Annual team games from the Black Perseus series belong to this group of airsoft events that attract a lot of people from different parts of the country year after year. The fifth edition of the game organized by the Deadline Wrocław group in the Opole Voivodeship, which took place last Saturday (October 28), confirmed the ever-growing popularity of this form of competition.
Around 20 teams consisting of a maximum of 10 players attended the game, which took place near the town of Tułowice. After registration, briefing and getting a set of detailed guidelines, these teams were to compete for the next 9 hours and, relying only on themselves, race to complete numerous tasks set before them.
During this year's edition of Black Perseus, the game's mechanics were slightly modified in order to improve some of the issues from previous years - for example, the recovery of dogtags (a limited number of "lives") from injured members of one's own team. Other aspects remained largely unchanged. The participants still learned the guidelines and contents of special tasks before the game, and their exact location and their own starting location only during the assembly, shortly before the start of the game.
This detail is one of the key features of this airsoft game series. Teams can only partially prepare an action plan before the event, and then they are forced to refine it under great time pressure. It is also worth noting that, unlike some other games of a similar nature, Black Perseus, due to its short duration, practically does not give any greater chance of completing all the challenges set for players. Therefore, achieving a good result depends on the ability to make quick decisions regarding the course of action, its changes, as well as effectiveness in airsoft skirmishes.
Wandering through checkpoints and writing down codes is quite simple, but it brings few points. Special tasks, with much better scoring, can be time-consuming, dangerous (they may involve, for example, constantly making one's position available to opponents), and often reward only one group. Finally, one can hunt for opposing teams and get their dogtags. However, this is a double-edged sword, and a poorly handled confrontation may, in extreme cases, end the participation of a given group in the scenario. Finding the right compromise between these activities is also one of the keys to success.
In terms of organization, this year's event was not free from mishaps. One of them was the poor marking of respawns - the organizers admitted their mistake in this regard already during the initial assembly of the participants. The distribution of players to their starting locations has improved significantly - something that has been complained about in recent years. By drawing starting packages, group commanders immediately received information whether they had to get to a given place on foot or whether they would be taken there by vehicles provided by the organizers. Participants were also provided with general online briefings a few days before the event, thanks to which it was possible to shorten the time needed to conduct the assembly on site.
The props used during the game turned out, as usual, to be carefully prepared. However, it was felt that they were losing their innovative feeling. Many of the tasks during the fifth edition of Black Perseus were reused for previous years. On the one hand, changing proven solutions is risky, on the other, their freshness and attractiveness are also important for the broadly understood satisfaction with the game.
This breath of freshness was provided by the guidelines related to NPC characters. Regardless of whether it was finding and escorting "war reporters" or avoiding and fighting the organizing team who knew the location of each group thanks to the real-time GPS locators carried by them.
An important change was also the organization of the game at the end of October, instead of the beginning of November. In this way, it was possible to extend the game, but since it took place before the winter time change, all aspects of airsoft fighting at night, which was an inherent element of previous editions, were omitted.
Did players like the biggest event in the Black Perseus series so far? Opinions about it are just starting to appear on social media. Although in most cases they seem positive, some participants managed to point out flaws seen from their perspective. For those who feel dissatisfied, there is also good news: the organizers from Deadline Wrocław are trying to prepare a slightly longer game, milsim type game, in the same area in February 2024 (12-16 hours) - Golden Perseus '88.
Are you curious about our impressions from the previous edition? Have a look at a short summary of Black Perseus 2022! The popularity of team-based airsoft games is also proven by the fact that just two weeks ago the 24-hour Ghost 2 game took place, which we also took part in.
