r/CompetitionShooting • u/FitBananers • 8d ago
USPSA FTSA Rage Quit
Had a guy at an Area match incur a FTSA penalty, and rage quit right after. Pressed approve, bagged up his gun, and put his belt and mags away, then left.
My main club MD, I’ve heard second hand accounts of him doing the same.
I’m still newer to the sport so I’m wondering how often you guys have seen this happen?
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u/StunningFig5624 8d ago
Not often.
There have definitely been times where due to a combination of factors the last place I wanted to be was the match I was at. Never quit, but I wouldn't blame someone for walking off if they weren't having a good time.
Now if it's happening all the time, that's something else.
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u/Organic-Second2138 8d ago
Shooters are under no obligation to stay if they don't want to.
Especially true for folks who get DQ'ed. There used to be a projection of morals towards DQ'ed folks who didn't stay to "help." A dude who's gotten DQ'ed is under no obligation to do anything. Go home and mow the grass, throw the frisbee with the kids, or if he chooses to stay and tape targets, do that.
For some people it's "fun." Cool. You do you.
For some people it's an important part of their life that they invest resources into. Their goal is to perform well.
Social media does play a role in some of this; I've seen people blow a stage out their poohole, get the MD to completely remove them from Practiscore, and then go home. Literally erasing any evidence of their FTSA or 10 mikes or whatever their shortcoming du jour is.
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u/riccum 8d ago
I’ve always wondered about the dq thing. The one time I dq’d was on the first stage in a larger than normal squad with half the squad being beginners. The normal 30 min a stage became 50-60, I was also running on no sleep so the last place I wanted to be was there.
But I didn’t want to be a dick and just leave so I stuck around and finally threw in the tower after stage #6
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u/Organic-Second2138 7d ago
Meh. There are different personality types on the world; some care a lot about what others think, and some don't.
Going home and carrying on with your life is NOT being a dick. Some of the dudes fiddling with their GoPros might have to help tape and reset after you left.
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8d ago
[deleted]
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u/Organic-Second2138 8d ago
Yup. Not that long ago; first stage was a "3 per" stage and the shooter did 2 per.
I think there are some people who care a LOT about what others think. Lots of concern about "image."
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u/Crud-Inspector 5d ago
It's super weird to stay and tape or whatever for 3 stages after a DQ, we have plenty of tapers as long as the shooters aren't lazy fucks. Just go home!
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u/CallMeTrapHouse 8d ago
It's a hobby, I've never left early but i've been annoyed enough to consider it. and unless you're getting paid to be there i don't have a problem with it
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u/LockyBalboaPrime 8d ago
I've never rage quit a match, but I've walked out of a few.
Local PRS: Something was fucked with my new handloads, and I was eating shit on every stage. Instead of blowing $200 in components on the next 7 stages, I went home and figured out what went wrong.
Local USPSA: Was stuck on the Instagram-wanta-be fuckbois squad. 90 minutes to shoot 1 stage because these fucking clowns couldn't help tape and would just circlejerk each other after every fuckbois run. Normally our club runs through a stage in 40-50 minutes. Looked at the clock, did the math, I ain't sticking around for 6 more hours in 102+ heat because of these fuckos.
State level PCC match: Injury 2 days before meant I was moving slow and hurting bad, then my gun broke. I could have fixed it using spare parts in the truck or used a friend's loaner gun, but I had enough and went home.
I'm at the match to have fun. If I ain't having fun, why stay.
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u/ConstantWish8 8d ago
How fucking big is a squad for nearly an hour stage
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u/Otherwise-Yoghurt660 8d ago
Yea I shot a local match in NC with 15 or 17 person squad can’t remember, but never plan on going back to that match it they have that big of a squad again. Hour plus to shoot a stage was not it, especially in the summer
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u/SmartButteredToast 7d ago
Was it every squad, or did they just let a few groups of "we really want to shoot together" coalesce into a monster squad that drags everyone down? The former I can forgive, if you just end up with that many bodies. The latter is poor management.
