Ken Tsuda Paintball Clinic in Red Dynasty Paintball Park

Ken Tsuda from Oakland Blast was in town and made a surprise visit to Red Dynasty Paintball Park. Ken is the manager of Oakland Blast and father of professional player Kenny Tsuda. Oakland Blast is currently in the 2nd position of the USPL Pro Division and they will be playing in Vegas this weekend. Ken shared his experiences on players attitude and teamwork with our local players and went into the field to share about field walking. The light hearted session lasted about 3 hours with a few skirmishes among local players.

As I was driving Ken back to the hotel, he pointed out that he could identify a few players who are pretty good in the game...

Ken with the gang.

Field walking with Warlord and Mark.

"Now you see him".

Sharing session.

Ken explaining to Calgar on how to play the door.

Respect the people we love...

I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man's self respect is a sin.

- Antoine de Saint Exupery

Singapore Paintball Novice Series 2009 Leg 3 - Team Preview Part 2

Karma Troopers - A "new" team in the local scene... Karma Troopers is actually not that new. With a regular presence in the MY-NPL, Karma Troopers are a force to reckon with. With podium finishes in overseas tournament, we will be expecting some very tough fight from this team. Led by team captain Isnaen, this is surely another team to look out for. A team with experience and wits, this team is not here to make up numbers! First step in supporting local tournament!

X Factor - A newly formed team with the SPNS, X Factor is led by Beryl who used to be part of the Singapore's first female team. With the introduction of Dean and Irwan (formerly from Five O), this team needs to put in their best performance in every game. Assisting Beryl with be the beloved Nicky (WOOT! WOOT! sorry, cant help it) who has tons of playing experience.

Berserkers - Sons of Odin - Another new team with the SPNS, Berserkers - Sons of Odin (in short Berserkers, very long name...) is led by Jit who is a reliable mid player who is able to control the game very well. Back by his teammates, Haz, Zach, Neil and Suwandi... this is the only team in SPNS who submitted a 5 men line up... talk about consistency on the field. Another new team with hidden powers!

A new era - How is it coming along?

There are news going around the paintball industry about a complete restructure of the sport. These news are common and they are usually released towards the end of the year when a new product is about to launch... usually get someone stepping out from the crowd stating a new industry for the new year... and we have all witnessed these before... when Sup'Air introduced inflatable bunkers, hyperball went into extinction, when autocockers were introduced, pump fans got very disturbed, when speed feeds were introduced, everyone when into speed feed system. We all know about a marker that "talks", it will be soon when this becomes a default feature for all markers.

Well, if you classify them into categories, you will realized that while some are minor changes, some simply change the whole industry forever. There was a time when everyone was playing 5 men games when someone came up with the idea of playing 7 men, then there is X ball and now a race to format by the PSP. Its always changing, changing and changing... but never once has anything come this close, the introduction of 0.5 caliber paintballs.

Last year, Kingman Training came up with the 0.43 caliber. It was radical, it was revolutionary... but it does seem to capture the hearts of the audience, as Singaporeans would call it, the next BOOMzz... 1 year later, Chasers and Erasers are still the "fun" thing but that's all it is.

Richmond Italia, inventor of the Xball came up with the idea of introducing the new 0.5 caliber paintball, he calls it "Paintball 2.0". Well... you have just seen 0.43, now you are introducing 0.5... maybe by tomorrow someone will introduce the 0.53 and so on and so on. But hey! If you say its "Paintball 2.0", show us!!!

This "new" invention is said to be cheaper, smaller, lesser impact, travels further... breaks better than 0.68 and yet has lesser fills in it. Unbelievable!!! A new technology it is... there are even talks about manufacturers producing 0.5 caliber markers, well... G.I Milsim showed us 2 models in the November issue of FACEFULL. We have heard of an Eclipse 0.5 caliber kit in the making. Procaps are part of this project... so is Smartparts, the big leagues such as PSP, Millenium, USPL (renamed NPPL)... so maybe, maybe this is a reality. It is true than there is "Paintball 2.0"!!!

