December 22, 2024 • 61 mins
What drives a young paintball enthusiast to become a leading figure in the airsoft community, and how does one navigate the challenges of growing a business from a basement shop to a thriving field? Join Andrew, affectionately known as Chef, and Ashley, owner of Select Paintball and Airsoft North Bay, as they share their captivating journeys. Discover Ashley's transition from her passion for paintball to establishing a significant presence in the airsoft world, and learn from Andrew's experiences with Nipissing Airsoft and the unforgettable Under No Flag event that marked a turning point for both enthusiasts and the community.
Community empowerment is at the heart of this episode, where we discuss transformative efforts to create inclusive spaces for women in paintball and airsoft. Ashley's dedication to fostering a welcoming environment is reflected in her initiatives, from organizing ladies' nights to tackling the logistics of gear fitting for female players. The conversation delves into how Ashley and Andrew confront the challenges of event planning, prioritizing safety, player accountability, and the need for continuous adaptation to ensure an unforgettable experience for all participants.
We wrap up with insights into the intricacies of hosting successful airsoft events, spotlighting the lessons learned and the commitment to maintaining high safety standards. From the thrill of sniper hunts and innovative gameplay additions like thermal devices and NPCs, to the inspiring community efforts achieving remarkable food donations, this episode offers a comprehensive look at what makes airsoft such a dynamic and engaging sport. Whether you're a seasoned player or new to the field, this episode promises to enlighten and inspire with stories of growth, resilience, and community spirit.
Select Paintball & Airsoft
northbaypaintball.com
nippissingairsoft.com
Action Airsoft Club
www.actionairsoft.ca 905-615-7757
Ballistic Prints
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089181244866
SlingX
www.slingx.ca
Lightfighter Milsim Airsoft Team www.facebook.com/lightfightersmilsim
Nsceibelab Laser Designs
www,facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089285134479
Army Issue Surplus Inc.
www.armyissue.com 905-271-1665
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
4, 3, 2, 6, 1, we have contact left, side 70,
coming to you.
Contact left, contact left,we're flanking left side.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
suppress, push, push, push, we're moving.
We're moving right side, rightside got him, right side, right
side Got him.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Hello and welcome to the Airsoft Experience.
I'm your host, michael Mascott,also known as Magic in Ontario
Airsoft, and today we are reallylucky with two awesome guests
that have driven quite adistance to come all the way to
our studios in Action AirsoftClub.
Welcome, andrew and Ashley.
How are you guys doing?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Good, Good yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
It's been a weekend.
It's been a weekend, all right.
Well, let's get you guys toactually introduce yourself and
what you're here to represent.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
My name is Ashley.
I own and operate SelectPaintball and Airsoft North Bay.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Awesome, and you, andrew.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I'm Andrew On the field, people call me Chef.
I own Nipissing Airsoft with mybusiness partner Keegan, who's
not here, but he is here inspirit.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
And then worst case, ontario Airsoft, which is again.
I have two business partnerswith that, keegan and Paul.
They are also not here.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Awesome.
Well, I've known you guys forquite a bit now.
We've uh played a lot ofairsoft together and you guys
have just recently held a big,major event at our new field,
the compound.
Yep, it was uh under no flagand it was fucking amazing.
We had a great time.
But before we get into stufflike that, I I want to have the
(01:43):
listeners learn a little bit ofbackground about you guys and
your careers and how airsoft andand paintball and and
everything started with you guys.
So how about we go through that?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
sure you go first okay, um, I started playing
paintball when I was 15.
I ran three renegade fieldsbefore ended up buying what used
to be m&b paintball in northbay.
I played with the northerngunmen out of london for quite a
(02:13):
few years traveled a lot withthem, got into the milsim game
more.
We did a lot of the sppl thetime and then, when that phased
out, we moved into more scenariogames.
So we were scenario ballers butwe used speedball guns and we
did a lot of travel.
I just loved it.
(02:34):
It was always a thing.
And then I had an opportunitywhen I was on maternity leave
with my daughter to start astore.
So I bought into the franchiseselect through Paul Council who
had four other stores and I wasthe farthest, but anyways, I
(02:54):
opened a store and then, withinthat year, ended up off on mat
leave with my second and myinheritance was just sitting
there and the field owner wasold and grumpy and he didn't
want to do it anymore.
I was like I've always wantedto do this, so I bought the
field and I've had it for 10years.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Was it a field that you actively played before?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
No, I had only lived in North Bay a couple of years.
I had played.
I had been there once.
I had never played it.
I bought it not knowing muchabout it, which luckily he came
into my life later and gave me alot of history on it and it was
just kind of one of those.
He had a lot of land.
It was a good size field.
(03:39):
I was excited about doing mything with it, so I bought it.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Awesome.
And when did Airsoft start foryou?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
So I didn't know anything about Airsoft before
the store.
I had Adam Collier help me outa lot, tier 1, matt Mav,
maverick, gunman, friends, guysI've known forever.
I just had no idea and I'm likeI need to know what I'm doing
to sell this stuff.
(04:08):
I can't bullshit it, it's justnot who I am, yep, so they
taught me a lot.
I hadn't played at any eventsand I started running events.
So I started select series andscenarios before I owned a field
and I ran airsoft events beforeI had played them.
Um, and then I just kind of gotmore involved in it as the
(04:28):
years went with the field andthen I've I hadn't traveled
until Keegan and Andrew becamebusiness partners and kind of
started the WCO movement andit's, yeah, a lot more in the
last four years than ever.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Less paintball now, more airsoft I hear that and
unfortunately well, fortunatelyfor airsoft, but unfortunately
for paintball that seems to besome sort of a trend.
I guess we're noticing andbelieve it or not.
Last year we opened up thecompound for one mag fed event
and, and you know what?
It opened my eyes to a coolother whole community that I
(05:06):
didn't even know really existedbecause, personally for me, I
used to play paintball.
I had my own marker, I playedat a soldiers of fortune in
Hamilton and uh, first time Iwent had a great time.
Second time I went, I boughtall this what I thought was cool
gear and fuck, I couldn't see athing.
I fogged out like shit, theowner of the field, I forget his
(05:29):
name.
He gave me his mask to finishthe game and that showed me, you
know, uh, how good thecommunity was in that end.
But then when I got back to thesafe area, someone stole all my
paintballs.
Like, I bought two boxes and Ididn't know better.
I left them on the table.
I came back and they were gone.
So that was the end of my day,right then and there.
(05:51):
So since that day I have notplayed paintball.
Oh no, and uh yeah.
So hopefully I'm, I'm thinkingabout, uh, trying it again this
year.
We actually opted to threemagGFED events this year and you
know it's a cool scene and I'mglad to be around other people
in it.
And on that note, andrew, whydon't you tell us about your
(06:14):
experience and how it allstarted for you?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
So I started with paintball also, but back in like
the late nineties, early twothousands, so I was like 17 at
the time.
So I played up at M and Bpaintball, which then turned
into select.
I was into like more of thespeedball side of it because I
(06:38):
was a fat kid.
So being the back player andnot having to move anywhere and
just throw paint all day was alot of fun.
I get some really coolexperiences, like we got to play
in skyball, which was a majorpaintball speedball event that
they actually held in theskydome on the floor, like right
down.
Cool that was.
Yeah, it was really cool.
So we did that.
(06:58):
We got our like we're like, ifwe're driving four and a half
hours to go play paintball in amajor tournament, we're not
going to do like the bottomlevel division, we're just going
to go to whatever the top tierdivision is and just and we just
got our asses kicked.
I think we shot out like weplayed, I think, eight games and
we only shot like three people.
We just got our asses kicked.
But it was you know what.
I got to play against the stoneassassins, which the Cypress
(07:20):
Hill team, so I got shot by likebe real, that was pretty
fantastic.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
May or may not have hung out with him later on and
had some drinks and smoked withthem, but yeah, and then I got
out of it for a bunch of years.
And then five years ago I wasjust working all the time and my
partner at the time was likeyou need a hobby and I'm like
why they're like you're justworking all the time.
So a friend of mine had anairsoft gun for sale and I was
(07:49):
like, okay, cool, I'll try this.
I was into paintball, this ismore realistic.
So I purchased a used gun frommom and then I went up the one
day I took a cab up to the fieldbecause I didn't know anybody.
And then it know anybody andand it was like, hey, I like
this.
And then that's when I metashley for the first time, met
keegan, my business partner, forthe first time.
(08:10):
We got along really well and hepitched me his idea of
nipissing airsoft, which waslike at first it was just like a
community based group.
And then we opened up the store.
The very next year we startedoff.
We tried to open up our storein like this basement, this
(08:32):
basement shop in downtown NorthBay, which just was like massive
red flags and the disasterright away, like we were like a
month from opening, like, and wehad a flood.
But it wasn't just a flood, itwas a sewage flood.
Yes, we didn't have muchproduct in the store, thank god,
at the time.
(08:52):
But our landlord was like oh,that sounds like a you problem.
We're like well, actually itsounds like a you problem, so
consider us finished.
And then we just we bought a ccontainer and we posted it up at
the field and we turned the Ccontainer into the store and
then, a year after, that's whenWorst Case came into reality.
So we started with the BigIgloo events, which has just
(09:16):
kind of been like.
Our whole concept behind BigIgloo was, like we took away
from Black Cells Narco.
I think everyone knows thatNarco is a party game.
It's the game that you canbring your friends that have
never played Airsoft before andyou know that they're going to
have a good time.
So we wanted to have somethinglike that up north.
So we did that and it's justgrown every year, like our first
(09:41):
Igloo we had 35 people.
Last year I think our count was147, 150.
So it just it seems to begrowing more and more every year
.
Awesome.
And then we're like well, theseseem to be going.
Well, we should probably run anevent at another field.
(10:02):
And then, yeah, that's where noFlag came into.
And we kind of just like youknow, with that, we took bits
and pieces from things we likedand things we didn't like from
other games and bam, under noFlag.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
So do you think, going back a little bit, do you
think that like was Airsoft everoffered at Select before?
So it was, let's say, multi-usefield at the time?
Yep, okay, cool, but there wasnever a store there, no, and
then that's where you came in.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
So I had the pro shop in North Bay.
It was Select Paintball andAirsoft.
I had both.
But then after I bought thefield field, I ended up closing
the store.
I couldn't manage both andteach full-time and I had two
little kids and single momthings.
It was a lot, um, but it wasone of those things.
(10:57):
They were like why don't youhave bb's, why don't you have
this?
Why don't you have that?
I'm like, dude, I can it all.
Like, if you want to carrystuff, sure.
And then when they had thelittle store downtown, they were
like they called me and theywere like meet us for coffee.
And I got there and they hadlike a store.
I'm like, what are you doing?
Like can I show you how I lost?
So like, don't do it.
Like this is not a good plan.
(11:19):
I like you both and I don'twant to see this thing.
So I just was like here's mybooks, here's what flopped,
here's what.
Like we don't have thedemographic, you're not going to
be able to do it.
You have an overhead, it'sgoing to sink you and then it
just kind of worked out withtheir idea with the sea
container.
I have one at the field forstorage and then it just worked
out with that and I was able towith.
(11:41):
When I bought the field,paintball was busy and I had
like maybe six to ten airsofters every weekend and now
it's just hard shifted.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
If I have bookings for paintball I'm solid, but I
don't have walk-ons, like I haveno regulars do you, so you
don't do any big, uh, big gamepaintball or scenario paintball,
as I'm learning, they'recalling it now.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
So she has the worst luck when it comes to running
events.
Any event that she runs,whether it be airsoft or
paintball, it always rains.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Oh, I know how you feel.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Like hard rain, like can't see the rain.
Oh, I know how you feel.
So for years everybody alwaysteased me because I had select
series and scenarios and I ranevents before I owned a field,
and so I would book the field, Iwould plan this whole, but so
much time and you know, and thenit just, it pours, nobody shows
up.
(12:37):
And so it was just after a fewyears of having like 30 people
at an event that I had worked onfor months.
Like I don't have the numbers,we'll just go down to a Sega.
I want to get my big game fix.
Yeah, so yeah, I haven't run abig paintball game in three
years.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Last year.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Well, the apocalypse.
I run Northern Apocalypse.
It's like a zombie game butlike max 40 people.
Like it's not a big game.
Game on the paintball side.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, yeah so are you guys open every weekend or?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
yeah, so I open in May and I'm open every weekend
until the end of October andthen I kind of get a break with
teaching full-time and I wasdoing my master's I just
finished in June last year so itwas insane like doing
everything, but having abusiness partner who ended up
(13:32):
being a partner helped a lotbecause then I was like I can't
do all this.
He's like go work on your paper.
Go, take care of this.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
So basically it's paintball on Saturday and then
airsoft on Sunday.
We don't really have the crowdto be able to do both days, so
we've just kind of sectioned itoff and it works out pretty well
.
We get the occasional paintballgroup.
