FURIOUS PICK UP VICIOUS

Congratualtions to Matt and Furious Paintball for finally picking up a pro (semi) team in team Vicious. This is indeed great news and one close to me because I was my suggestion to approach DSSP8NTBALL.COM and Vicious to try and get Furious exceptional Lotus Barrels into their hands.

Furious has been long trying to get their barrels into a pro team and barrel sponsorship is a tough market to break into. The 'problem' with the Pro teams is that most of them would have tied up with a barrel sponsor for example XSV and the Bush Wackers are shooting CP and Infamous renewed their sponsorship with Sly Equipment. Sly is the most aggressive marketer after snatching long time partners Stockholm Joy from rivals Stiffi they also recently signed Miami Rage (also origianlly a Stiffi team) and also the Russians to secure their brand on these high profile teams.

My approach around the 'problem' was to look for a semi pro team- a team with a cult following and there were a few around to choose from like RNT and HK and Vicious. Vicious have been winning over legions of fans and they have a big following and they are very astute in marketing with their distinctive Vicious Private label Egos and their red self styled jerseys.

I knew Vicious didn't have a barrel sponsor and they would be open to one. It was the right fit as Vicious will eventually play in the Pro Division and this moment in time is a good opportunity for Furious to start a relationship and grow with the team.

And it was the right moment after Vicious had a big tournament in PSP Phoenix blowing all the other teams away and then taking a big name like XSV down to the wire in the finals.

So I am very happy to have helped in a small way.



ps yes I will have to post the review of the Furious barrel like soon. :P
That'll be Coming up Next!

Deja Vu

I don't want to moan about reffs again but I must say to go out of the tournament on 2 "one for one" calls on both quarter final games was a bit hard to swallow.

The one for one in our last game went down like this: The ref called Ben "out" while standing behind him and thus he didn't hear the call and so the ref called a 'one for one' penalty on him for playing on and they screwed any chances we had. We've all experienced that sort of thing before and to get that on a crucial game really sucked.

I'm not bitter about it- just tired of it happening.

Congratulations RD Boyz

I want to congratulate the RD Boys for getting 2nd place in D4. Well done - you guys got it together and got into the second round and played all the way to the final. Way to go guys. Its great to see you guys play and work together as a team. Keep it up and congratulations also to Kiko for coaching them.

MIA

I have sick been since the past week. From last Monday evening till last Thursday I was out out of action. I had to work on a shoot on Tuesday while I had a high fever which was a total suck and on Wednesday I spend the whole day in bed trying to recover. Goodness knows how I got it together and managed to play the tournament last weekend.

On top of that I moved out of my house today. So I spent whole of last week trying to pack up my house while being sick. I got back from the tournament on Sunday afternoon and packed will 3am last night. It was crazy.

CONTRACT KILLER GETS INTO ULTIMATE FIGHTING

Chris Crocino is now into UFC Ultimate fighting. Check out the sick "Contract Killer- Fight Life" tshirts he has designed for the sport. He is even sponsoring UFC fighters and events.

More on contractkillerclothing.com

QUOTE ME AGAIN!

“YOU WERE SHITE AGAIN TONIGHT AND YOU KNOW IT.”

SHOUT OUT TO S+S TAIWAN

I've been really busy with work. been working on photo shoots. Haven't had time to post. I'm moving house in 2 weeks too. So I'm going to do something crazy like play a tournament on the weekend before I move house.

Anyway I want to post a shout out to newly named/formed team in Taiwan S+S (formerly Team PMS and Team Shocker) who have also picked up Dye as a team sponsor.

To all my friends in Taiwan:- Arthur, Ryan and Pony - Congratulations on S+S and welcome to the Dye family.

LEAVE ME HANGING WHY DONT CHA

Dear Khaine...
Don't tell me something like "apparently Nicky Cuba punched a guy from Datis at PALM" and leave me hanging...

Dear Arthur
Don't tell me "I got to play with Billy Wing and Byron Benini over the weekend" and leave me hanging on MSN....

