GRIP Nº2 - English Version

N.潞 02 路 June 路 2012

Elena Cabac

Fabrice Tavarez

miss grip

Anniversary Blue Falcon big game & airball

interview

Norte vs. South scenario

Bitburg Millennium

1

18-37

16-17

Millennium

Profile

88-

Intervie Fabrice

54-6

46-53

Big Game

Interview - N. Slowiak

70-84

index 08–09 The team 10 Editorial

12–13 Highlight Written in our eyes

14–15 News

Gallery

18–37 Millennium

46–53 Interview

38–39

54–69 Big Game & Airball

Domingos Leitão

Anniverary Blue Falcon

40–43

70–84 Gallery

Bitburg

Rules

Tactics João Anjos

16–17 Profile

44–45

Lyonnel Parra

Nuno Lourenço

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index

Drills

Nick Slowiak

Girl Power

88–103 Interview

Fabrice Tavarez

116-131 North vs South

132-137

-103

Lima Bravo

ew Tavarez

69

e & Airball

142-144 Review - DM12

104–107

138-141 Backstage

Hailey Adrienne

142-144 Review

Girl Paintballer 108-115 Miss GRIP Elena Cabac

116-131 Scenario

North vs. South

132-137 Scenario Lima Bravo

DM12

146-150 Review

Camouflage

152-154 Prizes 156 Thanks

108-115 Miss grip

COVER CREDITS Photo: Photopaintball

index

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04

05

06

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RICARDO CAMPOS

RITA PEREIRA

PEDRO SIMÕES

Co-Director of GRIP

GRIP Magazine’s Art

GRIP Magazine’s

Magazine. He’s a pho-

Director. She works as

photography editor.

tographer and breathes

a professional graphic

He’s also an accredited

paintball.

designer.

photojournalist.

JOÃO ANJOS

ANDRÉ FARIA

He will be GRIP Maga-

The scenario man. If

zine’s resident teacher.

we’re talking about

Tactics, work methods e

camouflage, gun repli-

game mentality are his

cas and lots of fun, then

specialties.

that’s where he is.

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team

GIL BELFORD With such a name he could only be a translator… or the owner of a waffle shop.

GUILHERME Our true scr He’s a mast words and t deconstruct reconstruct at a speed o

NUNO “OSSO LOURENÇO One of the to Portuguese p explains you train and imp performance

E PIRES ribe. ter of tongue, ting and ting texts of 300 bps.

OS”

op players u how to mprove your e.

DANIEL TEIXEIRA GRIP Magazine’s kid.

He’s responsible for all of the news from the “world of paint”.

HAILEY ADRIENNE The pretty face of paintball shows us the feminine side of our sport.

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!

DOMINGOS LEITÃO Head Marshal at the Millennium and Portuguese League.

He explains you the basic rules.

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

team

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editorial

By André Garrido GRIP’s Director

I

t’s a common thing for us to hear that we’re very lucky to be able to travel so much for work. But few people actually know what that actually entails: long waiting times in airports, having to spend the night in hotels where you don’t know anyone, eating cheap bad food, spending 12 hours out in the sun and finding unexplainable tickets on rental vehicles. It’s far from being the perfect trip scenario, right?

We’re lucky in one single thing: we do what we love.

And it is by doing what we love that we get to meet new people, excelent players, marshalls, tournament organizers and even entrepeneurs. All these hours spent travelling and waiting around are entirely forgotten when we get to hear the “confusion” of the game. That is our escape!

In this edition of GRIP Magazine, we bring you the scoop on one of the best european teams that turns 20 this year, through an interview with it’s captain Fabrice “Tavarez”, I am speaking of the Tontons of course. We will analyze and talk about the Millennium Series event that was held in Bitburg, Germany and we will show you a little bit of what went down in the biggest ever portuguese event, which joined together scenario and competition paintball, less than 4 kms apart, as well as many concerts, eating and drinking – all of this to commemorate Blue Falcon’s anniversary.

We also took a peek at North VS South, the biggest European scenario paintball event. In that side of things, we are also proud to present to you Lima Bravo team, hailing from Holland.

In the middle of all this you’ll also find some reviews and technical articles that will allow you to delve deeper into the areas that you’re interested in.

And the adventure continues…

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editorial

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PhotoPaintball

Written in our eyes Paintball is made of emotions, emotions that make us yell, cry or simply stop and think about what happened in that thousandth of a second that caused us to get a facefull.

Our nerves are always on the edge, when we step out onto the field and see our opponent on the other side, when we hear «Ten Seconds» or when we get into the snake and see three guns pointed at us…

But for us, the worst feeling is being on the outside… Being on the outside and watching our team play, not being able to speak and just stare at a story whose ending we are unable to change.

It will be victorious, filled with energy and adrenaline; or it will be sad, tragic and demoralizing. But one thing is certain: whatever that feeling may be, it will be written in our eyes. highlight

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Eclipse Marker Guide

The Planet Eclipse has recently released to all players, potential buyers or just those who are curious, an advanced guide of all their guns. Presented in PDF format, this guide contains useful information such as components, technical specifications and drawings, among other features. You can download it for free HERE.

Vidar The North-American enterprise Empire recently launched its new paintball goggles, known as the Empire Vidar, an improved version of the JT Spectra. These new goggles allow the player to view in a 260ยบ angle, includes thermal lenses and a lot of protection whilst guaranteeing minimum exposure.

The price should be around 40 euros.

Millennium Series Londres The Millennium Series organization is warning teams that will participate in the London event to book accommodation as soon as possible due to the approaching Olympic Games that will be held in the city. It is important to remember that the Millennium Series takes place in London between the 29th of June and the 1st of July.

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news

Pro Regulator The new regulator from Ninja, known as Pro Regulator, has already arrived to the european market. This new regulator allows a 360 grade rotation and can be adjusted to work at 450, 550, 700 and 800 PSI.

ETEK4

Planet Eclipse recently presented the ETEK4, their new gun that has many new features such as an internal regulator which is the same that is used in the Ego11, Geo2.1 and CSL as well as a fully adjustable trigger. The gun’s weight does not exceed 1 kg.

GEO 3

Recently appeared on the internet what is supposed to be the new GEO 3. This news, that at the beginning seemed to be just a gossip, was confirmed when Planet Eclipse created a link in his own webpage to a countdown to the launch of the new gun.

Critical Paintball Triggers The new triggers from Critical Paintball are already on the market, the new models are for the CloneVX, CloneDX, CloneGT, DoneDX and Tactical Drone guns from MacDev. These triggers have four-way adjustment and are also lighter, faster and smoother.

This way you can customize your gun and adjust it to your way of shooting.

news

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Lyonnel Parra

P

There must be very few people who don’t know Lyonnel, even if just by seeing him around or in magazines, being that he’s been around for a while. It’s his 20 year strong career that makes him one of the most experienced players that are still active in the sport.

Vision’s captain has played in so many tournaments that he’s lost count.

Still, he can easily tell you the conquests

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profile

that his team has made, and those are enough to make a lot of people jealous.

His experience and the respect that he gathers from those around him made it so that he reached the position of leader in the French National Team, even though he is of Portuguese origins, from his grandparents’ side.

His objective for this season is to get his team back to the top league in the Millennium Series.

NICKNAME Lyonnel «100%» Parra

BIRTHDATE 23/12/1972

PROFESSION English Pub Manager

STARTED PLAYING IN 2000

PLAYING FOR Vision and the French National Team (Captain of both teams)

INTERNATIONAL EVENTS A lot!

EVENTS THAT HE’S WON AND WITH WHITCH TEAMS Three Millennium Series Events in 2005/2006, French Champion in 2011 and first place in St. Tropez 2012.

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT Still to come! But proud to be the captain of the French National Team.

Text: André Garrido Photos: PhotoPaintball

profile

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millennium

Bitburg was the event that caused more surprise in recent years. The motto was: strange results, brawls, blue tongues and many women Text: Ricardo Campos Photos: PhotoPaintball

millennium

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Millennium´s second event in 2012, was held in the Sportschule Bitburg Sportpark, on 25-27 may. The location was pretty much similar to St Tropez, with lots of accommodations near the fields, allowing players a fast and swift access to the site. You could walk through the vendor´s area to get to the CPL and SPL playing field, with the lower divisions being situated, as usual further in the back of the venue.

Thursday was spent on the few registrations, walking the fields and teams’ practices. This gave everyone an opportunity to check the layout, and

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some key bunker moves that would be shown through the weekend. Next to the SPL and CPL Fields as usual there were stages for the audience with warning signs that you could use it and climb it, at your own risk. That was it for safety!? You can have a great view from the stages, but hey, if it falls down on you, you have been warned: «Climb it at your own risk». The speaker’s tower this time was on the edge of the CPL´s Field, instead of in the middle of it.

I am not sure if it was a good or bad thing, since the designated speaker on the microphone only gave the audience,

through the weekend, a bunch of grunts, by the refs». Well… The floor on the when something remarkable was truly players’ area was covered with some happening. How about some useful netting, which prevented major damage information on the teams and to the green grass surface in all the games on the microphone? fields. It was a bit too slippery

Or something about the on Sunday, but things went on It’s paintball event itself? just fine. always But no. «Whoaaaaaa», Some emphasis on the funny to «Yes! », «Uuuuuh» or new snake and what was see people «Aaaaargh» were the going to be accomplished with most repeated moans on from there was being a blue the sound system. This discussed by the players. tongue. was annoying. Let’s face it; Some opinions regarding to a you can do better than that. dead snake bunker, at least until Come on. One Marshall said on the field: some G´s started pumping out, were also «Hey at least they’re not inflaming the given by some. Let´s see how it goes in audience by analysing bad calls made the London Masters without the classical

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snake and with this new replacement Did I already mention those pretty bunker. colourful and fresh drinks? The Ladies Anxiety for the beginning of the Cup – the European Championship for games was growing in everyone’s women, was going on Saturday hearts and minds. New after the games and a lot of chronys were being Syndicate ladies were walking and tested, to get technology displayed scouting the fields and the updated on the playing some great event, making the joy for field. There were drinks paintball in the photographers on the too, colourful ones. front of their scene.

It’s always funny to home crowd.

Friday morning now. see people coaching and Games on. Field layout didn’t screaming for teams with give too much of a game plan a complete blue mouth and on the snake side, so teams had to tongue. Somehow it’s kind of funny. bump up through the middle and the The common opinion was that this Doritos to kill some opponents. was going to be a very colourful event.

As preliminary games were in

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course on the fields, SPL already had losses on the preliminaries stage. Dog´s the first big preannounce on what d Amour lost their second game against the whole event would be. In SPL, Boost Air Rennes, but still made it into Hulk Kiev dropped a 0:4 on Bad the Sunday club with a strong win Element on what was the over Fivestar Leida, on the last It was first surprise of the day. game of the day. Hulk Kiev, not a good After the first place in St 4th place in the French weekend for Tropez, Vision Marseille Riviera, got lost again with French teams. won all the games on the two 4:0 losses, cancelling It was up to the further plans in this event. preliminaries showing a ladies to save strong consistent team, The CPL division the event. dropping a few points, but opened with a very strong winning all the matches on Syndicate Team defeating the first day. Hellwood Paris, Outrage Valence. Frankfurt Polar Bears, Ronins PBW Haguenau, Syndicate showed some great paintball Ugly Ducklings Odense, Copenhagem PB in front of their home crowd, being a club, went on to the finals without any very strong team to beat, with Patrick

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Wrobel and Kirill making the joys of the crowd with some great consistent moves.

GI Damage won against Outrage Valence, this representing a bad start for both French teams. Not a good weekend for French teams. It had to be the ladies to save the event. More on this ahead.

It was quite easy to see why we love this game when Syndicate won by 5:4, making those weak benches tremble while German flags were being held high in the air. Keith Brown is a fast and hard core paintball player, but this time his

speed in the snake wasn’t enough to beat the German team.

Dynasty showed up with a split team with some members of Impact on their roster, with a 3:5 loss against London Nexus, who managed to turn to game to their side, with Chaplen´s crew deserving the win without any doubt.

