B.U.R.N. Season 2 Round 4 Video and Writeup.

This month's B.U.R.N. came and went, and as always, I had a blast, even though I was only able to make it for the second half of the day. When I showed up I saw that it was a slightly smaller day, with around sixteen people, but that didn't detract from the games at all. It actually made getting tagged more punishing than it usually is. With the smaller teams every person really counted, so this enabled there to be a couple faceroll games where one team just got smashed in about a minute and the opening converted into a flag capture.

I decided to be one of the pack today and run my Elite Alpha Trooper, mostly because I changed the white stripes to orange and put a gear up raider stock on so I was really liking how it looked. I understand why everyone loves this blaster so much, but I was definitely missing the explosive power of the Magstrikes when people were base rushing. That said I the Elite Alpha Trooper really is a greatly flexible blaster.

My team did have a bit of a derp moment that gave us a good laugh. We had a solid push and cleared what we thought was all of the opposing team, so we grabbed the flag and booked it back to base, already celebrating our victory. That is until we got back to our base and realized our flag was gone and we had just traded flags. Of course we were promptly smashed by the respawning other team and they took their flag back for the victory.

I guess it's time for a video now isn't it?  A bit different from the last ones, it's all in first person, so let me know what you guys think!

A Quick Look Review of The Stockade.

I have wanted this blaster so bad since I heard it was released in the UK, so when Amazon had a sale on it, I jumped to get one in my hands. That said, the blaster itself is an overall disappointment, but there still might be a reason to pick one of these up when they hit the shelves. On the to the video!

If you've had a different experience with the Stockade, let me know!

Underrated and Overlooked Blasters - The Magstrike

With the constant hype around the new to be released blasters, I feel like a lot of niche blasters get forgotten. So I figured from time to time I'll write about one of them, so here's the first installment of Underrated and Overlooked Blasters.

I love it when people use niche blasters, I think it adds more flavor and strategy to the games than when you just have 20 of the same blaster on the field shooting the same distance at the same rate of fire. While games realistically aren't that bland in terms of blaster variation, there were a whole lot of Elite Alpha Troopers at the last day of CTF games I went to. While everyone was reveling in the glory of the new blaster, I decided to bring out a wonderful pair of blasters that used to get some HvZ love.


Once I picked these up, I had such a hard time putting them down. The ability to drop 20 darts in a few seconds AND being able to do so in two different directions was just amazing. The first time I unleashed the fury the person stopped dead in their tracks, jaw dropped, not sure how to react. In a world full of overvolted Stryfes and Elite Alpha Troopers the magstrikes can do something neither of those can, and that's put a wall of foam between you and charging team with enough spread to make everyone either head back to the respawn or stop to dodge. Now the magstrike certainly has it's downsides, a lot of them actually, which is why people don't really run them anymore. But if you play it right, a pair of magstrikes can be absolute monsters.

If you find yourself wanting to release the kraken and scream maniacally like I find myself doing with the magstrikes, there's a few things you should be aware of. First off, reload time, it's abysmal. Every time I finish firing 2 clips I run for cover to spend the next 2-3 minutes reloading clips and pumping the blasters. This leads to the second important thing to remember, pick your spots. You aren't going to be like the others out there with Stryfes or Elite Alpha Troopers, in that they can easily and quickly reload, so they will tend to spam and try to suppress people with their fire at distance. That's great for them that they can do that, let them do that, they can clog up the middle and distract people while you either get in place to blind side a small group, or if you're on the defensive you can stop rushes single handed if you position yourself properly.

As an example, at the last game I was able to run up the side of most of the action and get the jump on two people, creating an opening for the rest of my team to push through and clean up the rest, resulting in a flag cap. A misconception about them is that you always shoot all 20 darts every time you fire. While this is insanely fun, it's the wrong way to go about it, the only time you want to go full auto through your clips is when you need that wall of foam, otherwise you want to have short controlled bursts. Remember the first downside of the magstrike was the reload time, so there's no reason for you to just run out, blow your load, then be out of commission for the next 2 minutes. You need to be patient with the magstrike, otherwise the other team can exploit your absence from the field while you reload and pump.

I feel like I've rambled enough on this wonderful blaster, I hope at the very least it's made anyone who's read this at least consider picking up one or two of these. I'll leave you guys with a link from the HvZ boards from someone with WAY more magstrike experience than myself, and a well written article if you want to bring one of these into a game of HvZ.

Give 'em the Hose: The Magstrike Tenets - By The Red Scare

Photo from sgnerf

As always hop over to my YouTube and thanks for reading!

B.U.R.N. Season 2 Round 3 Video and Writeup

Let's just start this off with the video shall we? I spent a little more time on this video, and while it's not exactly what I wanted, I'm relatively pleased with how it came out.