Dear Ryan
Don't tell me "I played with some guys on Aftershock, Vicious and some guy from the Ironmen" and you forget who they were. (apart from Drew Templeton)

Geez
:P

Adam Langlais

The name Adam Langlais would not be familiar to most people in paintball- including me. He is a friend of a good friend of mine in paintball. And my good friend Khaine from Team Incarate in Japan asked me to help publicise the auction to help Adam get better.

Adam is one of us - a baller. He played at the World Cup Asia with Team Ku from Japan so some of you might have seen him around. Adam recently suffered a stroke which basically paralysed his whole body- he cannot move nor talk and can only blink and move his eyes.

Put yourselves in his situation- one moment you're running and gunning on the paintball field and the next you're totally trapped in your own body and you can't move at all. The next time you walk out on the field, spare a thought for Adam and be grateful that you are lucky to be able to play.

Please go to this thread on PbNation to find out more about Adam and and how his life has been changed by the stroke. Please do what you can to help Adam out- he is a fellow baller after all. Bid in the auction, donate some money or just say something nice.

There is an auction for some paintball memorabilia that has the approval from PbNation - Ollie Lang has graciously donated a signed jersey for the auction along with the Philly Americans.

Here are some of the items that are up for Auction:

Auction #22A to 22J: 10 R7 Packs Signed and donated by Greg Hastings!!

Auction #21: Signed Ollie Lang Jersey donated by Ollie Lang!!

Auction #20: New Red Invert Mini donated by Invert/KEE Action Sports!!

Auction #19A and 19B: 2 Signed Philly American Jerseys donated by Smart Parts!!

Auction #18: 5 sets of 5 Gold Ups Donated by PbNation!!

Auction #17: Signed photos by VI Photo and New England Hurricanes!

Auction #16, Printed Poster donated by Visually Implied Photography

TODD MARTINEZ vs FACEBOOK

I thought this was hilarious, it's from Todd's blog. I was saying the same thing about Facebook a while ago but Todd puts in a more bitchin' manner.

--------------------------------------
“I don’t know about this facebook shit. I just recently made a facebook dizzel and I found out all sorts of stuff about my friends, and a bunch of other mfkas, that I didn’t know or didn’t really need to know. This thing actually eavesdrops on everybody’s business for you. Tom and Kelly got butt nekkid in the park last night. Bill said Brandie is a scandalous ho. Justin told Sarah he wasn’t gonna beat them cakes up until she washes her funky ass. I’m just saying I might not necessarily need to know all that shit. Don’t even bother looking at my page. All it says is Todd just ate Wings n Things. Todd just ate some more Wings n Things. Todd watched NBA TV. Todd went to his paintball store. Todd came home and watched NBA TV while he ate Wings n Things pizza. If it updated when I got explosive diahrrea, then I might have to cancel my account. Girls are crazy. I remember when everyone just had pagers. A girl would page a mfka, and when he didn’t call…”Why you don’t call me when I page you?! I know you were out with ol girl!” Then cell phones hit…”I called you fifty times in a row!! I know you were out with ol girl’s triflin ass!” Then the technological manleash artists basically put a computer in every guy’s back pocket…”I called. I texted. I emailed yo ass. Imma find your location and google maps yo mfknass! I know you out with ol girl!” Nowadays there is just no escape…”I called, texted, emailed, visual voicemailed, myspaced, gps’d, then I checked facebook and saw that you woke up, put on your shoes, ate three pieces of toast, kicked my cat you are supposed to be watchin, took ol girl’s panties off your head and came over here tryin to get some sugar, kiss my ass mfka!” Thanks Facebook.“

QUOTE ME

“YOU WERE SHITE TONIGHT AND YOU KNOW IT.”


“YOU WILL NEVER WALK ALONE IN THE THEATRE OF DREAMS.”

WELCOME TO THE CAFE

This is hot of the presses! - just got it from JB like 2 mins ago.

