Paintball Magazine Paintball Magazine March 2020 Issue | Page 20

Empire SYX 1.5
By Steve Mcguire
Simply put, the Empire Syx is a beast. A sleek, sexy, face mowing beast.
There is a reason why Rocky Knuth and the iconic team Naughty Dogs
choose these as their paint throwers of choice. The Syx is based on the
long respected and ultra reliable Mini/Axe poppet platform. It is named
the Syx because it is the sixth version of this marker line. The Empire Syx
are arguably the “best bang for your buck” tournament paintball guns on
the market when you compare marker costs to the performance, options
and reliability. Empire is not one to rest on good enough, however.
Listening to their customers, they have made numerous improvements
to the Empire Syx and released it as the Syx 1.5.
First and foremost, Empire has changed the ASA. Originally, the ASA was
all aluminum, but now it is a 2 piece steel with a shorter on/off lever and
beefier o-rings inside the grip frame. They did this to not only make it
sturdier and more durable, but so that the on/off lever was not as easily
jarred during aggressive play. Nothing ruins a good game faster than your
gun’s air being turned off with no warning. Empire made minor changes
to the bolt tip. They increased the size and materials of the o-rings on
the bolt guide in order to make the gun more durable and require less
maintenance.
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