Singapore team Dark Militia looking for 2 guest players for Kedah Sultan Cup

If you are interested to participate in the Kedah Sultan Cup 2010 held 21May - 22 May 2010 , there are 2 available slots in Singapore based team Dark Militia. Dark Militia will be participating in the Novice Division and they are looking for 2 more players to make the trip. There will be free registration... all you need to do is to show up and pay for paintballs. Interested parties, please contact PaintBallGixxer at www.weplaypaintball.com/forum. Dark Militia is the SPNS 2009 Leg 3 Champion held in Singapore and a regular paintball force in Singapore.

Kedah survival kit

As some of you might already know... there will be a few teams which will be travelling to Kedah for the Kedah Sultan Cup 2010. To date, the following Singapore teams have indicated interest to participate in the tournament, they are mainly, Team Zoo, Team Contract Killers, Red Sevens, Rampage Onslaught, Heartbreakers and Dark Militia. With a strong Singapore contingent heading North, most are planning to travel together on a hired bus. And I thought it will be interesting to put up a survival kit as this is the first time Singapore paintballers are setting foot on Kedah... so here it goes:

1) Money - Money makes the world goes round. In paintball, this is one of the most essential weapon. It is always good to have the extra dough in your pocket for assurance. Try to maximize your pocket if you can... plan for food, drinks, transportation, accommodation. And if you have that little extra, you might want to bring along some money for the event t-shirt (if any) or paintball souvenir. Factor in money for the shared drinks that you will be buying during the competition days.

2) Ammunition - A long journey indeed... 10 - 12 hours of bus travel and that's almost half a day. Read magazines, eat sleeping pills, play PSP, listen to Ipod... whatever you can do keep yourself busy on the bus. Buy a neck rest if necessary, this is a must buy!

3) Camera - Bring along a camera if you have one. Take tons of photographs and publish them on your Facebook or blog and help promote paintball awareness... we need that in Singapore. And if you are on the podium, you want to be able to pass that camera to someone who will be able to take some nice photos of you receiving the prizes.

4) Passport - The number 1 thing for travel... keep it safe. If you forget to bring it... good luck and see you next year!

5) Paintball t-shirt - Paintballers are stylist people, put on your best attire for field walking... if you don't have a paintball t-shirt, get one now! It is a form of identity and for easy identification among paintballers. We are family!

6) Team banner and national flag - You can use it on the podium or hang it by your resting tentage. Tell people where you are from and create a name for yourself... it is very rare that there are tournaments in Kedah so leave a good impression.

7) Your heart - Play your hearts out in the field and do your best to win every games.

All the best to Team Singapore!

Exkay in town!

EXkay from Team XFox (MPOC, Division 1), Malaysia will be in town on 16 May 2010. Xkay started playing as a snake player since 2004 and has been featured in Team Xplosive, a junior team from Guns and Bruises which is commonly known as Xtioneers today. With the Xtioneers, EXKay was part of the team who won the World Cup Asia 2008 Division 1 3rd placing. In 2009, EXKay with his group of Foxes won the MPOC Division 1 Series Champion. Currently 4th on the MPOC Division 1 table, XFox is also a Dye sponsored team and one of the most prolific team in Asia.

More information at www.weplaypaintball.com/forum

PS. Exkay is a SEED user. Photos from Exkay's Facebook and belongs to rightful owner.

Please take a look at our sport and do something...

If this means anything to anyone... I am writing this topic in hoping to get the attention of influential authorities in Singapore to take a look at the sport that we all love. As it is, paintball guns (markers, that's how paintballers like to call it) are consider as firearms in Singapore and illegal for individual possession, meaning unlike conventional sports such as football, archery and wakeboarding, etc, where interested individuals can participate the sport using their own equipment and enjoying the game at specific location, paintball is often classified as an unfriendly sport. Major parts of this being the fact that serious paintballers are not allow to possess their own personal paintball markers in Singapore.

