100% with Tackle and trigger on this , teams can be the saving grace of the sport (the one I’m in for one) OR can drive you from it (unfortunately your experience) . The one I’m in there’s seven of us , team started about 13yrs ago and I was invited to join about a yr after that now ? I’m the only original left (the guys in now joined over the following yrs) the other originals all left the sport for the usual reasons . We don’t have a team leader all decisions/instructions/etc are by individual members or as a group (one guy was an actual infantry skills instructor so perfect team leader if we wanted one!) we just trust each other if one says “quick get over there !” Or another says “pull back from there and get round the side” it’s because they’ve seen something I hadn’t , not because there’s a great battle plan in there head ! If they did they’d get a very swift “ feck off ya twat !” ?
we’re fairly well know in our home area as much for our light hearted take on the game and general friendliness as much as anything ( we’re always getting asked to keep an eye on a new guy who’s on his own by the marshalling team) BUT you cross us and we switch on , by end of day you will regret it . We all use comm’s so are quite effective due to it (when we’re not taking the piss out of each other that is!) on the very rare occasion someone has earned our ire we have made it our our objective to ruin there day for them .
Example a well known aggressive player thought it was funny to hose a kiddy when confronted he gave the standard bully reply of “its only a toy gun if you can’t take it then don’t play !” SO we and a few other regulars spent the entire morning hunting him (with the blessing of the head marshal) and when he was spotted passing the location to all others involved via comm’s and giving him a bit of his own medicine , he packed up and left by lunch time !
To me this is what a team should be , a collective of friends (we all socialise as well) having a good time together but when needed can and will work very effectively together .
AND an example of a bad team ? at the NAE on Saturday bumped in to a very nice young lad from a real ‘gung ho!’ Team we know , asked where’s the rest of the team to be told he didn’t know (he looked on the verge of tears) as he’d been excluded from the team because he’d upset one of the two team ‘leaders’ and was camping on his own ! ? So we invited him to join our encampment and spend the wknd with us , yesterday morning as we were packing up to leave he gave us all a big thank you and said he was going to jack it all in but after the way we treated him he’s not and his now ex team can go and Royaly fuck off ! ???
