Date: January 27th, 2007.
Location: Aggressive Sports Joliet Underground.

This past Saturday, the 27th of January, the first T.A.P.S.S. (Tactical Airsoft Pistol Speed Shooting) competition of the year was held at Aggressive Sports Joliet. This was my first time ever going to an event of this type. It was exactly what I was expecting; it was fun, difficult, exhilarating and a time to remember. I believe this type of event will in fact raise people's ideas that airsoft isn't just a group of irresponsible teenagers who are causing trouble. Granted there will always be some people who give airsoft a bad name. The premise of the event is equivalent to the "real-steel" shooters, who compete nation and world wide. Even though there were only six of us this past competition, it was still a very close and difficult event. The winner of this past event was a young man named Dustin who was shooting a Sig P227 made by KJW. Yours truly came in second using a Glock 17 made by KWA, and coming in third was Jay using a Western Arms SVI Infinity Five inch.

After the first and second rounds of competition, Jay set the bar with his time of 26.08, which kept him in the lead. This time seemed to be unbeatable, until the final round of competition. Dustin started off the final round with a spectacular run of the course at 19.41 as well as a great target score of 143 points out of 150. I myself had a bad first round but I came back in the second in final round of competition. After the second round I was in third place but my time and target score wasn’t cutting it. A certain spectator told Jay, “It’s because you have such long legs you’re able to get through it faster!” As you know one of your most difficult opponents is yourself.

This type of event becomes addictive and after that first run, you’re thinking to yourself, “I can beat that.” Problem is everyone in the competition will try harder after every round.

This short article is going to be the first of many to come. I will also try to include footage of the events along with the article. I hope that anyone who reads this will at least come out to watch the next T.A.P.S.S. event and see for yourselves what it’s all about.

Written by: Allen Matza (Major of the Umbrella Corp. Tac Squad)
Edited by: Sarah Sutherland (Captain of the Umbrella Corp. Tac Squad)