Practice march 21st

This practice had a different feel to it then the last. There was no gold medal hockey game being played to get us all hyped up, but we were still in a great mood to play some paintball. There were alot of players missing for one reason or another, but we managed to still field two lines of players per team. We started the practice with a run and some stretches to warm up and get loose. Then the fun began. We just sent line after line out to play against each other, and it turned out to be the most intense practice I've ever been to. Normally we get little breaks here and there, but this practice we didn't, and by the end of it I was so tired and sore I could hardly walk the next day.

PSP Phoenix Open

This year's PSP season kicked things off by welcoming teams from all over the world to compete down in Glendale, Arizona. The PSP is one of two pro leagues in the United States. It is comparable to our CXBL league up here in Canada, but there are a few minor differences. The event lasted three days, spanning from march 19th to the 21st. There were over 100 teams competing in eight different divisions. In the pro division, Canada's own Edmonton Impact showed the world that Canada has the talent to compete with anyone in paintball by beating Tamba Bay Damage in the finals with a score of 7-4. Edmonton will look to continue their winning ways down in Chicago on june 24th at the next PSP event.

February 28th

In my last blog I talked about how on February 28th Canada made Olympic history by winning fourteen gold medals. It had all come down to the men's hockey finals. A game with so much on the line for Canada and the United States respectfully. Canada needed the win to redeem themselves from their previous loss, and to prove to the world that hockey is our game. The States needed the win to prove to the critics that beating Canada wasn't a fluke and that they are indeed a force in the hockey world. Now, on to my journey of how I was able to see the game winning goal. As you may of already known, I was scheduled to have a practice at six pm that sunday night in Etobicoke, and the game had started at 3 something. This posed a huge deleima for me and my teamates. Some decided that they would get to practice so early, they could see the entire game at Jack Astor's. Well some friends and I decided to watch the first period at home and then make the long commute to practice together and make it in time to see the end of the game. We listened to the car radio the entire way up, and we were devastated when we heard that the US had scored to tie the game with under a minute left in regulation. At this point we had just entered Etobicoke and we were desperate to find the Jack Astor's where our friends were, but all we had was an address and no map. We managed to find the right street, but we went the wrong way for about 5 minutes before realising what we had done. We immediately turned around and began to break some rules of the road to ensure we made it on time. As we approached the restaurant, overtime had startedand we were desperately looking for a parking space. Ofcourse, we found one at the back of the parking lot and we had to make a run to the front doors. When we got inside, we made a "B" line for the bar area and breathed a sigh of relief as the game was still going on. Not more then a minute later, Crosby scored the game winner and the bar went into an uproar! It was a perfect end to a long journey.

First practice

Sunday February 28th was a very important day in Canadian history. We won our 14th gold medal of the 2010 winter Olympics in a jaw dropping Canada vs USA hockey game, one which I will talk about in another blog. This was the highlight of many people's day, but not mine. The highlight of my day game 20 minutes after the game ended, and lasted 4 hours. I am ofcourse talking about my first practice with my new team. At our practices, 4 teams come out to play, one in every division of the CXBL league. The coming together of these 4 teams creates what is called a paintball camp. The teams were Toronto Rage, the number one team in all of Ontario; Oshawa Fury, a consistent team that normaly finishes in the top five; Vaughan Vipers, a team being rebuilt from the ground up; and Brampton Rage Kids, a group of young paintballers just getting into the sport. At this practice, we created and got into our lines that we would be playing on throughout the year ( five players are on one line). Our practice consisted of running, stretching, some minor drils, but mainly scrimmaging against the all the other lines to see which ones were the strongest, and which ones needed some improvement. I was selected to play on the top line for the Oshawa Fury team, as well as some other super talented players that I've always admired. For the first 10 games or so that my line played, we played against lines from Vaughan and the two other lines from our team. We blasted those guys like it was nothing, we thought no one could stop us. But then for the next 5 or so games, we played against lines from Toronto. At first we thought we could hang with the big boys, but once we stepped on the field, they beat us so fast, we didn't even know what happened. But playing against better players always makes you a better player yourself, and for that I'm thankful that we got beat so bad because I learned a lot. Hopefully next practice I learn even more, and hey, we might even be able to beat those Toronto boys.

