Merry and Blessed Chirstmas to You

Dear Everyone,

I thank you for all your support and wish everyone a Merry and Blessed Christmas. I'm in KL at the moment. I have been celebrating Xmas in KL for the past 4 years in a row.

Will be going up to Penang on Sunday to chill out with my friend Eric who is home for the holidays and back to Singapore on Tuesday. We're going to drive around the island and eat and chill.

ARTHUR YOU S**k

FUNNY STORY FROM WCA

Over the weekend I found a wet pair of socks in my NXe gear bag from WCA which was about a month ago. Yep it's still wet and it stank. It went all the way to Taiwan and back with me. I probably paid $5 for excess luggage for that pair of wet socks.

COOL STORY FROM APIT

The organisers wanted teams to be able to fill their tanks on their own pit areas on each end of the field. I must say it was very considerate of them to do this for the players - so we would not have to keep running in and out to a fill station.

Ok so what did they do? They came up with brilliant idea.

They PARKED TWO FIRE TRUCKS at each end of the field right next to the players pits and used them at mobile air compressors.


THANKS TO KHAINE WHO PUT THIS PIC UP IN THE PBNATION THREAD

Thank you to the organisers and the Fire Department of Kaohsiung for deploying two fire trucks for us to use.

FUNNY PHOTOS FR0M APIT

Aliens invade Taiwan and PbNation...!

Well not really. But thanks to Khaine's photoshopping skills...we're "featured" on PbNation too.

More photos from Taiwan including some "hot chick" at Kaohsiung Train Station who wore shorts that was so small it was almost nothing.

We come in peace - shoot to kill.

FUNNY STORY FR0M APIT No4

Steven "Mr Dye Asia" WINS a PROTO SLG!  

CONGRATULATIONS STEVEN! 

*WOO-HOO WAY TO GO*

Steven is in this photo second from the right - proudly holding up the SLG box that he and Team Ku just won as second place prize (along with a brand new Vlocity too).

Bikini Shoot in my office....

Ok this is my first SOT - (Seburo Off Topic).
Some of you have asked to see photos of the bikini and high heels photo shoot today well here you go:


That's my boss on the ladder. We put sand on the floor to give it "at the beach" look. In the foreground is all the high heel shoes the shoe company specially made for the shoot. They are all super high and one-offs.


Her name is Angela and she's 20 years old from Russia-she's in KL from tonight till next week if you're in KL. Fuck she's cute.


She looks really cute in some of the bikinis we did 6 shots of different stups - she wore a thong under all the bikini bottoms.


And yeah - guess the name of the stylist who is standing on her left. When I asked Arthur to guess the name of the stylist, he said "if his name is Arthur I'll shoot myself". My reply was – "what are you going to shoot yourself with?"

*And Wei the assistant (in red) is not making "that" hand sign - its just a plain fist.

SINGAPORE - NAGOYA SGD788 nett!

SQ just advertised in today's news paper.

Singapore to Nagoya SGD788 nett return.

Khaine > We may rock up at your door step sooner than you think.

Arthur > I'll give you a call at 4am before we go to Japan ;)

RED SEVENS ON TAIWANESE NEWS TV

We were on the Taiwanese New TV. Everyone is saying thaty Jane hogged the limelight. I thought sBen looked pretty pro with the hand switch.

Click here to open their website- it's super laggy.

FUNNY STORY FR0M APIT No3

This invloves Khaine *again*.

In one of the games- Khaine goes up shoots some people out and gets to go all the way up to touch the flag to score the point and be the hero.

His moment of glory however was cut shot - just as he's about to touch the flag - his team mate Allan goes and accidentally SHOOTS HIM IN THE ASS.

DAY 4 KAOHSIUNG Game Day 9am

HERE ARE SOME PHOTOS AS PROMISED


Red Sevens at the opening ceremony. Arthur had his ipod on the whole time they made speeches. FonJen wearing the yellow Bunker King head wrap and Pony is in the black cap.


Filling pods - Arthur gave us 2 Paintball Caddys (blue one in front of him and me) and plus my pod bitch (small Ben is holding it on the left) - we filled all our pods pretty quickly. While we were doing this people who picked up our pods were handing them back to us as they walked by.


