GRIP Nº8 - English Version

N.ยบ 08 December 2013

Veckring scenario

Vera Gimenes miss grip

DPL

competition

Axel Gaudin interview

Chantilly millennium 01

14-15 Profile

70 Galler

16-43 Millennium

44-53 DPL

86-102 Interview Axel Gaudin

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Miss GR Vera G

index 06–07 Team

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Editorial

10–11

Highligth Every minute counts!

12-13 News

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index

14–15

66–69

16–43

70–85

Profile Gregory Maugino Millennium Chantilly Paris

44–53 DPL

54-65 TOP 5

Project K Axel Gaudin Gallery Millennium Series Champions 2013

86–102

Interview Axel Gaudin

0-85 ry

124-133 Interview - SOP

54-65 TOP 5

112-122 Scenario - Veckring

4-111

RIP Gimenes

104-111

142-144

112-122

146-148

Miss GRIP Vera Gimenes Scenario Veckring

124-133

Review Dfender

Review JT Splatmaster Sniper

Interview Soldiers of Paint

150-153

134-141

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Scenario Operation Shutdown

Backstage Thanks

142-144 Review -Dfender index

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i t g e n o l c 3 1 20 NOWive

exclus at

Features: id 2013 Soleno in lr e D w e n alve new 2013 V oated Steel C m iu d a n a tV new Tool Se OLeD Board i T G e n lo C ne w p p Around Gri ra w h c u o T new Soft

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RITA PEREIRA GRIP Magazine’s Art Director. She works as a professional graphic designer.

PEDRO SIMÕES GRIP Magazine’s photography editor. He’s also an accredited photojournalist.

DANIEL TEIXEIRA GRIP Magazine’s kid.

He is the man in charge of our website and all bits and bytes.

ANDRÉ FARIA The scenario man.

If we’re talking about camouflage, gun replicas and lots of fun, then that’s where he is.

Axel Gaudin Doesn´t need introductions. Who better to teach you tactics than one of the Project K Masters?

Domingos Leitão Head Marshal at the Millennium and Portuguese League. He explains you the basic rules.

team

Handy Tims Who better to help out than one of the RSH designers? Any subject related to image, he’s your man!

Zane KJ Mañasco If he is not shooting, he is pulling some serious magic on the computer. the Design madmen and genius together in a unique guy!

DUARTE GOMES The mechanic in charge. Very few understand paintball markers and accessories as well as he does.

Rita Riscado Our «Irishwoman» translates and puts up with us and all our doubts. Without her, you simply wouldn’t understand us!

André Gomes One of the “kids” of the team. Dominates the English language. and helps us translate a few thousand words per issue.

Hugo Bettencourt If there is something new in our sport, he already know it. The news man!

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Property of André Filipe Sobreira Garrido NIF: 227215290 Legal address: Rua General Taborda Nº3 - 1º 1070-137 Lisboa ERC Registration Nº 126231 Frequency: Quarterly

DIRECTOR EDITOR MARKETING ADVERTISEMENT PHOTOGRAPHY

André Garrido (mail@grippaintball.com) André Garrido (mail@grippaintball.com) Carla Peixoto (carla.peixoto@grippaintball.com) GRIP - Photo Services Axel Gaudin by Jani Andersson

GRIP – Paintball Magazine or André Filipe Sobreira Garrido are not responsible for the content of the ads nor for the accuracy of the characteristics and features of the products and/or goods advertised. Their veracity and accordance with reality are fully and exclusively the responsibility of the advertisers and advertising agencies or companies.

IT IS STRICLY FORBIDEN TO COPY TEXTS AND IMAGES BY ALL MEANS advertisement

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By André Garrido Director GRIP

F

or the first time, we have an issue in which practically everything went wrong. Not our fault, but due to a series of variables that simply justified all Murphy laws.

We started with a delayed calendar that left us with some events which coverage was delayed by months. Then, many collaborators fell ill. We reached the ridiculous point of landing in Madrid and being warned at that moment that the event had been cancelled.

Even so, we are proud to deliver yet another issue of GRIP, with the standard quality that you have grown accustomed to.

In this issue, you will be able to read about all that happened in the Millennium Series and know the winners of each division, with a special piece on the CPL champions, the Tontons. We have also attended the DPL to provide coverage of the world’s biggest paintball league.

We went to Veckring with the objective of getting to know one of the paintball meccas. On this topic, we also went to Paintugal, where we witnessed one of the most incredible scenario games.

The classical gallery from the best designers in paintball will be respectfully dedicated to the European champions in this issue; the beauty of these pieces of art can only be diminished by the presence of our enchanting Miss GRIP, Vera Gimenes.

As usual, there are also two big interviews. One to Axel Gaudin, whose reputation precedes him, and the other to one of the directors of SoP, who made the first paintball documentary.

There are also reviews on the new DFender and the JT SplatMaster Sniper.

We hope you enjoy your reading.

Season´s Greetings and Happy New Year from everyone at GRIP! See you next year!

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Every minute counts!

If you don’t know our sport, you don’t know how tiring it can be. A paintball competition is «just» about three or seven 15 minute games, with high levels of adrenaline, aggressiveness, sprints and flights to the snake.

For all these reasons it’s normal to see players resting as much time as possible because one thing is certain… every minute counts inside and outside the field to win a game!

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highligth

highligth

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XField Paintball

Planet Eclipse After the release of EGO LV1, Planet Eclipse didn’t stop surprising us and they revealed their new SL for 2014. They decided to innovate by creating the first GEO SL (GSL). They also released the new GEO 3.1, with new colors and with the new LV1 grip.

This was the first paintball game designed for tablets and smartphones.

We had the opportunity to watch the release of new designs and some 3D goggles for the game and of their application «walk in the field». In this app, we can study the field without being physically there.

RDR KLR e VIO

This year we managed to watch the growth of the paintball goggles market.

Virtue and HK Army launched their VIO and KLR, which allow us to fully customize our goggles. We can now choose from a huge variety of color combinations, lens and straps to better match our gear and our taste.

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news

GI Sportz entered the loaders’ market with a unique piece. The new Pulse RDR has features that were never used before. We now have an electronic paintball counter, chrony and a lot more inside. This is the biggest evolution on this kind of equipment.

Empire Dfender

Empire took a leap into the future with their new D*Fender. They managed to insert a loader inside the marker, so we have a clear line of sight. They also incorporated all Axe’s electronic system, with several firing modes that can be easily changed.

Box Magazine DYE released a new loader system for their DAM. Instead of using gravity with a force feed to make the paintball drop, this system pushes it up. They called it Box Magazine. It takes more than 320 paintballs, the functionality is identical to the Rotor and so are the cleaning, assemble and disassemble features.

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notĂ­cias

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Gregory Maugino

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regory started playing at a very young age, with only 11 years old, which is the same to say he has been playing for 21 years.

Generally those who start to play very young can make great achievements mostly due to their experience. Captain G, as he is known, is no exception to the rule and has already conquered three French championship in a row, in one of the most difficult countries to

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win a tournament.

At international level, he plays with his team in Millennium, where he had an excellent year in 2010 getting the forth place overall. He still plays at CPS with the main objectives of making his team stronger and more competitive.

He is not afraid of saying that Carnage is his biggest success which allowed him to play at the highest level.

Nickname Captain G

Date of Birth 30/05/1981

Occupation Quantity Surveyor

Started Playing in 1992

Plays for Paris Camp Carnage

International Events Millennium Series, Champions Paintball Series (CPS)

Events won Champion of France in 2006, 2007, 2008, WTS 2011 AND 2012

Biggest achievement in paintball Play at the highest levels and three league titles in France

Text: AndrĂŠ Garrido

profile

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Chantill Pari 16

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The most awaited event of the Millennium Series finally took place between the 13th and the 15th of September. There were many promises for the event that changed location, abandoning the most mythical location in European paintball. Is Chantilly better than Euro Disney?

Text: AndrĂŠ Garrido millennium

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Paris has been for many years ÂŤtheÂť place for all European paintball players.

To this day that was due to the location of the event – the Euro Disney parkwhich allowed for players to take their families, including their younger ones, to the biggest European tournament.

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This characteristic was fantastic as not only it created more involvement for the whole family but it also brought a larger audience and possible new players to the stage.

This year the event took place on the grass pitch of the hippodrome of Chantilly, which raised many questions. Yet one thing is certain, the surrounding scenario could not have been any more magic! The most impressive part was when we passed by the lake-side castle with its magnificent

gardens and gates. Unfortunately, about being able to offer chances of for obvious reasons, the fields are accommodation practically inside their situated further away from the castle. fields. However, this time there were Nonetheless, the fields are in their various options all around Chantilly, own beautiful environment, with in different locations and at a beautiful landscape of old different distances.

The scenario stables. And not just any What didn’t change was could not stables… there were kings the rain during the event. have been that could not afford such In the first two days, there more magic! grand and opulent stables; was enough rain to be such was the size and bothersome for everyone, richness of the location. from players to the staff, This change in event scene reaching the point where the also meant that the accommodations quality of games lowered due to the were far from the field, unlike in the poor quality of the balls and certain previous event’s location. As we have field locations. As we heard backstage: been noticing, the Millennium worries «This game wasn’t made to be played

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in the rain». After thinking this was an generated a lot of discussion as the exaggeration, as many professional sports organisation was accused of trying to can be played in the rain, we came to make money off players. In a memo from the conclusion that we were thoroughly the Millennium Series, the organisation and resoundingly wrong. assumed they needed money to pay for Regarding the field’s design, it seemed the expenses of such a large tournament. interesting before the event with the The Millennium defended themselves by use of two snakes. We initially thought saying that the side stands were free, so that it would destabilise the game as the only one paid was the central stand. one wouldn’t know which side would be Nonetheless, one thing is certain: the the strongest for each team or if both sale of tickets makes our sport more would be used for a two-front attack. professional. Something only has value if What we do know is that, and this has someone is willing to pay for it. been recurring over the year, the The big news of the year happened teams don’t risk much, hoping in this event. For the first time, The layout something goes well and only there was a real World Cup, wasn’t the then will they do something unlike the ones announced in best choice to try and affect the game.

Orlando or Asia, where there for a last event, This proved to be a negative were only 20 teams from where there outcome for an event where different countries. was a lot everything had to go right.

In the remaining at stake.

The playing fields within competitions everything had the hippodrome were set in an yet to be shown. There were intelligent way as the organisation many favourites, yet none of them was now able to charge ticket prices for could proclaim themselves champions. the CPL stands. The Millennium team In the backstage there was talk of the decided to place the main field away Tontons equalizing Art Chaos and Joy from the others, surrounded by the main Division in the number of titles won. stands and two lateral ones. The only It is interesting to notice that, zone that didn’t have a stand was near although they are one of the best teams the player’s pit boxes. The remaining in the world, up until last year the fields were laid out in a perpendicular French team hadn’t won any Millennium fashion, in relation to the CPL field, one event and the championship they won after the other. The SPL field lost a lot of in 2006 was a sum of consistent results, media coverage, but the overall coverage as they were never the best team in any of the sport was boosted with this event. Many doubted their ability to win highlighted access to the CPL field. this event, due to their recent PSP «hot The sale of tickets for stand places gun» scandal, in which various players

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were caught with guns going way over the limit.

