Home
Hey folks, Myself and a few others who frequent Georgetown signed up at the Golden Eagle airsoft field for a 8 v. 8 tournament. The following, is as unbiased as possible about our experience. If you'd rather not read the entire story, I'll summarize it really quick for you, Do not spend your money or time playing there. The field is poorly run,to the point in which it becomes frustrating to even try to play. If you'd like to know more, please, read on. ( I understand that my opinion does NOT reign supreme, I'm simply trying to save you from the possibility of wasting your time and money, and supporting a business owner who has no business.. running a business, and especially one that could ruin potential player's from ever making the journey to Georgetown, or other airsoft fields. I personally asked first time players, most said despite some of the bullhockey, they enjoyed themselves, and would more than likely attempt to play elsewhere. Others, however, said that their experience with the staff, the field, and the owners had completely ruined their Airsofting experience, and would not spend any more money on the game, if they could even remotely have a chance at an experience like they had at Golden Eagle. I understand that there is always a chance a new person will not like the game, if everyone did, airsoft would be as big as professional sports (( I wish! )), so it is not uncommon to find people who would not like to continue after their first try. But, how many first timers didn't even enjoy the adrenaline rush at bar none? I digress, We don't need to get into the psyche of new people to inform you of a disgrace to the game.)
Our team was assembling throughout the day to plan our logistics as far as getting rides together, making sure everyone was going to make it, for the 9PM start time. Around 5:45 PM, one of the referee's, who just so happened to have met Stephen, a player on our team, texted him frantically to let him know that the time had been pushed to a 7:30PM start time. We had to haul butt over there to make sure we made it in time. Once we arrived, around 7:15, a birthday party had yet to leave the field. We made friends with a few of our competitors, the only other non "home" team. Most from the "home" team were in a different staging area. Some had been there since 3:30, since that was when they were told to show up for the tournament. Some decided to hop into public play, and paid for the FULL DAY package (around twenty bucks). When the birthday group left the field at 7:45, no announcements had yet to of been made to the tournament players, other than to "get out of the way" of the birthday party leaving the field. They finally rounded up the tournament players around 8:00PM and made sure everyone had paid. Then, they made the people who payed for the "FULL DAY" package pay again to participate. They had yet to announce the agenda for what we were paying, what kind of games we were to play, how it would be officiated, and when it would start. The person handling this, was an employee on the "home team". He was a pretty nice guy we found later, when he volunteered to be an extra ref because they were short.(More on this later). They also charged everyone an extra 5 dollars, because standard goggles, regardless of them being rated for airsoft, did not have full face protection. I asked if a player used some other means to cover their face, if that would be acceptable, as in the past, they let it slide. The answer was "No". So, after shelling out another 5 dollars for a mask that had JUST BEEN USED by the birthday party (Mine had two different strands of human hair as well as most of the foam for the face removed. Others had mask still steamy with human humidity). Now, I understand completely that their insurance company requires them to make their players wear full face protection. However, 5 dollars for a 2-3 hour rental of a mask that was still nasty on the inside, that was not a very high quality product to begin with, and pretty much insta-fogged indoors was absolutely horse crap. So, we bit the bullet and sucked it up so we could enjoy ourselves, since we had already gotten there, gotten geared and loaded, and waited forty five minutes.
