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PLAYING WITH THE DEVIL

Team Diablo always fight as a unit, using teamwork and speed to overcome any threats and challenges. Mostly focusing on CQB, this London based long standing group of friends prefer urban environments like the UK’s military training bases to push themselves and their performance to the next level.

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Founded in 2006 at a CQB training event, the team is now 10 man strong. They attend events across the UK and are keen to play internationally if the right opportunities present themselves.

There is a sentence we always remember when you said: “We very rarely have active recruitment sessions, but we are always on the lookout for people displaying similar traits to the team and also consider how they will fit into the team dynamic.”, it’s the same as a group of friends, and this is logical, but what traits would he/ she have to be similar to your team and stand out to be one of your potential team members? And don’t say that they are friendly! Work on your answer :-P

Whilst we haven’t had any active recruitment, we have added three new callsigns in the last year. Instead of announcing recruitment or inviting potential candidates to our training days to assess them, we are a friendly bunch and encourage people to get in touch or follow our social media, and work alongside us during games. Broadly speaking if an individual has a similar mindset to us and wants similar things out of the sport, we tend to see them alongside us during consecutive games (normally one of our team is talking to them in the background) and from there we would consider their compatibility. In some respects, that is in fact a loosely formalised recruitment process. In terms of standing out there isn’t any codified list of what we would be looking for, but if someone plays the style we play and is interested in working in a much more team orientated way, that’s already a great start!

We could say that the urban fight is one of your specialties, how does your unit define the roles to assault in a CQB environment internally? Everybody can play each role or each one has a defined one?

Everybody has to be able to do everything. On an individual team member level, we definitely do not encourage or advocate certain people choosing to define a specific role for themselves. In airsoft, especially in CQB / FIBUA, any room breach or aggressive move is likely to result in team members getting hit. Depending on the medic rules and any site or weekender game, this could either be a short delay or alternatively a long walk to regen.  With this in mind, you wouldn’t be able to take down buildings or rooms in sequence if specific people doing specific jobs got taken out with no one to step in. There’s also the angle that if people specialise, they might feel some of the pressure is off in developing other skills that could lead to deficiencies in the team.

We do a lot of training outside of events and walk on games we attend.  We are lucky that we know a lot of site organisers on a more personal level to allow our training at their facilities to take place.  We’ve remembered scenarios where our actions have failed and looked at real world, as well as more innovative thinking within the team to overcome it next time.  From then on it’s a lot of repetition and discussion to perfect our craft.

This question is for the team leader (one of the most complicated role).  How about managing 10 people in a stressful battle? Some leader tricks to share with other teams?

·         Step back from the action to give you space to think and plan without risk of getting hit. Managing 10-50 people in a stressful battle represents a vastly different experience from being a point man or clearing rooms… You are no longer the first person through the door, and in reality you shouldn’t even be in the breaching team. If you get hit, all coherence is lost, which might not matter for a typical airsoft sized team, but in larger numbers is a nightmare.

·         Think strategically. You need to be playing the macro game as well as the micro game, whilst you are trying to work out how best to take down a specific building, you are also working out how taking down that building will affect the game dynamics of the site. What will that mean in terms of the OpFory or objective?

·         Be assertive & communicate clearly with the team what we’re doing now, and what we’re doing next. If a leader is not in control of a given situation then team coherence quickly breaks down to individuals playing, which can be great fun but is obviously nowhere near as effective.

What is the CTF226 and why the motto is “No Brakes”?

This is the Combined Task Force made up of Team Diablo, Cobalt, Gray Fox, Black Scorpions NLD and TF Copperhead. We quickly realised that in the ‘circuit’ of games we attended, there were a few teams out there who had very similar attitudes and play-style.  It would be in our interests to really build connections between the teams and focus on interoperability, so that we could operate as one larger unit, or field smaller mixed contingent teams. You’re a much more effective fighting force if you work as a team rather than an individual. Imagine what happens when you form a “team of teams”, who have all played and trained together a long time. Five full strength teams working together is tough to beat! The motto “No Brakes” came about after we played our first official milsim as CTF226 and the train just kept on rolling until the enemy was defeated. There was no stopping the train and it had “No Brakes”.

 

There is a video of your YouTube channel (we advise people to subscribe) in which you are going on a boat with the Remix rhythm of “Boats and Hoes”. Very badass! You have to tell us how the amphibious attack arose, every airsofter envies it!

A UK based game organizer UCAP Airsoft ran a site called ‘The Sandpit’ in a quarry just outside of London. Stirling Airsoft (milsim events organiser) hosted a 2-day event where they brought a lot of military vehicles.  These ranged from APCs, WMIKs, trucks and a host of Land Rovers and technicals. The 2 RIBs were being used to insert and pick up the ‘task force’ team around the quarry so in fact we spent a whole weekend riding round in them (in fantastic weather) as well as other land vehicles. This is particularly fun when the sun goes down and large scale attacks are organised with vehicles being driven under night vision.

Besides, we all love cheesy movies!

 

Why do you consider that CQB is far more amusing and enjoyable than other environments?

CQB tends to be particularly decisive and requires commitment. At such close ranges the limitations of airsoft guns doesn’t define gameplay and movement. Diablo tend to overwhelmingly attend FIBUA and CQB events, although we do throw in the occasional greenside now and then! As you’d probably expect it really comes down to what individuals are into.  One thing isn’t necessarily better than another. In the UK we’re very lucky to have access to a lot of fantastic sites, including government owned military training areas, so that tends to shift the games over here in that direction.

 

You are people who always move fast in CQB combat, let’s see if you have the same speed in responding to those words.  Say the first thing that comes to mind when taking a quick look below. 

·         Stirling airsoft – best weekender/Milsim organiser in the UK

·         Crye Precision – Innovative gear provider

·         Geardo – something we don’t see ourselves as. Cosplay isn’t for everyone.

·         Tokyo Marui 416 recoil – Diablo weapon of choice.

·         Gray Fox (airsoft team) – Brothers in arms for over 10 years

·         Real-cap Magazine – would only work if everyone used them in small CQB sites

And to end the interview, last word! The first thing that comes to your mind.

·    Team Diablo: “Never hesitate.  Hesitation is the enemy.”