Until next time,

lilcutie38

Why do we do it?

People always wonder why we play paintball, why we play such a "violent" and "useless" sport. They wouldn't be able to comprehend even if we told them. The rush of adrenaline that occurs when that horn blows is like nothing I've ever experienced. The times you spend at tournaments with your teamates are some of the greatest times you'll ever have in your life. Those reasons are enough to keep coming back to the field and laying it all out there. But that's not the reason why us paintball players are so driven to continue in this sport. Respect is what every paintball player really wants to earn. There's no deep pool of money for you to swim in if you make it to the top, hot girls, or world wide fame. You're grinding it out on that field to make every other paintball player know who you are, make them second guess challenging you. You want people to tell stories of the time they played against you or saw you play. That's why we do it.

Here are some quotes from a former pro player, Matty Marshall, that i found truly defined why we play this great sport.

"It happens on a random Monday, coming back from an event, or late on a sunday night, right before you get on the plane and you're about to be frisked for the third time. You're driving, you're flying, you're sitting in a airport seat with boys from the team. You're drinking stale coffee trying to stay awake, you're explaining the fat welt on the side of your neck to a confused stranger or a best friend. You're coming back to the other life; the one without paintball, where no one understands why you do it. You're tired. You're working off little sleep, the question creeps up and you try to ignore it. Why do I do this? Why the travel? Why the losses, and the missed work, the missed school, hours of practice and the complaining girlfriend? Because the lure of living a paintball life is just too potent, and the products of the road, the travel, are memories forever, and trips and strange lands with stranger people. At tournaments, it feels like, for once, you actually get to live as loud as you want. It's worth the sacrifices, it's worth all the bull****. Because if you work hard enough a Sunday will roll around and you'll be in the huddle, screaming, with your hand in, one among seven playing for the World Title. And suddenly, all those cliches you ever heard make sense, and you are defined. You say it to yourself and it means everything. I am a paintball player; and this moment, right here, is my life."

"Its a sick and perverse thing, we know but its what were good at...shooting people for a living. Playing paintball... thats right paintball, and the whole world thinks this is lame,or crazy or a waste of time.You don't understand what we do and how hard it is...even the wives, girlfriends, family, friends, they don't understand the battle, our battle...For glory, for money, for the people you believe in... but mostly for respect....And for this fight that nobody gives a s*** about, we travel hundreds of thousands of miles, to hundreds of towns, shot thousands of times, slept on floors....because we're good at this, because its hard and humbling. Because some days you really can be a hero to your friends. And if my boys ever meet your boys in a gunfight one day.. We will f*** you up"

IWPL event 2

IWPL Event 2 - Infinite Adrenaline vs. Oshawa Fury from Ryan Wallace on Vimeo.

Cries of "Fury--us" went up from the Oshawa Fury team pit as the final horn sounded, bringing an end to a hard fought game. The Infinite Adrenaline team hung their heads low as they walked off the field while myself and the rest of my team were celebrating. It was a very good game to watch. It was very fast paced and action packed game but we managed to take control of it after a few quick points demorelized the other team. We were picking them apart, out playing them, and we were a lot quicker getting to our bunkers. They still managed to give us a fight with their superior gun fighting skills. I find that I played rather well, I meshed with my linemates a lot better this game and it showed on the scoreboard. Out of the ten points our team had, my line had seven of them. After the game was over and done, and everyone went home, we found out that Adrenaline did some research on our roster and found out we had an ex-pro player on the team. Having a pro/ex-pro on a team in this league is illegal apparently, so the head of the tournament took away our win, and we winded up losing by default. This just fueled our fire for the next games we'll be playing, I feel bad for the teams we have to face. But the next two games we have are on march fourteenth, the same day we leave for our Quebec trip. The next event I'll be able to play will have to be during the playoffs then. I'm looking forward to that day with great anticipation.

