MILLENIUM SERIES 2 GERMAN MASTERS SEMIFINAL RESULTS

GROUP A
SK Moscow 5
Chilli Peppers Riga 4

GROUP B
Budapest Bullets 1
San Diego Dynasty 5
This would have been a great match to watch. Ollie vs his old team. But Dynasty have proved the better of the two team - beating out my favourties. Dynasty meets SK Moscow in the final. They would be the super hot favourites to take the championship now.

MILLENIUM SERIES 2 GERMAN MASTERS QUARTER FINAL RESULTS

GROUP A
SK Moscow 5
London Nexus 1
I got this one very wrong. The Russians tore apart the English to make it into the final four. They would have to be favourites to make it all the way to the final.

GROUP B
Marseille Icon 3
Budapest Bullets 5
Icon managed to take 3 points from the Bullets to give the Hungarians a good game. But Ollie, Mr U, Viktor and the guys were too strong for the French team.

GROUP C
Chili Peppers Riga 5
Copenhagen Ducks 4
I got this one wrong too. The fast and exciting Chili Peppers surprisingly edged out early favourites Ducks 5-4.

GROUP D
Toulouse Tontons 4
San Diego Dynasty 5
I said this would be THE match up to watch and I was right. It went to the wire down to sudden death at 4-4. And the Americans managed to squeeze a 5th and winning point to cement their credibility in playing the M7 format.


Semi Final Line ups
GROUP A
SK Moscow
Chilli Peppers Riga

GROUP B
Budapest Bullets
San Diego Dynasty

PRO PLAYER COMING TO SINGAPORE

I just got got a phone call asking if I'd be willing to host a pro player from one of the teams in the USPL (SBen's friends are on this team).

I haven't got the details on when he is coming but he will be coming Singapore and to the Red Dynasty field to hang out.

TO FIND OUT WHO IS COMING - sign up on my Twitter and I will make the announcement on Twitter on Wednesday.

MILLENIUM SERIES 2 GERMAN MASTERS QUARTERFINAL MATCH UPS

GERMAN MASTERS
QUARTER FINAL MATCH UPS

GROUP A
SK Moscow
London Nexus
Nexus should take this over SK Moscow

GROUP B
Marseille Icon
Budapest Bullets
Icon have their work cut out for the them with favourites Bullets standing in their way. Bullets to go through. If Icon beats Bullets- they will be champions.

GROUP C
Chilli Peppers Riga
Copenhagen Ducks
Ducks are hot- they should go through.

GROUP D
Toulouse Tontons
San Diego Dynasty
This would be THE match up to watch. The legendary American team vs the legendary European team. I think Tontons will prevail on European soil.

Millenium Series 2 BitBurg Germany

HEADLINE: NO JOY FOR STOCKHOLM
Joy Division is out of The German Masters.

The Second Millennium series is on this weekend at Bitburg Germany with the MAXS German Masters. With half the first series blown away at Malaga the CPL and SPL teams have to play leg one finals this weekend on top of playing leg two. This will mean that teams who did not make it to the finals in leg 1 will be fresher during leg 2.

And we can see that my statement is evident because a couple of big names have bombed out namely Stockholm Joy and Oslo Menace.

The standings as on Sat night are pretty night with almost all the qualified teams taking 2. Only the Copenhagen Ducks have definitely qualified winning all 3 of their games to get full points.

Top 2 teams for each group make it to the elite eight.

GROUP A
London Nexus
Toulouse TonTons
Offencach Comin At Ya
Stockholm Ignition

The top 3 teams Nexus, Tontons and Offenbach Comin At Ya all scored 2 wins each but Offenbach just lost out on points to the TonTons.

GROUP B
Budapest Bullets
Riga Chilli Peppers
Stockholm Joy
London Shock

Group B is the group of death with so many big names. The Bullets topped it with 2 wins losing their only game to Joy and taking their other 2 games.
JOY did not have a good second leg they beat the Bullets 5:2 but lost to Chili Peppers and Shock and finished 3rd to go out.

GROUP C
Copenhagen Ducks
Marseille Icon
Frankfurt Syndicate
Vision PPC Grenoble

ICON Beat Grenoble 5:2 lost to group leaders Ducks 5:1 and beat Syndicate 5:3 to make it to the last eight

GROUP D
SD Dynsty
SK Moskow
Ramstein Instinct
Oslo Menace

DYNASTY lost their first game to Ramstein Instinct 4:5 but strung back to back wings over Menace and SK Moscow to finsh as top dog.

OVERHEARD

Yesterday on the field during the second game of the BTO....
Benguin gets shot in the 'nads.

BBen: "you're out!!"

Benguin: "erughhhh" * with face in the dirt*

Ben: "Ben you're out"

Benguin: "aarggghh my balls"

Me from the other end of the field: "you're out!!!"

Benguin: " ..........." *still face in the dirt clutching his nuts*

Me: "hand on your head and get out!" *I'm laughing*

Benguin: "ergh"

(After the game) Me: "got shot in the ovaries huh?"

REAL PINOYS ON AUGUST APG COVER

Kiko's D2 championship team at the WCA, The Real Pinoys made the cover of APG in the August Issue. I wish it was a pic of Kiko but neverless its a picture of the Real Pinoys and we're just as excited for Kiko and the guys on Real Pinoys.