SAC Paintball will evolve into BallersCafe.com

After a new owner and substantial growth in the last 4 months sacpaintball.com will start its transition into a new identity www.BallersCafé.com. With this new name it will open itself up to more users from all over the West Coast.

“Over the last few months I have seen sacpaintball.com become a strong paintball resource for West Coast paintballers. In the past the site was focused towards Northern California. My goal is to have a forum that new and experienced players can be a part of from all over the West Coast with up-to-date information being talked about and in turn help our sport grow. This all takes time and the new name www.BallersCafe.com is the next step."

–  Junior Brown, owner of sacpaintball.com.

Welcome to the Cafe!

NO RESPECT NO REFEREE NO GAME

I marshalled in SPNS last year and I had a good conversation with our Malaysian Marshall's Ultimate Junaidi who kindly came down to Singapore to help us with the marshalling. I told him that I watched football match a few days before and I noticed a "No Respect No Referee No Game" banner on the side boards and I told Junidi about it. He was most taken to that slogan and talked about how the game needs something like this. The slogan is very succint - without any respect for the marshalls - there would be no game.

In the light of the incident that happen to us, I would like to talk about how we treat out marshalls. Although it was a bad call against us, I still have a lot of respect for the marshalls. I even got mail from one of them and it was really nice of this person to write to me.

When I was playing and coaching water polo - we would argue and hurl abuse at the referees all the time. This happens because as junior players - we follow what the senior players do. I used to play with guys who played on the national team so they were like gods, and if they yelled at the refs we thought it was cool to do so too.

Later on when I was captain of my school team in Australia and coaching other school teams. I realised that- abuse and arguing was wrong. There is simply no point in arguing and abusing the refs. When was the last time a player who abused a ref got him to change his mind? When was the last time you saw a ref resend his penalty decision after the culprit argued and yelled into his face? NEVER.

When I was a coach my no. 1 rule to my players was to never argue with the ref. Just accept the call and set yourself up for the next play or the free throw. There is no point in arguing and less in hurling abuse at the ref. Its something which I feel is a waste of time and energy and it will never change the ref's decision.

Now in paintball the game is so much faster- the refs have to make instant calls. When it comes to 'run throughs', it usually ends up in a mess of who-shot-who-first. Despite having so many eyes on the field - referees can still make mistakes - that is a fact of life. They work hard all day and by the final games come, they will be tired and it will be dark. Shit happens.

I am calling all players to show more restraint and respect for the marshalls. I believe there has to be some order in the system. The English Football Association is trying hard to stamp out referee abuse with their 'No Respect, No Referee, No Game'. I think this is a great slogan for our game too. Let this be a reminder that the marshalls are the ones who run the games - there would not be any tournament without them.

During our semi final I was more annoyed at that guy who argued on than was I annoyed at the refs who got the call wrong. I was more disappointed at the refs for letting him influence them. I feel that only the team captains should be the ones allowed to go and speak to the marshalls and strictly no one else. And if the head marshall makes a decision - then respect the call and lets move on.

Sadly I feel that some of the behaviour of these D1 players who guest for D3 teams are bringing their bad attitudes down to our divison. This is setting a bad example for the junior players. I know this because in the light of the bad call against us - I have been getting emails from people in Division 4 about the bad calls they got and their feelings towards the marshalls. I can sense that the examples of these D1 guys are starting to influence the guys in Division 4. My reply to these guys who feel let down by the marshalling led me to expand it on this post.

Please have a think about it and where you want your game to go.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a very good article written by the BBC's football commentator Alan Green- he is my favourite football commentator because he is very knowledgeable about the game and he is very fair. In this article he criticizes the Football Association's 'Respect' campaign but he still upholds the creed that no one should never abuse the referees.

The 'Respect' campain is organised by the English Football Association and more information can be found here.

TEAM XSV GEOs AND EGO9s

What do you think?
Comes with:
a CP Barrel kit,
16” tip
14” tip
.685 barrel back
.689 barrel back
.693 barrel back

And XSV will throw in a
XSV Gatwrap and
Vlocity.

