Airsoft Team Poland Tournament is a new initiative, currently acting as the elimination stage before the fifth edition of the international Battle Arena tournament. But the authors of the project have much broader plans.
Battle Arena is a tournament which gives the opportunity of entire teams engaging a sport competition. Last year, the Poles took part in this event for the first time. The victory fell to the Russians. At that time, due to the lack of time for preparation, our representation was assembled in quite an improvised way. This year, thanks to the involvement of the Taktyczna Akademia Kultury 'TAK' Foundation, attempts have been made to organize proper eliminations. In total, 14 teams registered, and of three elimination stages prepared (Warsaw, Gdańsk and Dąbrowa Górnicza) due to lack of attendance, only the last stage was successfully completed. From the first two stages, for technical reasons, all registered teams automatically qualified to the finals, which will take place during the first BBCon airsoft convention in February 2019. The finalists of the Polish eliminations will go to fight on an international arena at the beginning of March (2-3/03/2019) in Finland.
During the last week struggle in the "Furia" Game Centre, fighting was fierce. All teams showed a very high level of commitment. The tournament started with a heavy duel between the hosts called the TAZ team, and guests from the capital of Silesia, the SSP SPARTAN team. Both teams gave a very fierce fight, but TAZ outclassed thier rivals in the first round, thanks to which they managed to win the whole match. The rest of the duels also caused a lot of excitement both among players and viewers. Eventually, the TAZ team won the entire tournament. The second place went to TIER 1 PERUN team and the third to the SSP SPARTAN team. The fighting was really fierce until the last minute of the competition.
Despite the technical problems, it was possible to run a stream from the whole event, which allowed the teams to be cheered by people from their home towns. Fans of the team from Poznań, "TIER 1 PERUN", deserved special appreciation, as they flooded the chat with cheering massages before each match. The atmosphere in the whole arena was very positive. Minor comments and disputes were resolved on the spot. The players showed great respect towards everyone. There was practically no "terminator" phenomenon (people not acknowledging hits). After each match, congratulations and thanks for the great game were a common occurrence.
The tournament itself presented a completely new approach to this form of airsoft. The organizers are planning to expand their range and increase the number of tournaments next season.
