Joe Fortin ( left ) and Team Xtreme
You sold your field and left tournament paintball shortly after the game fixing incident . Is that why you left the game ?
I hope this one event has not defined who I was or my legacy on the paintball circuit for all those years .
To your question , I did not leave paintball shortly after this event . I played tournament ball for several years after and we continued to run Paintball Atlanta for many more years .
In truth two things happened that moved me towards hanging up my paintball guns . The first thing was when Todd Traczyk died . Some of the fun went out of it for me when I could no longer share the sport with him . Secondly , my interest changed . As you are aware it takes a lot of time and commitment to play at that level . I wanted to explore other avenues of adventure and life .
I hope that my legacy in tournament paintball is more around being a very good coach and team member instead of that one event and stupid mistake . I feel like I brought along many great players and when we took the field I put my team members in the best possible position to win . This is what I hope and believe the folks I played with will remember about me .
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