Red Sevens clinched gold medal in Pattaya International Paintball Championship (PIPC) 2010

(14 March, Pattaya, Thailand) – Organized by the Thailand International Paintball Association, the Pattaya International Paintball Championship 2010 was held on 13 – 14 March 2010 at the National Eastern Seaboard Stadium in Pattaya, Thailand. 39 teams from 8 countries participated in this event to vie for the top honours of being the Asia’s best. Teams from Malaysia, UAE, Taiwan, Philippines, Iran, Australia, Singapore and host country Thailand compete to win the prize money of up to 100, 000 baht. Supported and sponsored by the Pattaya Tourism and Sports Commission, this event was attended by more than 800 participants and spectators.

Singapore was represented by 2 teams in this tournament, team Red Sevens and team Contract Killers playing in the Division 2 and Division 3 category respectively. Red Sevens was established in 2007 as a competitive paintball team with aims of promoting and developing paintball in Singapore. Since its formation, the team has travelled to Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand for paintball competitions. In 2007, the Red Sevens became the first competitive paintball team from Singapore to participate in the World Cup Asia (WCA) held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They were subsequently invited to participate in the National Professional Paintball League (NPPL) Asia held in Desaru where professional paintball teams from the United States were competing in the professional category. In 2009, the Red Sevens was invited to participate in a paintball demonstration event by the World Games organizing committee in Kao Hsiung, Taiwan. Like many Singapore paintball teams, in order to maintain the team’s competiveness, the Red Sevens often travels to Malaysia to compete in the Malaysia competitions such as the Malaysia Paintball Official Circuit (MPOC) and the Malaysia National League (My-NPL) which is a 5 legged tournament per year. In Singapore, the team trains regularly in Red Dynasty Paintball Park located in Bottle Tree Park. The team often conducts paintball workshops for beginners who are keen to pick up paintball as a competitive sport and they also helped to organize the Singapore Paintball Novice Series (SPNS) for the local paintball community in 2008 and 2009. “There are more competitive players in Singapore now as compared to a few years ago. Paintball as a sport is slowly growing in Singapore but given the current firearms law it is difficult for paintball teams in Singapore to train regularly with their personal equipment”, exclaimed Ben Seow, the captain of Red Sevens and a paintball promoter in Singapore. “Paintball sports has been around for many years, millions of people have played the game and enjoyed the sport. For paintball to reach its full potential, governing bodies need to give flexibility to competitive players to compete with their personal equipment”.

Playing for their first time in Division 3 tournament, the Contract Killers team is one of the top local teams in Singapore. Formed in 2008, the Contract Killers were frequent winners of the local paintball league. In WCA 2009, the Contract Killers won the 1^st Runner Up medals in the Division 4 category competing against teams from Philippines, India and Malaysia. “This event is surely an eye-opener for everyone in the team. We are glad to be representing Singapore in this tournament and hope to have more Singapore teams taking up overseas challenges” stated Mohd Shakil, a founding player of the Contract Killers. “Even though we finished the tournament with 6^th position, we would like to send a message to the rest of the other countries that Singaporeans given our strict firearm regulations can still do well in international tournaments”

Red Sevens finished the Division 2 category by claiming the champion medal and prize money worth USD1400.

Quotes from Pattaya...

1) "Are champion always called cheaters?" - Gerald. After the semi final game when he was accused of playing on.

2) "You chose Lester cos he got wings!" - Gerald. Explaining to Ben his reasons for recruiting Lester Wing.

3) "I half, you half" - Ben. When he was semi drunk and going around to challenge everyone to drink.

4) "You sound like you hate everyone" - Arthur. When Gerald mentioned that he hates so and so...

5) "I am damn good at driving a buggy around but not on the road" - Arthur. When he was reluctant to rent a bike for himself.

6) "One man for himself" - Ben. When everyone seemed like they are season riders. For disclaimer purposes.

7) "Let's go and eat Sizzler" - Ben. When the team couldn't decide what to eat...

8) "What? Rusty Glaze is dead!" - Gerald.

9) "We are going to be on Facefull!" - Arthur. When the referee shouted game over after the final game against Alien 11.

10) "But I scare later he disappear" - Gerald. When told that he has to look after Ivan when we were in Patpong.

RED SEVENS - PALS Div 2 Pattaya International Paintball Championship Champion!