So, finally, we prepare to take the field. A count is made, and some teams fell short of the eight player requirement to play. Again, they stalled us while they came up with a solution. Eventually, they decided to run three teams. My team, The "home" team, and another team of visitors. They made a bracket that had teams 1(The other visitors), 2(Us), and 3("home"). They announced that we would first play an attack and defend style game, where one team would defend, the other would attack, they would switch, and points would be awarded for time spent alive defending as well as any defenders left alive, and vice versa for the attacking team. I started to get excited, as it seemed our wait might had become worthwhile. The remainder of the 30 minutes would be followed by simple elimination games until time was expired, and teams would be awarded a point for the win, and an extra point for every player left standing at the end of the match. So, we asked if we could walk the field, as most of our team had never played there before. We were granted a few minutes at best to check it out. We started the first game, and the bracket.. if you will.. was set up teams 1v2, 2v3, 3v1. Irregardless of the outcome of the first match, our team was playing a double header, against the fresh "home" team. The first game began, and we lost a few people, took some of theirs out. One of the players on their team was a substitute from the "home" team. He stuck his head out about the same time I did, we shot, we hit each other, I saw a BB of mine strike his mask, he flinched and ducked under neath the window, and did not call himself out. I called myself out and asked the ref if he saw what had happened. "Nope" was the response. Some of my players standing in a kill zone near by saw the hit. When I got over there, they told me that was the second time he had not called the hit, and the ref's missed it. A third time he was hit, and we all erupted as he didn't call it. A ref was finally paying attention and had to call him out himself. At this point, a few of our players were beside themselves. we started to head to the desk to ask for a refund, and we would leave. I calmed a few people down, and we returned. Upon returning, we were told that they were doing away with the attack and defend, our round (even though we won) was not to be counted, and they changed the rules to just elimination games. Throughout the rest of the game with team 1, the same player from the "home" team consistently refused to call hits, and the refs consistently missed the calls ( All THREE of them for a 5000 square foot playing field with 16 people playing at once ) until the last game in which myself and another player rushed his position inside a building and both flanked him, and laid on the trigger until he put his hands up. The entire time between games, they gave us minimum 1-3 minutes to reload and regroup. Once we had finished our games with team 1, we were told we would not receive a break at first, then we were given ten minutes. We had 10 minutes, after playing four elimination games back to back, to play the team with the home field advantage that was fresh. We began to suspect that it was INTENDED for us to do this, even though we won all four games against team 1. After each match, we gave props for good plays, and generally had no problems with anyone but their acquired help from the home team.
So, begins the saga with team three( HOME TEAM ). Immediately we noticed that it took 3-4 hits for them to call their selves out. One player ( who almost everyone on our team complained about once or twice for ignoring hits, even though he was easily over 350lbs. and wasn't exactly a hard target to miss(( I do not mean this in a deragotry manner. I'm just setting the scene, if you will. He was wearing a T shirt, and wasn't exactly a small guy. It's not hard to feel those hits.)), as well as the ref' who was an nice guy admitted that he had problems with calling his hits in the past) , upon being told to "Call your hits" in a calm manner from one of our players, responded with, "I can call my own hits". Our player responded "Well, it sure doesn't seem like it". The other player then walked up and put his mask in direct contact with our players and started to talk back and forth. Our player, responding by pushing him away after he had closed such a distance in a short time, and was feeling threatened. Both sides agreed to not talk to each other and let the incident pass. We skunked them one game, beat them with two players left on another. They beat us with 5 remaining once, and two or three on another. We had won, hands down. On one of their wins, a player came around our back end very close to the spectator area, where people from team 1 were, and some of our players. We watched him take a hit to the top of the head, flinch, and continue shooting out two of our players. Our sideline erupted, and the two members from team one confirmed that they saw the hit. At first, he denied it. I pointed out the newly forming bruise on his head, and he admitted to it, so he told the ref that he was eliminated. However, he gained TWO points that were never erased for his r kills. We watched team one play team three, and asked team 1 if they were calling their hits. The majority came to the conclusion on their team as well that they were not.
So they tallied the points up... somehow. At first, we were told that: Each elimination was worth 1 point. Each player left alive at the end of a round on your team was worth 1 point A win was worth 1 point. They announced the score: Team 1 18 points. Team 2, 59 points. Team 3, 61 points. (TWO POINTS) I asked the ref to see a score card. It was written on a napkin. He could also barely explain how he tallied it, as for each round, he did it differently. They kept two score cards, both were kept by employee's, one who was a member of the "home" team. He explained that our team and the "home" team were given the maximum amount of points possible when we played team 1, as they did not win a game. He said 36. Now, a quick lesson in mathematics was in order for the lad. IF the above was true when scoring,
8 players x 4 rounds = 32 points
4 Wins x 1 point per = 4 points
Subtotal: 36 What wasn't included?
The fact that in those games, we had a game in which no one was eliminated, two games where two people were eliminated, and one where 5 were eliminated. I counted each player from the "home team" that was eliminated when playing the first team. In 4 games, a total of 15 of them were sent to the kill box. 15>9. Therefore, we should of been awarded more than 36 points per game. In our game, those points were also ignored, As we beat them with 7 left once, and 1 left the second victory. They beat us with 6 left one game, and 3 left the second. They scored only ONE extra point on us. The game in which we beat them with 7 left, we did so in about two to three minutes. All the other games lasted around 7-8 minutes. The best part, is that this isn't the worst of it.
