I have made the cut only one time in my 8 years of tournament play at a national event.  I have had very little success with any team I have been on at national events.  I just can’t understand why my teams and I are having such little success.   Our current team is the best I have ever played for.  We crush good teams at practice and even hang with the Pro teams that we do practice against throughout the month.  We can have a month’s worth of good practices and come time for the event, something switches off in our teams heads.  We just returned from Huntington Beach, CA for the first event of the year, the Surf City Open.  We missed the cut by 1 point, which means that is like missing a free throw in basketball 8 times in a row to win the game.  Even though we were close to making the cut, it really shouldn’t have been close at all.  We gave games away and really only played to our talent level in two of our games.

Now, we have all had our time to think about this and that and what should and can we do.  But, I’m going to change my own personal ways of thinking and concentrate on the future and not the past.  Our team has talked and we all know where we stand, so that is that.  We have a bigger focus and a new hunger to tame and that’s our next event in Chicago at the end of May.  See, our team has evolved in such a short time.  Previous years, we would still be crying on why we didn’t make the cut and why we played so bad.  This is truely a thing of the past, for we now concentrate on surpassing our negative thoughts and actions with positive self-motivation which gives our team the fuel to march onward together, side by side, as ONE.

Even though we failed to make, the team showed a lot of improvement in some areas that have been big issues in the past.  Everyone sees these improvements and is in good spirits coming out of HB.  We have 5 weeks worth of practice before the next event in Chicago.  We will not be practicing this weekend but we’ll pick right up where we left off next weekend.  We’re all real hungry to get back on the field and put on a strong showing in Chicago.  Hope to see a lot of you at practice or the event, its going to be a grind!

Unfortunately I haven’t had the chance to post as many pictures that I would have liked so far.  Hopefully within the next couple days Ill have some more photos from HB posted up for you viewing pleasure.

Heading to the hotel in HB 2010

Walkin' the fields in HB

Peep the new hotness

It’s gonna be a good trip

Frag

Well, here we are FINALLY!  It seems like it’s been eternity since we last played an event on the national level.   We leave for HB in less than two days to test what we have been working on for the last month plus.  Going into any event, players are nervous about many things.  Weather it’s how they are going to do or will everything go as planned, and will we be successful?  I just ask the question, what do we consider successful?  Winning the event?  Playing good?  Not getting screwed by the ref’s, paint and equipment?  A lot of factors go into being successful in my opinion.

Of course we want to win and be proud of all the hard work that we put into preparation for the event.  But I, as always, disagree with that being the only way of considering success.  I think as a whole, we have grown as a team and as a family away from our family.  I would do anything for anybody on our team and I know the same would come in return.  Was that accomplished by winning events?  I would say no, because we haven’t won any and yet, and were as close as you can get.

Weather or not we win this event or even do well, we have made strides in our game that has far exceeded what I expected this early in the year.  We’re as prepared as we have ever been and I think that should translate come time to play in HB.  I know that if it doesn’t translate into us winning games, it’s not a big deal, because this first event is a foundation for the remaining portion of the season.  I do know that if we attack the rest of our paintball season like we have in preparation for HB, we will not only be successful, we will be successful in every aspect that a team can have.

Nicky

So, where do I begin?  Now that my tour of duty has come and (almost, not just yet) gone, its time to look back on a things and reflect.  I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a frame of time that has gone by so fast, yet so ridiculously slow at the same time.  There were many perks to my time spent abroad.  We don’t have to pay for much of anything over here (i.e. food, gas, groceries).  Just about the only things you have to pay for are hair cuts and any luxury items you may want.  Outside of those few things, all earnings go in your pocket.  Unless you have bills of course, like myself.

On top of money you get free health care, you can’t get fired, and who wouldn’t want one hellacious farmers tan? Now after seeing the benefits of serving overseas, it may look like great gig.  But unfortunately there are just as many downfalls as there are dollar signs in the air.  The biggest one that may come to mind is the enemy and the all the dangers that come with them.  Happy to say I was fortunate enough to not have encountered anything to brutal during my stint.  Although the enemy may be the most noticeable downfall, there are others that stand above.  Being this far away means you’re away from family, friends, teammates, hobbies, and the list goes on.  All the little things that most people take for granted are gone.  I’ve never wanted to just jump in my car and drive around with the radio on so much in my life.  The appreciation for the little things grows quite a bit. Beyond ups and downs, I did my best to stay in contact with a number of guys on the team.  See how everyone was doing personally, and how the team was doing as a whole.

