Empire Paintball Announces...
 KEE Action Sports announces that Empire Paintball has launched a national billboard campaign aimed at driving new participation. The billboards are centered around the Free ROOKIE Pass advertising campaign, previously known as Great Day of Play (GreatDayofPlay.net). The campaign provides free entry and rental gear for new players (players must purchase paint) at participating fields nationwide.
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VFTD & PRO Paintball...
The mysterious Baca Loco from View From the Deadbox spent time analyzing our PRO Power Rankings and the communities response and poised several questions. Read on as VFTD and PRO Paintball discuss the Power Rankings.  |
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PPB Exclusive: VICIOUS 2010...
PRO Paintball is proud to present the new VICIOUS Team GEO2 by Planet Eclipse. Read on for an inside look at one of the hottest private label paintball guns to hit the market this season.  |
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X3 Mini Review: MaskWraps
 Let?s face it. Everyone who plays paintball wears goggles to do so (we hope).That?s millions of people wearing one of dozens of goggle systems made by a literal handful of manufacturers. That means an awful lot of the people wearing those goggles to play that paintball might look a lot alike from the shoulders up once the paint starts flying. That?s not a good thing, considering how many people play paintball because it?s different and they like being different. If only there was a way that people could personalize or customize their goggles with designs, camouflage patterns or team logos in an attractive, durable yet inexpensive way. Actually, there?s totally a way to do exactly that thanks to Mask Wraps.
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One Liners: Week of September...
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WCPPL Team; Fuzion Interview
Feddy Cummings Owner/Captain of Fuzion was nice enough to answer some questions about his team’s performance during the WCPPL Event #2 event at S.C. Village and some things we can look forward to in the future. How did you guys do in the event? Definitely not as good as we would have liked. Although our main Fuzion [...]  |
No Power in Heaven or on...
Can stand before the mighty Deadbox Puppet Army. I know, this isn't Friday and I normally do enlistments on Friday but it's been awhile--and I'm giddy as a schoolgirl--so here it is. VFTD is pleased (excited, thrilled) to welcome the latest recruits, j.c. & Jonathan to the DPA. Thanks, guys! And to encourage some of you other slackers to consider enlisting I'ma take a minute and remind t.c. & Jonathan of some of the perks in being a member of the DPA. The army will be mobilised, when the time is ripe, via message through the VFTD secret decoder ring. And there's the DPA secret handshake designed to reveal infiltrators and falangist scum. Along with the weekly email blast/newsletter that updates the truth in order to keep the revisionist lies of the power structure from weakening our resolve. Oh, and there's the T-shirt but its still in the design stage. And decoder rings are currently on back order. And I'm having a little trouble remembering the secret handshake and the database is a little thin since nobody actually registers--it's a security measure--but as soon as those kinks get worked out the DPA will function like a well-oiled machine. Join today and you too can be a cog in our machine.  |
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First look: GI Milsim...
GI Milsim & GI Sportz are rumored to be releasing new paintball goggles and a full line of paintballs. Read on for the latest paintball news.  |
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VALKEN ENTERS MARKETING...
 Delta Paintball, Inc. is pleased to announce today the establishment of a marketing agreement between the Delta Paintball Team and Valken Paintball. The Delta Paintball Team is proud to be utilizing some of the most exciting new products to burst on the scene in recent memory. With this wide ranging agreement, covering multiple facets of the teams operations from the Redemption lines of paint and pants to the multitude of products that Valken distributes, the Delta Paintball Team is prepared for domination on any field of play.
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Pbfashion features Scott...
HK Army Clips from Scott Kressin’s footage….MUCH more to come…  |
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CCM Gives Pump Players the...
 I freely admit I?ve been playing paintball a long time. I also freely admit that I?ve been working in paintball for quite some time, most of it in the world of paintball magazines where I?ve been fortunate enough to have pretty much every new paintball gun to hit the market put into my hands for review. That said, it all means that I?ve reviewed a lot of paintball guns, from entry-level blowbacks to thousand dollar tournament machines. Why am I telling you all this? Because I want everyone to understand that after dozens and dozens of paintball marker reviews, hundreds of photographs taken and tens of thousands of paintballs shot and words written, it takes a lot to excite me about a new paintball gun.