So how is this going to affect everyone? With cheaper paint cost, it will be stupid for manufacturers/operators not to change their markers from 0.68 to 0.5. More storage space, cheaper shipping cost, more paint sales, etc. Paintballers will have lesser to carry... lighter paintballs, smaller markers, its cheaper so shooting more than usual, etc. But wait! With this change means new markers! Paintball markers are not cheap to begin with, so to get everyone (and we are talking about millions) to change from 0.68 to 0.5, I say another 2 - 3 years of transition? We'll see...

Singapore Paintball Novice Series 2009 Leg 3 - Team Preview Part 1

Sun Tzu Art of War: "Know your enemy and know yourself"...

With SPNS Leg 3 less than 3 weeks away, teams are starting to heat up the pace and picking up paintball markers again. Why are we not surprise that this leg of the SPNS is actually anybody's game? Is there such a thing as sheer luck in paintball? Well... you can play the best game and still not win the game. So perhaps there is such a thing as sheer luck in the game of paintball.

How different is this leg of the tournament as compared to previous legs? The most significant difference is the use of the Millenium bunkers, yeap... all 44 bunkers, similar to the Millenium games in Europe but more importantly, the same set up as the upcoming World Cup Asia (WCA) in November. So... teams who are going to the WCA, brace yourself and play the game well... this could be your best preparation before the world stage. This is good preparation...

The venue... the next big thing in SPNS 2009. Playing paintball in a park... not any other park but the Grand Lawn in West Coast Park is the best venue to date. Imagine this... its lunch time and stream of paintballers entering McDonalds in their colourful paintball jerseys and pants, headbands, masks, a big statement...a very big statement... RECOGNITION should be the right word.

Even if you are not playing... be there to show support for our local lads. Red Bull will be served...

In no order:

Contract Killers - 2 new inclusions, Nick and Keith from ex-Kamikaze. With the retirement of Dzul and the long lost Aaron, CK will see a new front line up. With Division 4 experiences in MPOC and NPL, Nick and Keith will be a valuable asset to the team who will be gunning for the top honours. Last SPNS leg MVP Sham (Rocketfingers) will also ensure that this team is certainly no pushover.

Nick

Red West - West or east? All eyes will be on this team who won Leg 1 and Leg 2 of the 2009 series. Leg 3? Long serving players, Ryan and Zach from the Singapore American School has returned home which means a total transformation for Red West. With 4 new inclusions (Yazid, Sophie, Julya and Chee Lang, I mean Yong...,and a totally new setup, Red West is under pressure to live up to the name of their predecessors. Returning to the paintball scene is Julya who was a former Red Fraction.

Chee Yong, SPNS Leg 1 MVP

Five O - Another team to look out for... Talk about masters of rules, no other team beats this team. With the inclusion of Casey and Jayex from 20th Legion, Mark from Kamikaze and Calgar a former Red Sevens, this is some what a tough lineup. Not forgetting Fuzz (yes, we gonna crush you and master of taunts) and Ivan from Red Sevens. We are talking about a team with combination experience of 8 years? Maybe 10...

Calgar and Ivan

More sneak preview after this weekend...

Action packed paintball storming into West Coast Park

Singapore Paintball Novice Series, usually coined by local paintballers as SPNS, is a three-leg paintball competition for local paintball teams. With a history of 2 years, the event has been mostly held at the sponsored venue, Red Dynasty Paintball Park. The last leg, that is, 2nd leg for this year, was held on 17 May 2009 at Pasir Ris Park which saw its first move outside of a paintball park. Catching the eyes of the eastern park-goers, the organisers of the event will once again be wrestling their muscles to bring this event into another part of Singapore.

The Final Leg of SPNS 2009 will be showcased in the western part of Singapore at West Coast Park. This event is another proud collaboration between Paintball Association (Singapore), Singapore Sports Council and National Parks with the main sponsor and organiser, Red Dynasty Paintball Park.

