Anybody who is active in Airsoft knows that there are a lot of great people out there. The newest group to be recognized with the Elite Force Honor Patch is Bryan Slater. Slater is the captain of Team GEARS and is deserving of this recognition. He and his team have been recognized for activities that promote strong honor and integrity.
When Team GEARS goes to a field, they to go to play airsoft and to help their sport grow. They are approachable and encourage younger players and new players. If a player has an issue with their gun, they try to fix it or find someone that can. They have even loaned their guns and sat out games so newer or younger can have a better experience.
If there is a birthday party going on, they try to find out whose it is and help them win objective games and get a great experience. Players have come up to the team to say thanks for helping them have a great day. Mothers have even thanked them for taking their son under their wing for the day. Once a kid’s mom accidentally ran over his gun bag. His mother didn’t have money to replace his stuff so they tried to fix his pistol. The pistol couldn’t be repaired, so they pitched in and bought him a new one.
One of the guys on their team is a firefighter and last year for Christmas, a family near him lost their father. they gathered together a bunch of gear and guns, fixed older guns to be better than new, and gave them to the kids for Christmas. They also had a raffle to raise money for a local children’s charity.
They provide positive role models when they teach kids on the field the tactics and safety to be better airsofters. On more than one occasion, when playing objective games, they would find an objective and then show it to a new player or younger player and help them win it instead of taking it ourselves. One of their teammates saw a kid that got the wind knocked out of him in a game, stopped and helped him despite still getting lit up. He also helped get his gun fixed because it broke.
Even more recently, on their Instagram, a team from Spain commented on a post. Usually those may go unanswered due to language barriers, but one of their team speaks Spanish and had a great conversation with them.
When it comes to helping out, the team doesn’t seem to give it a second thought, they just go out & serve those around them. It’s just how they are – they want airsoft to grow and have a positive impact on other. Their honor is shown in how we concluded our discussion. They said:
Now more than ever, we as players and industry people need to stick together. If there is anything you need us to do or need from us, please don’t hesitate to ask.