The first time I went out Paintballing, I had a great time.  Come to think of it, I don’t know why I went in the first place, but I’m glad I did.  I guess I just wanted to do something different.  Something I haven’t done before – a change of pace.  In doing research to find a place to play and buy a paintball marker, I found many people willing to give me their opinions and tell me their experiences.  Some stories were good.  Some stories were Bad.  And some were just plain Ugly.  This past weekend, I had the chance to experience the Good, the Bad and the Ugly myself.

The Good

        I haven’t been this eager to get up in the morning since I got my first real good paying job.  The one feeling or experience I got from Paintballing is a sense of confidence you can’t get from school or from books.  It is a feeling that you can do anything you set your mind on.  I probably was a little too confident.  That feeling diminished and increased as the day went on but never completely went away.  The adrenaline was pumping, to say the least.

        My first game out, everyone was hyped.  You could feel it in the air and see it in people’s eyes.  All the members of our team were anxious to get the game started.  The feeling in the air was part adrenaline and part fear.  Finally, the whistle blew and everyone ran straight for the other side.  After that I don’t remember much, just 4 direct hits on my chest.  No one told me they were that close.  I ran so fast that I was 30 feet away from our opponents in a matter of a few seconds.  Luckily, they were heading for cover.  The 4 shots at my chest just bounced and didn’t splatter.  I could have sworn at least one of them busted on me.  So I just hit the little ditch and took cover myself.  As I think back at that game, it wasn’t that smart to run in the middle of the field.  I think I should have searched for some cover and then ran toward it.

The Bad

        My team had a few experienced players.  A couple of guys had Spyders.  I even bought one for the first time paintballing, as well.  The first couple of games we got wasted.  I had got hit with a paintball about 7 minutes into the game.  When I went out-of-bounds, there were 10 members of our teams to 2 – 3 people on the other teams already there.  That didn’t bother me.  I am not a sore loser, at all.  But what I did take offense to was that the other teams rubbed it in that they destroyed us.  I don’t think it was that much of an accomplishment.  The other teams had a bunch of sharks.  Half of the opponents had upgraded Autocockers.  Every one of them had their own markers, while most of my team had rental markers that shot curve balls at 12 feet.  If you win a team like ours I don’t think that the opponents should be bragging, maybe if we were any good.  To them it was like taking candy from a baby.  At this point we could just give up and lose the rest of the games and wimp out like a bunch of babies . . . YEAH RIGHT!

The Ugly

        As a collective whole, our team decided we had had enough.  We weren’t going to be bullied around anymore.  That’s when our confidence started to rise.  We started to organize squads and divide the team up into small groups.  Every individual had their goal and as a team we knew what had to be done.  This band of strangers now was a team.  Eventually we got the hang of it.  We started to flank opponents and concentrate forces where there needed to be.  It was rather exhilarating even though we had to get ugly.

Sean Ramones
MPN Columnist