Kazakh airsoft players returned with gold medals from Kyrgyzstan

Several groups from Kazakhstan, representatives of the elite special forces of the Kyrgyz Republic, Kant and Bishkek airsoft players came to the tournament – 16 teams in total. Cold snowy weather and slippery roads did not frighten anyone; at the appointed time for the start of registration of participants, everyone was in place.

ATG is a team competition that is close to real combat operations. Teams practice their tactics and experience, use light pneumatics, similar to military weapons, to complete the task. The tournament consisted of two stages. At the first stage, “Save Us,” participants were expected to rescue hostages and eliminate terrorists. The group needed to free the hostages held by the terrorists and evacuate them to a safe place, avoiding casualties among personnel and hostages. In the second stage, “Defuse”, it was necessary to storm the building and defuse the bomb. The detachment needed to clear the building from terrorists and clear the building of mines in 10 minutes with minimal losses.

After each stage, points were awarded for the rescued mock hostages, the clearance of the bomb, and the number of surviving squad members. Also, in case of controversial issues, the time required to complete the stage was taken into account; advantage was given to the team that completed the task and did it faster than the rest. Each airsoft team had only one attempt to complete each mission. To ensure fair judging, representatives of airsoft teams from Kazakhstan were also included among the judges.

— I took part in various airsoft tournaments, but this was the first tournament for me. Previously, we often trained with the team in the spirit of CQB and these skills came in handy. This time I had “green” soldiers with me, but they were very eager to attend such an event, so I, as a commander, decided to support them. Also, one of our experienced fighters was on the judging team, and then told us about our mistakes and correct actions. I really enjoyed this experience, it inspired me to better prepare and train. Also, the participation of military specialists only spurs interest in such a tournament. Competing, learning from experience, communicating with real military personnel motivates one to develop in this direction. The organization is wonderful, we didn’t regret traveling such a distance for this tournament. “Many thanks to the FVTI, the judging staff, and the military of Kyrgyzstan,” a tournament participant from Almaty shared his impressions Mikhail Korzhavin with the call sign Albanian.

A similar tournament has already been held in Kyrgyzstan. A year ago, an international game-tournament under the brand “Defenders of the Fatherland” was timed to coincide with two patriotic dates in the history of Kyrgyzstan: the Day of Remembrance of Internationalist Soldiers and the Day of Defender of the Fatherland. The event was organized by the Federation of Military Tactical Games of Kyrgyzstan and the weekly magazine “MK-Asia”, with the participation of the Russian CSTO air base “Kant”.

At that time, according to the legend of the tournament, there was a group of terrorists in the building who captured three journalists who had collected too much information about their activities in the region. The journalists were to be executed for show, and the information was to be destroyed. Therefore, each team of four people had the task of destroying the terrorists, freeing the hostages alive and leading them out of the building, and if the hostages were wounded during the assault, providing them with first aid. An additional task was to find a camera with a flash drive in the building, where information about the terrorist organization was stored.

— We were glad to take part in the tournament, the scope of the event compared to last year, we also took part then, was increased. The number of participating teams has increased, which indicates the demand for this type of competition. Among the minuses, I would like to note the undeveloped mechanics of wounds, as well as some inconstancy of the conditional enemy at the stage with the bomb. The stage of releasing the hostages went without any complaints, there was excellent work by the organizers, judges and the mock enemy, he shared his impressions Daniyar Eskaliev call sign Bullet, who came from Kazakhstan. — The ATG tournament has added to the collection of international events that our team has attended. In general, I am very pleased with the emergence of such a competitive brand in the CIS, which indicates the widespread development of airsoft, not only as individual amateur shooting games, but at the same time as a serious sporting phenomenon. And the organizers of the ATG tournament can proudly say that they stand at the origins of the development of tactical airsoft, together with other worthy figures of the international airsoft movement.

Both terrorists and hostages were played by representatives of airsoft teams from Kyrgyzstan.

— This is my second year participating in a tournament like this as an NPC hostage. Fewer people came to Defenders of the Fatherland than to ATG, the mechanics of the tournament have been tweaked over the year, but the tournaments have common features in the teams’ approach to completing the task of rescuing hostages. Special forces are more focused on ensuring that hostages survive: the specificity is that for them this is an element of work, and not a game convention. Players from their teams for the most part do not hide behind you, but, on the contrary, cover you with themselves, as would happen during a real withdrawal of hostages from the building. But they do not always feel that they have been hit by a ball and do not always feel the distance at which they can open fire – they violate the regulations. Ordinary airsoft players, on the contrary, admit that they are dead and leave more often, but they have other problems when performing tasks, says Elena Korotkova with the call sign Groza. — First, not everyone carefully reads the conditions of the tournament stages and the regulations in general. The second is that for many airsoft players it is more difficult to assess the situation in a split second and understand whether a terrorist is in front of you or a hostage than for special forces. Some people cope with this, some don’t. Often, tournament participants simply open fire on any living target in the room when clearing a building. This year at ATG, we two hostages were even given separate suits so that the tournament participants could distinguish us from the terrorists. But it didn’t help much. They killed him several times, twice with a clear hit to the heart. True, there were more teams that were saved, which is encouraging. Finally, not all teams work well in pairs or trios. Everything comes with experience, and I think that for the next tournaments all participants will improve their skills.