In the August Issue Dave Dave "Landshark" Norman reviews Furious' 9 Volt Battery and Dave also reviews the Furious Lotus Barrel in the July Issue. I'll post that when I get a copy.

Conrad is Selling his XSV GEO

My buddy Conrad is selling his XSV Edition GEO. Im helping him to try and get a good deal for this. Please dont low ball him as I'm pretty sure he needs the money so I hope you can support your fav pro by getting his personal GEO.

You can get in touch with him on PbNation- just send a message to: conradical or get in touch with me if you dont have a PbN account.

SMART PART RELEASES THE ALL NEW 2009 IMPULSE TODAY

Smart Parts have brought back the Impulse in 2 colours Red/black and Blue/black. It looks like a cross breed between *ahem* and a *ahem* with an ALL AMERICAN tube sticking out on the other end. But it looks pretty decent. More tonight when I dig up more 411 on this baby.

THIS IS FOR RYAN STOLL

GET YOUR AMG MO ASS ON THIS

Aftershock are holding tryouts in at your home field and Jeremy is handling recruits.

If you make the team I'll send you a Furious tube in blue.

-------------------------------------------------
From Propaintball.com
Aftershock Tryouts
May 27, 2009 by Justin

Chicago Aftershock will be holding tryouts for their Semi-Professional squad June 6th at Badlandz Paintball field. The teams first event will be the Chicago Open June 24th-28th at Bolingbrook Recreation Center.

Tryouts will be $60.00 per player and will include a case of paint and entry to the field. Feel free to contact Yaya from Aftershock @ yaya_124@hotmail.com or Jeremy Salm @ diesel99@hotmail.com for further details.

THE UNINTENDED PAINTBALL GADGET

I am always on the look out for things that are not made specifically for paintball but is somehow works great for paintball. I saw these tonight at the shop near my place and they are 'Cup Brushes' by Goodscour from Taiwan.


Before you laugh at the cute colours- these brushes are PERFECT for cleaning pods. It even fits nicely inside a pod for easy storage and portablity. There is another version with a longer handle but this one fits nicely inside a pod.

Anyway- I'm going to give 10 of these away to anyone who wants one. Send your address to seburo55@yahoo.com and I'll send one to you FREE to anywhere in the world as a token of my appreciation for being a regular reader.

This is limited only to people who live outside of Singapore, Malaysia and obviously Taiwan.

Goodscour's Website.

The Evolution of Brandon Short's Mask

Every snake player has this 'thing' - he wants the opposition to know who they're dealing with. XSV's got the multi coloured mowhawk snake player and the Ironmen- well they got this guy name Short and you can tell that its him because of the distinctive yellow on his goggle


For most of 2008, the Ironmen were still using the i3pro. Brandon used a cyrstal yellow i3 frame from 2007 for the whole season until the World Cup. Check out how old that tank cover is and how big the DM8 seems to look in this pic.


At the 2008 World Cup, Dye releases the i4 but only in black. Brandon has to improvise and sticks two strips of yellow tape so the guys shooting at him would know who they're shooting at. It works- the Ironmen repeat- as what it says on his headband.
Same worn out Dye tank cover.


At the first 2009 PSP event at MAO - Dye 'custom' makes a yellow frame specially for Brandon's i4. It's a production yellow frame for Joy Division edition prior to have its spots painted on. The grill has yellow on it too which is clearly the Joy mask.
Still its really cool and distinctive.

BILLY WING DM9s

These are the Billy Wing DM9s as sent to me by Arthur in Taiwan via the nation.


I really love this one - its my type of gun. Its just a black Ironmen edition with red accents- simple an. When they say its "Limited Edition" - it is really limited editon. Only 2 of this one were made and 5 of the one below, and that makes these guns that more desirable. This one comes with a Tadao LED board and the new 'BWing Soft Tip Bolt Kit'.


This is with a special hawkwing artwork done on it - only 5 made.

Billy is in Taiwan this week. He's been spending a lot of time in Taiwan..... probably working on the DM10 or DMX as I would prefer to call it. The DM10 prototype is in Taiwan and they have been testing it in the shooting range in the roof. It's not even the middle of the year and Dye has already gotten the DM10 prototype up and shooting. Needless to say Dye will most probably have the DMX ready by the time the 'real' World Cup comes up in Orlando.

Thanks Arthur

EXPLICIT JERSEYS

Explicit started off as a father and son team that practiced with XSV. They became very good and also very good friends with XSV. Their jerseys look similar to XSV's 2008 jersey because they were designed Richard Wagner. In 2009 they picked up Rockstar Energy Drink as a major sponsor which puts them along side teams like Dynasty, Team Rockstar and Fraction.