Aggression and attitude cheered the crowd, when they turned a negative score to their side. Dynasty´s show was more defensive than they had gotten us used to. They were getting the

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points, as they forced other teams’ going to be enough to play along the mistakes on the field. Greenspan´s led Sunday games. Art Chaos didn’t have them to the Sunday club, as they won to sweat too much to walk by the first the other matches against Copenhagen games with three indisputable victories Ducks and Amsterdam Heat by against Breakout Spa, Birmingham 5:4 and 5:1. London Nexus Disruption and Ranger Warsaw. with two wins, against They lost only one point Keith Dynasty and Heat, to Disruption and they Brown is missed the quarters, seemed like, as usual, the a hardcore after a very close paintball player, strongest team to make match against the but this time he it to first place. With an Ducks, which finished impressive strategy, they wasn’t quick the preliminaries at had no trouble whatsoever enough. the top of group B. in the preliminaries games.

Disappointment was all over Fedorov in the snake side was the look on London Nexus players as pretty much controlling and owning they realized that their points weren´t that side of the field, getting the G´s

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out, so we could personally close most of the points on their behalf. This new snake doesn’t improve the game play at all, we sure miss those strong snake

kills and bunkering moves. The games tended to be a bit more static and less interesting for the viewers and all the fans. And sure the place was crowded.

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Saturday at lunch time looked like sensitivity held by both sides. Not even the Sunday finals. Lots of people and close. EuroRefs sure do have a strict bystanders visited the vendor’s area. work on the field and without them The stands next to the fields turned it would be impossible to have such a into this huge chill out where people good tournament. They’re known to be were just relaxing laying on the grass in ruthless and a bit unsympathetic, but the area next to Emboscada Paintball they have to. Their work and dedication booth. This was where they showed off is one of the toughest from the the new Empire E-Flex mask, already beginning to the end of these 3 days being tested by San Diego Dynasty of paintball. They make it possible. in the States. The beautiful nice and In all sports there are arguments warm weather we were lucky to have in over the refs’ calls, but somehow I Germany, got people sunbathing all over can’t remember any sport that places the venue. With the Ladies Cup referees on the field for 12 hours League games approaching, all straight, in the hot sun, with the site was very colourful this level of concentration With the and pleasant and… Sorry, and commitment needed. new snakes got a bit distracted. Back the games tend to The Millennium board to the games and not be more static and decision has already come with a pleasant story. out. Hugo Domingues less interesting Lisbon Benfica, struggling got an 8 year suspension, for the with no side coaching and for physical contact viewers with the lack of pit crew, and assault on a referee. lost their games by 0:5 and This means, in other words, a 1:5, opposing Icon and Instinct, which lifetime ban for Hugo. Will they pay made it to the quarter finals. Benfica´s more attention on how to address captain got into an argument with a ref, players from now on? Remember, a kick after contesting a 1 for 1 penalty, for in the butt, is always a step forward. allegedly talking outside the field. He Yet Lisbon Benfica, with no chances also got into a physical confrontation of making into Sunday, played their last with the marshal after the game. Sure game against Toulose Tontons. Heads-up. that you must measure the words you And what a game. After being two points express to paying customers, players down, they tied it up. And then they and mainly to referees. There were stepped up, showing that they weren´t many theories and rumours about what there to get pushed around. With Sven truly happened in the refs tent, but I de Weerdt cancelling most of Axel´s can assure you that there wasn´t much moves on the snake side, Tony and the

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a significant damage for the rest of the rest of the Portuguese crew got their season in the overall ranking. game plan together and deserved this In Division 1 a fierce fight to huge win over the French Team. get to the top Sunday spots The last defeat in group stages

took place, while the St for the Tontons had been in Will Tropez D1 winner, ML Kings Paris, against Dynasty. We Eurorefs pay have to go back into last more attention Prague, were referring this event. Izmir Collision had year’s London event, not on how to a flawless walkthrough to see TonTons playing address the preliminary games, on Sunday. This time, the players from dropping only two points to team that got 3rd place now on?

Lisbon Benfica 2, which also in St Tropez didn’t manage managed their way to the last to go through. Toulouse Tontons 16 teams, after two wins against Ipnoz lost the first match against Ramstein Paris and Gotheborg Brutal Deluxe by 4:1 Instinct, crushed Icon with a flawless 5:0 and 4:2. Watch out for the Moscow boys win, but went down against in D1, Coyotes and Desperados Moscow, a Lisbon Benfica’s wall, with

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that finished in in the first positions a chance to anyone who was about to of their groups. Highlights to Caracas confront them.

Fusion, Copenhagen Synergy, Toulouse Saturday was almost over for most Dagnir Dae 2, Imperious Black Angers of the teams, when the Ladies Cup was and RMG Bratislava, that showed a about to begin. After the National strong and steady paintball. female teams lined up, the The Reference to division speaker, who, at this time, speaker 2 field, in which the was not mumbling verbal spent the Preliminaries finished incoherent expressions on weekend with Paris AYD, Bad Boy the microphone, gave us mumbling Oss, London Relentless, some peace of mind, at incoherent Elite Ile Oleron, Incredi least while the national expressions Knights Bamble, NPP anthems were being played Valenciennes, and Mustang on the sound system. And Chartres getting ready for the what a beautiful theatrical real confrontation in the quarter scene we were presented with. finals. Agression The Hague, a fast Those cryptic unstable «climb at your and strong team, didn’t give much of own risk» benches for the fans were

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fully packed and ready to come down.

Cheerful singing crowd, huge national flags waving high in the wind, Inflatable Cheers sticks, and a very happy mass watched the girls singing the National anthems and getting ready for the start of the games. France and Russia took the lead in the preliminaries, while Great Britain and Austria lost both games. Germany, with Christine van Weidmann pushing through the Doritos side of the field, seemed like she could take Germany to the finals by herself.

The crowd cheered as Germany took its first victory and moved forward to the next stage. The final games were France vs. Russia, for the first and second place; Germany and Poland for the 3rd and 4th and Austria vs. Great Britain for the last remaining spots of the ranking.

It was an easy victory to France, winning the title for the first place.

4:0 over the Russian girls, in a match where the French team presented the crowd with a better, faster, greater and superior level of play. Germany

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got the third place, with Poland, Austria and Great Britain behind them.

Congratulations to France for winning the Ladies Cup Tournament. Allez les filles! Allez les filles! France 2012 EPBF Women Champions!

The matches in CPL for the following day, Sunday, were going to be Art Chaos Moscow vs. Damage, Icon vs. Dynasty, Ducks vs. Instinct and Syndicate vs.

Breakout. In SPL, Dogs D Amour would battle Vision Marseille, Polar Bears played against Boost Air Rennes, Helwood Paris in opposition to Silents Lite Moscow and, in the final group, Drammen Solid would fight Ronins PBW Haguenau. The

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latter, after a disappointing 22nd place in the first stage of the Millennium St Tropez, showed up very strong in this Bitburg event. Bets were being placed in Dogs favour, for the first place of the Semi Professional League.

The crowd cheered for the German teams as the games began on CPL field. After an unacceptable event in the first leg of the Series, where they finished 13th, a strong team led by Wrobel faced Breakout Spa and got an impressive victory, only dropping one point to the other team. Frankfurt Syndicate - following a French unsatisfactory result - came out with

a strong build and strategy, and were that established the beat, with some always one of the most aggressive strong moves by Chad George, holding teams in this tournament. the snake side, in a very close Art Chaos scored 5:3 match. Dogs kept on going against GI Damage in a Christine and they confirmed their ferocious combat and they van Weidmann presence in the match would face a battle with seemed like for the first and second Dynasty in a well-known she could take place against Polar Bears, and common rematch Germany to defeating Drammen between these two teams. the finals by Solid in the semi-finals In the other semi-final we herself. contest. Drammen Solid saw Instinct breaking down overpowered Helwood Paris, under Syndicate´s superiority. leaving them to fight for the 3th In SPL, substandard result for and 4th place overall.

Vision Marseille as they lost the game Izmir Collision got the Division one against a strong Dogs D Amour team title, continuing the good work and

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team play they showed in first event, defence it’s the best offence. Or the where they finished second. They were other way around. It doesn’t matter. It followed by Caracas Fusion and Moscow was Dynasty´s show this time. They won Desperados for the second and third the CPL event once again. Even without places. Aggression The Hague confirmed some of the most popular faces on their their superiority in this event and took team, as Lang, Fraige, and Vanderbyl, the first place for the Division two the Americans got it right this time. overall ranking. The only Brazilian They marched through the field team in the Series, Ninjinhas, defeating the German army, from São Paulo, stepped represented by Syndicate, Dynasty up to a second place, as they entered the field turned losing to Neon Crew 62 a disadvantage too anxious to maintain Rellingen, the winning the level they sustained of 3:0 team of Division 3, in all the way through the from the closing match. earlier matches. Ramstein Art Chaos, In the CPL field, it Instinct seized the advantage to 3:4. was time to see Dynasty over the Russians that were turning over a disadvantage clearly affected by the earlier loss of 3:0 from Art Chaos, to 3:5. Maybe it against Dynasty, and got over them with was that low snake bunker, or perhaps a 5:3 win, getting the well-deserved it was just because the Russians fell 3rd place for the German team. As in Dynasty´s mousetrap. When they usual, the remaining crowd and media uncovered the Russian strategy, we gathered around the usually long and saw Art Chaos getting lost in the field, extended award ceremony, as the as Dynasty kept pushing further, with Assalas shared some love (and drinks) a very passive-aggressive style. They with their regular good vibrations. Next clearly showed that sometimes, a good Stop: Basildon.•

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© 2012 Copyright Planet Eclipse Ltd. Eclipse, the Estar Logo Device, Ego, Geo, Etek, Etha and EMC are all either design trademarks, registered trademarks or trademarks of Planet Eclipse Ltd. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

First Impressions

By Domingos Leitão I’ve had the chance to be ref in at least 4 tournaments (3 in Portugal and one in the St. Tropez Millennium) that used the 2012 paintball rules. So today I want to recount some of my first impressions of when these new rules are being put into practice.

The touch back rule was, from my point of view, the one best accepted by the players. We all know that when you hear the «10 seconds» call, the tension quickly builds up exponentially in the players.

This reaction is due to the anxiety of creating a great start of a game or point, by perhaps eliminating an opponent right at the beginning. One of the new rules, as we all know, is making it compulsory for, at the start of the match, the players to have their barrels against the starting gate.

This implies that a great amount of help from the pits had to exist so that the players would arrive in time and be able to play point after

point with a rigorous management of the available time-outs. A large part of the teams that play the «Race to» format already had this internal dynamics consolidated, which allowed the possibility for the game to start and permitting some small mistakes regarding the synchronisation of the work in the pits without needing to spend the time-out.

As the game depends on the players and their on-field performance, this rule

The touch back rule clearly came to benefit paintball.

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clearly benefits the sport as a whole.

Yet the rule regarding the prohibition of coaching from the pits is still being digested by many teams.

This decision hasn’t been having such an unanimous acceptance as the previous one within the community.

As I had said in the first edition, I thought this would lead to slower

paced games. Yet I saw that the teams from the higher divisions have quickly adapted to this change and the points still occur at the same speed. But the teams in lower divisions, especially the ones playing the «Race To» format for the first time, tend to have long and dragged out games, which become slow.

Another situation that can harm the teams is the reduced number of players in the roster. In the cases where the rosters consist only and exclusively of 5 players, it’s almost the same as playing the classic 5-Man format, because the physical strain that comes with leaving

the field, preparing for the next point, going to the opposite side to give your teammate some instructions and returning to the pits for the next point can be fatal for any team.

Not considering the handicaps that I have mentioned earlier, it is seen that the lack of coaching has allowed the players to demonstrate their playing technique, forcing them to obtain more precise information in the field from their active teammates, which reduces their dependency on coaching from behind the net.

Let there be more tournaments to prove or refute these ideas.•

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Commandments of a player

By João Anjos «Will power should be stronger than ability». - Muhammad Ali If there is a maxim that any ambitions paintballer player should have in mind for his evolution in the sport, this would probably be one of the most appropriate. And I say this because after a decade of paintball I have seen great talents disappear as quickly as they appeared.

The pattern is common to all players. First, there’s the awareness of their intrinsic skills (talent), that we could call “blooming”. Then there’s the implementation, when you get results. And this is the key moment of the route, because if there isn´t work – and above all willpower – the next step is just descending and the inevitable disappearance.

Therefore, what I am aiming to write are some commandments for every ambitious paintball player, whether that ambition is local, national or worldwide.