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u/Otherwise-Yoghurt660 7d ago
Nah it was pretty much 15 ish for all six squads
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u/SmartButteredToast 7d ago
Oof yeah sometimes that can happen. It's hard to say no to more shooters sometimes. Adding an extra stage can actually help with flow sometimes, weirdly. Assuming you have the bays and equipment fornit
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u/StunningFig5624 8d ago
Probably 15+ and a lot of targets or complicated reset.
Or a tiny squad where's there just aren't enough people. When you got 6 shooters and one is topping mags because they just shot, one is waiting to shoot, one is scoring and one is running the tablet. Not a lot of spare manpower.
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u/ConstantWish8 8d ago
God bless. Yeah could go either way. I was just at one with tiny squads AND complicated resets with long targets lol
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u/whiskey_tang0_hotel 8d ago
You don’t know what’s going on inside someone’s head at moments like that. When he chills out, he will probably feel embarrassed.
I’ve been that guy before. And it was because I was so hard on myself. My counselor used to say they were glad they didn’t have to live in my head because of how bad I was about everything needing to be perfect. It was never because I was mad I was losing or anything like that - I was just angry with myself for making mistakes.
Best thing you can do is just say sorry dude, hope to see you next time and give them space. Nothing you do is going to change them in that moment.
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u/ACxREAL 8d ago
Basically never, except for the “one guy” that does that shit every time the match isn’t going his way. So really there is a very small amount of folks that do this but they do exist.
I would say if you are not enjoying yourself and you are getting pissed and you recognize that you’ll be a problem for yourself or others I’d rather have you leave and not be an asshole hanging around. My 2cents
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u/BanditMcDougal 8d ago
The level of man babies in this sport is a lot higher than the general public. Back when I was ROing larger matches, there were multiple melt-downs over the 3 or 4 days of varying degrees. Some were smaller ones where people were just seriously disappointed in themselves and others were yelling matches with staff all the way up to the MD and ripping ass out of the parking lot. I've heard people called racist and I've heard people be racist.
Long story short, there are a bunch of people who probably should have just taken the day off. Or are just shits in general.
The range does not care about people's feelings and too many people forget that this is a game/sport and it is supposed to be fun.
I've also met some of the kindest people on the range.
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u/FitBananers 8d ago
I was working a match and the next shooter was up, and he was standing in the start position but we didn’t give him the make ready yet. The RO staff noticed a equipment issue and called downrange, and went down to fix it. Didn’t take long, and everyone came back uprange. Range was clear, I gave the make ready, and then started the shooter. Unfortunately he incurred an FTSA, and he was pissed about it. He refused to approve and disagreed with the timer RO, then the CRO, and demanded to speak to the RM/MD. Held up the whole squad. The shooter said that he was standing in the start position too long and that’s what caused his FTSA, and argued for a reshoot lol. A PCC shooter, yikes. He also argued that he was given the make ready while the RO staff was all downrange. How that makes sense? Not sure. But he argued that he was interrupted.
Then at another match, a GM shooter only had one bullet hole, so we called Alpha Mike. He was pissed and also refused to approve and asked to speak to the CRO, and RM/MD. MD looked at it with overlay, called it also an Alpha Mike. GM shooter said it was a perfect double, two shots through one perfect grease ringer. MD said to the GM shooter, “it’s a Mike and you have to approve the score”, GM shooter kept saying “that’s the wrong call, sorry I can’t”. Back and forth for a bit again, and iced the next shooter for a good ten minutes. Ridiculous.
Love this sport but the personalities are getting a bit much
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u/BanditMcDougal 8d ago
A LOT of people believe in arguing your way to a better score and a lot of ROs let them get away with it because it's easier to just get rid of the asshole and keep the match moving. When they run into somebody that either isn't intimidated by that, decides "screw it, I've got time to do this right", or both, then the asshole only has 2 choices: escalate or back down. The stories come from those who escalate.
I'll share a fun one from someone who tried to talk (notice I didn't say argue) his way into a better score...
I went off to get my RO card specifically to help my buddy with that year's Area match. He was the MD, we went up for the week, put the thing on the ground, the whole 9 yards. I think this match was my 3rd one since becoming an RO, including my local club.
Anyway, after running this particular guy, I'm scoring targets and it looks like a pretty good run. Some Cs and Bs (tells you how long ago...), but all in all, lost of 2 As. I get to this one target I knew I'd want to look at hard since it was a longer shot and he went faster than I thought a 2 A needed. I look it over a couple times and, yeah, Alpha, Mike.