You can support the team buy ordering an official team jersey. Blanks are USD$75 and with your name and number USD100.
Contact Rob Montiero at robsgroup@team-explicit.com

EXPLICIT CLINIC
Sunday May 31st, SF Explicit will be holding a Pro Clinc their "home field" "Extreme Paintball Field in Modesto CA". (Rich Telford's field) Fee is $125 by Paypal to explicit@team-explicit.com . This fee includes 1 case Paint, entry to field, Pro Clinic Training "The Explicit Way".They will be giving away an Planet Eclipse Ego Marker to one lucky winner if there are 15 people registered for the clinic. Email explicit@team-explicit.com

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIEL

WOW it's been a year since I posted this. This time last year we were a week from going to play leg 3 in Penang.

Anyway HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY my great friend.

WE HAVE A WINNER - BShort Trick

Fuzz gets the Dye Cap for sending me this last night. Thanks to Chee "Ollie" Yong for his sideways video skills.

NICKY CUBA EDITION DM9

This is what I have been waiting for - Nicky Cuba's Signature DM9 dubbed the "Soul Stealer". Its is based on the Ironmen edition- Billy Wing bolt etc and has Nicky's signature pin stripe, "blood red" splash with the red barrel tip polished silver barrel back and "night night sucka" on the right side. I noticed the trigger is the stock DM9 and not the special Ironmen Editon trigger. Have a look.

The Ironmen signature guns are all based on the Ironmen Edition DM9 with the Metal Ironmen Badge on the side and the signature polished silver UL barrel back. If you buy a player's edition the USD1700 (including shipping) goes direct to the player and not to Dye.

With Nicky, Mikko and Brandon's signature guns out. What remains to be seen is Ollies and Billys(?) and I am officially wondering on my blog if they will make one for Jon Richardson?

I kinda still prefer the Contract Killer DM9 Nicky shot at the World Cup. But thats just a stock DM9 this is based on the Ironmen DM9.

PHILLY LUXES

To be fair to those who don't shoot Egos and DMs - these are Philly American edition LUXEs.
Jason 'Fat Kid' Edwards is selling these two for USD2k each. He's got a red and blue Luxe and swapped the parts around.

Inglorious Basterds

I'll bet we will get team names with this title of this movie once it comes out in August. I have been thinking about which is the paintballer's ultimate movie and this little gem seems to fit the bill for Speedballers and Recballers.

"We're going to be doing one thing and one thing only, killing nazis"

Its basically a Tarantino flim which guarantees lots of shooting, bashing, stabbing and killing. This time its about a bunch of American Jews who's mission is to go around nazi occupied Europe killing as many nazis they come across.

I wish I was at Cannes this weekend to catch it.

BTW click on this for the best synopsis I've come across.

www.inglouriousbasterds-movie.com

Nominations for the Paintballers Favourite movie in the comments box please.

MHDM9 Update

There are only 2 MHDM9 left - all have been sold or spoken for. One of it is going to one lucky guy on Team Ku in Japan. I was offered the Brandon Short one for the same price of USD$1700 including shipping but I turned it down.

I just want a straight up DM9 with no frills unless Billy wants to sell his personal one which has the new TADAO OLED board. There is ONE and only ONE in Taiwan at the moment.

Its quite cool that we have a Ollie Lang DM8 and a Black/Red Ironmen Edition DM9 on our team.


Mikko seen here wearing a Finnish flag strap- thanks Erno for sending this.

And for you guys in Finland- I have been told by Erno that Mikko, Billy Wing, Xalo and Mr U will be going there for clinics in the coming month. Lucky Finns. Good luck with the tournament this weekend in Finland!

TEAM KU JERSEYS

We can now custom make Dye Jerseys with team/sponsors logos and with names on the back direct from Dye Taiwan without having to order it from California.

Team Ku of Japan got their Dye C9 jerseys made this afternoon (Friday) in the Taiwan office. These pictures and jerseys came hot of the presses today thanks to Steven and Devon (in the pic). I cant wait to get my Team Ku Jersey.

Happy Belated Birthday and Welcome to the Furious Family

I'd like to welcome Zachary "Muffin" Hagy to the Furious family. I told him I'd personally sponsor him a Furious Barrel on condition that he shoots it when he goes back to the states.

Hopefully we'll be seeing him on the PSP or NPPL Webcast with the Furious Barrel sometime soon.

Zachary will be using a polished silver back with a matt black 14" tip. It is quite a niceeee combination. I hope you get lots of kills with this baby.

Daniel and SPNS Top Gunner

I got Julya to take this pic for my blog. On the left is Daniel who came all the way to Singapore at his own expense to give a clinic and marshaled during the tournament.

On top of that he generously donated a Dye Ollie Lang t shirt as a prize for the winner of the one on one Top Gun competition which was won by Sean from White Death.

Thanks Dan and
Thanks Jul for the photo.

Funny

Funniest thing I heard in a while.



Benguin added SBen's MOM on his facebook.

*BUSTED*

DYE Core Athletes

First person to do that Brandon Short gun trick in front of me (or sends me a video) gets a Dye Cap.

I'm serious.

Post Card from Finland - Team Takeover's New Jerseys

Erno from Team Takeover from Finland sent me pictures of their new jerseys. The jerseys were designed by Antti Ahponen and made by JT Germany.


I love the way the names and numbers on the back were designed and the "The Royal Gunfighters" is so cool.

Thanks Erno for sending me this.

If you'd like to feature your team jerseys please feel free to email me at seburo55@yahoo.com.