One of the statistics that shows the success of the Millennium Series is the amount of teams playing in Division 3. The number could hardly be worse.

Comparing to last year’s Disney event, there was a 50% decrease in attendance, which meant the division went from 60 to 30 teams. This is even worse if you realise Chantilly was the second worst

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event of the year regarding this statistic, with St. Tropez leading the chart. This shows what players think of the new event’s location, however we might have to consider other impacting factors.

This division was an example of how a team that is practically the champions can go straight to the bottom of the chart. After two second places and one first, the Apocalypse Brussels had a disastrous performance and they didn’t

even make it past the preliminary round.

Millennium. Up until now, they only had th Nonetheless, this guaranteed them a 16 two fourth places and a third one. This place and silver medal in the Millennium scenario was practically impossible to overall ranking. predict, but it teaches a lesson As we had mentioned, this to less ambitious teams; the The ticket is the danger with open game is only over when sales to the divisions, where one can the buzzer plays. Evil Men public make get good opponents that we were therefore Division 3 our sport more have never heard of before. champions. professional.

To prove this, once again, we Unlike Division 3, where can see how two new teams – the 5 man with race-to-three ANT Provins and Scalp ME Saulx format is played, Division 2 les Chartreux 4 – managed to win already plays Ball. Although we a third and fourth place in the event, had just seen there are no guaranteed respectively. spots on the scoreboard, as you move up Without great surprise, and with in the divisions, it becomes harder for Apocalypse Brussels out of the way, the a team to play worse than their normal Evil Men, had their first victory in the level. Just like the division directly

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below this one, Div. 2 is open and the the overall classification was achieved by big surprise was an Iranian team – Tehran Diaspora that was really brought down by Datis. Their presence was solely due to their Bitburg performance, where they the participation of Iran in the World came in 13th.

The first three teams moved up Cup, as had only taken part 2009’s a division – Lucky 15, DV8 and Millennium in Turkey; back then It doesn’t Diaspora – but the last ones they won a second place. matter how didn’t go down, as this is This second place didn’t you get to the an open division and the change the results much, game, but how first of Xball, so there isn’t as Lucky 15’s proved to be you leave it. anywhere to go. unmovable, although they This division has two didn’t have any easy victories female teams – Poison Ivy and and found themselves playing Fat Lady’s Charm – that always with the clock. Their first place create a large fan base of players, crowned them divisional champions with women and especially photographers.

52 points over DV8. DV8 guaranteed a Poison Ivy, as we have seen throughout second place overall with a sixth place in the year, had a very consistent the event, climbing up the next division. performance which enhanced their We must remember that this team hired popularity to the point that they have Clint Moore as their coach and you can seats in the autographing booths. In this really see the results paying off. event we had the chance to watch the The third place in the event and in

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first female conflict of the year between both teams. It was a very intense game played to the end of the clock with only one point scored by Poison Ivy. Fat Lady’s Charm didn’t keep up their 2011 style, when with the help of Anthony Perez, they managed a fourth place overall.

However they aren’t missing any strength in them nor the desire to prove that women aren’t an easy target in paintball.

Poison Ivy deserved more, but after a tenth place finish in Basildon, they needed more than a seventh place, which they accomplished.

One of the divisions which we like to follow the most is Division 1. In this

division, we find good players that can sometimes make the difference by themselves. There are good games that already demonstrate a high level of knowledge of our sport.

To prove this theory one just had to see how mad the fight for the first four places was. Before Chantilly, Scorpion Milano was only four points away from London Defiance and from the top position. The other two rivals were Bad Boys Oss and Ronholt Blast.

All were open games and the fights were close. Bets were made on the top two teams, with stars like Jason Wheeler and Max Lunqvist playing for Defiance

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and Scorpion, respectively. The Italian Manchester Firm. Against this English team didn’t have many difficulties team, the Norwegians didn’t manage throughout the tournament as their only better than a 1:2, which sent them home real confrontation was in the final with with a guaranteed third place. the team from London. The British team We make an honourable mention to in turn had a rough preliminary phase and the Dutch Bad Boys, one of the youngest only got second in their group. The rest teams in the Millennium and that of the tournament wasn’t easy for them achieved a good place in this division. and they only managed to prove who they In SPL things are slightly different really were in the semi-finals. from any other division below. Here some The final ended up being an easy path teams really feel the responsibility and for the Scorpions that got there with will to become the next professional only victories and two conceded points team. Some are past CPL contenders, to Vision PPC. All other games were while others are flag teams majorly either 4:0 or 4:1. However what sponsored by brands, like Five happened in the final was pure Star and their Anthrax sponsor.

Houston paintball. It doesn’t matter One thing is sure: there are Heat are how you get to a game, no guaranteed victories. the biggest it’s how you leave it that The big surprise this year disappointment matters. The English simply was the absence of Dogs of 2013. defeated the Italian team, D’Amour that were counting point after point for the whole on Oliver Lang to play, yet, match. It was a perfect game due to internal problems, they

by Defiance that in a controlled and didn’t play this final event. Maybe aggressive fashion, demonstrated how the fact they were second before last in they were able to rise above all obstacles the first event and 29th in London caused this decision. and turn everything in their favour.

Although London Tigers were leading The 4:0 victory gave this team a first overall, as we said, the scoreboard place overall and made them the Div. 1 doesn’t dictate the games. Status can champions of 2013. This was a deserved boost moral but it won’t win games. place for a team that had gotten three In the preliminary round, the English previous first place rankings in the team felt some difficulty achieving a year. second place in their group. Their rivals Scorpions came second in the event – Comin At Ya – didn’t feel any pressure and overall. in overcoming their adversaries and they As for third place, this was won only conceded two points in this phase.

by Ronholt Blast that had a solid We want to congratulate RMG for performance until they played

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being the best team in the preliminary Unfortunately for Boost Air, they phase. Their supremacy was only stopped caught the Ugly Ducklings off their RMG by the Ugly Ducklings in the quarter victory and were unable to surpass the finals.

Hellwood score, meaning they were only Another team that impressed three points behind the bronze The us was Hellwood, but this medal. final had an time in a negative manner.

Ugly Ducklings inexplicable The French team which proudly ruined the plans for mystique: the were second overall before many teams, as after an current champions average season they went Chantilly had a disastrous versus the 2012 event that brought them all out in this last event. champions. last in their group, which They just didn’t defeat the st meant an awful 21 place. divisional champions – London With this result, the second place Tigers – taking the silver home and position was up for grabs. Their excellent giving the gold to the English team. results in previous events saved them and CPL is without a doubt the division gave them a third place overall. everyone wants to see play. As we had

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said, the main stands had paid seats, which forced many of those interested to watch from the side stands. The main stand was never completely full, not even in the finals, but it wasn’t ever empty, as many against this decision wanted to happen.

The highest division of this championship was as always divided into four groups of four teams each. In group A, there were three of the five French teams – Tonton, Carnage and Vision – which would be fighting against the

surprise team of the year: Polar Bears.

Vision that up until then hadn’t been able to pass the groups phase, seemed to have reincarnated into a powerhouse and laid the law in Chantilly, winning every game and making it first in the group.

It is very interesting how every one of their matches was highly contested, with the opponents scoring many points.

Justin Schwarz pointed it out to us in an interview, saying that although they had many defeats, they were all very close. Apparently they finally found out

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what they needed to overcome all their opposition. The second place in the group came to the Tontons. They were the team to defeat in this event; after two first places and one fifth, this French team was the one with the best chances of winning the European title. But few can forget Dynasty´s slip last year in the final event, basically handing over the trophy to Art Chaos, when they simply had to pass the prelims. Although they managed

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to pass this initial phase, the French knew they had nothing guaranteed.

This event kept on surprising us when in Group B Breakout Spa won two games and were first in their group with only one defeat against Houston Heat.

Houston Heat were, on the opposite end, the biggest disappointment of the event. Without the Russians, who play for Art Chaos in Europe, the American team seems to have no solutions against

the middle-board teams. Their major victory over Nexus, they steamrolled over achievement this year was Bitburg, where the other teams. After a big stumble in they made it to the finals, but overall London Nexus proved to be strong and they have struggled in the group capable of a fight against those Only six phases. Once again they were brave enough to face them. teams won left behind, giving the second Although Infamous were the biggest place to Impact. playing below their London European In group C there weren’t standard, their first place trophy many surprises, as Art was assured in group D in the last Chaos came first and Nexus with three victories. The 10 years. second. They left Instinct and second place went to the Icon behind. In this phase it was German team Syndicate, which noticeable how Art Chaos, one of sometimes seem to remember how the main contenders of the title, weren’t to play and sometimes forget this and fooling around and apart from their 4:2 prefer to play around at the bottom of

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the scoreboard. slotting point after point in the final.

In the quarter finals, there were several Art Chaos were doing the same, already games worth watching. Sometimes leading the match 4:0 against Impact. it wasn´t just one game, but a With Tonton almost reaching a 5:0 The whole lot of very impressive victory, an Art Chaos victory Millennium ones. We should remind you would automatically give the series organised that Art Chaos and Impact French team a first place. the first real were in the fight for first Impact came onto the field World Cup place and everything was still ready to make a change, event. open. For fans of paintball which they did, carrying the there is nothing better than game point after point towards joining Art Chaos against Impact a 4:3 result with only 20 seconds and Tonton against Infamous. They on the clock remaining for the last are four of the five best teams this year point. Would the Canadians be able to and all of them were at least one in the tie the game and go into extra-time? We podium. Strangely enough, the Tontons have seen this happen, it wouldn’t be were able to coolly control the Americans, impossible. They attacked in strength but

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were held back, time was their enemy of the day. Tontons jumped and danced, celebrating on the field. After seven years, the Tontons were European champions once again. We could feel in the air that they preferred to celebrate with their fans, friends and family, but destiny chose for this to be celebrated on the field in a more private and welcoming manner.

In other games, Nexus continued to show superiority by winning Breakout Spa by 5:1. At the same time, Vision played and beat Syndicate by 5:2. Vision also had

the bad luck of encountering Art Chaos that found themselves in this event, unlike their previously weak performance throughout the year. It was a clear 5:1 victory over the French. In another game, the Tontons faced Nexus – the strongest teams of France and the UK up against each other. In this game, there was a historic rivalry that prohibited the teams to see this as just an ordinary match.

Although they knew each other very well, one could almost feel the tension on the field before the game. Both

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teams desired victory and the French legendary match. It wasn’t just an elite were favourites but Nexus was ready to game, in which the French team tried prove everyone wrong. Unfortunately, to prove their competence over the the English team was unable to power Russians. Unfortunately, the game left a over the French. 5:2 is an unfair score for very bittersweet taste in our mouths. We the amount of action that happened on were in France and the crowd was going the field, but as we´ve said many times crazy with the chance of being able to before, what matters is who plays the beat one of the best teams in the World. buzzer and Nexus only did so two times.