until next time,

lilcutie38

Oshawa Fury 2010

I was on a bus coming home from Windsor when I heard a loud ringing sound echoing through the air. I eventually realised it was coming from my pocket, so I hastily reached in and pulled out my phone. It was one of the guys I had gone to the Oshawa Fury tryouts with, calling to ask about a game we had the next day. Near the end of our conversation, he told me I had made the Oshawa team, but he sounded like he was lying so I didn't believe him. As soon as I made it home, I ran to my computer and logged on to my email account. The email at the top of my list was from the coach of the team. My heart was racing. This is the moment that all those months of training and practicing had come down to. I opened the email and right in front of me was the roster for the 2010 season. As i went down the list, I couldn't believe the names i was reading. There were ex-Canadian professional players, an ex-American professional player and semi professional players from all around Ontario. I surely thought the guy who had called me was a liar, there was no way in my mind i could be playing along side these great players. I was nearing the end of the list when, sandwhiched between two other names, I saw my own. I was jumping for joy and had the biggest grin on my face, one that wouldn't leave my face if I tried. This year is going to be a great season, I just know it.

Until next time,

lilcutie38

Cleaning an 07 Ego

The Planet Eclipse 07 Ego was and still is a top of the line paintball marker. One of the things that separated it from its competitors is its simplicity to clean. A lot of markers need to have their body and frame separated to be able to get the main components fully cleaned where as with the 07 Ego, you don't. In this photo essay I'll be showing you how to properly clean an 07 Ego.

The barrel of the marker is what helps to greatly elevate the accuracy of your paintballs. If your barrel were to get dirty, it would cause the paintballs to go flying in every direction. To take off the barrel, you must twist it off. Do not twist counter clockwise though. Planet Eclipse markers are the only markers who's barrels are reverse threaded, meaning you turn it clockwise to loosen it. Once it's off, you're ready to start cleaning it. There are various ways to clean the barrel. A barrel gets dirty when a barrel break or a "chop" occurs( a paintball breaks in the chamber of the gun spraying paint all over the internals of the marker). Using a barrel swab ( a stick with fibres on it) is the best way to clean a barrel, but is also the most expensive. I personnaly use a barrel squeegee ( a stick with a round piece of rubber the same circumference as the inside of the barrel). All you need to do is push or pull the squeegee through the barrel and you're done.
The pin is the part of the marker that propels the paintballs forward through the chamber and out of the barrel. Half of the pin is situated in the chamber itself and the other half is visible outside the marker. To remove the pin, simply pull up on the silver locking mechanisme attached to the pin and pull the pin out. Now you're ready to clean both the pin and the chamber. Once again, if these two parts aren't clean, the accuracy of the paintballs would greatly suffer.
The pin itself is very easy to clean. You can use a cloth, a paper towel or even your own shirt to dab up any paint residue that is on the pin. There are two ways to clean the chamber, using a cloth, or using a barrel squeegee. Using a cloth is a lot harder because you have to squeeze the cloth in if it can even fit at all. I prefer to use the barrel squeegee. Simply push or pull the squeegee through, just like with the barrel, and you're done.

The eyes of the gun are very important. They detect weither or not there is a ball in the breach of the chamber or not. If there is a ball, the eyes let the rammer know it's ok to fire the pin and shoot the paintball. They're used to cut down on the amount of chops that occur. The eyes are protected by eye covers that you have to take off by unscrewing a screw using a 5/64" allen key. When both eye covers are out, you can start to clean the eyes.

To clean the eyes, one must be very gentle and delicate. Pushing too hard on the eye itself could shatter the eye, or you could pinch the wires connecting the eye to the circuit board, resulting in malfunctionning eyes. Cleaning off the eye sensors with a rag or cloth will do just fine. The eyes get dirty, yes you guessed it, because of chops in the chamber.

