Introducing the UK Airsoft League and a free competition!

[NH Shooter]

Hi All,

Its been a while since I posted... not only have I been trying to set up my new airsoft shop, but theres something else as well... I wanted to introduce you all to the UK Airsoft League (UKASL)

First things first... Heres the promo video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmJo76okAyg

We're a budding venture with a lot of backing and support from the community. We have 2 further trial games booked, with one already been and gone. We have sponsors such as Armex, Airsoft International, Valken Airsoft and Magnum boots (with more exciting additions to come)... And we currently have a free giveaway for a Umarex MK23 Socom GBB pistol on our Facebook page... https://www.facebook.com/ukaslofficial

Realistically, theres a lot to be said... But to save a massive post, feel free to ask questions! Im sure there will be a lot!

Questions? Comments?

 

[Moose87]

just curious how exactly does the league work??

 

[Samurai]

It's paintball with BBs.

 

[Sitting Duck]

just curious how exactly does the league work??

maybe good players/teams will be at the top

&

crap players/teams like me will be at the very bottom

soz being silly - again, I try not to take the competition side of it too seriously & just shot for fun

 

[NH Shooter]

Hi All... Its quite a simple setup really... We are running 3 trial games to get the game types and admin sorted and were currently at 1 down, 1 approaching and 1 after that. For the trial games, its no real structure in terms of a leage play... Only game types, certificate giveaways for various things... Just a mix of fun and admin for us to make sure we nail the first official league game. These are all held in Banbury so far, but league games will be throughout the country. So....

The actual league...

Elimination game days (of which there are 10 per year) are multiple play zones, 10 vs 10 with the team that wins the day taking a "team prize box" with around £700 worth of prizes in. The day includes normal objective based game types, time trials, endurance trials, etc. All of this is points scored and the 2nd and 3rd places get recognition and some runners up prizes.

Throughout these game days, theres also raffles, giveaways and promotions, etc... Im the retailer for the UKASL, so I can offer special ASL discounts. Anyways...

After the 10 games are played we go onto game 11, which takes the winners of all the previous games and puts them all through a day of combat, again in various displines and areas to whittle down the top 5 teams... The next event, event 12, is ran with the 5 teams playing for rankings... 1st, 2nd, 3rd... With always 2 game zones running at a time (40 players total) and 1 team prepping for the next game. This is all "points scored" and the teams are fighting for a ~£7000-£9000 prize bundle.

This basically takes us through a year of playing (once per month) but we'd like to expand on that. at the moment though, offering just the 12 games a year allows us to get the most quality while we arrange additional support.

Does all that make sense?

 

[n1ckh]

It does make sense

Why should paintball have a league & not us airsofters, I think its a cracking idea

 

[TheFull9]

What's the plan for settling the many, many hit disputes that will come up? Obviously there's no marking on your clothes in airsoft and I presume you don't have the necessary marshals to have 1 watching each player constantly.

 

[BrightCandle]

What's the plan for settling the many, many hit disputes that will come up? Obviously there's no marking on your clothes in airsoft and I presume you don't have the necessary marshals to have 1 watching each player constantly.

They basically end up doing that for paintball already ironically because they will go to the extent of wiping off the paint. Its going to be a problem with competitive airsoft no doubt about it.

 

[TheFull9]

They do? That is very interesting indeed, had no idea it went that far. Surprising in a way, but then also not surprising actually on the other hand.

 

[NH Shooter]

What's the plan for settling the many, many hit disputes that will come up? Obviously there's no marking on your clothes in airsoft and I presume you don't have the necessary marshals to have 1 watching each player constantly.

Ah, we've had loads of questions about this... Some of the zones just dont allow cheating... Time trials, etc. But for the ones that do... The game zones are small 10v10 arena's. These are chosen, set up and organised to allow maximum visibility. Along with that we have 7 marshalls per game zone. effectively, if you have 1 player shooting at another... then 1 marshal can cover that effectively. So a 20 man game effectively becomes 10... We found that 7 was in fact FAR more than we needed, as a single (good) marshal is more than capable of overseeing more than a single exchange. We also have 1 spare marshal on hand (per applicable zone) so that we can call upon a dedicated marhsal to follow players of interest without having to be impartial and keep an eye on the game.

As an aside... The games on the last site we use, usually run 120 players on 4ish marshalls. With minimal hit taking issues.

So on top of this, we have a video setup for recording events, so we can video review games and potential cheating and looking into technology to use blacklight filters on camera drones to easily pinpoint rounds that are hitting players, live. We are also looking at remote gun shutoff to have an immediate impact on play. On top of this... Cheaters will be banned, named and shamed. When airsoft international are covering your games... If it were me, I'd like to be on my best behavior.

We also have the marshals sticking with teams throughout the day so we can minitor players gun ranges and any quirks, so that helps us know that rounds are reaching, or not, and with what sort of energy and at what sort of accuracy...

On other sites, as well... We have viewing area's where the game zones are watched from above by marshalls, and they can move vastly quicker than the players due to the layout.

So long story short... We're doing all we can. But lets face it... Cheaters gonna cheat. It happens in all sports around the world. In leagues or in back yards. but we're doing all that is practical to stamp it out... And in our league, cheating might get you closer to that 7k prize, but you'd have to get away with it 100% of the time... Caught once and you and your team is excluded and sent home...

So I hope that helps answer the comment a little

 

[Unrustle_Thine_Jimmies]

Let's pray it doesn't end up looking like this

(Dear christ the lack of combat awareness of some of those people...)

I wish you luck on this league endeavor. Honestly I'm not too much of a fan of this sort of thing,I prefer woodland skirmishes or soft milsim kind of stuff,you know,vehicle insertion and hiking from firefight to firefight. But I can see some pretty entertaining footage coming out of this.