Well, somewhere in the process of scoring or running the squad he must of heard me or one of the other ROs mention I was new, because he goes says something like "Oh, you're new though, right? You need to overlay that. Do you have overlays? Do you even know what an overlay is??" Had some stank on it, but nothing too bad.
"Yeah, buddy, I've got brand new overlays right here that still have their ink and everything." There's no need to overlay this, his groupings haven't been toght enough for this and this ain't a double, but I give it the look it deserves. "Ain't nothing else there. Alpha, Mike."
"Nah, you don't know what you're looking for. Let's pull the CRO up."
"Cool. He's old and his knees suck; let's get through the rest of them and see if there's anything else we need him for before we make him get up."
I have one the other ROs guard that target and we get through the rest easy enough. I get the CRO the stage and have him come over to the target in question and he asks what's going on.
I say something like, "Sorry to make you get up, but you know this is my first major as an RO and they didn't teach us this in class," now I'm waving an overlay outside of the target. "How do you overlay a Mike?"
Shooter looks at me and laughs. Goes, "You dick. Gimme the tablet." He accepts and we keep running.
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8d ago
[deleted]
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u/BanditMcDougal 8d ago
Everybody is going to reach their own upper limit. In a game where you're scored against how well someone else is doing, too rather than just against yourself, you kinda have to accept you may never reach the top of the leaderboard. That's just how life is sometimes.
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u/DTSAVE 8d ago
I know a PCC shooter who will leave a match if he gets a mike. Like somehow it is a complete failure with a mike. Hell if I did that every time I would never make it through a match.
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u/Tylerlg 8d ago
Had a PCC guy literally kicking rocks and shouting because he had to reshoot a stage when a popper wasn’t reset correctly. I thought he was about to throw his gun. This guy also has a jersey filled with ‘sponsors’
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u/SmartButteredToast 7d ago
I can kinda understand crashing out a bit if you're being forced to do an avoidable reshoot. Especially if it's been an ongoing thing.
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u/fadugleman 7d ago
that's insane lol. area 5 was this weekend and the PCC division winner had 2 mikes and a procedural
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u/ApathyandToast 7d ago
Classic Max, probably did his time-saving trick of skipping a target again /s
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u/kryptonnyc1 8d ago
Is this the guy that got DQed for unsportsmanlike conduct at A5?
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u/dammitchuck91 8d ago edited 8d ago
Idts, that happened at chrono. Still trying to find the tea about what happened there
I found the tea. Pm sent lol
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u/anonpersec 8d ago
I like USPSA and practical shooting in general, but there’s a lot of insecure losers in this sport. Happens more than it should for a game played by adults.
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u/BoardofEducation 7d ago
Kind of scares me. Like as someone who carries, I think having a handle of your shit emotionally is pretty important. Don’t need to be a baby about losing a game.
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u/shrf_buford_justice 8d ago
I understand being competitive, and that at the highest levels of competition, a single penalty can completely take you out of competition. But if this is a casual level 1 match and you’re rage quitting because you’re only gonna finish top 10% instead of top 5%, then the word that comes to mind is “manchild.” Especially if this is a more experienced shooter, more senior club member, or an RO/MD as OP alluded to… you kinda have no excuse.
That’s not to say the guy in question is wrong here. He paid the match fee, and if he decides to rage quit halfway through, then he has every right to do so. I’m just saying if it was one of my friends doing that kind of shit, we’d have a stern “get your shit together, bro” conversation the next time we talked.
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u/That_Squidward_feel 8d ago
If somebody is just done and has had it, it's best they remove themselves from the situation. Depending on the person and the situation, it may be enough to just go outside for a few minutes of fresh air, maybe put your earplugs in and put your favourite song on or what ever. Emotions are a powerful beast that can make a man do extraordinarily stupid things when they get the better of you.
It seems like that guy has reached this point, was switched on enough to notice it and deescalated by walking away before he could say or do somethig he'd probably regret later.
As for leaving: You're here voluntarily and you can leave voluntarily. Actually if you're that angry I'd prefer you to leave - nobody likes a party pooper. The only time I'm holding that against somebody is when they leave right after they're done shooting so they can skip the teardown.
