In real life, what activity could possibly have the same elements, without sending me to Mindanao with a rifle in my hands?
Ladies and gentlemen, the answer is airsoft.
Airsoft is like paint ball, but 10 times improved. The guns are replicas of real firearms, but shoot plastic pellets. You also wear real fatigues, and the works. Last weekend, three of my friends and I – Chris, Taavi, and Edgar decided to try out Team Apocalypse’s airsoft grounds somewhere near Commonwealth.
The entire area is like a mini-jungle, with a few clearings here and there. We got into our battle gear and selected our weapons. I took an M4 carbine, while my three friends picked Kalashnikovs and a Steyr Aug. The other members of our team were some of the STAR photographers. Since they are good at shooting photos, we were about to find out if they were any good at shooting people. The first game was the eight of us versus three veterans, and we started out with thoughts of a quick and easy victory. However, defeat seemed imminent almost as soon as the game begun. Taavi downed a friendly photographer with a few bursts from his Kalashnikov, thinking that he was hostile. We were skirmishing in some thick foliage, and vision was bad. Encountering heavy fire in which a number of us were cut down, I snuck around in a flanking maneuver only to be popped on the head by the single enemy sniper. When I got back to the graveyard, all my teammates were killed with the exception of Chris, who hid for the remainder of the game and thus survived the battle.
In the second game we were reinforced by veterans. We thought we had it easy. Then we found out that we were going up against marines. One thing about these marines is that while they may be excellent at shooting and moving quickly and silently, they never flank the enemy.
The third game was defend the hill, and the objective is self-explanatory. At this point, several others had arrived and it was something like 20 against 20. Our group was tasked with the defense of the hill. While all my teammates were digging in and finding good places to camp, I made for the extreme right of the battleground and found a hole in the ground to hide in near one of the paths leading up to the hill. The ground around the hole was covered in grass five feet tall, and there were trees on both sides of the path. It was the perfect ambush spot. About a mosquito-filled 10 minutes later, I heard voices and footsteps coming up the path. I remained prone in my hole until I thought the footsteps were right next to me. I then popped out of my hole, only to discover that the opposing forces were still a good 10 meters away. However, they were in the process of passing and their sides were facing me so I took aim with my armalite and opened fire. Alas, it turned out that my gun was inaccurate. I literally could see the pellets whizzing off into the air in all directions regardless of the fact my target was dead in my sights. They turned and immediately got behind cover. I didn’t give them the chance to shoot back at me, for I had already crashed back through the grass into the trees and fell into a larger hole than before. I could hear them searching for me, so I curled up in my new-found hole and sat their for 20 minutes after their voices had faded into the distance. I snuck up the path they had made in the grass, and spotted two enemy backs. I crawled within five meters of them, then jumped up and sprayed them both at close range. I then shot them again to make sure I had hit them. To my misfortune, they had a buddy hiding in the bushes who drilled pellets into my left shoulder, so I was just as dead as the people I had killed, and we all walked back to the graveyard. Those two were my first two kills. My team successfully defended the hill, and we finally won a game.
The fourth and last game for us had multiple objectives. You could win by bringing your VIP to the enemy base, or by capturing the enemy flag, or by killing the opposing VIP. Me and the other newbies all stayed to defend the base with the VIP, while the vets moved out in a search-and-destroy mission. Minutes passed, and we got bored. One by one, they trickled off into the direction of the gunfire, until I was among the only ones left. I then decided to try a solo flanking maneuver to put pressure on the left flank in an attempt to draw the enemy forces out of the right flank, where most of my team was stuck, pinned down by enemy fire. Along the left flank I advanced, not sticking to the path created by boots but rather a few meters to the left of it. This was through all the plants and stuff, so it was hard going. I shot another enemy in the leg when he ran past me, and he was dead. Kill number four for me came when I called out to an enemy who was about to shoot me, "Huwag mo akong barilin!" and shot him when he turned around. Unfortunately for me, by the time I had gotten really deep into enemy territory they had respawned and whacked me in my right shoulder and leg. I went off to get a drink, and when I got back the game was over because no one was defending our flag and our enemies captured it. Exhausted and with the life sapped out of us by fatigue and the mosquito bites, my buddies and I decided to call it a day.
At that point there was only one thought in my head: I had finally found the cure for WoW.