In this Final Leg, 10-15 teams will be closely competing for the final glory of being the Champion for this leg and for the year. The champion team for the last competition leg was won by Red West which was formed by a mixture of NS men and students. Through some player transfers from teams to teams and recruitment of new talents, the level of play is predicted to be quite even among most established teams in this final leg which means that every single point counts, and, every single win and elimination of the opponent counts.

Three of the local paintball teams, Contract Killers, Dark Militia and Red West, claimed the most points from the last leg of SPNS which indicated high consistency in team performance across all qualifying matches, are aiming to trounce the other teams. Contract Killers is led by Sharkill, proudly known as the Loudest Player on the Field, has an impressive line-up of the showy boys who are crazy over paintball and Guitar Hero. These guys go around showing their talents in paintball and Guitar Hero, breaking records in the game arcades around Singapore.

Captain of Five-O, a new team from SPNS Leg 2 which clinched an impressive 2nd spot in Leg 2, Muhd Fadzri, shared with the organisers on his team’s motto and sends his “regards” (message) to the rest of the teams while clenching his fists in the air and smirking away, “We will crush your dreams!”.

A new kid on the block for this final leg captained by an outstanding designer, Tai Jit Wei, has been training on and off the paintball field. Closely known to many as Jit, he has put together a group of “mysterious warriors” who strikes a chord in many as they have not displayed their entire team’s prowess against most other teams. Jit’s team, Berserkers Sons of Odin, would be the team to be wary of in this upcoming leg.

Seek and Destroy, and, Seek and Strike, are considerably new teams under a family of paintballers called The Seekers Family which performed well in the last leg. They would be looking at putting up a tough fight against all the rest of the teams with their regular trainings under the guidance of Kiko, a regionally known forward player whose team, Real Pinoy, will be representing Philippines in November’s World Cup Asia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Evil Avengers and Ares have recently recruited a few new players over the past few months strongly boosting the depth of their team. Evil Avengers, led by experienced players, Shazahar, David Leow, Ian Tang, Aaron, had recruited a new forward player, Lester Wing, who had impressed quite a few players with his lightning fast sprints and decisive movements on the field. Ares - a team of international school students that has their experienced line-up of back players featuring Chris Hampton and Greg Goana.

Black Aces and X-Factor are 2 teams who will be making their debut on 18 October.

All the points accumulated from the previous 2 legs this year and this final leg will determine who will be crowned the Overall Champion Team for 2009 for SPNS.

Awards that will be given out during the Final Leg of SPNS 2009 are Overall Champion Team for 2009, Champion Team for Leg 3 SPNS 2009, Young Gun Winner and Most Valuable Player (MVP).

The event is free access for all members of the public to the spectators’ gallery.

SPNS 2009 Leg 3 is held at West Coast Park on 18 October 2009 (8am-5pm).

For more information, visit http://www.weplaypaintball.com/SPNS.html or email the organisers at spns@weplaypaintball.com.

Words by Jane Koh
President of Paintball Association of Singapore

THORB sponsor Red Sevens!!!

Its official! THORB will be sponsoring Singapore's first competitive paintball team, Red Sevens with their high quality sports apparel.

THORB which is specially designed and developed by parent company Sports360 provides quality sporting apparel to local sports fraternity such as the national dragonboat team and the national junior hockey team.

Red Sevens is proud to be affiliated to THORB in promoting its line of sporting apparels.

A night for GUITAR ZEROESSSS!!!!

Intense... Red, Red, Blue, Blue, GREENNNNNNNNNNN

Lester and the noob...or is it?

Macham like real only...

Junk food...

The future hero...

Cheaters!!!

Well...no comments.

TAU POK!!!

Muscleman...

A crazy night of Guitar Heroes for the paintball community... courtesy of Sham and Mayor. We were able to enjoy a night of good strumming, drumming and certainly laughing... So here's to the paintball guitar zeroes who were there. And we all know which who is the worst player! Been a while since everyone get together... Happy Birthday Chai Hock and Gerald!

