The very fact that three veterans of wars gone by decided to walk back onto the battlefield was bad enough, what did we do? We went off and started a paintball team, that's what!
Anyone who has ever played paintball, having paint flying at you at 300fps will truly understand the fear, the adrenalin and the total gun ho attitude rush we experience. To put into words the emotions we are constantly going through during a game is almost impossible, if at all. As The Pariah mentioned, I too remember that first bitterly cold morning I walked out on to the battlefield in the UK and oh my God, did it hurt getting hit.
Damn marshall, run he said, take as much ground as possible he said, you'll have the upper hand. Like hell!!! He forgot to mention the enemy were the doing the same thing, how dumb can one get!
That first shot caught me bang centre on my head and I went down like a sack of potatoes shouting obscenities in good old Hollywood style theatrics. This only brought more attention onto me bringing me under a hail of paint. I shot back to where I thought the fire was coming from and shouted for back up, all whilst trying to dig myself into the ground in a mindless panic. God knows why, but it seemed the safest bet at the time. My salvation was the marshall in his bright police style yellow jacket who walked over to me. "first time?" he asked. "Yep", was the reply, and not the 'F******* last!' added as if my life depended on it.
It was then the urge for revenge surfaced along with the determination and fear all rolled into one. I had never experienced anything like it before. Damn, I was hooked.
That same marshall called out I was back in the game as no paint had actually exploded on me, and gave me a 30 second 'no kill count'. This was enough time to get back, re-group and send other mortals to the frontline. I continued to play, more tactical though, never wanting the game to end.
Fourteen years on and there I was on a foreign field, lungs gasping for air, screaming at my team mates to move forward as I hurled paint down as cover, ducking between incoming paint to take out the opposition as painfully as possible. Pariah and Heretic had never played together and yet knew I had their backs and moved forward taking ground with each burst of fire. This sense of familiarity comes only on the battlefield as if your life depended on it.
That bright Saturday morning got me so hooked again that even the next day I regretted every second of it. Just like a reformed junkie smoking crack for the first time, I needed more. The pain of unexercised muscle was no deterrent and I was already planning the next game in my mind. The following Monday everyone was so hyped up as if they had been on some energy drink all weekend long (won't mention any brands as some exec. may read this and wish to sponsor) talking about doing it all over again. Pariah came up with the name LAW as we are expat Brits and Portuguese (the idea of him not having put squirrels in the name worries me), and the commitment is such, that we are all gearing ourselves up with markers and with the next confrontation on November 20 we'll be taking no prisoners. Yippee ai ey mother....!!!!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Paintball D-Day. The idea...
Report
Date: 16/10/2010
Area: Negrais undisputed war zone
Report:
On Saturday 16th October 2010 at around 9am, the green forces engaged in combat with the blacks team in a violent confrontation of paint for the supremacy of Negrais.
This day would mark the return of some old vets to the paintball field, specially myself who had not seen a war since entering Portugal. It has been 5 odd years of doing nothing but sitting in front of a computer and smoking way too many cigarettes. (Truth be told, just about the only excercise I´ve engaged with during that time frame would be getting up from the couch to go sit down for a meal and squirrel stalking (but thats another story!!!!!)
But enough about my slacker days, on with the show!!!!!!!!!!!!
An enormous, tremendous, overwhelming number of things took place this weekend and the only way that I can do the event and the happenings any justice is to break it all up into a multiplicity of individual reports (unless you’d all rather spend the next five days reading War and Peace 2, the longer version of the day after)
So forthwith, I will now provide you all with a summary:
The Paintball event was partnered mainly with work staff from Estefania. The facility itself at Negrais has been in use for a few years now but this was the first time any of us had a chance to play on said field.
One major change was evident from the multiple fields I have played in the UK: the playing fields were a lot smaller, which meant that the games would have to be played with little tactics and loads of guts Or more like run around like a lunatic, scream like your on a mixture of Repnol heart racer and Sudnil stay awake pills!! (basically about fifteen bottles of Vodka and Red Bull!!!)
We played out games and had a great time (I hope I’m not being overly modest by saying that it only took me three games to get my game back), but the majority of the fun and the overall experience was getting together with folks that I’ve not seen or played with/or against before.
I’ll get the lists of vets out of the way first. YES, thats myself, Emanuel and Dave who have been hauling paint out in the field before. (that means we have been through the wars before, in paintballing slang!). Judging by the dropped jaws and the information that all three of us were to stay in the same team seemed to tremble some knees but even though all three of us have had some paintball history under our belts but have not fired paint in a while should have consolled them. It was a pleasure to be able to be around people who knew something of the sport rather than screaming American teenagers that just ran around like headless chickens.