Anyone want one?

Sponsor Money

I am always dismayed every time I see bus stop poster with some sponsor throwing money at sports like triathalons and football tournaments. I curse the insurance companies, beverage maker and banks who choose to throw money on these events. How about being a bit less narrow minded and try spreading the money to sports like Paintball for once?

Who goes to and watch Triathalons in Singapore? It is second only to snowborading in Singapore in terms of "who the heck watches triathalons in Singapore". Triathalons are so TV unfriendly - no one will broadcast a 3/4 hour race - heck there isnt even a "live webcast" for Triathalons.

Where as paintball...has a GLOBAL viewership of millions ONLINE through NPPL and PSPs live webcast during their tournaments. Paintball is perfect for TV, its a 5 min game- its got skills, team work, action and drama all packed into a 5 mins game. Or in terms of xball- its 15-20 mins of pure play action.

If you are one of those who googled "Singapore Triathalon" and stumbled upon my blog. Before you flame me go and watch a couple of games online on youtube or www.pspevents.com. I assure you its not a 3 hour broadcast of people running, swimming and riding bikes.

This is going to get me a lot of flak from people in that other "sport" but what the heck:.

I am smugly happy to read that Singapore lost the rights to host the opening leg of International Triathlon Union (ITU) World Championships in May because they couldn't get enough "sponsors". Oh well I guess now they know how its like to go with it alone.

Economy bad? No triathalon? Aww just too bad but BTW we still got SPNS running in May if you want to switch sports.

QUOTE ME

“Its not that we don't trust you. It's just that we don't like you.”

BILLY WING REVEALS PLANS FOR LIMITED EDITION IRONMEN DM9s

I asked Billy Wing if he was releasing a "Billy Wing Edition DM9" he told me that it's already out and up on the nation. The black is a real "limited edition" low number of only 5 pieces and the red one is one of a kind. They come with polished barrel backs which Dye doesnt make anymore.


AND
As for other Ironmen edition DM9s. Here is what he told me:
"All the guys on the team will be releasing LE DM9s. Keep an eye out for them".

THANK YOUs

I am very aware of what I say here- there are some people looking for a bone to pick with me. I have decided I don't want to pick a fight online so I'm just going to say my thank yous.

I want to say and big thank you for everyone who have shown their support for us. Daniel for always being so generous and encouraging us when we lost that one on one. Thank yous to Ben of Pro Paintball for remembering that we have never broken our second round duck and congratulating us for doing it. Reuben for sitting next to me and just saying a few encouraging words - this from a guy who played and won D1 - congratulations to you Reuben and Denis and the Matrix guys. A very warm thank you Sani who is always positive and always says he reads my blog. Thank you to Pat for being so generous and a friend.

Thank yous also to everyone who came up to us to tell us what they saw in that semi final game, and to the guys on JB Syndicate and Oscar Legion X and PPS Syndrome who also came over to shake our hands afterwards. Thank you for that, it really means a lot to me and the guys on Red Sevens.

Thank you to the friendly girls on Lund69 for the water. My hat is off to you girls for being so brave in your first tournament. Keep your chin up girls.


THAT SEMI FINAL GAME
I won't bitch about the semi finals- there is no point. What happened- happened. It sucks, we all saw it - everyone outside saw it and everyone knew what happened. With all due respect to the refs and I thought they did a good job- they just made a bad call at that crucial moment for us. I'll just leave it at that and move on.

I would be difficult to say what might have been- it would have been easy to kick a fuss and not reply the semi final tie. But that would have been against the spirit of sportsmanship that would be like the D1 and D3 teams who lost on Saturday and didn't bother to rock up on Sunday.

We have a lot of positives to talk about like how we went further than we ever did. We dropped only 2 games in the prelims and for the first time we won all 3 of our second round games. For the first time we made it into the quarters and we got to play way into the evening. We were one of the last 4 teams standing we made it to the semi finals. We were one game away from the final. We played 18 games to get that close to the final. We had the whiff of a final game for a few moments. We missed our bus back to Singapore but it was worth it.