It is not hard to understand that if you want to do bowling, you will need to go to a bowling alley and if you want to play squash, you have to go to a squash court and if you want to do boxing, you need to step into the boxing ring. Likewise for paintball, if you want to paint, you will have to go to a paintball center... Well, that's a given and most people are very clear about this. The truth is... before paintballers become hardcore players, they are often introduced to recreational paintball using house rental markers and making progression into the sport. However, if these players decide to participate paintball at a competitive level then problems start arising. In the past, there used to be a center divider in the middle of the field which restrict players from going across to the opposite side thus preventing players from getting into body contact... tell this to any hardcore paintballers and they will tell you that paintball is a non physical contact sport. This restriction was enforced in Singapore for the last 11 years and was officially removed in November 2009. Kudos to the authorities for doing that... seriously, it meant a lot to Singapore paintball as we are in the midst of doing "catching up" to our neighbours, Malaysia. Many players around the Asia region highly regard Malaysia as the "Paintball Hub of Asia" which I have no complains about... Malaysia is indeed the paintball hub of Asia! Just look at the number of tournaments, the number of people playing paintball and the number of paintball field sprouting across the country in the last 3 years. Surely, Singapore paintball is in no comparison to Malaysia’s development as the latter has received tremendous support from its grassroots and all the way to government sectors such as the sports ministry and the tourism board. With the welcoming of the sports also see a level of flexibility in the possession of paintball markers. This being said... Singaporeans were actually introduced to paintball earlier than Malaysians (told to me by one of the seniors of the industry). That's the kind of "catching up" that I am referring to.

With a restriction on individual possession in Singapore, is this the end of competitive paintball for Singaporeans? Seriously, I don't have an answer; I don't think anyone has an answer to that (well, at least for now...). Ask anyone in Malaysia about paintball and they can describe to you what it is... well, at least the part of the game causing pain and bruises. Ask any Singaporean on the street and you might end up with "Ping Pong" (Allan, if you are reading this, I am not talking about you). So what is preventing paintball from getting the same level of awareness as in Malaysia? I really don’t know... perhaps it is our typical Singaporean attitude of being “bochup, don’t care, don’t know” attitude. What we really need is to make paintball more informative and please if you are serious about promoting paintball in Singapore, don’t go around showing off your battle scars to people who have not played the game before... don’t take photos of your scars and post them on Facebook... that is 100% not the right way to introduce people to playing the sport.

Providing facts of the game is what we really need now... what we need is a good piece of study paper supported by reputable universities stating the advantages of playing paintball, the safety aspects of participating in paintball, the number of people playing paintball, the development and progress of the game... maybe until we have a good compilation of these facts and figures then somebody from the authorities might bother to look at our sport. Still... it is not the perfect solution. We still need a very supportive representative who is also a good presenter who is willing to put his job on the line for the good cause of paintball. He/she will need to present the studies to his higher management which are very likely to know paintball as a recreational sport and it being dangerous. At least that's how it works in Singapore... Of course during the meeting, when you get questions like "where are the risks assessments?", "how can it benefit us?", "how safe is safe?”, “how many people are we catering this sport to?", “who watches paintball?” all the representative need to do is to throw his arms wide open and goes "TAAADAAAAHHH!!!!", shouting out loud "THERE YOU GO! I CAME PREPARED!" That's not all...you have to convince him to do the same thing when his boss ask him the same questions later. And we all know that it might never come...

Something that always puzzled me... and I am not saying bad about other sports but drawing some comparison against other sports in Singapore. For example, archery... well, school kids participate in archery, living the Robin Hood in them (yeah, I am stereotypic). You see them carrying their bow and arrows around the school... on the MRT... and you think it is safe? Think again...

Well... firstly, for paintball markers to work, we will need air pump into these markers and trust me, air doesn’t come easily without the right equipment and knowledge of tank filling. Second, kids will always be kids... shooting an apple off my friend’s head is something I always wanted to do... but of course, my sub conscious mind will tell me that it is very dangerous to do that so you never see that happening. Arrows are sharp; they pierce through things... like human bodies DOH! Compound bow arrows can travel up to 300 fps... hey... similar to the speed of a travelling paintball. Er... but paintballers are smart, we put on paintball goggle. Paintballs break on impact, paintball doesn't stain and it is biodegradable. So yeah!!!! We are more concern about the safety of the sport and we are a safer sport! We even have an age restriction to participate in paintball games!

