Second trip to Norway, this time a bit closer to home. A 3,5h trip for another weekend in a new location, organising the games and what a fun weekend it was!
Same as the previous post from Norway, I’ll split up the post in a few different parts. The Setting, The games, The field, The players, The weekend and lastly the people behind OMS. Oh, I will also talk a bit about the future plans of me doing games in Norway.
What?
Start with the Setting. OMS invited me as an organiser to do the games. Which means that I’m responsible for the games and everything that happens around them. I prepare the games from start to finish and get help with the startup from the people from OMS. The event was a full weekend where people were already on site from Friday and stayed up till Sunday. Which makes this a very cosy and chill event for the players. We had Sakari from TerraBBs to demonstrate the TerraBBs and we had a very good talk about future plans. Btw, I have a bag here at home for testing.
The Games
The Games I planned were, same as the week before, an asymmetrical game on the Saturday and depending on the people, a symmetrical game on the Sunday. There was a night game for the people that wanted to join in on that. It was run by Brad and I heard that the people had a good time in the dark. With this I wanted to show the difference between the 2 different types of games and how you can use the field differently. Because it was a first time for me on the field, it was a bit of searching where to place the best spawns and I learned a lot for next time. Which brings us to the field.
The Location
The location is an old workshop for cars or other mechanical things and has been completely redone for airsoft with extra walls, lights, covers and objects to create a better flow through the field. You could see that they did a really good job on making this a good site for airsoft. The building has 2 floors with the ‘basement’ only having one staircase and 2 doors in the backend. A very interesting field to play on with inside and outside areas. It makes for very fast gameplay and tired people at the end of the day. I already want to try some different spawn locations that might open up the game more in future games.
The Players
The players were all different types of players, which is perfect on an event like this. You had your fast playing people with a lot of running but also the calmer people that take their time to take corners. Getting feedback from those people was important to keep evolving the games and coming up with new ideas specific for this location. We had between 50 and 60 people coming in and I kinda want to see where the limit is. With some extra people for the flow of the game, I think we can push it a bit more because then I can keep the people connected to the game more. This is why I created the Shattering games, more mission driven days with a lot of room for fun. I do have some ideas in my head to keep things going.
The Weekend
The weekend was a mix from crazy to chill. Because this is work for me. My job is to give people a good day and I use all my experience to make that happen and I take that job very seriously. I prepare the games for hours before the game and still have to adapt them during the day. This creates a very focused me during the day with a constant watching eye on how things are going and how to adapt them for a better flow. This in contrast with my camping spot, which was the back of my car, facing the sea. Waking up and eating my breakfast with that view was amazing. A perfect refueling for the hectic day. It wasn’t warm during the night, but a good sleeping bag and an extra blanket made it perfect. The only thing I need to add is some more extra batteries to keep everything charged for the full weekend. Something to invest in for full weekend events. Oh, I even had the chance to play a bit on the Sunday which is always a nice bonus after a weekend of organising.
On the Saturday we had the most people and less on the Sunday, which is still a bit weird for me, coming from Belgium, where most games are on the Sunday. I’m curious why people only came on Saturday even though it was a weekend event. If you were at the event and didn’t play on Sunday, please let me know why. It’s been in my mind since the event.
OMS
Lastly I want to say something about the people behind OMS. The people I met were awesome people with a passion for what they do. Getting in contact with people like this is fueling my energy. You might know my passion for what I do and where I want to bring airsoft, well, this was the exact same feeling I had with those people. When I heard they work together with the community and other groups to bring airsoft in the community and give younger and older people a place to have a great weekend, I wanted to create the best possible event for them. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and by using each other’s strengths, we can create amazing things. Tom and Jonathan were the people I had the most contact with before the events, but during the events I met so many nice people and next time I’ll film a bit more myself to give you a better idea of the overall vibe that was going around.
Coming up
And the next event is already on the agenda, 20 and 21 of September I will be back for another round on Saturday and Sunday. We’re also talking to the local police and they might join in for a game to make it even more interesting. There are also rental kits available if you want to try it out yourself but don’t have the gear.
You can keep up to date and join OMS on their website and follow the information there and for their events will also pop up on Airsofter World, which makes it easier for Swedish airsofters to find them too. This location is so close to the border that it’s a perfect field to visit. I’m already planning the next trip up there and keep an eye on my calendar and pages for more information.
This was another great weekend in Norway, filled with Airsoft and great people. Let’s do this again soon and you should join me in that. Thank you for following me on this Norway journey and let me know if you have any questions.