Airsoft is a game that some people play for fun and some take it quite competitively and it is a no-brainer that there are cheaters to be found in any game, so airsoft can not be an exception.
It is one thing to cheat on purpose while the other is to cheat because of poor understanding of rules. I have found out that very often cheaters do not want to cheat, but rather make mistakes which leads us to the question, have you perhaps, cheated without knowing it?
Worry not, if you have not been kicked out of the field you have been playing in, the chances are that no one considers you as a cheater.
In the following I will talk about this terrible issue that breaks fun for many polite and respective airsoft players. I will also state what is considered as cheating and why is it so, just as what are the ways to prevent people from cheating further.
The most common airsoft cheaters are those who do not call the hits they take and those who break the rules through raging. Cheaters are annoying and break fun for those want to enjoy a game of their favorite hobby. The world would indeed be way better without cheaters, but it is what it is.
How common are cheaters in airsoft?
Cheaters can be found in some fields because of the relatively unstable rules that allow cheaters to emerge from time to time, but the chances are that you won’t find them often at all.
This may sound weird to people who are just getting into airsoft because one of the very first concerns we all had is what proof do we have against someone who is perhaps, not calling the hits.
Most people and it was also a case with me at the beginning, compare airsoft with paintball, due to paintball being a pretty famous sport that utilizes the color balls that properly mark the target and thus make it extremely difficult for cheaters to cheat.
Airsoft BBs do not leave such color marks and if someone wants to perhaps, not call the hits they take, you indeed have no proofs at the first glance.
However, it is not that common to see cheaters in airsoft fields ( although it sometimes happens) because the punishments for cheating are often a ban from a field or bad reputation among airsoft community.
A cheater that gets marked as a „serious and intended cheater“ immediately loses the respect and gets banned from a field, so quite soon they are unavailable to ever play in any local field any time soon and they will, in that case have to either apologize and never commit it again or try their luck in some other region or state.
Most people are aware of this problem and respect the rules because at the end, it is about fun for entire group of people and only together with honesty and respect you can organize events.
If you feel like to intentionally cheat, better stay at home and shoot bottles or empty cans, they won’t mind.
The ways people cheat in airsoft
Not all cheaters are equal, all are bad, but some are just worse than others. I present to you the 7 most usual types of cheaters you may bump into.
1.The hit deniers
The cheaters who do not call the hits are the worse part of airsoft for sure. They are the most common type of cheaters as well and if there is a reason why sometimes the games become frustrating then it is this one.
I simply can not comprehend why would anyone get into a field with clear intention to not call hits. Like, they are here for good time and experience, why would they deny such important part of the game that actually makes it exciting?
It is the same thing as it would be to activate the „god mod“ in a console game, yeah you can not die, but does it not deny the whole purpose of being skilled and the feeling of satisfaction after you have achieved something against the odds?
I do not get it, but I suppose that such people who intentionally do not call hits just want to ruin it for the others due to selfish reasons or because they are so bad that instead of improving their skills and accepting the responsibilities, they rather go the coward’s way.
I understand that it can be annoying to get re-spawned and then killed before you managed to take a single enemy player out, but it is a part of the game and the others respect it.
If everyone agrees to respect the rules, then it literally means “everyone”, otherwise there will be no fun for anyone and I think that those who cheat this way, do not enjoy the game even if they manage to get away without calling hits.
To know that you had to cheat to stay in game must make them feel bad, so I guess that they suffer personally quite much.
If it happens on an accident, it is not a big deal and no one will take it against you. Sometimes you do not feel the hit because it lands at some thick layer of your gear and you do not notice it, but if it happens too often and players start to complain about it, then surely there is something wrong, either with a player or with the gear that should be changed.
2.The intentional damage dealers
These cheaters are just as worse as those who do not call the hits taken. To hit someone in the head or any other soft and uncovered body part intentionally, certainly can not be considered as a polite act.
I am not saying that this can not happen from time to time to us all, but doing it on purpose is the same as someone hurting someone out of pure joy. There is one word for these cheaters- the sadists.
Airsoft BBs can hurt a lot, so if you are interested to see the common injuries and how a person handles getting hit by tons of BBs on the bare skin, feel free to check my post on it.
