Spyder Cup: A Walk Down Memory Lane

Back in the day, there was a little company called Kingman. They made so-called "entry level" markers. They got so mad about the other companies shitting on their product, they took their ball and went home. The home: Spyder Cup.

Spyder Cup only allowed Kingman markers to be used on the fields. At the time it was a sea of STBBs and one Electropneumatic marker, the EM1. This event became one of the most sought after tournaments because of the prizes... Markers, barrels, tanks, harnesses, jerseys, CARS!

Cars, you say??!?!

SNDragon, Prairie, and Yours Truly.
One can dream, right?

YES, CARS!

While we aren't talking about Escorts or Yugos, the year we competed we were fighting for five Mitsubishi Eclipses. There were 4 silver and 1 black model, for the team captain up for grabs. Hefty prizes. Lofty goals.

So how do we get there?

At this point in time, I was aligned as the webmaster of our local paintball field - Swan Creek Paintball out of Saginaw, MI. There were 3 major classes of teams that were our "factory" teams. Each one was designated with which level they would play at for the NPPL tournaments: Bronze, Silver, Gold. The team name: With Intent. (Now it ties together with my inaugural post and name of this very site!)

Being the bleeding edge guy that I was, I asked the owner if we could expand the team lineup. I gave him the idea of keeping the name and having the team captains local. This would allow us to spread the name of the team and the store with additional events that the other 3 teams wouldn't want to go to or are outside of NPPL games. These ideas spawned With Intent - Internet!

The team was mainly run by myself as Captain. Assistant/Alternate/Co-Captain was filled by my brother-in-arms, Steve/SNDragon. In many ways, we were inseparable. We were gamers, martial artists, paintballers. It was an amazing opportunity for expansion and growth with our passions.

Our first tournament was chosen. Obviously, it was Spyder Cup 2001 in Pittsburgh, PA.

We immediately got onto PBNation and began recruiting. Steve and I were reading up on submissions to us via PMs and went with the top 8 who gave us the most passion in writing then trimmed it down to 4. This gave us our 2 dedicated Captain slots, room for 3 players, plus 1 alternate.

While we were selecting all the peeps, Steve and I had to keep our skill sharp. We would play 3 on 2 at the field as team practice along with 1 on 1 with each other.

Team Practice:

Me, Steve, Philip
Posing with our team banner

As the days went on, we all played and practiced on our own and finally came together in Pittsburgh on a Friday night. We all stayed up with our fellow teammates and compared parts, did last minute field strips and tweaks to ensure working markers for the next day.

All the talk and tactics didn't mean jack crap till we finally looked at how we all actually played and interacted together. What a better way than to play some scrimmages with other teams on-site.

Pods, HPA/Co2, and hoppers
all topped off!

We found our place in the staging area and started getting our loadouts going. After getting all our gear setup, we headed to the chrono and queued up to the airball field.

Everybody was in there, ready to see what each team was made of and scope out additional tactics before the real games begin. We played a few scrimmages and came out on top on a portion of games.

Awwww yes!
Fist pumping after a flag hang!

2 days of matches and hard fought battles only netted us a placement of 74th place, besting such online rivals as Spyder-Cub.com and others formed from PBN. While we didn't get to fulfill our dreams of driving home a bunch of Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyders, we had a helluva good time and will always remember my team at Spyder Cup 2k1.

As an aside...
I'm hoping to reignite the spark for the upcoming 3-Man at Wacky Warriors in St. Louis at the end of February with Team: With Intent by entering the Big Money/Cheap Guns tournament. It's looking to be a crazy fun time with one of the best paintball review personalities on YouTube, Kevin QMTO!