We played a game plan that was thought up by the youngest player on the team at 15 years. We had a snake player who doesn't usually play snake. We had leaking guns, leaking tanks, stepping out of bounds, dropping barrel socks and even a tank cover falling off. We had a one on one to play and I am so proud of Zack for stepping up to the job. We had a guy who was hurt most of the time, we had a newbie who never played in D3 before.

So yeah we have a lot to be thankful for and we have a lot of friends to thank.


p.s if you want the real story of that semi final game. Please send me an email and I'll tell you all about it.

Chuck Hench Rides the NPPL Bull again!

It looks like the NPPL's former Chief wrangler Chuck Hench may get to ride the "NPPL" bull again. Just last night I was talking about the NPPL Auction and I listed all the assets that was for sale including all the trademarks and the brand names.

Well guess who bought the NPPL trademark and domains? Yes, it was the Chuck Norris of Paintball himself Chuck Hench.

The powers that be at USPL: Chuch Hench, Bart Yachimec (Edmonton Impact owner) and Rich Telford (XSV owner) are rumoured to be in two, no make that three minds about bringing back the NPPL name to the premier 7-man series. With Huntington Beach only weeks away we might get to see the NPPL fly at HB (minus a few Rockstar bunkers)

SACPaintball.com is asking for a show of hands YES or NO to brining back the NPPL Brand.

Click on this link to SCAPaintball.com vote YES/NO

Jason "Towlie" Calef

I was looking through my files the other day and I found something amazing. I was tying to buy a HK Army jersey last year, however the deal didn't work out and I didn't get the jersey. The seller sent me a pictures of the jersey which I kept. It turns out the guy I was talking to was Jason Calef who I'm sure most of you would have heard, passed away shortly after NPPL San Diego last November.


Jason's friends have made a patch to remember him. It is for sale on PBNation and all proceeds go to Jason's family. Nick Slowiak of Aftershock was seen 3 weeks ago on PSP Webcast wearing the patch on screen.

"Jason Stypula from Shock Kidz and Jim Piorkowski wanted to create something to wear on the field so Jason was always with us. With the help of Jason, several pro players including Nick Slowiak of Aftershock and Damian Ryan of RNT Allstarz/HK Army, we created a limited number of Jason "Towlie" Calef remembrance patches".
– Jim Piorkowski, PnTBm2k

The "Towlie" patch is 2 by 4 inches so it is small enough to be worn on a goggle strap which is where it is meant to be worn. It has a white background with a black stitched line through the word "Towlie".


Only 150 patches were made
Price: $10 flat (includes shipping and paypal costs)
Methods of payment: Paypal to jmpiorkowski@eiu.edu

*600th POST* Nice guy that Arthur

They recently auctioned off all the Paintball gear the NPPL once owned. Even the trademarks of the name NPPL and the TV show Xtreme Paintball was up for sale.

Our good friend Arthur Chang went to the auction and got a few things for some of our friends across on this side of the world. Banno in Japan picked up something really cool - a set of Rock Star bunkers. And Ben and Jane picked up some ex NPPL nets. Pity they missed out on the turf but at least we got something.

I would have really like to have one of those NPPL gun racks they have behind every starting gate.

My hat is off to Arthur for doing a nice favour for everyone.

Arthur also has the honor of being on my 600th post on this blog.

For a list of assets that was for sale look in the comments.

2009 MPOC ID CARDS

Exclusive on Seburo.blogspot.com - MPOC ID Cards!

Since we all paid RM45 for the 2009 ID card and we still haven't got them; I have taken the trouble to prepare MPOC ID cards for you.

– Download the blank ID Cards in JPEG and print it out - stick your photo (or anyone's pic) and write your name (or anything you can think of) and laminate it and wear it this weekend. You can even promote yourself to Div 1!

I just realised that I haven't done a card for Division 4 - just go ahead and use the Division 3 ones. 

(I won't tell anyone)