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."

Singapore most medalled player - JUDAS!

I have previously blogged about the "Singapore Most Medalled Player". Well... the record has been broken again. And this time by our Singapore old timer paintballer. I am using the word old timer because Bryan otherwise known as Judas in the paintball community is one of the earliest batch of paintballers who is still enjoying the game of paintball. Judas who was formerly from Team Redlords won the first Champion medal of the Singapore Paintball Novice Series in 2008. His desire to experience a competitive platform has seen him becoming one of the Singaporeans to players to play in Malaysia. With his recent Champions medal in the MY-NPL Leg 4, Judas is now one of the most medalled player in Singapore. We catch up with him and viola!

SPNS 2008 Leg 1 Champion Redlords

MY-NPL 2009 Leg 2 JB 2nd Runner up

ISSC 2009 Div 3 1st Runner up

MY-NPL 2009 Leg 3 Kuantan Div 4 2nd Runner up

MY-NPL 2009 Leg 4 Melaka Div 4 Champions

Judas with his team Shootin Rage (extreme right with head sticking out)

1) Having played and compete in Division 4 tournaments in Malaysia, what is the main difference between Singapore and Malaysia paintball?

"I believe that there are pros and cos for playing in singapore and malaysia, you exchange cost for travel time. Both countries you get to train with experienced players. No matter where you train, just make the best of it...we're are all learning, we're all striving to get better in our game."

2) What word of advice would you give Singapore teams who want to compete in Malaysia?

"It will be an eye opening experience, it will serve as a test to gauge your progress in the sport of paintball."

3) Any other comments?

"When people ask me about going to malaysia to play paintball, they always give excuses like my team doesnt want to go, or cannot la no time, I say to these people, it doesnt matter, these are all excuses, your team doesnt want to go, go yourself. if you dont have time, make time. You are actually helping your team to bring back some experience having played in Malaysia."

Oh yes, Judas made an indication that he might be moving to Division 3 next year. Well done to another Singaporean!

Congratulations to TEAM KARMA!

Team Karma from Singapore won the My-NPL Div 4, 1st Runners Up position.

More details soon...

Hmmmm... Part 2 - Using PBL in paintball...

Assumptions, assumptions and assumptions... this is what we call the prior knowledge, a learning padegogy commencing with a problem and using assumptions to find a solution to the problem. This method of learning is used in some of the elite schools in Singapore where students do not learn from the convention learning of a "one way learning", where the teacher teach and students dont question.

Commonly known as the Problem Based Learning (PBL), this method of learining is adopted by a polytechnic in Singapore. The primary consideration for this form of learning starts with the student asking 3 questions: 1) What do I know? 2) What do I need to know? 3) What do I need to find out? Only by getting all these 3 questions right, then you might be able to arrive at a solution in which you think can best solved the problem.

Surely, this method of learning is highly based on the prior knowledge of the students... and therefore there will be many cases of assumptions and guesses which could be wrong. The next level would require one to think about the things they need to know. At this point, the student will have many hanging question marks. Many doubts and queries. In the last stage, individual needs to examine what he needs to find out? and therefore, finding a solution from the various means which can include the internet, answers from a friend, from books and journals, etc.

With this thinking process, one will be able to find out the answers to the problem and arrive at a conclusion on how things should be handle. So how is this related to Singapore paintball?

There are too many assumptions, guesses going around but not a single piece of fact to back things up. Facts are of course back by form of statistics, such as date, time, price, cost, numbers, etc. Without numbers, there will be no facts. To think of a problem at only at stage 1, many answers are backed by prior knowledge, assumptions, guesses which is often regarded as personal views.

Team Seekers from Singapore

Seekers has become latest Singapore team to ply their trade in Malaysia. Participating for the first time in MY-NPL Division 4 this weekend, we hope that this team will do Singapore proud and bring back a podium finish! Go Rudi and gang! Way to go...

Results of the team will be posted after Sunday.

Red Dynasty Paintball Team

Red Dynasty Paintball Park is forming a house team for local and regional tournament. This team will be sponsored with paintballs to train and registration fee to enter tournaments.

"If you are keen to be part of a sponsored team playing under the name of Red Dynasty, WE WANT YOU!

