Recently in Paintball Category

I didnt' get a chance to blog about the early start to paintball this year.  The regional SPPL qualifiers was held in Utah on May 2nd and 3rd this year, which as those who know me will note was the last day at my previous job :).  What an exciting day.

What was really fun is this year DesertEdge fielded two squads (Yin and Yang), which gave me the chance to captain the Yang group.  This had several seasoned team members, as well as a complement of our Junior group, and a couple of team tryouts (talk about trial by fire).

Through two days on very challenging fields though, we proved ourselves. As the sun set on the championship game in the Masters division, it was DesertEdge vs. Desertedge for first and second places. (gee, who won?).

What a great way to start the tournament season, with a nice first and second place standing, and nationals qualifications.

A big thanks to our friends at Tier 4 for buying 15 cases of marballizer paint, and inviting all of us to play.  It was a great day for paintball with beautiful weather, lots of fun players (both first timers, and experienced people), and plenty of action.  It was fun to begin setting up teams by calling out for .RPM vs .DEB, and then watch as destruction happened in various game formats.

Make sure to thank the sponsors, and maybe they'll buy for us again!  If you did enjoy it and would like to do it again, also let us at UTOS know, so we can plan more activities for the groups in Utah.  Also thanks to the non-geek Team DesertEdge members for helping out with team balance, and keeping the games moving :)

Some people have heard me talk about an upcoming game my team is putting on, with one of our sponsors.  Sadly I haven't been keeping in touch with all the details.  But fear not, here they are.  Battlefield Utah is a game presented by Team DesertEdge, Paradox Games, and the Utah National Guard.  Yes this is the first public game ever hosted at Camp Williams, and will include a special pistol event at the MOUT training center.

This is a very limited offer, and very few spots are still available (If you really want, I can get you in if it get's blocked), but try signing up if you can.  Urban training on camp Williams, BYOP (Bring your own paint), or cheap purchase price onsite.  It doesn't get better than that.

Game is this Saturday, so get ready.

After a seriously hard fight, Team DesertEdge has earned it's way to the Scenario Paintball Players League National Finals.  Last weekend we had to fight through the brackets with the best scenario paintball teams in the local states to earn our way to this honor.

DesertEdge fielded two squads at this event, and wound up taking 3 qualifying spots (4th, 5th, and Sportsmanship).  Getting two teams to this point is amazing, especially considering the quality of the opponents.  Even better when we lost out of the game for first/second place by 1 point! (out of several hundred available per game).  I also can't complain when that game was one of the best paintball games ever played.  The opponents (Team Forest Fire) were excellent, Refs were great, and the sportsmanship between the two teams was outstanding.

After them we fought the Paraplegic turtles in an intense game in which we lost through a few details that hurt us, but still with a close score.  And you can't fault the work on the turtles, their gun-skills were top-notch throughout the day.

The top team was Team Run again this year, who has always been our toughest competition.  We were glad when we were able to provided players they needed one morning to field the team needed to complete their bracket, basically knocking ourselves out of contention for first place.

Now, I have to figure out a way to Oklahoma next month to compete in the national competition with the other qualifying teams.

The following message just came in from one of my teams' sponsors, Special Ops Paintball (Spec Ops).  This company has done a lot for paintball in general, and huge amounts for the sport in Utah.

Several months ago, Spec Ops bought land in Tooele County that it planned to use as a commercial paintball field. The Spec Ops property is over seven hundred (700) acres, and Spec Ops is exploring the possibility of developing a destination paintball field that would be the finest scenario paintball field west of the Mississippi. Unfortunately, the neighbors have petitioned Tooele County to ban ALL paintball fields unless they are located in commercially zoned areas. If the proposed amendment passes, not only will it scuttle Spec Ops plans for the existing land, but it might just keep all paintball fields out of Tooele County.

The Tooele County Commission is holding a public hearing on the proposed amendment to limit paintball in Tooele County. The public hearing will be held on August 21, 2007 at 3:00 p.m. in the City of Tooele at 47 South Main Street. This is your chance to be heard by the Tooele County Commissioners, the very people that will vote on whether or not to limit your access to paintball. Since it is a public hearing, anyone can attend the meeting and tell the Tooele County Commission just what they think about limited access to paintball fields. So if you'd like to keep paintball thriving here in Utah, we suggest that you turn up at the public hearing and voice your support.

We hope to see you there!

Special Ops Paintball

This news is just scary.  A similar thing happened a couple of years ago in Saratoga Springs, when city commissioners rezoned the land just to shut down Showdown, Pegleg paintball's field.  With that action they forced a up-and-coming business to give up major assets, and they also shut down Utah Valley's only paintball field.   Will Tooele join with other cities such as Draper to shut down paintball, either simply as recreation, or as a business?  Face it people, paintball is now the second largest "extreme" sport in the nation, it's big business.  The only reason I've ever been to Tooele is for paintball. I've seen mock-ups of some of the plans for the Tooele field, and believe me, they are telling the truth about it being the finest scenario field around.  Given the chance to build this field, people truly will come not only from across the state, but absolutely the country, just to play this field.  Don't be idiots Tooele, this would be a huge boon to your city and county.  Don't mess this up.

