How were you first introduced to paintball?
JB - Just like most people, when I was 15ish my father took me to a local field as a rental group through his work. It was called Skirmish Paintball Games in Nottingham.  Like so many others, I was instantly hooked and luckily my father was very supportive and worked it out for me to get a job reffing at the field and it became my second home. The owner of the field allowed me to work off my first electronic gun; an Angel and he helped me get into tournament paintball. He helped me in so many ways, I really owe a lot to him.

What made you want to play tournament paintball?
JB - I think like anyone, when I was young I was buying the all the paintball magazines and looking at players like Rocky Cagnoli, Chris Lasoya and players like that and it portrayed them as having so much fun and almost living a rockstar lifestyle and I really wanted that to be me someday.
Now, it's a sad thing that there’s not any magazine to inspire kids and show how hard the pros play and work and help give the younger generation heroes.  There seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel though with paintballaccess.com. They’re doing a great job working to expose the pros more and provide an avenue for younger future generations to get introduced to the world of pro paintball.

So now that you're at the pro level, do you feel like you're living the rockstar life that you thought it was as a kid?
JB - (after laughing uncontrollably). No I don't feel it's a rockstar lifestyle, but I am very lucky to be where paintball has taken me, the people I've met the places I've seen and none of it would have been possible without paintball. But don't get me wrong it does have its rock star moments.

How long have you been in paintball and how were you introduced to it?

BB - I have been playing paintball since 2001; I first got a paintball gun as a gift from my father and played behind my house in the woods with the neighborhood kids.

What was the path that led you to pro (i.e. teams and detailed history)?

BB - I played my first national tournament in 2003. While playing with Hogan’s Alley in Division 1, we had a few NE Hurricanes playing with us.  I became good friends with them and they invited me to a practice where I was picked up to play NPPL Tampa in 2005.  After back an forth battles in D1 against Doc’s Raiders, Doc approached me about playing with him and making a pro team call the Miami Raiders.  I accepted and played for Doc until 2008, and then I went back to the Hurricanes with 4 top 4 finishes.  After the `Canes dropped out of 7-man and made the change to Xball, I joined Avalanche to continue playing in the NPPL.  I stayed with them through the 2011 season.

The ‘Canes left Pro in 2011 and I played for San Diego Dynasty, a team I had been looking up to for my whole career, it was an amazing experience and learning opportunity.

What is the history of Shadow Squad? How did the team form? How long ago? etc.....
Shadow Squad was formed in the fall of 2007 and Flagswipe Paintball has always been our home field. We have always played in all the Flagswipe big games each year, traditionally anywhere from 4four to five games annually.

William, what is the history of the Four horseman?
We formed in Bloomington, Illinois in 2005 as a group of like-minded scenario players interested in participating in regional events and playing at their local field. The team was named after the four riders in the book of Revelation, who are unleashed as harbingers of the end of the world and lead the greatest army ever assembled in the final battle of good versus evil.

What is the history of The Glen Morris Mercenaries? When did the team form? Who started the team?
The Glen Morris Mercenaries have a rich history of giving back to the sport and the community. Over the years we have organized "young guns" programs teaching young children the basics of paintball as well as many charity events for our main charity's that we have supported over the years, some of which include Cystic Fibrosis Canada, Children's Wish Foundation, Human society, and United way. The team formed in 2002 and was started by Tom "Tomcat" Cunningham.

Jim, what is the history of the Team Hawkeye? When did the team form? Who started the team?
Myself, the field owner of our home field (Hawkeye Events) and one of our volunteer marshalling staff for recreational groups (Frank Oldenburg, who also plays X-Ball nationally with another team and who has played a pivotal part in training the team) started the team. We sat down one day in October, 2011 and decided to form a Paintball club in our part of the country as there was no club or team in our region. The team was formed at the same time we formed the club. The reason we also formed a club is because we wanted to get more people involved in paintball but didn’t want to make it mandatory to play tournaments for all members, so the way it works right now is that you become a member of the club and then decide if you just want to play recreationally or if you want to play in tournaments.

What are the team goals for this season and beyond?
The goals we have for this season is to make the playoffs in the Dutch National Scenario Competition. If we play as well as we did the last leg, we should make it to the playoffs. The goals for next season are to become number one of the Netherlands scenario-wise and also start up an X-Ball team so club members can choose which form of paintball they want to compete in.