Red Dynasty is forming a Division 4 house team to play in local and overseas tournament. This team will be sponsored by Red Dynasty Paintball Park with paintballs and registration fee to enter overseas and local tournament.

If you are between the age of 16 - 30, able to travel overseas for tournaments, have a good attitude towards promoting paintball in Singapore, do approach us for more details. There could be a selection process if there are overwhelming results, individuals who have had bad experiences with Red Dynasty need not apply as it is difficult for us to give away such a good deal to you.

We are looking for players who have had experiences playing tournament paintball, e.g. SPNS, MPOC, MY-NPL, etc.

Newbies with extreme desire to be in the team may be considered.

Terms and conditions apply. Only 7 seats."

Retiring...

Okay, I am selling this piece. Its a Ollie Lang DM8 bought in 2008 (of course!). There are only 100 pieces of this in the world. Mine happens to be #52 out of 100. Its on a Virtue Board and running on a Billy Wing Bolt....shoots well. Marker is in Malaysia and I will only trade in Malaysia. If you are keen to get this piece for yourself, its RM3000NETT. Does not come with barrel but its on autococker thread so shouldnt be too hard finding a replacement barrel.

*Loader not included.

Singapore team on podium of SX Sunday 3 on 3 Match

Wargh! Nuts and Wargh! Mavericks from Singapore participated in the SX Sunday 3 on 3 Match on a Sunday morning (of course...). Wargh! Mavericks comprising of Captain, Kevin Lee, Sean Low (Top Gun winner in SPNS Leg 2), Andrew and Daryl came out tops in the competition with a podium finish. The Singaporeans showed that they were no pushovers against some of the best Division 4 sides from Johor Bahru. Aji, one of the most prominent player in Johor also commented about the standards of the Singapore players: "They played in SPNS, thats why they are good. Everybody said, oh, better watch for singapore guys now." The teams have earned his respect when he goes on to comment that: "CONGRATULATION to Wargh! Maverick on the podium! You have fought one of the well respected team in JB - Team MBT (My Brothers Team) from Pontian."

Congratulations boys! You have made us proud!

Is this how you repay your sponsors?

I thought this might be a good time to blog about sponsorship simply because World Cup Asia 2009 is approaching and that there will be many vendors attending this event, so if your team is keen to find a paintball sponsor, there is no better time than this.

First mistake about acquiring sponsorship: many teams think too lightly of themselves, common thoughts such as: "They are big companies, and we are only starting paintball, why would they want to sponsor us?", "Since its all about results, maybe we should win something first before approaching any sponsors?", "Are we good enough?" Doubts, doubts and doubts... Trust me, there is never a good time to find a sponsor, the sponsors are always out there and its a matter of convincing them and be bold enough to get that sponsor regardless of the sponsorship value. I have heard of teams with no results to show and yet be able to secure some form of sponsorship.

Here are some suggestions:

1) Approach your neighbourhood paintball field. Field owners are likely to award some form of sponsorship in return for some assistance such as marketing, publicity, field errants, etc. These are the people who are most likely to hand off some paintballs in return for some form of work. For example, you can help out to design a poster for the next local tournament in exchange for a bag of paintball? or you can assist to help set up the tournament field before the actual event in exchange for practice paintballs before the tournament.

2) Draft a team profile as a sponsorship proposal. In the proposal, include photos of the team both on and off the field. Sponsors like to know that the team is hanging out together even though they are not playing in the field. Write a short description of the team members which can include occupation of the players, this will give the sponsor an idea of the spending power of the team. So as to devise a win win situation for his products and the team expenditure in training, etc. I have personally come across a team profile that includes strengths such as: Stamina, accuracy, speed, agility...these characteristics are childish, so dont put them in. Be professional. Elaborate what you can do for your sponsor and not the other way round.

3) Never never never ever make bad comments about your sponsorship items. There is this team which managed to get some sponsorship but instead of saying how fabulous these sponsored items are, the team went on the elaborate to other people on how unlucky they are to get sucky items and how they wish they never got them in the first place. Instead of promoting what they are wearing and using, they are giving away bad publicity about the brand. So be glad that you are a sponsored team.

4) Be loyal. Sponsors like loyalty. The longer you stay with the sponsors, the more you will get when times are good. Switching sides is always a no no. It creates that little rivalry and cast doubts over the sponsors if they did the right thing giving you these sponsorships. Chinese has this saying: Never forget your roots. Always remember that you are where you are because someone has given you a chance to prove yourself when you first started.