So then...it leave us with the word “intention”... ask any serious archers to go around public places carrying a bow and some arrows and "play Robin Hood" in HDBs or parks and they will tell you that you must be crazy. Reason is simple, they don't do that. They love the sport too much to be acting like fools playing “Robin Hood” in public. Likewise, ask any serious paintballers to go around shooting paintballs in the public and they will tell you go "Frack off" because they know that it is not right. So what's the problem of having individual possession? Didn't we do it for real guns... like guns stored in gun clubs? Hmmm.... I just don't understand the differences, since when are paintball guns more lethal than real guns or it is a case of not wanting to embrace the change of the paintball? Paintball has come a long way from playing in the jungle to a multimillion sport business. Millions of people have played paintball before... a child in his teens has played paintball before, a senior person has played paintball before, a lady who leads a sedentary lifestyle has played paintball before... and they all came out fine. Not only that... ask them about their first paintball experience and they will be tell you details as though it just happened yesterday. Because paintball is fun!

Paintball is dangerous! Surely a sweeping statement... if the sport of boxing and wrestling can be in the YOG... how dangerous can paintball be? I don’t participate in recreational boxing... and I don’t do recreational wrestling... but I am sure millions of corporate office blue and white collar workers have played paintball before.

Let's put this into perspective... if you are a boxer, would you be afraid of receiving punches from your opponents? If you are a wrestler, would you be afraid of your opponents twisting your arms and legs? I think the answer is obvious... if you are a serious paintballer or for the matter of fact someone who pays to play paintball with your friends, would you be afraid of being shot? Well, yes... I would. But no I don’t if I know that this is part and parcel of getting into the sport. So what is so dangerous about paintball? You might have heard of people getting injured from playing paintball... broken ankle, twisted arm, blar blar blar... well... I am sure you have also heard of stories where people died while boxing, people who drowned while swimming, people who fought during a rugby match (well... yeah, those are kids from reputable schools)... its part and parcel of participating in a sport and not just any sport, it is an adrenaline rushing sport, aren’t we talking about promoting extreme sports in Singapore? I read articles of kids driving go kart with the recent go kart hype... we are talking about teenagers who do not need a driving licence to kart... I am not sure about you; I have done karting a few times but everytime I stepped onto the track... I feel vulnerable. And I am a licenced driver.

And recently, there's MMA... "that's so dangerous!!!" tell that to the people who love it... surely, there are some misconception in paintball.

We need to change... we need to adapt to changes. Haven’t we heard this long enough? Tell that to my granny and she will tell you that she needs to learn how to surf the net to keep up to the changes. Paintball has evolved... it started as a recreational game and now it has evolved into a sport. We need to change the regulations to keep ourselves relevant to the changes. One of the most classic examples... the casino. Not only do we have one casino... we have two casinos! We need to embrace the change guys... look into your system and change the regulations accordingly or fall into the mistake of being outclassed.

Enough is enough... we have heard of your invalid excuses of “How many people in Singapore plays paintball?”, “How many spectators can your sport draw as compared to F1? We have a total of 50000 runners!!!”... I will be the first to tell you not to compare apples with oranges. Both are different in nature. Don't compare the S-league with the BPL... you will not convince us. I am actually flattered when paintball was compared to a local marathon in terms of the number of participants.

Sometimes we need to be realistic too. It takes 2 hands to clap... so we understand the need for everyone to work together to make things work, especially in Singapore. We would love to have the biggest paintball event in Singapore, we would love to be allow to store our paintball markers in paintball centers (the word is “our” and not rentals), we would love to see students in school participating in paintball tournaments with all the different divisions. But we also need to be realistic... we need to ask ourselves: “What are we doing to achieve that?” Promoting and starting a brand new sport in a school is one of the toughest things in Singapore... we should be glad that there is a proper system that we can work towards to... the CCA branch’s door one that we should be knocking on. We will then be asked the same question again... “how many people are playing paintball competitively in Singapore?”... okay... say we allow you to promote paintball in our school, can you please appoint a coach for us? For those who are not really into sports, in order to be a certified coach recognized by the Singapore Sports Council, you will need to pass the National Coaching Accreditation Programme (NCAP) theory and practical. It is easy to register for the NCAP theory... where you will need to undergo classes such as sports psychology, sports nutrition, sports fitness, etc. But what about the practical part? Hmmm... paintball has only 30 years of history and as far as I know, there is no certification for paintball coaching in the world... so food for thoughts in a paper chase country like Singapore. Is this the end or the beginning? We will be there eventually... but let’s help ourselves to get this game going first.