That's like no, we want to playon Sunday.
It's the only way that we cando this.
So we'll split the field.
(13:59):
I'll keep the airsofters in ourCQB area, which is right in the
parking lot, and then thepaintballers will go out in the
woods and then we'll justflip-flop back and forth just
because we don't have barriers,or like Wasega has the big hill
that goes through it, which youcan have airsofters and
paintballers playing at the sametime and not worry about an
(14:21):
airsofter getting shot in theface with a paintball right.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
The other big switch for our area.
There used to be three otherfields so we had.
There was a field in Mattawa,there was one in Corbeil and one
in Bonfield and they've allclosed.
So at the time when airsoft wasbigger, before Andrew and Keith
, the guys would go to Ivan'sfield one weekend and then come
to my field the next weekend,and then they switched back and
(14:44):
forth and we supported eachother Like Ivan came out and
helped me build a bunch of shit.
It was his field was amazing.
But once they all closed it waslike okay, now I have everybody
all the time Right.
So and it just grew with Andrewand Keegan monumentally.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
What, uh?
What size is the field?
Speaker 3 (15:08):
So keegan monumentally, what, uh, what
size is the field?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
so I have 140 acres, um, I think there's like 60
built up.
We have it's about 40 to 50built up and we're just slowly
starting to push back um.
Last year, with all the windthat came through, it locked,
knocked a lot of deadfall over,so we had a lot of trees come
down and so we're just slowlycleaning that up, taking down a
(15:31):
lot of the trees that are kindof like widow makers literally
just did that last weekend.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Yeah, what a fuck ton of work that is holy um, that's
the thing too.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
It's always been like I have these ideas of like what
I want to do, or like I have ascar on my thumb from almost
taking it off with a minichainsaw.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Like.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
I'm not technically inclined, so I can be like let's
build something here, and thenthe guys are all like that's a
bog, we can't build somethingthere, I'm like, fuck, hey, what
if we put a facade there?
And then what if we so a lot ofit like for us is figuring out
like with my ideas and then whatwe can actually do?
Like the planes worked.
(16:10):
Yeah, I was able to get two ofthe planes from one of the other
fields.
I always wanted planes and thenour buddy had a skid steer and
drove them in.
And then the other one weliterally just grabbed like a
ton of guys at the end of theday and we're like, hey, we're
going to pick up and walk thisplane up that hill and drop it,
and then the wing's going 20feet that way.
So it's just, it's really acommunity-based field.
(16:32):
I always have build daysthroughout the year and players
can come out and it's wild tosee kids that are like 16 be
like what do you mean?
I can build a bunker, like theyget so excited.
I'm like I'm a player at heart.
I want you to feel involved inthe field, not looking for free
labor, but if you want to comeand help out, this can be your
(16:54):
field too, right?
Yeah, so I hated going tofields when it was like I get in
a game.
You can't move bunkers and youcan't do stuff right, but they
would never listen or have anyinput from players, and that
sucked so I feel like that comesa lot from the owner of the
field not being a player itself.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Yeah, they're a business oriented owner and
they're not a player orcommunity.
And yeah, like, first thing wecould do is, when we opened, is
implement.
You know certain missions in inthe game where you're filling
sandbags and building bunkersand you know we acquired movable
bunkers and, and you know, you,you have stuff like the, the
(17:34):
bridges, uh, the gates that goup and down and stuff like that,
and it's a it's a good idea toincorporate things like that.
It it makes people, you know,more attuned to come to the
field and and be a part of thegame.
So I like that idea.
So any major like uh renovationplans or additions planned for
this summer at the field so thelast two years we worked on
(17:55):
staging.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
We bought two 20 foot galvanized steel shelters nice
because up until then I foughtwith those fucking white canopy.
Waste of money and every year Iknew I'm like I might as well
flush this $200 down the drainbut I needed something and I
didn't have the money to.
So that's what.
With igloo we were able topurchase those steel shelters.
(18:19):
So that was huge.
This year will be tables.
Yeah, this year we're going towork on tables and just
upgrading that part of thestaging area and then every year
he's kind of reinvigorated mylet's expand, because for so
long it was like I'm just doingwhat I can and now it's like I
can do what I want because Ihave the support and it's that
(18:41):
idea that we can make it happen.
We have community again and Ihad a team with the gunmen 30
guys literally came up fromLondon, helped me clear bush
trails, build a field thatdidn't exist like amazing
teammates.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
A lot of friends I'm still close with.
We had Mojo come up this summerand I mean I've traveled with
these guys.
We went to Georgia, we went toChicago, we went to Florida.
We did big events.
We went to Vegas for a charityevent for the UFC with Randy
Couture hosts a big charityevent every year.
(19:16):
We got invited to go to that.
So, like a lot of differentthings, and when you travel with
people like that, you get toknow them really well and it
just became my family.
And then, after that peteredout, it was really like, well,
I'm just gonna run the field anddo my thing.
And then these guys came alongand I'm like I have community
again and they're like are yousure you want to go to an event?
(19:37):
There's gonna be like 12 guysthat we're camping with.
I'm like that's all I've done,like I'm used'm used to that,
that's fine.
Like let's go.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
So we'll focus on tables this year, yeah, and then
probably the left side, like,if you know the field, when you
come in the left side we call itbig wet.
That side of the field hasn'tbeen grown as much, so we're
trying to slowly build it up onthat side and then start farther
pushing back.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Nice Main road so we can drive a vehicle in and loop
around for, like our technicalbut like in terms of like full
size truck, I can drive all theway out Sweet.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Do you have room for?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
camping.
So that's kind of when we'vebeen growing with because of
igloos numbers growing everyyear.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
And some assholes have giant trailers.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
So we have.
We have some spots for.
We have like one or two spotsfor giant trailers Camping wise.
Last year we just the CQB field, which is like as soon as you
get into the property it's righton the left.
We use that for camping.
We haven't had like a crazyamount of people camping but we
have some like flat, flat groundon the right when you're first
(20:50):
driving.
That will kind of expand forcamping and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
We're kind of making it work as we go every year nice
uh yeah, and the cqb field'sall sand, so it's nice for
camping.
Yeah, um, we would just have toclear cut areas some areas and
fill it, which is what I didwhen I bought it.
And what's now?
The parking lot used to be thestaging area, so I know how to
(21:14):
do it.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So in I'm going to say, mostly a male dominated
industry, you being pretty much,I would say, the sole woman
owner of a field is prettyempowering for a new engagement
in women in the sport.
So how strongly do you believein that, and is it something
(21:36):
that you advocate for on theregular?
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yeah, it's always been.
I've been one of the guys.
I've always been one female ona team of 30.
So I'm used to that.
I still am surprised.
Every year.
There's always at least oneperson that comes up to the
field and they're like hey, Iwant to talk to the manager.
I'm like at least one personthat comes up to the field and
they're like hey, I want to talkto the manager.
I'm like yep, that's me.
They're like no the owner likeyep, that's me.
They're like no, like who runsthe field?
(21:59):
I'm like so, because I haveboobs, it's not me like
seriously it just.
They're like well, you don'tactually play like I do actually
for years can confirm she plays.
Ladies and gentlemen, it'sannoying as fuck.
I think the biggest thing Iused to run like ladies
paintball days or like women'snights or we talked about.
(22:21):
At one point we did like we'regonna do yoga and paintball or
yoga and airsoft, or like justtrying to get that female spirit
in there connection yeah, I Idon't know how to do it.
I have not figured it out yet.
The biggest thing I wouldrecommend for players is bring
your girlfriends and your wivesup with you.
You know, like we have a reallyfamily-friendly environment.
(22:44):
We have people whose kids comeup.
They've come up since they werebabies.
They love me like.
You know what I mean.
So and then their partners comeout and they're like oh, she's
good with our kids and she's nota bitch and, oh, this is fun
and we can shoot things and it'sthat whole like the guys are
always.
Anytime they get something new,they're like do you want to
shoot it?
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I want to shoot it.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
That's fucking awesome.
I want to shoot it, but it'slike my.
I know my friends would like it.
They just don't come out and doit.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
So what's your advice to a new female player that's a
bit sketched out or a bitnervous, because, like it is
fairly dominated by a bunch ofgun toting to testosterone
filled dudes?
You know what I mean.
So what would you say to, let'ssay, like my wife has zero
(23:32):
interest in getting shot withany sort of BB or media in any
way?
I've tried, uh, it'll neverhappen.
It just will never happen.
So what would you say to her?
To get her out onto the field?
Or, you know, anybody aspiringto try the sport for the first
time?
Speaker 3 (23:48):
I think the the idea that it's scary is what helps
you grow.
So if it's a fear thing, justtry it.
I have generalized anxietydisorder and PTSD, so there's
things that I do that makeaccommodations for my needs.
My team knows, for playing anight game, I need someone with
me because I don't want to havea panic attack on the field.
(24:10):
I don't wear night vision, Idon't have a thermal.
So for me, like, justcommunicate right and tell your
people what you need, go withpeople you trust and they call
me field mom.
At our field all the time Ihave one girl, sarah, who she
started playing a couple yearsago and she'll be like what do I
do?
Like what do I?
(24:30):
You know, just ask thequestions, be confident in it,
you're just as good as them.
It only takes one bb orpaintball, like it doesn't
matter, just own it and have funwith it and enjoy it, like
girls love being outside too.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
It's not all you know .
I think it helps when like toget like those girlfriends and
wives, to try to get them outwhen you have another female on
the field that they can tagalong with right 100 and it's
funny because, like in all thepaintball bookings I've done,
like rental parties or even justan airsoft, when we have like
new players come up that rentguns the girl players as soon as
(25:05):
they get over like their fear,they're rock solid, like the
best, like they're the mostaccurate, they're the most
aggressive.
It's always fun to watch themget out of their like oh, this
isn't as scary as I thought itwas, and then they just own the
field 100%.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
I can attest to that.
I surround myself, we have acouple of female players.
We have one on Life Fighters,cassandra.
She is an amazing player, zerofear and whenever you hear
screaming in German, that'sfucking her and that means it's
time to run because she hasfucking gone nuts.
(25:43):
But great medic, great attitudeand I'm really happy to see
more of a slow.
It's a trickle, but seeing thetrickle of women starting to
come into the sport is huge andit's empowering because they're
so capable of doing what we do.
It's not even funny and it'sjust.
(26:05):
They need to see more women onthe field to be comfortable with
it, be comfortable with it.
So we really want to push thatagenda and we want to maybe
start hosting the odd game wherewe can start bringing the age
down for a little bit of alonger event to maybe get
(26:26):
fathers and daughters out to thefield for a weekend.
You know what I mean.
Get that bond going and theninstilling it early.
We're talking like maybe 16years old, where you do a
smaller, you know, familyfriendly event and try to get
them out, because I think it'sjust a hobby that's starting to
explode exponentially, I wouldsay now, and the level and
(26:48):
everything's just elevating.
And it's just one thing that Ithink we need to work on as a
community is just to get morewomen in, and I give you a lot
of respect for being able to ownand run a facility in a
community that is really mendriven for sure.
So a lot of kudos for that.
I respect you for that big time.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
I love going to other fields and playing and having
players that don't know that Ihave a fucking clue what I'm
doing.
And they'll be like, oh, youdropped your mag, do you want me
to put it in for you?
And I'm like, oh my God, it wasso refreshing meeting Bree.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Having time with Bree and I'm just like, oh my
fucking God, how do you findpants that fit?
They're not built for women,they're curvy.
How do we do this Like and justhaving those conversations that
build that camaraderie?
That's different than I mean.
I steal his pants and I wearhis gear, but it's not the same
right, it's just.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
I mean you were supposed to gun run or whether
this year, but life, life.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Yeah, there's always June 28th this year.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Shameless plug yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Okay, playing events together as a couple.
How is that for you guys?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
It's fun.
I am very notorious for justrunning off and doing my own
shit, though, and leaving herreally bad.
I'm like, oh, we spent all thistime together.
I'm going to go that way and dothis shit, and then I get shit
about it later.
But lovingly and shit, it's fun.
It's a lot of fun because weboth have like the paintball
mentality of why are we standinghere, why are we not pushing
(28:22):
forward, like this isn't reallife, we're not going to die,
our spawn is just back there.
Let's just go there, die andthen go back and spawn and get
back in.
So it's a lot of fun.
So mom voice comes out with heron the field when there's big
pushes that need to happen.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
I can move people.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
I've heard it, I've seen it firsthand.
It's quite empowering.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
I had 20 of our guys and they're like what do you
mean?
We're going to make a push?
I'm like, just get behind me.
And they're like, no, no, but.
And they're like what do youmean?
We're going to make a push?
I'm like, just get behind me.
And they're like no, no, but,nobody's moving.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I'm like they're going to Just come with me, but
it's a lot of fun.
We've done a couple nightthings together Snowman last
year, the Narco, we did Narcothe year before.
