AI500 2022

[Skullchewer]

For perspective I know of a site that recently rented their site for a weekend long private event, for £3k.

 

[Rogerborg]

For perspective I know of a site that recently rented their site for a weekend long private event, for £3k.

I'd guess that mall site is into five figures for a weekend, with the usual hair-splitting over whether it's in-use and non-derelict for purposes of paying rates or not.

I'd be looking at bare minimum £200 per marshal for the weekend, so maybe £2000 for those who showed up.  That's where I'd want the money to have gone, and it seems that's exactly where they skimped and saved.  Of course, it's entirely possible that their marshal team (such as it was) were doing it at mates-rates or were mugged off into volunteered their time.  Anyone know?

Liability insurance, phew, no idea.  I mean, if they had any. At least they wouldn't need weather cancellation cover.

Running events this size is a thankless, grinding task, and I can see why Sharon there got a bit tetchy. There's a Facebook thread about bookings where she says "email me, DO NOT reply to this post", and of course, it's full of replies.

But it's not like she's doing this as a charity gig, right?  This is money for what are ostensibly professional services, not the kitty for some local club.

Imagine you'd paid £100 for weekend entry to some amusement park that was overrun with ferals jumping the queues and spitting in your chips, and that this was a known problem that went on weekend after weekend.  Do you think the site could shrug it off by saying "Blame the other customers, nothing to do with us."

 

[magaz]

There were too many players for the site and it would've been way better with half the players (again. Like the Citadel) and marshalling could've been done better as CQB is a lot harder to marshall than woodland and they definitely didn't have enough experience on the marshall team nor the numbers to deal with the absolute asshats who were taking the piss when it came to hit-taking. However, what isn't being shared in this is that the most experienced marshall who was directing the games took a really nasty tumble, dislocated his knee and had to be rushed to hospital on the first day. He was back on crutches on day 2, which went a lot smoother.

The Facebook drama went way, way too far in my opinion. Sure, there were some people offering constructive criticism, but there were others just dogpiling on the staff for player-led problems and as soon as that started happening, you lost me; the non-apology post by the staff wasn't great, but the response to it was a lot worse. At the end of the day, blaming marshalls for players not taking their hits is a bit weak; if players took their hits, marshalls don't get tied up in resolving the (countless) times non-hit taking was observed and can focus on keeping the game dynamic and interesting. If they had more numbers I think they could've done more about it (and that is where I think the blame there falls with them as you're always going to get at least some godmode meal team nine oper8rs at large events and need to plan for it), but I'll direct my annoyance more at the players who were taking the piss; probably about an 80:20 split of my ire for players and staff respectively. Seriously, the non-hit taking was absolutely awful at this event and was probably my biggest gripe; I personally saw a lot of it because I was silly(?) enough to bring a magnified optic to a CQB event and 5x zoom was helpful in spotting the BBs hitting their targets. Again, 2nd day was waaaaaaaaay better for hit-taking, though there were still some instances of clear piss-taking.

Outside of that my only other gripe was their rules being a bit silly but I've already elaborated on that multiple times. I wanted to bring one of my (many) 1J bolt action builds, but they weren't allowed for reasons that still elude me.

I went in with no expectations apart from the fact that I would make of the event what I would and I would find ways to enjoy myself. Honestly, I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend and had many good laughs. Did my sniper-y thing and crept into positions where I was either concealed in shadow (like a true edgyboi) or to where the target I was presenting the enemy was so tiny that it was never getting hit at those distances and just used the MWS for what it's great at. Next time (doubt there will be one at that venue though) I'll bring a bolt action if I'm allowed (?) or at least my HPA m21 even if it's a CQB venue like that. Also, it was a fantastic workout because I used my heavy setup with the weighted plates in my plate carrier as well as a LOT of gas magazines; probably about 20kg of gear I was lugging around all weekend and I managed it! Didn't lighten my load or give up on the idea, and I was a lot more active on day 2, running around the place to get to positions or across an area being fought over.

Met lots of great guys there and really enjoyed the social aspect too. Also, we found a pile of abandoned clothing in our day 2 CP and decided that we would have a bit of fun. We rocked up to the morning brief on day 2 like this:
View attachment 96299

Anyway, I'm tired after a lovely 6 hour trip back down to the south coast and I'm going to go collapse into a pile and not wake until work on Tuesday!

I was standing next to you guys in that second day safety brief! I thought you'd come on a stag do or something!