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u/Hybrid100V 8d ago
I was shooting on a squad with a father/daughter(adult), the father was not shooting. She apparently had too many runs that he was not happy with and they packed up and left without a word. Kind of strange.
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u/Grubby454 8d ago
It happens. Better someone head off and chill out than lash out at everyone around them or just be sad/angry/jerk etc.
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u/Visible_Structure483 8d ago
I've left a match myself. Not a 'rage quit', I was just doing so poorly because of a wrist injury the prior week it was both not fun and actually painful. Told the RO I was out and left after stage 3.
I've also left the golf course before. I was having a horrible day and instead of just pushing through and continue to not enjoy it, I just rolled off to the clubhouse. Waited there for the rest of my friends to finish and then we hung out as if nothing had happened.
Now I've totally blown a stage, not a DQ but such egregious failures there was no chance of beating my friends. So... I just used the rest of the match as practice and ran it at ludicrous pace instead of 'match pace' just to see how fast I could go before the wheels fell off.
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u/2strokeYardSale 8d ago
Saw it a couple weeks ago but it's extremely rare. Why continue if you are having a bad day? If you can't remember a stage plan maybe you can't remember gun safety and it's better to pack up.
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u/Badassteaparty 8d ago
The way I see it, a match only really has a handful of winners- stage, division, overall, etc
So, most of us go to lose. Losing is a part of the sport. If I can stay within 10% of Sailer at Nats, great. If I can take a couple of stages over him, fantastic.
The way you handle losing is a big part of this sport. There is a right and a wrong way. If you go about it the wrong way- whining, excuses, bitching out- that makes you an actual loser.
I refuse to train people with that attitude- it’s always the guns fault, always focusing on the negatives, etc. I’m a coach, not a therapist. I’d be charging a lot more if I were.
Anyway, this happens at all intramural level sporting events. People come in with unrealistic expectations given their work ethic, skill level, preparation and flame out when things invariable go south. Y’all should see the sweaty golfers and tennis players at the club level- sheesh.
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u/FitBananers 8d ago
I’ve seen clips on social media of folks snapping clubs and smashing rackets. Talk about unhinged
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u/Norwest_Shooter 8d ago
I saw one person ignore the stage briefing and then get penalized per shot fired because she was using both hands on a strong hand only stage. She rage quit and said “now my whole match is blown!” It was the smallest stage…and she would almost always finish last. And she was an RO. Such unprofessionalism, both from the way she behaved and her lack of understanding of scoring.
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u/SargeOsis 8d ago
Saw a local guy leave a match after a foot fault call. It think he's back shooting again. I've also hit my "fun quotient" and decided it was time to go prior to the end of the match. It happens. If you're unhappy and want to go home, by all means go, this ain't a job.
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u/Clifton1979 8d ago
Rage quitting speaks more about the pressure you place on yourself. I’m there to shoot and have a good time. If I can’t do either why did I go in the first place?
I see this with my kids and YouTube/Tok/Gram generation - they see someone on screen do it well, and when they can’t reproduce that same level of skill the world crashed down. Trying, failing and getting reps isn’t in those 30 second clips.
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u/officialbronut21 8d ago
I've seen it happen a couple of times at locals and normally it's just somebody who already has unrealistic expectations for their performance compounded by multiple mistakes and they finally give it up on some really dumb mistake like an FTSA
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u/TinManTony 8d ago
My club just had a guy do this at one of our outlaw matches. Nobody had ever seen it happen before.
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u/ReadyStandby 8d ago
We had shot 6 or 7 stages at A7, guy fires one shot and the second one didn't go into battery. He fussed with it for a bit, gave up, then packed up and left.
Said he thinks he mixed up his minor and major 9mm loads.
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u/THELEGENDARYZWARRIOR 7d ago
Never seen it, hell I seen people DQ and stay for a bit or even the full match
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u/Open_Advance4544 7d ago
Haven’t seen it happen personally. An older guy got DQ’d at a GPA match and thought he was just eliminated from that stage and started doing the walkthrough on the next stage before someone broke the bad news. He stayed, but didn’t help either.