For those who were not there...this is what you missed.

Special mention to a few others who popped by... Ian, Judas, Ben's bro, Ben Junior, Paul and wife...

Paintballers World Paintballers Gathering!!!

There is an unofficial gathering for Singapore paintballers today, 26 Sept 09 from 6.30 pm onwards at Paintballers World. If you would like to come by to hang around, talk paintball, meet paintballers... you are invited! Sucky food will be prepared... but only limited portion. Drinks are available too.

We are located at www.paintballersworld.com

*Nick announced that he will be performing a dance tomorrow...

More photos of the gathering later today!!!

Oakland Blast paintball clinic in Singapore!!!

Red Dynasty will be organizing a paintball clinic conducted by Ken Tsuda from USPL team Oakland Blast. This clinic will be held just one week ahead of SPNS Leg 3 on 11 Oct 2009. Time of the clinic will be announced nearer to date.

Ken is the team manager and one of the key coaching staff of Oakland Blast and he has been instrumental in their performance in this season's USPL. With years of playing and coaching experience, Ken will be keen to share his field tips and strategies with our local community.

Oakland Blast is currently ranked 2nd placing in the USPL Pro Division ahead of teams such as Dynasty, XSV, Infamous...

Recommended for all SPNS participants and BTO-ed players.

WHAT A BLAST!

Paintball Extravaganza Photo Story

Paintball Extravaganza 2009, a tradeshow for paintball business owner is officially over. This 3 day tradeshow saw the participation of many people from the industry. Views were shared and visions were paved... met a few paintball icons too. Took the opportunity to get some certification too.

Tippmann Tech Certification

Dye NT Tech Course with Billy Wing, Ironmen

Planet Eclipse Tech Certification

Tippmann TPX

Rusty Glaze conducting "Paintball store and makeover"

Rich Telford from XSV and Mike Paxson from Ironmen

Mikko from Ironmen

Singapore Paintball Novice Series 2009 (18 October 2009) - Preview

The early bird registration for SPNS Leg 3 has just ended with 9 early registered teams. Kudos to all teams who have submitted their registration, those who have not done so, fred not, you have until 4 Oct 2009 (2 more weeks). With the SPNS barely a month away, teams will be training and getting their mechanics and strategies right on the field.

From now till 4 Oct, I am hoping to see 3 more registering teams, making the final 12. The last series of the the tournament will see teams competing in West Coast Park. While some might have doubts (e.g. location, accessibility, crowd, etc) over the decision of organizing the event in WCP, we believe that it is the best location which we can afford since the intervention of SPNS in 2008. Pasir Ris Park was good, this one will be better... well, at least McDonalds is only a footstep away. So no more hungry stomach before the games.

New to the series are 2 new participating teams: 1) Black Aces and 2) Beserkers: Sons of Odin. While both teams are new to the series, they are not new to the game of paintball. Led by Blackhawk and Jit respectively, both teams have some experiences with paintball one way or another.

Calling out to teams who have not registered to do so quickly... let's make this last tournament of the year a big bang!

How is it affecting Singapore paintball?

Foods for thought... recently, there has been a calling for a unified federation for paintball in Malaysia. Basically, it is a recognized federation with sole purpose of promoting and developing paintball in Malaysia. This federation will be recognized by the National Sports Council and eventually a mainstream sports in Malaysia which youths can participate the sport in school and continue to play the game when they are into their adulthood while participating in what we call "THE" recognized national competition...

When it comes to deciding who should run this unified federation, everyone has their own personal view. BUT, personally, I think the answer is pretty clear. The federation should be run by the people who has brought Malaysia paintball to where it is today. To be honest, I am really happy for all Malaysian paintballers and paintball in Malaysia. With the recognition of paintball as a mainstream sport across the region, I am hoping that Singapore governing authorities can cut the red tape for our local paintballers to participate this sport in accordance to how it is done internationally, in this case, 1) paintball marker possession similar to a sporting equipment 2) declassification of paintball marker from the firearms act.