The opening ceremony line up- you can spot "Datuk" Junaidi on the far right.


Team Ku is in Blue, Khaine is the only white guy at the whole tournament so he's easy to spot. FonJen is at the back proudly wearing his Red Sevens T shirt the whole day. Arthur is on the front far right in red. Ryan who lent us the Minis is behind Ryo and Michiko wearing blue sunglasses and Pony is right behind Michiko. Next to Jane is Allan who met us for dinner on our first night in Taipei- he shot Khaine in the ass.

We got up at 7 had breakfast at 8 and left for the field at around 830 - having the hotel so close to the field is really convenient because its just a 2 min walk and you dont have to worry about getting transport to ferry people and gear bags to the field.

I have always talked about wanting to play paintball in a cold country - well I finally got my wish. The weather was in the mid 20s – nice cool air con, no sun, slight breeze and the air was dry so when you sweat it doesn't stick around for long. You could wear your jersey the whole day.

We played Team Ku in our first game. The night before we worked out who was going to play games one to three four etc and we worked out 4 game plans. We lost the first set to Ku- won the second one and they two the next two- Game to Ku. I was pretty ok that we took one game from them.

The next game was with one of the Taiwanese teams. This was without a doubt the match of the whole weekend. We lost the first 2 games – but got back one on the second game. In game 4 – I played my best t game of my tournament going up the middle and bunkering out their car wash and touched for our second point. So we were tied at 2-2 with about 240 on the clock. It went to game 5. And it was a close game and at the end it was Jane vs 2 guys. She shot already one out and it went to 1 on 1 with about a min left on the clock. WE and the whole crowd were then screaming for Jane to go touch the flag to score the winning point. But she was on their 30s and kept her gun pointing at end. They traded shot for what seemed like half an hour – this whole time everyone was screaming for Jane to go touch their flag. Big Ben and Pony dashed our of our pit area and bolted down the filed to yell at her to go touch. Jane finally shot their last man and still had her gun up. Everyone was tearing their hairs out because the clock was running down. Eventually she touched it at 28 seconds and we scored our win.

I think this game showed everyone including the Kaohsiung Games officials how exciting Paintball and the M7 format can get. We came back from 2 games down – tied it at 2-2. Game point with time running out and it went down to 1 on 1 and the winning point was scored with 28 seconds to go. Cant beat that and I think every player who was there saw a new aspect of the game which is playing for time and for points.

We lost the next 2 matches and didn't qualify for the final four. So we crewed and coached for Team Ku- which they admitted had the best support and coaching. We lined up spotters along the spectator side and information was passed down the tape and translated into Japanese. I learnt something new then too- that its good to have a spotter just spotting and not coaching. And passing the information means getting the message down the line rather than having it drowned out by the crowd.

Ku and Infernal make it into the finals as to be expected and everyone was screaming from the sidelines and taking bets too. Infernal only had one coach where as the slight underdogs Ku had most of the support in the crowd.


One of the best teams in Taiwan is Formosa who took third - they are exciting to watch.

Congratulations to Infernal and to Team Ku too for giving everyone a good show. I spoke to Ulrich afterwards and he was very positive about the success of the event. The City of Kaohsiung officials were impressed with what they saw there is a high probability that we will be back in June but in a bigger scale. There will definitely teams from Europe and its just a matter for getting more teams from other parts of the world to send teams.

Kudos to Jane for being the hero of the day and having to use the heavy Dynasty Shocker too.

FUNNY STORY FR0M APIT No2

Last night while walking the field in the dark. Everyone was saying what a great field it was. But everyone also added that the nets were a little too low. I was saying that the cars parked along the road were going to get hit.

Well something got hit today.

This afternoon after the practice games - Khaine was in his shorts talking next to the field and this one ball pops over the net and nails him right on his cock. Apparently on the tip.

There you go Khaine- you're famous now.

DM9 vs EGO SLR8R

And we have a new convert today- Khaine who is playing with Team Ku has been an Eclipse Ego man all this while and he has a SLR8R (really nice white one with silver CCU kit).