We have a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
We always end up with a big group of people, so it's
always nice to have that extralevel of uh like back home
support.
Uh like it's a long fuckingdrive for you guys.
Like it's crazy.
Believe it or not, my dad livesin north bay, right, so I
haven't seen him in a bit, buthe is driving down next weekend
(29:32):
actually from there and uh, Iknow I've been saying I've been
trying to get to your fuckinggame every year, but obviously
every year something comes up.
But you're in the calendarbecause we're traveling.
This year like, uh, lifefighters is actually going to be
going specifically your event,ottawa, uh, a lot of the other
fields this year, instead ofjust sticking around the
(29:53):
compound because we are doingsome building and some expanding
, but we're only expanding onepart of the field this year.
We've decided, hey look, wefucking killed ourselves last
year.
Yeah, we're gonna do what Ipromised and we're gonna expand
those two elements and thenthat's gonna be it.
We're gonna focus on playingthe game that we love instead of
running the field where we playthe game that we love it's you
(30:16):
know what though it it's good todo that, though, like because
then you just you'll burnyourself out big time and that
that was definitely happening.
Um, like, I had a scare at at aforce recon event where I went
down heavy and could have diedand it was a scary situation and
it's because I pushed myselftoo far and it was just bad and
(30:39):
it can happen and you've got towatch what you do and burnout's
a real thing and I didn't wantto ever not enjoy airsoft and I
won't ever let that happen to meor the community.
So if I find something'sgetting stale or aggravation is
taking over that part of thesport, then I'm going to do
(31:00):
whatever I fucking can to changethat, because it's just no room
for that here.
We're never going to grow ifwe're going to do that.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
So I've had so many people caution me on making a
business out of what I love andthey're like you're going to
hate it, don't do it, ash, don'tdo it.
Blah, blah, blah.
And then same mentality as you.
I'm a player first right, andso it's always been that I have
to get out to games.
I have to be involved.
Yes, I'm going to close thefield a few weekends a year.
(31:30):
It's part of who I am.
As a player right, I need to dothat, to be invested, and
having Andrew and Keegan helpwith as much as they do, it's
that idea that I'm not in italone and I can take a break
when I need to.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
I feel that if you don't have your pulse or your
finger on the pulse of thecommunity, it's hard for you to
steer your field in the rightdirection, because things are
ever-changing.
I noticed, uh, like back in myearlier days at prz playing
amazing, awesome times, greatfield, love the enthusiasm, love
(32:09):
everything.
It just got to the point whereeverything was the same
absolutely because there's somany limitations to a field like
that and when we created thecompound we didn't want to lose
that feel, but we wanted tocreate more of a you can do
anything kind of kind of dealand um, that kind of circles
(32:32):
back to, yeah, having your pulseon the community and kind of
doing what they want to keep thefield fresh and successful and
thinking about the communityfirst and it's just.
Some other places are just it'sall about the dollar and not
the community and it's just sadto see.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Unfortunately, Well, that's why, with like sunday pub
play walk on day, I always likeI don't have like a set
schedule on what fields we'regoing to play or what kind of
game style we're going to havefor that day it's.
It's always I see who shows upwhat they're interested in.
Like we always start off withlike some fast games on our cqb
(33:12):
field, but I know not everyoneloves like the speed soft side
of it.
So you know, I, we.
It's it's all about gauging ourcommunity and seeing what they
want to play we have a bunch ofthis year Some of our new
players really got into like thesniper class.
I have one gentleman, hisname's Andrew, he's from
Scotland, he been playingairsoft for like 15 years and he
(33:35):
was always a sniper in over inscotland and he has like the
whole ghillie suit likephenomenal sniper and what we'll
do is we'll do sniper hunts.
So I'll stick him with like oneor two other beginner snipers.
Like you guys have 20 minutes togo hide and then I got 15 guys
that are gonna to come huntingyou and I'm like you're okay
(33:56):
with getting shot a bunch, andthey're like absolutely, and
then it's just you know theylove that stuff and it's just
making sure that you like getthe feedback from the community,
like so important it's, it'simportant and that's like when
we with worst case, after underno flag, even the igloos.
we were always like we want yourfeedback.
I don't want you to sugarcoatit.
(34:16):
I want to hear pros and thecons of how an event or scenario
went, because the only waywe're going to grow is by
listening to what the communityhas to say, because then it's
just going to.
If we don't and we just keepcookie cutter, running the same
events over and over, it justbecomes mundane.
So that was like feedback was ahuge thing.
(34:38):
Like I reached out to I thinkafter no flag, I reached out to
any any person that posted avideo.
If I didn't know them, it wasmessage dropping hey, thanks for
coming to our event.
What did you hate about it?
I want the truth.
Like let me know Cause we wantto, because we want to fix it
for next year, if we can.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
It's going to be hard to fix an event that was as
badass as it was.
I'm not going to lie, that wasfucking dope.
We had a few issues.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
I mean, it is what it is.
Every event has their issues,right.
So we made the mistake of Ithink it was our second no-duff
resetting the field that we madethe mistake of.
I think it was our secondno-duff resetting the field that
angered a lot of people on thefield at the time.
We probably shouldn't have donethat.
It was a decision that was madein the heat of the moment and I
can tell you that's not goingto happen next year if a no-duff
happens Was it a no-duff, orwas it the idiot?
(35:27):
It was a no-duff.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Oh, it was a no-duff.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
We had the first two no duffs with the 67s.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
The one where Arnold took it right in the face.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
And then the ear incident of that person who
threw the grenade.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Oh, that person.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
That person that threw the grenade and charred
that guy's ear.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
I may know who that person is.
He may be sitting here rightnow.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Yeah so.
That was one of the highlightsfor me that game.
I'm like magic.
I just want you to know whathappened.
You're like, yeah, that was me.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Harley, I'm sorry.
We're good buddies.
We've talked and played andtrained since he is completely
fine.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
How does his ear look anyways?
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Like cauliflower-ish.
It's got a touch of cauliflower, but we did end up baning 67,
so yeah, that didn't.
Somebody wasn't there, another,or maybe that's a different?
Speaker 3 (36:20):
game.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
All the smoke there was uh I called a black out yeah
, there was a blackout, not a noduff, right yeah but and even
that people were like why areyou calling like?
Speaker 3 (36:29):
because I'm treating it like my field yeah I.
I'm certain there's a fire here.
I don't want trees burning down100%.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
The bear banger.
That's what it was the bearbanger, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
That was when we thought well, that's originally
when everyone thought homemadepyros were on the field.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
And it wasn't.
And then, at the end of thegame, we found the flare gun
with the modified bear banger init.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Yep, and just to touch on that, that player did
not return to the field and hewas banned and we re, we look at
everything every spring to seeif that person you know will be
allowed back, just becausethat's how we run things at the
compound.
Yeah, and right now it's justgoing to be a stand banning.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
So and like we, we were just like.
For us it's.
It doesn't matter what otherfields say, he's just not
welcome at our events.
And we, we, we learned.
We learned from that.
That was also our mistake too,Right Cause that was the group
of players that likes to show upvery late into the event.
Yeah, so we're 100.
Registration is going to have ahard cutoff time and unless
(37:41):
you're going to be like runninglate and you send me a message,
but if you don't send me amessage telling me that you're
going to be running late to anevent like mackenzie bruce.
He was supposed to be late tono flag and he messaged me like
two days before he ended up notbeing able to come anyways, but
like it's that kind of thing alot of organization and there's
(38:01):
so much fucking involved.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Yeah, Especially like your guys, level of
organization like the discord,the fucking crony shit, like all
of that stuff is next levelshit and I commend you guys big
time for that.
You've set the bar in thecommunity for safety on that end
and that's just super smart.
And Luke Keegan and Luke.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Yeah, and that's just super smart.
And Luke and Luke, yeah, forthat.
It was the accountability.
We wanted players to beaccountable, like there's
nothing stopping, like withchronoing, because, let's just
be honest, chrono is a disasterat every event oh yeah.
There's always massive lineupsand it's not even just in
Ontario, like there was thatevent at six flags in uh, new
(38:46):
orleans a month ago.
Apparently their chrono line wastwo and a half hours long holy
shit chrono is a disaster, so wewanted to try to get the
accountability for players, likebecause there's also nothing
stopping a player from not goingto Crono.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
There's also too, like we learned last year, the
those people that showed up latelike hard gave me a hard time
about chronoing.
Their gun was hot.
They didn't want to do anythingabout it.
I'm like, well, you're nottaking it on the field.
They start yelling at me and soI walked away.
Right, and it was the firstevent I'm helping.
It's your field.
(39:23):
You know what I mean.
There's all these factors.
Next time I'd be like bye, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
You know, like You're gone.
It's also with the chrono.
It's the GBBR right, thechronos that you get.
Everyone has them.
They're not really made forGBBRs.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
No.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
It's the gas that comes out.
We actually just reached out toum ace tech and asked them
about that.
We're still like pulling someof the information that they
sent us.
So also not my department,that's keegan's wheelhouse.
I'm not going to comment toomuch on that.
But like we want to figure outa way to chrono gas rifles
faster and more efficient sothat you know when Joe Blow 1
(40:03):
comes over and their gun'sshooting like two joules.
But at the last game they wereat it was shooting 1.49 joules
10 degrees cooler than it wasthere.
We want to expand with that, Ithink, even just trying like a
paintball chronograph just tosee, like do some testing with
that.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
They have the little ones, like the.
I know Adam Collier from tiertier one.
He has the little one and we'rethinking about because we are
we're we're all on the same page.
Like we're on the same pageabout safety, especially at the
field.
This field too, like you lookhow close you are to shooting
somebody.
So chrono is nothing we we uhtake lightly, but yeah, that's
cool that you guys are lookinginto that.
(40:41):
It's something that wedefinitely uh.
That and taggins, yeah, are twothings that we need to to
button up this year, uh, goinginto next year.
Now there's five fields thathave permanently banned tagging
products and you're not allowedto use them at all.
Uh, including you guys, we'rein the process of possibly being
another field where they're notallowed.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Really, even the AFG6s.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Right now we're not going to say anything on the air
.
We're working closely withTagan and our insurance
companies and we want to go fromthere.
So we're not saying yes or noright now.
Right now, as it stands, af6sand AF4s are still a go at our
field and MK5s.
It's just that we have a newproduct coming to the market
that's supposed to be out in thespring.
That's from Enola Gay.
It's their Pyro.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Theirs is much safer from everything I hear.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
And it's made of cardboard.
Yeah, it's way less anything.
So we might just go that routeand then abolish tagging
altogether.
That's fair, just because, likeyou guys, safety is number
fucking one.
Yeah, everything's so cool, Ilove the explosions, I love all
of that stuff.
You guys know me, I'm real intothe realism.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
But when I see a close friend of mine get their
knee blown off, I will not allowthat and that's why, like at no
flag, like after after the itturned out to be the bear banger
but like after that third noduff that involved an explosive,
we're like fuck it, that's it.
No more pyro on the field andpeople were pissed at us.
(42:14):
But after the game, when theywere like talk, like when people
were talking to me about I'mlike you need to understand,
it's a not only it's a safetything, it's it's also like a
fucking anxiety thing for us.
Right, like every time a noduff's called as a game runner,
it's the worst feeling becauseyou don't know what's going on
if you're not right there.
So just having that, thatsafety, like taking them off the
(42:37):
game, was just, it wasrelieving.
Speaker 3 (42:41):
And I've been fighting that for years in the
paintball world with firststrikes.
So years ago I had a teammateat an event that got shot in the
top of the head with one and itliterally like flapped.
He had to go to the hospitaland so at that point I'm like no
more, like at all, not allowed.
And then when I bought thefield field, I hard banned it
(43:03):
from the beginning and peoplewould ask me why, and I was like
it's my field, my rules.
Like honestly, I can't evenhave a conversation with you if
you don't know what it does tosomebody's body.
We're here to have fun.
The end of the day we want togo home whole to our family oh
yeah I can't rightfully sendsomeone home knowing he has a
hole in his head.
That's's a massive injury Like I.
(43:24):
Just I'm hard on that.
I'm hard on safety.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Well for our field specifically too.
It's like we have such an agedifference of players Like
that's why we're just like notags, just like.
And AFC sixes aren't that bad,but if it falls in the lap of
like a 16-year-old kid thirdtime up playing, like that's a
bad day and we don't want a badday.
So I'm just like.
I'm like no tag grenades everon Sundays, like that's a thing.
(43:51):
And when people fight me on it,I go grab one off my kit and I
throw it in the CQB field andthey see how, what happens when
it explodes, and they're like,oh okay, I'm like yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
What I noticed too, under no flag after the pyro
stopped being thrown I don'twant to say aggression in a
negative way, but the goodaggression and the actual tactic
play started to increaseincredibly.
It was so cool to see we're allwearing white fucking shirts in
(44:21):
the woods.
You know what I mean.