Last year, there was a tournament that was organized by a Malaysian organization known as the MPA (details of the tournament, Flora Festival), to be really honest, it is one of the most glamourous event that I have ever attended, there were 4 professional teams, there were hovercrafts shooting confetit in the air during the opening ceremony, there was a band playing music during the teams march pass, there was a stadium that was cater for this event. The food that was served throughout tournament days is free (seafood dinner, BBQ dinner, buffet breakfast, etc), the accomodation was free, the travel expenses (ferry and bus tickets) were free, we were playing with new JT bunkers covered by new professional paintball nettings and even the paintballs were free (we were given 5 boxes of paintballs). All we need to do is to show up for the event! What a good deal for any paintball team!!! The only thing about this tournament was that no one knew who the organizing committee was. I mean of course, we had to ask around... but the only reply that we got was "Its the MPA". I mean what more can I ask for when the event is 100% totally free! So we didnt really pursue it...

Please dont get me wrong, I am not saying that this event is not good or anything but in fact, it is one of the most organized tournament that I have ever attended. The organization of the event was fantastic, we even have a liaison leader who will cater to any of our queries, and show us around the place...

I was told that this organization apply for some government grant and was given loads of money to organize this event. I am not surprised given that the Malaysia government and the state government are fully behind this sport. But honestly, that was also the last time that I have heard from the MPA. Rumours had it that its a one off event...

With the recent "hoohaa" about a National Federation for paintball in Malaysia, one of the main focus will surely be the fundings and recognition from government. Surely, I would like to see the people who are driving paintball to get this funding because it is what they deserved for putting in the effort to plan, organize, develop and promote the sports in Malaysia. But I would also like to see that this funding is put into good use in driving for a common regional body who can not only promote paintball in Malaysia but also be a driving force for paintball in Asia. Some suggestions perhaps:

1) Statistics research - Research are important. Its the basis of putting everything that is wrong to right. A good research for paintball can cover areas such as statistics research for paintball safety. Not only will this research be used by paintball association or bodies across the region to develop paintball in their respective countries. But most importantly, it is backed by a registered, recongized and reputable paintball body that can be recognized by the local government.

2) Coaching aids - While majority of the paintballers I know learnt their skills from a fellow paintballer or watching videos on the internet. A structure paintball coaching aid is need to ensure that the fundamentals of paintball coaching is recognized. Yes, it takes a lot of time to come up with this coaching aid but it is also a piece of good material to get most if not all of the people doing the right thing.

3) Good refereeing body - This has always been the toughest to achieve. A good league can only be consider good if there is a good governing body for refeering and continuous development of referees in the region.

4) National representation - As per any team sports, there is always a national representation, in this case refers as a national team. The national team should only comprised of paintballers from the respective country based on their nationality. All paintballers know that there is no such thing as a national team but there are more pros than cons to forming one. With a national body, the association of the respective country is responsible for developing such a team and thus the due recognition from the paintball community, clubs and teams. The national body will also be able to lobby support from their respective sports council when it comes to funding the national team. National trials and selection can also be formulated. To continue developing the national team, the association is responsible for youth developments and awareness. So when will this national competition be held? Well... the World Cup perhaps? Let's put it this way... any good paintballers who already have a team will be playing in the World Cup. So they will be there anyway... a separate tournament in the World Cup where only national representative can play to represent their countries can help to determine the regional powers and grow the sport in the region. This could be done in a race to 2 or 3 format X ball style. This is nothing new as there are seperate tournaments in the Millenium competitions too, like the Activision Cup, the Intercontinental Cup, etc. The idea of formulating this tournament is to get the national bodies to be involved thus giving the sport the recognition it deserved.

I am hoping for more paintball awareness... more awareness means that paintball is more recognized in the region. One day, we will all hope for reply like this...

A: I play paintball...