Suffice it to say that after a long time out of the game the old habbits kicked back in and we were all communicating with hand signals, even though most of the time it involved the middle finger!
Consider that to be a good thing.
Ok. Enough with the Rod, Emanuel & Dave Show.
Other notable get togethers were: Toni (FI), Hugo (UKI), Sean (UKI), Manuel (UKI), Manu (GK) & Wife and many other players that I will not mention due to the National Secrets Act of 1971.
Apologies to everyone else who I probably ought to be mentioning but have managed to forget at this point. (Believe me, I know I will be reminded of so-and-so and I WILL be editing this piece to include anyone who ought to have been mentioned.)
Games that we managed to play during the five hours were:
Shoot the president (a game which ended with the Green Teams President being shot in the face within about 5 minutes)
Afghanistan Oil (this was a real leg killer, specially when your going up hill.) Trust me this hurts!!
Favelas (basically a city slum, very much like Rio or Lisbon)
Speed Ball (Easiest way to explain this is run around trying to find your gun and waste some ammo)
Pallet Slope (Pallet collection anyone?)
Rock Valley (Rocks, rocks everywhere)
It was an absolute blast and I will be returning to the wars with regularity – (Wife willing!!)
Breathless, with lungs and chest ready to explode like an unborn alien we walked off the field at the end of the day still with the same smiles we had walked onto 5 hours earlier.
Additional note:
I still remember that first game at a real, honest-to-goodness paintball field as if I was observing myself from a distance. And I felt that way at the time too though I can’t explain why. I wasn’t excited, I was intrigued. I wasn’t expectant, I was curious. Until the whistle blew. And everything changed. Prior to the game the refs had explained the field for the newcomers and encouraged everyone to take a lot of ground quickly. Not knowing any better I did exactly what they suggested and ran until I realized paintballs were zinging all around me and I threw myself down behind a tree that didn’t come close to offering real cover. Fortunately there was also a depression in the ground on my side of the slim trunk and I pressed my face up into the exposed roots applying the ostrich principle (If I can’t see them they can’t shoot me) for all I was worth as paint continued to whiz by and smack the tree and ground around me. Suddenly paintball became immediate and real, visceral and intensely exciting. I was so excited infact that I heard someone laugh out loud and suddenly realised that it was me! I quickly realized that while I wasn’t a sitting (or laying)duck I wasn’t secure either and that was great, too. It meant I had to do something besides not get shot. (Although being at risk and continuing to survive was a big part of the thrill.) I called out to my teammates and discovered most of them were quite a distance behind me. That first time it didn’t bother me in the least. They were the ones missing out. Slowly the game began to unfold.
I tried to use my forward position to relay information. To spot the opposition’s positions. I worried about being flanked because my depression wouldn’t save me then. I tried to bring my gun to bear but I didn’t try too hard because I didn’t want the game–this first real experience of paintball–to end. I knew I didn’t have the skills to compete and it didn’t matter. All I wanted was to keep playing.
And fourteen years later I’m still hooked though my relationship to the game has evolved pretty dramatically over the years. After much debate and excitement, three individuals decided to start a paintball team and go in guns blazing.
So it is with utmost pleasure that I present the new kids on the field and soon to be moving up the European rankings....
Luso-Anglo Wolves.
"We are the L.A.W."
Date: 16/10/2010
Area: Negrais undisputed war zone
Report:
On Saturday 16th October 2010 at around 9am, the green forces engaged in combat with the blacks team in a violent confrontation of paint for the supremacy of Negrais.
This day would mark the return of some old vets to the paintball field, specially myself who had not seen a war since entering Portugal. It has been 5 odd years of doing nothing but sitting in front of a computer and smoking way too many cigarettes. (Truth be told, just about the only excercise I´ve engaged with during that time frame would be getting up from the couch to go sit down for a meal and squirrel stalking (but thats another story!!!!!)
But enough about my slacker days, on with the show!!!!!!!!!!!!
An enormous, tremendous, overwhelming number of things took place this weekend and the only way that I can do the event and the happenings any justice is to break it all up into a multiplicity of individual reports (unless you’d all rather spend the next five days reading War and Peace 2, the longer version of the day after)
So forthwith, I will now provide you all with a summary:
The Paintball event was partnered mainly with work staff from Estefania. The facility itself at Negrais has been in use for a few years now but this was the first time any of us had a chance to play on said field.
One major change was evident from the multiple fields I have played in the UK: the playing fields were a lot smaller, which meant that the games would have to be played with little tactics and loads of guts Or more like run around like a lunatic, scream like your on a mixture of Repnol heart racer and Sudnil stay awake pills!! (basically about fifteen bottles of Vodka and Red Bull!!!)