Train as an athlete, keep in mind that paintball is a sport! Plan all physical training in agreement with the real needs of competition. Be it in the street or at the gym, what matters is that you have the physical fitness to complement your talent.

Train correctly: bodybuilding training, however it may be the most appealing to the ego, may not be the most suitable to our sport. As well as running one hour five times a week is also not

Alcohol, drugs and heavy food are forbidden on game days.

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the most correct.

Eat as an athlete – I am not talking about strict diet or sports supplements.

Be aware of what you eat and drink before and during a game, because it can and it will affect your performance in the game a lot. Alcohol, drugs and heavy food should be forbidden elements on these days. On very hot

days, bear in mind that only water really hydrates your body and that cereal bars are not energetic snacks!

Treat your body as the one of an athlete! Warm up before training, whether they are physical or of paint and stretching at the end is compulsory. On game days, do not forget to warm up and stretch before playing. This good athletic, physical and eating preparation will help you preventing injuries.

Respect your team. Be on time for training and competitions – and especially be there with your gear ready. Cleaning your mask or servicing your marker while your team is already training or checking the pitch is an arrogant and selfish move. Another attitude to avoid is to confirm your presence and then not being there.

If on the other hand, you know you’ll be there drunk or wrecked form the previous night,

it is better to confirm your absence.

Moreover this type of attitudes should be forbidden in your philosophy as an ambitious paintball player.

Prepare a set of technical exercises for you and your team when you’re training together. Bring readymade exercises

Keep in mind that paintball is a sport. that you know will make you better as a paintball player. If you think you’re the only one who needs these exercises, practice them at the end. Try to identify weaknesses together as a team.

Look for a team that motivates you.

If you have real ambitions, don’t stop at trying to be the best in your street.

Look for a team in which you know you will constantly have to prove your value to deserve to play. And above all a team that has other players to challenge you to evolve.

Do not quit competitions if your team is eliminated before the finals.

How can you aim at being the best if then you don’t take time to observe the winning team? These occasions are opportunities to analyse the strengths

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and weaknesses of those teams and to withdraw conclusions for the future!

Observe the best playing. Today’s technological easiness allows us to see the best in the world playing in real time. Something that was totally unthinkable few years ago for someone who wasn’t at the games. In each game you watch, you´ll get something useful to you and your team.

Seek advice from the best players.

There are an endless number of pro tips, documentaries, clinics and DVDs

that can help you being a better paintball player. It is only a matter of willpower to look for that information.

Lastly, look for teams of a superior level to train with them. The famous

In every game you watch, you’ll

get something useful to yourself.

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“beatings” will help you getting your feet on the ground and will be very helpful to gain experience. It is not only by winning that you learn.

Finally, the commandment that

should be compulsory to all paintball players: learn to listen. It´s rare a player that doesn´t contest or tries to find a justification for something he did or should have done in a game.

Stop trying to justify your mistakes and start growing with them. Even if the person is not right, you always get another perspective!

So and no matter how talented you think you are or people tell you you are, remember that without willpower to work hard and evolve, you’ll hardly get to the top or stay there! •

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Styling

By Nuno Lourenço These days we see a bunch of kids playing (some grown up already) and they absorb everything they see. That is great, because paintball is a game of imitation and very little innovation.

The big problem is that they assimilate the best they see in the stars, but most times they assimilate what worst on the style «wanna be».

Here are some basic tips: running with legs and arms arched as if you have a problem on the armpits is counterproductive. No one can run fast in that way. At least I have never seen a sprinter putting that show on. If the goal is to run fast and look small, then imitate Brandon Short: legs close; arms glued to the body and the torso and back curved front and low.

Another chapter about style: the mythical «chicken wing». Another example of what you should not do, firstly because it does not help at all, once it makes you lose stability and secondly, if there is an opponent on the other side of the field

that can see your lateral, he will have a great target. Guess what? It is your arm.

Lastly, here is probably the oldest: running with your hand in front of the goggles. It is better to look at your opponents, see where they run to and in which direction the balls are coming, than looking at the floor or at our own hand.

There are the ones who argue that it is easier to break a ball on the mask than with the hand. It is true, but if breaks on

Kids assimilate what worst on the style «wanna be».

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the mask, all players stop running and go to the pit. If it breaks on the hand, they will all try to put that hand on the floor to clean or disguise. Good luck with the 3 for 1 that you will be offering your team.

We need to watch what the best players in the world do, but we also need to have critical reasoning to see that not everything that comes from the States is a good thing.•

1 1. Chicken wing 2. Hand in front of the goggles 3. Running fast

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Ni abou Eur

N Slow GRIP: Your story is an example for many kids who start playing today.

You started playing at the age of twelve, you were a lifeguard and did dozens of other jobs to be able to pay for your paintball expenses. Do you think that the fact of having to struggle so hard for your goals made you into a better player?

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Nick Slowiak: I consider myself very blessed and lucky to be where I am at and without the support of my family, my girlfriend, my friends and the industry there is no way I would be where I am today.

GRIP: What advice would you give to a twelve year old kid who wants to start

ick Slowiak spoke with GRIP ut his life and experience in rope. Just get to know him.

Nick wiak

Text: André Garrido Photos: PhotoPaintball

playing?

NS: Stay in school, don’t do drugs (laughs). Any advice for younger players would be: you just have to want it more than everybody else. You have to really believe in yourself, you have to know what you want. Be prepared to make a lot of sacrifices: you can’t go out with your friends on Friday and Saturday

nights and party because you’re gonna wake up early those next mornings for practice; you have to sacrifice school and work; girlfriends are going to be an issue… unless you are a girl… I’m sorry, in that case boyfriends, but they will think you are cool for playing paintball.

You need money, things you would like to spend money on you have to save for that extra case of paint or new lens, you will spend lots on paintball, it’s not cheap. Don’t try and put yourself ahead of what you should be playing, meaning do not try and jump divisions before you are ready. Do not ruin your ranking! Work your way up and have fun with it.

GRIP: Recently you left Aftershock in what you already publicly said to have been a whirlwind of feelings. Now with some distance from this decision, how do you analyse this change?

NS: A lot of guys decided to leave Aftershock and that took the wind out of my sails. I talked with Mike Bruno and we decided after a while to soldier on. The team then went in a direction I didn’t really agree with. Now I really want to be as positive as possible but I just saw us not being able to compete as a strong team. I have been through seasons like that, multiple with Aftershock and I just did not want to lose… I’ve been playing multiple seasons where I have lost almost every match...

And I just hate losing and that’s the one thing that has really burned me out.

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«What is your opinion about the new snakes? They are small, man…»

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But things seemed to go one way and I just didn’t agree with that. For the six years I was on the team I didn’t want to rebuild again. So I decided I’m not gonna play for Aftershock this year, I was very certain to play the Millennium, I was gonna ref the NPPL - I’m not doing that. I did what I had to do for me, fortunately I got a phone call and I flew to Texas and I had three Russians and some other players waiting me and I said: «ok, cool, I’ll do this.»

GRIP: What are the main differences between Aftershock and Houston Heat?

NS: Huuuuuughhh... Lot of it has to do with funding. The next is that Heat is a completely new team with one goal in mind, and that is to dominate. Shock had the same goals of course but kept rebuilding with new players. The mix just wasn’t right. We hit the ground running with Heat. If you look at Houston Heat it has a really good mixture of young raw talent that just want to learn and play and world-class champion players as well as an amazing coach. You have Federov, Mikhail and Sergey... By far probably they are easily on the top 10 players in the World. You got Chad George and Sam Monville, 2 World Champion players that come from a proven winning organization. Yaya and I from Aftershock camp, and you got Ronnie, LJ and Ryan, who are very young players that have proven themselves as top paintball players… Hope I didn’t forget anybody

(laughs). Did I forget anybody? (Start counting with the fingers). Yeah, ok it’s everybody! WAIT! At the heart of the matter you’ve got Randy Smith and his wife Danette. They have without a doubt made the biggest impact on the team by not only just putting it together but by putting the players first and letting us play the game we love.

GRIP: In this new project you guys created a super team. You think you

will have the same level and stability of teams like Damage, Dynasty and Russian Legion?

NS: When People said we were a super team, that kinda like got me because we had not even played yet.

There are definitely big names on the team, but you win as a team, you lose as a team, that’s something that Randy, our owner, engrained in our heads. I guess just to go off to the records we got second place in

«It would be nice to see european teams at World Cup.» interview

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Gavelston and first place in Phoenix so we can definitely stand up to those teams simply because we did beat them. The only team we didn’t ever beat is Tampa Bay...

Their time will come (laughs). We have set the bar high for ourselves so now we have to fight harder and dig deeper to hold that spot. It means a lot to me, I know it means a lot to the guys on the team to be ranked first in the PSP. So we definitely want to hold that spot and dominate all year. After all it is not how you start but how you finish.

GRIP: In Houston Heat you play with Russian players like Fedorov, Sergey and Mikhail. Do you notice a big difference between American players and the other players?

NS: When it comes to playing with Mikhail, Sergey and Federov I notice a little difference. Mikhail and Federov have been playing for years in Europe and they have been playing in America quite a bit. Federov even played for an american team. Sergey, he definitely is more Russian than the rest, mostly because he doesn’t speak english as much... I love Sergey, he is so cool. There is a difference, I definitely notice a bigger difference here in the Millennium, with the European teams but those three are like hybrids... They can turn on Russian mode where they play super tight, super consistent and then you have Federov with his freestyle mode where he is running around, jumping over everything,

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«Eurorefs need to be more human, not every player will go out there to cheat.» gun under his legs... Mikhail has taught me so much about being patient and laning, his snapshooting is unbelievable.

Sergey can teach you how to play behind like a pebble. Sergei can turn so small... it’s unbelievable. Those three taught us so much and I hope we taught them something besides being crazy Americans.

GRIP: You said earlier this year that before you give an opinion about the new snakes you had to try them. Now that you’ve played some tournaments

what is your opinion?

NS: They are small, man... (laughs). They are small but it’s a challenge. Do I like it? Do I think is ok? I think it could have been bigger, there are bigger players out there, everyone should be able to play underneath those. You have to lay down and lay comfortably and I don’t think everyone can but it presents a challenge to teams and players that have to figure out how to play that side of the field.

It’s a good thing and a bad thing, I liked to see them going a bit bigger. But if you

have a good team member defending you, you can play the snake fairly well.

GRIP: This is the first season that you are playing the Millennium. What are the first impressions?

NS: Everyone speaks a different language (laughs). The big things: the rate of fire, the size and layout of the field, the reffing... Holy smokes... Reffing needs some consistency. Everything is different.

I guess I’m still getting used to it. Not having a full two minutes in the pits,

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could

be nice to have a little more time to come and talk after a though loss

instead on burning our time out right away. I guess the bottom line is I’m still getting use to it (laughs)... Talk to me in London.

GRIP: You mentioned the reffing.

What are the big differences between eurorefs and american refs?

NS: The big difference is the way they pull penalties, the consistency with which they pull penalties... No one is perfect, right? ... (long pause) I don’t want to say anything bad about it but…

I’ve seen people get shot in the pack and get a 1for1 and not get a 1for1, I’ve seen people play on with the loader hit and get a 1for1 and not get a 1for1. I don’t want to say it seems biased but that’s the word on the street... There are certain refs reffing teams from different countries... But you got that everywhere, in US the ref from a state will favour a team that is from their state. I like to say that the consistency in the US is a bit better. If they are going to say that a pack hit is a 1for1 you better call it on everybody. The same thing for the loader

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hit. And they just need to be a little more human, understand that we are not all going out there to cheat. Give us a little explanation, everyone wants that, be decent about it, don’t just be... I was going say something but I will not say it.

GRIP: How does a player of your level, with 14 years of paintball experience, only now come to play the Millennium?

NS: I was asked two years ago, I had everything set to go and then Iceland blew up, so I couldn’t make it and then I didn’t come out the rest of the year. I was rostered last year with Breakout Spa, but it didn’t work out, I just never made it out. This year Empire Venice said: «Hey

come over» and I was like: «yeeeees».

It has been my dream, I have always dreamed about coming here and playing in Europe. It’s been amazing... So much fun!

GRIP: How do you consider the competitive level of European teams?