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The Monday Poll
It's alive! Okay, not really. Not by any conventional use of the term alive but it's back. The Monday Poll returns! The HydroTec paintball news made a splash at first but seems to have fallen off everyone's radar just as suddenly. Of course that's probably because there's no new news to speculate about but I've never let the lack of information stop me before--yes, that was an intentional joke--so it's time to see what y'all think the new paintball will mean for the industry and the game. Pick the answer that comes closest to your point of view and next week we'll see what the results look like and whether or not you managed to get your Nostradamus on or not. Vote your conscience. Vote for change. Or just vote in the Monday Poll.  |
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What is Tournament Paintball?
It may seem a silly question at first glance but it really isn't. In the recent post, Crazy May be Too Harsh, John, the crux of my objection--beside the weak argumentation--was a strong difference of opinion about what is tournament paintball. Also, given the fact tournament paintball can refer to quite a variety of paintball is why I tend to use the term competitive paintball when discussing the brand of paintball I focus on and participate in. (That's a hint about the distinction I'm going to make.) Here's a (related) curiosity. Earlier this summer I started to hear some 10-man chattering in the background; the usual what-ifs, how much fun that would be and even a hint or two that somebody might try to resurrect the format for real--and all of a sudden the smackbox at ProPaintball is full of 10-man ranting. Coincidence? And a current thread in the CFOA forum at PBN that threw out the idea of introducing 7-man in the CFOA morphed into a complaints and suggestions thread. (If you are outta this loop the CFOA is in the same situation as the major leagues having peaked a few years ago.) The most common responses focus on cost, the idea of simplifying by focusing on 5-man and a return to the old CFOA divisions as it seems too many players are being classified out of a chance to compete. Regardless of the specifics or the merits of any complaint or suggestion, in one sense, the thread is really about what tourney ball ought to be like in order for the CFOA to continue and hopefully grow. When the discussion turns towards how to fix tournament paintball the different answers tell us what the respondents think is the problem. One idea is that the disconnect from our roots in the woods isolates tourney ball from the majority of new players. If so the answer could be some transitional Old Skool type woodsball tournies to introduce the newbies and walk-ons to tourney play. For a while the hot solution was lowering the ROF as all that scary paint in the air discouraged newbies. As John's editorial, the 10-man talk and the CFOA suggestions thread demonstrate there's a group thinking that maybe returning the game to something close to what it was will bring lost players back and invite more new ones into the ranks of tournament players. Before we try to decide what to do though let's take a closer look at what's different. How is tournament paintball in 2010 different from tournament ball in 2000, 2003 and 2006? On the national scene in 2000 there is only the NPPL. It's year 2 of the cow pasture World Cup. There's a mix of woods, Hyperball and Airball fields. (Correction: last woods year for WC was 1999. 2000 saw some woods fields still in play in Pittsburgh & Chicago.) Electronic markers are becoming more ubiquitous, burst fire capped at 9 bps. Viewloader Revolutions dominate. 296 teams compete in 5-man & 10-man formats. Each field is a different layout. The prelims feature mixed division play but the rules only recognize 3 divisions (Pro, Am A, Am B). However there are so many B teams registered Novice is added and the B's are split into 2 divisions. The whole event lasts a week.
2003 was the first year of the major league split. The PSP (old NPPL) introduced xball at WC '02 and offered 5-man, 10-man and xball. The first year NXL had 8 franchise teams and D1 xball was really a pro-am division. There are 348 teams competing. Overshooting complaints became common and the appearance of ROF & velocity ramping guns in the NXL force the league to begin examining ways to regulate marker performance. It was the first year the pros didn't ref the pros. The first time WC was held at Disney WWOS and there were no wooded fields in play. NXL xball matches were played in two 25 minute halves.