As an ardent supporter and promoter of Singapore paintball, I would love to see progress for the sport. As mentioned in my previous entry, we will need the support of these 3 parties to make a transformation: organizers, players and government agencies. As players, we will also need to know that not only do we form the basis of the game; we are also ambassadors for this sport. Let’s help ourselves to get this game going... instead of relying on others. We have a new interim committee for PBAS, so please lend them your support too!

PS. If you are reading this article and you think that there are some truth to this writing, please help to circulate it to anyone whom you deemed fit, otherwise, just ignore the rumblings...

Singapore Polytechnic Paintball Team - Singapore's First Tertiary Paintball Club

Kudos to Singapore Polytechnic (SP) for the support of paintball development in Singapore! If you have been following my post for the past 1 year, you should have seen a progressive growth of this developmental initiative by Singapore Polytechnic. Paintball first set foot in SP on March 2009 when a shooting gallery was set up for its student enrollment exercise. Since then, paintball has been a yearly showcase for SP students in their annual CCA Fair. It is no different this year... Just last week, Red Dynasty Paintball Park was in SP again to initiate paintball as a sporting activity in the school. In the span of 3 days, we managed to sign about 100 students for a paintball trial at Red Dynasty Paintball Park with the aim of forming a SP paintball team. 45 committed students showed up during the trial and were instructed to undergo 2 drills: 1) suicide runs and 2) agility. Well, I have to agree that suicide runs managed to "kill" a few interest but knowing that commitment is all that we need from a future paintballer, some of the students had to be "axed".

By noon, we selected the best 32 students to stay on for the afternoon session where they will be going through skirmishes with one another. However, knowing that the skill of communication is one of the most important factors when players go onto the field, we had to facilitate a "icebreaking" session for them. Well indeed... the ice breaker games worked wonders.

Finally, the games... students were introduced to the game of speedball. God! It was fun... We divided the students into 6 teams and they have to go head on with 2 random teams. As most beginners of speedball, some "committed suicide" or couldn't comprehend the rules of speedball. But nevertheless, it is a good head start for these students and hopefully this team will truly be the first polytechnic team in Singapore.

A league of our own? Singapore style?

There used to be the Singapore Paintball Novice Series (SPNS) in 2008 and 2009. The SPNS was a platform for Singapore paintball enthusiasts to battle their guts out and to put their skills to the "test" before embarking on regional tournaments. I am using the word "test" because in Singapore, its all about "test" and more "test". Singaporeans need to "test" if the ERP works for road users before the full implementation, we need to "test" if the MRT will be overwhelmed before its opening, we need to "test" the YOG with the AYG, it is always putting things to the test... its the same for paintball. It has been pretty quiet around the Singapore paintball scene... Is this the end of paintball in Singapore? I beg to differ... as it is always peaceful before a storm so I am hoping this quiet period will be a good time for all to go back to the drawing board to rethink about paintball in Singapore. There are actually a few ways that paintball in Singapore can undergo a full revamp and I am going to share this in the later topics. While the local competition scene is quiet and some describing it as pins dropping, a handful of us are actually playing in Malaysia. With the last 2 weekends, there are a total of 8 Singapore teams participating in the Malaysia tournament scene. Not bad indeed...

Just last month, the Paintball Association (Singapore), PBAS was handed over to a new interim committee to oversee the promotion and development of paintball in Singapore. Change is always good... new ideas will be formed, new people will be involved, new support will be given... With only less than 30 years of history behind the sport, it will be an uphill task to develop this sport in Singapore given Singaporeans "testing" attitude towards committing to something new. Recreational paintball has been pretty well received across the borders with some gamers being featured in TNP and RazorTV. News like these are always good for creating paintball awareness. Competitively, Singapore teams are always giving their competitors a tough fight... podium wins from local teams such as Red Sevens, ZOO and Contract Killers are always good for the aspiring paintballers who are keen to take up the challenge of participating in regional tournaments against some of the best in Asia. In a recent blogging competition "Star Sports Blogger" organized by the Singapore Sports Council, local blogger and regular paintballer, Grant Harrison from team ZOO was awarded the 2nd prize. This is a big step for paintball as the sports need all the attention that it can get from governing bodies such as the Singapore Sports Council, the Singapore Police Force and of course the general acceptance of paintball as a sport.