Red Sevens from Singapore clinched the PALS Leg 1 Pattaya International Paintball Championship Division 2 Champion title last weekend in Thailand. The Red Sevens would like to thank our sponsors Dye Asia, Furious Paintball, Seed Paintball, KCHL and THORB for their wonderful support. We would also like to thank the organizing party, Pro-Paintball and the Malaysia, Thailand and international referees for braving the sun over the weekend. Lastly, the team would like to thank all those who have supported us since our establishment. Special mention to the following who are always there to lend us words of encouragement:

Redza, Sani, ExKay, Daniel "Junior" Goh, Junaidi, Matthew, Dennis, Paul and Kiko.

With this long awaited win, the team would like the Singapore paintball community to continue training hard even though we have limited training resources, playing fields and support from the governing authorities. We can still enjoy the sport of paintball and compete at the highest level. We can complain and whine about our current state... but it is pure dedication and action that will allow more people to recognize our game in Singapore.

Let's go for more gold!

Abdullah Alhadad - Singapore's favourite snake player...

Photo was "disgustingly ripped" from Abdullah's Facebook...

Abdullah Alhadad from Team Zoo (the senior team of Team Damnation) was featured on the Berita Minggu a local malay newspaper. This is a big boost in creating paintball awareness to the general public to let more people know about the sports we all loved. Abdullah was first introduced to paintball when he took on the lead to organize a paintball teambuilding outing for his colleagues since then Abdullah has been playing paintball actively. With his team, he recently won the Division 3 title in the Malaysia Paintball Official Circuit (MPOC) Leg 1. This champion title is by far the highest honours for any Singapore teams. A professional engineer by day and a soon to be father, Abdullah shows that there is still some time left for paintball in his busy schedule....

Red Sevens in SSC Cup 2010 - Kuching

Red Sevens combined with players from the Crazy Dogs team from Kuching participated in the SSC Cup 2010 Kuching Open. The SSC Cup was established and organized by the Sentosa Sports Centre (SSC) since 2008. The SSC Cup is widely recognized by many East Malaysia teams as one of the most anticipated event with a good playing field, indoor paintball that is. With a 2 million infrastructure, the SSC Cup provides players with top notch excellent playing ground. Sliding moves can be executed with ease without worries of getting injuries with hard knocks... there was a sudden thought in me that every player has suddenly learnt the art of sliding... Without any doubt, this field favours any snake player who wants to "slide all the way..."

Special appearances by the people behind Dye Precision adds more weight to this event. Ironmen Mikko Huttenen was there to share tips with eventual winner SSC Killers (house team of SSC) and signing autographs is just one of the things he does during paintball events. Teaming with ex-Ironmen Zyzek, Andy Liu from SSC, Seburo from Red Sevens, they formed the SSC All Star Team playing against the SSC Killers before the prize presentation. The results? 2 - 0!

I would like to thank the Crazy Dogs gang for being such a good host! Your hospitality is superb and it was good fighting alongside the dogs!!! Woof! Woof! Beware, the Crazy Dogs do bite...

Results - Crazy Dogs had a slow start in the morning with 2 wins and 3 losses. By the end of day 1, we were ranked 6th with 5 wins, 1 draw and 4 losses. Day 2 was about finding consistency. We managed a quick win with 4 - 0 but it was soon over when 2nd placed Team Last Limboman came back to take the 2nd and 3rd game in the best of 3 games.

Thumbs up for SSC Cup 2010!

Singapore teams in Paintball Asia League Series (PALS) 2010 - Pattaya, Thailand

The 1st Leg of the Paintball Asia League Series (PALS) will be held in Pattaya Thailand from 12 - 14 March 2010. Singapore will be represented by Team Red Sevens and Team Contract Killers playing in Division 2 and Division 3 respectively. The organizers of PALS has also lined up a paintball clinic conducted by Oliver Lang from Ironmen for the participants to get up close to this paintball icon. Participants will be in for some of the toughest snapshooting drills. This leg of PALS will see 40 paintball teams from Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, UAE, Iran, Australia, India, Philippines, Iran and host country Thailand playing across all 3 divisions. In addition... who can forget about the partying after the games...

I wish my team and the Contract Killers the best in tournament and to rally Singapore based teams to take on these international challenges. Singapore teams who are interested to participate in international tournaments such as the PALS series (2nd Leg - Philippines and 3rd Leg - Malaysia) and the Asia Paintball Invitational Tournament (APIT) in Taiwan, please contact me for more details.

