Two Trains , A Flight & The Long Way Home By Steve Maguire
The Iron City Classic is over for another year . For me , the Iron City Classic ( or ICC as it is commonly known as ) was the journey of a lifetime . The ICC in paintball is hallowed ground , so I had to make it there . You don ’ t understand … HAD TO ! So much so that I jumped through every government hoop possible to cross international borders while the border between Canada and the United States are still somewhat closed . I have to say , on me it was a rough trip . Worth it , but rough . My trip started on the Wed prior . I had a two hour power nap and then left my humble little abode at 7:30pm on Wednesday to go to the ICC . I had to leave at that time because with Covid , public transportation has limited runs and I needed to make the last train to Pearson International Airport . You see , with an international flight , you need to be there a couple hours in advance , and I had to start booking in at 4am to make my 6am flight .
The hospitality at Pearson was horrible I must say . Everything was closed and almost zero places to sit . This made for an extremely long and uncomfortable night which ultimately bit me in the rump as it tweaked my back preventing me from playing at the tournament . And I wanted to play … I mean REALLY wanted to play . For 5-man , I had a spot on Team Fox out of Chicago . A truly fantastic bunch of guys and also , they are the AirGun Designs Factory team . For 10-man …. Get this … I had a personal invitation to play with the freaking Master Blasters from Kevin Donaldson himself ! Do you have any idea how difficult it is to have an honor like that offered to you and you must turn it down ? It stinks . Especially when your reason is that your back hurts from sitting on an airport floor !
Thankfully though , I wasn ’ t at ICC to just play . I was there on behalf of the Ally Remembered Foundation and Paintball . Media . It was my “ job ” to run around , take pictures and generally socialize . Basically , what I would have done anyway . So , I had a great time meeting people . It still feels weird when people ask for MY autograph , but I signed a few . Lots of people wanted pictures with me which was amazing . I took selfies with tons of people when I wasn ’ t behind my Canon DSLR .
072 paintball . media magazine