Being shit makes you good.

Now, that depends on where you are of course but for this article we’ll focus on Airsoft. If you’re having bedroom problems it’s probably best to Google elsewhere.

Airsoft from the beginning has always been an honour game – it relies on players being honest about getting hit. I know the scopecam trolls love making “cheater” videos as clickbait for their Fortnite loving followers on YT, or a bit of virtue signalling, but thankfully they’re in a minority.

More recently though, the camera-clad GoPro heroes have fuelled a desire for flawless games, often not taking hits themselves to enhance their gameplay footage to big themselves up. The development of “competitive” Airsoft as well, where suddenly players care about winning or losing, has given some sweaty types a motive to not call hit. And I do wonder if that’s behind a noticeable drop in skills on the field. I see players making the same mistakes repeatedly, like getting shot in a position and then going back to the same position for it to happen again.

I think another change has been the reliance on the guns to do the work instead of the player, whereby they’ll again push a bad position and hope to outrange the opponent, or have a higher rate of fire to put even more bb’s down, or go for bigger capacity mags to spray even harder than the person spraying the other way. Tactics have gone out the window, replaced with M249’s and the manoeuvrability of a bus.

As a sniper, I hate getting hit but I take it and try to learn from it. Every mistake, if you take a moment to work out what it was, is an opportunity to learn and improve. Where did I get hit from? Why did they see me? Should I have moved slower, or been lower to the ground, or is there something on my kit they saw? Have I pushed a bad position there, or been too close to a path?

Even in CQB, I learned quickly to take a step back from doors and windows. To remove lasers and tracers. To tread slower and move smoother through buildings. I’m still crap at it, but less of a liability these days. It’s not just taking the hit, but analysing it.

As opposed to not thinking about it, like some people;

“RAAAAHHHHH oh shit I got hit at that doorway”

Respawns

“RAAAAHHHHH oh shit I got hit at that doorway”

Respawns

“RAAAAHHHHH oh shit I got hit at that doorway”

Back at respawn “Yeah I think I need to upgrade my gun”

Sometimes it’s like watching a pigeon relentlessly smacking into a closed window.

Of course, the community (especially the retail side) will jump on this and tell you that yes, the solution is to buy more upgrade parts to make you a better player. Or buy a new gun. Put a Gate Titan in, that will surely open the window to success. Giving your gun an extra ten metres of range will definitely stop you getting shot at that same doorway. Of course…

The first step to being good is working out why you’re bad, and fixing those mistakes, much as it is in any sport. But if you’re not going to admit to them and hope that by ignoring hits you’ll make it go away, as well as pissing everyone off, then you won’t learn from it.

It’s almost like honour has its rewards.