Local legend and prior Axis MVP honoree, Tokin Ronin of Fully Loaded Ronin, brought his son out for the first time. George“ Merc 42” Wade has been coming to the event with his son and daughter since they were old enough to walk. He built his division, 1st ID, on the reputation for being family friendly, and as a result, many kids have grown into adults playing alongside one another. This year, Merc’ s daughter took on a leadership role of her own.“ Chef Kev” Middaugh brought two of his boys as well. As a French Ambassador, he is introducing his spawn to the role playing elements of the scenario. Matt“ Flinlock” Grubb, commander of the 101st Airborne, came to the event again this year with his two sons. This is their third year in attendance, and they are quickly rising as leaders amongst the“ backfield buddies.” And even the women came out to represent. Jill Larson and her 13-year old daughter. Jill and Lil have played together for 3 years, but this was her first IoN.
“ We play for Dunedain and love scenario and big games,” Larson said.“ John Lake was the General and we love playing with Mayhem. We have some Young Guns on our team and Lili loves to get out there and play hard. She is fast, shifty and sneaky, often switching from pistols to gun.”
“ Lili is fondly referred to as Froglet,” said“ You can identify her by the buns on top of her head. Lili is always in the mix of the games, running and gunning all over the field.”
But IoN isn’ t just influencing the longtimers and the locals. It is also now renowned as a destination event for the broader community to experience with another generation George and Joe Chavez who came out from Chicago to play the event.
“ Joe and I have been playing since 2000,” George said.“ We started off as rec players in the woods and quickly transitioned into the tournament scene. Joe was playing young guns back then. I was doing 7 man NPPL.
My other son Jason never got into paintball the way we did.
076 paintball. media magazine