Entry Level Airsoft Guide - 2022 Edition
This article will serve as a replacement to my 2019 edition guide.
Here on AirsoftC3, we get a lot of new players asking the same question: "What should I get?"
YMMV... But the general answer I can give, is nothing. That doesn't mean I'm trying to gatekeep you from the game, but that before sinking money into this very expensive game, you should rent at a few of the fields near you in order to get a feel for the game, you may not like it, and if you had spent 400-500 dollars on a starting kit, you would have wasted that money if you had bought it and found out that you didn't really like playing airsoft.
I recommend renting at least a few times, whether you liked your first experience or not. Just so that you have more experience to make your decision on whether you enjoy or not.
If you've noticed that I've called it a game instead of a sport, that's because it isn't a sport. If you come into the mindset that it's a sport, and not a fun event, then you will act like it's a sport, and not a fun event. At the end of the day, we're all dressing up like soldiers to shoot each other with fake guns, so there is no reason to get competitive in non-competitive settings like a pickup game. All this faux-competitiveness does is make a "Top 10 Cringiest Airsoft Freak-outs!" compilation, and turn away new players from the game.
Before playing the game, a referee will (Hopefully!) bring all present players up on the safety standards of the field. However, some key things to note and keep in mind are:
Keep your mask and goggles on.
When somebody shouts ,"Blind!" or "Blind man!", that means someone has taken off their protective equipment, meaning, you need to stop shooting. Even if the referee does not bring this up, the safest thing to do is to stop shooting, and pass on, to a ref, the info that a blind man call has been made.
Don't overshoot people, that's how you get banned from every field in the state with no refunds.
Don't cheap out on eye protection. When looking for eye protection, you want RATED eyepieces, not ones that "meet standards". Just a few years ago, the CEO of Lancer Tactical was arrested for faking ratings like that. Your eyes may very well be one of the most important things you own, so don't gamble it away on cheap or falsely rated eye protection.
Act like the ideal player
A lot of new players come to the game because they see airsoft videos on Youtube, generally from larger content creators, keep in mind that this is not what Airsoft is like, it's a version that is heavily edited to get more views, so you should keep in mind that playing like that will probably not be fun to you. Lots of these videos center around "cheaters" who don't call hits. There's any number of reasons why people don't call hits. Jumping to the conclusion of cheater just makes things worse. Instead, let them know that they've been hit, if they argue, don't give into them, and just get a ref. If someone tells you that you have been hit, suck it up, say, "I'm sorry, I didn't know. My bad." and be done with it. End of interaction. A lot of people get to this topic and immediately think "violence". Violence has no place here.
You should also keep in mind that sometimes, people who have the best intentions (not always), but not enough experience, will try to give advice to other new players. It's up to you to discern what advice is good, and what advice is bad. In general, don't take advice from people unfamiliar to you, or people who aren't in respected positions. And, I'm sorry, but your favorite youtuber might just not count. The best advice comes from people with technical know-how and lots of experience. Some people with lots of experience might not have that much technical know-how.
Avoid phrases like "works for me" and "only a few problems". Major red flag there.
And finally, please do lots of research, and don't be afraid to be proven wrong.
I know this edition was shorter than my last few, but I will be working on this in the near future. Feel free to ask questions in the replies.