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| Team: With Intent - Internet |
From a different life, I used to play the tournament circuit for Paintball. Tournaments, Tours, weekly games, prize money, sponsors, jerseys, gear, etc... It was my life for many years in the late 90s to 2007. I played through what was called "The Golden Age" of Paintball. As an industry, we pushed away from what the 80s gave us. They were called guns, because they were built out of existing parts from actual firearms and airguns. In order to make this more acceptable and family friendly, we traded calling the tools of our trade, Guns, for friendlier terms like Markers. Less Military Simulation (MilSim/MilSig) scenarios and more tournament friendly games with Airball. Less standard camouflage and more crazy/tacky patterns along with jerseys. I "retired" and put all my markers away.
The Golden Age is long since over and this is where this story begins...
A few months ago, I was texting with a friend about Paintball, some new Sterlings and Phantoms he just picked up and that he's thinking about going to the Michigan Monster Game at
Hell Survivors at the end of July. Then he just says I'm going. (??!?!? 😁) So after looking at my phone screen like the RCA dog for a few minutes... I decided with a "why the hell not!"
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Kingman Hammer with
Mexican Gatling Gun loader |
This was actually good timing since I was due to finally go back to MI for a long stay in almost 3 years. I could unearth all my gear from storage and bring home my main markers. Brought back my pneumatic closed bolt Spyder, EM1, the Powerpuff Girls Special and the trusty Kingman Hammer pump marker.
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| At base camp, ready for staging |
Back in the day, my buddy and I (and a 3rd) would run the locals with Nelson-based pumps against the high end electronic marker kids. We would almost always come out on top. The idea this time around was to run pumps again for this event. That's exactly what we intended to do at this event. Hitting the field and posting up with (and against) a variety of classic markers and newer Speedball and MilSig markers, it was a variety of tech! From just a quick headcount, I don't think I saw more than 8-10 pump players. (Including us!) It wasn't intimidating at all. It felt like home.
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| We Did It! |
After many eliminations and hard fights for map dominance, the red team came out on top by over 1000 points and we were a part of that!
What a good time! We shot lots of paint (for a pump players), met some cool people, ended up incredibly sore, walked away with some gnarly welts and a huge smile on my face. It was definitely a welcomed return to my beloved sport. I'll be doing more of it soon.
(Spoiler Alert: I have, but that's a post for another time...)
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| Reppin The 414! |
#oldfartpaintball 😆
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