But Art Chaos didn’t give the champions The fight for third and fourth place much of a chance, only conceding two continued this rivalry as Vision and Nexus points in the match. There was still were pitted up one against the other. a lot of celebration, even after the Nexus are a strong team, not just because defeat, bearing in mind being Millennium of their roster, where Clint Moore stands champions was only attainable by a small out and so does Marcello Margott, elite in the world. Only six teams one of the biggest American have won the biggest European Why isn’t players in paintball right now. trophy in the last six years. there a CPL Vision have been fighting The satellite tournament team with hard for their reputation of this event was the first players from in European paintball. The real World Cup ever. Some the team UK? game was close, nobody events throughout the wanted to lose their third globe like calling themselves place. To Nexus this meant a «World Cup», just because they fourth or fifth place in the overall happen on this planet, but that ranking. Time ran out and the result isn’t really the criteria for that title. stayed 4:3 for the English team. Vision The Millennium congregated 24 national came in tenth place, being the second teams, some of them as unexpected as best French team in the scoreboard.

Iran, Turkey, Mexico or South Africa. As The final was the most awaited game you´re all aware, we aren’t the biggest of the season, as this was the second fans of these tournaments in conjunction time both teams faced each other, but with the Millennium, as athletes aren’t the first time in a final. In London, victory fully focused on their national team. was conceded to the Russians, which However, we were amazed by this relegated the French team to fifth place. edition, especially by the dedication and In Chantilly, there was a very different quality of some of the teams. They all situation! The current champions – wanted to win the first paintball´s World Tontons – versus the 2012 champions – championship.

Art Chaos – it had the potential to be a The favourites were obviously the

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United States, Canada, France, United their country lose. During these games, Kingdom and Russia. However, Russia the main stands were open to everyone, did not have their main national stars, so photographers could catch the whole who were most likely focused crowd in ecstasy. on becoming Millennium The team that stood out the The USA champions. most was the UK, with their won 4:3 in a Right from the start, you mixture of CPL players. Their match that wasn´t performance was so good could feel there was going advisable for to be a large disparity that one thinks why isn´t those weak of between teams, just by there a CPL team formed heart. looking at the results. It isn’t with those members. If this easy for a team that came all team dominated the US in the the way from Mexico to round final, imagine the damage they up their best players and train them could make in a Millennium event. together, and then face them up against There were over five dozens of the best teams of the world all across the games before the two final teams were other side of the globe. found. The fight for third All games were adrenalin filled, as and fourth was the audience never wanted to see between France

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and Belgium. Belgium was an excellent surprise as they beat the Norwegian and Russian teams. France was also a team ready to reach the finals and the crowd, which was mostly French, was saddened not to see their team reach the final. As

expected, the French were superior to the Belgium team, winning by 4:2 and getting the bronze medal.

The final, as we said, was disputed between the US and the UK. The UK was from our perspective the most

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solid team of the whole or any other physical CPL tournament, always with representation of Toulouse Tonton strong tactics, controlling their nation’s colours.

Art Chaos Moscow the game and not letting The national anthems their opponents stop for were sung with feeling Edmonton Impact a breather. However, and the happiness on the Americans had many player’s faces was SPL individual star players, and indescribable.

London Tigers in a tournament like this, Chantilly finished with Offenburg Comin At Ya where many national teams the award ceremony and Hellwood Paris have never trained together with a larger than usual before or where there gathering of players. are some tactical faults, strong individuals Everyone knows the international season can make the difference between victory is over and that you’ll only see those and defeat. The US won by 4:3 in a game friends you meet four times a year in six inappropriate for those with weak hearts. months. So people hung around chatting The American pride was present all and saying goodbye to each other for just the way until the end, be it through flags a bit longer. The scenery was amazing, advertisement

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Div. 1

GI London Defiance Scorpions Milano Ronholt Blast

Div. 2

Div. 3

Lucky 15s Staffordshire Durham DV8 Diaspora Vilnius

with the sunset painting the stables in a golden aura.

One thing is certain, Chantilly is very beautiful but it isn’t a place to bring more to the sport, as promised by the organisation. There are places simply irreplaceable from our view, and Euro Disney is one of them. It isn’t the same to play in the middle of one of the biggest race tracks in the world – Nürburgring

Evil Men Toulouse Apocalypses Brussels Druid Celtic Saulx Les Chartreux

– or in any other circuit. As it isn’t the same to skip Euro Disney, one of the main tourist attractions in Europe, and change it for a hippodrome that many have never heard about. The fame of the event’s location brings viewers and above all, it elevates the status of our sport.

It is a marvellous location, but not as good as the ones we’ve had in the past.• advertisement

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DPL Deutsche Painball League Text: André Garrido Photos: Ole Kröger

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We were at the largest paintball league in the World. The numbers don’t lie: 450 teams, 3000 players, 18 cities and 38 divisions.

And this is only in the summer edition.

Welcome to DPL. 46

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DPL is not a common paintball league.

DPL is simply the largest paintball league in the World. This German competition counts with 450 teams which translate in more or less 3000 players. Of course this numbers are easy to understand when we know Germany has more than 80 million inhabitants, being the most populous country in the European Union.

Other secret for this numbers is the size of this country, with 357 square kilometers. If this wasn’t enough to help this country achieving huge success in our sport, Germany is one of the strongest economies in the World, which of course means new players getting new gear and becoming true paintball players.

These same numbers bring a huge responsibility and a true nightmare in terms of logistics. When you have more than 18 cities holding the events and 38 divisions, this could become very chaotic.

The solution for this problem is based on simplicity: each event is only held in one place. The scheme of the league is based on football and the names of the divisions are the same of the football league. The process of team promotion through the divisions is the same used in most of the countries, where a group of teams is promoted after becoming the top ranked teams in that division. All the divisions have four days of tournament and the biggest division – BundesLiga – has one more extra day.

The 18 cities are spread all over the country, but of course they are near the big cities like Dusseldorf, Hamburg,

Frankfurt and Munich. Strangely only The main objective of the DPL one event is held near the capital city – organization is to create a more Berlin. demanding league according the level you In such a huge structure there are big are playing. It makes sense; the highest differences between the several divisions. you are in the divisions the more difficult The biggest one is the type of gameplay. it is to win.

In the lowest but largest divisions – The novelty for 2014 is that there will BerziksLiga and LandesLiga – the This is one of the leagues with format is «Hit the Base», in which players just need to hit the enemies’ more teams in Millennium Series. base. This allows players, referees and special for the organization to save be a new division – the Oberliga – that time. In the VerbandsLiga, the format is will be placed between Regionalliga and already XBall, but only Race-To-2. From Verbandsliga and will have Race-To-3 as RegionalLiga to BundesLiga, Xball Raceformat of playing. to-4 is the law; the only difference being Although Germany isn’t known for its that only BundesLiga 1 and 2 have double tropical weather, the rain isn’t constant, round robin. since the games are held between April and

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September. As most of the countries, some days there are rain, others there isn’t.

It’s common to see familiar faces around, since this is one of the leagues with more teams in the Millennium Series.

Consilium Dei, Breakout Spa, Coming At Ya, Instinct or Syndicate are some of the most popular teams around, even if they don’t play on the first league.

Other familiar face that is always around is Ulrich, one of the DPL coordinators; Ulrich is famous for being one of the main leaders of Millennium Series, which gives this German league more credibility and professionalism. Although Ulrich is the most famous, this oiled machine can’t be moved without a big team; Arne Petry and Matthias Brzozowski, along with Ulrich,

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are the ones who lead everything and everyone.

Besides these three general managers, there are 23 local league managers to make it work.

Having these teams as the flagship

Syndicate holds the record of five titles in DPL. of a league brings one huge «problem»: high-level competition. This kind of competition is good for the quality of playing of a country that has two teams in the biggest stage of European paintball.

We are talking about Syndicate and Instinct.

Another funny fact about this league

is that some teams from the nearby countries went over to play, like the Belgium team Breakout Spa. All action happens in the highest division. This year wasn’t an exception and it isn’t strange to see some famous teams loosing games when they aren’t well prepared. This was the case of Instinct that only got the fifth place on the overall ranking. Even at Millenium, this team felt some difficulties to get their game straight and to win the necessary points to stay in CPL. Just right after Instinct in fourth place there was another famous team – Comin At Ya. Although this team was only promoted to the top Millennium league this year, their fierce has been known all over

Europe for years, what makes them one of the favorites year after year.

In the top3, there were the two most predictable teams – Syndicate and Breakout Spa. The third place was given to Cologne Predators, which is one of Europe´s largest teams, with over 50 players and four squads in the DPL. Breakout Spa had a big year in Millennium and despite being a Belgium team playing in German soil, they didn’t care and did everything to show that it doesn’t matter where you came from in this sport, but how many opponents do you shoot.

Syndicate is the most professional team in DPL. Being the MAX’s team has some privileges and the return from the

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DPL is famous for their big players’ party. players is huge in results. At Millennium, they aren’t always constant in the results, but they are always a team to fear. Here they were the kings of paint and the most difficult team to score a point against, holding the record of five titles at DPL. One thing is certain, DPL is big and there are few countries in Europe that can show this level of professionalism. Without

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any doubt, everyone should go to this tournament at least once. If you are far or don’t want to spend money, just watch them on their own webcast.

Now it is time for the DPL Winter, when 100 teams play our sport in three formats and in 15 indoor fields, during three days. However everyone still has great memories of the huge players´ party held after the last event of the regular DPL.•

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TOP 5 Once again the CPL division captains of the Millennium Series have voted for their favourite player of the 2013 season.

The choice is obvious, although the fight for the top places was close in some cases.

Text: AndrĂŠ Garrido Design: Siegie Kelly

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Axel Gaudin Tonton 20 years old Strangely enough he has gone down one position since last year and is the only Tonton present on the Top5. He doesn’t need any sort of introduction and he is without any doubt the most famous player of the French squad this year.

Aggressiveness, good field awareness and amazing communication skills make this «little» warrior a top paintball player.

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Mikhail Knyazev Art Chaos 31 years old Knyazev has also fallen down one place due to the very weak and uncommon start of the Russian team – Art Chaos. He is the real tough guy in paintball and is the obvious choice when you need someone to control a zone or solve any situation.

He is that player that nobody wants to see on the other side of the field.

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Ryan Moorhead Impact 28 years old Moorhead doesn’t need any type of introduction.

This American hero loves to wear his countries’ colours. He is well known for his speedy breakouts and his will to always win. One thing is certain, without Moorhead, Impact would not have had the same results in Europe.

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Konstantin Fedorov Art Chaos 28 years old One will rarely see Fedorov away from these top positions in the European rankings. K-Fed is definitely the most creative paintball player the world has yet seen. Not only that, he is technically perfect. His presence, no matter in which team he plays, will fill up the stands, as one never knows what he will pull out of his magic moves hat.