NS: It’s good. Watching Dynasty and Tampa Bay in CPL gives you an idea how the european teams do. Like we talked about earlier it’s definitelly different because of the lower amount of points, the rate of fire and the time on the games. I guess it would be nice to see if any of this european teams come over for World Cup, to see them play a race to 7 format or race to 5 to see how things come out. • advertising

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Text: LuĂ­s Oliveira e AndrĂŠ Garrido Photos: PhotoPaintball

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It was Blue Falcon’s birthday, but the party was for everyone.

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T

he Portuguese paintball team Blue Falcon Squadron celebrated their 5th birthday on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of June, with a mega event that had never been seen in this country, not due to the amount of players attending but because it managed to unite both sides of paintball: competition and recreation.

There were more than 500 people involved in this party, nine rock bands, skydivers, boats, roast pigs, steaks, and lots and lots of beer.

The first day was more of a formality, as only on the second day did the many teams from both areas of paintball start arriving.

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Portuguese National Championships The National Championships (NC) the world, which means that this were held at a spectacular sports case isn’t an exception, because complex in the Portuguese town of the dwindling number of teams is Montargil, which hadn’t yet been a symptom that has been felt in inaugurated. Due to the fact that the practically every country, and has sports complex was very recent, the actually put some big European events whole structure was absolutely at risk of being canceled. impeccable. With parking In regards to the field 500 for all of the players, an design, the same layout from people, immaculate astro turf the St. Tropez Millennium rock bands, pitch and excellent Series event was used, skydivers, toilets that were kept with only a few changes. boats, roast clean throughout the The big change was the pigs, and lots weekend, which is not use of an «old» snake, of beer. an easy task in a paintball which on one hand allows event. for a much more aggressive This was the National and less tactical game, but Championships’ second leg, which on the other hands distances the received twenty one teams, divided Portuguese play from what’s happening by three different divisions: O JOGO on the international scene.

League; Jornal de Notícias League; This fact made it so that the snake and GRIP League, named after their was very heavily used, which didn’t respective sponsors. happen at the Millennium event where The unusually low number of the snake wasn’t such a decisive bunker. attending teams is due to the strong Whether or not you like the new recession that has been felt throughout snakes, for a sport to evolve, it

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must follow along with the «demands» and new creations of the international top level.

A negative thing was that the two fields were based on the same design, yet the two snakes had completely different dynamics, as the bunkers being used were different from field to field. One of the snakes was almost like a castle, due to its size. This wouldn’t have been a problem if the teams only played on one of the fields, but that isn’t the case on Saturday, which means that the teams are forced to walk and study two fields for no apparent reason.

On Saturday, as per usual, only the GRIP League was held, with 5 teams.

Due to this number, many a paintballer’s dream comes true: having a tournament

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that started around 11 in the morning and was finished by 5 in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, there’s a drawback that doesn’t allow for the schedule to be as fluid as one would like, which is the fact that some teams will end up having to wait on the field or have to rush, because the other team is still playing, or because they’ve just finished a game and have to play another.

Even though it seems like you would be able to squeeze all these games into Sunday’s calendar with some effort from the organization, refs and player, it seems correct that the Portuguese Paintball Federation chooses instead to hold the event in two days, so as to be able to dynamize the location where the tournament is held.

When there are only 5 teams, only

one of them won’t make it to the an early start. It was 8:00. When the finals, and that team was Relâmpagos, great Portuguese even began, and this who lost all their games, in part due to day saw 16 teams competing on two the constant arguing of some of their divisions and two different fields. members, who instead of focusing The issue of the day was without on the games and their a doubt Hugo Domingues and teams’ wellbeing, would For his brawl scene at the rather loudly blame paintball to Millennium Series’ event, everything around evolve, because this was the first them, even when it must follow moment back on the field devoid of reason. the «demands» after knowing about the Clearly there are and new 8 year sentence that had two strong teams in this creations. been applied to him. division, considering the In the first games of the overall level, which are Trolls morning, Trolls brought their Ink and Blue Falcon. As fate would new acquisition out to the field: Gil have it, it was the birthday boys that Belford, who came out to show everyone won the event. The cherry on top of that those who know do not forget, and what was still to come for the weekend. that although having stopped playing On Sunday, the event got up to for a year and a half, it seemed like

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he hadn’t been gone a week. It may have been a coincidence but the Trolls made it to the finals, something which they hadn’t been able to do for nearly two years.

Another team that was able to surprise everyone was Sporting, who were playing a very consistent game and also made it to the final stage.

On the other side, on a more negative note we have Paintland that after having an impressive first event didn’t make it to the finals, which may have jeopardized their fight for the title.

The four teams that ended up making it through to the finals were Trolls, Benfica, Sporting and Metralhas.

Metralhas are without a doubt, the strongest team in Portugal, alongside with Benfica. Although third place doesn’t reflect their game play, the truth is that losing the wrong game, at the wrong time can make you drop a few places in the rankings. They’re playing a very consistent game, locking it down, but being aggressive at the same time. They know when to attack and they’re not in a hurry to win the game.

Benfica on the other hand was the just winner of this event, as they had seen the win slip from their hands in the first leg of the series. This team is playing at a very high level, and are being

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helped by one of the most consistent players in Portugal lately – Sven De Weert. From what we’ve been having the privilege of seeing, Sven is repeatedly the best player on the field, whether it’s winning gun battles against the world’s best in the Millennium, or winning games by running through the field as he did in the final against Trolls.

Adding to Sven’s consistency, «Dani» Moreira was also in top form, allowing the team to win those clutch points.

In the second division, Jornal de Notícias League, Belenenses was the great disappointment in this event after having won the first leg, and didn’t even make it to the finals – leaving the first place open for grabs to their rivals: Prophecy.

Prophecy have been one of the teams that has bet on an international career, and it seems that after a few mishaps they’ve become more consistent and above all, they’ve been able to look at their bad results and learn from them. That’s what happened after they lost 4:1 against Triball, when they sat with Jota, their coach (they are the only team in Portugal with a full time coach), and tried to realize where they could improve.

This was the mentality that won them first place and we think that they will most likely be one of the teams that

make it to the top division next year.

We also have to praise Fontaínhas’ and Rush’s work, who placed 2nd and 3rd place, respectively.

The negative side to this event was without a doubt the referring that was some of the worst that we’ve seen in the past years. We saw some blatant mistakes like the assigning of 3-for-1 penalties due to pressure from the crowd or even worse, a ref that decided to award a penalty when two players that mutually eliminated each other decide to shake hands and congratulate the other in a moment of rare fair-play. •

Rankings:

Division 1 – «O Jogo» League 1. S. L. Benfica 2. Trolls 3. Metralhas Porto

Division 2 – «Jornal de Notícias» League 1. Prophecy 2. J. D. Fontainhas 3. Rush Vitória Janes

Division 3 – «GRIP» League 1. Blue Falcon Squadron 2. Trolls INK 3. XXL Fusion

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The Event This type of event gathers different camping site as well as on the Ribeira de kinds of players, with different visions Sor lagoon. Others also took the chance regarding paintball. Some, that travel to meet old friends and also to watch the with the objective of playing in a game action at the national championships’ full of specific missions, and objectives Division 3 – GRIP League. to be accomplished during the Players started arriving at 8 in time in which the many battles the afternoon, to the venue

occur, in order to score the where Smoke on the Water Montargil points that will grant them – Montargil Rock Fest 2012 Rock Fest a win. Others, who travel was being held, a festival 2012 mixed for the simple pleasure of that was organized by the paintball being able to eliminate Nova Cultura Association, players their opponents and who in partnership with Blue with Rock know that an event of this Falcon Squadron, and that lovers. magnitude will bring them was able to mix paintball many «easy» targets, and who players with Rock lovers. On the do not care much about accomplishing site, the old roast pig twirled around missions. The third kind of player is and around, showing off its wonderful that kind that doesn’t even come for tan and releasing a most pleasant aroma the game itself, but for the pleasure that made you water at the mouth. A of spending a nice weekend in the little while later it was served to all the company of old friends as well as new players, accompanied by a cool beer friends that they just met. because the night was warm and that’s The second day was used to walk just what was called for. around the quiet villages of Montargil and The party was very lively throughout Ponte de Sor, or simply to go take a dip the night, which led some players to in the pool of the very welcoming Orbitur spend the entire night at the venue and

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getting in a quick and refreshing shower from the more experienced players. so that they could return the same spot, But it isn’t long before they’re fully where a couple of hours later, the eagerly acclimated and talking to others about awaited paintball game would be held. their experiences or asking questions to Day 3 – The moment everyone the people around them. had been waiting for, players By 11:45 in the morning, the

from all corners of the security and game briefing The country set up tents, get starts, given by the speaker second day their markers ready, Farinha and Marco “Ferri”. was spent buy paintballs from the The first part is for walking Emboscada mobile shop the newbie players, around that was present at the but also very useful for the quiet scene or proceed to fix the more experienced villages. last minute problems with ones because it’s never too their markers. Basically, what much to remember that here, you would expect to see at this kind of security is paramount and that there event. You also see some players that is a standard of behavior that is to be will try this amazing sport for the first respected on the field. After this we time, you can spot them from afar as had a quick explanation of the game their nervousness differentiates them and it’s objectives, that was used to

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clear any doubts for the people that already knew the story and to inform the others that didn’t.

As a surprise, all players were informed that there would be amphibious and aerial disembarquements and that the “characters” involved in these disembarquements were a living part of the recreation. It was an awe moment for some of the people present, however, the common reaction was to wonder just how all of this would work out!

As everyone was eager to step out onto the field, the generals for both factions were presented. On one side, leading the Falcon faction, we had General David Constant, from airball team C4=RTU. On the other side, leading the AMG faction, General Lumigool, from team PSI Force – Núcleo

de Paintball da Figueira da Foz. After some further recommendations from the Generals to their factions, the game started around 1 o’clock. The game was held in a medium/low difficulty terrain, with excellent low vegetation areas, mixed with shrubberies and some open areas, as well as some large trees, with one flank of the playing field totally bathed by the lagoon’s waters, which helped to cool down a little from the hot 26 degrees Celsius temperature.

The game’s objectives, easy to understand and easy to accomplish consisted of conquering three flags, spread throughout the field, in the recuperation of two «water purifying machines», that after being recuperated would purify liters and liters of water that had to be transported from

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But, whilst that group was waiting for the river onto the machine and then backup, they were surprised by a boat stored, and also the control of a clock that attacked them from a distance. that was very well hidden, so much so However, this attack was quickly that none of the factions managed to neutralized, which allowed for the conquer that point. paratroopers to land safely.

The game itself went with a lot As soon as the last paratrooper of advances and retreats from both touched the ground, a spectacle that factions and not allowing for many was cheered not only by the players on lulls in the action, with an exception the field but by many spectators, there that occurred around 14:00, when was still time for one last surprise. The many of the players were outside airplane that just minutes before had the field, whether to fill up on paint, dropped the paratroopers was now air, or even to get some liquids doing a low flight, just above and gather their strength. the players’ heads. All this It was also around this One was a perfect recreation of time that a second plane a true disembarquement phase started, during dropped which the Falcon team 4 skydivers onto of paratroopers in a war scenario, having also been dominated perfectly over the middle of a strong moral support the southern area of the the battle for team AMG, who with field, and the AMG team field. the help of the paratroopers fought hard to hold their conquered the northern flag, and position on the northern area kept it until the very end of the game, by the lagoon, where the paratrooper which came around 15:00. disembarquement would be held.

It was then the time for the players Around 14:30 we had without a doubt, to leave the field and immediately the high point of the game, finally, the after start greeting each other and plane that would drop 4 skydivers onto shaking each others’ hands, having the middle of the battle field is spotted. been «enemies» just minutes before.

As soon as the first parachute opened It was also the moment for people to up in the sky, you started to repeatedly start trading stories of epic moments hear AMG’s radios going «the bird is in that will remain in the memories of all the air», by that time, a group of players those that participated in the game. All swiftly moved to the landing zone in this whilst returning to the leisure and order to create a safety zone to receive well deserved rest area. In the middle the paratroopers, which would give them of all this commotion, there was still a fantastic boost from the skies.

