Airsoft Surgeon IPSC Championship 2004 (2004-09-13)

Many of you have asked why we don't report on major games held in Asia so in the first of our local reports, we would like to share with you what went down at the annual Hong Kong IPSC Championship 2004! The key driving force behind IPSC in Hong Kong has been the Hong Kong Shooting Development Union (www.hksdu.com) and Airsoft Surgeon. Many of you will already know Airsoft Surgeon for their spectacular custom pieces but few may know that owner Clarence Lai is a serious IPSC shooter and devotes a significant amount of his professional and private time to developing the sport here in Hong Kong. So to no surprise, this year's key organizer was Airsoft Surgeon, along with full administrative support from the HKSDU.

Held in a large basement facility at the New World Center in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, over 130 shooters registered to compete in this six-stage event. Contestants were categorized into several divisions including Open Division, Standard Division, Single Stack 1911 Division, Student Division, Ladies Division, and Beginners. In the spirit of promoting the sport for all, registration fees were kept to a minimum of USD30.00 for regular participants, and USD13.00 for students. The event started at 10am with non-stop action that lasted until 7:30pm, ending with trophy awards for the winners in each category.

Being a serious competition, IPSC shooters from all over flew in to play in the event. With Airsoft recently legalized in Taiwan, the level of play from Taiwanese shooters proved a formidable force (see players with A-Zone uniforms). Of course, high end equipment could be seen everywhere - from table top displays to the holsters on some of the players. While the majority of players ran on the high performance Western Arms Hi-Cap platform, some players used custom modified Desert Eagles and Berettas for their race. Hardware ranged anywhere from several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars for a high performance gun.

RedWolf Airsoft was a key sponsor of the event and was on hand to demonstrate some of the latest pistols. Positioned right next to the practice area, we provided visitors and players alike with an opportunity to test out the latest high powered Airsoft guns from HFC and KWC against some IPSC targets. One of the players tested a KWC SIGMA CO2 Silencer version that generates 460fps right out of the box - and broke the target! Others also indicated high interest in the HFC full metal Dark Hawk and M190 Beretta, with high praise for refined finishing and solid performance. As a sponsor, we gave away several of these interesting pistols as prizes for lucky raffle winners. While we were busy promoting the event, we were admittedly drawn by Airsoft Surgeon's display collection in the next booth, where a large selection of his private work was on display for all to play with and see. While most of Airsoft Surgeon's high-end work is based on the Western Arms platform, he did share some interesting Glock pieces that felt extremely real with solid performance. Custom manufactured and engraved high-performance slides are Airsoft Surgeon's forte, and there was definitely no shortage of that! Airsoft Surgeon is also clearly into fancy compensators as you can see from these photographs!

All in all, the one-day event was a smashing success and many people walked away with lucky prizes! The mood was fun yet serious with competitors vying for the sub-second advantage. We hope to see more of these types of events here in Hong Kong in the near future!