So the only thing that we hadwas tactics.
That's it, because you're notfucking hiding, which I loved.
That was such a cool aspect ofthe game, that was so awesome.
And I found that once all theconstant explosions stopped,
gameplay like guys and girls andplayers in general, they just
(44:44):
relaxed a bit.
You know what I mean that thatlittle bit of anxiety dropped
and then just the coolestgunfights were happening and I
just felt like you know what?
There's a place for them,there's a time and place and a
group, but I feel that it wasbeing abused and too many were
(45:04):
being thrown and it was.
It was.
It was ruining people's daysand I was told by a group of
players because I have theability to talk to both, like
all genres of airsoft because ofthe indoor here and there and
they're like yeah, we're, wewon't play at your field.
And I go what do you mean?
He's like I'm not getting blownup by a grenade.
(45:25):
He's like, fucked out, I, Iwon't do it.
And I'm like, so, you're notgoing to come try to play
because of that.
And it's like, okay.
So that resonated with me andthen, uh, john and myself went
to tacom and a couple of thelight fighters and we went up to
a certain company.
I heard, yeah, and we justasked for answers because, like
(45:49):
it's important, as you know, notonly a field owner but as a
fucking community member, aboutsafety and what you guys are
going to do it.
Because if you're just doingthis to just jam money down your
throat, then I'm not going to,I'm not going to support it
anymore.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Even the company that was originally responsible for
bringing them into Canada.
They want nothing to do withthat tag anymore.
Yeah, it's just a.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
It's a, I'll tell you insurance.
Six different insurancecompanies, you know what I mean
Because of the level of pyro,like fuck, we just had a
helicopter drop human beings outof at our field, right.
So there's certain things likethat took seven months of
planning to be able to pull thatoff.
It's crazy and the city stillfucking hates us for it.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
It's so bad, so funny story.
I actually learned that you canrequest flybys from the
Canadian air force.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
Really.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
Yes.
So, needless to say, I'm goingto be putting in a request for
no Flag and Igloo to do someflybys.
I very much doubt they'll getapproved, but I'm going to try.
So if a CF-18 Hercules fliesreal low by the compound under
no Flag too, yes, that would beinsane.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
That would be awesome .
Speaker 1 (47:00):
Which kind of goes to our next point.
So do you have any littletidbits or future plans about
both your games?
Speaker 2 (47:05):
next year.
So I'll start off with Igloo.
So this year we gave away NightVision Nice.
Thank you, zimming, for hookingme up with a really good price
for night solutions.
So Big Igloo 6.
Yeah, it's going to stay thesame.
I'm probably not going tocommand this year.
I'm going to hand it off tosomebody else, just so I can
(47:27):
focus more on the behind thescenes and help out.
We're going to keep it.
Food bank again Nice.
This year we were able to get4,537 pounds of food to donate.
Speaker 1 (47:40):
That is amazing.
That's a metric ton.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
It was insane, crazy, and it didn't last long,
because there's such a demandfor food bank support that that
large amount only lasted I think, the North Bay Food Bank like a
week and a half, wow, so thefood bank aspect isn't going
away.
We're going to give away twothermal devices blue six, so
(48:04):
that'll be fun that's amazing,that the game's not going to
change that one as much as I say.
You know we want to hearfeedback and not keep things
cookie cutter.
It's very much going to be acookie cutter game of just two
forces mashing at each other forflags.
It's an introduction to ourfield for people who've never
been there before and anintroduction to like mill scrims
(48:26):
for for newer players.
So it's a four hour with a onehour break and then another four
hours.
So it works out.
It works out good for newplayers.
Um, no, flag two.
So we're bringing bothcommanders back.
Nice we had originally talkedabout If you lose as a commander
, you can't come back the nextyear.
(48:47):
With how close the score was Atthe end of the game, we were
like there's no way that wecan't bring Ryan Tan back.
He was so close to winning thatif his team hadn't have got
penalized they would have won.
We're going to keep the samestructure with contracts.
It was interesting watchingboth commanders and how they
(49:09):
handled the contracts that wehad put out, hoping to have more
NPCs this year.
So I'm thinking 20 plus, Ithink, is what we're going to
have.
That's, I'm handing the NPCaspect off to one of my team
guys odin.
He's him and his other guys onour team who came with him were
(49:30):
all are all former larpers, likethe medieval, like larping
stuff.
So they, those guys, know howto like npc at games.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
So I'm like I'm giving you X amount of money,
you're just going to handle NPCsfor no flag too, and I just
want, I want that town filledwith stuff to annoy players.
I love it yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
I love it.
He also started a zombie crewfor me, cause I would run my
Northern apocalypse game and Ihad Sean who would like one guy,
who was like the zombie king,and and then odin was like do
you want zombies?
I can bring zombies like fromottawa and I'm like what?
Speaker 2 (50:14):
that's awesome.
Yeah, he's amazing.
Yeah, so we're hoping to have abunch of npcs for that
interaction, because I felt likeone.
The one of the positivefeedbacks was was just the
interactions that players hadwith the NPCs in town, and then
it was the same with your game.
I heard like everyone had thefun interactions with the NPCs.
(50:35):
Oh yeah, so there's that.
We're currently working on atow missile system.
We're not sure exactly howwe're going to incorporate that
into a contract, but it'sprobably going to be there and
then, yeah, I think that'spretty much the little things.
Speaker 1 (50:58):
Vehicles Is there going to be vehicles?
Speaker 2 (51:00):
Yeah, there's going to be vehicles.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
Is there something that you could apply for?
Speaker 2 (51:04):
So we're we want to, we're keeping it to one vehicle
per side.
Okay, so I already have my twovehicles picked out.
I've noticed, with the vehiclegames that we've been to, the
rules have been ever changingbecause it's such a new thing
for the community that we wewant to make sure we do it right
.
So we don't, we don't want tolike, we don't want to
(51:26):
overcomplicate the rules.
There's going to be some likeinteresting, interesting things
with the vehicles.
Like right now the idea thatwe're working with is you're
going to have to apply for apermit to drive your vehicle in
Halliston name of our inHalliston.
Nice, that's the name of ourcountry, right?
So maybe the vehicle driver isgoing to have to make their way
(51:50):
into the village and go to theDMV and apply for a driving
permit, whether that takes, likeyou know, 10 minutes.
You get there to the DMV on agood day and there's no one in
line and you can just get yourpermit.
Or maybe there'll be a lineupof people and, uh, getting your
driving permit will, uh, will,take a little bit of time.
(52:10):
So, yeah, uh, that's kind ofwhat we're toying around with,
but we just want to keep itsimple.
For the first one there's,there's also we don't want it to
be a vehicle game.
Yeah, you have an amazingvehicle game, connor with red
road.
His game is an amazing vehiclegame.
I don't think there's a needfor another vehicle game.
Speaker 1 (52:30):
So I love, yeah, I love the way, like under no flag
just played so beautifully.
The weather was great, it wasjust such a fucking great time.
Yeah, you don't want to reallylike, like your point, like
doing the small changes herethere, like npcs, multiple npcs
obviously adds to a game becauseeach individual uh, you know
(52:50):
character has their own, youknow enthusiasm, right, and they
have their ability to twistcertain things like it's just,
it's a cool aspect of the game.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
It really is and I think that's what what no flag
with being a sandbox style game,that was really.
It was really awesome to seehow that worked out and that on
the field that day, like the PRZfingers, like that was nowhere
in any of our contracts.
And then you guys went over andsaw the president and the
(53:23):
president's like I want thosefingers over at your CP.
And then I find out about thatlike 20 minutes later.
I'm like, ooh, we can work thisinto something.
And it even just like the way Iplayed that around too, was just
a lot of fun because, like Iwas on because we handed out
cell phones to your intelligenceoperators who were the ones
(53:45):
that would initiate thecontracts.
So we got burner style flipphones from Amazon and slipped
SIM cards into them and we'relike here you go, hope this
works.
If you want to do a contract,you need to call us and let us
know when you're going to do thecontract.
And Carlo, I'm sorry, but wemade them also text us, so T9
(54:07):
texting.
And it was funny watching Carlostruggle with this flip phone
texting me and I'm like fivefeet away from him he's like can
I just call you?
I'm like, no, I need you totext me and he's like that was
hilarious.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
Or walking down the road and you get a call and he
answers it.
He's like, yeah, I don't wantto talk right now.
That puts it away.
I'm like what are you doing?
He's like being a dick, yeah,but like the finger thing.
Speaker 2 (54:33):
I was like, as Kevin Mike's two IC called me, it was
like I have the fingers, what doLike?
Well, the president said thatthey need to be at the church or
farm building, whatever thatone building is, by this exact
time and you'll get this muchmoney out of it.
What you guys didn't know was Iwas on speakerphone with you
(54:56):
guys in the enemy's base so theycould hear that whole
conversation space, so theycould hear that whole
conversation.
And then when I hung up withyou guys, I was like if you guys
can steal that while they're intransit with it, you'll get
this many points for it.
And they ended up grabbing itfrom you guys and earning points
and I was.
It was like having that likecause.
(55:17):
In the real world noteverything goes to plan and
people turn all the time formoney.
So that was like one of thoselike.
That was a fun moment to beable to just screw with
everybody.
That's awesome, man.
Speaker 1 (55:32):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Well, I just want to end thispodcast off with a couple of
moments that you guys canremember from last season, some
memorable moments that each ofyou may have had or you had
separately, and we'll end theshow on a positive note.
Speaker 3 (55:50):
I went under major surgery in June so.
I didn't get out and play a lotthis year, but I did get to
play against him at Aglu,commanding against one another.
Speaker 2 (56:01):
It was really fun.
Speaker 3 (56:03):
Thank you to Riz tick for being to ic again and
helping me run shit, because youlost again.
I lost again, but my entirecrew, all of our home players,
go on his team.
Yeah, so I'm like I don't havepeople that are going to listen
to me.
I mean Lou, yeah, lou.
Speaker 2 (56:24):
Lou didn't make it out.
This year, though, you had TNFFPS Corey.
Corey was fantastic.
Speaker 1 (56:31):
Corey's a good dude.
Speaker 2 (56:33):
Yeah, he was really nice to me.
For me, no flag was so manymemories from that, good and bad
.
It was a massive learning curvecurve running an event at
another field, tiring oh yeah, alot of walking, a lot of
walking.
I walked that circle like Idon't even know how many times,
(56:53):
but you know what it was worthit, as seeing everyone just
exhausted and tired, like at allthe ones that lasted to the end
it was it was.
It was awesome.
Seeing those faces giving awaynight vision and the amount of
food you were able to donate wasa huge thing.
That was one of my like.
Seeing 4 500 pounds of food,say, in the back of a truck, in
(57:17):
a trailer, was just incredible.
Like, just that was.
That was my moment of the year.
Speaker 3 (57:25):
I think our biggest numbers to like having that many
people at an event, cause theyalways tease me, cause they're
like what's your biggestpaintball game?
You had 87.
Yeah, we're beating, beatingthose numbers, but I think
that's.
Speaker 1 (57:38):
It's just cool to see what we can do together and
build those numbers and help thecommunity like we are, and yeah
it's awesome to see you guys uhin the community together as a
power couple.
It's awesome to see you runyour field and run your events
and and just be a great team andgreat members of the community
and I really appreciate you guysand thank you so much for
(58:00):
coming out to uh to the podcastand being a part of the
community.
It's awesome You're verywelcome.
Speaker 2 (58:05):
The one thing I will add, if it's okay, I'm just
going to shout this out forKeegan Uh, one of the other
things that we're doing for thecommunity is airsoftca, huge.
Um.
So that's.
That is not me having anyinvolvement, this is keegan kind
of just doing it on his own, uh.
So he had the opportunity tobuy the web domain airsoftca and
(58:27):
it's going to be a website thatis just there for the community
in helping whether it's newplayers trying to figure out
what the first gun they shouldpurchase should be or what kind
of equipment they should buy,where they should buy equipment
from, so like trusted stores andwebsites, where to go play what
(58:55):
big events are going on whenthey are where they are.
So the whole website is justit's going to be for airsofters
in Canada as that backup forwhen Facebook and Instagram
finally decide to be like nope,we don't want you on there
anymore.
Yeah, cause I feel like that'sgoing to come soon.
Speaker 1 (59:14):
I have been banned more times than I've not been
banned, um, and it sucks and Ilike I mean there was the week I
was trying to answer you and Icouldn't even get back to you
because I was banned offmessenger for seven days, all
because I like to talk aboutairsoft.
Speaker 2 (59:28):
So damn, and that'll be the other thing too, is like
it's we have the ability for theI think it's I'm probably going
to screw these words up but theRSS feeds for like YouTube and
for the podcast.
So if you have a podcast, ifyou have a YouTube channel, hit
us up with the links and it willautomatically update on the
(59:50):
website when new when new thingscome out.
Speaker 1 (59:52):
So love it.