In the planning is the Singapore Paintball Series (SPS), a tournament to takeover the responsibility of the SPNS. No longer are Singaporean players consider as novice players... so there must be a change in the naming of the tournament. Singapore players fret not... we will soon have our very own Singapore champion... Plans are underway and things are looking good so far. With a different approach to competitive paintball in Singapore, there are plans for a mechanical division, a tertiary division, an open division and possibly a SPLAT X division... we'll see... a big dream perhaps but something that is possible, we might not reach our target but it is definitely something that we are working towards to. Just be ready to lend your support when the dream gets going... we need all the support to create our own "test" bed.

Paintballers are the weirdest lot. We enjoy the game and we love the game so much that we sometimes become emotional towards the outcome of the game... we are so devoted to the game that it has become a religion to many of us. Others who are have not play the game do not understand our feelings. Its just pure devotion. Some people call it the plain shooting game, some call it cosplay, some call it dangerous, some call it no brainer... but hell yeah, what do they know? Its pure devotion. We just love the sport. I used to be one of those who asked "why so serious?"... it is serious to us cos we know. We spend hours watching paintball videos, we spend hours playing the game, we spend a whole chunk of our money to buy gears, we talk, eat, sleep paintball... we are always waiting for the weekend to come cos that's when we feel young again. We make tons of friends playing paintball... no other sports has that. We travel with strangers to competition hoping to bring back the glory... no other sports does that... We talk about the game with strangers and we talk like we have known one another for years! We are paintballers... its a religion and we are one.

Red Sevens won MPOC Leg 2 Division 2 Champion title!

After last weekend's podium finish at My-NPL Leg 2, the Red Sevens is hot on our heels again when they clinched the MPOC Leg 2 Division 2 Champion title. This is by far the biggest win for the team since joining the MPOC in 2007 as a Division 3 team. This is the 2nd champion title for the team after winning the Pattaya International Paintball Championship Division 2 title in Thailand last month. With the same line up since the start of the year, Red Sevens is finding better consistency as compared to 2009 where the team was finding it hard to field a regular squad in every tournament. With newly recruited front player, Lester Wing joining the team, we are working on a more offensive outlook and with more players to be unveiled in June/July, the team is working on adding depth to its current squad. There are also plans to set up a Red Sevens junior team to play in the next leg of MPOC. Red Sevens would like to thank all the people (you know who you are) who have supported us in many ways since our establishment. Red Sevens will continue to work hard to improve our knowledge of the game and pass on our learning to people who are keen to come on board. With 2 champion titles under the team's belt, it is important to nurture more players and teams to join in our quest to make Singapore teams a reckoning force in regional tournaments.

Alongside Red Sevens' win is Team Zoo (Part of Team Damnation's club) who won the 4th position in Division 3 of the MPOC. 2 other Singapore teams, Dark Militia and Black Aces played in the Division 4 category. Playing in their first overseas tournament, these 2 teams gained more experience than you can ever imagined. We would like to thank these 2 teams for their paintballs sponsorship (Black Aces) and food sponsorship (Dark Militia). THANKS GUYS! You are now inducted into the list of Singapore teams who ply their trade in Malaysia!

Red Sevens Clinched My-NPL Round 2 Division 2, 4th Placing

2 weeks after the team's win in Pattaya, Red Sevens clinched a fourth placing in Division 2 of the MY-NPL Round 2 in Malacca. Newly recruited to the Red Sevens is front player Lester Wing who played 6 games in total including the final two 3rd/4th placing game. He even pulled an amazing one on one snapshooting to win a game for the team. Kudos to our Division 2 noob... and please for god sake, smile a little please....

Our sponsors Dye Asia with Devon and Zyzek was giving us pointers about the game. Our long Japanese friend, Banno san was there with us all the way showing his moral support for the team. Thanks to all our sponsors, Dye, Furious, KCHL, SEED, THORB, may the team win more medals with more tournaments to come this year.