We played out games and had a great time (I hope I’m not being overly modest by saying that it only took me three games to get my game back), but the majority of the fun and the overall experience was getting together with folks that I’ve not seen or played with/or against before.
I’ll get the lists of vets out of the way first. YES, thats myself, Emanuel and Dave who have been hauling paint out in the field before. (that means we have been through the wars before, in paintballing slang!). Judging by the dropped jaws and the information that all three of us were to stay in the same team seemed to tremble some knees but even though all three of us have had some paintball history under our belts but have not fired paint in a while should have consolled them. It was a pleasure to be able to be around people who knew something of the sport rather than screaming American teenagers that just ran around like headless chickens.
Suffice it to say that after a long time out of the game the old habbits kicked back in and we were all communicating with hand signals, even though most of the time it involved the middle finger!
Consider that to be a good thing.
Ok. Enough with the Rod, Emanuel & Dave Show.
Other notable get togethers were: Toni (FI), Hugo (UKI), Sean (UKI), Manuel (UKI), Manu (GK) & Wife and many other players that I will not mention due to the National Secrets Act of 1971.
Apologies to everyone else who I probably ought to be mentioning but have managed to forget at this point. (Believe me, I know I will be reminded of so-and-so and I WILL be editing this piece to include anyone who ought to have been mentioned.)
Games that we managed to play during the five hours were:
Shoot the president (a game which ended with the Green Teams President being shot in the face within about 5 minutes)
Afghanistan Oil (this was a real leg killer, specially when your going up hill.) Trust me this hurts!!
Favelas (basically a city slum, very much like Rio or Lisbon)
Speed Ball (Easiest way to explain this is run around trying to find your gun and waste some ammo)
Pallet Slope (Pallet collection anyone?)
Rock Valley (Rocks, rocks everywhere)
It was an absolute blast and I will be returning to the wars with regularity – (Wife willing!!)
Breathless, with lungs and chest ready to explode like an unborn alien we walked off the field at the end of the day still with the same smiles we had walked onto 5 hours earlier.
Additional note:
I still remember that first game at a real, honest-to-goodness paintball field as if I was observing myself from a distance. And I felt that way at the time too though I can’t explain why. I wasn’t excited, I was intrigued. I wasn’t expectant, I was curious. Until the whistle blew. And everything changed. Prior to the game the refs had explained the field for the newcomers and encouraged everyone to take a lot of ground quickly. Not knowing any better I did exactly what they suggested and ran until I realized paintballs were zinging all around me and I threw myself down behind a tree that didn’t come close to offering real cover. Fortunately there was also a depression in the ground on my side of the slim trunk and I pressed my face up into the exposed roots applying the ostrich principle (If I can’t see them they can’t shoot me) for all I was worth as paint continued to whiz by and smack the tree and ground around me. Suddenly paintball became immediate and real, visceral and intensely exciting. I was so excited infact that I heard someone laugh out loud and suddenly realised that it was me! I quickly realized that while I wasn’t a sitting (or laying)duck I wasn’t secure either and that was great, too. It meant I had to do something besides not get shot. (Although being at risk and continuing to survive was a big part of the thrill.) I called out to my teammates and discovered most of them were quite a distance behind me. That first time it didn’t bother me in the least. They were the ones missing out. Slowly the game began to unfold.
I tried to use my forward position to relay information. To spot the opposition’s positions. I worried about being flanked because my depression wouldn’t save me then. I tried to bring my gun to bear but I didn’t try too hard because I didn’t want the game–this first real experience of paintball–to end. I knew I didn’t have the skills to compete and it didn’t matter. All I wanted was to keep playing.
And fourteen years later I’m still hooked though my relationship to the game has evolved pretty dramatically over the years. After much debate and excitement, three individuals decided to start a paintball team and go in guns blazing.
So it is with utmost pleasure that I present the new kids on the field and soon to be moving up the European rankings....
Luso-Anglo Wolves.
"We are the L.A.W."
History of Paintball
Paintball became popular as a sport in 1980, but was back in the 1950s when paintball was actually formed. Farmers and ranchers used paintball guns (or markers) to mark trees and cattle. As legend has it, some of the boys who had access to those guns started using them to shoot each other, and paintball was born.
Today, paintball is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world. Paintball players exist in over 40 countries today. And all players include teenagers and adults, men and women, and professional players and recreational players. While professional paintball is in its infancy, the number of professional paintball tournaments (such as PSP, NPPL etc) that are hosted each year continued to increase.
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