Possible LC event in PacNW - 2012

[Prophet]

I'll fire up the rumormill again.

[code789]

better start saving up...

[Riddick]

Unless it's some unique AO that they could get us access to, I say maybe. I spent my $165 at LC: Route 66 and it was a terrible event and was nothing more than a skirmish atmosphere with a insane price tag. No props, over populated field. No immersion. Stagnant gameplay.

I didn't see what their hype is all about

[Minerva]

Last Lion Claws I went to was disappointing. It attracts too many people of the wrong crowd.

[Night_Stocker]

aw... I'm not hearing too many good things about lion claws.

[Riddick]

From my experiance they rely heavily on the AO providing the experiance and not the gameplay or a mixture of both.

They trully are overpriced for what you get in return IMO. I would be willing to give it one more try now that I get my discount at $125 a event

I plan on going to OK Invasion next year. Hear lots of good things about that event and the people that put it on.

[Matt]

Unless it's some unique AO that they could get us access to, I say maybe. I spent my $165 at LC: Route 66 and it was a terrible event and was nothing more than a skirmish atmosphere with a insane price tag. No props, over populated field. No immersion. Stagnant gameplay.

I didn't see what their hype is all about

Totally gonna hit you with an I told you so!

[Night_Stocker]

I plan on going to OK Invasion next year. Hear lots of good things about that event and the people that put it on.

OKI would be flipping awesome to go to! as soon as I saw the chopper gunner in OKI 6, I was determined to go one day!

[Riddick]

Unless it's some unique AO that they could get us access to, I say maybe. I spent my $165 at LC: Route 66 and it was a terrible event and was nothing more than a skirmish atmosphere with a insane price tag. No props, over populated field. No immersion. Stagnant gameplay.

I didn't see what their hype is all about

Totally gonna hit you with an I told you so!

Yes you did and I learned from it (i think)

[icebullet]

So does that mean we are going to get all of Evike's South Californians?

[Variable]

Hah. Neato. Probably rilea or jblm.

[Snowman]

Unless FORSCOM changed their minds, it won't be JBLM. :/

[dos_Santos]

I guess I will weigh in on this:

I hosted John Lu of OLCMSS on November 3 here in the Portland to try and get him to bring his events to the NW. He tried several years ago, but like Nasty mentioned, he's had a hard time trying to get something going up at Ft. Lewis and the region in general has it's challenges.

But let me backtrack to R66. Myself and one other person on SOTA made it through to the last phase end on day one, and by then I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It did suck in the beginning because of some mis-communications (yes they happened there too) and during the second phase, it was really wasn't looking like an enjoyable event. But Steve and I stuck it out and it redeemed itself for me by the end. There was definitely some hacking going on and blatant crap going on that Steve, Rod, Julian and myself particularly observed at the opening of phase teo. Very discouraging. We all expected this high level national quality event and it didn't deliver. After the game I was talking to a squad (Regulators) who are veterans of LC events and I was sharing my frustration. They then told me that they hardly recognized any of the teams and noticed there were a lot of new people. Later when talking with John as we drove out to a possible AO earlier this month he mentioned the LC has two different level of events. Tier 1, which is LC and Irene (both which have sold out twice in 90 seconds upon registration opening), and Tier 2 or lower like R66 and Red Storm which are more one-off events. R66 was an experiment of sorts because they could only hold the event once in that location. The veteran LC people in the LA area "boycotted" R66 because they didn't think it was a realistic AO. Maybe they were on to something.
So unfortunately for the SOTA contingent, Rick and Skunk Ape, we had high expectations of a Tier 1 event but it was really a lower event with a lot of newbs. In fact, they asked during one of the breaks how many were first timers to an LC event and maybe 75% of the peeps raised their hands. I remember seeing the organizers go "Ah ha..."

Irene and Lion Claws are completely different in John's words. The demographic is mostly East Coast and mid-west attendees that have a totally different attitude towards airsoft, mil-sim and the military. Not sure why. But people from all over the world come to attend the LC events (over 4000 attended in 2011 so far).

In regards to OKI, it's in trouble with the government for a couple of reasons, which I won't go into right now. It also attracts a different crowd than the mothership LC events and quality is different.

So here's how I see it. We have an opportunity here in the NW to really get behind an event that would put us on the map once year as a hot airsoft destination like Irene and LC down in California. We have a strong community that nearly plays all year long despite the weather. We are close, maybe too close sometimes, community that looks out for its own. An LC event would complement the local events that happen here through out the year by Rick, SOTA, APST, BSP, CAG, PF, et al. It would hopefully attract talent from other parts of the US to our back door and broaden our airsoft horizon a little.

I say attend one for yourself. If you really want to get the Tier 1 experience, I am already organizing SOTA to head to Lion Claws for Memorial Day. PM me if you want more info.

Look for the LC event in 3rd quarter of 2012...

[Switchback]

Sounds pretty damn expensive for a skirmish. How long are they? At least 3 days of play?

[McNair]

Airsoft is generally full of too many "individuals" for true milsim to work. Everyone wants to be different and do their own thing.