I'm definitely looking forwardto getting the airsoft
experience on the website Yepand I'm sure John will like his
stuff.
He's definitely a pivotal partof this community now and he's a
super talented guy.
And yeah, back to it.
I really appreciate you guystaking the drive all the way
down to Toronto from North Bayand I look forward to coming out
(01:00:15):
and checking out your fieldthis year.
I know I've said that for twoyears, but fucking damn it, I'm
doing it this year.
I don't care, we're going down,we're going down, we're gonna
come see your trailer.
Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
We'll just there's a spot.
Maybe I'll bring the skid steerdown with me at the same time.
Make a spot for it while I'mthere.
We also have a c container thatyou can sleep into it gets
really hot and smelly in there.
It's better than the ground airsoft, yeah, true story no
problem, uh again.
Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
thanks a lot, guys.
I appreciate coming out.
Thanks for having us and you'rewelcome.
Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
Thanks for yeah.
Thanks for finally having usCheers.
4, 3, 2, 6, 1, we have contact left, side 70,
coming to you.
Contact left, contact left,we're flanking left side.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
suppress, push, push, push, we're moving.
We're moving right side, rightside got him, right side, right
side Got him.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Hello and welcome to the Airsoft Experience.
I'm your host, michael Mascott,also known as Magic in Ontario
Airsoft, and today we are reallylucky with two awesome guests
that have driven quite adistance to come all the way to
our studios in Action AirsoftClub.
Welcome, andrew and Ashley.
How are you guys doing?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Good, Good yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
It's been a weekend.
It's been a weekend, all right.
Well, let's get you guys toactually introduce yourself and
what you're here to represent.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
My name is Ashley.
I own and operate SelectPaintball and Airsoft North Bay.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Awesome, and you, andrew.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I'm Andrew On the field, people call me Chef.
I own Nipissing Airsoft with mybusiness partner Keegan, who's
not here, but he is here inspirit.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
And then worst case, ontario Airsoft, which is again.
I have two business partnerswith that, keegan and Paul.
They are also not here.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Awesome.
Well, I've known you guys forquite a bit now.
We've uh played a lot ofairsoft together and you guys
have just recently held a big,major event at our new field,
the compound.
Yep, it was uh under no flagand it was fucking amazing.
We had a great time.
But before we get into stufflike that, I I want to have the
(01:43):
listeners learn a little bit ofbackground about you guys and
your careers and how airsoft andand paintball and and
everything started with you guys.
So how about we go through that?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
sure you go first okay, um, I started playing
paintball when I was 15.
I ran three renegade fieldsbefore ended up buying what used
to be m&b paintball in northbay.
I played with the northerngunmen out of london for quite a
(02:13):
few years traveled a lot withthem, got into the milsim game
more.
We did a lot of the sppl thetime and then, when that phased
out, we moved into more scenariogames.
So we were scenario ballers butwe used speedball guns and we
did a lot of travel.
I just loved it.
(02:34):
It was always a thing.
And then I had an opportunitywhen I was on maternity leave
with my daughter to start astore.
So I bought into the franchiseselect through Paul Council who
had four other stores and I wasthe farthest, but anyways, I
(02:54):
opened a store and then, withinthat year, ended up off on mat
leave with my second and myinheritance was just sitting
there and the field owner wasold and grumpy and he didn't
want to do it anymore.
I was like I've always wantedto do this, so I bought the
field and I've had it for 10years.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Was it a field that you actively played before?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
No, I had only lived in North Bay a couple of years.
I had played.
I had been there once.
I had never played it.
I bought it not knowing muchabout it, which luckily he came
into my life later and gave me alot of history on it and it was
just kind of one of those.
He had a lot of land.
It was a good size field.
(03:39):
I was excited about doing mything with it, so I bought it.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Awesome.
And when did Airsoft start foryou?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
So I didn't know anything about Airsoft before
the store.
I had Adam Collier help me outa lot, tier 1, matt Mav,
maverick, gunman, friends, guysI've known forever.
I just had no idea and I'm likeI need to know what I'm doing
to sell this stuff.
(04:08):
I can't bullshit it, it's justnot who I am, yep, so they
taught me a lot.
I hadn't played at any eventsand I started running events.
So I started select series andscenarios before I owned a field
and I ran airsoft events beforeI had played them.
Um, and then I just kind of gotmore involved in it as the
(04:28):
years went with the field andthen I've I hadn't traveled
until Keegan and Andrew becamebusiness partners and kind of
started the WCO movement andit's, yeah, a lot more in the
last four years than ever.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Less paintball now, more airsoft I hear that and
unfortunately well, fortunatelyfor airsoft, but unfortunately
for paintball that seems to besome sort of a trend.
I guess we're noticing andbelieve it or not.
Last year we opened up thecompound for one mag fed event
and, and you know what?
It opened my eyes to a coolother whole community that I
(05:06):
didn't even know really existedbecause, personally for me, I
used to play paintball.
I had my own marker, I playedat a soldiers of fortune in
Hamilton and uh, first time Iwent had a great time.
Second time I went, I boughtall this what I thought was cool
gear and fuck, I couldn't see athing.
I fogged out like shit, theowner of the field, I forget his
(05:29):
name.
He gave me his mask to finishthe game and that showed me, you
know, uh, how good thecommunity was in that end.
But then when I got back to thesafe area, someone stole all my
paintballs.
Like, I bought two boxes and Ididn't know better.
I left them on the table.
I came back and they were gone.
So that was the end of my day,right then and there.
(05:51):
So since that day I have notplayed paintball.
Oh no, and uh yeah.
So hopefully I'm, I'm thinkingabout, uh, trying it again this
year.
We actually opted to threemagGFED events this year and you
know it's a cool scene and I'mglad to be around other people
in it.
And on that note, andrew, whydon't you tell us about your
(06:14):
experience and how it allstarted for you?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
So I started with paintball also, but back in like
the late nineties, early twothousands, so I was like 17 at
the time.
So I played up at M and Bpaintball, which then turned
into select.
I was into like more of thespeedball side of it because I
(06:38):
was a fat kid.
So being the back player andnot having to move anywhere and
just throw paint all day was alot of fun.
I get some really coolexperiences, like we got to play
in skyball, which was a majorpaintball speedball event that
they actually held in theskydome on the floor, like right
down.
Cool that was.
Yeah, it was really cool.
So we did that.
(06:58):
We got our like we're like, ifwe're driving four and a half
hours to go play paintball in amajor tournament, we're not
going to do like the bottomlevel division, we're just going
to go to whatever the top tierdivision is and just and we just
got our asses kicked.
I think we shot out like weplayed, I think, eight games and
we only shot like three people.
We just got our asses kicked.
But it was you know what.
I got to play against the stoneassassins, which the Cypress
(07:20):
Hill team, so I got shot by likebe real, that was pretty
fantastic.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
May or may not have hung out with him later on and
had some drinks and smoked withthem, but yeah, and then I got
out of it for a bunch of years.
And then five years ago I wasjust working all the time and my
partner at the time was likeyou need a hobby and I'm like
why they're like you're justworking all the time.
So a friend of mine had anairsoft gun for sale and I was
(07:49):
like, okay, cool, I'll try this.
I was into paintball, this ismore realistic.
So I purchased a used gun frommom and then I went up the one
day I took a cab up to the fieldbecause I didn't know anybody.
And then it know anybody andand it was like, hey, I like
this.
And then that's when I metashley for the first time, met
keegan, my business partner, forthe first time.
(08:10):
We got along really well and hepitched me his idea of
nipissing airsoft, which waslike at first it was just like a
community based group.
And then we opened up the store.
The very next year we startedoff.
We tried to open up our storein like this basement, this
(08:32):
basement shop in downtown NorthBay, which just was like massive
red flags and the disasterright away, like we were like a
month from opening, like, and wehad a flood.
But it wasn't just a flood, itwas a sewage flood.
Yes, we didn't have muchproduct in the store, thank god,
at the time.
(08:52):
But our landlord was like oh,that sounds like a you problem.
We're like well, actually itsounds like a you problem, so
consider us finished.
And then we just we bought a ccontainer and we posted it up at
the field and we turned the Ccontainer into the store and
then, a year after, that's whenWorst Case came into reality.
So we started with the BigIgloo events, which has just
(09:16):
kind of been like.
Our whole concept behind BigIgloo was, like we took away
from Black Cells Narco.
I think everyone knows thatNarco is a party game.
It's the game that you canbring your friends that have
never played Airsoft before andyou know that they're going to
have a good time.
So we wanted to have somethinglike that up north.
So we did that and it's justgrown every year, like our first
(09:41):
Igloo we had 35 people.
Last year I think our count was147, 150.
So it just it seems to begrowing more and more every year
.
Awesome.
And then we're like well, theseseem to be going.
Well, we should probably run anevent at another field.
(10:02):
And then, yeah, that's where noFlag came into.
And we kind of just like youknow, with that, we took bits
and pieces from things we likedand things we didn't like from
other games and bam, under noFlag.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
So do you think, going back a little bit, do you
think that like was Airsoft everoffered at Select before?
So it was, let's say, multi-usefield at the time?
Yep, okay, cool, but there wasnever a store there, no, and
then that's where you came in.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
So I had the pro shop in North Bay.
It was Select Paintball andAirsoft.
I had both.
But then after I bought thefield field, I ended up closing
the store.
I couldn't manage both andteach full-time and I had two
little kids and single momthings.
It was a lot, um, but it wasone of those things.
(10:57):
They were like why don't youhave bb's, why don't you have
this?
Why don't you have that?
I'm like, dude, I can it all.
Like, if you want to carrystuff, sure.
And then when they had thelittle store downtown, they were
like they called me and theywere like meet us for coffee.
And I got there and they hadlike a store.
I'm like, what are you doing?
Like can I show you how I lost?
So like, don't do it.
Like this is not a good plan.
(11:19):
I like you both and I don'twant to see this thing.
So I just was like here's mybooks, here's what flopped,
here's what.
Like we don't have thedemographic, you're not going to
be able to do it.
You have an overhead, it'sgoing to sink you and then it
just kind of worked out withtheir idea with the sea
container.
I have one at the field forstorage and then it just worked
out with that and I was able towith.
(11:41):
When I bought the field,paintball was busy and I had
like maybe six to ten airsofters every weekend and now
it's just hard shifted.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
If I have bookings for paintball I'm solid, but I
don't have walk-ons, like I haveno regulars do you, so you
don't do any big, uh, big gamepaintball or scenario paintball,
as I'm learning, they'recalling it now.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
So she has the worst luck when it comes to running
events.
Any event that she runs,whether it be airsoft or
paintball, it always rains.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Oh, I know how you feel.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Like hard rain, like can't see the rain.
Oh, I know how you feel.
So for years everybody alwaysteased me because I had select
series and scenarios and I ranevents before I owned a field,
and so I would book the field, Iwould plan this whole, but so
much time and you know, and thenit just, it pours, nobody shows
up.
(12:37):
And so it was just after a fewyears of having like 30 people
at an event that I had worked onfor months.
Like I don't have the numbers,we'll just go down to a Sega.
I want to get my big game fix.
Yeah, so yeah, I haven't run abig paintball game in three
years.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Last year.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Well, the apocalypse.
I run Northern Apocalypse.
It's like a zombie game butlike max 40 people.
Like it's not a big game.
Game on the paintball side.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, yeah so are you guys open every weekend or?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
yeah, so I open in May and I'm open every weekend
until the end of October andthen I kind of get a break with
teaching full-time and I wasdoing my master's I just
finished in June last year so itwas insane like doing
everything, but having abusiness partner who ended up
(13:32):
being a partner helped a lotbecause then I was like I can't
do all this.
He's like go work on your paper.
Go, take care of this.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
So basically it's paintball on Saturday and then
airsoft on Sunday.
We don't really have the crowdto be able to do both days, so
we've just kind of sectioned itoff and it works out pretty well
.
We get the occasional paintballgroup.
That's like no, we want to playon Sunday.
It's the only way that we cando this.
So we'll split the field.
(13:59):
I'll keep the airsofters in ourCQB area, which is right in the
parking lot, and then thepaintballers will go out in the
woods and then we'll justflip-flop back and forth just
because we don't have barriers,or like Wasega has the big hill
that goes through it, which youcan have airsofters and
paintballers playing at the sametime and not worry about an
(14:21):
airsofter getting shot in theface with a paintball right.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
The other big switch for our area.
There used to be three otherfields so we had.
There was a field in Mattawa,there was one in Corbeil and one
in Bonfield and they've allclosed.
So at the time when airsoft wasbigger, before Andrew and Keith
, the guys would go to Ivan'sfield one weekend and then come
to my field the next weekend,and then they switched back and
(14:44):
forth and we supported eachother Like Ivan came out and
helped me build a bunch of shit.
It was his field was amazing.
But once they all closed it waslike okay, now I have everybody
all the time Right.
