Ritchie , Tommy & Greg Mailszewski , Team Image
Bigger moment … winning a major event with the All Americans or with Image , and why ?
Easy ! Winning one with Image , hands down . It ’ s all about winning .
In my early years we formed the Baltimore Rats and we came in third in the World Cup , took home $ 10,000 . It was crazy ! We were a good bunch of mismatched ballers out of Maryland . Truly ragtag .
To progress in paintball , you need money . To play this game and take it to the next level it made sense to join the All Americans . They were East Coasters , friends , brothers and had the competitive drive . My brother Greg joined me , and later we added our baby brother Richie . It was cool to say we did add a few stars to the back of that Big Old AA ’ s super duty truck of theirs . No one can top the feeling of a World Cup win .
We formed Image to be able to run our own team and I got to play with my two younger brothers as anchors of the team . Everybody wanted to play with the Maliszewskis .
We did go through a lot of people . It ’ s a tough call to make when you didn ’ t make the grade to make the event . With Image there ’ s a ton of responsibility , you ’ re the captain , the budget committee , and you are in charge of everything . The wins are earned , never given . Then once you win you build off of that . Win again and again . The rest is history .
Hey , history can repeat itself . Image is back in a new mechanical dynamic , two years ago it almost happened . That would have been the bomb . Now it ’ s the next generation playing with me and Richie , my son Julian , and a bunch of kids that grew up playing and reffing locally with us . Let ’ s see what 2021 brings .
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