I produced another successful Operation: Bad Blood airsoft event at EMR Event Park in northeastern Pennsylvania. Over 600 players signed up for the event, fewer than last year due to inflation many opting out due to June thunderstorms. There was a down pour on Friday afternoon and rain through the night which made me fear a huge no-show for the following days game. As it turned out over 570 players showed up to play by the morning briefing; this despite a morning rain shower.

The rains were welcome as there were no serious heat related injuries this year. 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 my niece who played a CDC Research Scientist who’s medical convoy was destroyed and needed to be evacuated to safety. A Marxist squad was the first to locate her in Fort Wor and ran off with her into the woods and back canyon. They weren’t seen again until nearly an hour later and were able to get her to her “chopper” and score a bonus which pushed their faction into a tie for second place by the end of the game.

The final score was Greens 1st (6 stamps); Deus-X and Marxists 2nd (5 stamps); Black Shirts 3rd (3 stamps)

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 20 AEGs, pistols, plate carriers, weapon lights, gift cards, and accessories supplied by Evike.com, Jackal Tactical, Amped Airsoft, O-Light, and EMR.

The next morning, I organized a bonus game of OP: Dead Blood, a zombie game. Over 200 die-hard players spread out around Tipmon Town and competed against each other to find bio-hazard declas. As players were killed they added to the ever-growing zombie hoard which swamped all the players after nearly an hour of intense play. The rest of the Sunday, EMR ran skirmish games for everyone.

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