I participated in my first Tactical Games this past weekend, May 30-31, 2020 at Government Training Institute in Barnwell, SC. I had first read about the games here in this forum in a now-archived thread. Here is that thread for reference. Many thanks to the guys that participated in that thread, which inspired me to try it myself. I signed up for Men's Intermediate division, and the games require you to wear a 15# vest for each battle.

The Tactical Games

I've been doing 2-gun and various shooting sports for 10 years, and started Crossfit 2 years ago. At 32 years old / 5'9" / 155#, I am not a big dude, but I excel at running and body weight exercises. I signed up for the event 2 months out, although it was pushed back another month due to COVID. The virus thing really messed up my heavy workouts, which are what I needed most; however, it did give me a chance to focus on vest workouts and further improving my cardio while working out at home. My coach at the gym helped me to build some workouts that would improve my skill in the vest, but more importantly, give me confidence in my fitness during the event.

Thankfully, my gun club remained open, and I was still able to get in some shooting and workouts there. Additionally, COVID did not get in the way of my nutrition. In fact, I think it made it easier. No eating out meant I was able to always keep up with my meals and calories, ensuring my nutrition was right going into the event.

I went into the weekend highly confident in my shooting, running, and gymnastics, but nervous about my strength and also had some fear of the unknown.

Day 1 was the first 3 battles. They are listed in numerical order.

Battle 1: Blackwater Battle

This stage required a sprint to some pistol targets, which were engaged with 10 rounds, then a sprint to a heavy sled pull. At the end of the sled pull, pick up a sandbag and head up 6 flights of stairs to the rifle platform, where you engage targets with 2 mags of 15 rounds each. Then pick up the sand bag, move back downstairs, drag the sled back to the start spot, re-engage the pistol targets, and sprint to the finish.

Carrying the bag up the stairs really sucked






Battle 2: Active Shooter

At the go, ascend the CORRECT ladders maybe 5-6 stories, enter the structure and engage targets along the route until you exit the building, and then sprint to the finish. You'll use UTMs while shooting targets indoors. After this battle, I learned that it's way better to sling your rifle on the front when on the ladders; easier to clear when it gets stuck!








Battle 3: Consequences

This battle would test sprints, heavy carries, and pistol shooting. This was the hardest battle for me on day 1, being a little stick kid. BUT, it equally tested shooting and strength. I knew my strength is not good, so I focused on keeping my shooting on point. The trick here was that for EVERY shot you miss, you have to do a 10 meter shuttle run after each mag. I only dropped 5 shots out of 60, with 2 out of 5 mags shot clean. This kept my heart rate down pretty well and didn't wind me for the lifts back to the finish.









Day 2 I woke up feeling pretty good and not very tired or sore, all things considered. This was key, as Day 2 was way more strenuous than Day 1. I started on battle 5, but will again list in numerical order.


Battle 4: The Long Movement

This was my last event of the weekend, but it was a perfect combination of longer range shooting (maybe 200 yds) and a pavement run of about 1 mile. These are the two skills that I know I excel at, so I had to push this one as much as I could for a shot to win.

Starting on the top of a 9-story building, take some high angle shots on the first target array (roughly 75-100 yds) in the prescribed order and using the prescribed positions. Then descend to the next platform and engage the other array at about 175-200 yards, before descending the stairs and completing the run. Shots had to be done under a par time, and for every hit, you get 10 seconds off your time; I got 31/40 hits, and I pushed it hard on the run.

My shooting and running combo was enough to get me the win for this stage!






Battle 5: Tunnel Rat

Holy crap dude. I loved this stage! My favorite of the weekend. The whole time I was thinking, "I can't believe they are letting me do this!"

At the start, sprint around the course to the tunnel entrance, then run through the tunnel to the caving ladder. Ascend the caving ladder to the fast rope, then rope down and move to the next tunnel. Rope into the second tunnel and move to the exit. After that, clear the structure along the marked route, up the stairs and back down the ladders, then sprint to the finish. UTMs were again used in the building.