Good luck on the shop too! Always good to give the current cheeky gits running the market a little boot up the arse

 

[Russe11]

Sounds very paintbally to me. Airsoft competitions should be about how cool your gear is and how much crap you have attached to your gun.

 

[TacMaster]

Sounds very paintbally to me. Airsoft competitions should be about how cool your gear is and how much crap you have attached to your gun.

I thought that was just the standard Safe Zone Fashion Show?

 

[Russe11]

I thought that was just the standard Safe Zone Fashion Show?

Precisely, if we start having to shoot straight and use tactics it will take away from the true competitive element of Airsoft: Posing in the safe zone, looking dynamic when theres a camera around and the game of who can attach the most expensive flashlight to their M4 for a daytime woodland skirmish!

 

[BrightCandle]

All that blind firing!

 

[cyrexx]

Would there be ammo limits, pyro limits, RoF limits? number of weapons individual players can carry?

What are rule sets?

If it all works out it could be very interesting, hopefully improving the sportsmanship of airsoft.

 

[DX115FALCON]

My team should be attending on th 18th April game.

 

[NH Shooter]

My team should be attending on th 18th April game.

Ah, excellent... Whats the team name?

Would there be ammo limits, pyro limits, RoF limits? number of weapons individual players can carry?

What are rule sets?

If it all works out it could be very interesting, hopefully improving the sportsmanship of airsoft.

No, were not choosing to limit ammo, pyro or kit. We will be bringing in a weapon specific set of rounds, as skill rounds. But generally speaking... No limits. We dont want to stop people playing based on current loadout. The league is about communication, teamwork and tactics. But the reason for the decisions are....

Ammo: The ability to carry ammo isnt hard to aquire. Someone can comfortably (and easily) carry about 2000 rounds, and the kit to do so isnt expensive. Limiting rounds doesnt really add the level of skill were hoping to bring out. Those with bad tactics and loads of ammo will still get beaten by a low ammo, well organised team. this may be something we look at in the future, but its a fast paced, skill based league, and not a milsim... We feel that milsim and realistic playing styles are more than catered for.

Pyro: As with ammo, the ability to get and carry pyro is easy to aquire. With the advent of the multi shot BFG's, a single person can carry 6 shots with 500 reloads, for less than the price of a cheap sidearm. So we dont consider that "paying for success"... Equally, we can supply pyro on the day, and MK5's arent particularly expensive. Also, realistically, grenades have their place, but a man with 30 grenades cant outdistance or overpower a man with a decent AEG, so having grenades only helps in specific circumstances... As their limited in terms of use and suitability, paper pyro are a perfectly reasonable substitute. Also remember these are 10 minute game slots... Hardly enough time to take advantage of 10 flashbangs! So limits would have to be incredibly low to have a real impact.

Smoke is also a double edged sword... In a small game, letting off a 3 smokes would blank out the entire game zone for 20% of the game duration... Helping and hindering both teams equally. So the spamming of smoke would drastically decrease your ability to plan and adapt.

R.o.F: This is realistically... A non issue. With the exception of super high firing guns... High R.o.F guns are few and far between. Anyone can freely add an 11.1 at their own risk, or a higher gearset and while this may add a few rounds per second, its rarely more than that. I have seen "high R.o.F guns" only firing at 18-22rps, while my stock gun fires at 15rps... We dont feel that 5rps, adds a significant tactical advantage. Ive also never seen 10 high R.o.F at a site, let alone in the same team, so realistically, we cant see that it would be an issue.

This doesnt take into account extreme things such as HPA weapons. Which as we know, can fire incredibly fast, accurately and with high consistency. We are looking at how to deal with such things, but as their uncommon, we cant see them being a pressing issue.

 

[CES_williamson]

other rules like fps?

 

[NH Shooter]

other rules like fps?

Hi there,

Sorry it took me so long to reply, I've been inundated with various requests and site visits.

Rules for the trial games are basically the same as any skirmish, but we cant set them in stone yet. The reason being is that every site will have different rules, based on its insurances. While most have a MED for high powered weapons, for example... Some dont, some set it at 30m, some at 20m... Some sites allow pyro such as Mk5's, while others ban them completely. Same for BFG's, etc...

So all of that stuff generally changes, site to site... That said, we obviously work within the legal limits, and general site maximums. We would suggest that the average CQB velocity limit is 330fps, with outdoors being generally 350fps (for full auto) and between 450 and 500 fps for semi rifles.

sadly, this isnt something thats UKASL specific... If you were to travel the country, playing at various sites you would encounter this massive variance of rules. If anyone seriously wanted to kit up for the UKASL, in order to be as well equipted as possible, and to cover the most skills possible, you would want a decent (Gas) pistol, or other sidearm, a CQB weapon (be it SMG, small rifle, whatever... 330fps or below) and higher powered rifle (350fps), and a sniper rifle... Perhaps a shotgun.

I for example have a stubby MP5 (CQB main, 320fps), M4 (Outdoors main, 345fps, with drum mag for support roles), TM Hi Capa (general sidearm) and a Umarex USP match for pistol events, plus a springer shotty. I dislike sniping, so I dont even bother equipping one... A friend like sniping, so thats his "team role"... same for dedicated support gunners.

We would imagine and expect that most people willing to compete will already have some form of main and sidearm... Which, lets face it, is enough to get you through 90% of everything. Other specialist events we have, we will provide kit for, on the day. if you dont have a sidearm, and only a main... Thats perfectly fine too, as you have a team to back you up... And if you dont bring your own team, you'll be put into one for the day... So its all nice and social