Following intense battles, first place and the cup were won by a team from Kazakhstan called “Dobermans”. The second place was taken by the brave fighters of the team “Alga” from Kyrgyzstan, and third place went to experienced special forces from detachment “Cher”. Special Forces “Scorpion” was named the most coordinated team, demonstrating a high level of coordination and professionalism on the battlefield. TOspecial forces team “Panther” also performed superbly, showing a high level of training and tactical skill.

— Airsoft is a strategically important sport that maintains physical fitness, teaches discipline, tactics, weapons handling skills, teamwork and mutual assistance on the battlefield. And we are very glad that representatives of the country’s defense department understand its importance and have been supporting us for several years now. They help us with holding large airsoft events with territory and equipment, and recently representatives of a number of Kyrgyz special forces have also been playing airsoft. For them, this is additional training and an additional burden to perform new tasks for them. Our ATG tournament brought together 16 teams, 3 of which were represented by fighters from the Kyrgyz special forces “Scorpion”, “Cher” and “Panther”. They successfully completed tournament missions side by side with the players, received certificates and prizes. I would also like to note that teams from Kazakhstan also came to us for ATG. Despite the dangerous snowy road, no one refused to participate, and in the end the challenge cup went to the Almaty team. Our guys also went to tournaments in Kazakhstan more than once and returned with victory. And we in the Federation hope that in the future such tournaments in Kyrgyzstan and other countries will bring together teams not only from Central Asia, but also from Russia and European countries. Airsoft is, first of all, a sport, and sport is always outside of politics, says President of the FVTI KR, Kanybek Kulmatov.

“This event is of great importance for preparing young people for the defense of their homeland. Airsoft games and championships are held with the aim of raising the military spirit of every man. Over the years of cooperation with the Airsoft Federation of the Kyrgyz Republic, our fighters have gained valuable experience, and members of the Federation have helped us out more than once in difficult times. This tournament is characterized by short battles in urban conditions at close ranges, which adds tension and excitement to both military and civilian participants, preparing them for various extreme situations, says Kushtar Bakalchiev, commander of the Kyrgyz special forces “Scorpion”.

Chief organizer of ATG, Nursultan Kharsanov said that the teams showed the ability to conduct tactical combat and adequately completed the prepared distance. Of course, there were points that needed to be thought about and that needed to be corrected.

“But we will definitely take into account all these shortcomings so that the next tournament will be even better, more interesting, more powerful.” As for the tournament process itself: the “Defuse” stage showed that a successful assault requires more time and fewer empty rooms. In the future, we will try to provide a layout and layout of the locations so that teams can study them before starting the game. “Save Us” was the most successful stage, in my opinion. The compact building, skilled terrorists and simple task appealed to most participants. We will improve all the points that were not entirely successful. And at the next tournament, all participants will again have the opportunity to prove themselves, and, perhaps, take the cup for themselves,” said the chief organizer of ATG.

Activities of the FVTI of Kyrgyzstan

Since its existence in 2018, the FVTI has held, with the support of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Kyrgyzstan, several international games with the participation of airsoft players from Kazakhstan and Russia. In addition, Kyrgyz airsoft players defended the honor of the republic at international games in Kazakhstan, competed in a CQB tournament with the Scorpio special unit, and together with veterans of the special unit of group “A” of the State Committee for National Security of the republic, they celebrated Victory Day, May 9, lathletics “Memory Relay”. Members of the FVTI also held clean-up days and participated in patriotic events for young people. FVTI actively participates in the public life of Kyrgyzstan.

In 2020, during the Covid lockdown, FVTI volunteers transported Bishkek doctors and delivered them hot meals. In the fall of the same year, during the unrest after the parliamentary elections, FVTI airsoft players in Bishkek and other settlements joined the people’s squads to resist the looters.

In 2022, during an aggravation on the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, airsoft players helped the border guards and military personnel of Kyrgyzstan on the front line. We raised funds, bought and donated unloading systems, combat boots, a thermal imager, professional tactical flashlights and other necessary equipment.

In 2023, on the eve of the 78th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, in Kyrgyzstan, the FVTI helped restore the monument to the Hero of the Soviet Union, commander of the Il-2 attack aircraft, junior lieutenant Ismailbek Taranchiev and his partner, air gunner Alexei Tkachev. The young men defended their homeland as part of the 566th assault aviation regiment (277th assault aviation division, 13th air army, Leningrad front), and repeated the feat of Nikolai Gastello in an air battle in the Pskov direction, near Narva, in 1944. Also at the end of this year, as a sign of respect to the great generation of winners, Nikolai Kuzmich, a 96-year-old participant in the Great Patriotic War, living in Bishkek, an electric wheelchair was donated with the assistance of FVTI volunteers.