Updated-B short's Personal Yellow i4 Mask

I updated my post on Brandon Shorts DM9- there are pics of him with the yellow i4 mask shooting the Ironmen edition DM9 while guesting for London Nexus at Malaga.

Post no 700.

LONDON NEXUS, LONDON TIGERS, LASOYA DM9s

London Nexus' DM9 is a custom gold polished finished with custom motif with "Welcome to my Kingdom" etched on the side. Quite nice actually - the gold is to match the gold jerseys and pants they always use.

This is a London Tigers DM9 custom etch work on a stock olive DM9.

Chris La Soya's DM9 was designed but never produced because he signed with Luxe. Perhaps we might see a stripper etched Luxe. I like this design based on a Japanese Manga cartoon styled girl. This Dm9 would have been really sweet.

SNPS2

SPNS 2 Singapore Paintball Novice Series - was another first for Singapore paintball. It was the first time a 5 man format was played and it was the first time a speedball was played outside of Red Dynasty Paintball Arena. SPNS has done something even the XPOC hasn't done which is to play a leg away from their home ground.

First of all congratulations to Jane and Ben for pulling off an amazing weekend at Pasir Ris Park for SPNS2. I thought it was amazing to have everything brought out of the comfort zone into a national park. The nets were really something else - I was working behind the nets all day and I didn't get splattered much thanks to the double layer NPPL nets. The infrastructure of the netting is really superb and safe and thanks to the Ironmen guys who really went though hell to get them up for everyone's safety.

I must say I felt really proud to watch some of the teams in play - the standard of play has grown so much higher since we first had SPNS1 in 2008. When I watch people like Mark from Kamikaze and Shamel from Contract Killers play that snake so expertly. I felt really proud that Ben and Jane's hard work have produced teams and players of this standard. I was one of the assessors who stood in the dark and rain when Mark did his BTO. Watching him play that snake in SPNS 2 a year later gave me a lot of personal satisfaction.

I was happy to see that the snake I designed the week before was used on the SPNS field- that snake was designed to be challenging and it took something special for the snake guys to play it well. I wanted a snake fight and we saw plenty of gun fighting in the snake alone. I thought who ever got into the snake first, had a short lifespan - he had to do his job quickly as the risk of getting countered was high. The player that was going into get the snake guy had a higher chance of killing the first snake player. The taller tombstone allowed the snake guy to stand/squat to gain height over the other snake player.

Congratulations to the guys on Red West - Ryan Zach Gerald, Paul and Mark for winning SPNS 2 following their win in SPNS 1. I guess with 2 wins out of 3 legs - that also makes Red West unofficial overall SPNS champions for 2009 (?) Congratulations to Zach who played without sleeping on Sat night and while being half drunk. (Hey it works for Infernal). I saw Zach snap shoot on his knees and beating out the guy standing in the dorito - awesome play action.

A bit shout out to Contract Killers who played like pros- their individual skills and team work is wonderful to watch. I am sure their time will come soon.

My MVP of the tournament is no doubt Fuzz of Five-0 whom I think single handedly lead his team all the way into the finals - just as he said he would to play against Red West. His heart and perseverance certainly merits my call for him to be voted as the MVP of SPNS2.

Thank yous to all the Refs who came out and stood in the sun the whole day. SBen and his crew did a great job out there. Thank yous also to 'Datuk' Junaidi Khalil of the Malaysian Marshalls along with Faiz and Azlan who came down from Malaysia to grace the SPNS with their expertise and knowledge.

Special mention must be said of Daniel Goh of the Lemon Ruskies/SPECTRE who flew down from KL at his own expense to help conduct a clinic on Saturday and also to help out with the marshalling on Sunday. When I started playing tournament paintball it was the Immortals who were the guys who we'd have a little rivary with and never did I thought I would have a great friend with one of the Immortals in Daniel. On top of generously sharing his time and knowledge with us, Dan also donated a Dye Ollie Lang T shirt to the winner of the Top Gun which is a 'one on one' competition which was won by Sean Low of White Death.

Last but not least the Ironmen - Kiko's merry crew who maintained the markers, changed the tanks, pumped pegged the bunkers, fixed the nets, carried out all the trash and worked well into the night on Sat and Sun to get everything going. You guys rock.

I had a great weekend watching all the games - I can't wait for the next SPNS which hopefully will be at another exciting venue...East Coast park? Siloso Beach? Or my ultimate pick- the floating pontoon at Marina Bay.

SPNS 2
1st Place RED WEST
Ryan Stoll - Captain
Paul Poh
Mark Wong
Gerald Lee
Zachary Hagy

2nd FIVE- 0
Fuzz - Captain
Ivan Low
Alicia Soh
(sorry I dont have the names of the other 2)

3rd Contract Killers
'Shark' Shakil Captain
Aaron Tan
Benguin Tan
Shamel
Mayor
Mohd. Fazly

Mikko Huttunen Edition DM9

I got this last week but didn't get the chance to post it. It's one of T H E nicest DM9s I have ever seen. Its polished clear finish- with Mikko's signature clear colour. His signature is also etched on the MHDM9

*It has a two tone anno work clear with blue accents - the colours of the Finnish flag. Mikko has also been spotted proudly wearing a white and blue goggle strap to show off his finnish roots -
(* these bits of information came from Erno who plays on Takeover - Mikko's ex team in Finland - thanks Erno)

The MHDM9 also has a polished finish - Dye doesn't polish their stock DMs anymore - only special editions get the polished look.

