Paintball Magazine Paintball Media Magazine April 2019 | Page 107

MASTER BLASTERS CLASSIC ROSTER: Kevin Donaldson, Tony Novoa, Dylan Wagner,
Travis Baskin, Brian Casper, Robert Semeniuk, Joe Latronico, Nick DeSarno, Will
Bourgault, Dave Cilio, Travis Granato Justin Bailey, Mike Ricciardi, Chris Winkle,
John Sgherza
The Master Blasters are a team that has
truly withstood the test of time. The Blasters
started as a 15 man tournament team in
1986 and have continued to compete at
the highest level for 33 years. In 1996 with
the addition of several of the East Coast
Eliminators the Blasters formed Ground
Zero and became one of the top teams in
Professional Paintball. After the 9/11 attack
in 2001 the team retired the Ground Zero
name to become NY Xtreme. Many of the
original Blasters reunited in 2005 to form RT’s
Raiders, a scenario team in remembrance of
their original field Captain Rich “RT” Travis
who passed from cancer the previous year.
From captain Kevin Donaldson, “The Blasters
have always been committed to the original
style of paintball and in 2006 with this style of
play all but forgotten we reunited, with the
help of Tom Cole and the UWL, once again
under the Master Blasters name to help to
bring back the game style enjoyed by many
and lost to others over the years.”
UWL events in North America, Latin America,
and most of the other events of this format
since 2007 to become one of the foundation
teams of the entire classic movement. The
Master Blasters are a testament to longevity
in paintball with many of its players from the
80’s, 90’s,2000’s continuing to play events
well into their late 50’s, early 60’s, holding
their own against the best players in the
game today.
Donaldson continued, “The Blasters are
honored to have been asked to participate
as a Professional team in the New ICPL
and continue their long storied history as
Paintballs longest continues running team.
With the addition of several younger players
from their stable of 135 of the best players
from the NY area along with the teams 33
years of experience the Blasters may be the
‘sleeper’ force to be reckoned with in the
upcoming 2019 season.”
The Blasters effort to bring back Classic style
Mechanical Paintball has not gone unnoticed
with the team holding several mechanical
ten-man events in NY (Woodsball World Cup
2010, 2011, 2014), participating in almost all
www.paintball.media
0107