B: Woah...I have heard of that... tell me more

instead of

A: I play paintball

B: Ohhh...pinpall

or

A: I play paintball

B: Ohhh...very painful leh!!! and expensive and I got no army uniform to play in.

or

A: I play paintball

B: What is that?

As the great man says: SOKONG SOKONG!!! from the Singapoeans!

Paintballers World - Singapore Paintball Proshop

Well... I wrote about this previously... but thought that I will be doing the shop and TILT a disservice if I dont put up all these photos!!! Thanks Tilt!

Basically, the shop has all that one needs to play the game of paintball... from recreational to tournament players. Tons of lifestyle clothings for you to act like a paintballer when you are not playing.

We will soon have a PS3 in the shop too...

This is the best part of the proshop. We fixed a TV just outside the store and keep running paintball videos... talk about creating awareness for paintball. One funny conversation that I had with a passerby:

Passerby: "Wah...!!! New shop. What do you guys sell?"

Proshop: "We are a paintball store."

Passerby: "Ohhhh... (looking intelligent), I know...Ping Pong..."

Proshop: "Er...no, its paintball."

Passerby: "Ohhh...pinball, I know I know."

Proshop: "!@#$%^&*() (thoughts....)"

Awarness is important... visit their website, www.paintballersworld.com

Learn from the pros...paintball clinic, are they good?

2 years ago when Seburo, Elle and I attended the Hybrid Paintball Clinic in KL, we had the most wonderful time. Firstly, we get to see how the professional players play on the field, these guys also share with us an insight to their game plans and you will get a chance to speak to them and find out how much time they have devoted their life to the sport. But more importantly, they open up the door to more paintball drills, drills and drills. So are these drills any good? Or should I say are these clinics effective?

Trust me, any paintball clinics by any professional players out there are one of the best things that any paintballer should attend. Regardless of how good you already are, you will surely learn some new things from these paintball clinics. Surely, if you have already been playing for a while, you might not learn as much as a beginner. Which is why... if I can suggest, I would like to call out to all new players to attend any paintball clinics that are out there. Not only will you learn some of the common terms used in paintball such as snapshooting, break out, etc. You can also make use of this opportunity to know players from other teams and who knows, you can eventually earn a spot in the team. There is no better time to break into the community by attending a paintball clinic.

Sometimes, to get the best, you have to pay for the best... so some of these clinics (especially those conducted by the professionals) do come at a cost. For example, I have to pay RM700 to attend the clinic by Nicky Cuba, Todd Martinez, Gary Shows, Nick Shows and Chris Corcino. Of course, some might say its a rip off... yes, I do agree but hey... I learnt a lot. I must say that clinic helped me to break into the community and also made some long lasting friends. About 1 year ago, I flew to Taiwan to attend Ollie Lang's clinic and came back with some of the best snapshooting paintball drills. Thats where I learnt how to dive too... and yeah we made some very good friends too, which eventually kept me going back to Taiwan almost every year. I cannot remember how much I paid for that clinic... but it is surely worth that money.

I am putting this in my blog because I feel that there is a need for all to understand the importance of attending a paintball clinic and the many things that can follow suite. This November 2009, Malaysia team Dark Angels will be inviting the most profilic player from the famous Joy Division, Maximus Lundqvist to Kuala Lumpur to conduct a paintball clinic. I would like to urge all paintballers who can afford the trip to head up for this clinic and you will be amazed at the results!

Paintball Proshop in Singapore - Paintballers World

Paintballers World is located at Shaw Towers, 100 Beach Road, #02-21.

Paintballers World is an authorized dealer for most of the major paintball brands. You should find all if not most required paintball accessories to get you started in the sport of paintball. We cater to individual players, recreational players and tournament teams (with tournament packages! Just ask any of our friendly staff). We also carry paintball lifestyle clothings to bring out your paintball personality off the field. Look good on the field and fantabulous off the field!