SPLAT Exclusive Rental Offer Special!!!

A special SPLAT Exclusive rental offer is available now for a one time period till 30 March 2010 at Red Dynasty Paintball Park for $1200 (usual $1500). First come first served.

If you would like to compete in competitive paintball using rental electronic marker and using the same paintball marker to train and compete in local and overseas tournament, now is the chance to be part of the SPLAT programme.

*Individual marker possession in Singapore is illegal and against the firearms act.

If you are keen to sign up for SPLAT Exclusive, please send an email to our SPLAT representatives, splat@paintballersworld.com

Offer limited to first 10 sign ups. SPLAT terms and conditions apply.

SEED signs Red Sevens from Singapore

Just about a week ago, the Red Sevens announced their sponsorship with Furious Paintball and this week, they welcomed SEED as their next equipment sponsor. SEED will be sponsoring the team with their highly reliable SEED RtR rotor chip. This chip adds reliability and performance to the existing Dye Rotor. With an upgraded chip which uses the Wii technology, there will never be any more ball break or jammed loaders!

"I have not changed my rotor batteries since 4 tournaments ago... and it is still going strong!" exclaimed King who plays in the back position for the Red Sevens.

"Seed Paintball is proud to announce signing an sponsorship agreement with team Red Sevens from Singapore. With paintball growing in popularity in Asia, it is important for Seed Paintball to identify market support and expansion into the Asia Pacific region. One of the top paintball teams in Singapore, the Red Sevens is an emerging paintball team in Asia. With the sponsorship of SEED RtR upgrade kit, Red Sevens will be a strong team for SEED in the Asia region as the team will be participating in the Paintball Asia League Series (PALS) and travelling to countries such as Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia." From www.seedpaintball.com

Red Sevens is the SEED's first sponsored team in Asia and they are sure there will be more teams coming aboard to witness this great product. SEED also sponsor professional paintball teams such as Joy Division from Sweden and the New England Hurricanes from US.

Please email sales@paintballersworld.com if you would like to purchase a chip!

Stepping down from Paintball Association (Singapore)

As a founding member of the Paintball Association (Singapore) since June 2007, I have witnessed the best and the worst during the course of promoting and developing paintball in Singapore. There were many many "first" during my tenure with the association. With PBAS, we were able to convince SPF into allowing competitive paintball to take place in Singapore. We derived a Basic Tournament Orientation (BTO) and Basic Marshal Orientation (BMO) syallabus with the aim of introducing paintball safety for players.

The first BTO session was conducted in Red Dynasty, it was the first step for PBAS towards promoting competitive paintball in Singapore and I remember telling everyone who attended the session "You guys are making history for Singapore paintball..." Though not many from the session are still playing paintball... but history was made. Paintball in Singapore would not be what is it today without these few individuals and I would like to thank them for their contribution:

Jane Koh (President) - As a female president in a male dominant sport, Jane has been instrumental in getting support from the Singapore Sports Council and creating awareness for the sport. Her continuous effort in promoting the sport is indeed significant with her sports development background.

Benedict Chen (Secretary) - The driving force behind the formulation of the BTO and BMO, Benedict sacrificed his time developing course details and conducting BTO sessions for paintball enthusiasts. His effort was commendable when he took on the role to become the first paintball Head Referee in Singapore to officiate in the first SPNS.

Arthur Chan (Member) - The individual that everyone loves to hate. Arthur is always using his creativity in designing paintball publicity materials. His love for paintball is evident for he is always in the field "shouting" at newbies, refereeing games, helping with tech, commentating games and writing about paintball.

Ian Tang (PBAS media) - Though not a member of the PBAS, Ian is a special friend to the PBAS, he is always ready to lend a helping hand to the association. Ian still holds the triumph for being the first to arrange for airtime on Channel News Asia. He is still the first to get paintball onto newspaper. He is always upholding Singapore paintball through his media contacts.

It is not always easy to start a transformation, it is even harder for a non-mainstream sport like paintball. There have been many ups and downs but they have always been the best challenges. It is definitely not the easiest task as office bearers and I have enjoyed every minute of it, I would also like to thank those who have supported me all the way, your views and suggestions are indeed very important for this sport to grow. Lastly, I wish the association all the best and may Singapore paintball be more vibrant in years to come!

