Op Final Option - Fresno, CA - Hill559

I attended Op Final Option last weekend, which took place in Fresno, CA at a field I hold near & dear to my heart. A field called Hill559. I had the pleasure of playing with my actual teammates from the Fresno Airsoft community. The community from which I owe many things to. Now that I live in Southern California and have seen what the SoCal Airsoft Scene has to offer, it makes it so much easier to appreciate what I had when I was living up in Fresno.

Not only that, but these guys show up to the game to play hard and accomplish objectives. They don't show up to the game and spend a bunch of money to do so just to line up in formation during the morning brief and be barked at by someone who was never actually in the military, who currently works in IT and who gets his rocks off by ordering a bunch of other grown men around on the weekend. None of that goes on here. Just a bunch of hardcore Airsoft lovers wanting to have a good time with close friends. It's a tight-knit community. There isn't really a lot of bad blood among teams (non that doesn't resolve itself quickly, anyway) and everyone knows everyone.

As far as the OP Final Option morning routine goes, there was a safety brief and a couple last minute reminders about the objectives, and that's it. There were no poems being written and read from one dude to another dude or any other form of awkward metaphorical reach-arounds. Just Airsoft.

The scenarios for Op Final Option were written out in advance and posted on the Fresno Airsoft forums. All participants are expected to have read and understood the objectives prior to "Game On!" Not only that, but the OP Final Option game control remains in constant contact with platoon commanders and is continually coordinating with both sides on objectives and making sure that there are no issues out on the field. The field is 500 Acres (1 square mile) of raw, private land in the foothills of Fresno, so without this mission critical communication, the game structure and organization could go to hell in a hand basket very quickly. But it doesn't. Game control made it look easy, when I know for a fact that it was not. The guy running the show has been organizing Airsoft games for years so it's safe to say that it's not his first rodeo.

As if the Op Final Option game itself weren't already enticing enough to attend, 5.11 Tactical jumped on board as the title sponsor of OP Final Option, something that hasn't really happened on this level anywhere else. There were also a bunch of tier 2 sponsors for Op Final Option who provided very generous donations for the raffle as well. They included the following vendors:

Oh yea. One last thing. Precision Aerial showed up with a Canon HD DSLR Camera mounted to a f*cking UAV to provide aerial camera footage of some Saturday's game play. I'm not talking about a dinky little remote-controlled toy helicopter you can pick up at your local hobby store. I'm talking about many thousands of dollars and countless hours of build-time for a massive, gas-powered, remote-operated unmanned aerial vehicle with a Canon T3i HD DSLR camera, along with a remote-controlled gimble mount to allow independent control of the camera while the UAV is in flight. For the best footage results, it actually requires two operators on the ground; one to fly the UAV and one to operate the Canon DSLR, which sends a live feed from the 'copter wirelessly to a monitor on the ground. I've never seen anything like this at an Airsoft game. The only thing that can compete was an actual helicopter, which was brought out to the Oklahoma Invasion this year by the guys at MilSimEvent.com. But nothing on this scale in terms of a UAV. I'm told the video footage from Op Final Option is currently being edited and should be online in a week or so.

Did I mention that OP Final Option only cost $40 to register? Mull that over in your mind as you take another look at everything I just wrote.

I've got more to say on Op Final Option, but I will give you a quick Airsoft photo gallery break with a couple shots from Saturday morning before I start in on my word marathon again.

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