I decided to move this to a tumblr

if you still want to follow my ramblings I will be at www.lifebehindlensespb.tumblr.com

I should be at yankee paintball in Ct getting ready for the Gravity league

like the title says.... I should be.
Instead I am sitting on my couch, I had the week from HELL and because of it I have to miss what is sure to be a great time.
I lost the engine in my truck early in the week So I am driving a rental and NOT looking forward to seeing the bill on the truck.

Logans knee never really healed from a poorly executed dive at the last NEPL so he bowed out.
Hope he feels better soon!

And then we have Chris... Let me say that I love the man like a brother, The first time I decided to form my own team, Chris was there. We have been friends for well over half our lives and have been through some serious shit together. After the last gravity league event he came to me and said he wanted come out of paintball retirement and to jump on our team again, I was psyched! I got back a rock solid player who also happens to be one of my best friends!

We had several conversations over the passed month about it and he was ALL IN. I built another marker for him to use because he didn't have a pump left, I bought another air tank because his was out of date and we didn't have time for it to come back from hydro, I bought him a new mask and I built another lock lid Winchester all because he wanted to play and him and his wife don't have a ton of money coming in at the moment... and Thursday night I get told that he didn't know it was this weekend and that he wasn't going.

So I am out a bunch of money, I miss my event and I am pissed.

maybe next time

and to the gravity league players, give em hell!

play hard
play safe
play fair
and always fear the old guys with the pumps

hello life behind lenses, long time no talk!

So... about yesterday.

Yesterday I did something I had sworn off a long time ago, I played a NEPL event.

A bit of history on me and the league:

In the early 2000s I was involved heavily in the league and came to realize there were many flaws in it.

They were trying to process way too many teams for a one day event.

the event promoters were never on time. everything ran behind. they would call games before the paint truck was open. ect ect ect

Many times the scheduling would get so far off between fields that the refs would forfeit you from one game because you were still on another field playing another game.

A lot of the refs were apathetic at best and biased and underhanded at worst.

And then there were the players.... not all of them, but way too many of them forgot what sportsmanship was, cheating was rampant and a lot of players were willing to fight you or the refs even when they knew full well they were in the wrong. Things were UGLY

I can remember one ten man event in particular that summed up the entire NEPL experience for me.

We had shown up early to find a decent place to pit.(at that time you pitted from your cars in the parking lot so showing up late meant you had a HIKE between each and every game)

roughly about an hour after our first game was scheduled the event promoters showed up and started to get ready for the day. When we finally did get going and were called on deck for a game we went to the location at the field we were told to go to at the captains meeting only to be asked by the ref "what the fuck are you doing here?" so we moved to where the ref told us to be except for one person on the opposing team who stood there watching the game going on... the ref started screaming at him, really dressing him down yelling things like "what the fuck are you deaf?".... unfortunately for that ref, the player WAS IN FACT DEAF! so that went over like a lead balloon.

A few games later we were up against a local team (we came from the other end of the state so we were always an outsider) before the game they were laughing and joking with the refs, we got on the field, got ready for the burn and one of the refs yells "fuck em up * insert dirty ass cheating team name here*" the game starts we get a 2 for 1 off the bat for supposedly leaving the box early... it didn't happen but OK... I made my first move and bumped to the snake clean. no one saw me I made it to the 50 and I heard one of my guys yelling B ZERO B ZERO B ZERO!!! meaning there is an opposing player in the center 50 bunker. so I came up gunning and took him with three shots. he looked at his gun and elbow where the shots hit and turned on me I shot that same player THREE TIMES in the same game.. the last time was several hits directly to the mask the ref finally waddled over to give him a paint check called it bunker rub wiped him off and let him play on. shortly after I was shot out.

we "lost" and after the game was over the player in the center bunker came over to me to let me know right in front of the refs how many hits he had to ditch because of me. the ref did nothing... the head ref did nothing and the only answer I got was "hate the game not the player"

So I walked away. and stayed away for over a decade, until yesterday.

I have to say Boston paintball and the NEPL have come long way in the right direction.

the events are now two days like they should have been. Things ran on time. I had only one questionable reffing call all day and the people in our division are some of the nicest guys in the sport.

I am looking forward to future Gravity and the NEPL pump division events!

Gravity #2

At each gravity event I get a chance to get together with players who remember that paintball is a game of honor.Three of us, three of them, 80 rounds of paint between us all and we go out and smash heads to find out who the best team is.Sunday Aug 31 2009 was no exceptionEight teams showed up and played hard with honor to make a great showing for the second event of NewEnglands own Gravity League Limited paint series.this time around we played at PNL paintball in Bridgewater Ma. the field used was a mixture of airball and oldschool wirespool bunkers.The format was center flag round robbin, Paint as always is limited to 40 rounds per player per game (players are alowed to devide paint among each other on field if desired)Markers are limited to Mechanical pump markers
For teams we saw:the poo fighterssteel reservethe team from MA (I'm not forgetting their name that's what they called themselves)Hit-N-Runthe New England Pump ChumpsPaintball MarshallsNew Hampshire Blizzardand my guys playing again as Mass Destruction
coming out of the prelimsthe scoring was as follows
1 New Hampshire Blizzard (678)

2 New England Pump chumps (531)

3 Mass Destuction (372)

4 Hit-N-Run (345)

5 The Team From Ma. (338)

6 Steel Reserve (324)

7 Poo Fighters (145)

8 Paintball Marshalls (121)
the finals took 4 teams
1 New Hampshire Blizzard

2 Pump Chumps

3 Hit-N-Run

4 Mass Destruction
thanks to PNL paintball for having us, the Refs for your work,Boston Paintball,and Massey Machine for the prizes.and the Gravity Leauge for taking things into your own hands and making this happen for New England Paintball players
and to the players, it is up to us to keep this rolling! If you are like me and want to see more great competitve pump paintball around here show your support. Get other teams and players involoved.
PLAY STRONG, PLAY HARD, PLAY FAIR, AND BEWARE THE OLD GUYS WITH PUMPS!!

Gravity event #2

Here we go again

The second leg of the New England Gravity Leauge has just been announced

P&L paintball in Bridgewater, Ma. Aug 30 and I can't wait, we had a blast at the last one and this one already has more teams signed up! I am trying to field two teams this time around.

Mass Destructions OGs

and the Regulators

this all depends on my ability to get some of the Original Mass Destruction players to sack up and play together again. I will keep you posted.

Mass Destructions Western Mass Regulators #1 in the gravity League !!!

this was a great day all around! perfect weather good sportsmanship

great refing and pump on airball so who could ask for anything more?

first place helps too

Thanks to Everybody For a great day of honorable competitive pump play.

I am going to throw out a Challenge to any New England area player willing to step up to the plate.

put down the electro, take off the ten pod pack and leave the force feed hopper at home,

come and join us for the next Gravity League event and remeber what was fun about paintball