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time for some of the more «heated» is starting out. Winning and losing is part players to take a dive in the lagoon for of the game, but only the good players a revigorating bath, which amazed are able to praise their opponent when he some, and made others laugh gets the best of them. and cheer as they witnessed Another thing that was The these shenanigans. worthy of note was the generals With their strength number of female players were back, it was the time for out on the field, which unanimous the remaining players shows that this sport saying that to watch the drawing of isn’t only for men but for both teams several prizes given away everyone who wants to feel had won.

by Emboscada, and also great moments of adrenaline, the exchange of compliments good times and healthy and praise for the performance camaraderie.• and especially for the excellent fair-play during all the battles.

When we asked the generals who had won, the unanimous answer was that they had both won and that no one had lost, as the true winner was paintball itself, and all the spirit surrounding it.

Then, a souvenir for this day was awarded to each of the generals. The participating teams also brought some souvenirs to give to the Blue Falcon team, as the exchange of banter and stories about the game continued. One of those stories was exceptionally interesting, it was the moment in which the General David Constant was eliminated by an opposing player. In this moment, the General yelled out «Well played!» and left the scene. It is these kinds of situations that are true demonstrations of how paintball should be played and should serve as examples to all those that participate in it, as well as everyone who

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Ferri GRIP – For you, what was the highlight of «The Event»?

Ferri – Without a shadow of a doubt, the highlight was getting to meet and hang out with my friends.

GRIP – We noticed that there were at least 2 children in the field who were less than 12! Do you think that paintball is appropriate for these ages?

Ferri – Of course it is! Besides being able to enjoy their parents’ company in a team sport, it can mark the beginning of a healthy sporting activity and maybe even a sports career.

GRIP – This has had to be one of the events in which there were more female players out there on the field.

Are they finally getting into paintball?

Ferri – Yes they are, timidly, but they are. What we need is more divulgation and also to know how to attract them to this sport.

Paintball is truly for everyone.

GRIP – How long does it take to prepare an event of this kind?

Ferri – An event of this kind – and we have to take into account that we held together a national airball tournament, a rock festival and an anniversary party along with a scenario game – took us 10 months to prepare. We hope will continue for years to come.

GRIP – Surprises for 2013?

Ferri - I won’t divulge any, or they would no longer be surprises, but I can say that 2013 will be very different, and also much better. (A good laugh and a wink).

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© 2012 Copyright Planet Eclipse Ltd. Eclipse, the Estar Logo Device, Ego, Geo, Etek, Etha and EMC are all either design trademarks, registered trademarks or trademarks of Planet Eclipse Ltd. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Photos: PhotoPaintball

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ÂŤTonton forever!Âť 88

entrevista

GRIP spoke with Fabrice «Tavarez», the main man of the French team Tonton, who turns 20 in 2012.

Text: André Garrido Photos: PhotoPaintball

GRIP: Why did Tonton drop the name Flingueurs?

Tavarez: Mainly because everyone called us solely by the name «Tontons» and because it was quite hard to translate the word «Flingueur». The word actually comes from a famous French mafia film.

When the CPL started our team’s name needed to include the city name so we dropped «Flingueurs» for Toulouse, the city where the team was born.

the real spirit of the team. You also know you don’t have to worry about making mistakes because the old Tonton are there to show us the way.

GRIP: Does the fact that the team is celebrating its 20th birthday this year mean that you have bigger objectives?

Tavarez: Of course, every year we have bigger objectives. We finished the

«When you join a team like Tontons you won’t want to leave.»

GRIP: As many people know, Tonton have completed their 20th birthday.

Even though you’re not part of the original guys, how do you feel about reaching this important mark?

Tavarez: I’m extremely proud to follow the Tonton spirit. I’ve known all the team members since the beginning and I truly believe that the real strength of the team comes from the fact that all the generations of players are friends and fought for the team when they were playing. You know that when you join the team you won’t want to leave. That’s

Millennium Series (MS) in third place last year, so our goal this year is to win because we’re focusing solely on this. In the future we want to return to playing in the US, in the PSP. But we have to dominate in Europe before we have the opportunity to come back to the US, and we have to fight against the best to be the best. This is the only way that we will be able to achieve our main goal.

GRIP: Are you going to have a big party or some special event to celebrate

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this very important date?

Tavarez: I think we will be having a big party in Paris with the old Tontons so that we can remember the good times of every generation. We also made a special Tonton gun, specifically for our 20th anniversary as well as some other goodies just for this event.

GRIP: You mentioned that the former players always stay with the team. Last year, at Disney, I remember seeing a huge banner in honor of Frank Mouren. This kind of tribute isn’t very usual, especially in our sport. It almost felt like it was a family thing…is this what happens with the Tontons?

Tavarez: Yes, definitely! Like I told you before, all the Tonton players know each other. Frank was a huge part of Tonton.

He was my teacher in paintball, he was my captain and he also taught me about life like a dad teaches a son. Everyone loves Frank; he did a lot for paintball and for the Tontons. Frank is such a fantastic and charismatic man that he doesn’t need to speak English to have good friends all around the world. And everywhere I go people are always asking me about him. And not only did the Tontons wish Frank a good retirement, but so did the whole paintball nation. He is without a doubt, a big man.

GRIP: Laurent Hamet, the Millennium Series’ director was one of the Tontons’ big players. Since the Tontons are a big family, what is the relationship between the actual director of the biggest European paintball event and your team?

Tavarez: He is still a big part of Tontons.

Nothing changed between us just because he’s in charge of the MS. He’s still supporting us and helping us a lot with organization, and it’s always a pleasure to see him. I talk to him at least once a

«In the future we want to return

to playing in the US, in the PSP, but we have to dominate Europe first.»

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week and he always gives me advice on managing the team.

GRIP: Everybody knows that knowing the right person, in the right place makes a big difference. The support given by a person with the prestige and position of Laurent Hamet can bring some advantages, no?

Tavarez: Yes, of course. Having the advice and experience of Laurent is very beneficial to us. However, the fact that he’s one of the leaders of the MS doesn’t benefit us at all. We pay just like everyone else and are subject to exactly the same conditions.

We actually suffer from the reputation of Laurent, solely because he’s got a high degree of responsibility.

GRIP: Precisely ten years ago, Laurent told Facefull that it was very hard to train with all the players, due to the distance between them. How is this nowadays, especially since you have a British player, Jason Wheller, as well as Yan from Russia playing with you?

Tavarez: This year we have in our team Axel from Paris, Loic from Pau, SĂŠbastien from Embrun, Jason from London, Yan from Moscow and Guillaume, Franck and myself from Marseille.

This year we were inspired by the US system, organizing joint team trainings one week before the tournament. We play all week to prepare the team as one, before leaving for the tournament.

Other than that, we all play apart every weekend and talk about what we learn and see on the field.

GRIP: In that system, you play every day of the week until the tournament?

Tavarez: Yes, everyone comes in on Friday and we play on Saturday and Sunday against another team. Then we train Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and we leave afterwards for the event, where we practice again on Thursday on the Millennium CPL field.

GRIP: So all vacations are taken to play?

Tavarez: Yes. We practice all year long for only the 4 major events in Europe, and we also have the French leagues, US events and other tournaments in Europe.

GRIP: Again, this reminds me of Laurent’s Facefull interview. He said that it was extremely difficult to have players that are capable of dedicating 70 days a year to paintball. How can the Tontons have players of this kind, year after year?

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Tavarez: We are very lucky! We are very fortunate to have a lot of players that are able to manage their own time at work.

For instance I have my own business and if I need to take 12 days off for an event, I can manage my own work, practicing and playing paintball during the day and fulfilling my work duties at night.

Loic, Pascal, Seb and Jason also own their businesses. Axel is a student. Yan works for the Russian government, which gives him all these days so that he can play paintball. And Frank and Guillaume have excellent jobs with great availability.

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Professional paintball needs to be played at 100% and nothing less.

GRIP: You were European champs in 2006 and only managed to climb back on the winner’s podium last year, with a third place. What do you think caused such a big interruption?

Tavarez: We had some roster problems during this time. That was the reason why we didn’t play the Millennium in 2008, which allowed us to unite the team a little more.

Besides that we made some poor recruitment choices, which were no good

for the team. Since two years ago, we try to recruit through our clinic and from our summer camp. This year we have a full team and we continue to practice with other younger players.

in front of them. By making the finals we finished as the number one DYE team, first European team (sic) and first French team.

«The week before Millennium

GRIP: One of the images that I recall from Disney was you making it to the finals. It seemed like you had won the event. What did this moment mean to you: making the finals, guaranteeing third place overall, in the biggest Millennium event, in front of all your countrymen?

Tavarez: Last year there were six teams tied in the ranking, so we had to place

we train every day.»

That was the true reason why we were so happy: all of it was at stake at the time, and it was a great and fair reward after all the work we put in to get there.

GRIP: There seems to be a big difference between Art Chaos and Dynasty and the rest of the teams. What do you think you’re lacking in order to

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be able to beat them?

Tavarez: Those two teams are some of the best in the world and I think that they are the only two professional teams in which the players are paid to play.

This year, Tampa Bay Damage, World Champions in title, are also playing the Millennium Series in CPL. We played them in Pugets and won, so for us it’s

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definitely not impossible.

These are really good teams and it’s up to us to prove that we can be better than them.

GRIP: But Damage seemed a little weak in the Millennium Series, didn’t you think so?

Tavarez: Yes, playing in Europe is not the same thing as playing in the USA, especially

regarding the style of play and the referring, which is much stricter. I thought we played well against them; we were able to shoot a lot of players off the break.

GRIP: No beating around the bush: don’t Dynasty and Art Chaos get on your nerves, being able to win so many games without offering much chance to the rest of the teams? I believe that it can be quite frustrating to know that when you step out onto the field, there is a good chance that you’re going to lose against them.

Tavarez: No, not at all, we play to compete against those teams and we’re happy to play against them because we want to belong to the best. In the Tontons we all have jobs outside of paintball and because of that we’re only able to practice on weekends, while these teams play all the time. They constantly play against great teams and they enter in a lot more competitions.

But we want to beat these teams and we fight for that, we don’t play to end up behind them.

GRIP: Who do you consider to be your direct adversaries in your division?

Tavarez: Damage, Dynasty and Art Chaos.

GRIP: What about Carnage? In France they were ranked higher than you up to the last event!

Tavarez: I don’t consider them our true adversaries. If we’re playing a focused and smart game, we won’t lose to them.

GRIP: Do you think their fourth place in St. Tropez was out of luck?

«Professional paintball needs to be played at 100% and nothing less.»

Tavarez: I think their path up to the semifinals wasn’t very hard, even though they had a good tournament. I guess in Germany we will see if they got lucky or if they have their place at the top of CPL. GRIP: In your game against them, you won 5:4. It wasn’t an easy task…

Tavarez: They played well in the fight for third and fourth and we didn’t play very well.

Besides, we know each other, because we train together. It’s always a little more complicated because we know exactly what the other is able to do.

GRIP: Do you think that the Tontons are

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favorites to win the French league?

Tavarez: That’s what everyone says. We want to win the French national league, and we’re going to fight for it, but I’m sure our opponents won’t make it easy for us.

GRIP: If you look at the CPL teams, France is the country that’s best represented, with four teams. Why so many teams?

Tavarez: The paintball market in France is going very well; there are a lot of fields with quality structures to welcome the players. Also, French teams are able to practice against each other which allows the overall level to rise.

GRIP: And what’s your opinion about the parallel tournaments, such as the Ladies Cup, Youth Cup or the Nations Cup? Tavarez: I think that they’re a good initiative. You’re able to bring together different generations of paintballers and it‘s a good show for the crowd. It’s a great idea.

GRIP: But it seems that there are many national teams that aren’t necessarily the best teams in that country. They’re just a group of players that can afford to go to the Millennium…

«We play to compete against

GRIP: What’s your opinion on the Millennium Series?

Tavarez: I think that the MS gets better every year, and nowadays they hold quality tournaments on beautiful fields, with good organization, an interesting tradeshow and excellent refereeing. The Millennium chooses its locations carefully so that it’s not too expensive for us in regards to hotels and transportation.

The tournament grounds are always clean, with stands for the public and a commentator giving live comments about the ongoing games.

The negative side of things is that the prize money isn’t very high. For example, in CPL, I think that the first prize is 10.000€ and the entry fee comes to the same amount. So, only by winning the series can you pay for your own entry fee.

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Dynasty and Art Chaos.»

Tavarez: I don’t agree, and I’ll give you the example of France. We have a federation that elects a national coach.