The new NPPL close their first season in Miami with 138 teams, the largest turnout of the season. (That means all you slackers claiming to have been at the first HB are also unrepentant liars. Ok, not all, just most.) The pro teams are playing for a spot in the soon to be locked at 18 team division. The format is 7-man and the league has ties with the MS that allows some ranking points to be scored playing MS event(s). The league tries to ban event sales of Ultra Evil because it stains. PMI prove other paint brands on sale are no different. The league says nevermind. Suspensions explode. Can you say (subjectively determined) major gun violations? The event is played over a long weekend; Friday through Sunday--but everyone comes in a day early to walk the fields.
2006 WC has 304 teams playing 5-man and xball at Disney's WWOS. There are three streets of vendors in the middle of the venue. 11 fields total in play--if I remember correctly. Ramping with a ROF cap of 15 has been in place since the beginning of '05 and it's the second season in the NXL for the Russian Legion. Xball begins play on Thursday with the 5-man to be played over the weekend.
The 2006 NPPL Commander's Cup event was held at the Orange County fairgrounds. There were 125 teams in attendance across 5 7-man divisions. HB opened the '06 NPPL season with 222 teams. Participation peaks at HB and steadily declines over the course of the season. It's a recurring pattern. 3 of the 5 events were held in the parking lots of NFL teams for the third year in a row. Semi-auto remained the core of the gun rules despite the wide availability of custom programmable boards and the failure of the "robot" to catch illegal modes of operation. The pros are only playing Saturday & Sunday on two show fields, otherwise the events run much as they have since the split. It was the last event with the original Super 7 promoter, Pure Promotions, who sell out just before HB '07 amid rumors they consistently lost money running the league. So what's different and what's, more or less, the same from then then to now? Answers tomorrow along with some conclusions.  |
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The 2010 NPPL World...
 Once again the NPPL is hosting the World Paintball Championships on the famous Las Vegas Strip. This event will be the event of the year and you do not want to miss it. The best teams in the world will converge in Las Vegas to see who will be crowned the 7 Man and 5 Man champions. If you think your team is good then sign up to compete in one of the 7 divisions.
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Future Focus - Paintball Asia...
Paintball power brokers future thoughts!
Future Focus - Paintball Asia 2011
We've past the midway mark of the year 2010 and tournament paintball in Asia, in the opinion of many, has shown progress and growth. When you look at the overall picture, there have been more tournaments in 2010, with more international teams playing in these tournaments, more fields have opened than have closed and in most Asian countries there are even more people playing various forms of paintball than ever before. While things are never perfect in the world of paintball, there is still much optimism that paintball in Asia will continue to thrive and improve.
PaintballNews.Asia has gathered some of the most influential paintball power brokers in Asia, as well as some esteemed and much respected international guests to answer some questions and give us their insights into what to expect in 2011 - Paul Lam (Malaysian Official Paintball Circuit aka MPOC, PALS & World Cup Asia), Michael Whybrew (Australian Super 7's), Sofian Daud (Malaysian National Paintball League aka MY-NPL), Ulrich Stahr (Millennium Series) and Paul Richards (Coach of U.S. pro team Tampa Bay Damage). Here's what they have to say...
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Tippmann Signs Agreement with...
 Tippmann Sports just finalized an agreement with Umarex, the worldwide exclusive Heckler & Koch (H&K) licensee for paintball products. Under terms of the deal, Tippmann and its customers will be able to offer paintball accessories bearing the official names and authentic looks of popular H&K models, including the MP5 and G36.
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Grind Paintball ? Emerging...
Grind Online Paintball Magazine presents “Emerging Underground.” A documentary, video containing interviews and action from some of professional paintball’s emerging players.  |
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MS Paris '10: The Good, the...