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Aleksandr Berdnikov Art Chaos 25 years old A real hit man. Nobody knows he’s around until it’s too late. He can start at one of the corners as well as make a straight run for the M. What’s certain is that he stays alive and when you least expect it he will undermine his opponent’s tactic, taking away any chances of victory for them.

All he has to do next is pick the remaining players, one by one.

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breakshooting

By Axel Gaudin

There are different key moments it’s mean and stupid in a way and in a paintball game. The first is when repetitive. The more you work on it, the the buzzer rings to starts the point, more you will be able to be accurate and then breakshooting time starts. This reactive. This technical factor conditions short period of 4/5 seconds has a major the «B» factor and I will explain to you influence on the rest of the game. why is it by far the hardest to master.

Indeed, the damage you and your team Let’s have a good thought about can make instantly define the result of the breakshooting, and have a look at two point. At the pro level, those 4/5 seconds examples. are used to: Make your breakshooting profitable EXAMPLE 1: The breakshooter has a good Optimize your attacker’s run technical level and a nice reactivity off This is a particular double work, the break, which means he’s able to put because you try to do to You try to do to your opponent what you your opponent what you don’t want them to do to don’t want them to do to your team. your team.

We should start by defining what a good his first paint exactly where he wants but breakshooter is: (and it’s a big but) he chooses the bunker A: To make a good shoot, technically, is he will shoot before the point, with the to put your paint on the area you want it information he got from the previous to be game, so he will shoot for the corner.

B: To choose the area you are going to Let’s admit (careful: there is some shoot and to put your paint in front of the calculation required in here) that this bunker the opponent is going to. player is playing snakeside, where there The «A» factor is quiet easy, it only are four available bunkers to run for the demands you to have technical practice, opponent. We have just seen our player in

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example 1 choose to shoot at the corner area, which gives him one out of four chances to «shoot in the right place». I’m only talking about placing the paint «in the right place». Choosing the right place means that his paint is only going to be dangerous 25% of the shoots. So if there are three guys running against me in the corner, I can shoot two, which means my stat is only 17% of damage off the break.

That is not so good.

So, I’m going to present you more profitable but also more technical and

harder to organize solution.

EXAMPLE 2: I choose to adapt my breakshooting to what I can see of my opponent to find the good area to shoot. If the player makes it right, his breakshooting‘s stat will increase way more.

So imagine, in example 1, I’m playing snake with four bunkers, and three opponents on this side (1 breakshooter, 2 runners). If you take the chrono, you will understand that an attack player

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runs for around four seconds before he gets to his corner. If you are accurate and reactive, your paint will be on the area you want two seconds before he gets there. Why don’t you optimize this time to make it profitable? That’s how a pro breakshooter works, and it’s a big job to understand.

After practicing, you must know how accurate and fast you can be to put your paint on the first area you can shoot someone. For the Tonton’s breakshooter, we need around six feet to be accurate, so we need to shoot at seven feet from the start gate. We want to place the paint in an area first, but not for too long, so we can then place it in a second area. So I’ll still be able to shoot a second zone. This is

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really important for different reasons: your lane, so that’s what I call profitable - Shooting closer to the start gate breakshooting. allows you to place paint in a zone more But this kind of breakshooting is suspected players will go also good to gather through. information. Imagine MORE TIPS: - If you shoot close to that nobody is running Project K – Axel Gaudin the start gate, players in the corner while you Facebook – Axel Gaudin are standing up, they are shooting there, are still slow. It is always that is useless and you easier to shoot someone on his feet than better shoot at the guy going in the M or someone diving. something. Shooting at those 6/7 feet - You are doing two effective lanes away from the start gate allowed you to of shooting, multiplying your chance of get early information that you can use to shooting someone off the break. adapt your breakshoot, and your whole - Moreover, you have visual information game. Sometimes while you are shooting to decide the second area you’re going to at the seven feet zone, you realize nobody shoot at. is going this way so you lock the side down

Tonton need around six feet to be accurate, so we are shooting at seven feet from the start gate.

CONCRETE EXAMPLE: The opponents´ team will send two runners to your side and they also have a breakshooter. We are shooting on the first zone, seven feet away from the start gate. First of all, you must be100% certain that opponents will have to go through your lane and then, as a reaction of body language, you decide to shoot at a second zone.

The corner runner has run twice through

as fast as possible, instead of wasting paint on the corner.

I invite you to look at the pro game and to focus on the breakshooters. They will adapt their way of playing really soon to get some early kills that define the game.

Let’s get to work! • advertisement

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Design: Ha

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Photo: Nina Anna

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We needed two days to talk about the past, the present and the future of the most famous French paintball player.

We didn’t leave any subject aside, such as the Bitburg final and the West Coast crisis.

If you really want to know this little «giant», you are in the right place.

Text: André Garrido

GRIP: You started playing with 12 years old in a small team and at 15 you were playing professionally with Vision. Do you think a 15 year old kid is prepared to play at the highest level of paintball?

Axel Gaudin: I think anyone who has practice a lot can play at this level. It´s not about the age, but more about the way you see the game and how you react.

I did a tryout with Vision and it was hard but Lyonnel – the captain – told me if I keep practicing, everything would go fine. In my mind, you can play Pro at any age, as long as you are practicing.

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Life dictated: «You will be champions at 10am!»

Axel G GRIP: But don’t you think the aggresivity of the sport and the bruises can intimidate the young guys a little?

AG: That’s why you start playing paintball at around 12 years old in France. At this age, kids are getting brave and want to test themselves so paintball is a good deal to toughen them up. Sometimes it hurts but ten seconds after it’s ok, so I think if you like paintball, violence is an extremely minimal part of the sport.

Gaudin GRIP: Your family is a big part of your success. It reminds me of those professional tennis players whose family changes their lives completely when the athlete is very young. Did that happen to you?

AG: It’s one of the best things I have in the sport and in life generally. Nothing has changed when I came to play paintball, because my family was already extremely involved in any sport we started to play.

The good thing with paintball is that when you start to have a good level, you can bring your family to really nice places and it’s nice to do it with them. It’s also one of the best feelings you can have when you win, to feel that your family is also winning, or losing, with you.

GRIP: But this is not very usual in our sport. Your father is your snake coach and you always walk very proud by

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paintball, he knows how to correct and challenge me. He’s really good at figuring out what I need to work on, even if he doesn´t know what exercise I’m supposed to do to work that out (laughs).

He is responsible for every grit he gave me, every focus on my composure, every point of my game like aggressiveness and solidity, among other things.

GRIP: Your older brother plays with Vision. What do you feel when you play against him?

AG: (Laughs) That’s maybe strange to say, but I really don’t care, because I need to win the match! We always make some joke on each other after the game but nothing is more important than winning, so I only want to destroy him (Smiles). But if I am not playing against him, I will try to help as much as I can by coaching, pitting, etc. Of course I would do my best to help him winning, but not if I’m also in the race. his side. Is he one of the responsible for your level of play?

AG: He has followed me for five seasons in Millennium and PSP now. He knows my game really well and he gives me the information I need at the right time.

But even more important than coaching, he is 200% involved in the team with all his heart when we play. My father has always pushed my brothers and I to do our best. Even if he has almost never played

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GRIP: When you were 16 years old, Vision went to SPL and you were invited

by Joy Division and Tonton. Joy was the obvious choice in terms of fame and results, so why did you choose Tonton?

AG: I was only 16 and the end of the year was crazy, as we were relegated to SPL with Vision. I heard about Joy having some trouble and that the team could be over.

I would have to practice alone in France

and meet them at the tournament, which would have been really difficult for me as a 2nd Pro year. Tonton was the best French team, the players had the same goals as me and the team’s potential was phenomenal. My deal with Tonton happened just so much easier than with Joy, that is why I joined Tonton.

GRIP: Now you are the «West Tonton’s face… How crazy is that? that AG: I got involved with the team a lot and that’s why I start to have an important place in it. My kind of game fits perfectly with the team and I just kept that way of playing. The Tonton’s team only have players that share the same goals, work hard and give a lot of themselves to the team. I have been

playing for four years now for Tonton and it has been the best experience of my life as I’m playing with some of the best players in the world, who actually became my best friends.

GRIP: Many say you are the best player in your team. What do you think about this?

Coast Open was the worst thing happened in my paintball life!»

AG: I think I’m the one who shines the most because of my way of playing, but that’s it. Everyone in the team practices what we need to improve together. We’re all great players; for Example, Loic shot the runner every time in London, Franck makes almost all of his run-through

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clean, Tavarez plays in the middle of nowhere... maybe my way of playing is nice to watch, but I would not be able to do it without Loic or Tavarez behind me.

GRIP: In the beginning of this year, your team was very strong and, at the same time, Art Chaos were strangely «lost on the field». Were Tonton stronger or was it them that were weaker?

AG: I think Art Chaos was weaker at the start of the year, as they lost some matchs they shouldn’t have lost. Tonton was playing the field very well, making a lot of G’s off the break instead of Art Chaos.

I think that’s what gave us the lead in the first two events. We managed to be consistent which is the most important, so we were stronger this year, but this is only my point of view. On the other hand, we have never won against them.

So it’s hard to say…

GRIP: Tonton hired the Samuelsson brothers. Were they crucial for the increase of the team’s level?

AG: At the end of 2012, we lost Jason, who went play with Defiance for the Millennium. We knew they had an incredible experience of the game in the US and Europe, so they were the perfect choice. At the first practice with them, it was so good to see that they were involved in the team, playing with their hearts; they were like the Tonton so they fit the team perfectly! Sebban and Karl have amazing quality in their games, which matches the Tonton’s way of playing

perfectly.

Platan I Matan (Means let’s fucking go in Swedish)!

GRIP: Do you think you would have been Millennium champions without them?

AG: I will say no, because things would have been very different without them.

They are 100% part of the Tonton’s trophy, without them nothing would have been possible, just like any other player of the team. Anyone has participated and been so much involved througout the year, to maintain the level of playing that it

«It was our fault, but it looked like it was a trap and nobody heard about other people who had the same problems.» couldn’t have been possible without one of the Tonton’s players.

GRIP: What is the first thing you remember when I say the word: Bitburg?

AG: Final. Heart.

We played the final against (Houston) Heat; we were loosing 2:4 and we managed to score three points in a minute. That match was crazy, everybody was running everywhere and we managed to come back and win the match. It was the best match in my paintball life!

GRIP: It was the most amazing game I’ve ever seen... but it was full of controversy. Do you believe this

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victory over Houston Heat was fair?

AG: There was no controversy. Here’s a quick explanation: We were four, Tavarez got shot, Loic and I were alive as we bunkered the last player, Franck took a 1for1 for playing on. I was leaving the field and Loic received the 1for1, but I was alive. The only question of the headref was if any ref had seen me alive at the end of the point. Some refs confirmed I was alive, so there was no controversy about it. There was a video on YouTube that showed everything was much clear!

Unfortunately it has been deleted.

between this celebration or having to decide everything on the last game and celebrating with the fans and all spectators, what would you choose?

