There's something strange about human interaction in the paintball community.  It's always difficult to balance yourself between being a friendly player and being a focused player that knows what it takes to win events.

Winning an event on the national level is one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life.  It takes 3 days of playing great paintball to get there.  There are a lot of teams that will make several appearances on Sunday but can never make that push to the finals.  It takes a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck. By luck I don't mean just roll the dice and come out on top.  I mean lucky that the prep work your team did produced a game plan that would counter your opponents.  I remember playing a few teams that would just have their number at one event but then the next they would stomp us to the ground.  Game plans mean a lot.

On the field everyone knows that when that buzzer blows we turn into animals.  I don't care how close I am or how long I've know that guy on the other side, I'm going to put him down.  He's not my friend anymore and I want to just stomp him out.  Then as soon as we're off the field we are joking and talking just as if we are best friends again.  Why is that?  How do we separate in our minds the person we are on the field and the person we are off the field?

I remember having some of the most intense practices with my team to the point where people were screaming and yelling at each other and it wasn't uncommon for someone to be close to tears.  This would last for the whole practice then we'd all go to denny's together and have a great time.  I think that's when you know you are close to your teammates.  When you can all understand each other on and off the field.  I love it.  I love the way paintball brings people out of their shells.  Like Matty Marshall put it: it allows us "to live as loud as [we] want."

-EB

New Paintball Blog

I've been thinking about creating a blog or a website that was paintball related for a long time.  I've never blogged before but have always wanted a way to express some of my thoughts and views that I have on the competitive paintball scene.

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