It was very interesting hearing the different opinions from my teammates.  I’m glad to report that there was no real negativity in anyone’s comments.  Everyone team, no matter who you are, has rocky moments.  Times when players get aggravated and the doorway seems to narrow.  But heads were being held high and hopes were even higher.  Hearing that kind of optimism from the team as a whole brought the largest smile to my face. I didn’t do as much moving around over here as I originally thought I was going to.  We sat for about a month waiting for our trucks to be operational.  Then spent a number of months south of Baghdad working projects to improve security, and life in general, on a small base near Al Kut.  From there my squad only pulled one more major project, north of Baghdad this time.  It only lasted a few weeks and we were back to home sweet home, camp Stryker (Baghdad). The more that time went on, it actually grew easier to except that I wasn’t playing paintball.  The lack of paintball magazines and high speed internet made it hard to watch any videos if i wanted to do so.  Also with the work load, it kept us busy most of the time.  Coming home for my 2 week leave may have been the most awkward.  Although I had talked tactics, game plans, future ideas, and anything about the sport in general with my teammates a great deal.  Not actually playing had taken a large toll on my drive to pick up a marker.  I showed up to a practice to get some playing time in, see the team and kiss hands and shake babies.  But it took a bit of time to actually put my gear, the drive seemed to be some what gone.

More to come soon . . .

Frag

After 376 days of inactivity, it’s just about that time to update whats, what on Team Fuse.  With the winter and New Year coming and going, we fired up the new season in full force.  We carried over the positives that we gained as a team last year right into this season.  We had the privilege last season to hook-up with Indianapolis Mutiny and grind it out non-stop.  We learned SO much from them last year that our team and individual production skyrocketed.

With each new year, brings new things.  We lost players and we picked up players.  We got a real solid Mid-player in Ryan Wilber and we got back or corner player, Mr. Nick Hoffman who just spent a stint in Iraq.  Wilber comes from Unlimited, a solid D2 Xball team.  This is his first time playing a full 7-man season, but I would say he’s doing just fine.  Nicky is old school BA and really only left us due his call for country, which we appreciate.

We have been grinding for Huntington Beach now since the start of January.  Long travel days and long 2 day practices all for what we love.  This will be my 3rd year with this team and I must say that were stronger than ever.  Our team is playing as one and ALL of our heads are pointed towards the same goal, winning.  We had struggled in the past with the entire team concept.  I will say this is something we learned from Mutiny also.  Those guys don’t panic, don’t waiver and keep the same goal in mind no matter the situation there team is in.  We have watched, applied and now were hoping to utilize it this year.

We have high expectations for the season, not because we should, but because of our unity as a team.  We know how much playing as a team impacts how you do at events.  Our on and off the field relationship has brought us to and through the crossroads of paintball.  It’s up to us to continue down the path we chose, not as individuals, but as a team.

So I was reading through my list of industry blogs last night (current favorites are View from the Deadbox and The Paintball Agenda) when I tripped across an excellent story about where the paintball industry is in terms of telling the story and history of our sport.  This is my response (it’s also a comment on that blog).  Read this first for context: Part 1 of the story, Part 2 of the story.

Don Saavedra hit the nail on the head with this story, and it’s something that I have thought about a lot. If you’ve been around me at all, you’ve heard me tell stories from back-in-the-day.  As a guy that’s played competitively since 93, I remember all the old stories . . . and no one tells them anymore. At least not to a mass audience.  I agree with Don . . . that the history of our sport, and the stories  that shape its soul are important to the future of the sport.

However, I think part of the problem lies in the media, but not necessarily in the way Don describes it. Mainstream sports have always had video (at least over the last 30 or so years), so it’s easy for Bob Costas to point to classic Pete Rose video and compare it to video of the slugger-of-the-moment. Paintball doesn’t have the library of tapes that most sports have; we don’t have ESPN Classic . . . just dusty magazines talking about how someone smashed a 7oz tank over someone else’s face at a Lively event. Or how Bob Long was walking fields in Chicago with a dixie cup on a stick finding the best crawling lanes. Or how the A’s were the first to get caught cheating on tape during the Reno open (I think ‘Shock was shooting typhoons back then). Or 2E and his crazy tattoos. Or Oliver Lang being the youngest pro player. But you are right . . . there are living legends in this sport, but no one is telling the story in a way that captivates today’s internet audience.  Moreover, there’s no real history when it comes to paintball media . . . there’s no meta discussion.  Dawn and Bill had a great website back then (and still do), and there were a bunch of magazines that covered events, but there really wasn’t anyone constantly putting the OMG things that happen in paintball into the greater context.

I don’t know the answer. I don’t think kids have the patience to watch old Trauma Head videos (Even though Danny Manning is the man). Why?  Look at videos from the early 2000’s . . .  There’s a marked difference between how videos are captured now.  People have learned how to capture the right moments now. Additionally, with a game that has changed so much in the last 10 years, how can we compare the past to the present?  Baseball has been baseball forever (minus the asterisk). Football and soccer are the same. Paintball continues to have growing pains, and as such will have a hard time chronically its past in the digital media of today and the future.
I suppose having a conversation like this across blogs will help, but the better question is: does our audience care?  I hope so . . . I’d love nothing more than to see a MWAG video come out every year.

Finally, if you go to the PB Agenda articles and check out some classic pictures . . .I enjoyed the pic of Robbo being all skinny next to Jerry Braun I laughed.