I knew I was in Germany
when at 5’10” tall I was
by far the shortest of
the 35 players and media
waiting to get on the next
EuroBigGame shuttle bus
to the playing fields. Yes
Germans are big and they
like their paintball big as
well. And here in Mahlwinkel
(East Germany) paintball is
played on a former Soviet
Union Air Base, chock full
of dilapidated buildings,
huge trenches, forts, sand
dunes, woods, multi-level
structures and sandbags. It’s
big and it is vastly diverse,
as are the 2000-plus players
who travel from all parts of
the world to be here.
As I walked through the grounds of the Mahlwinkel
property I could hear the various languages being
spoken. German, French, Russian and English were the
easily detectable for this language geek that I am. I
also noticed the parking lot and camping area road was
lined with European country flags. And as I watched the
players gather for the first missions on Friday, I couldn’t
help but notice the dozens of different camo types, again
representing the nations of Europe in attendance. If
there was a big game World Cup, this would be it.
Mahlwinkel air base, located about 90 minutes from
Berlin and a few hours drive from Poland and the
Czech Republic, was home to one of the Russian Mi-24
helicopter fleets during the Cold War. It was the main
airport that the Soviets used to refuel their bombers to
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paintball magazine