I flew out to the East Coast last week and on Saturday, June 25, I produced another successful Operation: Bad Blood airsoft event at EMR Event Park in northeastern Pennsylvania. Over 800 players made it to the field this year despite the outrageously high gas prices and equally as high humidity and heat (90º). Evike.com sponsored the event for the 14th straight year and sent Matt and a camera crew to take part in the action.
The heat caused numerous exhaustion injuries which had to be evacuated by EMS from the field; 6 occurred within the first hour! The game ran non-stop all day, with the players forming 4 different competing factions and non-aligned Tribal forces warring it over 200 acres of woods, multi-leveled forts, and simulated villages. The objective of the game for the factions was to collect up to eight different blood sample stamps hidden in the field and on the person of each faction commander.
A bonus mission this year was the capture and extraction of Evike Matt in the last half-hour of the game. No faction won the bonus. The Black Shirts, who were the first to find him, chose instead to run out the clock. Due to safety concerns caused by the oppressive heat and humidity, I called for an early end of the game at 16:00 (much to the relief of all players).
At the end of the game, the sample cards were collected and Marxists and Deus X were tied for the most stamps at 6, but the win was awarded to Deus X because the Marxist CO was unavailable for a tie-breaker duel.
After all the players exited the field and recovered, they gathered around the EMR stage for the legendary post-Bad Blood raffle. Each player received a complimentary raffle ticket and over the course of nearly an hour we raffled off over 50 AEGs, pistols, plate carriers, weapon lights, gift cards, and accessories supplied by Evike.com, Jackal Tactical, Amped Airsoft, O-Light, and EMR. Evike alone supplied a variety of morale patches (over 1000!) that were tossed and distributed to the crowd.
The next morning, I organized a bonus game of OP: Dead Blood, a zombie game. The majority of the attendees camped on the field, too tired from the previous day’s game to drive home. I organized about 300 die-hard players spread out around Fort War and competed against each other to find bio-hazard markers. As players were killed they added to the ever-growing zombie hoard. The rest of the Sunday, EMR ran skirmish games for everyone.
The following Tuesday, while I waited for my delayed flight at Newark Airport back to California, I reflected on the event. Thanks to Evike, EMR, and many players who stepped up to volunteer to help me put on Bad Blood 2002. Despite the brutal heat, the overwhelming feedback I got was positive. I fly back with many lessons and thoughts about how to improve the event for OP: Bad Blood 2023.
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Story and Event by: Moondog Industries http://www.moondogindustries.com
Photos by Primer Productions https://www.facebook.com/PrimerProductions