This coach is going to make a preselection of 14 players, and will end up with only 10 in the final phase.

These 10 players will practice twice before the Nations Cup. Our federation found partners such as DYE to supply the paint.

GRIP: You’re one of the players in the French national team. How does it feel to wear a jersey with your country’s colors and hear your national anthem on the field?

Tavarez: I’m very proud to wear France’s colors and to play beside people who are

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usually my opponents, while defending our country’s flag. To hear our national anthem whilst facing a stand full of fans gives me chills and energy. A moment like that is just wonderful.

GRIP: If you had to choose: Tontons or France, which one would you prefer?

Tavarez: Tonton. I’m with the Tontons since very early in my career and I owe everything to the Tontons. Tontons forever!

GRIP: Don’t you think it’s strange that there are more players in the national team from Icon than from Tontons?

Tavarez: No, the Tontons are a team with international players and Icon just

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has French players.

GRIP: You only have two players that aren’t French…

Tavarez: We are six French with

«Tonton or France?

Tonton forever!»

Sebastien, who was working up until this month, and as such he was in no condition to play. And we have a kid, Machine, still in training.

GRIP: Last year France finished in fourth place. Do you think that it’s possible to get a better rank this year?

Tavarez: Yes, I’m sure of it. This year we will prepare for this event by practicing all together. We didn’t do that last year because we didn’t take this very seriously.

GRIP: Jason Wheeler, one of your team mates, will probably be on the other side of the field, playing for the United Kingdom. Would you like to leave him a message?

Tavarez: I’d like to tell him to make good use of that title, because this year we have every intention of winning it.

GRIP: Why did you pick up Jason from Nexus?

Tavarez: Above all, Jason is a good friend.

The team liked him a lot and we thought

that he was playing at the highest level.

Because of that, it made sense to us to recruit him for our team.

Last year he was the best front player in England!

GRIP: You speak almost like Nexus were inferior to you guys.

Tavarez: Why do you say that? He wasn’t happy with Nexus…

GRIP: Because of your reply, one could almost get the impression that you had picked him up from an inferior team…

Tavarez: No. We are at the same level.

We placed ahead of Nexus last season, but that doesn’t mean that we feel superior in any way. It was simple: we

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asked Jason if he would like to join the Tontons and he accepted.

GRIP: Was it a way to weaken Nexus or to strengthen the Tontons?

Tavarez: We choose to recruit Jason to strengthen the Tontons. That is the reason why he plays almost every single point.

GRIP: This year the Tontons have five players playing all the events in the PSP. This has its obvious advantages, but don’t you think that it could also bring about some disadvantages such as possible injuries or accumulated fatigue?

Tavarez: Playing in the PSP gives us a lot of experience. I think it is very good and it allows the non American teams to develop their level of play and their experience, because they gain a different perspective from the one they’re used to.

GRIP: But can’t it bring any disadvantages?

Tavarez: No. This is a sport. I don’t want to keep the players all to myself. I want them to evolve and the best way to do this is to go to the USA. GRIP: You were recently injured. It’s always a complicated phase for a professional player such as yourself.

During these phases, what do you think about?

Tavarez: It’s true that injuries are always

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feared by athletes because you need to rest, to get treatment and to slowly return to competition so you can recover and strengthen the muscle that you lost during the rest phase. It’s always a tough time, but you’re always happy to be able to come back healthy.

GRIP: Aren’t you afraid to return in worse shape than before?

Tavarez: Yes, it’s complicated because I was never a big athlete. Because of that,

for me to get back to my previous level, takes a lot of motivation and suffering.

But I always trust in my shot.

GRIP: Before, we were talking about the Tontons’ bet on the USA. It seems that you’re investing individually instead of doing it as a team. Why this choice?

Tavarez: In this phase, we cannot yet evolve as a team in the USA because we don’t have the budget for it. We hope that one day we will and that we will be

able to conquer America. (Laughs) GRIP: In 2010 the Tontons won Div. 1 in Orlando. What’s it like to win the best and biggest event in the world?

Tavarez: We were very happy to have won that event. It was fantastic because we had fans in the stands that motivated us. We had a great event and were rewarded with victory. I think we were all very proud to bring this trophy back to France.

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I think it’s not fair for the opponents and I also think it doesn’t really help their team mates.

GRIP: But isn’t playing Div 1 like stealing candy from a baby?

Tavarez: There was a lot of controversy over this issue. We played in the highest level that was open to us. I think it’s a lot more controversial that professional players were playing in the NXL in the PSP, and then on Division 2 teams in the Millennium. Div 1’s level in the PSP is like the average level in the CPL. GRIP: Are you against professional players helping smaller teams in the lower divisions in the Millennium?

Tavarez: No, but there are teams with paid players that can shoot three or four players on the opposing team.

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GRIP: Can you compare the trophy in Orlando with the Intercontinental Cup that you won last year?

Tavarez: In the World Cup we had many important games that turned out to be hard to manage, especially due to the local weather. It was a long tournament, it went on for three days, and we made it through without a hitch, all the way to the finals. The Intercontinental Cup was in Malaysia, in a warehouse with air conditioning and very easy games to make it through to the finals. We had a perfect record all through to the finals, winning the title against the Ironmen.

We had a good game against them and brought the Intercontinental Cup home to France.

GRIP: Which one do you consider to be more important?

Tavarez: They’re different things. Winning the Intercontinental Cup was important because we were representing Europe in that event, it brought us great pride and it was very important for the old continent and for all our sponsors.

The World Cup was more important on

a personal level, because each player wanted to fight against American teams on American soil.

GRIP: Axel Gaudin told Social Paintball that he had you to thank for being able to get to level where he was. Axel is one of the best snake players in the world right now. How does it feel to be responsible for the creation of this little «monster»?

Tavarez: I’m very proud of Axel’s progress. Like you said, nowadays he’s a little monster, and my objective is to make him into a huge professional player.

Axel has everything it takes to become a successful paintball player, he’s motivated and he’s got a huge spirit. I’m happy to play with him and to give him everything I’m able to.

But in fact, the people that are mainly responsible for his success are himself and his family, for allowing him to pursuit his passion to the highest level.

make in order to play paintball?

Tavarez: I play five PSP events, four Millennium events, five French league events, one CPS and one PALS. I’m not counting the trips I take for practices, but during the season I’m at the field every weekend, practicing.

GRIP: Aren’t you tired of plane trips, waiting for hours at airports or driving for miles to get to the field?

Tavarez: Usually I just work on my MAC as much as I can, listen to a little bit of music or watch movies. And if I’m

«It is not fair that professional

players compete in lower divisions.»

GRIP: There are teams that are able to consistently make Sunday. In your opinion, what’s the reason for this?

Tavarez: The draw plays a strong part in you being able to get into the «Sunday Club». I think that experience, playing it safe and not losing games in stupid ways are the three key factors.

GRIP: How many trips a year do you

tired, I’ll just sleep. If I had a hard work week, I’ll sleep ten hours during the trip. When I played with Philly, I would fly in on Friday and return on Monday. I would go just to practice on Saturday and Sunday. Twice a month, usually, I’ll practice two days and waste two days on flights.

GRIP: Your nickname is «Tavarez».

Where does that come from?

Tavarez: It’s the name of a famous detective, from a Marseille murder film. As I come from Marseille and have a southern accent, they gave me that nickname. It’s a combination of detectives and mobsters, just like in the Tonton Flingueurs.•

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fat lady charms

By Hailey Adrienne In the summer of 2001, a group of five girls with a passion for paintball came together to found one of the most well-known euro all-female teams. The Fat Lady Charms started out playing locally in Norway in division 3, and have made their way up to playing division 2 in the Millennium series and division 1 in the Swedish PBSM league.

During the off season the FLC hosted try outs and welcomed two new faces to the line-up. One of whom we were able to speak to about her experience in joining her dream team, and what she hopes to accomplish in the future.

Going into the try out, Cecilia R. had only played locally with her previous team Sugar Babes. She spoke of how she felt trying out for her dream team “Before the try out I was so nervous… You’re not sure what to expect, to start playing with a team that have known each other for such a long time, will I fit in? And so on. Very stressful, I

didn’t go to many practices before the try out since I got all those weird thoughts that paintball wasn’t a sport for me, I didn’t feel like I belonged, kind of wanted to quit. Those six weeks weren´t pleasant.

But it all turned out good!” she went on: “It felt so cool and amazing to make it on the team, they were my dream team when I first started playing in Canada and I could never in my wildest imagination believe that one day I would get the honour to play for them. But here I am.”

If you wanna start your own girl team keep on fighting. If you believe in it you will get what you want.

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While Cecilia currently lives in Uppsala, in Sweden, she first started playing paintball while living in Canada.

“My ex-boyfriend in Canada got me into the sport, he played and I guess he needed a pod bitch, ha-ha. No, he wanted me to take part in his big hobby and share

the love for it. And I got hooked right away. So I have to thank him for this.”

After Cecilia came back from Canada and started to get serious about her paintball career, she was one of the key players in starting the all-girl squad ‘Sugar Babes’. Being one of the main players in bringing the team together, it was hard for her to say goodbye to her ‘baby’ and give up all the control that she once knew. “There is a big difference in going from div 3 in a small league to div 2 Millennium. That’s a huge step. And it was hard to go from doing all that I did for the Sugar Babes to doing nothing and being nobody in a new big team. But, I finally get to play with the big boys” As a first timer in the Millennium series, she expressed her contentment with her

performance in event one, being able to do her job in snake properly yet still always leaving room for improvement. “For the team we ended up better this first event with two new players and one comeback than last year’s first event. So I guess that’s a good sign. There were some weird things going on with some of the games, like in one game our opposition started 6 people and they didn’t get anything for doing that, no penalties or nothing. So maybe the refs just don’t like Scandinavian people ha-ha.”

“My current goal for paintball right now is to become a more aggressive snake player. Or I guess more aggressive in general. Not to be afraid of taking chances in the game, trusting my instincts on the field. And outside the field I will try to get even more involved in paintball like

girl paintballer

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writing stuff or anything really, to travel more and to play more.” Cecilia has already played in 5 different countries which include: Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Russia and France. Yet she is anticipating expanding that portfolio and hoping to be able to bring her team, FLC, to America to compete in NPPL or PSP in the near future.

In closing she shared some advice for female players that may be having some doubts about where they stand when it comes to the sport “My advice to other female paintballers is keep on playing and remember to have fun. And don’t be afraid of talking and asking other players for help and advice. If you wanna start your own girl team keep on fighting, it is hard in the

beginning and it might take time but if you believe in it and you give all what it takes and fight for it you will get what you want.

And we can be as good as the guys!

No one is born as a good paintball player.

It comes from hard work and many hours of practice, just keep that in mind, you can get all that you want as long as you believe in yourself.”

Make sure you keep an eye out for the FLC at the Millennium events, and cheer them on as they battle it out against the boys in Division 2! We hope the girls will be able to reach their goals and continue to be successful throughout their journey within the paintball world. Hope to see you girls on this side of the pond soon! • advertisement

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ashion f e h t o leap int tion for e l t t i l took a produc P I g n R i G r a e d merged a Th t i e e d r a e nd m , wh world a n of miss GRIP nsuality. se tio this edi elegance and ) om ll, a sphoto.c odrigue a Catarina Roch sr paintba o rl a s (www.c a por An odrigue assistid Carlos R o para A&F&, Photos lh a M a a ip ir e Fil Styling ĂŒlvia Ferr akeup S Hair e m a Cabac len boscada Model E ccessories Em a ll Paintba

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miss grip

Top: Prodution Accessories: H&M

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Left page Bikini: Calzedonia Accessories: Mango On this page Lingerie: Produção

miss grip

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Left page Dress: Patricia Pepe On this page Swimsuit: Cia MarĂŒtima

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On this page Lingerie: Production

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Text: AndrĂŠ Faria Photos: Bradlo Photography

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Celebrating 10 years of existence, Warped is repeating their event, involving around 2000 players in a single paintball game. Is it possible for it to get better and better?

Warped has shown that it can.

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The event, which was already considered an icon in this sport, still surprises and innovates the game, year after year, growing not only in the number of participants but also in quality, amount of services available and unique activities.

The biggest European scenario paintball festival celebrated 10 years of existence on the 4th to the 6th of May, in the famous Swynnerton military field, bringing over one thousand players of various nationalities for 3 crazy days.