We aim to be a one-stop paintball store that caters to the growing community and offers paintball consultation and supplies (even an all-in-one field package) to regional paintball startups. Our forte in planning and coordinating paintball events and tournaments in Singapore is highly regarded by our industry partners. We are always on a lookout for partners to promote and to develop this game in Singapore, if you are keen to be a partner or dealer with Paintballer’s World, get in touch with us!

“Gett’in Poisoned Without Realising” is the tagline for our shop. So, if you are poisoned, you know where to find us.

24 hours to another first...

New stuff for Singapore paintball in 24 hours...

A Big THANK YOU!

As the MPOC 2009 season has come to a close. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following people and organization who has helped us in many, many ways:

Our sponsors - DYE ASIA, KCHL PAINTBALL, FURIOUS PAINTBALL. You make us look good on the field.

Daniel "Junior" - For giving the team the needed support and pointers the whole entire MPOC season. Not forgetting that you also help the team with our logistic issues and becoming our default "tech" manager. Congratulations on the winning the overall series Division 2 Champion with Lemon Ruskies.

Sani "Gong Gong" - For being so motivational every time we see you. Your words of support surely brighten our day.

KCHL Paintball - For sponsoring the team with paintball equipment and making this game affordable for us. Thanks for the trust that you have given to us and allowing us to play with higher division and experience players in the league on many occasions.

Malaysia Marshals - For taking all the unneccessary hits when marshalling. There will be times when we get a little hot headed when on the field. But trust me, you have our respect. We understand that there can be good calls and bad calls at times. Thanks Ulitmate Ref, Mr. Junaidi for always ready to discuss with us about game regulations and rules.

MPOC committee and vendors support - Paul, Allan, KCHL, NAPSHOT, PROPAINTBALL, SKIRMISH PAINTBALL ASIA for supporting the league that we all love. Without vendors support, there will be no paintball games.

Team Damnation on podium finish

Team Damnation (second from left - Marcus, Alan, Chak, Brian and Grant)

Team Damnation from Singapore won the 1st runners up placing in the MPOC 3rd Division!!! Congratulations to Team Damnation for finishing on the podium. The team led by Grant (Houdini) with Chak, Marcus (Nabelrock), Alan (Blade), Brian (RocketReed) and Abdullah (from Dark Militia) started Day 1 of the competition with an excellent run by finishing in the 4th position with an impressive result of 7 wins out of 10 qualifying games. They took Day 2 with a fantastic results by beating another Singapore based team, Red Sevens to qualify for the Semi Finals. They were so "hot" that they also beat the MPOC Division 3 Overall Series Champion Oscar Legio X in the Semi Finals only losing to eventual winner Eastsiderz.

Congratulations to Team Damnation!

A recent poll about paintball in Singapore...

There is a recent poll set by a Singaporean player, Joran, you can visit his blog at joranatplay.blogspot.com.

The poll entitled "If you play speedball and staying in Singapore, why arent you playing locally" has a list of options for people to choose their reasons of why they are not playing speedball even though they are residing in Singapore. Well, I guess this poll is targeted at only a small group of people. I am pretty sure I would have already knew if there are any Singaporeans who are actively playing speedball in overseas but not locally. Come to think of it... maybe a handful of them, perhaps nothing more than 10 players. But of course, if this poll is targeted at Singaporeans not playing paintball (speedball + woodsball), I guess there might be a bigger pool out there.

If it was me who is setting up the poll, I will have options like:

- Lack of support from local authorities

- Insufficient speedball infrastructure

- Lack of resources/information to get me started

- Hard to form a team and get people interested

but instead there are options such as:

- Bad memories

- Markers poorly maintained

- Dont like the management

- Someone call me a noob when I was a newbie

- Expensive, etc, etc

Surely, everyone can have their own opinions of how things should be done. Some might be right, some might be wrong, thats why the term subjective. The next person who is trying promote speedball in Singapore (if you are reading this), please make sure that you must first have a good managment, restrict the use of the word "Noob" in your field, ensure all markers are working fine, leave good memories for every participants, hire staff that are well liked by people, make sure they encourage only people of good skill level to go to your field, use cheap paintballs and so on and so on.