Unlike the other B.U.R.N. events I've been to, we had so many people show up on time (or close enough) that we just went straight into CTF instead of starting with assassin. As fun as assassin is, I was totally ok with this, because I really enjoy the team aspect of CTF. We got a solid 9 games of CTF in, which made me really happy, because I was able to film a few of them and still get in a lot of actual playtime myself.

I found a new love at this event, my pair of magstrikes that I found at savers turned out to be such an absurd amount of fun, I think they might be my new primaries, but I'll get into the magstrikes and why I love them another time.

Despite some of the results for the games seeming a bit one sided, the games were really intense and close. There were points where both flags were on the ground in the middle of the field, and plenty of times where flags exchanged hands 2 or more times in under 10 seconds.

A lot of this has to do with the change in the field size and flag location. They opened the field up by a noticeable amount, allowing engagements to happen both in close quarters around the buildings, and further distance standoffs in the open spaces. Placing the flags in less defensible areas helped put the flags in play more often which created more tension and memorable moments, while at the same time helping curb standoffs slightly.

If you haven't already, check out Bay Area B.U.R.N.

Big thanks to them for running such a fun and friendly game.

Photos by cherie pfaff

Additional footage for the video from Lexi Hall

Zing bow $10.00 at Walmart

Thought this was worth sharing, stopped by Walmart today and found the green zing bow going for only $10.00, important to note it is only the green version. I tried ringing out with a different color and it was full retail. I don't know if this is a country wide sale, or only for Walmart in the bay area, if I can find out for sure, I'll update.

If you guys don't own a zing bow yet, now is the time, because the bow is an awesome product that is tons of fun. I'm looking forward to their next product in hopes they can repeat this level of quality and fun.

EAT Giveaway Results!

As those of you who entered know, the contest deadline came and passed last Friday night, and with that, we had a winner.

Congratulations to Chase, I hope you enjoy it! Thank you to everyone else who entered, and sorry to those who didn't win, I hope you can find them at Targets now that they should be on shelves and hopefully restocked.

On another note, I've got a few videos in the works for once I'm feeling 100% again, so I'm looking forward to pushing out content on here and on my YouTube. Thanks again everyone!

B.U.R.N. Season 2 Round 2 Video

So I got my hands on the footage from the last game, and decided to put together a video (which pushed back the review for the EAT) the next game is this Saturday, and if you're in the Bay Area, you should be there, it's a great group of people. B.U.R.N. Season 2 Round 3

Thanks again to Lexi Hall for the footage!



Music - Big Gay Water Fight
Created and Owned by Plushgoolash

Find them at - http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Plushgoolash/Chin25_Soup_Tennis/03-Big-Gay-Water-Fight

Elite Alpha Trooper Giveaway!

With everyone seeming to get their hands on EAT's, I felt like for those who have been unable to find them at their targets should have a chance at one as well. That's why I'm doing a giveaway for one Elite Alpha Trooper. All you need to do is leave a comment on this post, and next Friday, May 10th, 11:59 PST, I'll pick a winner at random, contact them via google+ or youtube and ship one to them. It's just that simple, commenting on the youtube video and subscribing to the channel will net you an extra entry as well.

I thought I'd do a quick range test before work since I wanted to play with my EAT for a bit. The results weren't bad, shots averaged around the mid 50's, with some shots bouncing off the wall. This is by no means comprehensive, I just wanted to show that I do have them, so that people wouldn't be worried about this not being legitimate. I plan on having a full review up of the EAT by early next week.

Recap of Requirements for Giveaway -
- Live in the USA (sorry, shipping costs)
- Comment on this post, or subscribe to my youtube channel and comment on the giveaway video.
- You may do both for 2 entries.
- Winner will be picked at 11:59pm PST Friday May 10th and contacted shortly after. If I do not hear back from you in 2 days time, I will pick a new winner.

Check back for updates!

Good luck!

Bridges Rock Gym - Nerf Night 2

On Sunday some friends and I got in the car and made our way to El Cerrito for the second nerf night at Bridges Rock Gym. I was a little concerned that with it being a Sunday there might be noticeably less people. Thankfully we still had a little over 20 I think. This time around they completely cut out the CTF games and focused on team deathmatch with 5v5 teams. I think this was a fantastic choice, and I'm glad they went with it.

They changed the barricade set up a little bit as well, which improved gameplay in my opinion. It allowed jumping from cover to cover a more realistic option, instead of the larger no mans land from the first event. This also helped alleviate the stalemates that could occur.

We finished up the last game of the night with a 10v10 game of pistols only. If changing the barricades alleviated a bit of the stalemate issues, making the game pistols only absolutely destroyed it. It was awesome, people were running and pushing, firing and falling back, and all around enjoying it it seemed.

