I was looking around (on this forum and other places), and my personal opinion is that airsoft is not truly a sport but more of a hobby, yet some people refer to it as one.

so my question is do you think airsoft is a sport?,please provide a good reason as to why you think is(n't) a sport


Here's why i think airsoft is not truly a sport but more of a hobby:

1) there is not point system ie. touchdowns, goals, runs etc.
2) there is never really a clear cut winner at the end of the day
3) i have never seen or heard of an airsoft "tournament" like in most other sports
4) at most events teams (such as HEAT) never get to play as a unit, but are joined with other teams and groups (for better or worse)




i am noot trying to take anything awau from airsoft, this is just a oersonal opinion, and i would like to hear yours, who knows someone here just might change my mins

Airsoft is a hobby.

Paintball is a sport.

im going to have to disagree on the point system thing cuz there is a game coming up that puts 4-6 man teams up against each other to see who gets the most points, and there will be only 1 team who wins. i have also seen videos of other games where there was an individual team who won. other then that airsoft is just a hobby. theres no way a game based on honor can be a sport

if you're talking about the WGF game that's coming up that's just an 'anomaly' and doesn't represent airsoft as a whole. in general airsoft is a hobby, in essence it is based on military simulation, and no one would ever consider the milsim, or the military for that matter, as a sport. there's no real points system, just achieving the objectives, or not, and you win the game if you do.

like knight said paintball is a sport; woodsball is borderline, then there's the milsim woodsball, but that's another animal.

its neither a sport or hobby its a way of life!

Airsoft is a hobby. its a hobby with elements of a sport in it. we both (at times) have teams, we shoot for victory, and we both have "uniforms". but all in all its a hobby no matter how you splice it..having said that.. i will stand with mustnpwr "its a way of life"

I say hobby. When airsoft is a way of life, you should try to remember that we're adults playing with toy guns that shoot plastic bb's.

The day airsoft becomes a sport is the day I leave the hobby.


Airsoft is already suffering due to the cheap "clone" AEGs that are saturating the market. While it is both good and bad, I've noticed that it is bringing a large mentality with the influx of new players that definately should not be within the airsoft community.

going back to the point system. it was a well organized game. i think the guy who ran it had claw in it or something like that. not just the WGF game. that was just one of my examples

i totally agree with you knight. this is something we do to get us out of our daily lives. we go to have fun and not compete. we shoot at eachother and meet a lot of cool people. when you make it competative you will bring the egos you see in paintball and football (no offense birdman). you will get that mentallity that will seperate us as players and make us enemies. and then fights will break out and a lot people will get hurt over a bb hit. think about where paintball has ended up. it went from just paintball to a "social status". people started to play for the fun of it. cheap spyders, a mask, and some pods and you have a good time in the woods behind your house. now its about the most expensive gun with the custom paintjob, the pink leapord print headbands, and the s**t talking. its no longer fun but a joke. airsoft has to be a hobby. when it looses that title it will be the new thing everyone will play and brag about. then we will get clanish and everything will suck. then i will sell everything to a dumbass 13 yearold kid for 3 times what i paid it for and do something else.

Hobby, not a sport.

To me saying its a sport is kinda like saying we are competing. I am not out there to win or be the best, I am out just to have fun.

i just be being to literal but calling it a way of life is fun and all but it isn't what we all do day in and day out. our jobs, our family that's our way of life... on the same token, we can still call it a way of life, because the seals call what they do a way of life.

OMG, he was joking. Why does everyone have to speak so politically and literally on airsoft forums. This isn't just directed at any one person either; lots of the users on this site are tying their information into some political debate.

HEAT's About Us Page wrote:

We do not have strict rules or politics like some airsoft groups; it is not the team's style. We play to have fun, so just glance over our rules, requirements, and recommendations ...

Just keep this forum fun and friendly. Take s**t as a joke. If you are reading this right now, airsoft is on your mind enough to almost be considered a way of your life. <-- sarcastic, but seriously, we're all just a bunch of military guru's with enough time on our hands to be on the net where it is a big part of our lives.

EDIT: Back on topic, it's a hobby to those who know what airsoft is, but I would consider it a sport when it comes to categories on Ebay, Google, etc. since it involves physical activity and players coming together to work cooperatively as a team even though it is not a competitive sport like paintball

I consider it a sport. I agree with mstngpwr and Admin ...Its a way of life and people on teams do have to work together just like in football, baseball basketball etc. But i do disagree that it is not an agrressive sport. :))

It doesn't fit as a sport - it's not that organized - it's not a tournament base, the goal of it is not to win.


It is a purest form of sport, perhaps, where there is a thrill to be sought in the comraderie of friends, free of trivial things like sponsorhips and shoe deals.


But, I've started to see a lot of the negative "sport" qualities come into this hobby - cheating, trash talking, people sporting big advertisements on their uniforms, and general ass hattery.

Paintsoft is starting to become the norm, which means airsoft is going the way of paintball...

he was expressing his point to the thread and so was it.
that "it's a way of life" is not a literal representation and i went too deep into explaning why... but, whatever.

thank you gh0st raven

If airsoft isn't a sport, then we should make it a sport.
I'm thinking we make a set of rules and send them across the web, until they are finalized.
Maybe we should find a way to show if some one was hit.

ahhhhhh superglue....

Eh, the problem is that you're never going to please everyone. When that is understood, you're above the learning curve. Most places do have very similar basic rules already, it's the more advanced stuff that usually creates problems.

Personally I see airsoft as a forum for friends to engage in friendly competition, where there is nothing at stake. But I do see some of those negative 'sport' aspects Knight mentioned above. That's why I prefer to be on a team like HEAT, where it's about the game, not who won or lost.

As far as paintsoft, look where the larger airsoft games are often held, places that primarily cater to paintball. So outside of our own airsoft community, who sees us the most? Paintballers. It often seems to be the case that when we bring paintballers over to airsoft, they usually bring their paintball mentality. Not to mention the growing number of younger players who try to play airsoft in the same manner as the latest video games.

I'm changing my vote from yes to no it's not a sport. That makes the vote 8 to 8. I agree that it's a hobby. I've never heard of a "professional" airsoft team. Also, there is no real airsoft season, or even leagues that I have seen.