With the ongoing issue affecting events organisers in the U.S., it looks like individual players are either pulling out of events being organised by those affect or sponsors pulling out. Amped Airsoft has put a statement that they are withdrawing their support to John Lu and his Lion Claws Series as posted on their Facebook Page:

Amped Airsoft and our Stance

Amped Airsoft has always stood with the players. As a collection of longtime enthusiasts, we care about making sure that we are there to make our community better and help it grow to be more inclusive and friendly. With all of the current allegations being thrown back and forth between Mr. Lu of Operation Lion Claws Military Simulation Series, Mr. Moore of Centurion Airsoft, and Mr. Warren of MilSim West, Amped Airsoft and its employees have found themselves at an impasse in which a decision has to be made. The issue is complex and with Amped Airsoft being a corporate level sponsor of all three of the organizations in question, there is no way to maintain 100% neutrality in this. We believe that competition is a great thing and drives our industry forward. We were more than happy to throw our hat in with anyone that we felt was going to grow the overall hobby and provide players with great experiences. But it seems that our hand has been forced.

When Amped had its first humble beginnings, we were a small fish in a big pond. Surrounded by industry staples we tried our best to bring to light what we feel is the core experience in airsoft, the camaraderie of being a close knit community. To foster this idea, we decided to do something most businesses consider a nuisance, and take our work to the people. What better way to service the players and community that we all of came from then to go to the events they were attending and meet them face to face? Showing our customers that we are people just like them and that we care about the same things that they care about. Our history of our mobile business and customer service starts back when there was only a few events to go to on the national scene. John Lu's Operation Lion Claws Military Simulation Series was the obvious choice due to its high player counts and frequent games. The players at these events helped us grow to the caliber of store that we are today. As we started to get our legs, we started to spread. Sponsoring other companies such as Ballahack Airsoft, Centurion Airsoft, as well as MilSim West. Despite all of these companies being rivals, we chose to always side with the players and never choose sides between any of them. We are there for the customers first and foremost. It is the players that help us grow, and without them we would not be where we are today. That is why the recent events have made us consider where we stand for as a company.

As events have transpired, one thing that has become abundantly clear, we will not condone the use of accusations of sexual crimes as an acceptable business practice. Barring other evidence of activities to defame other companies and directly emailing base personnel regarding game practices aside... Using accusations of sexual assault in the light of furthering one's agenda is patently wrong and serves only to delegitimize victims of actual crime. This is beyond deplorable. It upsets all of us here at Amped to our very cores. To think that this could even be considered a viable tactic to use to discredit a business rival is upsetting. Not only is it toxic to our community, but it undermines legitimate cases of crime making it even harder for victims to get the help they need.

Furthermore, accusations leveled at MilSim West staff also hit close to home with us. MSW staff are held in the highest regards by us because they are not only pillars of their local airsoft communities, but also part of the back bone of this country. They are decorated veterans with years of military service with a dedication to honor and integrity that can only help airsoft as a whole. As our relationship with MSW grew, one of our own employees joined their veteran Cadre. We view patently false accusations leveled at the MSW Cadre as a personal attack against one of our own. We hold our staff, as well as the MSW staff in the highest regards. It is an incredible disgrace to us to have our staff as well as decorated military veterans' reputations destroyed because of a dollar sign. The very idea of these incendiary remarks being made against them is appalling.

Our main goal, is and always will be, to support the players and our community. This turn of events is awful, but at the end of the day, our mission will not change. We are here to make sure that we foster our hobby, the events that they are played at, and the people who make this activity great. It saddens us that there is now a rift being torn in our communities were battle lines are already seemingly being drawn. It is our number one goal, and it always will be, to make sure that our customers are being taken care of to the best of our ability. With that being said, we are most assuredly ending our corporate relationship with Operation Lion Claws Military Simulation Series. We view the actions of the owner as unbecoming of someone of his position in the community at large. We will not stand alongside someone who uses false accusations of sexual crimes as a business tactic and we will not sit and let accusations be leveled at both veterans that we hold in high regard as well as, by proxy, our own staff. It pains us to see this, but it is the way that it has to be. We were going to try and stay out of the way of this, but our hand has been forced by Mr. Lu, and we are going to stand by our decision. We want all of our customers of all of these events to
know that we are still here for them, and we will not leave them out to dry. We hope to see all of our customers at other events, and we hope that we can continue to serve them. Our goal is to grow the community, not tear it apart, and we will not sit by and allow ourselves to be a party to this scandal.

Regards,

Amped Airsoft LLC