Happy polling.

Chee Lang!

A new term for Singapore paintball... "Chee Lang".

The term "Chee Lang" refers to a common paintball stance adopted by paintballers who try to maintain minimum profile (without the "chicken wings" (arm) sticking out) while resting the gas tank on top of their shoulder with the trigger hand resembling a swan or a snake.

Jackie showing the Chee Lang hand

Best teambuilding game ever!

Ask someone who has played paintball before and you will gather 2 schools of thought:

Firstly, you have a group of people who often see the negative side of things, so they will tend to relate paintball to pain, tiring, expensive, hard to organize as some of the descriptions. In some ways, they are not wrong... it is indeed painful when being shot by a paintball hit but everyone has a different threshold of pain, so what is painful to you, might just feel like a mosquito bite for me. As a shooting game where participants run and dodge, I am pretty sure even the fittest will complain about muscle cramps but hey... I get tired even walking up the stairs to my house. So its managable. Is it expensive? That all depends on the depth of your wallet but if the company is footing the bill, why do I care? Is it hard to organize? Hmmm...fix a date and show up. How difficult can that be?

I will now focus on the positive side of paintball... IT'S A GAME FOR EVERYONE! I have seen uncles and aunties (referring to people who are in their late 40's or 50's) who enjoyed themselves. I have seen kids as young as 14 years old shooting the hell out of their daddy who boost about his army experience. I have seen ladies who are demure in nature goes onto the field to become the most fearless player. Again... IT's A GAME FOR EVERYONE. Okay, now that everyone can be part of this game, I will focus on the fun side of this game. Imagine this, you "throw" someone into the field, armed him with 100 paintballs (ammunition), you bestow him with great authority by passing him a paintball marker (gun) and VIOLA! you have created a soldier or an animal. Why animal? When the animal is hungry, it looks for food, when the animal is under threat by bigger animals, it puts up its defenses. Likewise, in the game of paintball, we create this adrenaline hunger in everyone.

Oh... did I also mention that it brings out ones confidence, decision making skills and teambuilding among people you never knew existed in your company. The game of paintball has got many misconceptions since its intervention, we have heard stories about people getting injured during a game of paintball, people trying to promote terrorism using paintball, people who played paintball once and never to return again... but above all that is said, there is no denial that paintball is just a fun game.

Farid CYRUS - The unsung paintballer...

In my last post, I did a feature of JUDAS, the most medalled player in Singapore. And I thought maybe I will go one step further to do another feature on another Singapore whom I call as "The Unsung Paintballer". Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to you: Farid "Cyrus".

Farid maybe a little less well known in Singapore but he is a big name in Malaysia. Having played for teams such as KL Lockdown, Johor Pirates, Dark Angels and Singapore based team, Team Damnation, Farid is a familar face in the North. Many will misunderstood him as a Malaysian but in fact, Farid is a true born Singaporean. His job as a Regional Database Adminstrator requires him to travel often and therefore, finding paintball as a regular sport while he travels explain why he is so popular in Malaysia. Farid started playing paintball during his short stint with local paintball center TAG and he has not looked back since.

Farid displayed his support to the local game and participated in SPNS 2009 Leg 2 with Wargh!Cooks and did his fair share of becoming one of the most fearless snake player. We catch up with him as just as he was prepared to travel to Bangkok again... yes, you are right for paintball and this time with Demonz Red.

Cyrus making his runs down the tape during SPNS

1) Having played in SPNS, what do you think of the standards for mechical marker division in Singapore?

"The mech division in singapore is steadily growing but the number of people playing regularly are limited and this will cause the skillset to be stagnant after some time. Also with it being a league only for Singaporeans, it somewhat limits level of competition."

2) What is the "thing" that a paintballer must have to keep the fire buring?

"Lots and lots of friends whom you want to shoot . I think the fire will never die out if you have wonderful friends who will assist you and also mock you. Also a girlfriend who always wants to shoot you helps too."