Paintball Journal

It’s been one heck of a week for me with it being Christmas and holidays and all. I had plenty of family in till yesterday evening, and we’ve been doing stuff with them for the past five days straight. But I’ve had a blast so far, and I really don’t know where my winter break is going (just two days left). So no, we haven’t abandoned this place - we’ve just been plenty busy is all.

The new year is going to bring some new standards for us as bloggers. Basically, we’re going to shoot for less “filler posts” to better quality posts. So starting in a day or so we’ll see how it works out.

Twas The Night Before…
By: ME!

Twas the night before NPPL World Cup 07, and all through the house
Not a paintballer was stirring, not even Yosh Rau
The bunkers were washed by the players with care
In hopes that more teams soon would be there

The ballers were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of bunkerings danced in their heads.
And my team in their gear, and I in my Dyes,
Had just settled down and just closed our eyes.

When out on the field there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I bumped in a flash,
Picked up my marker and screwed in the gas.

The moon on the breast of new-laden turf,
Gave the luster of midday to a very confused smurf,(/ot)
When, what through my wondering i3s should appear,
But a MINIature Invert, and bagful of gear.

From a new Evil Driver, so milled and slick,
To an Ego 07: Oh my god, sick!
More rapid than eagles my eyes went insane,
And I called all the teams, called them by name!

“Now Dynasty, Trauma! Now, Avalanche and ‘Canes!
Arsenal, Legion! Assassins and Strange!
Down to the the field! To that place where we ‘ball!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!”

As fast as recballers that before the Hurricanes die,
When they meet up at Pevs, attempt stupid dives,
So down to the dead-box the ballers they flew,
With Empire bags, and all their gear too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the field
An incredible challenge that couldn’t be real.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
T’was indeed Dynasty making all of the sound.

They were dressed all in yellow, from their heads to their toes,
And their clothes were all covered in paint from Egos.
A couple of guys they had shot in the back,
One dude in the ass, and right in the pack.

His eyes how they burned! He was obviously pissed!
His marker was up, that rage couldn’t be missed!
He called to his boys, he wanted a fight,
And Dynasty figured that that’d be alright.

But who was this guy, armed to the teeth,
Smoke from his ears encircling his head like a wreath.
He had a small face and some interesting fangs,
“Good Gravy!” I yelled, “It’s Oliver Lang!”

This dude marched on down, with his other teammates,
In the match of the year, that would decide all their fates!
The blink of the eyes and a twist of the thread,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And broke to the snake, diving into the turf.
And laying his fingers across his trigger,
He laned down the tape, fast as a… !

He bumped to snake two, to his team gave a whistle,
And down field they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he shot down his sights,
“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Note that most of the dates aren’t final yet, so don’t go making plans just yet.

NPPL:

HB - Huntington Beach - March 23th-25th
Tampa - Raymond James Stadium - May 10th 12th
Indiannapolis - July or August? (If so, I’ll be at this one!)
OC - Sept 20th-22nd
Dallas - Oct 26th-28th

PSP:
LA Open – Home Depot Center – March 1st-4th
Mid-Atlantic Open – PBC Sports Park – May 3rd-6th
Chicago Open – Volunteer Park (BRAC) – June 20th-24th
TBA – August 2nd-5th
World Cup – Disney’s Wide World of Sports® Complex – October 21st-26th

World Cup: World Cup – Disney’s Wide World of Sports® Complex – October 21st-26th

Well, it finally looks like I’m going to need to get a job if I really want to take paintball to the next level. I do very little after school, so I should be able to get plenty of hours in. I can’t wait to start making some mad cash. I feel bad using up my savings, and so far I’ve been able to avoid it for the most part. My only problem will be figuring out what I’m going to spend it all on…I guess that’s a problem, haha.

If you’re getting into tournament paintball then you should at least be serious about it. And if you’re going to be serious, you’re going to need money. Don’t torture yourself by trying to get by on allowance, because it’s simply not going to work.

Warpedsportz is releasing another custom body kit. This time it’s for the Ion (surprise, surprise!). It looks frickin sweet in my honest opinion. This one is actually a kit, too, and comes with a feedneck and a Planet Eclipse QEV.

Colors are:

Black Dust
Black Gloss
Red Dust
Red Gloss
Blue Dust
Blue Gloss

It seems a bit pricey for the Ion though ($119 for the body kit), considering the gun only costs two hundred. Just seems kind of funny to buy something like this when you could just go for an entire new gun.

The hit magazine Face Full will now be releasing an entire new line. Rumor has it that this new magazine will be called “Jungle”, and will focus primarily on woodsball and scenario. It is set to be released on New Years Day of 07, so keep an eye out for it. This is the only information so far, so we’ll keep you updated as much as possible.

There is just the slightest of a preview right here, and that’s all we know (look for the green ticker box). And if you have any info, hook us up!