I can't believe I've forgotten so repeatedly to post about this game.  This Saturday Team DesertEdge is presenting our second annual "Rolling it Old School" game.  Basically, while many people on our team while we love the high intensity tournaments, and massive scenario games, we often long for the good old days when everybody had low end pump guns.  A few people crawling in the brush with tubes of paint.

Well, this is the game where we bring out the pump lovers from across the state.  This is a two-team scenario game for pump and pistol class markers only.  Test your "paintball skills" against some of the friendliest good players, without all the fear of repeated hits, or whiny kids with big guns.  This is a great game if you are just getting into things, or if you want a more relaxed atmosphere.

If you do not have equipment, there will be pumps available for rental for $5, and you can also use any other weapon in 'single-ball' mode. (eg you put in one paintball, by hand, each time).

This is a great way to play, and you can really stick it to a lot of folks if you are smart.  Come play for your best chance to hit me :)

Information available at: DesertEdge Rolling it Old School II

Team Bad Karma is hosting a scenario game this weekend, so come play with Desert Edge as we assault the OpFor (Team Suppressors).  For event information head to : Bad Karmas Events Site

This year has been a bit of a banner year for my paintball habits.  While a devoted player (it's my main exercise and stress relief), I'm a bit of a cheapskate.  Through hours of play I've often proven that you dont' have to have the best equipment or dump the most paint in order to do well.

As part of Team DesertEdge though, I've been forced into times that I have to "put out" a little more than your average player.  When people are depending on you, in a tournament situation, you need to really do your part.  That dedication from all of our team has led to a good progression in equipment, and play quality.  This year, we reaped some of our first material rewards, a sponsorship from Planet Eclipse.  PE is a quite respected manufacturer of higher end paintball equipment, based in the UK.  For the last several years, their flagship marker has been the 'Ego' line, which was originally based on an autococker style pneumatic system.  A couple of years ago PE decided to branch out with a newer style of marker, and quickly grew a fanbase with the '05 and '06 models.

Starting with the 2007 model, PE re-engineered this system once again, creating a lighter, faster, more compact marker than ever before.  So when we were approached with the opportunity to use this new marker, we were quick to sign on.  Heck, high end electronics, that shoot, who wouldn't?

This past weekend, Utah saw it's first of what I hope will be many of a new type of major paintball event.  SpecOps hosted their first "Elite Weekend".  This event brought in players from all over the country who attended for special access to clinics taught by the top names in paintball, as well as sneak peeks into new at upcoming equipment.

Regular attendees received customized equipment packages, featuring the new Tippman X7, custom camo, vests, masks and more.  They attended classes based on playing positions, and were given a chance to practice in various scenarios.

So, what did I do with it?  Well, since SpecOps is a one of our sponsors, and it was home, Team DesertEdge invited to help Ref, as well as provide specialized OpFor (Opposing Forces) during the various events.

On Friday night, after reffing the SPPL format game, I helped defend a small fixed position with a couple teammates against squads who would attack with superior numbers, as well as night vision.  While setup largely to provide a somewhat easy-to-overcome experience for the players, they didn't count on the accuracy difference of our team.  Between good communications, and accurate snap-shooting (as well as a willingness to unload some paint) we were constantly able to thrash on the attacking groups.

Saturday morning I ran the "Downed Pilot" scenario, in which teams would arrive on special atv trailers with GPS coordinates of the last KNOWN position of a downed pilot.  Their mission was the retrieve said pilot, or at least a disc that he was carrying.  Problem was there was a squad of OpFor also looking for the pilot.  I had a lot of fun with the groups involved, especially when the pilot involved a guy who played in a Kilt (krazy8).

For the afternoon, I switched to play mode again, and assisted in the "Assault" mission.  This was basically the same mission as the previous night, except we had less people, and were constrained to not leave the fortifications.  With 2-1 odds, as well as several tactical helps such as fortified bunkers, and attacking from the high ground, you would expect that we would get overrun.  However only  a few managed to do that during the day.  Nothing is as scary to an opposing force as putting my team in a bunker, and telling them the magic words "Free Paint".  Do note, in the picture the large amount of white 'mist' around the player (foolybear).  He is raising his hands and calling himself out not because of a direct hit (too much coverage), but because I had so much paint hitting  the defenses that the mist around him layered on, and made it so he couldn't see.  So he did the proper thing, as any good player would, and called himself out by attrition :)  He's a great player, and we had fun chatting about the experience afterwards.

There were a large number of other events, being run by big names in paintball such as Tiberius, Greg Hastings, and many more.

I skipped out on the amazing final battle on Sunday, but everybody is talking about how amazing it was.  Large trained forces, many mini-missions and objectives.  Tanks, Helicoptors (with door gunner!) , Prizes, and lots of fun.  People are already talking about how much they want to attend the next one.

Keep that in mind for next year, and if this has raised interest, there are many other fun events still to happen this summer, stay tuned.  At least one gallery is available at pbjunke.com.

Yes folks, I've known I'm not the only geek into paintball for a long time. But you know it's reaching critical mass when WIRED reviews Scenario Paintball

Remember, if you ever want to try, first ones free (well, kinda :-p)
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