Paintball Media Magazine March 2021 | Page 96

What role did you and Richmond each play in the creation of Xball ?

This is easy to answer but complex at the same time . For the record , Xball™ was invented by a group of people that were summoned to the Procaps conference room by Richmond . In that room on or around February 12 , 2002 were Richmond , Louie D ’ Alesio , Naz D ’ Alesio , Christopher Black , Andy Kopcok and myself .
During this meeting , we attempted to create a game that provided a level of activity , excitement , and intensity to sustain a player ’ s interest in the game and capture the interest of spectators and sponsors . Xball was the result of this meeting . We even came up with an eight team , doubleelimination format that provided 14 games played on a fixed and dependable schedule so spectators knew when and where their favorite team was playing . This was the format used in the inaugural Xball event played at the IAO in August that year .
So back to the question ….
Richmond provided the resources to make this vision of the “ future of paintball ” happen--the people , the money and the influence .
Richmond was able to bring the right people to the room that day and hammer out a format that is still the pre-eminent competitive format in paintball today – 18 years later . I was lucky enough to be one of those people .
Richmond also had the financial resources to fund the development and introduction of the game . Richmond paid my salary for the entire time I was involved in Xball . Richmond paid for the setup at IAO . He paid for the college teams to come play in the Collegiate Cup at World Cup that fall , and more .
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