 There will be a lot of good, bad & seriously ugly when this event is played. This layout very heavily favors offense and the more aggressive the better. Even playing defense on this field requires some aggressive movement. It also forces each team to commit to a strategy off the break that will, as often as not, result in a bloodbath--assuming both teams have decent gun skills. The issue in a nutshell is limited shooting lanes, a modest back center Home bunker, lots of open space and not a lot of options once a point is underway. The choices OTB will be take up territory and get to the wires asap or delay with as many guns up as possible and try to cut your opponent down fast and first--and then get to the wires asap. But let's talk about defense (and it's fundamental futility) first. Home and the D-wire corner are tall cakes. [EDIT: Nope, D-wire corner is regular CK which means its only utility is as a breakout alternate for a bump upfield. Also significantly reduced ability to contain on outside of wire.) Isolated cakes. Both can serve useful, if defensive, functions in an ordinary game plan and are often taken as primaries almost by default--it's what everybody does. In this case however the risk is quite high that players will stay with those bunkers much too long. (Btw, Home is really only viable for D-side rotation control after the break.) If these bunkers are used in any sort of primary role it must be done with the understanding it will be used to delay the opposition and then serve as a launch point to a secondary bunker. Otherwise players will get stuck in them and subject to multiple angles of attack from ever-widening lanes and almost certain elimination. Take a look at the purple SD. Along with Home it is the only marginally effective control bunker on the D-side. As will prove obvious on examination it is a high risk play susceptible to cross field attack that also cedes the gun-fighting (edge control) contest to every bunker on the wire. The only remaining alternatives for the defensive-minded are the upfield/middle MT and the brick connected to the center M. The MT has limited D-side effectiveness and if you're going to risk the move to the brick to try and lock down the D-wire odds are your plan is also to push your player into the 50 dorito as well. The reality is the D-wire is a race to the 50 because defensive control of the wire is delaying tactic at best and because the snake can decimate the D-side of the field very quickly unless contained. Now look at the red Temple. It is the only snake-side bunker capable of contesting with your opponent's S1, S2 and snake 50. (And here is where some will be tempted to use the D-side upfield MT as a snake counter but unless you also commit to playing the D-side as the strong side [3 players that way] all you end up doing is weakening your D-side effort and risking a blown wire by creating a mismatch--in favor of your opponent--from the sound of the horn.) As such expect it to be the one bunker on the field that will almost always be occupied and given that it offers some excellent cross field angles as well I can see some enterprising teams doubling it up early as a change of pace and reasonably safe alternative to doubling Home. It also works as a feed into the snake or a launch point for a highway move. The real risk of the red Temple is that players will hesitate to leave it when the time comes to finish pressing the attack. Time to switch to offense and check out the green bunkers. The green bunkers can bring eliminating fire to bear on the crossfield and backfield of their opponent. Otherwise the majority of bunker placements encourage contesting each wire individually. The result will be that offensive teams will push to reach the green bunkers first and fast. And on this layout accessing a green snake wire bunker should be quite easy. That means D-side players will be at high risk very quickly. The snake corners cannot contest movement up the snake until the opponent reaches the 50 as is the case for every other bunker except the 50 snake MT. As a consequence this field will see heavy action in and around the snake as it offers the most accessible dominating shots. If you have any specific questions feel free to post them in comments or drop me an email. 
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The Rising Son
Ryosuke Banno - Asia's frequent flyer!
One of the rising stars of Asian paintball, Ryosuke Banno from Japan has been quietly clocking up more frequent flyer points playing paintball than most of us can ever dream of.
 Ryosuke Banno is Captain and team owner of team KU from Japan. Over the past decade he has helped develop paintball in Japan, from opening his own field back in 2003 to moulding a group of enthusiastic Japanese paintballers into one of the most competitive teams in the region. Team KU's playing stats date back as far as 2002, in 2005 they were bold enough to make the trip to the US to play at the PSP World Cup and today they continue to compete at both local and international tournaments. In 2010 he divides his time between running a paintball field/business and playing for team KU in Japan and at international events and playing for the Delta Rovers in Malaysia. His field is also the home field to up-and-coming teams from Japan like Nitamago (World Cup Asia D3, 4th place) and Ryu. We managed to catch up with Ryosuke Banno in between international flights and tournaments to ask him a few quick questions about his paintball life so far:
Q. What position to you generally play?
Everywhere but especially Snake front
Q. Current Sponsors
Dye precision Inc. Rockstar energy drink, KCHL and Samurai Paintball
Q. International Teams you have player for?
Team Delta Rovers from Malaysia at MY-NPL, ISSC and MSL and Team S.W.A.T from Australia at the Super 7's
Q. When did you start playing paintball?
In 2001.