Has the team won any awards or honours over the years?
Since we are a very young team we haven’t won many honours but we did manage to win the Northern Paintball Challenge as well as coming in 2nd place in the 3rd leg of the Dutch National Scenario Competition.

Ed, can you give us the quick history of Oklahoma D-Day?
Oklahoma D-DAY started 15 years ago as the bunker army surplus business started to gain speed.  Dewayne had always wanted to show respect for his grandfather Enos Armstrong as well as pay homage to those that gave on the beaches of Normandy.  He began the game with less than 150 players and the rest of course is history.

What is your roll at D-Day during the year and during the week-long event?
As the Director of Operations I am basically responsible for everything that is D-DAY.  I am basically an extension of Dewayne when he is not physically present.  My job is to try my best to keep it all together throughout the year and monitor every aspect of the event.  From the staff to the field it is my job to make sure things are close to getting done.  Unfortunately that is an overwhelming task that more times than not makes me paintball most famous bad guy.  I am the yes, no person and the one that changes for the event go through.  So there is really nothing glamorous about what I have to do.  I can say that I have met some of the most amazing people in this sport doing this job and I am thankful everyday that I have had this experience so far.  Out of everything I have done in my life I can honestly say that this is the toughest job I have ever had.

Blake, what is the history of the Black Karma Paintball? When did the team form? Who started the team?
Black Karma formed the beginnings of our team back in the fall of 2007 with myself and Mike Tyler being two of the original members.  The team was born of very traditional roots in northern Alabama –son gets hooked, then gets father hooked, father gets friend hooked, friend gets brother-in law hooked, and so on.  We kept meeting up with a trio of guys out of Nashville at every scenario and asked them to join up with us since we were hanging out at every event anyway.  We have continued to grow from there with friends, family and players we have met at events along the way.

What are the team goals for this season and beyond?
Black Karma’s goal every time we pick up a paintball marker is to have fun.  If you’re not having fun, you’re doing something wrong.  Also, we strive to play with so much honor and integrity on the field it inspires others to do the same.

Has the team won any awards or honors over the years?
Black Karma has been honored to earn several Most Valuable Team Awards, multiple Sportsmanship Awards and many of our teammates have earned Most Valuable Player Awards.

For more than twenty years the Portland, Oregon area has been home to one of the best paintball big games in the world—the SuperGame. Founded in the 1980s by Bob Shano, the SuperGame is one of the longest running paintball events in the world—not just the Northwest. The game is now run (and has been for years) by Dan Bonebrake, an icon in northwest paintball. And the SuperGame is not just another big game. It’s a scenario, big game, night game, party, trade show, festival and all around great time all wrapped up in one giant three-day package.

We arrived at Sniperz Den, the current home of the SuperGame, late Friday afternoon (May 4) after finishing our field and store training class just 15 minutes away (Training.PaintballX3.com). This was my first SuperGame experience and driving onto the property is all I needed to see to know this game was going to live up to the hype. By dinner time on Friday there were already more than 1000 players on site and most of them set up camp for the weekend.  They were already gearing up for the three-man tournament and the night game. Just steps from the campsites were the playing fields, the trade show area, food vendors, check-in and just about everything else you’d need for three days of paintball. The atmosphere was alive, the trade show hopping, there was DJ’d music playing, and excitement was building for the two-hour night game that was going to be played in just a few hours.

Every October Paintball Explosion puts on a big game called Clowns vs. Zombies.  This big game pits killer clowns against brain-eating zombies to see which team will come out on top.  With the sponsorship support of companies like Ninja,

With companies like Planet Eclipse, Valken, Tippmann, FogDoc, and Flurry Industries, and with the number of players that were coming and dressing up for the occasion, this year's event was sure to top the last one!  Along with the amazing sponsorship line up, they were able to recruit some famous General's and XO's to lead this year's troops.  Leading the clown team was none of their than famed scenario legend Blue Hanse from Blues Crew along with his XO Skeletor from Behind the Bunker.  Leading this year's zombie team was Gino Postorivo, CEO and owner of Valken Sports along with his XO yours truly (Rob Leary) from Ninja Paintball.