Battle 6: The Mosher

This stage was the toughest of the weekend, with good reason. It was named after Police Officer Mike Mosher, killed May 3, 2020 in the line of duty. It required movement with some painfully heavy sandbag carries, a rope climb, some awkward farmer carries, and tough positional shooting. Every round you complete and every hit you make gets you time off the total cap of 12 minutes. This would be my most devastating round, but I knew I should just treat it like an AMRAP and get as much work in as I could. I won't sugarcoat it- this battle was straight-up not fun for me, because it tested skills that I was the worst at. However, I did the work I could and got some points out of it.






Results

I ended up taking 7th out of 43 in Men's Intermediate, an achievement I feel great about for my first event ever that so thoroughly tested me physically and mentally. Furthermore, I won event #4, which I'm really proud of.

I learned a lot about myself, my gear, and my weaknesses at this event. It has only made me more hungry to improve my strength and shooting skills. I'm already looking forward to the next time I can get out and participate!

My thanks to all the judges and staff at the Tactical Games that made this event a reality. It was legit like playing Call of Duty in real life. I'm just a regular dude, not a high speed guy; where else can I get to do something like this? I had a total blast!

Congrats and very cool post.

tag for later.

That looks pretty cool and pretty hard.  And the vids and pics are great, thanks for posting.

so now that you have been thru one and "know" what to expect.

What worked in your training and what didn't.  What changes are you going to make?

Thanks guys, it was a great challenge to work toward.

After experiencing it, I’m thinking about changing my programming a little to increase my strength. Perhaps 3 months focused on powerlifting or similar while increasing my calories to try a bulk. I don’t want to give up my cardio and running, but Ive heard mass and cardio don’t usually match up as far as workouts go. I’m still pretty new to fitness so I’ll have to research that more.

My training lead up was actually pretty stressful, as I didn’t know what to expect. I did a lot of 20# vest rope climbs, monkey bars, runs, etc and also did a bit of running/farmer carries at the range to practice stress shooting.

What type of weight are the implements being used in the farmer's carry and shield carry elements in battle 3?

That’s a good question. Part of the event was deliberately not knowing weights, heights, or distances for the work, or ranges for the shooting. They do this to simulate the unknown of combat.

Of course we all do our best to guess though




In battle 1:

The sled drags were maybe 100-125#

The sand bag was 50-60#. I heard the elite division had to do 2 of them


For battle 3:

The hand-carried plates were held in a pinch grip and were 25# each.

Farmer carries were unbalanced, with one hand carrying ~90# and the other carrying ~110#

The Húsafell stone was not super heavy; maybe 75#. Just awkward and had to be bear hugged.


In battle 6:

The farmer carries and weights were reused from battle 3.

The dead weight bag is tough to gauge, as there were 2 separate, possibly different size weighted bags within it, making the clean up to your shoulder pretty painful (I had a bunch of trouble with it in as in my vid). It COULD be carried from the front if you wanted, but after a few steps your back and arms would be dead. I saw others do it, but I tried and dropped it after like 2 steps haha. I’d guess the bag was 100-125#.

Thanks for the solid AAR. I missed GTI this year because of a work conflict.

I did do a skirmish in Atlanta last year, and I am signed up for another in Laurens, SC in August.

How did you like the skirmish? I see they are doing them more often and might try to hit one.

Also- thanks for your input in that other thread I referenced in the OP. Probably not every day that a rando stranger on the internet thanks you, but I got interested through the games from your reports, which gave me solid motivation for my fitness. If we meet at a future event, beers on me

Man, get better role models, but thanks.

I really enjoyed the skirmish. It was one day and three stages. The battles were tough, but not brutal. At the end of the day, I felt good, where after two days in the heat at GTI, I was exhausted. At the skirmish, it was a smaller group and everyone ran each stage before changing out the range for the next battle. Just like at the big event, everyone was friendly and helpful and encouraging other competitors. There were no vendors or prizes, but I really enjoyed the overall experience.

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Glad to hear it went well!

Looking at the January 2021 games they're going to hold at Tradecraft. Even though it's in Florida, it's about the same drive time for me as the GTI event.

I did the Burnet, TX it was awesome! I think it’s stupid they don’t allow red dots on pistols.

Honestly, at high heart rate, I probably prefer just being dumb to seeing that dang dot bounce around everywhere.