Operation: Falling Star (GK-ACO) - Jan 8th '05

[Bigmack]

Nah, he means Ju-ju. you'll see at the event.



Just some quick, impossible to screw up directions:

Exit I-96 at Exit 73
head Northbound.
You will come to a John Deere Tractor store within a mile.
Turn left at the John Dere store.
Stay on this road for about 10 minutes. You will go through 2 stop signs.

Facility is on the left hand side of the road.

Can't miss it. Big blue water tower with a Chrysler logo.



Also: Op begins at 2PM. Briefing and such around 1. We'd like to have everyone Chrono'd by 1.

so aim for an 11-11:30 arrival.

[Savage]

Thanks to GK and ACO for putting this one on, it was a good start to the CQB season. You guys put a lot of work into it and it showed.

I'd also like to mention that I felt we had a very high caliber of player talent out there on both sides. It seemed to me that there wasn't near the complaining that you usually hear at games about people not calling their hits or other rule infractions. There was some complaining (and there always is), but I think most of that was due to misunderstanding or frustration, as opposed to the outright cheating you see at some games.

I have personal request. The games where the teams were competing against each other to rescue the hostage were a hell of a bunch of fun for me. I'd like to see some more of that, but a little more in depth if at all possible. Make the teams work a lot harder on it.

Like playing a game of Rainbow Six, only in the flesh. Give them enough information to plan a successful assault- like the "approximate" number of terrorists on patrol and how many are guarding the hostage, where the hostage is most likely to be located, give them options on multiple insertion points. Have the terrorists "at rest" (maybe sitting on a couch in the center of the room watching TV with their guns leaning against the wall to simulate the element of surprise) until they are "alerted" by the sounds of the takedown. Make the games progress in difficulty too. Don't throw curves right away to give the teams a chance to learn their way up to the more difficult stuff.

Knowing you guys, you probably already have that in the works, but I had to get my vote out there in hopes that you make it happen soon!

[Talisman]

Thanks go out to GK/ACO for organizing the event, and putting in the time, effort, and money to make this thing go. Like savage mentioned - it sure did show. I'm sure there are some of the guys that weren't able to be out there, and that I couldn't thank face to face, so I'm sayin it here ;p.

Very well run event. On par with what we've come to love from GK and ACO. That facility is awesome, if I lived closer you bet your ass I'd be paying that 200 dollar fee for the winter CQB leagues.

As savage also stated, I was impressed with the ammount of class that everyone showed... there wasn't really any complaining, and no incidents that were extremely obvious... there were some that could have gone either way, but lets not talk about those.

Now... let's get some pictures =D

[DevilDog]

My hat is off to GK/ACO!! You guys did a great job!! thanks for making this an awesome event.

The event was a blast, even tho the drive sucks (thanks for driving the last bit Tali ;D )!! Hopefully, schedule permitting, I'll be able to make some more of these!!!

Like Tali, I'd like to thank to those I didn't get a chance to do in person!! We had a great bunch of guys (and girsl) out there today!! I look forward to more of the same in the future!!!

[Bigmack]

Looks like we have about 25 HOURS of video to sift through from the event...

Some is better quality...

But then again...the lower quailty stuff...also gave us a sound feed.

[Jacko]

Thanks for the kind words, guys, I'm glad you could make it even if I didn't see you! The building can certainly get confusing quickly.

Some sample footage taken from one of 'No audio, high video' cameras. I think I may just have to pick up another pair of these.

[Ghettobrick]

Team C.E.L.L had a blast, and as some others already said "if it wasn't for the drive!!!!! $200 would be no question. Munin, Kung-Fu, Dutch and anyone else who help put this event together, just a great job!! ;D the event was a riot all members on this end were driving home telling war stories, i must say just brilliantly set up the time and organization it took to put this one together was really outstanding!!. and also to all Terrorist, we kicked some serious booty! ;D ;D BOOM! hehe!!! once again thanks!

P.S any more of those sample clips?

[Jacko]

I'll put up samples as I can get them, though I've got a lot of footage to review! ;D

Holding the office 'bullpen'.

[Enkidu]

Quick insta-pics post. Not many of my digicam photos came out well (low light indoors and all). Here are three of the better ones:


Mad props to the guys who came up with these mad props! Gettin' all scienc-y and shiz. Left to right are detonators (in the plastic baggie), Compound 4 explosive, and a supposedly functional Geiger counter.


Terrorist staging area, before the main event. Multiply the number of Airsofters in this pic by three, and that's the number of T's there were. Yowza! The Customs agents had their work cut out for them. Peep the reflections in the water: all artistical-like. Of course, this was before someone shot out a flouorescent light tube, dropping a neat line of thin, jagged glass into the puddle.


This one's for Jacko, and his wicked Ethernet-enabled super-webcams. This is the exact camera that took the first video posted above. Me wanty one!

Thanks to ImageShack for free image hosting

[Wookie]

I would like to thank GK and ACO for putting on a challenging and fun op.

The entire Rat Pack had a blast. The facility was large and made for some interesting fire fights and holes of hiding.

All in all, I will make a return depending on my work schedule and fundage. I also just want to thank the other teams that came and participated.

[Arc]

That was a great event. What an awesome fight. Hats off to the terrorists for the big win.

My father took about 140 minutes of video, but its going to be a little while before it gets digitized.

Mite, Nilefox, Enkidu, Frostee, all the guys from MTASC, and all the rest, it was great to finally meet you in person. I'm looking forward to seeing you all again.