HERE
Two to Three weeks prior, Doug and Stephen went to play there for a public day. They told Doug that he needed to buy an 8$ neoprene face protector to play with regular goggles. A week later, I went with them to play on a public day. One of the store owners, (also named Doug, but for less confusion, we will call him "Mr. D") was present that day. He rang up our Doug for around 100$ worth of merchandise. We started to get prepared to play, and Doug donned his goggles and neoprene face mask. Mr. D frantically ran into the staging area, telling him he had to wear a full face mask. We were all forced that day to rent a mask to play. Doug had words with Mr.D about the fact that the policy changed from week to week, and said he would like to return the facemask he was forced to buy to play the previous time. Mr.D refused, because it had been used. So, Doug returned all the other merchandise. So begins why I even wrote this long, long, LONG post, Mr.D and his business practices and ethics. He lost 92$ dollars profit over a 8$ neoprene mask that Doug was FORCED to buy last time to play. Most of the referee's that day told us that they didn't care, and they believed to rule to be stupid.
A quick note on public play days: They are run poorly, the games hardly vary from a crappy attack defend scenario, and simple elimination games. Most of the ref's are apathetic; they spend more time talking with each other than really doing anything. Most could care less about being there. They also do absolutely nothing to ensure people are honest, and they have no system in place to ensure honesty. They have a HORRIBLE hit calling problem, as well as a blindfiring problem (which has rules in place against it).
Last night, Mr.D was present for the tournament. Doug brought a a very nice and respectable lady friend with us to the tournament to cheer us on, and she eventually became "team mom". During the course of the tournament, she went past the desk and asked Mr. D where the bathroom was, she hadn't been here before. He told her where it was, then asked her (These quotations are word for word what she told me.) "Why are you here? You don't belong here. Only players are supposed to be here." She told him that she was there as a ride for some of our players, and as support for our team, and that she did not want to stand outside in the cold, as the rest of the Mall was shut down at this point. He replied with "Well, I don't want you over there anymore". She told him that, quite frankly, that was too bad, and that she was going to have to stay because she was the ride for some of the players. He responded "Well, I just think you and your people are going to steal from me." Mr.D also admittedly knows absolutely nothing about airsoft. Their website boasts an ONSITE master airsoft gunsmith. I hope that you take what I have said, and consider it before you spend money and time at their establishment. The point of this post was never going to be about the fact that we "lost" (The prize was BB's.. whoop de doo). The only reason it was made, was because of the Owner and how he treated Doug's friend. I won't ever be going back.
Our team was assembling throughout the day to plan our logistics as far as getting rides together, making sure everyone was going to make it, for the 9PM start time. Around 5:45 PM, one of the referee's, who just so happened to have met Stephen, a player on our team, texted him frantically to let him know that the time had been pushed to a 7:30PM start time. We had to haul butt over there to make sure we made it in time. Once we arrived, around 7:15, a birthday party had yet to leave the field. We made friends with a few of our competitors, the only other non "home" team. Most from the "home" team were in a different staging area. Some had been there since 3:30, since that was when they were told to show up for the tournament. Some decided to hop into public play, and paid for the FULL DAY package (around twenty bucks). When the birthday group left the field at 7:45, no announcements had yet to of been made to the tournament players, other than to "get out of the way" of the birthday party leaving the field. They finally rounded up the tournament players around 8:00PM and made sure everyone had paid. Then, they made the people who payed for the "FULL DAY" package pay again to participate. They had yet to announce the agenda for what we were paying, what kind of games we were to play, how it would be officiated, and when it would start. The person handling this, was an employee on the "home team". He was a pretty nice guy we found later, when he volunteered to be an extra ref because they were short.(More on this later). They also charged everyone an extra 5 dollars, because standard goggles, regardless of them being rated for airsoft, did not have full face protection. I asked if a player used some other means to cover their face, if that would be acceptable, as in the past, they let it slide. The answer was "No". So, after shelling out another 5 dollars for a mask that had JUST BEEN USED by the birthday party (Mine had two different strands of human hair as well as most of the foam for the face removed. Others had mask still steamy with human humidity). Now, I understand completely that their insurance company requires them to make their players wear full face protection. However, 5 dollars for a 2-3 hour rental of a mask that was still nasty on the inside, that was not a very high quality product to begin with, and pretty much insta-fogged indoors was absolutely horse crap. So, we bit the bullet and sucked it up so we could enjoy ourselves, since we had already gotten there, gotten geared and loaded, and waited forty five minutes.
