were bringing the fight to the Bravos. But just right down the road past The Village were the Deltas very much in control of The Fort.

With such a wide area occupied, the Bravos surely would have some weak points that will exploited the other groups. In this case, both Deltas and The Others were making continuous attacks on Fire Base Charlie that they had to pull back some players to help defend the base. I left Fire Base Charlie at around 1330 and made my way back to the Safe Zone.

Both Master Chief and Cheng were ready to go, having stashed whatever remains of our camp site into our vehicle. I made sure that I said my good-byes to H and the rest of the Ground Zero staff thanking them for their assistance and praising their handling of the event which was really was superb for this year.

I reflected as we hit the road on our way back to London, that for all these years, with almost the same storyline and mission objectives, the Ground Zero Weekender is still going strong, when other events have already lost their luster by this time. It even established a new record of attendees for this year, making it still the largest airsoft gathering in the United Kingdom and one of the biggest in the world.

I always go back to my assessment that Ground Zero Weekender offers something for almost every type of airsoft player attending the event. Milsim players can do special operations by being used as strike forces by group commanders since they have the discipline and skills to achieve mission objectives, regular airsoft teams were sent to defend positions whilst the rest of players who just would love to rock 'n roll were made to do big assaults and reinforce various positions. In a game where there's over a thousand players to shoot at with many objectives to achieve and points to collect, there's no boring moment for the airsoft player at the Ground Zero Weekender.

The game itself is only half the story. The fellowship amongst airsoft players in the camp areas and the general safe zone is the other half. No matter how noisy the players are in the camps or some would try to play some pranks, overall it was an orderly and lively event.

I have been to big airsoft events and only few can last longer than five years. The few that are long running have found the formula to cater to the needs and requirements of their target airsoft players and are always trying to improve the formula even more, even if the improvements are incremental. The Ground Zero Weekender is one of those few and should keep on improving to stay in the game.

Final Scores: