Paintball Magazine Paintball Media Magazine June 2016 Issue | Page 99

our insertions we were dropped and the opposing team
had flanked the area and I didn’t realize it until it was too
late, as I hadn’t even turned on my Stryker when I was hit
by a volley of fire from the orange player who had snuck
up beside our team as we entered the field! It is really
fun entering up in the action like that, and it gives you
a chance to see many different parts of the field as each
time you leave to get more paint or air, when you get back
you are usually put in a new area where the action is! The
fields closer to the front of the park are more structured
fields, including a spool field, and behind that a trailer
field which has trailers stacked all over it! The firefights
in this trailer field were really fun. I spent many insertions
in this area watching the tactics unfold as players took
ground, and then gave it back as reinforcements arrived.
There are also spawn points on the field where you can
go once you get eliminated. This way you don’t have to
go back to the staging area, but can just stay on the field
and tag back in. Many large groups of players attend this
game and play as teams. 300 players also rented gear to
play this game showing that
lots of new players also enjoy
the fun of a big game. I talked
to a guy from California who
traveled all the way to Ohio
just for this game!
Many creative markers are
also seen at big games like
this. One player had a Gatlin
gun as well as a marker based
on the Aslien movie M56
which was really cool and had
a working steadycam mount
to take the weight off his
hands. You can see a picture
of this marker on page 120.
I also had the first Tippmann
Stryker MP2 Elite at the game,
and lots of players were
excited to see it and check out the new features of this
brand new electronic marker from Tippmann. Big Thank
You to Tippmann for letting me test out the first one!
Here is a video of a group of players checking it out and
comparing it to their markers.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Zl9O4vLs4

Being in Ohio, we often get crazy weather and this day
was no different. In the afternoon, we literally had snow
which quickly turned to a torrential rain, and after 5
minutes... The sun came back out! Welcome to a typical
day in Ohio! I was lucky to be in the building getting my
air tank filled when it hit, so I was dry, but everyone on the
field got a free shower to cool off after playing all day!
Splatterpark has a large pond in front of the staging areas.
Many covered picnic tables and places to store your gear
as well as lots of free parking. I got there early enough
to get a parking space up front where I could leave my
gear in my trunk, and it was right next to the entrance and
the SAS tent. Tippmann Sports offered a free lunch which
consisted of a hotdog, chips and a water, which really hit
the spot after the battles of the morning! GI Sports had a
marker mechanic on site to help fix markers not working,
and Tippmann as well as other companies had tents set
up where you could see all their markers and gear. Lots of
thermal masks were sold that day as it was pretty humid
after the rain!

The blue team started one game on the bottom right side
of the map and we had to take the castle from the orange
team, and then bring a flag into the area to gain 250
points. It was crazy moving up through the trees as players
inside the castle shot at us from inside and in front of the
structure. I was using the new Dye Proto Rize marker and
R2 hopper, it was my first time using a speedball marker. It
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