If you accidentally hit someone in the head or some soft spot like neck, it may hurt them a bit, but no one will call you a cheater because it happened accidentally.
It is also suggested not to blind fire due to reduced aim accuracy, so it may lead to more random hits to the head that would have not otherwise happened if you had control over your gun.
3.The spawn rule breakers
Under this kind of cheaters fall everyone who either start to get into the playing area of a field before the countdown ( if there is one) and due to this advantage manage to get to important strategic positions before the other team, and those cheaters who simply do not respect the re-spawn time before re-entering the game.
It can be annoying to see someone walking out and then in the middle of the way just getting back to a nearby cover, the next thing you see is that they shoot at you and you wonder who it might be because the last time you checked there was no one behind that cover.
4.The overall aggressive players
There are players who like to argue over every single thing and it is meaningless and interrupts the game for others.
If players are easily heated and wrathful, they do not control themselves nor the situation around them and this can lead to accidents such as to physical confrontations.
Under this also fall all players who intentionally get in face of other players or shoot at the people in a re-spawn or safety zone.
Hopefully, this happens extremely rare, but if someone would shoot at me in the safe zone because they could not control themselves, I would get angry, seriously angry.
5. The chrono cheaters
The field rules vary from a field to field, however most fields do have some regulations such as the FPS limit and it is tested with a chronograph speed tester.
Before a player can get in a game, they need to secure that the gun does not have greater velocity than what the rules state.
The fields are improving and changing the rules as they learn how people behave, but some people always find a way to cheat.
In this case some people would find a way to cheat by using velocity reducers that serve as small devices that slow down the velocity of a gun and immediately after passing the test, they would remove it from a gun, thus resetting the velocity back to its default state.
The same could be done with HPA systems where players may manually increase the pressure of a tank and yet again, defeat the purpose of chrono testing.
This is rare, but the history teaches us that this has happened in the past, so it may happen again if the field employees do not pay attention.
6. Cheaters who went full… automatic
Going full automatic may not be a problem in most outside games, but CQB fields are sensitive on full automatic use of a gun due to safety measures and therefore have limitations.
Hitting someone on full auto at 10 feet does not happen to be a honorable act and certainly is not a nice experience for the receiving side, however some players switch it to full auto and pretend they have not.
7. Those who do not respect social distancing
Social distancing in airsoft is called MED ( the minimum engagement distance) and it is there with a purpose to prevent players to hit others with powerful guns at close range.
This often varies from a field to field, so some will consider it „not okay“ to hit someone with a 350 FPS gun at any range lesser than 50 feet, while some will consider the same for ranges lesser than 100 feet.
Some fields do not have any MED at all, it may vary, but some people do not respect this rules at all.
Let’s say that fields without MED still consider it rude if someone purposely hits someone at close range if there were no needs to do so.
A good way to deal with this is to hold a secondary gun like low velocity handgun and use it for close confrontations, especially if your primary gun is a sniper of a 500+ FPS.
You can also yell „bang“ or touch them if the rules allow it, so you minimize any unnecessary pain to other players.
Some other ways people cheat without intention
1. Using heavy BBs to pass the chrono test
I am guilty of this, I do admit it. When I was starting out and learning about airsoft, I thought it was perfectly fine to pass the chrono test for field FPS limits by simply using heavier BBs such as the 0.30 gram BBs instead of 0.20 gram BBs.
The fact is that the weight difference drops the FPS, so I thought that if I needed to pass the chrono it would be a smart thing to utilize this technique. I also talked to other people and a few times mentioned how this is probably the best way to pass the chrono test, until I encountered some other players who made me reconsider it.
After reconsidering, I have realized that just because the fps goes down on a chrono test, the fields still want you to test the FPS using either 0.20 gram or 0.25 gram BBs because the heavier BBs may travel slower, but the velocity is still same within a gun and at the moment it collides with the skin, it still hurts because of the default velocity.
This is one of mistakes that I have committed, but I believe that it can happen to people when they are starting out, so I hope no one hates me for this.
I have found a legal way on how to reduce the fps on airsoft guns if they do not fit the field limits, so check it out if you have this problem.
