If this website ad on Hush Hush is to be believed, the anonymous advertiser is willing to pay someone £45,000 ($82,452 AUD) to help set up the three-day, airsoft, battle royale event. The contract is for a £1,500 day rate and will last 6 weeks.
“We were approached by one of our customers, who was on the lookout for a private island, for help in setting up the championship,” the ad reads. “We will also be handling registrations for the event when the time comes.”
For the uninitiated, battle royale is a video game mode made that gained notoriety by titles such as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds & Fortnite. In most scenarios, up to 100 players sky dive into a sandboxed map with a play area which decreases over time, pushing players into a smaller and smaller space to force a last man standing. The player or parties that stay alive win the game.
Of course, this unknown millionaire isn’t going to give 100 people a bunch of actual guns to shoot at each other with. Instead, the event will provide airsoft guns, which are kind of like paintball guns, but use small plastic, non-lethal pellets. These are significantly less painful than traditional paintballs. Just like the video game, the last person standing wins, and in this case, they win £100,000 ($140,351 AUD).
“The event is intended to last three days, with 12 hours of competition each day,” the description continues. “Competitors will then camp for the night. Food, camping gear and all the necessary equipment will be provided.”
“Battle royale games have become incredibly popular over the last few years and our customer is a huge fan who wants to make the game a reality in the safest way possible,”Hush Hush founder, Aaron Harpin, adds. “If the championship is a success this year, it’s something he wants to make an annual event moving forward, which is very exciting!”
Australia is actually one of the only countries in the world where airsoft is banned. While airsoft markers are not technically guns, the issue comes down to how similar they look to real firearms, which means they’re treated like real firearms in the eyes of our legislation. Australia has some awesome locations that could benefit from these battle royale style events if airsoft was legalised.
Lets hope our Airsoft cries are heard loud and wide, Australia is missing out on a heap of fun!