He tried a DM9 during the practice game and was sold. He loves the DM9 and cant wait to get one. "

Get a DM9- I swear its f-king worth it"

FUNNY STORY FR0M APIT No1

Dinner was in this huge restaurant full of people full of food and full of drinks - we had some seafood which included something special which is two rolls that tasted something like tofu. I guessed what it was and I turned out to be right - it was fish sperm.

Inventory

The markers we had set up at the field- the M7s in front are Arthurs and the rest are all FonJen's except for the Invert Minis


FonJen - truly the ultimate paintball gear man. Some of the markers that was in room 7008. We had so many makers set up that we had to stash a couple under the TV

We decided to hook up all our markers and test them tonight after dinner and bring them to the field all assembled (because you can walk around Taiwan with markers in your hand and no one would give a shit)

We have:-

5 Mini Inverts (from Ryan)
DM8 - Pony
Dynasty Shocker - Fon Jen
Naughty Dogs Shocker- Fon Jen
M7 - Fon Jen
DM7 - Fon Jen
M7 Black- Arthur
M7 Black - Arthur
PMR Red - Arthur

Thats a total of 13 markers between the 7 of us.
Of the 13 markers we have 11 complete set ups. Fon Jen alone brought 7 tanks and 9 squeeges.
The hotel room looks like a fraking war zone.

Oh yeah and you're wondering how many markers does Fon Jen has.. its 45. AND he keeps a spare board for his emarkers. I would really like to see how he stores his 60 plus barrels. I guess if you asked him what is a good barrel - you would probably get a very good answer from FJ.

The Dynasty and Naughty Dog Shocker look really sweet. The Dyasty Shocker is polished with a Dynasty Vlocity Jr and a Dynasty barrel sock very nice. But the weight... now I know why most of the Dynasty Boys switched to Luxes.

Some of us we used the Inverts today but they have been relegated to back up statues since we have so many M7, PMRs DM7 and and DM8s.

Gary show would love Arthur too.. because he has 2 sets of every marker and gear.

DAY 3- Team Meeting and Practice.

This is the field- smack in the middle of a bunch of high rise apartments. The ground is flat - dry - no rocks and slide heaven.

Today we got up late had a lesiurely breakfast- got to catch up with Juniadi. Went to the field at about 11 plus and hung out. Team meeting was at about 1 plus.- after lunch which was provided for everyone by the organisers. And not any cheap packed lunch but a decent chicken chop with japanese rice.

Anyway- to cut to the cheese- the Taiwanese guys have never played M7 before and neither have we. But I'm so glad I got to crew with the Spectre boys many time because that REALLY helped. We had some practice games lined up- I coached for Team Ku- they drew 2-2 with Formosa and ran out of paint can threw in the towel. I had to go to the time keepers and call "towel" to give up the game. First time I have ever done that.

The Red Sevens SBen, BBen Jane with guests Pony and Fon Jen and the other Arthur - played a new Taiwan team called Dynamics. I coached from the side lines. We also went 2-2 and ran low on paint - we had about 3 pods between the 5 of us. Instead of throwing in the towel we went in - Big Ben had no paint at all and somehow Pony went up and got 4 kills and we took our very first win in M7.

What is amazing about playing in Taiwan is the everyone here is so respectful and so kind. The Taiwanese have a real respect for the sport and the players who come to their country. Kaohsiung and the people of Taiwan would be great hosts for the World Games come June next year.

After the game - the Team Dynamics guys we played came over to us - lined up and thanked us for playing them andcalled us 'big brother'. They said they learnt something new today from us and the whole team clapped and gave us a bow. Wow that's really something I thought was really awesome of them I never expected anything like this. We all shook hands and made new friends.

Seriously Taiwan is an awersome awersome place to come and play paintball.

Taichung-Kaohsiung

The poster that greeted us at the door is when we got to CU Hotel at Kaohsiung


Team Red Sevens with 2 Bens and 2 Arthurs.


This was a sight -all our DYE gear Bags with Team Ku's Dye gear bags- there was like 20 bags forming this huge island in the middle of Taichung train station while we went to get tickets and McDonalds.


