There are a lot of game-changing guns and parts hitting the market at the moment. From new MOSFETs, to hop units, new ghillie suits and low-cost thermal optics. Smaller rigs, lighter rigs. If you want the edge in Airsoft, perhaps you have a tournament coming up or you want your Instagram profile to absolutely blow up, where do you start? Where do you put your money first and what upgrades are going to give you the biggest performance boost?

Quite often now I see a new product on Facebook and there’ll be brand fanboys jumping on giving it a thumbs up and saying “love this, absolute game changer“. The reality though, is that no it isn’t. In terms of improving your game (being a “game changer”), it’s going to do …

absolutely.

fuck.

all.

I realise this is going to put me at odds with the 50% of the Airsoft community which are manufacturers, retailers, sponsored players and advertising mouth pieces that jump on it on social media, but I’ll put it out there. I don’t mind being unpopular, it’s not what drives me.

There is nothing you can buy that is going to change your game. How you play will change your game.

A TDC is nice on a sniper rifle, but it’s an old idea that’s been reinvented far too many times; the same as a weighted piston. A higher rate of fire is just going to empty your mag quicker. A lightning quick trigger response isn’t going to stop bb’s coming at you so you’re going to get hit anyway. That new gun from Novritsch or whatever the ICS Captain has this week isn’t going to make you a better player or be a massive improvement on your current setup. And if you put me in a warehouse with my VSR and made me swap barrels for something “game-changing”, I probably wouldn’t notice the difference. Less so in a game. Micro rigs and fanny packs? Lighter doesn’t make you faster, that’s down to you and your body and I’m yet to see fanny packs being used for anything but keys, wallets and snacks. That’s not exactly a revolution in combat technique is it? Also, I don’t care if you can change your motor settings from your mobile phone, put your phone down and focus on the game.

These upgrades and shiny things aren’t a complete waste of course; some of them might give you a 1% performance improvement on your pewstick, but they’re definitely not changing your game because even with ten 1% upgrades, it’s not radically altering anything. We buy things because of advertising and because we believe our peers and designated celebrity players. Because we like showing off new purchases on our media platforms, with lots of tags and shouting, believing that manufacturers will look favourably at us when in reality they just took our money and got free advertising in the process. I would say, apart from something like Haloscreen which was a complete methodology change for us in sniping, that I haven’t seen anything genuinely revolutionary or game changing in the last ten years. There has been a drop in player ability without a doubt, so are all these purchases making us worse?

Actually Changing Your Game

Step out of your local Airsoft shop. Forget the discount codes. Go and walk out into a field on your own and stand there for a moment and leave your phone in your pocket. Stop and think for a bit – why are you not at the top of your game and what is the actual solution?

It isn’t the insides of your gun (assuming it works properly; if it doesn’t go and get it fixed). You have a gun, everyone else on the site has a gun. It’s just a tool. What changes your game is you, the player.

Do you know how to bound from cover to cover?

Can you work as a team?

Are you correctly dressed for the weather and terrain?

Do you know how to pie a corner?

Do you know how to program a radio? Do you have one and is it set up correctly?

Can you communicate without making noise?

Can you move through difficult terrain and evade detection?

Is your optic zeroed correctly?

Can you correctly describe where the enemy is?

Can you manoeuvre your way around an enemy position?

Do you know how to camouflage your kit and yourself? (the 7 S’s)

Do you have what you need on your loadout without adding shit you don’t need? Can you get to it?

Does everything function?

I’m not saying that all purchases are pointless, but take time to consider whether it’s something you need or whether it’s a vanity item for the safe zone. Play in the UK? Invest in some waterproof kit. Full day games? Make sure you have food and water. Get good boots, get good eye pro but don’t listen to all the hype from shopping channels. Make well thought out purchases. Buy some books for yourself; there a few good guides out there for things like basic patrol skills, fieldcraft etc.

We can’t always train in teams; access to sites prevents that. But we can learn. Go online, look on YouTube, learn some basic infantry skills. Now before you say “hahaha that’s taking it way too seriously, I just enjoy going to mess about with my mates”, you’re trying to win a gunfight so it’s worth learning from guys who win gunfights, real or otherwise. And dropping the amount of money some guys do on gun builds, it’s hard to argue that they’re just casual players – I’d say a £1200 gun build is taking it more seriously than watching a couple of Garand Thumb vids.

Or don’t learn. Go and “uwu” at people.