It is back and ready to take on the newer NXL style players . Bunkerfest 2021 went off on June 5th and 6th and players loved it . The event hosted D5 , D4 , and D3 line ups . Players flew into this “ regional Texas tournament ” which marked a new era in Bunkerfest history . Chris Rangel of Undr Industries and his crew of hard charging staff brought in new blood to make this dream of his come true .
Birth of Bunkerfest
The first official Bunkerfest event started in 2003 . Although talking with Armando “ Mondo ” Garcia , the original producer of Bunkerfest , he hosted an event in 2002 and it brought out a few teams . Nothing official but they learned what they could do better . Over the next 3 seasons Bunkerfest grow to just over 200 teams in 3 and 5-man ( 2004 ) formats with the classic NPPL rules , and the classic division of Rookie , Novice , Amateur teams . Ryan Gray of then Pro Team Texas Storm helped by bringing in vendors and other support for this new southern event . “ Mondo ” was extremely grateful with his help .
Bunkerfest was meant to showcase the best teams in Texas . It pulled in teams across the region and even out of state . Also , a push to pull teams out of Mexico . It did just that . Over the course of a few years Bunkerfest was heading to be the number 1 “ regional ” event and ranked with events like SkyBall , Ultimate Maddens , and other large events in early 2000 ’ s single series paintball events .
Although this event was successful along with the Animal Paintball Extreme Series it disappeared . After talking to Mondo about these issues he let me know that the event was so big that he could not afford the risk . Paintball is not cheap , and Bunkerfest required a large capital to set up and run . Not to mention the 21 grand in cash handouts . At the peak Mondo and Ryan grow an event with players parties for adults and kids to relax . WDP even made a mark with Max Lundqvist of Joy Division Paintball to run the WDP booth . A local Austin Band and several vendors of the time come out to be part of Bunkerfest . Animal Paintball was taking off as a major custom clothing and his attention was on that
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