The train station at Taichung and Kaohsiung is pretty impressive. We got McDonalds for dinner and ate it on the train. The train took a little over and hour to travel south to Kaohsiung. Imagine traveling from KL to Singapore in 1.30 mins - well that is the same time it takes to travel the whole length of Taiwan from north to south of the island as Kaohsiung is right on the southern tip of Taiwan island.

We got into Kaohsiung at about 10pm took a cab to CU Hotel which is quite new and very nice rooms- big beds free WI_FI too. The hosts had a poster outside to welcome us- the event is officially called the A.P.I.T.- Asian Paintball International Tournament.

WALKING THE FIELD AT 1030PM - in the dark
The actual playing field is one small block behind the hotel its a 2 min walk to the field which is a huge flat field surrounded by apartment blocks. The field surface is superbly flat, dry and has turf grass on it. The ground is so hard they had to drill holes to peg the bunkers in. The bunkers are brand new NPPL red/blue bunkers and they put all the toys out - all 47 bunkers car washes, tent and spikes all out. The field layout is a NPPL 7 man spec layout- everyone who came to the field with us was impressed with the layout- the playing surface and the venue.

The nets are a bit low- the cars parked nearly would get splattered for sure. But the net set up and the players box are really well done up. you walk in and out with out having to lift up flaps of net. There is a big players box at each end- and there is a fill station at both ends of the field. So no need for crews to be running for air during the breaks. This is one well set up field and is very considerate to players' needs.

We bumped into Urlich from the Millennium Series in the hotel lobby- he was very pleased to see us and Team Ku. Team meeting is at the field tomorrow at noon with practice at 2-3 pm. I think everyone is looking forward to the practice sessions more than the actual games on on Sunday.

Breakfast with Dye tomorrow morning and helping them set their booth up.Then we're going to test diving and sliding on the flat field.

www.cuhotel.com.tw

DAY 2- TAIPEI- TAICHUNG - KAOHSIUNG

As promised- some photos

Here we are...the entrance to alladin's cave...


"Open sesame"... there are boxes full of gear stacked up to the ceiling. Each box has a hole cut for you to take whatever you want. From clothing, goggles, goggle parts, Marker parts, Barrel bits to casual clothes to giant Explorer bags.


Choices...choices....choices. We took about 2 hours to fill that yellow cart full of gear. Team Ku took an hour to fill two carts

Day 2 was all about paying Dye our sponsor a visit and picking up some gear.

I got up early at 8am had the hotel breakfast while the rest slept in. Breakfast was 'so-so' but 'free' so that saved me spending money. Went for a walk around the block and found a few interesting places the guys can have breakfast later. I bought them back to this Japanese pasty place that had good cakes and their special thing was this round cake that had layered walls. So its like a balled up kuih lapis (malay word for layers). Very hard to make and I dont know how they made it into a ball.

After breakfast we checked out and made our way by train from Taipei to Taichung which is like 130km from Taipei. The bullet train took us about an hour to get there. Dye Asia is basically one half warehouse and one half R&D and assembly area for all the markers and etc. In the roof is a place where you can test out markers and parts etc.

The warehouse is a treasure trove of anything with the dye label on it. Clothes mask parts to barrel parts. We picked out a few things like Navigator and Explorer bags, pods, pog bag, barrels, barrel backs, rotors, quick feeds for the Rotors and goggles lenses.


Fresh from the boat- WHITE i4s

White and Red i4 masks
We did get to see the spanking brand new “straight off he boat” red and white i4 which made Steven laugh because they are actually made in Taiwan. The White and Red coloured i4 goggles. First time they arrived at the warehouse and we were there when they opened the box. Also new “from the boat” is the green camo patterned Proto Barrel tips.'

I must say that the white i4s look really sweet with the orange high definition lenses. The red i3 was quite nice too but the white was the best. And in good timing Junior called to ask me to get a white i4 'if there is one' and my reply was 'dude – I can tell you they have it because we just took them out of the boxes like 10 mins ago'.

I also got to check out the “Joy Division” leopard patterned Rotor. Yep there is a sample rotor with leopard skin pattern and its “supposed to be' for Joy. And we all already know that Joy was using Rotors at the WCA. I wasn't allowed to take a pic of it – sorry. All the colours of the Quick feed for the Rotor is also available.