Apart from that, you get the special Ironmen trigger and everyone who has fingered that trigger at the Dye booth at ISSC wanted one. But its only available on the Ironmen and Player edition DM9s. The Billy Wing bolt DM9 is also only available on these markers and not for sale-yet. (The Billy wing Bolt you can buy is only for the DM8)

Asking price for this is $1650

B SHORT DM9

Here we go- as I mentioned earlier - Dye will be releasing personal edition DM9s.

This is B Short's DM9- the colour is officially dubbed "doo doo brown" something that was inspired by Rocky Cagnoni.

If you watch the PSP videos closely- you'd also see a yellow i4 mask which as far as I know only Brandon has. He always wear a bitof yellow on his mask and I think he had a yellow frame sans spots made for him.

Splatter tip- Ironmen edition DM9 - Yellow i4 mask its gotta be Brandon Short.

He's playing for London Nexus at Malaga.

BUSHWACKERS NEW GEAR

This is for SBen- the Wackers' new 09 jersey from USPL. BTW Prince is back in school - he asked me to help out on his school project.

DYE/PROTO gear have been featured on the Wackers- with masks, rotor and the dye throttle tank now being used by the bushwackers. NXe are supplying them with packs, the new 09 bottle covers and barrel socks.


There is a mix of Protos and Dye i4s masks this year. They have swapped the Torques for Rotors too.


They're still etching the Bushwacker 'B' monogram on their GEOs and here you can clearly see the Dye Throttle which replaced the DXS bottles.




Love that barrel! The tip looks suspiciously like a Boomstick. This Geo has a custom laser job on it.

Click on the pics to see it larger.

TEAM ICON 09 Jersey

Finally I manage to find pictures of the 09 Icon jersey.

The jersey as usual was designed by Art Squad.

This pic is from Malaga- Yann Coulm is seen here wearing the new 09 Jersey and shooting the ICON Edition GEO.

Team Captain Jobi showing the name on the back of his jersey.

EDIT - JOBI told me that they will be making 100 extra jerseys for sale. Stay tuned for pricing and when they will be available sometime next month in time for sale at Millenium Germany.

Virtue is looking for Non Pro Players to Sponsor

Virtue is looking for up to 10 non pro players to sponsor. It is their new marketing strategy to use non pro players to reach out to the average joe players in the fields across the world.

This is a good way for Virtue to get in touch with the players who use their products and as well as a way to reach out to potential customers.

If you think you fit the bill- the application form is there. Good luck.

NO IRONMEN FOR THE WORLD GAMES

Ollie just told us that the Ironmen wont be coming to Taiwan as a team - however he might make a trip over.

X BALL DEMO IN SINGAPORE POLY

Now for something else more positive. I think its great that my teammates at Red Dynasty organised a paintball demo at the Singapore Poly last week with the RD staff. I am excited for them even though I didn't get a chance to be there nor to play.

This is the first time they set up a mobile- 'outdoor field' outside of Red Dynasty paintball arena. The netting you see in the pictures are ex NPPL nets. The field was small- a square field reminiscent of the good old Werdnahol Cup days with the starting gate in the corners. The format was 3 man X-Ball which gave the students at Singapore Poly a glimpse of what speedball is.

The field was surrounded by school buildings which made it a perfect arena to showcase a paintball tournament. I saw this place about two years ago and I thought it would be a great place to play a tournament- so it was awesome to see it happen for real.



You can see the crowd gathering on top where the cafeteria is- it was bound to get everyone's attention.

Had to put this one in- everyone at the starting gate with barrel plugs on. They claimed that this shot was staged. But its good for a laugh anyway.

In my books- (and my blog) this is the No1 ranked team going into this weekend's SPNS tournament- Contact Killers. This is the team to beat and I'm betting on them to take 1st place in SPNS 2 at Pasir Ris. No pressure guys- this blog is read by around 250 people across 30 countries every day including Chris Corcino ; )

KIKO 'The One' was there to officiate and keep the peace. "That jersey doesn't look good on you" Kiko....

Pictures courtesy of TOM with thanks - you can check out more on his Facebook just add THOMAS LEE.

D3 PRIZE MONEY

I don't want an increase of cash pool by 30%. Because like 22 other teams I will probably not get to even smell it it. Prize money increase does nothing to benefit Division 3 as a whole, only the top 3 teams stand to gain more cash for it. I think there are a few factors that needs to be addressed if they want to get 30 teams in the XPOC.

Why not DO something that will HELP make life a little bit easier for those in D3 who I think has to suffer the most to play their games. If these problems are resolves this will attract more teams to come and play in the XPOC.

I think if the XPOC wants to increase participation in D3- they have to really look and consider what every D3 team has to go through.

STARTING AT 8AM
D3 has the most teams and more importantly has the largest number of interstate teams. Teams like us have to spend more time and money to get to KL to play in the XPOC. I feel this factor has been sadly overlooked by the XPOC for the longest time.