AG: It would have been even better for sure! But life dictated: «you are going to be champions at 10am!»(Laughs). The race was perfect. As Impact got eliminated, we were still in the competition, but with the eyes full of stars! It would have been so cool to play the final and decide everything in the last point at 4:4, but only if we won. So I’m happy it happened like this.

GRIP: Do you remember the «Chrony check could have been moment when you knew you were Millennium champion? done in another way, to have a great AG: We were in the quarter paintball game instead of this dramatic finals against Infamous and Art Chaos were playing catastrophic pathetic game.» against Impact. Tonton were really focused, doing everything perfect; GRIP: Although Tonton have a story of the game went 5:0 for us. We had to finish more than 20 years, your team could 3rd at least to assure the 1st place. After only win one Millennium stage in London the quarter final, Impact was the only last year. Isn’t that a little weird? team that could beat us on the run. At AG: To get results, you need to be the same time than our match, Art Chaos competitive. To be competitive, you put four points to zero on the board. We need to have a good budget to afford the finished our match and everything went season. The Tonton’s budget came bigger crazy as Impact came back to 4:3 with 20 after years of work and it is paying off seconds to play. They didn’t manage to right now. Big teams have a lot of money put the buzzer and we were the European for practice and it makes a big difference. champions. That was the best feeling You can have talent, but you can’t beat ever! Thank you Tonton!!! somebody with a bit of talent and tons of practice. Tonton was in need of good and GRIP: I remember you celebrating on useful practice, so we decided to train the backstage. If you had to choose every weekend and a whole week before

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the competition. Everything is related to the budget.

GRIP: Since you talk about budget, do you think it’s possible to have a

profitable career in paintball?

AG: I think so, because there are many teams that have a «owner-sponsor» who pays the players. I think it is really hard to maintain a career for many years, but

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it can be profitable in short term at least. I think that you’d better have something on the side just in case.

GRIP: Do you already have that kind of privileges?

AG: Not with Tonton; we fight very hard to afford the season so we can’t pay our players yet. I hope we will one day. (Smiles).

GRIP: How many days do you spend with paintball in an entire year?

AG: A quick calculation… around 190 days with competitions and practice included, but not counting with clinics.

GRIP: How do you manage paintball with your studies?

AG: I’m actually studying in a business school for high level athletes. My classes are from 8 to 12, so I can practice and study in the afternoon.

I can miss school and my exams can be postponed in case of an important competition. This is a good deal for me.

GRIP: Was it easy to explain the type of athlete you are in this school?

AG: Not at all (Laughs). At the tryout, I took videos and a magazine I’m in the cover of or poster to impress them. Some guys in my class are good at rugby or athletism, but no one travels as much as I do or get the same feeling out of the sports. Some still think that I’m playing in a war, others understood me.

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GRIP: Where do you see yourself in ten years?

AG: I hope I will have won ten PSPs and Millenium Series, but it looks quite hard (smiles). I want to play both «Nothing Millenium and PSP, because it’s good to play two different kinds so I on of game. In my professional life, I would like a job in marketing, but I don’t where for the moment.

GRIP: Two years ago you said in another interview that you didn’t like the «new»

was released and you are one of the highlights. Have you ever though this would be possible?

AG: I’m a really nice kid, you know...

(Laughs a lot). Yeah that’s really cool! We went to the San Diego DYE shop and it was the first time I saw all the stuff. It’s crazy and big over there! Making the pictures with Tavarez was really fun, a bit long but we had a good time at the photoshoot.

snakes. What is your opinion now?

AG: I still don’t like them, that’s why I started playing doritos! (Smiles). The snakes are smaller, and now they like to

g is more important than winning nly want to destroy my brother!» make the layout with an open snake and some windows to go through, so I still like to play snake but I want longer snakes.

GRIP: Recently the new DYE’s catalogue

GRIP: We have the pleasure to have you as our tactical writer and people were amazed by your knowledge at only 20 years old. Where did you get so much knowledge from?

AG: Project K, through Loic Voulot, has taught me so much about how to explain paintball. The Tonton have also taught me a lot about the tactical aspect and how to play the Tonton’s paintball. Following the team and Loic on their clinics was great to learn and now I know how to explain things to the players. Thanks again to the Tonton!

GRIP: You are one of the few players who have the chance to play PSP in the United States and Millennium in Europe.

What are the main differences between these styles of play?

AG: In PSP, everything is much quicker between players in the same team, they react really quick. That’s why the game

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is actually slower in US. I like the pace of Millennium, which is to go quick in the fifties and gunfighting. PSP is more tactical and with smart play. I really like both formats!

GRIP: Which one do you prefer?

AG: I like both of them, they both have their style and I really enjoy both PSP and Millennium. The pace of the Millennium is so good and the PSP level is so good. So I don’t know which one to choose.

GRIP: Last year you played with Russian Legion. What did that mean to you?

AG: It was a huge step for me to come out with them and play in the US. I was with the players I used to watch in videos and it was crazy to play with them. This is a great team and it was a really good season as we were second place twice for my first season.

GRIP: Was it a dream came true?

AG: Yeah, it was crazy when the coach asked me in Viena, during the CPS. The team looked unapproachable; the PSP was so far from me. It was one of the biggest turns in my paintball career.

GRIP: But this year Tonton decided to play PSP. Why? AG: It has been the ultimate goal of Tonton for the last three years, to go to PSP.

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GRIP: For the last three years? What do you mean?

AG: For the last three years, Tonton worked hard at practice to win competitions and to earn some gratitude from the sponsors. For three years, we were thinking about how to finance this season of PSP and Millennium. After my season with Russian Legion, Tonton was really close to the PSP, as three of our players were already playing there with other teams. At the end of the year, it became logic for the team to find a spot

«Best match in my paintball life! Tonton Vs. Heat.» in Pro to fight against the best teams. PSP is the best level of paintball in the world, it is composed by teams with players who work really hard and are motivated. This is where Tonton wanted to play so that’s why we decided to go to PSP. GRIP: Have you ever thought that Tonton could win an event in PSP? AG: I think it’s really hard to win a PSP event, but it’s doable for any team. This year was hard for us as we tried to adapt our game to the American style. But after this season, the team has grown up really quickly and it is now ready to step up against any team.

GRIP: Before the West Coast event, how do you think you were playing in PSP? AG: I think we were doing great for the first two events. We managed to stay

in the Pro division and the team was playing confidently. Chicago was a penalty disaster. We suffered four penalties per match, the team wasn’t playing well and we weren’t confident enough to expect to stay in the Pro division. The West Coast Open was the worst thing that has happened in my paintball life. I know the Tonton, I know myself and we were really going to win that game! Shit happens, no matter what controversy. Tonton

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is looking forward to playing this match again and to show we deserve this spot in the Pro division.

had a great paintball game instead of this dramatic catastrophic pathetic game. NO MORE (Smiles).

GRIP: You are talking about the story GRIP: But how was it possible that all of the hot guns. How do you recall that specific moment «My father is responsible for every when you saw all that happen? grit he gave me, every focus on my AG: It was just horrible. Loic took a minor at the start; We composure, every point of my game.» were not worried and we told ourselves «it’s ok, it’s a minute in the bow guns except yours were higher than 300? and if we loose the point, it’s only 3:1».

AG: Velocity makes a big difference. We But after the penalties, it all became all wanted to play at 299 the whole game crazy; all minor penalties became major time if it was possible, even at 300. So we and I was supposed to play on my own, set our gun to 290 with the highest paint which is not allowed at PSP. So we had to give up a first point, and start with two.

I felt just ... I don’t know how to explain it… It was our fault, but it looked like as if it was a trap on us. Nobody heard about other people having the same problems.

It’s only my opinion. It’s my own opinion, sorry!

GRIP: What do you mean by that?

AG: That it was the worst match ever in my life. I just want to play this match again and to look at the score again.

GRIP: Do you think you were discriminated for being European?

AG: I think we all got the same reffing.

When the problem happened at PSP, we were above the 300 and there was no will from us to play over the limit. I just think that the Chrony check could have been done in another way, so we could have

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at 295. When you don’t shoot for a while, the pressure accumulates a bit in the regulator and the first paint can come out higher than your average shooting. If we had shot two paintballs to the ground as everybody does before getting chrony, we would have been ok.

GRIP: Imagine this: You were not there and someone tells you one of your teammates had risen the gun on purpose. Would you believe it?

AG: Nope, I have been playing for four years with Tonton and it has never happened. We fight every year with Millenium to get better chrony, like the

good old one that can get your velocity from almost everywhere on the field. We want to play paintball by the rules and beat everyone, that’s the only thing you can expect from the Tonton.

GRIP: After the official position of PSP, Tonton decided not to go to the last event. Why? AG: The financial situation of Tonton was hard, and the decision from PSP was an overreaction. It is my own opinion again.

I’m sad we didn’t go there, because we have so much to prove. After the disaster from the West Coast Open, Loic was suspended for two more games…

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GRIP: But even so, why not play as expected and show your real value?

AG: It just wasn’t worth it. We would have played in the challenger and this is not honestly what we expected from the West Coast Open. We were on our way to come back there, because in my mind we belong there. Losing had a terrible effect on us. We were over motivated to win the Millennium just before the WCO event, but after that, the season was over for us. The PSP took away our points for the WCO, so there was nothing to expect from the World Cup when your season is already done.

AG: The reffing during the game is really good, in both competitions. I think the chrony check before the point is one of the only things to add. They are doing what they have to. They are the refs and you have nothing to say about their decision. Sometimes refs make good decisions, sometimes they have bad calls.

But the PSP and Millennium kind of reffing is really good.

GRIP: In the end of all this, Dave Youngblood, one of the main responsible for PSP, DYE owner and your main sponsorship said you cheated intentionally. How do you fell about this

GRIP: The biggest championship in the World was stopped for 20 «I’m studying in a school for high minutes during a live streaming for millions and your team’s level athletes. I can miss school name was thrown in the mud and exams if I have a competition.» just because, as you say, guns tend to get higher on the first shoots. statement?

Despite your possible guilt, it seems this AG: It’s too hard to talk about it! We gave isn’t good for the sport. What do you our gun to the tech who said everything think we can change so something like was stock. Ask the ref that checked our this doesn’t happen again? chrony, the hot shoots were not average AG: Just have a crony check before each and they were going lower. What kind of point, as we always asked for. We prefer cheating is this? to have a fluid game with everybody in good velocity to show our skills. We are GRIP: Any hard feelings with DYE? practicing for that, to beat other teams.

AG: No, we talked about it and it’s fine, When you play Pro, you expect everybody as I explained in the last question. I can’t to play at the same velocity. To chrony say anything else about it, I’m not the guy every point is the best solution, as simple talking with the sponsor, so… as this.

GRIP: Any regrets in going to PSP with GRIP: Do you think sometimes the refs Tonton and not to keep playing with are overly present in the game?

Russian Legion?