[Kung Fu]

First, I would like to thank everyone who came to the Op. Everyone played like professionals and with honor.

GK- you guys put so much work into this Op and i thank you, it truly paid off. You have created an Op that all others will be measured by. Munin, You did a great job on briefing and organizing the T's for the win, thank you. Jacko, my bro! Sorry about the mishaps and thanks for the video. Thanks guys.

MTASC- DevilDog you and your guys really pulled through. Thanks for leading the lower level elements. Its always a pleasure to play with you guys.

Ratpack- You guys did an awesome job of holding the line and making the big push when it was needed. i love playing with you and i hope to see you out at some more CQB.

C.E.L.L- Our friends form Ohio! Its always good to see you and you four guys made quite a BOOM!

To everyone i've forgotten thanks a ton and i hope to see you all out again.

[Hawkeye]

First off i would like to thank GK/ACO for putting on this event and having what it takes to put this all together, kudos to all that helped in the preperation.

The building really surprised us from what we saw in the initial stageing area, it really seemed like it was going to be just a bunch of big open areas. Then it came time for gameplay and even though we had access to a map there were just times that i had no idea what was going to arise around the next corner. Definately keep up the surprises.

I also wanted to say that having a "20 minutes" start and having the terrorist start in 8 minutes was a small but a big touch to the game, it made it like it was more of a real life situation and not the typical "ok everyone start now, get bunkered down" routine.

And last but not least i wanted to thank all of my brothers of THE RAT PACK, SOCOM, and some free agents, Wildcard and Spectar who did an excellent job at this event.

It's good to know that if i am going to lead an assualt on a room that they are going to be there right on my ass and possibly lay down there life (for 10 minutes) to get the job done. and if some of us do go down being more than willing to pump us full of opium ,getting us all hopped up, to do it all over again.

[FISHMAN]

Well, there's not much I can say right now that my teammates havn't said already so in the words of ARNOLD, I'll be back

[Munin]

First off, we'd like to thank everyone who made the (in some cases very long) drive to come to this event. Turnout was great, which made for a high enough player density in the facility to ensure some wicked firefights. We hope everyone had a good time and that it was worth the trip.

From an organizer perspective, this was an eye-opening experience. Since this was the season opener for the CQB league, this was the first time that there'd been that many people in the facility for a game. As such, we didn't quite know what to expect, which led to a few hiccups along the way.

Most specifically, our biggest fear was that the US team would control the staircases and that the terrorist team would be stuck down in the bay the whole game, unable to fight their way out. We were correct in that there would be choke points, we were just a little bit off on where they were going to be and who was going to be stuck there. Let me explain:

The concept of operations was that the US team would be able to have free run of the facility. They would be able to post some sentries and have some number of their people in place just sort of milling around waiting for the game to begin. Once they had people in place, they'd be told that the game was starting in (say) 20 minutes. The game would then start in 12, giving the Terrorist team a (slight) element of surprise. That was what was supposed to happen.

What did happen was that the US team was waiting for us to tell them to start. People were milling around, but only in the office area. Copping a smoke, bullshitting, etc. We couldn't seem to drop enough hints to motivate people to take strategically important places without spilling the beans - in which case all the terrorists would have gotten murdered as soon as they came in the door. Unfortunately, this meant that the terrorists were able to advance very deeply into the building in the first few minutes, and the US team was getting murdered coming out of the office. Had the US team had 50% of their guys in advance positions (in groups of 2 or 3) scattered around the building, the terrorists would have had to go much more slowly, giving the US team time to get organized and solidify their hold on certain areas.

As it was, we were mightily impressed with the way the US team fought their way to the ammo locker and recovered their long arms. Even against furious fire, you guys were able to get it done admirably. Kudos to you for an outstanding job there.

Kudos also go to the terrorists, whose initial plan depended on speed, speed, and more speed. They left the search for their objectives for later, once they had total control of an area. Many of their objectives were located such that had the US team not been penned in early, they'd have had a tough time getting to them. This was a risky maneuver, because their casualty reduction method (the opium) was in limited supply and depended on them being able to search thoroughly. Had the US team been able to repulse them early, the terrorists would have been in a world of hurt.

Part of the asymmetry of the scenario was such that it put the US team behind the 8-ball early, but if they could hold out long enough the terrorists would be running out of supplies, surrounded, and cut off later in the scenario. Also, the terrorist team had an initial assaulting objective in that they needed to penetrate the facility and collect bomb components while the US team was defensive - protect the Secretary of Homeland Security and stall the terrorist advance. Later, as the terrorists bog down and "law enforcement" surrounds the building, the nature of the objectives switch - the US team is trying to assault out in order to get the Secretary to safety and the terrorists are fighting defensively as they try to hold off Customs while they assemble the bomb, all the while running out of opium and ammo.

The terrorists (initially) had no idea that the Secretary was present, and in fact when he was shot and lying wounded, the terrorists actually stepped over his body no fewer than five times without stopping to collect him as a hostage. Nevermind that he's wearing a suit and tie and looks pretty "out of the ordinary." Whoops!

But no plan survives first contact with the enemy, or in this case first contact with the players. Still everybody got to get some shooting in, which was the goal. Hats off to the US team for being good sports about it, and for being willing and able to exercise the "SWAT option" and shoot some terrorists in the back. We learned a lot from this Op, both about ways to better balance things and about the actual facility itself. Thanks to all of you for coming. We had a blast hosting this event, and we hope you guys enjoyed it too. Look for more in the future.