Airsoft
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About
Airsoft is a competitive team-based game in which participants win matches by shooting opponents with plastic pellets from airsoft replica firearms. Matches often resemble those seen in first-person shooter video games, including games like team death match and capture the flag.
History
In the early 1980s, the first airsoft pistols were sold in Japan, originally designed for target shooting. The guns were named "airsoft" after the green gas used to propel the plastic pellets. Over the next 10 years, the company LS popularized airsoft guns in the United Kingdom and the United States, which subsequently developed organized gaming communities centered around the use of the replica firearms.
Online Presence
On January 12th, 2006, the Airsoft Wiki[3] was created, which accumulated upwards of 90 pages in the next 10 years. On June 3rd, 2007, YouTuber czk002 uploaded a video featuring an airsoft gun modeled after the IMI Desert Eagle semi-automatic handgun, receiving more than seven million views and 6,500 comments over nine years (shown below, left). On May 27th, 2008, the /r/airsoft[2] subreddit was launched for discussions about airsoft guns and competitive matches. On November 9th, 2009, YouTuber scoutthedoggie submitted a video of an airsoft game in Scotland, featuring a large M134 minigun replica (shown below, right). Within seven years, the video gained over 38 million views and 17,800 comments.
On May 26th, 2015, YouTuber BirnyX uploaded a comedy sketch titled "Airsoft vs Nerf," in which a group of children go to save their parents using nerf weapons at an airsoft match (shown below, left). Over the next year, the video gathered more than 22 million views and 10,000 comments. On December 30th, 2015, YouTuber Novritsch posted footage of an airsoft player cheating by failing to react to being hit (shown below, right). Within four months, the video received upwards of 4.7 million views and 7,000 comments.