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[Opinion] Sideline Coaching:...
Players, coaches and their fans have long debated the pro's con's of sideline coaching. Today's opinion piece lays out several points and offers a few thoughts on the issue. Read on!  |
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Australian Super 7's Leg 3...
 Last minute changes to the formats for each division of the Super 7's saw teams from the Amateur divisions moving into a Race to format to increase the number of games they played over the 2 day event. Other divisions also had increases in the number of games in their Race to formats. Maybe the Australian economy is simply that good or maybe the Aussie paintballers simply love playing paintball but the addition of extra games saw absolute solidarity in online support after the announcement with request to even bump the Div 1 to a Race to 7 format.
Professional - Div 1 - 10 Minute games - race to 5
Semi Pro - Div 2 - 8 Minute games - race to 3 (same as the old Pro format)
Amateur - Div 3 - 5 Minute games - race to 2 (same as the old Semi Pro format)
Final results for Super 7's Leg 3
Hostile Intentions secured the #1 ranking on the series ladder with a win in the Pro Division while Uprising A took the Semi-Pro title over SWAT Kidz.
DIV 1 - PRO
1. Hostile Intentions
2. Menace
3. Sydney SWAT
4. X-Fighter$
5. Explicit
6. Blood Knuckles
7. Raw
DIV 2 - SEMI-PRO
1. Uprising A
2. SWAT Kidz
3. Carnivores
4. Shenanigans
5. Rage City
6. The Business
7. Hustle
8. N.B.K
9. Outkasts
10. T.A.G: Legion
DIV 3 - AMATEUR1. Vicious Circle 2. Red Dragons 3. Stand Alone 4. A.C.T Notorious 5. Sydney Spartans 6. ANV Nemisis 7. Uprising B 8. Atomic 9. Korrupt
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PALS Leg 2 UPPIC Results
 International tournament paintball returned to the Philippines over the weekend with teams from Japan, Australia, USA, Singapore, Borneo and Malaysia competing against local teams for podium spots at the PALS Leg 2 UPPIC held at the old Clarke Airbase. From all reports, the weather was beautiful, the field was in great condition and the competitors were all treated to VIP treatment from the moment they stepped off the plane. Competing in their first Asian paintball tournament were the staff of PB Rack, a paintball 'lifestyle' clothing manufacturer based out of Washington State in the US. It seems their trip half way across the world was a very fruitful one, not only making a lot of new business contacts but also taking out the UPPIC Division One champions title over STK from Australia. In Division 2, Malaysian team Xtioneers 2 managed to hold off locals Global Pinoy to take the Division 2 UPPIC Championship title.
Division 1
1st - PbRack Team USA
2nd - STK Australia
3rd - Datis Iran
4th - Xtioneers Malaysia
Division 2
1st - Xtioneers 2 Malaysia
2nd - Global Pinoy Philippines
3rd - Splat Masters Gold Philippines
4th - Sarawak Waxers Malaysia
Division 3
1st - Splatmasters Philippines
2nd - Global Pinoy 2 Philippines
3rd - BMT Philippines
4th - Splatmasters Platinum Philippines
Stay tuned for more updates.
Image courtesy of PALS
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BT BIG GAME - The Global...