Teams like mine have to travel up on Friday nights after work. We probably arrive any time between 11pm to 2am and even 4am. To start D3 games at 8am shows scant disregard the organisers have for these teams who travel to play in the XPOC.

If you look at D2 and D1- the majority of these teams are based in KL. Yet they have the luxury of sleeping in their own beds and waking up mid morning and come in after lunch. It was evidently ridiculous in Leg 2 when we had to get up at 6am to play at 8am and then we had nothing to do in the afternoon after lunch. We could have started a bit later and played a bit longer into the afternoon. Not only did these D3 teams have to travel to KL- they were further punished by having to get up earlier than teams that CAN afford to get up early.

TEAM AREAS
With the addition to having to share team tables with Division 4 teams. We find our selves crammed to 3-4 teams per tent. When we participated in NPL I was in awe that we had the WHOLE tent to ourselves. This shows a big difference in how much care and consideration one organiser has to their players compared to the other.

Now I'm not asking for a whole tent to ourselves but I am asking the XPOC to consider this. 3-4 teams to a tent with 3 tables there is not much space on the tables so bags will be on the ground which leaves not much space in the tent around the tables. WHEN IT RAINS and we'll have to lift our bags up from the ground. And then we're all miserable and wet, muddy and cramped in those tents.

And chairs. If the XPOC cannot move the start of Division 3 nor give us more space in the tents at least GIVE US MORE CHAIRS. ONE common thing that will be welcomed by everyone in all divisions - are CHAIRS. We all have to sit down for hours - if we had more that enough chair to sit on we'd use it to put our bags on them. No one will complain about having too many chairs.


BECAK
When I was asked by an NPL team which league my team played in. I told him XPOC at Xtion and his reply was "OHHHH BECAK"

The other annoying thing is that with all the XPOC legs being in KL- the KL based teams have the advantage of having to play on the same field the weekend before. I wouldn't say its unfair but it is an advantage AND what annoys me the most is by the time the tournament weekend comes the infamously shit field is already badly cut up.

EVERYONE has a common complain that the field is muddy and crap. And yet nothing is done to avoid this.
Why not save it for a week so that EVERYONE can have a decent field to play on during the tournament.


PS Ok sometimes I sound like I am bitching about everything- but I am offering solutions. I'm not just sitting here calling people names and mouthing off anonymously behind my keyboard. If I don't voice out the things I think should be addressed- then we'd all be sitting in the muck and mud next year and the next. If you want sunshine and cup cake comments you can find them in the forums.

WORLD GAMES HERE WE COME

Well the plane tickets have been booked and we're off to Taiwan in July for the World Games. This is huge and to me personally its the biggest event of the year.

Team USA is rumoured to be the Ironmen and it would be something else to line up against the World Cup Champions. I have always been envious of Daryl who got to play against the pros at last year's NPPL Asian Invitational. If we can survive the break out and last more than 1 min 45 seconds per game- that'll be an achievement in itself. I say 1 min 45 seconds because that's how long we lasted against the Iranian All Star Team at the Asian Inviational.

The Taiwanese are taking it really seriously with all the best teams in Taiwan training and getting ready to play off in a tournament to decide who will get to represent their country as Team Taiwan.

I look forward to catching up with Banno and Michiko in Team Japan and Khaine will be Team Canada? Have you guys got some Impart imports?

It just occurred to me that with the Ironmen going to be in Taiwan during that weekend - we would most probably bump into them at Dye Asia at Taichung before the tournament. Sweet.



PS Sani we saved a spot for you :)

TALE OF TWO artoCITIES

Last week I watched 2 games which ended in a total disgrace. In both games the referees we're swamped and abused by players from the losing side. Ok I will give that in one the losing team was really hard done by with four penalties not given and they lost by a last min goal.

In the other game, it was like 5 vs 2 towards the end on the game. The odds was stacked against the losing team and in the ensuring run in and bunkering and playing ons... a fracas ensured as players verbally attacked the refs and I was totally disgusted at the rubbish behaviour. The abuse from the crowd didn't help either. The irony was that the player that started the yelling at the refs was the same guy who wiped 3 times during the game. The refs were woeful in missing 3 wiping incidents but everyone who stood behind him outside the nets saw it. The refs were also at fault for talking back but they're only human and I cant blame him for answering to being called 'shit' by the players. And Ironically Dan Perez told me the day before that verbal abuse towards a referee is an automatic 2 game suspension.

There are disappointing similarities between both games- in that the behaviour of both teams of players after the game was appalling. The only difference is that in one they culprit 'apologised' and hopes that UEFA doesn't throw the book at him but in the other game we'll get squat.

Yes I am talking about Chelsea's behavior towards the referee after their Champions League Semi final against Barcelona and the other game was the Division 2 final in last weeks ISSC Super Sevens Championship.

Drogba's behavior was slammed by the worlds press and football fans from all over the world. BBC World Service had a phone in and a lot of football fans called his behaviour a sham and shame. Personally I hope UEFA throws the book at him and slap him with match bans. We don't need that sort of shit in football.