So, finally, we prepare to take the field. A count is made, and some teams fell short of the eight player requirement to play. Again, they stalled us while they came up with a solution. Eventually, they decided to run three teams. My team, The "home" team, and another team of visitors. They made a bracket that had teams 1(The other visitors), 2(Us), and 3("home"). They announced that we would first play an attack and defend style game, where one team would defend, the other would attack, they would switch, and points would be awarded for time spent alive defending as well as any defenders left alive, and vice versa for the attacking team. I started to get excited, as it seemed our wait might had become worthwhile. The remainder of the 30 minutes would be followed by simple elimination games until time was expired, and teams would be awarded a point for the win, and an extra point for every player left standing at the end of the match. So, we asked if we could walk the field, as most of our team had never played there before. We were granted a few minutes at best to check it out. We started the first game, and the bracket.. if you will.. was set up teams 1v2, 2v3, 3v1. Irregardless of the outcome of the first match, our team was playing a double header, against the fresh "home" team. The first game began, and we lost a few people, took some of theirs out. One of the players on their team was a substitute from the "home" team. He stuck his head out about the same time I did, we shot, we hit each other, I saw a BB of mine strike his mask, he flinched and ducked under neath the window, and did not call himself out. I called myself out and asked the ref if he saw what had happened. "Nope" was the response. Some of my players standing in a kill zone near by saw the hit. When I got over there, they told me that was the second time he had not called the hit, and the ref's missed it. A third time he was hit, and we all erupted as he didn't call it. A ref was finally paying attention and had to call him out himself. At this point, a few of our players were beside themselves. we started to head to the desk to ask for a refund, and we would leave. I calmed a few people down, and we returned. Upon returning, we were told that they were doing away with the attack and defend, our round (even though we won) was not to be counted, and they changed the rules to just elimination games. Throughout the rest of the game with team 1, the same player from the "home" team consistently refused to call hits, and the refs consistently missed the calls ( All THREE of them for a 5000 square foot playing field with 16 people playing at once ) until the last game in which myself and another player rushed his position inside a building and both flanked him, and laid on the trigger until he put his hands up. The entire time between games, they gave us minimum 1-3 minutes to reload and regroup. Once we had finished our games with team 1, we were told we would not receive a break at first, then we were given ten minutes. We had 10 minutes, after playing four elimination games back to back, to play the team with the home field advantage that was fresh. We began to suspect that it was INTENDED for us to do this, even though we won all four games against team 1. After each match, we gave props for good plays, and generally had no problems with anyone but their acquired help from the home team.
So, begins the saga with team three( HOME TEAM ). Immediately we noticed that it took 3-4 hits for them to call their selves out. One player ( who almost everyone on our team complained about once or twice for ignoring hits, even though he was easily over 350lbs. and wasn't exactly a hard target to miss(( I do not mean this in a deragotry manner. I'm just setting the scene, if you will. He was wearing a T shirt, and wasn't exactly a small guy. It's not hard to feel those hits.)), as well as the ref' who was an nice guy admitted that he had problems with calling his hits in the past) , upon being told to "Call your hits" in a calm manner from one of our players, responded with, "I can call my own hits". Our player responded "Well, it sure doesn't seem like it". The other player then walked up and put his mask in direct contact with our players and started to talk back and forth. Our player, responding by pushing him away after he had closed such a distance in a short time, and was feeling threatened. Both sides agreed to not talk to each other and let the incident pass. We skunked them one game, beat them with two players left on another. They beat us with 5 remaining once, and two or three on another. We had won, hands down. On one of their wins, a player came around our back end very close to the spectator area, where people from team 1 were, and some of our players. We watched him take a hit to the top of the head, flinch, and continue shooting out two of our players. Our sideline erupted, and the two members from team one confirmed that they saw the hit. At first, he denied it. I pointed out the newly forming bruise on his head, and he admitted to it, so he told the ref that he was eliminated. However, he gained TWO points that were never erased for his r kills. We watched team one play team three, and asked team 1 if they were calling their hits. The majority came to the conclusion on their team as well that they were not.
