Those who've attended the 2 OMC events held so far this year, "The Sword" and "Eagle Down", were told that there would be 2 more events held in the Ottawa area this season. Originally, that's what was planned - "The Battle For Colombia" and "Blood Diamonds", held in October and November respectively, would have closed out our 2011 lineup. Unfortunately, both GREEN_MACHINE and I are facing substantial time constraints over the next 2 months, and the outlook for 2011 OMC events is looking bleak.
Most people don't know this, but the two of us organize these OMC events on a volunteer basis, with no money or kickbacks coming our way at all. In a nutshell, we organize the kind of Paintball games that we want to play in, in our own self-interest, and other Milsim players in the area benefit at the same time. We both want to see our Ottawa Milsim Paintball community grow, and give it some kickass events to call home, and this is what motivates us. The fields and sponsors involved are the ones who make the money, and this is just fine with us! Give us a place to hold these events at a fair price, and donate plenty of juicy prizes for our participants to win, and we have no problem with you making some cash based on our work.
However, this also means that as unpaid volunteers, our jobs, families, and other day-to-day responsibilities take precedence over what's basically just a game. With work, anniversaries, trips abroad, and a new home purchase (with a big move to follow) taking up our free weekends from September November, we've decided to hold off on any more events for 2011.
Rest assured that we are NOT dissolving the OMC, and the Milsim Paintball awesomeness will continue in the 2012 season. Several potential events and ideas are in the works, including a winter game in February or March, possibly a field trip to an indoor field in the Montreal area this winter for a CQB scenario, and 6 or 7 monthly Milsim events from April to October! Our website should go live in early 2012, and we also plan to hold events on a rotation of fields in the Ottawa area. Chuck at Carnage Paintball has been a great host to us so far, but we feel that always holding the events on the extreme Eastern edge of the Ottawa area isn't fair to a lot of players from the West end of the city, or to those from Gatineau. So expect to see a more balanced rotation of event locations in 2012.
Before closing, I'd like to thank all of our supporters so far for making the 2 OMC events held in 2011 a massive success! You all blew away our expectations for attendance and fair play, and we hope you enjoyed our scenarios and format enough to come back next year! We can organize events all we want, but in the end it's you folks coming out and participating that makes it all come together.
I'd also like to thank members from Danger Close, Ottawa's largest and fastest-growing Milsim Paintball team, for sending large contingents out to the events and contributing their input and ideas to OMC scenarios.
Last but not least, I want to thank the business stakeholders involved in the OMC so far: Carnage Paintball for hosting the events, and donating prizes in the form of passes and memberships; Action Gear Canada for donating boxes of Milsim Paintball soft goods for use as door prizes; and last but not least, Crypsis & Grey Ops for contributing door prizes, and allowing the OMC to use Grey Ops as a promotional platform!
See you all in 2012!
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