As for Dye Pro jerseys.... well I can tell those of you in Asia that they will carry most of the Dye pro jerseys because we saw place and tags allocated to NEXUS, BULLETS, VISION, AFTERSHOCK and IRONMEN C9 jerseys in the warehouse. And in sizes up to XXXXL.

We spent a good 4 hours at dye from 3 till 7pm before we headed to Kaohsiung.

ARTHUR
I finally got to meet Arthur he came down from Taipei with KU and he's a GREAT guy- knows his paintball and is super organised. He's got 4 markers 2 M8s and I'm going to get to shoot the Proto M8 and small ben is going to shoot a PMR. He also bought back like 4 paintball caddies and gave one to us (3 to KU). He gets them straight from the paintball caddy guys house for USD10 a piece. (its USD18 online before shipping). Well we got tons of pods and two pod caddys - that should be enough to fill pods between games.

DAY ONE SIN-KUL-TPE

We were waiting for Allan and Ryan to meet at at this road side seafood "resturant" with Steven's "GOYAD Edition" DM9 in our hands.

Thurs

It took us a better of the whole of Thursday to get to Taipei. We had breakfast in Singapore, Lunch in KLIA and dinner in Taipei. We had a 4 hour stop over in KILA and thank god for Starbucks and free WIFI and facebook I managed to kill time talking to friends on the net and replying some emails. I spoke to Conrad in California and we were talking about playing Paintball in the World Games. He seems pretty excited and hopes to get a chance to come and play next June. I think if the Americans pick a team it'll probably be line the dream team filled with NBA stars.

We got into Taipei around 730- took the bus into the city. I counted no less than 13 7-11 stores, 3 moss burgers only one KFC and one Adult DVD store- on the way in. After checking into KDM Hotel which was quite a decent sized- they put in a double bed for us so that fit all of us comfortably. Oh yes we also had a view of the Worlds Tallest Building which is the Taipei 101. I thought we had decent luck to get a view of the only iconic building that I know of in Taiwan.

Steven from Dye Asia came and picked us up in his sweet 3 series for dinner. He had a something cool to show us. He customised his DM9 with a GOYARD monogram which ws quite cool. The monogram is custom printed on sticker and then stuck on to the top part of his DM9. Anyone can printout a design but the crunch comes in the skill of applying the sticker. Attached to his GOYARD DM9 was a one off polished purple Boomstick. Dye doesn't make polished boomsticks anymore and purple is not in the catalog. The other thing I thought was cool was he told me to take it out with us when we went to eat.

Yes in Taiwan you can carry markers anywhere and right into a restaurant – standing by the road waiting for people etc. We had dinner with 2 of the best ballers in Taiwan. Ryan owns the only pro shop in Taipei and ALAN from STD Shocker. Shocker is one of the best teams in Taiwan and if not Asia and they came to WCA in 206. Ryan had a package for is- a box full of Invert Minis for us to use.

The one thing about Paintball in Taiwan is that everyone shoots on Ramp mode here. All the markers are permanently set in ramp. So to have the invert going ramp after a few pulls was quite a novelty. The GOYARD DM9 ramps really smooth. Cant wait to try out the DM9 in PSP mode.

We were told that one of our guest players Arthur Chang- is so into paintball that he flew in all the way from LA just to be in this event. I thought I had too much gear but this guy has 60 pods and 2 rotors and goodness knows how my markers. Can't wait to meet him tomorrow.

We're now taking a bullet train from Taipei to Taichung which is where Dye Asia is. Its takes and hour and goes though a countryside that looks something like Japan all flat with low rise houses and buildings spread across the land scape. We're heading to Dye to pick up some gear and hook up with Team Ku which are arriving from Japan.

The climate is in the cool 20s. Last night was 20 when we got into Taipei Airport. I can walk around in a t shirt while the locals are all bundled up in jackets and scarves. Great weather to play paintball.

