I've been playing tournament paintball for 8 years now. I did take a couple years off from 2010 to 2012. I'm getting back into playing but had kept up pretty well on the changes in the industry during those years.
I have love for the sport that goes deeper than it just being something "fun" or "cool." Paintball defined and shaped me into who I am more than anything except my religion. It was a great influence in my life and thanks to great teammates and coaches it has been a positive one. Paintball is a sport of many layers. You can skim along the surface of it and just play recreationally or you dive deeper into the strategy and team play of tournament paintball. The sport is a heavily physical sport but even more than that it is a mental game. Matty Marshall (pro paintball legend and ambassador) always refers to it as "Chess with guns." I love this description. In chess you are always looking to take ground and exploit angles that the opponent might not have protected. You also are using other pieces to protect pieces from getting taken. It is like having a back guy watching over a snake player. As long as that back guy stays watching the snake player it makes it really hard for an opponent to come and "take" that player.
Paintball is also the most team oriented sport I've ever played. I've played football for a few years and basketball when I was a lot younger. I remember in football having a specific job to do. Whether I was to block a certain player or run a certain route, that was all I had to do. In paintball you do get assigned a job but that job can change in an instant if you lose a teammate on a specific side. Or if you need to protect your team from an opponent who just made a certain spot on the field. Another reason why paintball is so team oriented is because communication is more important that any other sport. You have to relay information that you see and hear to your teammates. If you don't, you'll likely lose the game and you'll hear a lot of things like "I thought that guy was still in the corner," or "when did they get into the snake?"
Also in paintball you have a lot of struggles off the field. You have money to worry about. I know in other sports you can end up forking out a lot of cash but nothing compares to paintball. The equipment alone can set you back almost 2 grand. Then on top of that you are paying 40 bucks a week to practice if you're lucky and you have to be able to pay to get to the tournaments and to play them. So many expenses go into it. My team, Salt Lake Tension, struggled for years with funds. I remember paying almost 800 dollars to get to Chicago and play a tournament. It makes it really devastating when you lose after forking out that kind of lettuce.
I believe strongly that when you learn to sacrifice things that may not be as important to you for things that are that you learn a great deal about life. I've sacrificed a lot of things for the sport I love. In return I've got to travel the country with my best friends. Also when you go through struggles like I have had to go through, with other people you tend to grow very close to each other. The teammates I have had I view as my brothers. They are more than teammates or even best friends. They are my brothers. I would do anything for any of them at the drop of the hat. I miss the ones that aren't around anymore and I think about them often. But if I got a call from one of them at any time telling me they needed my help I would be there.
Paintball means so much to me. When you are sacrificing so much for something you love and to do it with people you love and you step between the nets and the barrel sleeves come off... You know it's going to be a blood bath. I live for that feeling.
-EB
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