Bones and Ashes is not a game for the faint of heart . Aside from intensity of the game play and the late-night , befuddled rabble-rousing , the field itself is a force to be reckoned with . At BlackOps Paintball , the players are fighting more than each other , they are fighting the elements and the terrain all weekend long , and this year , that battle was ferocious .
Before even breaching the tape line , this field is trying to eat you . The long road taken to teams ’ respective insertion points gives the player a sense of what is to come . On that walk , before the whistle blow is even a consideration , the deep , thick mud is known to suck the unwitting players ’ shoes right off of their feet and claim them for its own . This field does not discriminate . No , quite the opposite , it issues a wellbalanced portion of suck . As if it were a live and sentient participant in the game , this field shifts throughout the course of the weekend . Saturday , the Blue team was battling from a position that was 10-inches deep in mud . The Red team had more like 3-inches . Then , by all reports on Sunday , it switched . The Blue side of the field dried out and dried up quite a bit , and whether by drainage or the force of the Gods , it was suddenly the Red team that had a swamp to traverse all day .
And forget about the hundreds of players hunting and shooting at you . That is just the field . Welcome to Bones and Ashes .
Photo by Aaron Dill
0106 paintball . media magazine