Trust me, you will not see the last of KING!

Face the truth... let's talk about facts...

Face the truth Singapore paintballers... paint prices will NEVER be cheaper than in Malaysia. Currency exchange is not rocket science, everything in Singapore is surely more expensive than in Malaysia since my ancestors time. You don't need anyone to tell you that Singapore paintballs are more expensive. Its a fact.

Honestly, it is a fact that I don't think will ever change and instead of whining and complaining, it is time we start facing the reality and put those complains into actions. It is also a fact that firearm laws in Singapore do not allow individual possession. Instead of harping on this fact (and I emphasize again that this is a fact), let's do something to change the perspectives of the Singapore authorities. But if we do not even provide ourselves with this opportunity for others to change their thinking... how do you think that is going to change paintball in Singapore? To improve and develop paintball, we need sponsors, we need players, we need paintball fields but one thing that we really need is a review of the current firearms act. Its not about paintball being expensive, its not about the lack of playing facilities, its not about no proper tournament, its not about people not playing paintball... its about the firearms law. Like it or not, we have to be realistic. We can have 10 playing paintball fields in Singapore supporting competitive paintball but so as long as the rule don't change, do ever think about sleeping with your paintball markers. It is not going to happen unless we are willing to help ourselves. Paintball prices will drop due to pricing competitions (economies of scale) but faced the fact again, it will NEVER be cheaper than Malaysia. Don't fall short on your vision. Don't bet the future of Singapore paintball for that 2 boxes of paintballs that you saved every week. Please don't get me wrong... I am not telling you not to play in Malaysia. I have been playing in the Malaysia circuit since 2007 and I enjoy every minute of it. I made many great friends through paintball and I want to thank them for teaching me how Singapore paintball should be shaped. The Malaysians have come a long way from playing in the jungle without permit to organizing the biggest paintball competition in Asia... these developments don't come by chance, its the hardwork of the paintball people who have been driving the change for Malaysia paintball. Kudos to you. I describe paintball as a love triangle. Players need fields to play in, vendors need players to buy paintball products, paintball operators need players to play in their field. Everybody needs everybody...

I have mentioned this to many people: "Go and play in Malaysia to gain that experience but remember to bring back what you have learnt back to Singapore..." One day, we want to be like our Malaysian counterparts. We want to have our own tournament, we want to have our own say about development of paintball in Singapore, we want to have our own Singapore teams, we want to use our own markers. We just need to help ourselves... there is no point talking about the price of paintballs, there is no point talking about bad politics in paintball, there is no point talking about the silence of the paintball scence, there is no point talking about the lack of support... let's talk about how we can promote paintball in Singapore. Introducing paintball to your friends is only the beginning, to transform Singapore paintball we surely need more than that.

For those who are unaware, paintball marker is still not legalised in Malaysia even after many years of success in organizing some of the greatest paintball tournaments in Asia. YES! We want to be like the Malaysians. We really want. But let's learn from them too. I am really happy to see the formation of the Malaysia Paintball Federation (MPBF), it means a lot about paintball in Asia as Malaysia is considered as the paintball hub of Asia and with its development, things will look good not only for Singapore but neighbouring countries such as Brunei, Vietnam, Australia, Sri Lanka, Japan, Korea where paintball markers are somewhat consider as illegal for possession.

Its a pin drop some might say about Singapore paintball... its funny because when there are ongoings in Singapore paintball, paintball prices is always an issue, when there are ongoings in Singapore paintball, firearms regulations is always an issue, when there are ongoings in Singapore paintball, lack of support is always an issue. If paintball fails to take off in Singapore, who is the most affected? I thought the answer is obviously the people behind paintball development. So who's to say that paintball is not developing? One thing for sure more people are playing competitive paintball since I first started in 2007. If "rivalry" is one issue that will hinder Malaysia paintball... why are there rivals in the first place? or should we just call them partners with different directions? Perhaps this is what Singapore paintball is facing. I am a firm believer of actions... and to those people who just talk and talk about wanting to promote paintball in Singapore, I challenge you to just do it but never never put down those who are already doing so, for one day, you might be the next person who will be taking the blame. Don't talk about paintball politics, just ask ourselves do we want to play paintball or not? I would like to quote a facebook entry by a friend which I thought is very true: When I don't organize, people asked and when I do, I get attitude.

Develop our very own Singapore paintball culture...