2. Not understanding the field rules
It can happen that people do not get to understand all rules immediately, especially if they are new to the field and in that case they should not be judged.
Although it takes time to remember some rules, it should not take too long, so do not use it as an excuse.
There are wrong accusations sometimes
The most commonly used missed accusation against players is thinking they did not call getting hits. Sometimes players tend to suspect that other player may cheat because they shoot at them and believe that the BBs are hitting them, however a problem may be that due to poor gun optimization a BB may not even reach the target they think they are hitting, so BBs already get dropped on half a way.
It may also happen that you think you are hitting someone, but BBs hit a leaf or a branch in front of the target before reaching them, but it really looks like the BBs are hitting them.
To be sure that the BB has connected, observe does it bounce off the target or not, if it does not, it might not have even landed.
How to deal with airsoft cheaters?
There are many ways we can deal with cheaters in airsoft, but only a few are suggested and legal, so I would advice you to follow only the „certified“ ways.
You deal with cheaters in airsoft by reporting them to referees, by approaching them and explaining the situation to them or by waiting for the end of the game and discussing the situation with other players which leads to eventual vote against cheaters that may ban them from a field or at least give them a warning for very first time.
Now, let me explain the each method so you know what to do and what not to do based on facts.
Shoot them till they confess
This should be only used as a method against cheaters who obviously take hits and do not call them, keep shooting at them ( and preferably choose to hit some soft spots such as neck or non-covered arm parts.). I mean if they still do not feel they are getting hit, then what is a problem to keep doing it to them? Perhaps , just for the sake of justice you may aim a bit towards the groin area. Pssss, you have not heard this from me.
Approaching cheaters
There are two ways you can do this:
- After spotting a player to cheat and being absolutely sure in that, call your self out, approach the cheater, tell them that they have obviously cheated and walk out the game together. By doing this you have saved the game for other players and now you can have a conversion with the cheater in front of referees.
- Wait for the end of a game and confront him, ideally with more people who have also suspected him of cheating. It is also suggested to mention that he might be cheating to other team mates while in the game, so that more people can keep an eye on him and later vote against him.
Calling the referees to help (recommended)
You can call the referee and report a cheater, however it does not mean that they will immediately kick him out, but will rather start paying attention to that one individual more than they would otherwise. If they see that he or she is truly bending the rules, they will take care of it.
referees may also spot it that a player cheats on their own, so it is not always necessary that you call them.
Plotting with other players
If there are multiple accusations from players it is quite easy to realize that someone is doing something wrong. After a conversation with a potential cheater, it is possible to clear things out and see where the problem lies at.
Perhaps someone just did not understand the rules or did not feel the hit, but often a cheater who intentionally cheats reveals it to the others by poor lying or over-aggressive behavior.
For the end I present to you the best compilation about dealing with cheaters that I find to be my favorite till this day.
Can cameras help to prevent cheating in airsoft?
This is a good question that many people ask because in society we often use cameras and similar security technology such as alarm systems and movement detectors to either collect proof against a perpetrator or simply catch them in action.
However, cameras have been implemented in airsoft in the past and the results were not promising.
Although in theory it could make sense to use cameras and some high-end technology to catch cheaters, it would be to expensive for most fields, not putting into equation that cameras can hardly spot small BBs hitting the target.
Everything from a poor resolution, poor light, inconvenient angles or other environmental conditions make it really difficult for cameras to be a consistent way of tracking cheaters.
However, having a recorded cheater is a great way to stop them because it is hard to discuss when you are caught on the screen.
This is why I recommend personal cameras with set-ups because they have great quality and besides the purpose of catching cheaters, it also allows you to take amazing footage for later that you can share with friends, social networks, or remind yourself 10 years from now how good you were.
Conclusion
Airsoft is by nature a sport that depends on player’s honesty and respect for continuous flow of a game and it is difficult to track everything as we would want to.
Cheating sometimes happen out of poor knowledge and sometimes there is no doubt that people do it on purpose.
One thing is for sure, do not be too quick on calling someone a cheater before you can be sure in it and have some clear proof against the player.
Sometimes a warning is enough for someone to change their behavior and sometimes there is no other way around it, but a ban from a field or community that may be permanent.
Have fun on your next game and do not forget to call the hits!