I’ve looked over some paintball desktops on various sites, and the usual backgrounds were flashy images of paintballers with flashy colors and text. Personally, I like to be able to find all my icons. You know how they get when they start blending in with the background…

Well, in one of my previous posts I covered an online gallery by Matt Dawson. Not only does he photograph paintball and motocross, he also takes some of these photos and turns them into desktops. I kid you not when I say that these are the best desktops I’ve ever seen. Some are better than others (just out of personal preference), but my favorites stand at the HK, Excessive Force, the Miami Raiders, This Is Paintball, and Wicked. So I couldn’t really narrow it down any further, because all of them are just so damn good!

There’s so much emotion in these it seems, which is why they stand out from others. They aren’t just photos of some paintballer doing his thing, they are moments - intense moments. Not only can you see it, you can feel it. And this is what separates the good photos from the great photos.

Okay, so I haven’t technically found one yet. But I really, really want to make one. How awesome would that be?

I’m going to need a couple dozen (empty) Corona bottles, some gentle sanding equipment, maybe a hack-saw, and a lot of time. But once I have completed this insane custom Ion Body, it will be the envy of Ion owners all across the world.

At least, I think the bottle will fit around the breech. Heh.

Evan and I have come up with a brilliant catch-phrase for an apparel line. “I’d rather be paintballing”. Print that bad boy across the front of a shirt, with a cool paintball concept drawing on the back, and it’s a 100% guaranteed hit with the paintball community.

This concept would sell very well is because this is what everyone really wishes they were doing! It would sell an incredible amount of apparel, hats, shirts, hoodies, pants, socks, whatever! (Lingerie anyone? Because that would rock, finding out a girl was wearing “I’d rather be paintballing” underwear.)

[By posting this, the phrase “I’d rather be paintballing” and all associated ideas herein have become the intellectual properties of PaintballJournal.com and its authors and administrators. Every time you think the phrase “I’d rather be paintballing” you must send $50.72 to everyone associated with this blog.]

I myself am a speedballer, though I’m proud of my woodsball roots. I’ve had some of the greatest moments of my paintballing career crouched in the shadows in full camo. However, if I had really gotten into it, I think I would have liked to own some guns like these.

The Ariakon Overlord

The Ariakon Overlord I really did own for some time, and if I had stayed with woodsball, it would have done me a lot more good. Unfortunately, I sold it and my old JT Excellerator for an Ion. Didn’t stop it from being the most badass gun I’ve ever owned.

The Ariakon Sim-5

This gun is straight up sexy, looks like current gen Mil-Sim.

Armotech Zeus Pistol

Armotech has a strong line of Mil-Sim guns, and the Zeuses are among the best known. They are also some of the more expensive.

The Ass-Kicker

Armotech makes some of the sweetest guns and ups, so this just goes to show how far one can go to ensure excessive amounts of ass-kickery. Though it is the player, not the gun….

But seriously, ass-kickery.

The Tiberius Arms Tac8

This is a revolutionary design in pistols, with both the air and the paintballs being included in a single clip that is inserted into the grip. Faaaaantastic. And cool.

There’s an upcoming clinic on January 13th and 14th at Lehigh Valley Paintball in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. Look for the coaches Angel Fragoza and Glenn Takemoto. You can find more information here.

Matt Dawson, a regular contributor to the photography section at PBNation, has launched an extensive online gallery of his work. The main focus is primarily on paintball and motocross, and both come together to create a combined total of 2,653 images! One word for his work: Amazing.

I have known about this for quite some time, but it was hopeless to try to view all of these photos using 56k. Now I run high speed satellite, and I’ve been taking my time looking through them. It’s hard to pick favorites, but this one clearly caught my eye. I give that one three thumbs up.

I have a particular interest in photography, and in art in general, and hopefully I’ll get a nice camera for Christmas. I’d really like to take it up, but we’ll just have to see. Anyways, if you have an interest in photography or just want to see some badass photos of the greatest sport ever, give Matt Dawson Photography a hit! It’s totally worth it.

Empire has a new website up! It’s still under construction it seems, but it looking great! If you’re looking for quality, this is the place to go.

I’m kind of a fan-boy of Dangerous Power, and so I’m really freaking pumped that Hybrid is making their own version of the Fusion. Hybrid’s Traitor markers have long been held as some of the sexiest private-label variants of the top guns on the market today.

As of now, only rumours are available for the specs of the Traitor Fusion, all that is certain is that Hybrid will be making a variant. Supposedly, this variant will only be running about $50 more than a second gen. Fusion, so about $450. I’ve got my doubts, but what it may end up being is just a new frame/trigger. Regardless, I may have to pick me up one of these bad boys when they become available.

One of the most fantastic drills I’ve seen in a while is this hilarious drill. You blindfold two players, and have each player set their marker to semi. We had some trouble with this when one of the guys’ Egos started running away on him. Oh, also, that was kind of a weird way to put those instructions, you probably want them messing with their board without a blindfold on.

Regardless, you then have a player for each blind man be their guide. They can only touch their blind guy to get them to a bunker, but other than that they must use only their voice to tell them when to shoot, where to shoot, how to move, etc.

This drill is great for listening, and can give a player a much better feel for how exactly their gun and body should feel while playing. Plus it makes for some great pictures.