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Hey Julian,
One thing you will notice about Airsoft North of the 49 is that it has more of a "homely" feel to it. It is a much smaller community of players. This is because of the just-barley-but-maybe-not-even legal status of the game, which in recent times has opened up. Where as before you would have to buy Jim's Rifle out of his trunk, we now have a plethora of retailers and fields popping up left and right. With a small community you are quickly going to find people you enjoy playing with, and you will play with them often. The other side of that coin is the people whose company you do not enjoy you will have to share a field with them several times a year.
There are two main differences between Airsoft up here and down in the states. The first is our apparent lack of awesome CQB facilities. You guys get to use MOUT courses. We have like... Two or three really cool facilities but they don't even compare with the rest being Paintball fields.
The second being mindset. Since the price of entry was so high until only recently you seem to have a lot less of the "Call of Duty" mindset in players. While my personal interactions with US players is limited going off their forums, the youtube videos, the drama, etc. it seems a lot of people have that "OH MAN IMMA BE A NAVY SEAL." We get that up here, but before when the price of being that elite DEVGRU operator gun was more than the price of the Xbox One on launch day, it kept the barrier to entry pretty high. If Little Johnny can have Momma buy the AK47 for 120 bucks it means that kid is much more likely to get it, which is a problem I hear of a lot down there.
These two things combined though? We do forest games. I mean we REALLY do forest games. They are insanely fun, challenging, and serious. Some of my best memories are from stalking around the forest in the day or at night. You end up with stories about how you and three buddies were sitting in a hole you dug and held off against an entire section attacking you, where you had a camp fire at night to warm up because it had rained earlier and you are just trying to keep dry, how after the game the guy in a ghillie suit said you were no more than 20 feet from him and looking directly at him. You get these really awesome scenarios almost every game.
The most bummed I have been all year was when a 10 v 10 game in a 200 acre forest got canceled because everyone had the flu. That is 10 acres per person. It was silly. I would have liked nothing more than to have weeded out the other players out of that forest and sent them running.
If you are into skirmishes there are tons of local fields in Toronto to support you. CQB, Splatters (If they are even still running games), Ultimate Airsoft. There are also a few fields within a short drive away, such as Flag Raiders indoors and outdoors. Those fields are all you have anyways for the next five to six months.
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