The tanks, coming from near and far, were Brendan“ Narf” Pierce’ s K-Truck, Blade, Cash Money Crew, and the Hormesis Tank out of Pittsburgh Paintball. The sides were even going into the event, which created an intense competition from start to finish, but the impact of the tanks was felt all weekend, all over the field, and they added an element to the game for commanders to better control the game flow.
Friday, the event kicked off with a magfed game. The home team, Rag Tag Paintball, dominated this part of the game, taking home the magfed title and setting the tone for the red team.
As the broader game started, the battle would see many parts of the expansive field, but some of the most epic stories came from right up front in Hell’ s notorious Grinder. There, hourly“ Legion Battles” were fought with a 15-minute and a 30-minute center-flag scored by slapstick.
Jacob Easter of Toxic Teddys talked about some of the heroics.
“[ There is a picture of me ] flying through the air in the grinder to make it to the 50 on snake side, and then when I ran out of paint, I used one ball musket style- no hopper to pop shot. I got few,” he said.“ Goya joined me, and we both took off hoppers and used what was left in my hopper to take turns one-balling.”
“ The legion battles were great,” said Damian“ Joker” Fowler of Gatormaille.“ They played like old-school speedball matches, but with respawns.”
He went on to recount one of the battles in which Harry Hibler managed to worm his way up to the slapstick for a 15-minute score, and then actually walked past the mid-line to keep the fight in the faces of the blue team.
“ He wasn’ t supposed to go past the 50,” Joker said,“ But somehow he did it! And the blue team was so dumbfounded that he had gotten there, that everyone kind of stopped shooting.”
He said there was a moment of confusion followed by the head referee, Brandon Mackafee, yelling at Hibler from the sidelines to get back.
“ It was a great moment,” Joker said.“ I teared up when I saw Harry get that slapstick, though. Just to see a guy of progressed age like myself still out there getting after it. It was really great.”
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