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AG: Tonton is the team in my heart, and I was a part of the motivation that brought the team to PSP. Of course I knew they were coming to PSP way before the announcement. Russian Legion was a really great experience, but I think we had a good year, except in Chicago and the last game in WCO. I will always have my heart on the Tonton’s side, and I know we could have done something good at PSP. So no regrets, except not going to the World Cup. GRIP: How will 2014 be for you?

AG: We don’t know yet, there are many things going on for the team and we need sit down and talk about it.

Some changes will probably happen and we have to set our objectives for 2014, but, of course, I hope it’s going to be like this year in Europe and full of victories.

GRIP: Have you had any invitations to play in PSP? AG: I had some invitations yes, but I can’t talk about the teams that have asked me. (Smiles) GRIP: Tonton have many fans everywhere. Do you have any special words for them?

AG: Thanks to the Tonton’s fan and for the support you gave us throughout the year. You are one of the reasons of our motivation! Thank you so much! (Smiles).

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«I don’t like these snakes, that’s why I started playing doritos!»

For all of you who want to learn with me, please check out my Project K website and my Facebook page. For all Tonton’s fans, please visit our Facebook page.•

INTRODUCING THE ALL NEW

DM14 THE CHOICE OF CHAMPIONS™

A TRUE EVOLUTION IN PERFORMANCE AND TECHNOLOGY. The DM-14 represents over ten years of paintball marker evolution. Our customers and athletes demanded perfection, so that’s what we strived for in all our design decisions. Revamped and rebooted, the DM-14 is smaller and more air efficient than previous incarnations of the DM, with a streamlined design, nearly half an inch shorter than the DM-13. It is also easier to clean and maintain than ever before. When you take the field you can be sure DYE has spared no expense in putting pure performance in your hands, as the DM-14 has been born again hard.

TO SEE ALL THE DM14 COLORS AND PGA PATTERNS VISIT DYEPAINTBALL.COM DYE EUROPE-UK Dye House, 7-8 Commerce Way, Croydon, Surrey CRO 4XA United Kingdom, P +44 (0) 20-8649-6330 F +44 (0) 20-8649-6339 DYE GERMANY Albert Einstein Str. 2 B 77656 Offenburg, Germany, P +49 (0)781 639 349 91 F +49 (0)781 120 302 99 DYE Precision, Inc. USA 10637 Scripps Summit Ct. San Diego, CA 9213, P 858-536-5183 F 858-536-5191 DYE ASIA No. 253, Guojhong Rd., Dali City, Taichung County 412, Taiwan (R.O.C.), P +886 (0) 4-2407-9135 F +886 (0) 4-2407-2090 Copyright ©2013 DYE Precision, Inc. The stylized “dye” logo, the “sphere” logo, the “dm” logo are either registered trademarks, trademarks, or design trademarks of DYE Precision, Inc. The DM is protected by U.S. Patent #5,613,483 other U.S. and International Patents Pending and is covered by one or more of the following U.S. Patents, 5,613,483; 5,881,707; 5,967,133; 6,035,843; 6,474,326 and 7,765,998. For a complete list of patents please visit www.dyeprecision.com/patents

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VERA GIMENES Photographer: Carlos Rodrigues Model: Vera Gimenes Makeup & Hair: Sílvia Ferreira Styling: Thiago Semedo

Elbow Pads – Emboscada Goggles – Emboscada Pods – Emboscada Paintballs - Emboscada Underwear – Primark

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Left page Helmet – C.E.P. Underwear – Primark This page Headband – Emboscada Harness – Emboscada Underwear – Primark

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Overalls – Emboscada Underwear – Primark

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DFender – Emboscada Beret – Carlos Photography Swimsuit – Primark

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Jersey – Emboscada DFender – Emboscada Beret – Carlos Photography

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Pants – Emboscada Gloves – Emboscada Goggles – Emboscada Underwear – Primark

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VECKR

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RING This game is probably the central point of paintball in Europe. Every scenario player should come to this game at least once in life.

Old wrecked buildings make anyone feel that they’re in one of the World Wars.

Welcome to Veckring.

Text: Miguel Brito

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Every Paintball player, from the average weekend player, to the tournament adrenaline junkie, should, at some point, experience the amazing celebration of the sport that is a Paintball Big Game.

Players have heard of games such as Living Legends, D-day, North v South and even Big Paintball Maneuvers, but most of them have never heard of a Big game in a little French border town called Veckring.

This abandoned military hospital complex is located in France, a few kilometers from neighboring Luxembourg.

With an area of about eight hectares, it consists of a series of large two-story buildings surrounded by woodland and a

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main road that runs through the compound.

Add a series of barricades, obstacles and watch towers and you’ve got yourself a pretty awesome paintball field.

Throughout the year, a series of «not so big» games, including paintball in the snow and a reenactment of Vietnam called Vecnam, take place here. Still, it all culminates in the yearly big event, on the first weekend of September.

For three days, this paintball field accommodates teams and players from all over Europe. Everyone brings tents, caravans and trailers and sets up around the large site in increasingly impressive and sophisticated camping, some including TVs,

refrigerators filled with beer and massive spread across the site. Players slowly grills. One team even put all their tents in emerge out of their tents and begin to a circle around a large pig on the spit. prepare their gear for the day. From 9am On the first day, you could see the announcements can be heard throughout organizers of the event, who tirelessly Veckring, «The game starts in 1 hour!», walked around the site, making sure «the game starts in 30 minutes» and everything was ready for the next day. finally «The game starts RIGHT NOW!» All Right at the entrance you can The camp site is full of tents, see large banners from past games and a line of tanks, trucks caravans, trailers, TVs, refrigerators, and missiles that will be part of beer and massive grills. the action on the following day.

Walking through the camping grounds, you announcements are repeated over and over could see fireplaces surrounded by people in English, French and German. Soon, the singing, drinking and talking about their players gather for a group picture and a latest paintball exploits and strategies for short briefing is given, followed by some the next day. encouraging and morale boosting «salutes» At around 8am, music starts playing from the lovely Veckring «nurses». increasingly loudly through the speakers, The first game is simple, a large head

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on confrontation between red and blue paintball action ever seen. teams, for control of the main buildings.

A large group was taken to the basement Shortly after the game starts, both teams to protect one of the missiles and a clash right in the middle of the playing smaller group, led by the Portuguese team field, with smoke grenades being thrown Blue Falcon Squadron, was in charge of around for cover. The amount of paint defending the ground floor. You could feel in the air is staggering! Small squads try the excitement and anticipation in the air! to move up to the buildings and climb The mercenaries on the upper floor decided through the windows. They echo with to hold fire and let the overconfident Red sounds of shooting and shouting and the team get well into range. When they finally occasional flashbang. Soon after, the opened up on them, all hell broke loose! tanks start rolling in. With two gunners Thousands of paintballs flew through in the back, firing in all directions, these the windows and soon the, once white were deadly and caught a lot of players kitchen, turned bright pink! There was off guard, as they moved around the so much paint on the ground that you site. Large groups on both sides use their could slide around instead of walking! covering fire and momentum to move up Then came the smoke grenades and the the field and take some ground.

Veckring has some pretty well After two hours of fierce fighting, the first match came to an end, with endowed nurses that love messing the Blue team advancing deep into around with hoses and foam... the Red base for the first half of the game and then being pushed back flashbangs, as both Blue and Red teams towards the end, as more players got out got closer and closer. Slowly, the rooms to rest and reload. started getting empty and now only a The second game was one of the most handful of mercenaries held the building wanted in Veckring… they call it the against the relentless advance of the Kitchen Mercenary game. Basically a small attackers. Finally, after 45 minutes, the team of «mercenaries», made of the main entrance was breeched and the Silverbacks team and friends, are tasked missiles destroyed. with holding the big building in the center Checkmate is the name given to the last of the site, with two missiles inside, for as game of the day, in which one larger team long as possible. Simple enough you might starts at home base while the other is split think. The catch is, everyone else at the into small squads, deployed throughout event is split into Red and Blue team and the site at key locations. The goal here is they both have to attack the building, to secure these insertion points in order at the same time, from two sides! What to bring in reinforcements every 20 follows is some of the most intense

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minutes, by means of troop transport. This interesting game allows for intense focused fighting around the best spots on site and the disembarking of reinforcements covered by smoke grenades really got our adrenaline pumping!

Exhausted, after taking part in such epic battles, players head back to their tents. They drop their gear and gather around the main entrance for a special Veckring treat. Remember those tanks from the first game? Well, they need cleaning and Veckring has some pretty well endowed nurses that love messing around with hoses and foam...

But that’s not it! Later that night, after a nice warm shower and a surprisingly

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good homemade pizza, players head to the «party» building for Veckring’s own grand finalle! Players watched some footage from the day, paintball prizes were given out and finally, two ladies join the player’s party with an urge to take off their clothing and put chantilly cream all over their body. And some other stuff GRIP is not supposed to write about, because, you know...it gets hardcore!

On Sunday there is still loads of fun to happen, starting with the 4th game, the Narcotics Convoy. The Blue team, playing as the DEA, has to intercept a large shipment of cocaine being transported by the Red team, playing as the Colombian cartel. The cocaine is hidden underground in bags and

bundles somewhere on the site and the moments and it leaves the Sumo wrestlers cartel first needs to find the stash, through completely covered in paint. clues that are given to them by their Cartel Finally, there is still a 6th game for those leaders. Once the cocaine has been located, who still have energy left. A simple team they need to kidnap a member of the DEA death match, pitching the survivors of both and exchange him/her for a shovel, and Blue and Red teams against each other. then try to deliver as many bags as possible Big Games are an incredible celebration to the extraction point.

Throughout the year, a series of not The 5th game is the Sumo wrestler game! Each team has so big games take place here. a volunteer dressed in one of those huge sumo outfits, wig included, of the sport and Veckring is a prime and their team has to carry them as close example. There is no arguing, no disputes, to the enemy base as possible! And yes, just pure, intense and exciting paintball they can use the poor Sumo wrestler a with a remarkable sense of camaraderie, cover! It is a hilarious and original game which is then followed by some of the that makes for some entertaining paintball craziest player parties seen to date! •

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Michael Soenning

The «Kitchen» is a myth among the scenario players.

Only the tough guys can deal with this game.

Get to know the mind behind this idea and see what you can expect for 2014.

Text: André Faria Photo: BradloPhotography

GRIP: Tell us more about the «Kitchen who come to Veckring just to become part game»? of this battle at least once a year. They Michael Soenning: The kitchen game was proudly wear their «Mercenaries-patch», created three years ago when Mickael of which we make a new version each (Veckring’s Director) and I felt like it was year. time for something new at Veckring.

Together with my team we discussed what GRIP: What teams have you choose this would we like to play if we had the chance time to defend the missiles? to write our own script. We wanted MS: All teams or individuals who like to something tough, a game that would give play as Mercenaires are welcome. They the majority of players a new thrill. An are welcome to approach me at Veckring. easy mission design but with an intense Simply talk to me at the Patch-Werk and fierce firefight.