Comparing to 2011, the biggest differences revolved around the activities that all the registered players had at their disposal; an extra game on Saturday, more shops and brands available and, last but not least, the chance to use the armoured personnel carrier vehicle(APC) in the games or as an extra to whoever wanted to drive it.

Friday 4th of may With the gates opening early in the morning at 7 o’clock, the organizers managed to direct all the players on time to their locations by controlling the entrances and displacement inside the military camp. The fields were displayed on the map that was sent with the game tickets but was also available on the Android application store. This app also allowed for you to indicate your position in the enclosure, using high definition maps and video support.

In the event, many hundreds of people found the marketplace which is assumed to be the one with the largest and most assorted selection of paintball goods in Europe (and perhaps even the most profitable one too). This market had a completely free technical assistance crew proficient in the technicalities of all the paintball gun brands to complement the existing services, which were used to solve the various technical issues that occurred during the three days.

Good staff, security and signs make a

huge difference in these type of events, where the participant is autonomous and able to plan whatever he wants to do during the weekend from the large choice available to him/her. The variety of available activities is surprising; driving the APC, firing the British Army simulator (DCCT), create some mini paintball games in the woods or in the airball mega arena, try out lasertag and the Tippmann TPX

The biggest paintball festival in Europe congregated over 1000 players for three crazy days.

Challenge, take CGB training courses and even a firing range where you can try out a wide array of paintball guns.

Exactly at 8pm, all the players, of various nationalities, gave 2 minutes of silence for the Remembrance Day in Holland.

The day finished with parties in between players and the preparation for the first event of «UK versus…» which would occur the next day.•

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Saturday 5th of may One of the biggest novelties this year was about to beginning at midday, which congregated all the foreign teams into one faction, was the game where the main objective was to invade the United Kingdom and take over the largest number of British cities as possible.

Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Portuguese, American and Polish players created the Joint Nations Task Force (JNTFor) and fought against the UK Combined Forces (UKCF) for 4 hours. With various resources spread out on the field, the first two hours of the game became crucial so that each faction could collect their airstrikes, APC support, demolition kits or bridge or boat repair kits.

The field, which was over 37 hectares in size, had around 400 players battling for 4 hours in an amazing terrain. From various types of woods, roads and paths, to tunnels, buildings, rivers, boats and bridges, everything was used to make this game what many referred to as the ÂŤpreparation gameÂť for Sunday.

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In the first two hours of the game, both factions had to collect the largest amount of objects as possible, where kits to either repair or destroy bridges, airstrikes that eliminated players in a radius of 50 metres and the famous APC support were located in. ON the second half of the game, everything became more interesting as the organisers forfeited their power of deciding when the bridges opened. By the second hour of the game, this was all done by the players through their demolition or repair kits.

As the first play was completed, it was time to invade the United Kingdom

«island» and stop the UKCF players from invading the «continent»; this would be done by taking control over the four «cities» that were located on the field. Several attacks were launched from part to part, with the Glory Bridge being completely destroyed by the British against the defence of around a dozen of JNTFor’s, who still didn’t managed to capture their intended city!

The momentum of the battle changed like waves: a reorganizational move by the JNTFor allowed them to prepare their final assault with

37 hectares were used in the game

on Saturday, in which the UK played against the rest of the world. less than one hour until the end of the game; an ambitious plan, to say the least. The strategy of this move involved attacking on three different

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fronts, with three different timings; the North, through the Freedom Bridge, would capture the defending force’s attention; the East using boats; and finally, through the path that was most expected for the attack to occur, the Glory Bridge.

In the end both teams showed fervour on their final assaults, the apotheosis arriving at around 4pm with a draw and a lot of dedication from all players who had given their best to reach victory! A «Dutch versus…» was promised to occur in 2013 in Holland.

The day wasn’t finished without the surprise of the weekend, the long awaited «car smashing» performed by the «Tanks a Lot» lunatics, who risked a lot by choosing to run over a minivan with their APC. Also, the unforgettable rock concerts, DJ Matt’s performance, Paintball eating contest, fire shows and strippers. In the end, motivating speeches were heard from both of the generals of the Sunday game, Vigilante.

What a party! •

The paintball field’s map could be found on the Android App Marketplace.

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gam

me map

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Sunday 6th of May The over 100 hectares of the fantastic training grounds for the British military made the 1474 players of the 114 teams go wild , ready for seven hours of pure paintball ahead of them!

The game had some differences compared to 2011, one of them being first presented in Portugal during the Big Game Alliance (BGA): the electronic count of the eliminated players.

The information concerning which areas were scoring the most every hour, as well as all the secret missions, were controlled by the organisation, which demanded a certain game and communication level from each team that had never been seen before in a MIlsim event.

The mobile hospitals, which allowed the eliminated players to re-enter the game were led by the organisation’s team, keeping them as close to the action as possible. The players’ team exchange, every two hours, created the perfect recipe for Warped’s most intense game yet!

There was also a third faction: the

Police. Composed of 55 elements, their objectives was to control the «vigilantes» either of the North or the South, stopping them from taking over the buildings:Like, V-Mobile, Nixons, ADLI, Warped Game and SmithsGold. Almost immortal with their APC, shields and paintball guns, they made both teams’ jobs very complicated.

Only one special mission occurred: the

On Sunday: 100 hectares, 1474 players, 114 teams

and seven hours of paintball.

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delivery of a pair of sneakers to the B5 building, where the Southern team had to travel over 2km to successfully perform it, collecting all the objects in the D8 building. The other secret mission, which consisted of transporting jewellery from the Smithsgold building to the A11 building, had failed, meaning that the 2.4km that had been travelled by the Northern team had been pointless, after they met strong resistance from the South in A11.•

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GAme ma

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Rock concerts, DJ’s, paintball eating contests, stripteases and fire shows livened up this event. scenario

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Scoreboard hour by hour 1st Period – 9:00 to 10:00 SOUTH: building Like (1000 points) NORTH: buildings Nixons, Smithsgold, Adli and Game (200 points 2nd Period – 10:00 to 11:00 SOUTH: building Like (50 points) NORTH: buildings Nixons (1000 points) + Adli and Game (100 points) 3rd Period – 11:00 to 12:00 SOUTH: buildings Like, Nixons, Game (150 points) + Mission of delivery a pair of sneakers (500 points) NORTH: buildings VMobile (1000 points) + Smithsgold, Adli (100 points) 4th Period – 12:00 to 13:00 SOUTH: buildings Game (1000 points) + Nixons, Adli (100 points) NORTH: buildings Smithsgold, VMobile (100 points)

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5th Period – 13:00 to 14:00 SOUTH: South: buildings Like, Adli (100 points) NORTH: buildings Smithsgold (100 points) + VMobile, Nixons (100 points) 6th Period – 14:00 to 14:00 SOUTH: 0 points NORTH: buildings Adli (1000 points) + VMobile, Like, Nixons (150 points) 7th Period -15:00 to 16:00 SOUTH: 0 points NORTH: 0 points Difference of counting eliminated players: + 285 for South SOUTH: 4750 NORTH: 3185

Aftermath In terms of negative aspects, the only one that we can present is the dismantling of the paintball stands before the end, which unfortunately is normal for any paintball event, be it airball or recreational. In fact, few players remain at the end of the event but many hundreds of them want to buy products at the nick of time due to the easiness to find whatever they want at these events or because they don’t have any physical access to a paintball shop near their residence.

Additionally, we also noticed that there was a lack of verification of the players’ air systems. Furthermore, the hourly control of the game made by the organisation, although more lively, impeded a structured tactic and preparation performed by many of the participating teams. Finally, we also noticed, with some displeasure, the disappearance of the Special Forces medic, who had no substitute to be utilised in the game.

The continuous transporting system for the players and Special Forces teams worked flawlessly, saving the players the effort of walking some extra kilometres, meaning they had more energy no participate in their «paint orgy» – which resulted in an overall total of 13 million paintballs being fired in 3 days!

Warped employed over 130 people as their staff, of who 83 being

13 million paintballs were fired in three days! referees, game managers and security staff in this event. Taking the visitors, soldiers, stands staff, reporters into account, this event had the participation of over 2000 people!

Let there be no doubts about the size and quality that was witnessed there, which came from 10 years of organisation of events this big.

Congratulations, Warped!•

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Jamie Powell South General GRIP spoke with Jamie Powell to know the reasons why South lost one more time.

GRIP: What could have you done differently knowing what you know after game?

Jamie: By being so advanced in the game, it seems that the rigid nature of the field hospitals worked against us. The Hospitals were placed at 20 minute intervals, and sadly we moved ahead of them the entire day. This left out field hospitals located far behind us and often with an enemy force between our position and the

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hospitals. We took the advantage at all the objectives we attacked, arriving well before the North or the Police forces, but with the speed we had, it left us unable to sustain a hold on some of the buildings whilst we waited for our hospitals to arrive!

GRIP: What where the main differences between the 2011 and 2012 games, that Warped presented you?

Jamie: The biggest challenge was the

new scenario. We had to move vast amounts of players around the large playing area with a moments’ notice.

This called for a complex system of mobile field captains, and mobile communication points.

The next biggest factor was the field hospitals.

GRIP: What changes did/didn’t you like in the game this year?

Jamie: I loved the idea of the new hospitals, they minimised players cheating and in theory kept the players in the game without a major hike.

I loved the side mission and I feel that is something Warped could expand on

future events.

I wasn’t so keen on the Police force!

There were a few moments of them getting carried away in the heat of the battle and a few choice fights picked!

GRIP: The overall conclusion of this event and message to the players?

Jamie: The North fought well throughout the day and were much better organised than last year. It seemed they really wanted the win again this year. I would say that we had the advantage on control and speed as we seemed to arrive at the objectives first, whilst the North had the advantage on field mechanics and supply.• advertisement

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Lima

Bravo

maBravo is a team where fun reigns, despite the obvious nnections to military means. seek the creation of the first Game in Netherlands and find mselves facing a gun law that ers the practice of paintball.

Text: AndrĂŠ Faria Photos: Lima Bravo

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GRIP: How and when was LimaBravo team born?

Reinier: LimaBravo was founded in October 2007 when I got a small paintball field near Rotterdam. I had just started paintballing in June 2007 with some friends on a field in Amsterdam and pretty quickly my friends and I were rendered to this fantastic type of sport, in which I found a lot of similarities with my days in the army.

We started building a paintball field and slowly the field was growing and more and more players joined the team. After 3 years we had to leave the small field and we moved to a new field in the North of Brabant, which is 3 times bigger than the old field with more possibilities for the team and the sport.

GRIP: What is the history behind your logo?

Reinier: The LimaBravo logo you see now is the 3rd logo we used over the last 5 years. The name was there from the beginning and it is a military term which means «Lekker Belangrijk» in Dutch and the first letters are the L and the B; in the Nato alphabet that stands for Lima Bravo. «Lekker Belangrijk» means something like «Who Cares».

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I thought this would be a funny name because LimaBravo sounds military and serious but the real meaning is not so serious… and that’s just like we are!

The first logo was a typical standard paintball logo with not much fantasy so I quickly wanted a new one.

I started thinking and designing and I came up with the Chevron logo which are the strips I would have had if I was in the US army. I added a few lines to make an L and a B in the logo and there it was: simple, very recognizable and with a link to my military history.

GRIP: How many players do you have, and from what regions of Holand are they from?

Reinier: LimaBravo has around 10 to 15 players mainly from places around Rotterdam and Dordrecht in South-Holland.

Most of the team members are from the beginning in 2007 and 2008… With the new field in North-Brabant we expect more new members from that region.

GRIP: What events do you attend or plan to attend in 2012?

Reinier: LimaBravo has been playing all over Europe for the last 5 years and this year we are going to the NvS festival, the Veckring Biggame and we are playing in the Dutch Scenario Competition for

the first time this year with 2 legs in September and October.

Maybe we will visit another UK Biggame or maybe we’ll go to the Paintugal Biggame… but that’s not for sure. Next year we will be there, that’s for sure….

GRIP: Which are your favorite events?