WORLD GAMES KAOHSIUNG

Well we're off to Taiwan tomorrow to participate in a invitational Paintball Tournament as trials for the World Games next year in Kaohsiung. If all goes well - Paintball will be included in the World Games as a demonstration sport next June in the World Games. So it is important that we go and support the cause and help to get Paintball included into a big event as the World Games. The Taiwanese organisers are really keen to get Paintball Included in the world Games- they sent no less than 10 delegates to the World Cup Asia to observe the tournament. This project is assisted with the support of Urlich from the Euro Marshals and as well as our own Junaidi of the Malaysian Marshalls.

The World Games is a non profit organisation that in endorsed by the Oylmpic Council. It is held in the year following a Oylimpic year. Sports like Water Ski, Rhythm Gymnastics, Martial Arts, Canoe Polo, Tchoukball, Korfball to name a few are played in the World Games.

The idea of playing in the World Games first surfaced when we were in Penang. Junaidi was wearing a World Games t shirt and we asked him about it. He asked if we would be keen to go and the ball rolled on from there.

We were honored to be invited to go and play in the trials this weekend. Along with fellow Dye sponsored team- Team Ku from Japan will be ambassadors of the sports and hopefully- it will get picked as a demonstration sport next June.

To me personally playing in a big event such as the World Games is a close to going to the Oylmpics as I am ever going to get. 2 weeks ago we had to send our passports for our 'Athelete Credietials' and that already made it feel like going to a big event.

Thank yous to Junaidi for getting us involved in this event, to our kind sponsors Dye Asia for hosting us in Taipei, to the World Game Kaohsiung Organisers for hosting us in Kaohsiung, to JN Travel for the plane tickets, Team Ku for assisting us and even Ben Toddo for working out paint consumption a couple of week ago with me - that came in handy.

For further information
www.worldgames2009.tw
www.worldgames-iwga.org

VIKTOR ZEMEN BUDAPEST BULLETS

*DOPE* I'm blown away again - I wrote to the Bullets about getting a jersey and Viktor Zemen who is the Captain wrote back to say that he reads my blog and said he'd send one to me. He mentioned that he left a note in my comments after I posted that I really liked the C8 Bullets jersey way back in July.

I didn't see his comment until he told me in his reply. He also said that they only have 25 BB team jerseys made for them.


Anonymous said...

Hey Dude,

I'm Viktor from Bullets. If you wish you can get my jersey after Paris. I really like your page. Just write me at viktor@bullets.hu
July 11, 2008 3:51 PM

BORED AT WORK JON?

CLICK HERE
See how many XSV players you can spot in this Christmas video...

BIRTHDAYS

Belated birthday wishes to fellow ballers Rayson and Marky MArk!

The Ninjas lost a big one to the Robots

NPPL / Pacific Paintball gone Under.
Most of you would have heard that Pacific Paintball the owners of the NPPL, XPSL and PB2X magazine have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It basically means that all of Pacific Paintballs assets (their computers, airball bunkers, netting and other physical property as well as their trademarked names) will be sold off to pay its creditors.

WISHFULL THINKING
Looking at the glass as half full- this opens an opportunity for somebody to come and buyout all of PP's assets and keep the NPPL and its other subsidiaries like the XPSL and Paintball 2Xtreme magazine going. Maybe it'll be an arab who couldn't get his hands on a English Premier League football team or the Glazers will seize the opportunity to dump Manchester United and pick up a stateside sports league.

I hope somebody comes along and buys everything intact and continues on running the NPPL and XPSL. Otherwise we'll only have the PSP to look forward to.

So much for rumours about a merger between the 2 leagues.

We could also see an influx of US pro teams going to Europe next year but they would have to play in the SPL unless they buy spot in the CPL. The Millennium guys should explore opportunities in taking advantage of the demise of the NPPL and XPSL.

This also would mean that pro teams who have been strong in 7 man will have to switch to xball.

It is a black day for paintball.

Congratulations SAVAGE!

Baby Nathasha born today 1.20pm 2.835kg to Savage (of Exe) and wife Val.

Congratulations and well done guys.

OLD SKOOL TONTON JT JERSEY

I found this from an Ex player. I thought this is one of the best designed TONTON's jersey. This was from the time JT ruled Europe. The Wolverine is featured predominantly on the jersey. I'm guessing htis is a 05 Tonton jersey- anyone know when its from?

This song is for Zach