«We wanted something tough that would And boy, everyone who has either played in give the majority of players a new thrill.» the kitchen or tried to get in there knows how extreme this sales booth and I’ll make sure you will be experience can become. fighting alongside our core team, which consists of about 50 Silverbacks and GRIP: What do you think is the overall friends. reaction of players who play this specific game in Veckring scenario?

GRIP: What can we expect for 2014?

MS: I just got back from the Paintball-TV MS: For 2014, You can expect more fierce recording, where I was among the talk battles and, of course, a great new version guests. Even there, people know and live of the annual collector’s mercenaries the mercenaries game. Insiders call it patch. And who knows, perhaps Mickael «The kitchen game». and the «Onkel» will have an additional I personally know of hundreds of people experience ready for you. •

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of PAINT We got in touch with Mike DeChant, one of the responsible for the cinematographic documentary about the biggest paintball game in the World – Oklahoma D-Day. He will let you know everything about this project.

Text: AndrĂŠ Faria Photos: SoP

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GRIP: As «fathers» of SoP, can you about the event. It has the mix of rich, introduce Doug Gritzmacher and Mike engaging characters, dramatic elements, DeChant? and natural humor that we look for and for Mike DeChant: Doug is a freelance which our projects have come to be known. cinematographer, photographer, editor, and graphic designer. He shoots for all kinds GRIP: In your own words, SoP documents of productions, from National Geographic a dramatic battle involving 5,000 people to Showtime shows, and has seen his who re-stage the Invasion of Normandy, contributions result in Emmy and Telly or D-Day, in Oklahoma famous big game. awards.

What made you embrace such project?

Mike is an award-winning producer, director, MD: At Oklahoma D-Day we found a game and editor. He has produced and directed filled with a lot of action. That right there short- and long-form documentaries, was a big attraction for us, especially for television, and web commercials, a documentary. We all tend to think of corporate and non-profit videos, music documentaries as being kind of like bran videos, and interactive media. He works cereal — it’s really good for you but not as a video producer for a DC area nonnecessarily your first choice. profit organization and by night he’s We wanted to make a documentary as if an independent «We wanted to make a documentary as if filmmaker.

We first met in Captain Crunch got together with Fiber One.» graduate school at American University where we collaborated Captain Crunch got together with Fiber One on several short films.

— highly entertaining packed with a lot of In 2005, we completed the short action that you usually only find in a fiction documentary «Bone Mixers», about a film, but also with a meaningful message. diverse group of individuals united by the So that was the initial attraction, but in itself game dominoes. The film screened at it was not enough for a film. The most crucial numerous festivals and won four awards. ingredients are a good story and compelling Buoyed by the success of that film, we characters. As we started introducing focused our attention on a feature-length ourselves around the OK D-Day camp and documentary project. getting to know people, we were able to In 2007, we came across «Oklahoma D-Day​ identify a number of people who we thought », the largest paintball game in the world. film-goers would be drawn to watching and After meeting the tight-knit community of following through a movie. Their passion for people who play it and even embedding the game and the interaction between them ourselves in that year’s battle with a is what made for a dramatic, compelling, and camera, we were sold on making a film meaningful story.

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GRIP: The players spend all year preparing for this event. How long did it take you to prepare for the SoP? MD: We spent about nine months preparing for it, so in essence we almost had our own year-long preparation time. We first went to Oklahoma D-Day in 2007 just to check it out and to introduce ourselves, but not to film.

People don’t respond very well to having cameras stuck in their faces by strangers.

To capture something authentic, it’s important to get to know your subject, the people and earn their trust. We were able to do that with the Oklahoma D-Day community so when we pitched them our idea of making a documentary about their event, they knew they’d be in good hands.

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They not only opened the field to us and our cameras, but also their homes and businesses. We travelled all over the country to film their preparations for the battle, which proved to be as interesting as the battle itself.

GRIP: What type of difficulties did you find when filming, and what special gear did you have to use to endure the event?

MD: As you might imagine, a war with paintballs is not exactly an environment you want to subject expensive camera gear to!

But we found a way to keep the cameras protected by using rain jackets for the bodies and clear filters for the lenses.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t find an ideal

protection method for the bodies of our when you can make a problem work for you camera operators, who suffered quite a creatively. few paintball bruises! But they all still had a ton of fun.

GRIP: When finishing the SoP, what did The biggest challenge they had was seeing you guys think could have been done the viewfinder through the rain jacket and differently? a paintball mask, which was «The passion for the game and their often fogged up and covered interaction is what made for a dramatic, in paint. They often had to resort to shooting blind and compelling, and meaningful story.» using «the force», if you will, when following action with the camera.

MD: Beyond winning the lottery before we Keeping the lenses clean was another started filming – I don’t think we would have challenge, but the dirty lenses actually done anything differently. We’ve had a lot of contributed to the feeling of being in the challenges while making the film and without middle of the action. Filmmaking involves a those challenges we wouldn’t have come up lot of problem-solving and it’s a nice feeling with what we think is a top notch film.

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The whole diamonds from coal analogy works here – we needed that pressure (and summertime in the Oklahoma heat) to come out with a gem. Now if you ask us would we do the same six year project over again?

Now that’s crazy talk...

in Washington, DC, and the people we hired to work on the film were a big help along the way.

GRIP: How is the general feedback from the viewers, companies and non-paintball players?

MD: Fantastic! We’ve received nothing but glowing reviews from both paintball and non-paintball players. Check out the reviews on our website and Amazon. It was important to us to make a film that appealed to a wide audience.

We wanted to make something for paintball players that they’ve never had — an actionpacked feature film about the sport with high production values. And we also wanted

GRIP: SoP tried a crowd funding at Indiego.

Why did it fail?

MD: We actually consider our crowd-funding campaign a success! We managed to raise $4000 we didn’t have before, which became crucial in helping us completing the film. We did fall short of our goal, but we anticipated that by going with Indiegogo as opposed to Kickstarter.

Unlike Kickstarter, Indiegogo allows you to both «shoot for the moon» and «A war with paintballs is not exactly keep all donations you receive whether you reach your intended an environment you want to subject goal or not. expensive camera gear to.»

We also think it was successful because it helped us to start the process of marketing the film to audiences to make a film that inspired and invited nonbeyond our initial fan base. In a sense it players to play, or at least to come away with was a good way for us to get some «free» a better appreciation of the sport. Ideally, advertising out there to a community awareness of the film will continue to spread of people who were unfamiliar with our and help the sport of paintball to grow with it. project. A lesson learned is that a good campaign needs daily promotion during the GRIP: Can we expect a SoP 2? window of time it is open.

MD: Ha! We are still working on SoP 1! Making a film is a multi-step process and promotion GRIP: Did you have a plan B? is a part of that. That said, we managed to MD: I don’t think we’ve ever had a plan B capture lighting in a bottle with SoP 1 and at any stage of the film. We just took it one the stars would really have to be aligned for step at a time and when we encountered an us to be able to make a sequel that has a obstacle, we always managed to find a way similar magic to the original. But you never to overcome it. The filmmaking community know what the future may hold…

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GRIP: Any funny story you got from this SoP making?

MD: We really love the «real Germans» are featured in the film. For those who haven’t seen the movie yet, we were able to spend some time filming three German players who came to the United States for the very first time to attend the event in Oklahoma.

Naturally, they wanted to play on the German side.

As producers we knew that getting the story of actual Germans coming from Germany to play on the German side at Oklahoma D-Day was going to be priceless. We were able to get in touch with them via email before the event and they agreed to be on the film.

We wanted to meet up with them as they picked up their RV and drove it from Tulsa, OK to the field (about a 2 hour drive).

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The problem was that we had a very tough time getting in touch with them when they arrived in Tulsa. We tried multiple times to get a hold of them the day they arrived with no luck. We feared they had decided not to be on camera. However, it turns out

We wanted to catch the «real Germans». they had gone to a Levi’s outlet in town and spent three hours looking at, trying on, and buying blue jeans. Seemingly it is hard to get a good pair of Levi’s in Germany. Go figure. In the end we were able to connect with them and film some great moments that ended up making it into the final cut.

GRIP: Where can we buy the DVD in

Europe?

MD: We are working on getting the film available on iTunes International. We are also working on securing a European distributor for the DVD. We’ll let you know once that happens! Meanwhile, if you have a DVD player that can play NTSC Region Code 1 DVDs, then they are available to buy now on Amazon.com.

We’d just like to add that we appreciate the

support and patience of all who stuck with us through the making of the film. It was a much longer and more challenging process than we expected but we learned a lot along the way and that time allowed us to make the best possible film we could have made. We’re proud of «Soldiers of Paint» and if you have seen it and enjoyed, please help us spread the word by telling your friends and family about it. Thanks! • advertisement

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Operation Shutdown The most anticipated event in the Iberian Peninsula opened its doors to more than 30 teams and ten countries for two frantic days of paintball, camaraderie, celebration and good environment.

Text: AndrĂŠ Faria

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Ourém welcomed over 200 national and the player had access to insurance, an international players, on the 28th and embroidery of the event as a souvenir, 29th of September. The event happened overnight stay at the sporting pavilion, next to the Pia Longas’ aerodrome to access to the GRIP Sniper Challenge and celebrate Paintugal Association’s 9th the CQB Challenge tournaments, use Birthday. Organized by Paintugal alongside of the paintball shooting range, CQB with the Kammos team, Upon purchasing the event ticket, the this event is part of the Big Game Alliance. This player had access to more than ten offers competition is the result among activities, games and workshops. of the union between the biggest and the best paintball event organizers in Europe: workshop, shopping area of paintball and Warped (Great Britain), Veckring (France) accessories stores, free maintenance of the sponsoring brands’ markers, and Paintugal (Portugal). sporting and relaxation massages, event’s Upon purchasing the event ticket,

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photographic album by GRIP – Photo Services, access to the game «Portugal Versus» lasting an hour on Saturday and to the game «Operation Shutdown» lasting for four hours on Sunday.

and execute these techniques in the field especially assembled for this purpose.

After this teaching moment, there was training and a tournament to practice acquired techniques in this space.

CQB WORKSHOP

CQB CHALLENGE TOURNAMENT

A workshop on fighting techniques in built areas was taught by Paintugal’s Portuguese Expeditionary Corps, jointly with the United Kingdom team Hostile Intentions.

With new techniques, more demanding and complex, it was a level two, in comparison to last year’s CQB workshop.

Over 60 players were able to learn

After the success in 2012, there was no doubt that this mini tournament was to be repeated. This time, the field had greater difficulty in the track and the difficulties encountered were more complex.

This tournament was managed by Paintugal’s Portuguese Expeditionary Corps, alongside the team Hostile

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Intentions from the United Kingdom and five teams took part: Bando de Irmãos Paintball Clube, Kammos, Sartim Paintball Clube, FoxTeam - Paintball Division and Trolls S.P.O.T. In the first phase, the teams completed the field circuit against stationary targets and were evaluated in technical execution and time used. Here the three best teams moved on to the final.

In the final, the stationary targets were replaced by «terrorists», who could shoot against the players, with another evaluation item being added: the quantity of shots received by the players.