SADLY on the other hand- nothing will be done to the player who cheated and then lead the abuse on the referees after that game. And that is a problem that will manifest and I think its the Malaysian Pros problem. They have been letting this sort of behaviour happen time and time again until players think its their right to abuse them when things do go their way.

It might have been ok to voice out your displeasure if you had a bad call on you. But that team was clearly losing with 2 vs 5 - there was no way they were going to come back and force a win. To argue and spit the dummy like that was ridiculous. Its like yelling at the ref after Manny Paciao and knocked out Ricky Hatton. They were goners and yet they argued like they were on the verge of pulling off a win.

Malaysian Pros or whoever the sanctioning body is - you have to throw the book at these guys too. But you won't I know you won't and in a few weeks time the same old shit will happen again and the same things will be said.

AFTERMATH II TAKES SEMI PRO

The Bornstein brothers and Aftermath II takes Semi Pro over RNT All Stars.
Congratulations Corey and Jason!!

SHOUT OUTS FROM THE ISSC

Its 2.26am and I'm waiting for the Semi Pro finals over at PSP MAO so I thought I'd take the opportunity to drop a few shout outs

I want to congratulate Dennis, Daniel, Julien, Joshua and Gary on Lemon Ruskies for defending their D2 title against the same team they played in last year's final. You guys played awesome.

Congratulations also to Nemesis for taking D1 over Demonz/Xtion. I thought the Demonz/Xtioneers put up a good fight in the 3rd and final game but they lost too many bodies. Redza was playing Ollie Lang style in the center SPIKE shooting out 2 guys before getting take out. For entertainment value this was top stuff.

Thank you Matt(Furious Paintball), Patrick (ProPaintball) and Steven (Dye Asia) for all the freebies :) And to Zul over at Skirmish for servicing our Egos (another freebie).

Lastly I want to say that our thoughts goes out to Jeremie- hang in there man it was good to see you come out for the team today.

ITS AN IRONMEN PHILY AMERICANS FINAL

2.06am
Ironmen came back from behind and beats Dynasty to make it into the final.

And Philly just edges out Damage to make it a rematch of PSP PHX.

Ironmen want revenge for getting trashed at PHX so this is going to be a great finals match.


---------------------------------

Over in Semi Pro
XSV beats Vicious for 3rd place in Semi Pro

The finals will be between RNT All Stars and Aftermath II - my pick to take Semi Pro.

AFTERMATH FTW!

CHRIS LASOYA REVEALS...

That...

1. He is injured at the moment

2. He is taking this year off so his knee can heal

3. He is ON the Ironmen roster.
(I told you that he would end up with the Ironmen)

Congratulations to Byan

I want to say a big congrats to Bryan aka Judas of Shoot In Rage who took silver in D3 at the ISSC. Bryan also took a medal from MY NPL Johore and is now the most medaled Singaporean paintball player.

Brian took second place shooting a Furious Barrel he got from me on Sat. We're very proud that you're part of the Furious family. Congratulations again Bryan.

Edit- apologies for getting your name and team name wrong. I have fixed them.

PSP SEMI PRO RAKING AFTER PRELIMS

1 Aftermath II	5-2	4-3	6-2	7-1	8	4
2 RNT ALLSTARZ	7-3	3-4	5-2	6-7	6	2
3 Sacramento XSV	3-7	6-7	7-4	7-4	4	2
4 VICIOUS	2-5	7-2	4-7	7-6	4	2

5 Trauma	7-6	3-7	7-5	4-7	4	2
6 Palm Beach Vipers	6-7	7-6	2-6	2-5	2	1
T7 eam Atlanta Edge	7-3	2-7	5-7	1-7	2	1

Aftermath 2 tops the Semi Pro division after the prelims winning all their games.
Again as I predicted this division is the closest with 2nd-5th placed teams all scoring 2 wins each out of 4 games. It all went down to points to separate these 4 teams. XSV started badly losing their first 2 games but making a come back and scoring enough points to edge out Vicious for 3th place.

PSP MAO THURS SEMI PRO RESULTS

Aftermath II beat Vicious 7- 5

Trauma beat Palm Beach VIpers 7-6

Vicious beat Atlanta Edge 7-2

RNT All-stars beat Trauma 7-3

Atlanta Edge beat XSV 7-3

Hanging at the ISSC

I'm in KL hanging out at the ISSC International Sevens tournament at the same field in KL where the World Cup Asia was 2 years ago. The field is smaller but the set up and the atmosphere is more relaxed and casual. Maybe its because I am not playing I'm just hanging around the Dye booth with Steven and Devon and meeting people and having a chat.

I love this- got up early on Friday morning drove up for Singapore to KL- got in with plenty of time to spare. Ben and Jane were going to play at 230pm which meant we had load of time to drive up and have lunch.

Ben and Jane are guesting in Dennis' team Gen-X which is a mixture of D3s and D2s and one D1 guy. They won their first game but lost 3 on their first day. Sani from XFox is trying to lead a team that met up for the first time on Friday. The first game against fellow Penang team X Pursuit was a good match - it ended up with a big run through on the pro style on the highway and he shot out the 40 spike and then the snake FTW. Nicely done.

