Kotaku

Do it Yourself Counter Strike SquirtWhen more than 40 people in their 20s stalk the streets ofBrooklyn with concealed water guns, that can only meanone thing; a gang war game of CounterSquirt is going

down.

Earlier this month, NYC's Come Out & Play Festival held a

tactical water gun battle.

Equipped with dollar-store water pistols, three coloredwris tbands (representing lives), a pair of walkie-talkies,and a map, several seven or eight- man squads fanned outinto the night. Their objective was to follow their maps to

locate and escort several non-player characters (NPCs) back to the central HQ or mobile drop-off for points in return.Among the NPCs, who were all played by volunteers, were a traitor, informant, hostage, and scientist. They were dispersedthroughout the neighborhood within several blocks of the central HQ, the Brooklyn Lyceum.

The stage was set for ambushes, face-offs, and squeals of terror as each squad set out to foil each other's plans and hunteach other down armed with their liquid payload.

This was not your average water fight, but rather a live action replica of tactical shooters like Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six,and Counter-Strike from which CounterSquirt it draws its name. Polite, immaculate urbanites were transformed into

hardened water soldiers ducking behind cars , peeking around corners, and marching down the s treet in formation. Theinevitable casualties were forced to relinquish one of their wristbands which were then turned into the HQ for additionalpoints ; lose them all and they would have to walk back to HQ to "respawn." These points could be exchanged for evenlarger weapons, the biggest of which was a three nozzle water cannon.

My squad (Team Green) took itupon themselves to have a

sprinting start, barreling downthe street towards the farthestNPC location on our map, thescientist. We were an unlikely

bunch including me a youngKotaku intern dressed the partin green fatigues and laced upboots , a 6'2'' Asian man, and a

tag team British duo, amongother colorful characters. Bythe end of the 50-minute battlewe had captured the scientist

twice and nabbed the hostage(my sister) three times, oftenambushing them from behinda parked Nissan Murano as

they neared the HQ. We traded11 points each for two watercannons we shared in oursquad. With 84 points total our

Team Green completelycrushed the closest squad byover 20 points.

Counter-Squirt proved that,when coerced with the

promise of fun, New Yorkersare willing to throw caution tothe wind, running through busytraffic, sticking water pis tols in

their pants, and ignoring thepuzzled stares of locals,

hipster bar hoppers and the NYPD.

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more about counterstrike

read more: reallife, counters trike,comeoutandplay2010, nyc, original

By Aulistar Mark

Jun 25, 2010 09:20 AM 51,982 154

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