So and it just grew with Andrewand Keegan monumentally.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
What, uh?
What size is the field?
Speaker 3 (15:08):
So keegan monumentally, what, uh, what
size is the field?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
so I have 140 acres, um, I think there's like 60
built up.
We have it's about 40 to 50built up and we're just slowly
starting to push back um.
Last year, with all the windthat came through, it locked,
knocked a lot of deadfall over,so we had a lot of trees come
down and so we're just slowlycleaning that up, taking down a
(15:31):
lot of the trees that are kindof like widow makers literally
just did that last weekend.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Yeah, what a fuck ton of work that is holy um, that's
the thing too.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
It's always been like I have these ideas of like what
I want to do, or like I have ascar on my thumb from almost
taking it off with a minichainsaw.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Like.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
I'm not technically inclined, so I can be like let's
build something here, and thenthe guys are all like that's a
bog, we can't build somethingthere, I'm like, fuck, hey, what
if we put a facade there?
And then what if we so a lot ofit like for us is figuring out
like with my ideas and then whatwe can actually do?
Like the planes worked.
(16:10):
Yeah, I was able to get two ofthe planes from one of the other
fields.
I always wanted planes and thenour buddy had a skid steer and
drove them in.
And then the other one weliterally just grabbed like a
ton of guys at the end of theday and we're like, hey, we're
going to pick up and walk thisplane up that hill and drop it,
and then the wing's going 20feet that way.
So it's just, it's really acommunity-based field.
(16:32):
I always have build daysthroughout the year and players
can come out and it's wild tosee kids that are like 16 be
like what do you mean?
I can build a bunker, like theyget so excited.
I'm like I'm a player at heart.
I want you to feel involved inthe field, not looking for free
labor, but if you want to comeand help out, this can be your
(16:54):
field too, right?
Yeah, so I hated going tofields when it was like I get in
a game.
You can't move bunkers and youcan't do stuff right, but they
would never listen or have anyinput from players, and that
sucked so I feel like that comesa lot from the owner of the
field not being a player itself.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Yeah, they're a business oriented owner and
they're not a player orcommunity.
And yeah, like, first thing wecould do is, when we opened, is
implement.
You know certain missions in inthe game where you're filling
sandbags and building bunkersand you know we acquired movable
bunkers and, and you know, you,you have stuff like the, the
(17:34):
bridges, uh, the gates that goup and down and stuff like that,
and it's a it's a good idea toincorporate things like that.
It it makes people, you know,more attuned to come to the
field and and be a part of thegame.
So I like that idea.
So any major like uh renovationplans or additions planned for
this summer at the field so thelast two years we worked on
(17:55):
staging.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
We bought two 20 foot galvanized steel shelters nice
because up until then I foughtwith those fucking white canopy.
Waste of money and every year Iknew I'm like I might as well
flush this $200 down the drainbut I needed something and I
didn't have the money to.
So that's what.
With igloo we were able topurchase those steel shelters.
(18:19):
So that was huge.
This year will be tables.
Yeah, this year we're going towork on tables and just
upgrading that part of thestaging area and then every year
he's kind of reinvigorated mylet's expand, because for so
long it was like I'm just doingwhat I can and now it's like I
can do what I want because Ihave the support and it's that
(18:41):
idea that we can make it happen.
We have community again and Ihad a team with the gunmen 30
guys literally came up fromLondon, helped me clear bush
trails, build a field thatdidn't exist like amazing
teammates.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
A lot of friends I'm still close with.
We had Mojo come up this summerand I mean I've traveled with
these guys.
We went to Georgia, we went toChicago, we went to Florida.
We did big events.
We went to Vegas for a charityevent for the UFC with Randy
Couture hosts a big charityevent every year.
(19:16):
We got invited to go to that.
So, like a lot of differentthings, and when you travel with
people like that, you get toknow them really well and it
just became my family.
And then, after that peteredout, it was really like, well,
I'm just gonna run the field anddo my thing.
And then these guys came alongand I'm like I have community
again and they're like are yousure you want to go to an event?
(19:37):
There's gonna be like 12 guysthat we're camping with.
I'm like that's all I've done,like I'm used'm used to that,
that's fine.
Like let's go.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
So we'll focus on tables this year, yeah, and then
probably the left side, like,if you know the field, when you
come in the left side we call itbig wet.
That side of the field hasn'tbeen grown as much, so we're
trying to slowly build it up onthat side and then start farther
pushing back.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Nice Main road so we can drive a vehicle in and loop
around for, like our technicalbut like in terms of like full
size truck, I can drive all theway out Sweet.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Do you have room for?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
camping.
So that's kind of when we'vebeen growing with because of
igloos numbers growing everyyear.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
And some assholes have giant trailers.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
So we have.
We have some spots for.
We have like one or two spotsfor giant trailers Camping wise.
Last year we just the CQB field, which is like as soon as you
get into the property it's righton the left.
We use that for camping.
We haven't had like a crazyamount of people camping but we
have some like flat, flat groundon the right when you're first
(20:50):
driving.
That will kind of expand forcamping and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
We're kind of making it work as we go every year nice
uh yeah, and the cqb field'sall sand, so it's nice for
camping.
Yeah, um, we would just have toclear cut areas some areas and
fill it, which is what I didwhen I bought it.
And what's now?
The parking lot used to be thestaging area, so I know how to
(21:14):
do it.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So in I'm going to say, mostly a male dominated
industry, you being pretty much,I would say, the sole woman
owner of a field is prettyempowering for a new engagement
in women in the sport.
So how strongly do you believein that, and is it something
(21:36):
that you advocate for on theregular?
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yeah, it's always been.
I've been one of the guys.
I've always been one female ona team of 30.
So I'm used to that.
I still am surprised.
Every year.
There's always at least oneperson that comes up to the
field and they're like hey, Iwant to talk to the manager.
I'm like at least one personthat comes up to the field and
they're like hey, I want to talkto the manager.
I'm like yep, that's me.
They're like no the owner likeyep, that's me.
They're like no, like who runsthe field?
(21:59):
I'm like so, because I haveboobs, it's not me like
seriously it just.
They're like well, you don'tactually play like I do actually
for years can confirm she plays.
Ladies and gentlemen, it'sannoying as fuck.
I think the biggest thing Iused to run like ladies
paintball days or like women'snights or we talked about.
(22:21):
At one point we did like we'regonna do yoga and paintball or
yoga and airsoft, or like justtrying to get that female spirit
in there connection yeah, I Idon't know how to do it.
I have not figured it out yet.
The biggest thing I wouldrecommend for players is bring
your girlfriends and your wivesup with you.
You know, like we have a reallyfamily-friendly environment.
(22:44):
We have people whose kids comeup.
They've come up since they werebabies.
They love me like.
You know what I mean.
So and then their partners comeout and they're like oh, she's
good with our kids and she's nota bitch and, oh, this is fun
and we can shoot things and it'sthat whole like the guys are
always.
Anytime they get something new,they're like do you want to
shoot it?
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I want to shoot it.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
That's fucking awesome.
I want to shoot it, but it'slike my.
I know my friends would like it.
They just don't come out and doit.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
So what's your advice to a new female player that's a
bit sketched out or a bitnervous, because, like it is
fairly dominated by a bunch ofgun toting to testosterone
filled dudes?
You know what I mean.
So what would you say to, let'ssay, like my wife has zero
(23:32):
interest in getting shot withany sort of BB or media in any
way?
I've tried, uh, it'll neverhappen.
It just will never happen.
So what would you say to her?
To get her out onto the field?
Or, you know, anybody aspiringto try the sport for the first
time?
Speaker 3 (23:48):
I think the the idea that it's scary is what helps
you grow.
So if it's a fear thing, justtry it.
I have generalized anxietydisorder and PTSD, so there's
things that I do that makeaccommodations for my needs.
My team knows, for playing anight game, I need someone with
me because I don't want to havea panic attack on the field.
(24:10):
I don't wear night vision, Idon't have a thermal.
So for me, like, justcommunicate right and tell your
people what you need, go withpeople you trust and they call
me field mom.
At our field all the time Ihave one girl, sarah, who she
started playing a couple yearsago and she'll be like what do I
do?
Like what do I?
(24:30):
You know, just ask thequestions, be confident in it,
you're just as good as them.
It only takes one bb orpaintball, like it doesn't
matter, just own it and have funwith it and enjoy it, like
girls love being outside too.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
It's not all you know .
I think it helps when like toget like those girlfriends and
wives, to try to get them outwhen you have another female on
the field that they can tagalong with right 100 and it's
funny because, like in all thepaintball bookings I've done,
like rental parties or even justan airsoft, when we have like
new players come up that rentguns the girl players as soon as
(25:05):
they get over like their fear,they're rock solid, like the
best, like they're the mostaccurate, they're the most
aggressive.
It's always fun to watch themget out of their like oh, this
isn't as scary as I thought itwas, and then they just own the
field 100%.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
I can attest to that.
I surround myself, we have acouple of female players.
We have one on Life Fighters,cassandra.
She is an amazing player, zerofear and whenever you hear
screaming in German, that'sfucking her and that means it's
time to run because she hasfucking gone nuts.
(25:43):
But great medic, great attitudeand I'm really happy to see
more of a slow.
It's a trickle, but seeing thetrickle of women starting to
come into the sport is huge andit's empowering because they're
so capable of doing what we do.
It's not even funny and it'sjust.
(26:05):
They need to see more women onthe field to be comfortable with
it, be comfortable with it.
So we really want to push thatagenda and we want to maybe
start hosting the odd game wherewe can start bringing the age
down for a little bit of alonger event to maybe get
(26:26):
fathers and daughters out to thefield for a weekend.
You know what I mean.
Get that bond going and theninstilling it early.
We're talking like maybe 16years old, where you do a
smaller, you know, familyfriendly event and try to get
them out, because I think it'sjust a hobby that's starting to
explode exponentially, I wouldsay now, and the level and
(26:48):
everything's just elevating.
And it's just one thing that Ithink we need to work on as a
community is just to get morewomen in, and I give you a lot
of respect for being able to ownand run a facility in a
community that is really mendriven for sure.
So a lot of kudos for that.
I respect you for that big time.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
I love going to other fields and playing and having
players that don't know that Ihave a fucking clue what I'm
doing.
And they'll be like, oh, youdropped your mag, do you want me
to put it in for you?
And I'm like, oh my God, it wasso refreshing meeting Bree.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Having time with Bree and I'm just like, oh my
fucking God, how do you findpants that fit?
They're not built for women,they're curvy.
How do we do this Like and justhaving those conversations that
build that camaraderie?
That's different than I mean.
I steal his pants and I wearhis gear, but it's not the same
right, it's just.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
I mean you were supposed to gun run or whether
this year, but life, life.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Yeah, there's always June 28th this year.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Shameless plug yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Okay, playing events together as a couple.
How is that for you guys?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
It's fun.
I am very notorious for justrunning off and doing my own
shit, though, and leaving herreally bad.
I'm like, oh, we spent all thistime together.
I'm going to go that way and dothis shit, and then I get shit
about it later.
But lovingly and shit, it's fun.
It's a lot of fun because weboth have like the paintball
mentality of why are we standinghere, why are we not pushing
(28:22):
forward, like this isn't reallife, we're not going to die,
our spawn is just back there.
Let's just go there, die andthen go back and spawn and get
back in.
So it's a lot of fun.
So mom voice comes out with heron the field when there's big
pushes that need to happen.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
I can move people.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
I've heard it, I've seen it firsthand.
It's quite empowering.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
I had 20 of our guys and they're like what do you
mean?
We're going to make a push?
I'm like, just get behind me.
And they're like, no, no, but.
And they're like what do youmean?
We're going to make a push?
I'm like, just get behind me.
And they're like no, no, but,nobody's moving.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I'm like they're going to Just come with me, but
it's a lot of fun.
We've done a couple nightthings together Snowman last
year, the Narco, we did Narcothe year before.
We have a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
We always end up with a big group of people, so it's
always nice to have that extralevel of uh like back home
support.
Uh like it's a long fuckingdrive for you guys.
Like it's crazy.
Believe it or not, my dad livesin north bay, right, so I
haven't seen him in a bit, buthe is driving down next weekend
(29:32):
actually from there and uh, Iknow I've been saying I've been
trying to get to your fuckinggame every year, but obviously
every year something comes up.
But you're in the calendarbecause we're traveling.
This year like, uh, lifefighters is actually going to be
going specifically your event,ottawa, uh, a lot of the other
fields this year, instead ofjust sticking around the
(29:53):
compound because we are doingsome building and some expanding
, but we're only expanding onepart of the field this year.
We've decided, hey look, wefucking killed ourselves last
year.
Yeah, we're gonna do what Ipromised and we're gonna expand
those two elements and thenthat's gonna be it.
We're gonna focus on playingthe game that we love instead of
running the field where we playthe game that we love it's you
(30:16):
know what though it it's good todo that, though, like because
then you just you'll burnyourself out big time and that
that was definitely happening.