This game ended in a tie between the top two teams: Trolls S.P.O.T. and Sartim Paintball Clube. According to the rules, both teams had to repeat the circuit and at the end the hard-fought victory smiled to S.P.O.T. that won due to the elimination of only one more player than their opponents, against Sartim Paintball Clube, the 2012 edition winners.

1st place - Trolls S.P.O.T. 2nd place - Sartim Paintball Clube 3rd place - FoxTeam - Paintball Division

GRIP SNIPER CHALLENGE Without the expected audience, due to the fact that the game Pt Versus was being

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played at the same time, this event was well fought, with the shooting qualities being put to test.

It wasn’t enough to claim to be a true sniper on the couch, it was time to prove it on the field and the podium was composed of: 1st place – Tiago Ervideira (SARTIM) 2nd place – Luís «Ferra» (SARTIM) 3rd place – António Maia (SARTIM)

PT VERSUS The match pitting foreigners against Portuguese was inspired by a very current theme: troika’s evaluation visits!

The Portuguese had taken hostages, the evaluators, and the international force had to rescue them. Note that the hostages were humans which made the game more powerful due to the possibilities of escaping.

The Troika evaluators were enclosed in a field fortress by a handful of Portuguese and the main team entered the field on the opposite end, about 250 meters away.

The international forces would have to capture the hostages and take them safely to the extraction point.

In the end, victory smiled to the Portuguese at great cost, much due to the fantastic combats by all enthusiasts in the field in just one hour.

It’s important to mention each team’s generals, Mauro Dias «Tern», from Trolls S.P.O.T. teams, responsible for the Portuguese team; and the responsible for the opposing team, the Spanish General Luis Cubero «Wolf».

THE PLAYERS’ PARTY Paintugal hosted what was called the best birthday party ever in Fátima, in Satailes Bar, in the Hotel Canada. This hotel was chosen because it was the event’s partner hotel and it offered considerable discounts for those who prefer comfort instead of the most economic option of the pavilion.

The atmosphere was fantastic! One could

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enjoy a few drinks and various games to the sound of a classic rock band and special guests, such as a Scottish bagpiper. A mix of Portuguese and foreign paintball players with the local population scored some extra points for the image of our sport.

During the party, trophies related to the various activities of the day were handed out: the PT Versus’ Generals, the UK Versus and Blackout trophies (relating to Warped North vs. South Paintball Festival, given by the organizer himself Jim Frensham), as well as those relating to the GRIP Sniper and CQB Challenges.

The party continued long into the dawn, after singing happy birthday and eating the cake.

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OPERATION SHUTDOWN This match placed the Solaris Corporation and Eolithic Foundation factions in conflict for the world monopoly of energy supply.

The field was very rich and diverse, with a dominant factor in the horizon: the enormous wind turbine towers, a striking scenic effect on the scenario! Many areas of bushes, trees, paths, walls and even small rock fortresses set the tone to operation Shutdown.

Both teams had to collect detonators and remaining pieces to from the bombs, the timers and the explosives, besides the lost drone with secret information.

In the bases, the expectation of an attack

was constant, as they held all the objects collected in the field. There was also a factory where they had to bring an engineer to held the key of the air compressed bottle, which is a vital logistic item.

The clouds gave us some truce and it didn’t rain for the whole event, Saint Peter decided to wash the The CQB players with lovely rain at the end of the match.

Nonetheless, the players remained on the field, battling for the objectives with the same energy they had since the match began, until the organization decided to end the match 30 minutes earlier for safety reasons. The game ended with a technical tie between

teams.

Noteworthy: many players were accompanied by their families, whom either stayed in the venue or «explored» the municipality of Ourém.

Commanding the Eolithic Foundation team was General Daniel Alferes from

workshop was the continuation of the training given last year.

Spetsnaz and Lieutenant-General Steve from Afoitos Paintball Team. On the other side, the leaders were General Daniel João Lobão from Megapaintman and Lieutenant-General RafaDuro from Núcleo dos Duros. •

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dFENDER We have tested the hottest new paintball gun of this winter. There was a lot of initial doubt: would the style and innovation be enough to please us?

Text: Duarte Gomes and André Garrido

October is that time of the year when the community is jumping with activity. This is the month of the World Cup in Orlando, where all the new equipment and industry novelties are presented. Brands keep their secrets the best and more secure way possible, so that nothing is divulged before the right time, that is right now. One of the best kept secrets was Empire’s new marker – the DFender.

There has been a lot of talk about the new goggles from Virtue and HK and the most recent DYE marker, but nothing has beaten the interest in this new paintball gun.

This extraordinary enthusiasm is due to the new concept of the loader being

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integrated on the marker’s frame. This is the logical step for the future of our sport: brand engineers will try to remove everything that gets in the way of the player. And everyone knows that there isn’t anything more annoying than getting shot on the loader.

The fact that the loader is on the shoulder stock means the player has a much more reduced profile. Essentially there is a natural general shape given to the gun, without adding any protruding objects from the marker anymore. The area of the loader isn’t small, after all, it has to perform all duties of a loader without hesitation, yet it remains very comfortable for the user.

R The loader is such a strong characteristic of the marker that it is hard to focus this review on the marker itself.

Basically it has a mechanism identical to that of the Axe, which means that it maintains the quality and reliability that it is already famous for. However, the design clearly shows the marker is dedicated to the scenario type of paintball.

Don’t let its robust look dissuade you; it’s very easy to use. , you can just simply pick it up and start using it without any confusion, unnecessary little lights or

any complicated set up. The battery access is also very simple which avoids broken nails for more sensitive players.

The quantity of extras this kit has is still very impressive, making it almost unnecessary to buy any other piece, even for the most demanding players. Within these kits, we can find a set of Freak barrels with All American tips and their inserts. One of those barrels has an Apex that can allow rotation of the paintballs trajectory.

Another extra is the quick feed for

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the loader. And we are back talking about the loader… if only it wasn’t so important for the marker.

However, the loader is also the only negative feature of this marker. The fact that it is inserted within the marker makes it hard to access. As it used to happen with the Warped Feed (for those who don’t know it, it’s an external loader that fed the paintball marker laterally) once a paintball is broken, you might as well exit the field to clean everything up.

When an air tank is placed directly into the body of the marker, the usage of the gun gets less comfortable. As this is a scenario paintball gun, we suggest the use of a remote air tank, to have a real sense of freedom and to avoid this discomfort.

The DFender has surpassed all our expectations. Although it’s an Empire marker, when we saw the images on the internet we were all thinking: «Ok! This is cool and all, but it won’t work!» Well it does and it does so brilliantly. The

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ADVANTAGES Loader incorporated into marker Low profile Reliable Amount of extras included

DISADVANTAGES Difficult access to the interior of the loader

question is whether the ball breakage in the loader will become a big issue, but using good paintballs will avoid this problem.

The price of this marker is around 1200€. It doesn’t seem overpriced to us due to the amount of extras it has.

In the end, we have no doubt that this is one of the biggest evolutions our sport has seen in the last years. •

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JT

SPLATMASTER

SNIPER

What’s better than a gun or a shotgun for the little ones to start playing paintball?

Only a sniper!

Text: Duarte Gomes and André Garrido

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Last year we tested the two new versions of SplatMaster, purposely conceived to encourage the young ones to start playing paintball. At the time, one was a gun-shaped marker and the other a shotgun-shaped. One was blue and the other red, in order to distinguish them from real guns.

Although they had been made for a younger audience, one thing is certain, we had a blast. When we saw JT had released a sniper version of this marker, we asked MAXS to send one for us to try. We could already sense the smell of Hollywood, when the snipers are on top of the clock tower shooting down at the enemy line.

Of all the existing models, this is the most interesting one, much due to its menacing look. The first thing we notice is the fact that the shot is more powerful than in previous models. It makes sense, it’s for snipers! They shoot at a distance and hidden. However, it still does not reach a very high speed, keeping it safe for the young players.

On its left side, the marker has a lever that gives an impulse to the shot. As like every other model, it doesn’t work on compressed air, being completely

mechanical instead.

The balls used are still 50 caliber ones.

As we had already said last year, they aren’t very easy to handle by adults. They slip from our hands easily and they barely have to touch the ground to break. But they are the right choice for this range of markers.

The price of the marker is 59.95€.

It’s a bit more expensive than previous models, and from our point of view it may be too expensive to become that toy a dad easily buys his child simply because he’s throwing a tantrum. Either way, this marker can be considered a little more specific than, for example, a shotgun

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and thus it will target the Of all the models he player that already has one Advantages had on hand, this was Doesn’t consume air of the other models. undoubtedly the one that Nice price This version has a small pleased us the most. Firstly, Easy maintenance sight, that’s relatively it was the most powerful, straightforward considering which to us means more Disadvantages the projectile. It also has pleasure. Then, the Fragile material extendable and removable method of shooting makes butt for a better adaptation the marker a real sniper. to each player’s body.

You can’t «fire away» as if there was no SplatMaster’s maintenance is very basic tomorrow… there’s a process forcing us to and anyone can do it at home without be calm. major difficulties.

It’s without a doubt an excellent toy to Regarding the material, the brand give to our children, nephews, godchildren doesn’t hide that it’s completely made of or younger cousins. • plastic. The marker is fragile, but it fulfills the objective of being much cheaper and lighter.

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backstage In Veckring we spend some time getting to know a little about the main characters of this amazing big game. Some of them were very interesting.

1 – What is your role?

2 – What are the main difficulties in your job?

3 – Tell us an amazing story you have experienced in Veckring.

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backstage

SHANICE Sexy Nurse 1 – I’m the sexy nurse for all the guys who get shot.

2 – The way from the players’ area to the field in high heels. It’s the most difficult thing.

3 – The craziest are the guys who clean my boots or striptease for me during the game.

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MICKAEL AMAR General Manager 1 – I’m Vecking´s manager. Veckring is a company with a shop, an online shop, a field for playing and that organises big game events.

2 – It’s very difficult to make rules that everyone understands, because you have a lot of people from different countries. It’s very complicated for everyone to understand everything. We need to explain once in German, once in English and in French and people don’t have the concentration to listen to three languages.

3 – We have a lot of strange stories in Veckring, because we are opened for more than 20 years. We have stories that we can’t tell because they’re too odd. But in all big games there is a new story.

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backstage

KARSTEN DOERR Head Marshall 1 – I’m the Head Marshall at Veckring.

2 – Players take off their goggles during the game in the middle of the field, even in front of a big offensive.

And when we yell them to put the goggles on, we are still seen as fools.

3 – Safety is the most difficult… and the need to speak in many languages.

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e t i l a r p u s l Fue Super light, Super Sa

f e!

0 6G5 r am liGht

1 Bottle liner made of high quality stainless steel.

Super safe!

2 23 cm length at 1,1 liter filling volume.

3 Super steady and shockresistant shell.

Now available at

www.maxs-sport.com

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THANKS

Blue Falcon Squadron Guilherme Pires Jo茫o Ramos Pedro Batista Ricardo Catarino S贸nia Fernandes

Thank you all!

/GripPaintball

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thanks

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