In 2020 a group of players came together and wrote a rather classic , historicallybased scenario story set in the Cold War Era and determined to create a game that was a fully immersive experience . That story has now played out over the last three seasons , and the third installment was brought to life on December 2 , 2023 at Outdoor Xtreme Chesapeake City , MD . Produced by a collaboration of the ten-member Cypher Scenario Consulting , Solstice Law , and Steve “ Frosty ” Solo , this game is revolutionizing the what scenario paintball can be through use of classic scenario play and modern technologies .
As we understand it , the story this year lands in 1989-ish somewhere in eastern Europe . The CIA ( commonly known as the blue team ) has operatives in search of the stolen Artifact 73 , which went missing while in transit somewhere between Germany and Russia . They have an interest in securing the Artifact to neutralize it before it is powered up and discharged . The occult group known as Thule ( or , the red team ) which also had operatives in the area hoping to steal the artifact . This secret society believes that the Artifact could potentially be the key to opening a portal to unknown realms , and want to harness this power either as a weapon or a for other unknown purposes .
From the gate , this was not your normal scenario paintball game . For starters , as soon at the whistle blew , both generals went missing .
One , Joe “ Bones ” Bernek of the Sloppy Dawgs , was sequestered for “ interrogation ” by a mercenary group seeking to disrupt both armies ’ attempts at locating the hidden artifact . The other , John “ Sandman ” Russell of Valor , the commander of the army of the
CIA was bagged , placed into a vehicle , and transported to an undisclosed location in the back of a UTV .
Russell said having a plastic bag over his head to start the game threw him off his game from the jump .
“ It was definitely the first time I wished I didn ’ t have a long beard because I think that added to the feeling of claustrophobia ,” he said . He described it saying “ zero out of ten , do not recommend .”
And this was how the game began .
Surprises around every corner
“ We hide a lot of story and surprises within the game ,” said Solo . And he wasn ’ t exaggerating .
Although there was no water boarding this year , the interactive role players and base referees were still influential in the player ’ s experience . At one point , the production team felt that the players weren ’ t interacting with the role players enough , so they took their gloves off and made a call for the role players to engage the players by any means necessary , even if it meant intentionally interfering with the game .
“ I took the opportunity to just start screwing with people ,” said Phil Harter who played a German gangster with no actual allegences to anything other than his own self-interest . “ I started assassinating players who wouldn ’ t interact , or walking into fire fights and intentionally interfered with player ’ s abilities to shoot . We do whatever we can to add to the to the story in order to progress that game .”
060 paintball . media magazine