Um, like, I had a scare at at aforce recon event where I went
down heavy and could have diedand it was a scary situation and
it's because I pushed myselftoo far and it was just bad and
(30:39):
it can happen and you've got towatch what you do and burnout's
a real thing and I didn't wantto ever not enjoy airsoft and I
won't ever let that happen to meor the community.
So if I find something'sgetting stale or aggravation is
taking over that part of thesport, then I'm going to do
(31:00):
whatever I fucking can to changethat, because it's just no room
for that here.
We're never going to grow ifwe're going to do that.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
So I've had so many people caution me on making a
business out of what I love andthey're like you're going to
hate it, don't do it, ash, don'tdo it.
Blah, blah, blah.
And then same mentality as you.
I'm a player first right, andso it's always been that I have
to get out to games.
I have to be involved.
Yes, I'm going to close thefield a few weekends a year.
(31:30):
It's part of who I am.
As a player right, I need to dothat, to be invested, and
having Andrew and Keegan helpwith as much as they do, it's
that idea that I'm not in italone and I can take a break
when I need to.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
I feel that if you don't have your pulse or your
finger on the pulse of thecommunity, it's hard for you to
steer your field in the rightdirection, because things are
ever-changing.
I noticed, uh, like back in myearlier days at prz playing
amazing, awesome times, greatfield, love the enthusiasm, love
(32:09):
everything.
It just got to the point whereeverything was the same
absolutely because there's somany limitations to a field like
that and when we created thecompound we didn't want to lose
that feel, but we wanted tocreate more of a you can do
anything kind of kind of dealand um, that kind of circles
(32:32):
back to, yeah, having your pulseon the community and kind of
doing what they want to keep thefield fresh and successful and
thinking about the communityfirst and it's just.
Some other places are just it'sall about the dollar and not
the community and it's just sadto see.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Unfortunately, Well, that's why, with like sunday pub
play walk on day, I always likeI don't have like a set
schedule on what fields we'regoing to play or what kind of
game style we're going to havefor that day it's.
It's always I see who shows upwhat they're interested in.
Like we always start off withlike some fast games on our cqb
(33:12):
field, but I know not everyoneloves like the speed soft side
of it.
So you know, I, we.
It's it's all about gauging ourcommunity and seeing what they
want to play we have a bunch ofthis year Some of our new
players really got into like thesniper class.
I have one gentleman, hisname's Andrew, he's from
Scotland, he been playingairsoft for like 15 years and he
(33:35):
was always a sniper in over inscotland and he has like the
whole ghillie suit likephenomenal sniper and what we'll
do is we'll do sniper hunts.
So I'll stick him with like oneor two other beginner snipers.
Like you guys have 20 minutes togo hide and then I got 15 guys
that are gonna to come huntingyou and I'm like you're okay
(33:56):
with getting shot a bunch, andthey're like absolutely, and
then it's just you know theylove that stuff and it's just
making sure that you like getthe feedback from the community,
like so important it's, it'simportant and that's like when
we with worst case, after underno flag, even the igloos.
we were always like we want yourfeedback.
I don't want you to sugarcoatit.
(34:16):
I want to hear pros and thecons of how an event or scenario
went, because the only waywe're going to grow is by
listening to what the communityhas to say, because then it's
just going to.
If we don't and we just keepcookie cutter, running the same
events over and over, it justbecomes mundane.
So that was like feedback was ahuge thing.
(34:38):
Like I reached out to I thinkafter no flag, I reached out to
any any person that posted avideo.
If I didn't know them, it wasmessage dropping hey, thanks for
coming to our event.
What did you hate about it?
I want the truth.
Like let me know Cause we wantto, because we want to fix it
for next year, if we can.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
It's going to be hard to fix an event that was as
badass as it was.
I'm not going to lie, that wasfucking dope.
We had a few issues.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
I mean, it is what it is.
Every event has their issues,right.
So we made the mistake of Ithink it was our second no-duff
resetting the field that we madethe mistake of.
I think it was our secondno-duff resetting the field that
angered a lot of people on thefield at the time.
We probably shouldn't have donethat.
It was a decision that was madein the heat of the moment and I
can tell you that's not goingto happen next year if a no-duff
happens Was it a no-duff, orwas it the idiot?
(35:27):
It was a no-duff.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Oh, it was a no-duff.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
We had the first two no duffs with the 67s.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
The one where Arnold took it right in the face.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
And then the ear incident of that person who
threw the grenade.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Oh, that person.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
That person that threw the grenade and charred
that guy's ear.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
I may know who that person is.
He may be sitting here rightnow.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Yeah so.
That was one of the highlightsfor me that game.
I'm like magic.
I just want you to know whathappened.
You're like, yeah, that was me.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Harley, I'm sorry.
We're good buddies.
We've talked and played andtrained since he is completely
fine.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
How does his ear look anyways?
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Like cauliflower-ish.
It's got a touch of cauliflower, but we did end up baning 67,
so yeah, that didn't.
Somebody wasn't there, another,or maybe that's a different?
Speaker 3 (36:20):
game.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
All the smoke there was uh I called a black out yeah
, there was a blackout, not a noduff, right yeah but and even
that people were like why areyou calling like?
Speaker 3 (36:29):
because I'm treating it like my field yeah I.
I'm certain there's a fire here.
I don't want trees burning down100%.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
The bear banger.
That's what it was the bearbanger, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
That was when we thought well, that's originally
when everyone thought homemadepyros were on the field.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
And it wasn't.
And then, at the end of thegame, we found the flare gun
with the modified bear banger init.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Yep, and just to touch on that, that player did
not return to the field and hewas banned and we re, we look at
everything every spring to seeif that person you know will be
allowed back, just becausethat's how we run things at the
compound.
Yeah, and right now it's justgoing to be a stand banning.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
So and like we, we were just like.
For us it's.
It doesn't matter what otherfields say, he's just not
welcome at our events.
And we, we, we learned.
We learned from that.
That was also our mistake too,Right Cause that was the group
of players that likes to show upvery late into the event.
Yeah, so we're 100.
Registration is going to have ahard cutoff time and unless
(37:41):
you're going to be like runninglate and you send me a message,
but if you don't send me amessage telling me that you're
going to be running late to anevent like mackenzie bruce.
He was supposed to be late tono flag and he messaged me like
two days before he ended up notbeing able to come anyways, but
like it's that kind of thing alot of organization and there's
(38:01):
so much fucking involved.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Yeah, Especially like your guys, level of
organization like the discord,the fucking crony shit, like all
of that stuff is next levelshit and I commend you guys big
time for that.
You've set the bar in thecommunity for safety on that end
and that's just super smart.
And Luke Keegan and Luke.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Yeah, and that's just super smart.
And Luke and Luke, yeah, forthat.
It was the accountability.
We wanted players to beaccountable, like there's
nothing stopping, like withchronoing, because, let's just
be honest, chrono is a disasterat every event oh yeah.
There's always massive lineupsand it's not even just in
Ontario, like there was thatevent at six flags in uh, new
(38:46):
orleans a month ago.
Apparently their chrono line wastwo and a half hours long holy
shit chrono is a disaster, so wewanted to try to get the
accountability for players, likebecause there's also nothing
stopping a player from not goingto Crono.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
There's also too, like we learned last year, the
those people that showed up latelike hard gave me a hard time
about chronoing.
Their gun was hot.
They didn't want to do anythingabout it.
I'm like, well, you're nottaking it on the field.
They start yelling at me and soI walked away.
Right, and it was the firstevent I'm helping.
It's your field.
(39:23):
You know what I mean.
There's all these factors.
Next time I'd be like bye, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
You know, like You're gone.
It's also with the chrono.
It's the GBBR right, thechronos that you get.
Everyone has them.
They're not really made forGBBRs.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
No.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
It's the gas that comes out.
We actually just reached out toum ace tech and asked them
about that.
We're still like pulling someof the information that they
sent us.
So also not my department,that's keegan's wheelhouse.
I'm not going to comment toomuch on that.
But like we want to figure outa way to chrono gas rifles
faster and more efficient sothat you know when Joe Blow 1
(40:03):
comes over and their gun'sshooting like two joules.
But at the last game they wereat it was shooting 1.49 joules
10 degrees cooler than it wasthere.
We want to expand with that, Ithink, even just trying like a
paintball chronograph just tosee, like do some testing with
that.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
They have the little ones, like the.
I know Adam Collier from tiertier one.
He has the little one and we'rethinking about because we are
we're we're all on the same page.
Like we're on the same pageabout safety, especially at the
field.
This field too, like you lookhow close you are to shooting
somebody.
So chrono is nothing we we uhtake lightly, but yeah, that's
cool that you guys are lookinginto that.
(40:41):
It's something that wedefinitely uh.
That and taggins, yeah, are twothings that we need to to
button up this year, uh, goinginto next year.
Now there's five fields thathave permanently banned tagging
products and you're not allowedto use them at all.
Uh, including you guys, we'rein the process of possibly being
another field where they're notallowed.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Really, even the AFG6s.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Right now we're not going to say anything on the air
.
We're working closely withTagan and our insurance
companies and we want to go fromthere.
So we're not saying yes or noright now.
Right now, as it stands, af6sand AF4s are still a go at our
field and MK5s.
It's just that we have a newproduct coming to the market
that's supposed to be out in thespring.
That's from Enola Gay.
It's their Pyro.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Theirs is much safer from everything I hear.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
And it's made of cardboard.
Yeah, it's way less anything.
So we might just go that routeand then abolish tagging
altogether.
That's fair, just because, likeyou guys, safety is number
fucking one.
Yeah, everything's so cool, Ilove the explosions, I love all
of that stuff.
You guys know me, I'm real intothe realism.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
But when I see a close friend of mine get their
knee blown off, I will not allowthat and that's why, like at no
flag, like after after the itturned out to be the bear banger
but like after that third noduff that involved an explosive,
we're like fuck it, that's it.
No more pyro on the field andpeople were pissed at us.
(42:14):
But after the game, when theywere like talk, like when people
were talking to me about I'mlike you need to understand,
it's a not only it's a safetything, it's it's also like a
fucking anxiety thing for us.
Right, like every time a noduff's called as a game runner,
it's the worst feeling becauseyou don't know what's going on
if you're not right there.
So just having that, thatsafety, like taking them off the
(42:37):
game, was just, it wasrelieving.
Speaker 3 (42:41):
And I've been fighting that for years in the
paintball world with firststrikes.
So years ago I had a teammateat an event that got shot in the
top of the head with one and itliterally like flapped.
He had to go to the hospitaland so at that point I'm like no
more, like at all, not allowed.
And then when I bought thefield field, I hard banned it
(43:03):
from the beginning and peoplewould ask me why, and I was like
it's my field, my rules.
Like honestly, I can't evenhave a conversation with you if
you don't know what it does tosomebody's body.
We're here to have fun.
The end of the day we want togo home whole to our family oh
yeah I can't rightfully sendsomeone home knowing he has a
hole in his head.
That's's a massive injury Like I.
(43:24):
Just I'm hard on that.
I'm hard on safety.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Well for our field specifically too.
It's like we have such an agedifference of players Like
that's why we're just like notags, just like.
And AFC sixes aren't that bad,but if it falls in the lap of
like a 16-year-old kid thirdtime up playing, like that's a
bad day and we don't want a badday.
So I'm just like.
I'm like no tag grenades everon Sundays, like that's a thing.
(43:51):
And when people fight me on it,I go grab one off my kit and I
throw it in the CQB field andthey see how, what happens when
it explodes, and they're like,oh okay, I'm like yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
What I noticed too, under no flag after the pyro
stopped being thrown I don'twant to say aggression in a
negative way, but the goodaggression and the actual tactic
play started to increaseincredibly.
It was so cool to see we're allwearing white fucking shirts in
(44:21):
the woods.
You know what I mean.
So the only thing that we hadwas tactics.
That's it, because you're notfucking hiding, which I loved.
That was such a cool aspect ofthe game, that was so awesome.
And I found that once all theconstant explosions stopped,
gameplay like guys and girls andplayers in general, they just
(44:44):
relaxed a bit.
You know what I mean that thatlittle bit of anxiety dropped
and then just the coolestgunfights were happening and I
just felt like you know what?
There's a place for them,there's a time and place and a
group, but I feel that it wasbeing abused and too many were
(45:04):
being thrown and it was.
It was.
It was ruining people's daysand I was told by a group of
players because I have theability to talk to both, like
all genres of airsoft because ofthe indoor here and there and
they're like yeah, we're, wewon't play at your field.
And I go what do you mean?
He's like I'm not getting blownup by a grenade.
(45:25):
He's like, fucked out, I, Iwon't do it.
And I'm like, so, you're notgoing to come try to play
because of that.
And it's like, okay.