Reinier: At the moment the NvS Biggame is our absolute favorite but that’s obvious as we are the promoters for this event for the Dutch, Belgium and German players. But Veckring is also one of our favorites. And let’s not forget the

Dutch Scenario Competition. In the past Agimont was also our favorite Biggame but due to some changes we did not go there for some time, but with the new CQB field at Fort Givet they have a new chance in becoming a favorite for us again. We will see…

GRIP: Plans for the future?

Reinier: The plans for the future are very simple; we want to grow slowly and steadily with the team and with the field… We want to build up the game quality on the field and within

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But the newly founded Dutch Paintball Association is busy dealing with that problem so the sport can grow and attract more players.

The Dutch paintball scene is rather small compared to other countries but we complement that with our dedication and love for the game.

In the last years the number of open days for sport players has tripled and more and more initiatives have risen from the ground so it is still growing slowly but steadily.

the team. Make it more playable for the members and off course keep on contributing to the sport.

Besides that LimaBravo is busy with some recon work to have our own first real Dutch Biggame like there has not been one before in the Netherlands….But those are plans for the long term future.

GRIP: What is the state of Dutch Paintball? Can you describe what’s going on?

Reinier: There is a lot going on in the Dutch paintball scene. This is due to the weapon laws we have here in the Netherlands and which make it sometimes difficult to play the game.

Lots of markers are illegal within the Dutch laws and paintball is not recognized as a sport so we have no rights at all.

GRIP: What does LimaBravo love and hate about the sport?

Reinier: We hate nothing and love it all. Even the things we don’t like are part of the game and we love the game. Ok, there is one thing: it is bloody expensive!

GRIP: If LimaBravo could change anything in the sport, what would it be?

Reinier: We would like to end the discussion between Scenario and Sup’air players about which one is better or is it the real kind of game and just be united as one front for the sport. There is a very large group of scenario players who play just as hard as sup’air players and we would like to see the level rising and have the Scenario games become better, more tactical, harder and more professional to play.•

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Capturing the best moments of paintball is not an easy task.

Get to know the reasons that make these photographers get shots without the chance of payback.

1 – What makes you put at risk thousands of euros in photographic equipment to shoot paintball?

2 - Is there any way the organizations of events make your job easier?

3 - Nowadays there are so many photographers‌ What do you do to distinguish yourself from the others?

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ERIK CHATEAU

DYE, Planet Eclipse, XPaint Magazine 1 - If I can resume it in one word, I would say passion.

2 - First, give us space to work. Give us full access to all areas of the field and the event, except of course playing field during points. Please don’t ask us to wear crap jerseys or yellow car suits on the fields. Don’t let anybody enter the fields, I have a pair of scissors at home but I don’t consider myself a hair dresser; it’s the same thing with photography.

Hoooo, yes, we also need sushi and vodka-red bull during lunch breaks…

3 - I do my best to work the most professionally I can. I train and try some new gear or methods when I’ve got the opportunity. But, most of all, I learn a lot from talented and respected photographers. People like Mickael Garijo, Matt Damon, Brandon Shower, Ole, Henrik, Helen Grose, Sand, among others.

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OLE KRÖGER Photomonkey

1 - For me it’s about meeting great people, switching off from work, watching a great sport from close by, tease the creative side of my brain.

2 - At the moment? Free drinks and bananas, a safe deposit for our equipment, broad outlines and above all a chilled attitude towards freelance photographers.

3 - I am not willingly trying to distinguish myself. It’s the others who do it for me. Seriously, it’s more of a challenge to myself to always try something new, unseen but not to overdo it at the same time. ... monkey style.

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RICARDO CAMPOS PhotoPaintball

1 – Shooting Paintball is one of the few sports where you always put your equipment at risk no matter what. Being an ex-player helps you to avoid some shots but you´re always getting some. But hey, no pain, no gain, and otherwise you couldn’t get those awesome shoots on the field. It´s addictive.

2 – I think a broadband internet connection would be very helpful. Maybe some fruit, Red bull, «fresh» beer, and Caipirinhas. And some cool cheap media vests too.

Bigger side lines! If we have no room to walk and look for the shot, we´ll just get hits, after hits, and don’t actually get it.

3 – I´m not really trying to distinguish myself from others, I really want to learn from them. Before shooting a tournament I always spend some time around paintball photography, so I can get some divine inspiration.

Erik, Jani, Ole, Mickael are very talented photographers whose work impresses me every time.

I try to learn from them. And to always do my best.

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DM12 DYE launched another of its guns.

What can be added to a gun considered perfect by many?

DYE is of the few brands that are devoted to develop an extensive catalogue of products - and all are of excellent quality.

For several years DYE products have been preferred by players, and whenever we analyse one, we realize why. DM 12 is no exception, although at first sight it appears to be just the same, when we stop and analyse the product well, we find a series of details that do not leave us indifferent.

What was the most startled was the bolt; though equal to the previous versions, the DM 12 has a system to remove it without any tools. It was well accomplished as it is not a point of future leaks. The Quick Release Back cap has a

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cap that is not removable, but which when collapsed, becomes trapped by a magnet.

This cover is pulled to create better support to facilitate the removal of the bolt - so no danger of losing it or leave it loose during the game. This system allows you to easily remove the bolt to lubricate or fix a leak. The use of tools is possible but not recommended, since a firm grasp is more than enough and because during the game the pressure inside the gun does not allow the bolt to unscrew.

Although it is not a novelty for the DM 12, it is important to mention details such as the Rubber Tip Bolt that makes one first contact with the ball softer, reducing the chance of breaking it, or like the

Text: Duarte Gomes Photos: DYE

Colour Coordinated O-rings, that make life easier for any player when it is necessary to replace any o-ring.

The UL 45 is legendary, and undoubtedly the more ergonomically frame there is. This detail, which is not changed since the DM 6 due to its remarkable success, is one of the reasons why DYE is one of the preferred options of the players. We can say that the only change in this frame is the Sticky Grip,

which has no screws, allowing easy access for battery replacement and amendments to the board in a few seconds.

The board with four configuration options makes life easier for everyone, being easy to program and having a quick shot. We regret only that the values of

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the BPS don’t match the lights, forcing the players to have a reminder or to carry the manual with them if they want to change it.

Hyper 3 is, in turn, the state of the art tool on all ranges for being a very consistent regulator, reliable and easy to maintain.

However, the LPR is not far behind: the proof is the fact that DYE is the only brand still having the LPR, allowing smoother operation of the bolt, making it kinder to paintballs.

The trigger still leaves much to hope for. Although it is quite comfortable and allows for numerous adjustments, it also has enough lateral looseness, which should be improved in this product class.

Frame Front Rubber seems to be made of a more resistant material and with a consistency not as close to the rubber as it did in the previous, preventing disintegration.

Not even the bag was left to chance and it is very sturdy and well thought out,

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with space and partitions for all the accessories and even for the gun.

In the battlefield DM 12 behaves quite well, being very quick to shoot and fairly consistent with the smoothness that always accustomed us. The marker makes 1120 shots with a bottle of 1.1 l, which is pretty good for a Spool Valve.

Although the outcome is not significant, we have good updates on a product that has proven its quality. For those who want an excellent marker, DM 12 is one of the best offers available on the market.•

PROS

· Quick Release Back Cap · Good air consumption · UL 45 Frame · Color Coordinated O-rings CONS

· ·

Price Trigger

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CA M0u fla ge

OF THE XXI CENTURY Text: AndrĂŠ Faria Photos: All rights reserved Thanks: Connor Brien (GreyOps), Dana Heinsen (Bulldog Equipment), Ernesto Rodriguez (Crye Precision), Phil Duke (A-Tacs) e Lawrence Holsworth (Hyde Definition) All photos are property of the brands, which authorized the publication in this issue of GRIP.

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Camouflage is a form of visual illusion, but in the 21st century it is more than that!

We’ll cover the camouflaged patterns of the 21st century, leaving the differentiation in terms of construction, strength, comfort, utilities and integrated protections for an upcoming article.

What is produced by paintball brands for this strand, is mostly very poor in these aspects. The Airball equipment clone, with the lack of knowledge of camouflage patterns, combined with the poor quality of construction, gives birth to something completely inappropriate for use on woods/urban.

Dear Paintball businessmen, please invest 5 minutes of your time to read this article, to get to know more about the camouflage pattern of the present and the future, leaving aside the woodland of the 80’s!

The camouflage The intent of camouflage is to disrupt an outline by merging it with its surroundings, making a target harder to identify, or to confuse an observer.

In practice, it is based on an understanding of human neurological response and the science of “clutter metrics” - the study of how readily objects can be located and identified.

With the intention of countering ever-more accurate weapons and detection devices, and inspired by advances in cutting-edge scientific fields such as biomimetics, fractals, imaging analysis and nanotechnology, the camufoulage threatens to redefine the battlespace of the future.

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MULTICAMTM http://www.multicampattern.com It’s a 7-color multi-environment camouflage pattern, developed

by Crye Associates in conjunction with U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center that had a development of 3 years before it started being used in the field by 2003.

Since 2010 it’s used by some American Special Operations units, all soldiers in Afghanistan, law enforcement agencies outside U.S. and it is a huge commercial success across many markets.

CADPATTM http://www.forces.gc.ca Canadian Disruptive Pattern (CADPAT) is the computer-generated digital camouflage pattern with four specific colours, made in three varieties: temperate woodland (TW), arid region (AR), and winter/ arctic (WA).

It was first introduced in 1996 and it’s standard issue for the Army since 2002 and with the Air Force since 2004. This pattern allows Canadian soldiers more protection from observation by the naked eye and night vision devices.

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A-TACSTM http://www.a-tacs.com It’s a non-pixelated digital camouflage with a lighter colour palette around browns or greens that became the last large commercial success across many markets, exhibiting excellent disruption. A-TACSŽ was developed by Digital Concealment Systems, (DCS) to answer the call for better and more effective camouflage system for duty personnel in any service branch from military to the law enforcement.

Research and development for these patterns included input from military Special Operations personnel including snipers and concealment specialists as well as lengthy field studies and trials. A-TACS AU Camo (arid / urban variant) took about two years to be fully developed and

was introduced in the market in 2009. A-TACS FG Camo (foliage green variant) took a little more than a year to be developed and was introduced in the market late in 2011.

MIRAGETM http://www.bulldogequipment.us The blending in a variety of environments has been achieved with extensive research of the developers of Mirage Camo, using a pixelated digital camouflage with a colour combination between browns, greens, greys and clays, in various amounts, shades and shapes.

The complexity of Mirage and the selection of colours allow the

uniform to work in every environment, including the desert, woodland and urban terrains.

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PENCOTT tmTM http://www.hydedefinition.com It’s a hybrid digital pattern of 4 colours in a combination of blurred edges and fractal shapes, which incorporates micro, mid and macro patterns for disruption at different distances, available in the “GreenZone” for verdant environments, “Badlands” for transitional / semi-arid environments and “Sandstorm” for arid / desert ones.

Launched in 2009, the PenCott pattern is a result of studies done from artistic,

scientific and historical perspectives, and the analysis of hundreds of patterns and thousands of natural tones, that helps to give you the edge in detection and recognition in the field.

FLECKTARN http://www.bundeswehr.de The word Flecktarn comes from the German words Fleck (spot) and Tarnung (camouflage), that describes very well the pattern issued to the German Army soldiers from the 90’s, and it’s also used by many countries with some colour and shape differences.

It’s a five-colour pattern incorporating black, reddish-brown, dark olive and medium olive green spots that eliminates hard boundaries between the different colours, on a moss green background. With a development since 1976, and some evolution from the trials from 1937 until 1945, it’s a fact that with the recent updates it’s still a very effective pattern!

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prize

5 BOTTLES OF WINE BLUE FALCON

What is better than a Portuguese wine?

Just a Portuguese wine offered by the

Blue Falcon Paintball Team.

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HOW TO WIN Send us a sentence with the words «wine», «GRIP» and «paintball» until the 24th of June to magazine@grippaintball.com. The authors of the best sentences win a bottle of wine.

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3 T-SHIRTS TONTON 20 AYEARS

You just don’t need to ask your mommy to buy you t-shirts any more.

GRIP offers you a few so that you do not look like a rag.

HOW TO WIN Send us one sentence explaining why do need one Tonton t-shirt.

You can email your sentences to magazine@ grippaintball.com until the 24th of June.

The three best sentences win. frases.

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Thanks Carla Peixoto João «Wasabi» Lisbon Benfica

Thank you!

/GripPaintball

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