I met Dan Perez who is in town for a Marshalls Clinic and is also officiating and teaching at the ISSC. We talked about a few things and I took the opportunity to ask him some questions and he gave me a valuable insight to what he teaches Marshalls and what his philosophy is when it comes to refereeing on the field. I will compile my notes and write a proper article on that later.

The organisers were kind enough to give me a Media Pass so I could walk around and watch the matches and hang out inside the players dock. I used my credentials as a write for Propaintball.com and Ballers Cafe.com

I have been asked to be a writer for a new local Malaysian paintball forum /website which is great. I'm happy that someone has come up with something for the local scene and I'm always happy to support it. More later when things get sorted out.

Picked up lots of story material and gossip from Taiwan obviously since I'm hanging around Steven and Devon. Devon just got back form Malaga last week and told me what happend with the storm that blew away the inflatable field and the turf.

PSP MAO PRO SCHEDULE

THURSDAY
Thu 12:10 Bushwackers vs Hurricanes
Thu 1:00 Edmonton Impact vs Seattle Naughty Dogs
Thu 1:50 San Diego Aftermath vs X-Factor
Thu 2:40 Los Angeles Ironmen vs LA Infamous
Thu 3:30 Boston Red Legion vs Chicago Aftershock
Thu 4:20 DYNASTY vs Hurricanes
Thu 5:10 Tampa Bay Damage vs Bushwackers
Thu 6:00 Philly Americans vs Seattle Naughty Dogs

FRIDAY
Fri 12:10 Los Angeles Ironmen vs X-Factor
Fri 1:00 San Diego Aftermath vs LA Infamous
Fri 1:50 DYNASTY vs Chicago Aftershock
Fri 2:40 Boston Red Legion vs Edmonton Impact
Fri 3:30 Philly Americans vs Bushwackers
Fri 4:20 Tampa Bay Damage vs Seattle Naughty Dogs
Fri 5:10 X-Factor vs Hurricanes
Fri 6:00 Chicago Aftershock vs LA Infamous

SATURDAY
Sat 10:50 DYNASTY vs Edmonton Impact
Sat 11:40 Philly Americans vs San Diego Aftermath
Sat 12:30 Los Angeles Ironmen vs Tampa Bay Damage
Sat 1:20 Boston Red Legion vs Hurricanes
Sat 2:10 Seattle Naughty Dogs vs LA Infamous
Sat 3:00 Chicago Aftershock vs X-Factor
Sat 3:50 Edmonton Impact vs Bushwackers
Sat 4:40 San Diego Aftermath vs Tampa Bay Damage
Sat 5:30 Los Angeles Ironmen vs DYNASTY
Sat 6:20 Philly Americans vs Boston Red Legion


SELECTED TEAM ROSTERS AND SCHEDULES

AFTERMATH
Robert Aviles
Alex Goldman
Heath Hoeper
Marcello Margott
Daniel Park
Robbie Pettinelli
Steven Pitts
Zack Wake

Schedule
Thu 1:50 PM X-Factor
Fri 1:00 PM LA Infamous
Sat 11:40 AM Philly Americans
Sat 4:40 PM Tampa Bay Damage

-----------------------------
BOSTON RED LEGION
David Bains
Aleksandr Berdnikov
Matt Blonski
Mikhail Knyazev
Pavel Lukashuk
Kirill Prikhidni
Justin Rabackoff
Sergey Solnyshkov

Schedule
Thu 3:30 PM Chicago Aftershock
Fri 2:40 PM Edmonton Impact
Sat 1:20 PM Hurricanes
Sat 6:20 PM Philly Americans

-----------------------------
EDMONTON IMPACT
Justin Cornell
Josh Ouimet
Mark Ovis
Warren Stojanowski
Jonathan Thompson
Zack Yachimec
Zane Yachimec

Schedule
Thu 1:00 PM Seattle Naughty Dogs
Fri 2:40 PM Boston Red Legion
Sat 10:50 AM DYNASTY
Sat 3:50 PM Bushwackers

-----------------------------
NE HURRICANES
William Bernacchia
Bart Blonski
Brian Gigliotti
Eric Gigliotti
Alex Macmaster
Thomas Mantoni
Kevin Rudulph
Dan Savoie

Schedule
Thu 12:10PM Bushwackers
Thu 4:20PM DYNASTY
Fri 5:10PM X-Factor
Sat 1:20PM Boston Red Legion

-----------------------------
INFAMOUS
Brian Fow
Arnold Francisco
Rusty Glaze
Steven Lasher
Carl Markowski
Glenn Takemoto
Danny Tiljak

Schedule
Thu 2:40PM Los Angeles Ironmen
Fri 1:00PM San Diego Aftermath
Fri 6:00PM Chicago Aftershock
Sat 2:10PM Seattle Naughty Dogs

-----------------------------
IRONMEN
Nicky Cuba
Mikko Huttunen
Scott Kemp
Oliver Lang
Michael Paxson
Jon Richardson
Brandon Short
W. Wing

Schedule
Thu 2:40PM LA Infamous
Fri 12:10PM X-Factor
Sat 12:30PM Tampa Bay Damage
Sat 5:30PM DYNASTY