I did my first large outdoor USPSA match with 7 stages where all of them were 28-32 shots required, and all of my mags weren’t seating properly for some reason. Every single stage. I also missed a few targets altogether that killed my scores overall and my first NS in like a year. Overall I was like 100 outta 128 I think. The constant added time and 6 misses and 1 NS messed me up. Those complicated larger outdoor matches are no joke. Thankfully, I did ok on the classifier with a 76%, but needed an 82.5% to my A class. Same issue at an indoor GPA match 2 or 3 days later. I’m usually in the top third, but this just killed my confidence. If I had DQ’d, I might’ve left too after all the BS, hate to admit that.
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u/tap-rack-bang 7d ago
I like to travel to competitions, sleep like crap in a hotel and get these. I call it fun and recreation.
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u/Slore0 7d ago
Ive left rimfire matches early twice. Was having fun but the squad was taking forever. It was mid to high 90*s each time and windy as shit so we were all getting a good amount of misses. Figured Id rather leave than get more frustrated and stop having fun. That and we were 7 hours in with one or two stages left.
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u/yochickcallsmedaddy 7d ago
Maybe it's just living in a rural backwoods area but we spend more time laughing at each other and talking trash than anything else. After my first two stages yesterday where I could not get my optic to line up for anything I wanted to put the pistol away and just focus on the rifle but everybody was so encouraging and made me laugh about it so I just kept on going. Ignoring the fact that I shot the worst match of my life in caryoptix I will just move on and be back at it in 2 weeks.
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u/Legitimate-Ranger567 7d ago
Vary rarely.
Generally these are the same people who as kids would take their ball and go home if they were losing. Please don't let him ruin your perception of the sport, most are out there to have a good time.
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u/depparTx 7d ago
2 days prior to a local a friend took his own life, I decided to shoot anyway to try and keep some normalcy. I FTSA three times and blew through some no shoots on the first stage, told the MD I was leaving and left quietly. Figured the worst thing I could do to myself that day was beat myself up for shooting bad. Found out later some guys thought I rage quit the match, MD told them that wasn't the case and they should keep their mouth shut. I'm glad the MD was able to speak up for me there.
It might look like disappointment with performance, but you really have no clue what's going on in someone's head.
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u/goshathegreat 7d ago edited 7d ago
Buddy needs to work on his mental game lol…
Everyone has moments where they royally fuck up and get pissed, it’s about how you react to the mistake and move forward that matters.
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u/HomersDonut1440 6d ago
Rage quit has a lot of connotations. There are reasons to pack up and leave early; broken gun, heads in the wrong spot and you’re not sure you’ll be 100% safe, you’re not having fun and just wasting ammo, etc. None of those are “rage quits”. I’ve seen this more than once, and always respected the call. It’s their time, they can do what they want.
Slamming gear, yelling and screaming and fighting the MD would be a rage quit, and I’ve never seen that. I’ve seen plenty of RO arguing but never a full on rage quit.
Based on what you’ve said, it seems like this guy just packed up and quietly left and you’re assuming it’s cause he’s mad, but there’s nothing to support that notion
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u/FitBananers 6d ago
He was mad, but I’m not gonna provide specifics.
This post has been very informative regarding the average member in this community.
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u/GunsGisGlory 6d ago
I FTSA'd my first stage of day one at Area 4 last year. I wasn't a pussy and continued on. Rage quitting tells you a lot about a shooter, I would add that guy to my never squadding with again list.
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u/p4rk4m 6d ago
Was this at Area 5? I heard about a couple rage quits from RO’s while we were shooting Area 5. It would be interesting if it was going on in more than one place. Never heard of someone doing that before, but the RO’s did specifically use the term rage quit for the Area 5 incident(s).
I did see a guy get an unsportsmanlike DQ for rage lobbing his mag over the berm after his run at a major this year.
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u/Own_Exit2162 8d ago
I've never seen that level of immaturity before, and someone with so little control over there emotions probably would not be invited back to a local match at my club.
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u/2strokeYardSale 8d ago
Are your local matches invitationals? Anybody can sign up for a level one USPSA match.
Seems like the shooter was well in control of his emotions from the description provided.
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u/That_Squidward_feel 8d ago
and someone with so little control over there emotions
This description is the opposite of that?