I'm definitely looking forward to making it to the next nerf night at Bridges, to see how strategies start to evolve as people get used to the venue and it's unique attributes.

B.U.R.N. Season 2 Round 2

The second game for this seasons B.U.R.N. was definitely eventful, and all of it wasn't just nerf either. From stray cricket balls to needlessly disgruntled parents, it didn't stop us from nerfing. Just like the first event, we started with some assassination games while waiting for stragglers to show up.

My first time playing assassination at the first event I have to say I wasn't really a fan of it. But as I've played more of it, it's become far more fun, and I think a great way to start out a nerf event, as it forces people to interact one on one and get to know each other while trading role cards as they blast each other. Once we had more people than game cards for assassination, we moved on to what seems like most peoples favorite, CTF.

 The first couple rounds were fairly uneventful, the teams were pretty stacked for both sides, in different ways though. One side had firepower, and the other had speed.

Team Firepower

Team Speed

 I think we split 1-1 in those games. The last game though was an epic. There were countless close calls with flags being taken and returned, or just barely defending a rush. It was one of the most enjoyable games of CTF I've played. Unfortunately, we'll never get to know how that game would've ended, because an angry parent with children decided to explode at us. Shawn and Josh handled the situation well though, and we packed it in for about an hour, and talked about getting food and ending early. But once things blew over, it was decided that we should play some assassination with the remaining numbers we had. This is when I discovered my true foam love.
 
 I pulled out the Air Zone Rocket Storm as a joke for the game, thinking if I could get one hit with it, my day would be made. After getting my first hit, I was hooked, this thing is so much fun to run around with. Just take it off its stand and it's a hand cannon, what's not to love?

Sure it's inaccurate, slow to reload, awkward to carry, and has a low ammo capacity, but when you launch a shot off and hear that whistle before it hits someone, it's just perfect. Pretty sure this is my assassination blaster of choice now.

The B.U.R.N. events are definitely proving to be fun consistently so far. I don't see why they won't stay that way either. So if you're in the bay area, they are beyond worth your time.

B.U.R.N.

I might have a video in a few days using footage someone else took, since I was too busy having fun with the Rocket Storm. Hopefully they'll let me use the footage and I'll have something up soon!

Photos By Lexi Hall

Bridges Rock Gym - Nerf Night

Well, I had a nicely sized write up done, then when linking the Bridges Rock Gym Facebook, Blogger decided to be an awesome super cool best buddy, and delete everything. All my rage. So this is going to be slightly shorter than the magically lost version.

Bridges Rock Climbing Gym in El Cerrito decided to hold a nerf war, and when I heard about it, I pretty much had to be there. I'm down for supporting a business that wants to give bay area nerfers a place to play. So I took work off and got in the car with some friends for a badass night. The location is awesome, despite it's small size, it still made for some epic games.

There were about 25 of us, so we split up into 2 teams, and for each game we picked 6 people to play as a squad, and the winning squad got a point for their team. 6 vs 6 games at this location are amazing. The size lends to keeping engagements going wherever you are, but still has room to sneak up on someone. The last couple games of the night ended up being 12 vs 12, which changed the dynamics for sure. The barricades were almost always in use, with a lot of people taking pot shots at peoples heads behind barricades trying to get some kind of advantage.

I can't overstate how much the rock climbing aspect made this venue all the more epic. I don't know about most nerfers, but I'm not used to having to look above me when nerfing, so that added a new level of awesome. The oh crap moments when you start getting shot at from above were awesome.

I did get some footage while I wasn't playing, but unfortunately the lighting wasn't the most cooperative, so it's not pretty to say the least. I wish I could've spent time cleaning up the video to make it look nice or do something cool with it, but I put this together while I was supposed to be working on a completely different video. Excuses aside, I hope it's enjoyable.


If you're in the bay area, this event is definitely worth going to. Send an email to Patrick@bridgesrockgym.com and put NERF WAR in the subject line to get on the email list for future events!

Short Video from B.U.R.N. Season 2 Round 1 last weekend.

I went to my first Bay Area Nerf run event on Saturday, I'm always a bit skeptical when it comes to new groups of people, and how they handle newcomers, but I have to say it was a pretty good time. The people in that game were very welcoming and fun, and were just as memorable as the nerfing itself.  I'm definitely looking forward to the next one, and anyone in the bay area looking for a nerf game should definitely check out their events. They organize the games on facebook https://www.facebook.com/BayAreaBURN?fref=ts

I meant to take more footage, but I lost track of time while playing, and was only able to get footage from one short round of ctf. Thankfully it was still enough for a short little video.