5) Always thank your sponsors. These might mean nothing to most people but sponsors like to be thank. Always update your sponsors about your ongoings, let them know about your recent results, who you have recruited, when is your next tournament, etc. Keep them in the loop. If there is a team gathering such as a BBQ, invite the sponsor. This might open up to future collaborations once your sponsorship contract ends. Dont apple polish...no one likes it so dont overdo it.

Red Dynasty Mini Challenge

The results

Round 1

Destroy (0) vs Five-O (3), -4, +4
Evil Avengers (0) vs Black Aces (3), -1, +1
Contract Killers (+1) vs Dark Militia (-1), 0, 0
Strike (0) vs Red Sevens (3), -2, +2
Destroy (0) vs Contract Killers (3), -3, +3
Evil Avengers (3) vs Strike (0), +1, -1
Five-O (3) vs Dark Militia (0), +2, -2
Black Aces (0) vs Red Sevens (3), -4, +4
Destroy (3) vs Dark Militia (0), +2, -2
Evil Avengers (0) vs Red Sevens (3), -5, +5
Five-O (3) vs Contract Killer (0), +3, -3
Black Aces (0) vs Strike (3), -1, +1

Round 2

Dark Militia (3) vs Evil Avengers (0), +4, -4
Destroy (3) vs Black Aces (0), +4, -4
Contract Killers (3) vs Strike (0), +5, -5
Five-O vs Red Sevens TIE

8th- Evil Avengers
7th- Dark Militia
6th- Black Aces
5th- Seek & Destroy
4th- Seek & Strike
3rd- Contract Killers
2nd/1st - Five-O, Red Sevens

Hmmmm....

Coming soon... Part 1

Thank you...

I will end the final segment of the APIT 2009 with a word of thanks to the following people:

1) Arthur Chang - Our beloved Taiwanese import who stood by us even though we had a pretty shaky lineup. Arthur offered his help to the team unconditionally by allowing us to make his home a players village, ferrying us from the airport and around taoyuan, a great host who brought us around looking for food, helping us to buy our train tickets back from Kao Hsiung, arranging for the team's registration, etc. You have certainly make us feel very welcome in Taiwan. THANK YOU!

2) Organizers of the APIT 2009 - Although there were some minor screw ups but all is good. It is definitely a hard task organizing a paintball tournament not to mention a paintball tournament of this scale. After months and months of preparing, I think the organizers have done well this time. They are more prepared as compared to last year and they are more organized too. of course, with a better accommodation arrangement as compared to last year would render a 10/10 for the team. THANK YOU!

3) Marshals - Its not easy I guess, teams speaking in different languages hurling vulgarities, surely they can easily pick up some free language lessons. Its a tough job and we all know. THANK YOU!

4) Our Taiwan friends - This tournament will be just any other tournament if not for your hospitality and support. You have supported us from the sidelines during our games, you have given words of encouragement and you have made us feel welcome. Steven, Clarie, Alan, Fon Jen, Pony, Bronco, Alan, Mingzhe, Devon, Ellen, Peter, Rex, Zhi Zhong, Shan, Chiu, the KU gang. THANK YOU!

Asia Paintball Invitational Tournament 2009/ World Games 2009- Random photos

King showing his side arms in paintball style

Our reaffirmation that this is a land of TOMs

Seburo with Dietz who is the team captain of the German team...oh, he got another new free jersey

Elle signing autographs... she has a pool of fans #@$%^

The opening ceremony of the World Games 2009 Paintball

Edi in his camo outfit... with a very powerful tactical marker that shoots 450fps

Art with owner of TANKED, Breuer

AJ DM9 with upgraded Billy Wing Bolt

Tournament layout

Red Sevens in Taipei101

He has to be "The One"

Art trying to do the same as "The One"

Asia Paintball Invitational Tournament - Day 4

Game day! Here's the format, teams are grouped into 4 groups with 4 teams each. So each team is supposed to play against 3 other teams in the group. Red Sevens was grouped with Chinese Taipei, Canada and Australia and the results as follow:

Chinese Taipei vs Red Sevens - 3 -1

Canada vs Red Sevens - 0 - 3

Australia vs Red Sevens - 3 - 0

World Games 2009/ Asia Paintball Invitational Tournament 2009 Results

World Games 2009 Paintball Demonstration Event

Champion - Team Germany, RAMSTEIN INSTINCT

1st Runners Up - Team Australia, SWAT

2nd Runners Up - Team Iran, DATIS

3rd Runners Up - Team Japan, KU

Other participating teams:

Chinese Taipei (STORM), Malaysia (DELTA ROVERS), Singapore (RED SEVENS), Canada (INCARNATE), Taiwan (DANGEROUS POWER), Taiwan (DYNAMICS), Taiwan (YU SHAN HIGH FORMOSA), Taiwan (ZHEN CHUAN), Taiwan (KAO HSIUNG HIGH)

Nazari the next big thing in Asia paintball

This little man is Nazari, he plays for Team Datis from Iran. It was in Malaysia when I first saw him, then he was crewing for the Team Datis and helping to load paintballs, getting the players ready for their game, carrying spare markers, spare loaders for the team. There was something about this guy… he looked extremely enthusiastic about paintball, he looked like he was raring to be on the field, he looked hungry. Well, we met him again…and this time, he was donning the yellow jersey (Datis wears yellow).

He may look short, he may look harmless… but he is one of the best snake players in the whole tournament. If there is an award to select the best 5 players of the Asia Paintball Invitational Tournament 2009, I am pretty confident that Nazari will be one of them. Not only is he fast sliding down the snake side, he is also patient and clam, which is pretty rare for the snake player. His agility can easily match the pros that you see on videos and his movements is so “smooth” that spectators actually enjoyed watching him play. Terrorizing the snake tape and leaving an impression, I guess Nazari will soon make it to the bigger stage. For locals who cannot feel his presence by reading my description, let’s say he is a combination of Zach and Kiko but twice faster than both. Or should I say as good as Prince from Bushwackers...

Asia Paintball Invitational Tournament - Day 2 and Day 3

Representatives from all participating teams

The gang in Dye Asia

Basically, its travelling and travelling.... the team goes from Northern Taiwan to Central Taiwan and ended up in the hostel at about 11 pm in Southern Taiwan, Kao Hsiung. There were some coordination problem with the organizers and we had to wait, wait and wait most of the time.

Havent I seen this before....hmmmm...

The journey started from Tao Yuan to Dye Asia (as usual) via the express train. Kiko and Edi were really excited when we reached Dye plant as Kiko mentioned its like "little children shopping for candies". As a Dye sponsored team, we managed to pick up some merchandise at killa prices too. The trip will be in vain if we did nothing to extend our sponsorship with Dye. So yes... Red Sevens will be using Dye for another year. We got our new masks, new jerseys and pants, and of course our new markers... the team will be shooting Dye DM9 for the rest of the year. Arthur was so impressed with the DM9 that he called it the smoothest marker he ever shot. And we all know that Arthur is a big fan of Ego. For an Ego user to say that Dye is shooting smooth goes to show the quality of Dye products. I added the latest soft tip Billy Wing bolt for my Air Jordan DM9.

Welcome by the organizers...

We arrived at the tournament ground for the captains briefing and walked the ground filled with NPPL bunkers. With the support from the city council and the World Games commitee, the set up of the event is indeed very impressive. Edi as the youngest player of the team is appointed as the team captain for this event. Arthur Chang and Yuan couldnt join us in time for the practice game and with only 5 players playing in the Xball format is indeed no joke as the game format is physically demanding. We were scheduled to play Team Dynamics from Taiwan, who is also the house team. We beat this team last year during the qualification rounds so we were pretty confidence going into the game.

Our new team attire... leopard I4 and Oakland Blast and yes, our new DM9s too

We played Kiko and Gerald on the Doritos wanting to execute a double dorito offense with one backing the other. Jane played on the snake tape, with Seburo and I lobbing paints at the corner and home bunkers. The Xball format plays to a Race to 3 format, it simply means the first team to get 3 games in hand wins the game. Our team lost the first 2 games and managed to come back with a 2-2 draw. With the final game as the decision maker, we lost the game to Dynamics. Although we lost, I was pretty delighted with the performance considering that we had only 5 players and most of us went into the field with only a pod each.

The opening gate to players area and field