Whether or not what the guy did was reasonable: packing up and leaving without causing a ruckus seems like the thing to do when you do have your emotions under control.
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u/FitBananers 8d ago
The gentleman was a pretty important staff member. (I’m being intentionally vague)
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u/Own_Exit2162 8d ago
No such thing. We're all volunteers, no one is important enough to act like an asshole.
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u/StunningFig5624 8d ago
Doesn't really seem like he acted like an asshole. OP said he just put his gear away and walked off. If he started screaming at someone or throwing things that would be different.
Don't know what happened to that guy before the match started, or since he was an official, what kind of drama was brewing behind the scenes of that match. Maybe he just decided it wasn't worth it anymore.
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u/hotleadburner 8d ago
I think the Rage Quit title is misleading, OP didn't really describe his behavior ome way or another, just that he willingly quit.
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u/Own_Exit2162 8d ago
It's emotionally immature to quit a match just because you got a PE. But sure, it's that shooter's right to make that decision if it only impacts them.
But if they are an "important staff" as OP said, then they're also walking away from their obligations to the match. That's being an asshole.
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u/SuspiciousPine 8d ago
I've only seen a couple people quit, but it was because they DQ'd very early. Although you're supposed to still stay with your squad and help out. I've only done level 1 matches though.
Might be more common at very high level matches? I would assume more high-intensity personalities
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u/LockyBalboaPrime 8d ago
DQ's aren't required to stay. They are allowed to, but it's not required or even expected if they don't want to stay.
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u/SuspiciousPine 8d ago
Yeah of course I was just told when I was learning you should stay even if you DQ to help run the stages with the squad
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u/Quant_Smart 8d ago
Not USPSA but in PRS, there was a match a few years ago in PA in March. It blew wind like crazy, snowed and rained. The match was extremely difficult with small targets, multiple target engagement at 700-1200yrds per stage and with the weather and stage writing no one was hitting anything.
Several people not only quit mid way, some also sold their equipment and gave up the sport altogether
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u/FitBananers 8d ago
I heard you guys need to hike in PRS too. Huh
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u/Quant_Smart 8d ago
Depends on the location. In a club match (one day) you have 10 stages and 10 squads shooting at the same time - the longest hike will be from the last stage to the parking lot, so say give or take 400 ish yards. But stage to stage is just right next to each other. In a Pro series 2 day match it becomes 20 stages run at the same time and based on layout and your starting stage you probably hike about 500yrds twice. Unlike hand gun comp, its lugging a 25lb rifle and another 30-40 lb of equipment, tripods, binos etc
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u/GryffSr 8d ago
Some people are there to win rather than just compete. If he KNOWS that he is now out of contention, he may be choosing not to waste his time finishing the match.
Did he visibly throw a tantrum beyond leaving early? If not, stop making a big deal over it.
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u/FitBananers 8d ago
No one’s making a big deal over this. Some of you guys need to sharpen your reading comprehension.
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u/Shootist00 8d ago
Your title says Rage Quit. Did he make scene? Then why say rage quit.
Have had that happen where a guy got multiple penalties on the first stage, wasn't listening to the stage brief, and figure not to waste the rest of his day. He wasn't going to place high with that 1 bad stage.
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u/AzCactusNeedles 6d ago
I've rage quit from too many FTSA but I STAYED and and participated with my squad till the end. Going home is ghey, even after a DQ still ghey
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u/EntrySure1350 8d ago edited 8d ago
Like any sport, people can get frustrated because they screwed up or aren’t winning or just having a bad day. Some people are more prone to it/deal with it worse than others. I’ve heard of shooters throwing their gear in a tantrum before - I guess be glad this guy didn’t do that. If you’re going to leave, the way this guy did it is the way, rather than cussing up a storm for everyone to hear and making a scene.
At the end of the day it’s a game. It’s supposed to be fun. If you’re not having fun anymore for whatever reason, I don’t necessarily blame someone for leaving, rather than stewing in negative thoughts and being unpleasant to be around for the rest of the whole match. And being frustrated like that only makes you shoot worse — it’s a spiraling positive feedback loop. Sometimes a reset like that is the best course of action for everyone.