Tuesday, October 28, 2008 Cebuanos hold airsoft contest in Dubai
DUBAI, UAE - -Capitalizing on the sport’s growing popularity in this highly multicultural country, a group of Filipino expats are organizing one of the UAE’s first airsoft tournaments as a way of promoting camaraderie among different nationalities here.
Dubbed “The Bisdak Cup: Operation Swift Wind” the tournament is organized under the banner of the newly founded Emirates Airsoft Federation (EAF), the government-sanctioned airsoft umbrella organization in the UAE. The upcoming event will pit 16 multinational teams vying for supremacy in a round-robin affair on Nov. 14, at the
Paintball Park in Dubai’s Creek Park.
“We are pleased that the Bisdak guys have taken the initiative to organize this tournament. Their efforts and active involvement in the EAF are instrumental in strengthening this multicultural organization,” said Douglas Glisson, the EAF’s Australian president, referring to the tournament’s organizer, Bisdak Forces, an EAF-member group made up of Cebuano OFWs in the UAE.
Bisdak Forces team leader Ramon Angeles III said no Bisdak member will participate in the tournament as all have committed to work in various capacities during game day. He revealed that the team members were inspired to organize the tournament after they won the EAF’s inaugural competition, the “Operation Desert Thunder” last May.
“We are a very dynamic bunch,” said EAF treasurer Jeffrey Nabua, who is also the Bisdak Forces assistant team leader. “We come up with ideas and then everybody instinctively contributes to realize the project.”
The Bisdak Cup allows each team a maximum of 12 players who will compete in matches lasting eight minutes each. Tournament safety officer Franzty Magsakay, the Bisdak Forces founding team leader, said the full scenario will be announced a week prior to the tournament.
“We’ve kept it a secret in order not to give any team an undue advantage,” said Magsakay, who joins Angeles, Nabua, Glisson and Briton Dave Butler in the tournament’s executive committee. “But it will surely be both enjoyable and challenging.” (PR)