So that resonated with me andthen, uh, john and myself went
to tacom and a couple of thelight fighters and we went up to
a certain company.
I heard, yeah, and we justasked for answers because, like
(45:49):
it's important, as you know, notonly a field owner but as a
fucking community member, aboutsafety and what you guys are
going to do it.
Because if you're just doingthis to just jam money down your
throat, then I'm not going to,I'm not going to support it
anymore.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Even the company that was originally responsible for
bringing them into Canada.
They want nothing to do withthat tag anymore.
Yeah, it's just a.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
It's a, I'll tell you insurance.
Six different insurancecompanies, you know what I mean
Because of the level of pyro,like fuck, we just had a
helicopter drop human beings outof at our field, right.
So there's certain things likethat took seven months of
planning to be able to pull thatoff.
It's crazy and the city stillfucking hates us for it.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
It's so bad, so funny story.
I actually learned that you canrequest flybys from the
Canadian air force.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
Really.
Speaker 2 (46:39):
Yes.
So, needless to say, I'm goingto be putting in a request for
no Flag and Igloo to do someflybys.
I very much doubt they'll getapproved, but I'm going to try.
So if a CF-18 Hercules fliesreal low by the compound under
no Flag too, yes, that would beinsane.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
That would be awesome .
Speaker 1 (47:00):
Which kind of goes to our next point.
So do you have any littletidbits or future plans about
both your games?
Speaker 2 (47:05):
next year.
So I'll start off with Igloo.
So this year we gave away NightVision Nice.
Thank you, zimming, for hookingme up with a really good price
for night solutions.
So Big Igloo 6.
Yeah, it's going to stay thesame.
I'm probably not going tocommand this year.
I'm going to hand it off tosomebody else, just so I can
(47:27):
focus more on the behind thescenes and help out.
We're going to keep it.
Food bank again Nice.
This year we were able to get4,537 pounds of food to donate.
Speaker 1 (47:40):
That is amazing.
That's a metric ton.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
It was insane, crazy, and it didn't last long,
because there's such a demandfor food bank support that that
large amount only lasted I think, the North Bay Food Bank like a
week and a half, wow, so thefood bank aspect isn't going
away.
We're going to give away twothermal devices blue six, so
(48:04):
that'll be fun that's amazing,that the game's not going to
change that one as much as I say.
You know we want to hearfeedback and not keep things
cookie cutter.
It's very much going to be acookie cutter game of just two
forces mashing at each other forflags.
It's an introduction to ourfield for people who've never
been there before and anintroduction to like mill scrims
(48:26):
for for newer players.
So it's a four hour with a onehour break and then another four
hours.
So it works out.
It works out good for newplayers.
Um, no, flag two.
So we're bringing bothcommanders back.
Nice we had originally talkedabout If you lose as a commander
, you can't come back the nextyear.
(48:47):
With how close the score was Atthe end of the game, we were
like there's no way that wecan't bring Ryan Tan back.
He was so close to winning thatif his team hadn't have got
penalized they would have won.
We're going to keep the samestructure with contracts.
It was interesting watchingboth commanders and how they
(49:09):
handled the contracts that wehad put out, hoping to have more
NPCs this year.
So I'm thinking 20 plus, Ithink, is what we're going to
have.
That's, I'm handing the NPCaspect off to one of my team
guys odin.
He's him and his other guys onour team who came with him were
(49:30):
all are all former larpers, likethe medieval, like larping
stuff.
So they, those guys, know howto like npc at games.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
So I'm like I'm giving you X amount of money,
you're just going to handle NPCsfor no flag too, and I just
want, I want that town filledwith stuff to annoy players.
I love it yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
I love it.
He also started a zombie crewfor me, cause I would run my
Northern apocalypse game and Ihad Sean who would like one guy,
who was like the zombie king,and and then odin was like do
you want zombies?
I can bring zombies like fromottawa and I'm like what?
Speaker 2 (50:14):
that's awesome.
Yeah, he's amazing.
Yeah, so we're hoping to have abunch of npcs for that
interaction, because I felt likeone.
The one of the positivefeedbacks was was just the
interactions that players hadwith the NPCs in town, and then
it was the same with your game.
I heard like everyone had thefun interactions with the NPCs.
(50:35):
Oh yeah, so there's that.
We're currently working on atow missile system.
We're not sure exactly howwe're going to incorporate that
into a contract, but it'sprobably going to be there and
then, yeah, I think that'spretty much the little things.
Speaker 1 (50:58):
Vehicles Is there going to be vehicles?
Speaker 2 (51:00):
Yeah, there's going to be vehicles.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
Is there something that you could apply for?
Speaker 2 (51:04):
So we're we want to, we're keeping it to one vehicle
per side.
Okay, so I already have my twovehicles picked out.
I've noticed, with the vehiclegames that we've been to, the
rules have been ever changingbecause it's such a new thing
for the community that we wewant to make sure we do it right
.
So we don't, we don't want tolike, we don't want to
(51:26):
overcomplicate the rules.
There's going to be some likeinteresting, interesting things
with the vehicles.
Like right now the idea thatwe're working with is you're
going to have to apply for apermit to drive your vehicle in
Halliston name of our inHalliston.
Nice, that's the name of ourcountry, right?
So maybe the vehicle driver isgoing to have to make their way
(51:50):
into the village and go to theDMV and apply for a driving
permit, whether that takes, likeyou know, 10 minutes.
You get there to the DMV on agood day and there's no one in
line and you can just get yourpermit.
Or maybe there'll be a lineupof people and, uh, getting your
driving permit will, uh, will,take a little bit of time.
(52:10):
So, yeah, uh, that's kind ofwhat we're toying around with,
but we just want to keep itsimple.
For the first one there's,there's also we don't want it to
be a vehicle game.
Yeah, you have an amazingvehicle game, connor with red
road.
His game is an amazing vehiclegame.
I don't think there's a needfor another vehicle game.
Speaker 1 (52:30):
So I love, yeah, I love the way, like under no flag
just played so beautifully.
The weather was great, it wasjust such a fucking great time.
Yeah, you don't want to reallylike, like your point, like
doing the small changes herethere, like npcs, multiple npcs
obviously adds to a game becauseeach individual uh, you know
(52:50):
character has their own, youknow enthusiasm, right, and they
have their ability to twistcertain things like it's just,
it's a cool aspect of the game.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
It really is and I think that's what what no flag
with being a sandbox style game,that was really.
It was really awesome to seehow that worked out and that on
the field that day, like the PRZfingers, like that was nowhere
in any of our contracts.
And then you guys went over andsaw the president and the
(53:23):
president's like I want thosefingers over at your CP.
And then I find out about thatlike 20 minutes later.
I'm like, ooh, we can work thisinto something.
And it even just like the way Iplayed that around too, was just
a lot of fun because, like Iwas on because we handed out
cell phones to your intelligenceoperators who were the ones
(53:45):
that would initiate thecontracts.
So we got burner style flipphones from Amazon and slipped
SIM cards into them and we'relike here you go, hope this
works.
If you want to do a contract,you need to call us and let us
know when you're going to do thecontract.
And Carlo, I'm sorry, but wemade them also text us, so T9
(54:07):
texting.
And it was funny watching Carlostruggle with this flip phone
texting me and I'm like fivefeet away from him he's like can
I just call you?
I'm like, no, I need you totext me and he's like that was
hilarious.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
Or walking down the road and you get a call and he
answers it.
He's like, yeah, I don't wantto talk right now.
That puts it away.
I'm like what are you doing?
He's like being a dick, yeah,but like the finger thing.
Speaker 2 (54:33):
I was like, as Kevin Mike's two IC called me, it was
like I have the fingers, what doLike?
Well, the president said thatthey need to be at the church or
farm building, whatever thatone building is, by this exact
time and you'll get this muchmoney out of it.
What you guys didn't know was Iwas on speakerphone with you
(54:56):
guys in the enemy's base so theycould hear that whole
conversation space, so theycould hear that whole
conversation.
And then when I hung up withyou guys, I was like if you guys
can steal that while they're intransit with it, you'll get
this many points for it.
And they ended up grabbing itfrom you guys and earning points
and I was.
It was like having that likecause.
(55:17):
In the real world noteverything goes to plan and
people turn all the time formoney.
So that was like one of thoselike.
That was a fun moment to beable to just screw with
everybody.
That's awesome, man.
Speaker 1 (55:32):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Well, I just want to end thispodcast off with a couple of
moments that you guys canremember from last season, some
memorable moments that each ofyou may have had or you had
separately, and we'll end theshow on a positive note.
Speaker 3 (55:50):
I went under major surgery in June so.
I didn't get out and play a lotthis year, but I did get to
play against him at Aglu,commanding against one another.
Speaker 2 (56:01):
It was really fun.
Speaker 3 (56:03):
Thank you to Riz tick for being to ic again and
helping me run shit, because youlost again.
I lost again, but my entirecrew, all of our home players,
go on his team.
Yeah, so I'm like I don't havepeople that are going to listen
to me.
I mean Lou, yeah, lou.
Speaker 2 (56:24):
Lou didn't make it out.
This year, though, you had TNFFPS Corey.
Corey was fantastic.
Speaker 1 (56:31):
Corey's a good dude.
Speaker 2 (56:33):
Yeah, he was really nice to me.
For me, no flag was so manymemories from that, good and bad
.
It was a massive learning curvecurve running an event at
another field, tiring oh yeah, alot of walking, a lot of
walking.
I walked that circle like Idon't even know how many times,
(56:53):
but you know what it was worthit, as seeing everyone just
exhausted and tired, like at allthe ones that lasted to the end
it was it was.
It was awesome.
Seeing those faces giving awaynight vision and the amount of
food you were able to donate wasa huge thing.
That was one of my like.
Seeing 4 500 pounds of food,say, in the back of a truck, in
(57:17):
a trailer, was just incredible.
Like, just that was.
That was my moment of the year.
Speaker 3 (57:25):
I think our biggest numbers to like having that many
people at an event, cause theyalways tease me, cause they're
like what's your biggestpaintball game?
You had 87.
Yeah, we're beating, beatingthose numbers, but I think
that's.
Speaker 1 (57:38):
It's just cool to see what we can do together and
build those numbers and help thecommunity like we are, and yeah
it's awesome to see you guys uhin the community together as a
power couple.
It's awesome to see you runyour field and run your events
and and just be a great team andgreat members of the community
and I really appreciate you guysand thank you so much for
(58:00):
coming out to uh to the podcastand being a part of the
community.
It's awesome You're verywelcome.
Speaker 2 (58:05):
The one thing I will add, if it's okay, I'm just
going to shout this out forKeegan Uh, one of the other
things that we're doing for thecommunity is airsoftca, huge.
Um.
So that's.
That is not me having anyinvolvement, this is keegan kind
of just doing it on his own, uh.
So he had the opportunity tobuy the web domain airsoftca and
(58:27):
it's going to be a website thatis just there for the community
in helping whether it's newplayers trying to figure out
what the first gun they shouldpurchase should be or what kind
of equipment they should buy,where they should buy equipment
from, so like trusted stores andwebsites, where to go play what
(58:55):
big events are going on whenthey are where they are.
So the whole website is justit's going to be for airsofters
in Canada as that backup forwhen Facebook and Instagram
finally decide to be like nope,we don't want you on there
anymore.
Yeah, cause I feel like that'sgoing to come soon.
Speaker 1 (59:14):
I have been banned more times than I've not been
banned, um, and it sucks and Ilike I mean there was the week I
was trying to answer you and Icouldn't even get back to you
because I was banned offmessenger for seven days, all
because I like to talk aboutairsoft.
Speaker 2 (59:28):
So damn, and that'll be the other thing too, is like
it's we have the ability for theI think it's I'm probably going
to screw these words up but theRSS feeds for like YouTube and
for the podcast.
So if you have a podcast, ifyou have a YouTube channel, hit
us up with the links and it willautomatically update on the
(59:50):
website when new when new thingscome out.
Speaker 1 (59:52):
So love it.
I'm definitely looking forwardto getting the airsoft
experience on the website Yepand I'm sure John will like his
stuff.
He's definitely a pivotal partof this community now and he's a
super talented guy.
And yeah, back to it.
I really appreciate you guystaking the drive all the way
down to Toronto from North Bayand I look forward to coming out
(01:00:15):
and checking out your fieldthis year.
I know I've said that for twoyears, but fucking damn it, I'm
doing it this year.
I don't care, we're going down,we're going down, we're gonna
come see your trailer.
Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
We'll just there's a spot.
Maybe I'll bring the skid steerdown with me at the same time.
Make a spot for it while I'mthere.
We also have a c container thatyou can sleep into it gets
really hot and smelly in there.
It's better than the ground airsoft, yeah, true story no
problem, uh again.
Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
thanks a lot, guys.
I appreciate coming out.
Thanks for having us and you'rewelcome.
Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
Thanks for yeah.
Thanks for finally having usCheers.
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