 Welcome to the largest paintball battle on Earth, the 2010 BT Big Game. This event is the single biggest multi-national paintball game in the World! On one day, 21/08/10, players around the world will take part in a global paintball battle. Though the game will be taking place in different locations around the world, participants will be globally united in one game as players are separated into the ... Red and Blue teams. So, players in France will be rooting for their teammates in Mexico as the game progresses across the globe. At BTpaintball.com, players will be able to watch live scoring for each location, track missions and view images from battlefields from all over the world. Some of this year?s participating countries include: the United States, France, United Kingdom, Estonia, Portugal, South Africa, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Poland, Aruba, Malaysia, Australia and BulgariaThe BT Big Game storyline and missions are with our Generals and Field Officials. The event pits the Blue Battalion against the Red Rangers for world domination. So far the BT site lists 5461 registered players so the battle will be epic.
Prizes:
(1) The overall winning army (according to world scoring) 500 pellets per player that can be used at anytime from 21/08/10 with 3 months validity.
(2) The wining Army of the day in Malaysia will each be awarded a Commemorative BT Campaign Medal.
Entry is only RM 80 per player including lunch and paint RM 140 per box. Slots are still available.
Malaysian venues are listed as Xtion and Mudtrekker Paintball Park but we think Mudtrekker has been chosen as the sole Malaysian venue.
Enquiries:
Terry: lukoskav@yahoo.com, 016-2622869
Roslan: lan@mudtrekker.com, 016-3326104
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PALS announces new China Cup...
 The folks at PALS have just announced the formation of PALS China, which consists of Mr. Michael Tan and Mr. Michael Whybrew and the establishment of the China Cup as the 1st leg of PALS 2011 in Hainan, China. If you're wondering who these two gents are, both Mikes are Aussies and business partners, having joined forces in 2007 to create a paintball manufacturing company based in China called Reactor Paintball. Since then they have gone on to create a mini paintball manufacturing empire which includes Paintball Assassin and Killer Paintballs. Mike Whybrew also heads up the Australian Super Sevens organisation, Action Paintball fields Australia-wide, PaintballShop.com and still manages time to play with his team SWAT. The date set for the PALS China Cup is 24th - 27th March 2011 which should slot in nicely between exisiting regional tournament schedules. PALS believes that this entry into China will bring about significant opportunities for the global paintball industry and have significant impact for the recognition of paintball as a mainstream sport. With little to no local paintball tournament scene in China (that we know of) the organisers will have to promote heavily to international teams to make up the registration numbers. Hosting the event in Hainan seems to be a smart move since the area is well known as an international tourist destination because of its lush greenery and sandy beaches. Hainan even boasts a visa-upon-arrival policy available to citizens of twenty-six different countries.
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PALS UPPIC next week in the...
 International paintball comes back to the Philippines next week after a long break. The United Paintballers Philippines International Championship will be held at the Clark Field in Pampanga from the 19-22 August and will feature teams playing 5 man formats from Divisions 1 to 4. This will be the second leg of the PALS series for 2010. Here's the team registration list so far: Team Ku - Japan Team Xtioneer Xfox - Malaysia Team STK - Australia Team Epic - Japan Team PBX3 - USA Div 2Team Red Sevens - Singapore Team Simpsons - Malaysia Team Sarawak Waxers - Borneo Team Xtioneer 2 - Malaysia Team Splatmaster - Philippines Team Global Pinoy 2 - Philippines Team Tagli - Philippines Team North Borneo Syndicate - Borneo Div 3Team Splat Gold - Phil Team Splat Platinum - Phil Team Global Pinoy 3 - Phil Team Paintball Republic - Phil Team Impact - Phil Div 4Team Balasik Team Bukto Team Feedworld Team Hada Alpha Team Hada Bravo Team Excom Team Energizer Paintballnews.asia will try and keep you up to date with all the scores during the UPPIC event.
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Congratulations to Boston Red Legion for winning the Professional Division of the 2010 PSP Mid-Atlantic Open! The mostly-Russian team finished Saturdays Prelims with 4 wins and a free pass direct into the Semi Finals.
Paintball Sports Promotions (
I am very much honored ot have you in our team. You have shown a great team player and the rest of SiRs are pleased and looking forward of your every presence! I wished I can play with you one day... now I hate my job.... because I cant play! LOL.