So they tallied the points up... somehow. At first, we were told that: Each elimination was worth 1 point. Each player left alive at the end of a round on your team was worth 1 point A win was worth 1 point. They announced the score: Team 1 18 points. Team 2, 59 points. Team 3, 61 points. (TWO POINTS) I asked the ref to see a score card. It was written on a napkin. He could also barely explain how he tallied it, as for each round, he did it differently. They kept two score cards, both were kept by employee's, one who was a member of the "home" team. He explained that our team and the "home" team were given the maximum amount of points possible when we played team 1, as they did not win a game. He said 36. Now, a quick lesson in mathematics was in order for the lad. IF the above was true when scoring,
8 players x 4 rounds = 32 points
4 Wins x 1 point per = 4 points
Subtotal: 36 What wasn't included?
The fact that in those games, we had a game in which no one was eliminated, two games where two people were eliminated, and one where 5 were eliminated. I counted each player from the "home team" that was eliminated when playing the first team. In 4 games, a total of 15 of them were sent to the kill box. 15>9. Therefore, we should of been awarded more than 36 points per game. In our game, those points were also ignored, As we beat them with 7 left once, and 1 left the second victory. They beat us with 6 left one game, and 3 left the second. They scored only ONE extra point on us. The game in which we beat them with 7 left, we did so in about two to three minutes. All the other games lasted around 7-8 minutes. The best part, is that this isn't the worst of it.
HERE
Two to Three weeks prior, Doug and Stephen went to play there for a public day. They told Doug that he needed to buy an 8$ neoprene face protector to play with regular goggles. A week later, I went with them to play on a public day. One of the store owners, (also named Doug, but for less confusion, we will call him "Mr. D") was present that day. He rang up our Doug for around 100$ worth of merchandise. We started to get prepared to play, and Doug donned his goggles and neoprene face mask. Mr. D frantically ran into the staging area, telling him he had to wear a full face mask. We were all forced that day to rent a mask to play. Doug had words with Mr.D about the fact that the policy changed from week to week, and said he would like to return the facemask he was forced to buy to play the previous time. Mr.D refused, because it had been used. So, Doug returned all the other merchandise. So begins why I even wrote this long, long, LONG post, Mr.D and his business practices and ethics. He lost 92$ dollars profit over a 8$ neoprene mask that Doug was FORCED to buy last time to play. Most of the referee's that day told us that they didn't care, and they believed to rule to be stupid.
A quick note on public play days: They are run poorly, the games hardly vary from a crappy attack defend scenario, and simple elimination games. Most of the ref's are apathetic; they spend more time talking with each other than really doing anything. Most could care less about being there. They also do absolutely nothing to ensure people are honest, and they have no system in place to ensure honesty. They have a HORRIBLE hit calling problem, as well as a blindfiring problem (which has rules in place against it).
Last night, Mr.D was present for the tournament. Doug brought a a very nice and respectable lady friend with us to the tournament to cheer us on, and she eventually became "team mom". During the course of the tournament, she went past the desk and asked Mr. D where the bathroom was, she hadn't been here before. He told her where it was, then asked her (These quotations are word for word what she told me.) "Why are you here? You don't belong here. Only players are supposed to be here." She told him that she was there as a ride for some of our players, and as support for our team, and that she did not want to stand outside in the cold, as the rest of the Mall was shut down at this point. He replied with "Well, I don't want you over there anymore". She told him that, quite frankly, that was too bad, and that she was going to have to stay because she was the ride for some of the players. He responded "Well, I just think you and your people are going to steal from me." Mr.D also admittedly knows absolutely nothing about airsoft. Their website boasts an ONSITE master airsoft gunsmith. I hope that you take what I have said, and consider it before you spend money and time at their establishment. The point of this post was never going to be about the fact that we "lost" (The prize was BB's.. whoop de doo). The only reason it was made, was because of the Owner and how he treated Doug's friend. I won't ever be going back.
![WPeake23 [SOTHG]](https://2img.net/u/2713/75/72/23/avatars/85-19.gif)