Thanks to the organizers for putting up such a good show! With more than 90 participating teams, this tournament is by far one of the best with good referring and perfect grass turf, its makes sliding looks easy...

MPOC Leg 2 is this weekend... Let's go REDS!

Paintball Association (Singapore) Handover

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Friends,

Having stepping up into the role as the President of Paintball Association (Singapore) in 2007, I dedicated my time and resources to introducing paintball to Singaporeans and developing the sports in Singapore. Much of my time have been committed to raising the awareness of the sports through all the resources that I have at the players level and to the education of the sports to the relevant authorities especially with regards to regulations. Promoting a good paintball culture is essential to the success of the sports. Regulations are set to protect the interest of the people but it is also necessary to strike a balance to the level of regulations in place for security versus the regulations’ being an impedance to the growth of the sports as compared the norms around the world. I believe that sports is an important social cohesion tool for Singapore and paintball can be one of the sports available in Singapore. Coming to the end of my tenure in the office of PBAS, I am pleased to share with all the progress made in the past 2 years since the inception of the association. In the immediate period following the end of the term, I am happy to share that the association will be taken over by an interim committee whose role shall be to review and recommend changes to the constitution of the association, to determine the directions of the association, and, to recommend a new structure for the committee. As the association is only in its infancy stage, constant reviews of the protocols will keep the association updated with the modern practices in sports associations and constant monitoring of the results of the protocols shall provide a feedback loop to the effectiveness of the practices set in place. The association, the players and the industry must be determined to work together with the government authorities to bring more credibility and recognition to the sports. Upon constitution reviews, the interim committee shall swing in the elections for the next office bearers to assume their roles and take term in PBAS.

In establishing Paintball Association (Singapore), my main aim was to create an official body of sports paintball to open and pave unchartered paths for the development of the sports in Singapore. In this way, I hoped to make the possibility of playing the sports of paintball possible in Singapore. The sports of paintball has been unheard of locally albeit fast-climbing the popularity ladder in our neighbouring countries. In 2007, when I established the association, paintball could not even be played in Singapore in a competition format due to the existence of a mandatory rule of a centre line in all paintball games. The centre line divides the game play into two uncross-able territories and goes against the philosophy of the paintball which is classified as a territorial or invasion sports like basketball, soccer, handball and ice-hockey. The major leagues in world in 2007 - PSP, Millennium, NPPL - were yet to be seen or even known to Singaporeans. Speedball is an organised sports with international game rules, format of play, hierarchy of ranks and marshalling bodies.


Paintball League in Singapore - Singapore Paintball Novice Series
The first introduction of competition paintball - speedball - was in March 2008, known as Singapore Paintball Novice Series (SPNS). In the inaugural 3-on-3 speedball competition, 7 teams participated and put up a great show. The second competition was organised in June 2008 and the organisers garnered the participation of 13 teams. This created a buzz in the sports news with coverage in the Channel News Asia evening news and followed by a significant feature article on The Straits Times, Sports Section with a large photograph of the winning team. Resources from the industry made possible the organisation of Singapore Paintball Novice Series which had a total of 6 legs with 3 in 2008 and 3 in 2009. From a 3-on-3 format to 4-on-4 format and eventually the full-scale of 5-on-5 format, the SPNS grew in participation and capacity. SPNS registered another milestone when the competition was at Pasir Park, a public park, through a tripartite government-collaboration (NParks-SSC-PBAS). Having brought paintball to the eastern side of Singapore, the final leg of SPNS 2009 was held at the western part of Singapore at West Coast Park, bringing paintball to the public at end to end in Singapore.

Basic Tournament Orientation
The first group of participants was a significant one as they were the ones who took the first stride with the Association to make competition paintball in Singapore a reality. The local regulations required a center line to be implemented in paintball gameplay which would not have allowed for a paintball competition to be organised and played by participants as the rules of the sports would require the players to start from one end and end at the other end of the playing field. Basic Tournament Orientation was crafted by PBAS and approved by the authorities for informed participants to play without a center line. The aims of the course are to educate the participants on the safety aspects of the sports and the rules of competition paintball. The Basic Tournament Orientation certified more than 300 persons for competition paintball over a span of 2 years.