The circuit board is the "brain" of the gun and is located under the grips of the gun. The board controls how fast the gun shoots, weither to turn the eyes on or off, and many more things. To access these crucial components to the marker, you must take off the grips of the gun. Using a 5/64" allen key, unscrew the six screws holding the grips to the frame, and you can begin your cleaning. The circuit board can get dirty from seepage through the grips, or if the barrel breaks were bad enough, seepage from the chamber could make its way all the way down to the board. A little bit of paint on the board for a short period of time won't have much of an effect, but a lot of paint resting on the board for an extended period of time can fry your board ( the board won't work anymore and you need to spend atleast 200$ on a new one). Cleaning the board is a very delicate operation. if you use a rag or cloth, loose ends may get caught on one of the many wires, or chips on the board which could cause damage if pulled on hard enough. Simply wipe up any paint you see and your board will be working fine for a long time to come.

Upon completing that final step, the 07 Ego is now clean and ready to be reassembled. Assembly is just as easy as taking it apart, just screw everything in. With your newly acquired knowledge, you're well on your way to being a professional marker mechanic. Maybe one day they will invent a self cleaning marker, but until that day comes, this marker will have to do.

Is paintball a sport?

Five years ago I went paintballing for the first time with a group of friends. We went there thinking we would shoot everyone, how hard could it be? After a couple of games, we were covered in paint and hadn't shot anybody and couldn't understand why. We asked one of the guys on the opposing team how he became so good and his response caught me quite off guard. He told us that he practiced weekly, and even worked out on a regular basis to be as good as he could be because he competed in a paintball league. This opened my eyes to a whole new world, one in which I would emerse myself in to this very day. Just like in any other sport, in paintball physical attributes are a plus, commitment, skill and physical activities are a must to be competitive and relevant in the sport.

Competitiveness is the key to any sport. Without it, there would be no intensity or drive to get better. Many, if not all players have shed blood, sweat, and tears on game day and in practice. Practicing once a week for four straight hours and working out throughout the week is normal for a paintball player. But if you want to compete at the highest level, you need a more rigourous training schedule. The Russians, more commonly reffered to as the Boston Red Legion, have their very own training facility in Russia and practice every day. Due to their intense training regiment, they're always one of the top teams, if not the top team in various pro leagues. Naysayers of paintball being a sport tend to bring up the argument " if paintball was a sport, why don't we have school teams?". What they don't realise is that more and more high schools in the United States have added paintball to their gym curriculum. Some colleges have even started a paintball league, the NCPA, the National College Paintball Association.

A sport is defined as being an organized, competitive, and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play. Governed by a set of rules or customs. Physical capabilities and skills of the competitors are leading factors when determining the outcome( taken from wikipedia). Paintball meets all of these requirements, unlike poker, which some people would like to see in the olympics. Paintball can be considered as being a combination of skeet shooting and running, and if those can be considered sports, why can't paintball?

L.A. Ironmen

Widely considered the number one paintball team in the world as of recent years, the L.A. Ironmen have arguably the best roster in the sport. With a mix of super star young talents and experienced older players, they were able to capture the 2008 and 2009 World Cup, the biggest paintball tournament in the world. This year, they`re looking for a three-peat. But, there is speculation that Nicky Cuba, one of the best individual players in the game, and Jon Richardson, a hardy veteran who`s very consistent, won`t be returning to the team next year. If the rumours are true, this will leave a huge hole in their roster that will be very hard to fill. If they are unable to grab a solid player or two, their chances at winning a third straight World Cup are very slim.

until next time.

lilcutie38

IWPL event 1

IWPL Event 1 - Joyceville vs. Oshawa from Pat Hill on Vimeo.

The Infinite Winter Paintball League is a new paintball tournament based out of Toronto. It is the winter replacement to the CXBL, which is a Canadian professionnal xball league. At every event, a team will play either 1 or 2 matches of 40 minutes. Currently, I'm trying out for an MXL team by the name of Oshawa Fury, which could be compared to the Toronto Marlies in the AHL, just under the professionnal level. You may be wondering what xball is, so here's a link to the official rule book: http://http//www.xball.com/2009/rules/MXL%20Rules%202009%20updated%203%2010%202009.pdf . Event 1 of the IWPL served as a final tryout for the team. We had an array of players, some good, some bad, and none of us had ever played together. This was a recipe for disaster. We got demolished by a sub-par team. Luckily we were being looked at individually and not as a team. Until next time.

lilcutie38

P.S. Hi Fish