On the field , day one of the ten-man was the most successful start to a U . S . event we ever had and we ended the day at the top of the table . The first game day two was against Aftershock , a baptism of fire later and any smug thoughts of winning the event were swiftly wiped from our minds . As was the norm at the time . The atmosphere was always superb and we all felt we were on the same side , all seeing the growth of the sport as a real and common goal . There was a hard-core group of us which included , Bud Orr , Tim Schloss , Mike Cassady , Ross Alexander , Paul Tournier and a few others who would travel events throughout the US and Europe spreading the good word and having a great time whilst we did it .
In Europe myself and Paul Wilson founded the Mayhem Master annual event , which were the first major European events and eventually led to the creation of the Millennium Series , thanks to Laurent Hamet .
I ’ m going to pick the 1995 Mayhem Masters as my favorite event as a promoter . Paintball was still firmly played in the woods at this time and the event was held in the middle of the Sussex Countryside , but not that far from the main London Airports . For the first time we had a major non-paintball sponsor , Tag Heuer , who sponsored a one-on-one event with around $ 20k in watches as prizes . The industry was still in a great place then and the traveling group were on form . I even had JT founder , John Gregory , helping put up tents . In his youth he worked at a circus and I put his training to good use . Once again , the atmosphere was a joy and the event ran smoothly and has been fondly remembered by many players .
After a year of Covid and damage to many industries , businesses & people , I thought these two events summed up a time and place that we need to learn from in order to move forward and rebuild a better sport . Although we ran way more sophisticated and bigger events in the Millennium , the fun element reduced with time , the industry became more interested in market share than market size and players started to become more interested in what they got for free . In the later years of the Millennium , no matter how hard you worked , how much effort and money you put in , many people seem to attend purely to criticize and complain about the most stupid things , the same people would then turn up to my trade booth wanting free guns and paint .
In the 90 ’ s we build a fantastic industry and we did it quickly because we were all positive , constructive and we enjoyed every minute of what we did . That isn ’ t the case now , but just maybe a plus side to the devastation of Covid might be a desire to repeat the exercise . I see signs it ’ s possible but it needs a common effort .
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