Support by Singapore Sports Council in SPNS and Events
This serves to give special mention to the Singapore Sports Council, especially the Sports Pathway group, who was keen in following up on event reports to publicise about Singapore Paintball Novice Series, in short, SPNS. The league was the first official league to be held in Singapore for competition paintball. With SSC’s recognition and support for SPNS, the league became the birth ground for the local teams. Since its inception in 2008, the league has seen the growth of 20 paintball teams over the past two years of which the number of teams competing overseas, especially World Cup Asia, has grown from one to seven in 2009.

Basic Marshalling Course
Refereeing during tournaments is one of the hardest jobs with all the most challenging factors a referee might face in any other sports all rolled into paintball marshalling. Weak referee management failed to kick start a strong following of referees. Local players have been certified as marshals but more still need to step forward to take up the challenge. Those who have refereed in the local competitions for the past 2 years are much appreciated by the Association and players alike.

Support by Local Authorities
The support by local authorities is a critical factor to the introduction of competition paintball in Singapore. Without the understanding and open mindset of the Singapore Police Force, Singapore Sports Council and National Parks Board, paintball competitions could not have taken place and the sports will still be under-developed locally while the rest of our neighbours progress and grow stronger. The change in ruling - removal of centre line - was a major milestone for the Association and was only possible with the strong support from the paintball industry and government authorities.

In the constitution of Paintball Association (Singapore), the directions and goals of the Association are written as below:
a) To promote and improve the game of paintball locally and regionally in the area of youth and sports development.
b) To initiate and establish guidelines in the sport of paintball with the Asia Pacific Paintball Federation (APPBF).
c) To establish and offer the sport of paintball as a lifestyle activity to encourage the spirit of teambuilding.
d) To promote paintball as a recreational and competitive sport for the masses with recognition from the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) as a sport.
e) Formation of paintball leagues and tournaments in Singapore.

The progress of change is on-going and its pace is affected by players and stakeholders who need to look at the long-term goals. The above stated are all examples of the new and important developments of the sports since 2007. In the period since I started and took office in Paintball Association (Singapore), there has been dramatic changes in the development of the sports and I believe that there will be even more to come. Among the key elements of the changes are the representation of Singapore in regional paintball competitions, medal tally for Singapore paintball teams, the initiative and progress of Basic Tournament Orientation, promotion of sports in schools and education of authorities of the sports. I am delighted by the growth of the Singapore paintball community and will continue to support the future work of the Association in the right directions. I am delighted to have worked with the individuals who have expressed interest in taking up a role in the interim committee which will review the organisation and goals of the Association and its constitution to keep up with the progress of regional and worldwide paintball. I am pleased to welcome Grant Harrison, David Leow , Mohd Shakil, Ian Tang and Khairul Anwar into the interim committee. I look forward to contributing further in the next committee of Paintball Association (Singapore) and supporting their programs. I would like to thank all agencies that have become involved in the initiatives of the Association and their willingness to work together to create a better sporting future for Singapore. It is with these wishes and hopes that I complete my term of office and step down from the President of Paintball Association (Singapore). Keep the fire burning!

Jane Koh
President (2007-2009), Paintball Association (Singapore)

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...

Asia Ref Singapore!

Previously, we interviewed Ivan Rickard Liow about his experience in officiating in World Cup Asia 2009. This round, we would like to highlight the rest of the Asia Refs from Singapore who attended the Asia Ref Certification clinic. The Asia Ref Certification clinic was conducted by Asia Ref Ultimate Ref, Mr. Junaidi.K who is a prominent marshaling figure in Asia.

Several Red Dynasty Paintball Park staff attended the clinic to pick up fundamental refeering skills for competitive paintball which consist of 3 lessons: Basic Refereeing and Advanced Refereeing which is theory based and Field Refereeing which is a practical session conducted in the paintball field. As Mr. Junaidi quoted: "Refereeing is similar to playing paintball, the more you referee, the better you will be."

The following individuals attended the Asia Ref Certification clinic:

Jane Koh, Ben Seow, Damian Li, Fadzri Fuzz, Ivan Rickard Liow, Yuan, Vince, Grant, Abdullah and Brian.