I have a thousand fond memories of these years but I’ll share a few here.
1985 NSG in Huston Texas. This was the first tournee we flew down for. Plane was half empty and the stewardess chicks were super super nice with the booze. It was also the last tournee that was done right.
By done right I mean almost everything was included in your entry fee. We got T-Shirts, camo beer mugs, dog tags, a first night party that will go down in History… especially with the specialty act of the 400lb exotic dancer. She made all the team captains strip and dance with her…. I do believe I pissed my pants! Food was included... great Tex Mex spreads for lunch every day. Kegs of beer all around too! All paint was supplied I think.. or at least your teams first case of 2500 rounds or something.
15 man teams of capture the flag with 120 rounds per person limit. Texas bush was
very dry and interesting.. I think we all had a “fire ant” moment. Mine was up a tree. I climbed to get a vantage point and lay down some long range harassing fire… when I lost my balance for a bit.. and grabbed at the tree. I steadied myself but the bark came off and underneath was a highway of forty million fire ants. In one split second my fore arm disappeared under a seething biting stingy mass of freaking fire ants. In another game my pal Gord finally pegged a guy on the other team who was causing us a bit of trouble. The dude stood up… yelled “Thank You”.. and proceeded to strip off his clothes to remove the forty million ants that covered his entire body!
The NSG ran several vans to get players back n forth to the hotel from the fields. I am surprised we didn’t get shot by a state trooper back then because we had running gun fights between vehicles running at highway speed. I remember Doug opening the sliding door... I grabbed his belt to keep him steady... and he leaned out and lay down a ton of paint on the back window of the van ahead of us. We even got the driviers into the action… speeding up and cutting each other off. Every highway sign along the route was also covered in bright blotches! That kind of behaviour isn't proper in paintball these days but back then... crazy seemed to be the in thing!
I will also never forget the sight of a Armadillo getting splattered on the highway… let me tell you.. they have a lot of blood in their little bodies!
We were undefeated by the end of day one and had the extra fun of being the subject of a story by Stag Magazine. Yah.. the porno mag actually had stories inbetween the pictures and some guy showed up to track the 1983 “World Champs” or something. The first day ran so late we actually played right up to about 15 minutes after sun set.
Anyhow… we all partied to much that first arrival night but managed to play well on the first day of the tournament. We over did it the second night. We all played with hang overs on the last day of the tournee. I think everyone puked at some time during first couple of games. I remember teammates doing a flag run a couple hundred yards only to pass the flag off to someone so they could stop to vomit. I remember chasing some guy down… and puking and shooting at him at the same time!
If it wasn’t for our piss poor condition due to the booze and stuff.. we would have won. We lost the tie breaking last game and came in 2nd place. Not bad all things considered… we also ended up getting boots a JT masks as prizes and some cash.. like $5000 or $10,000 to split 15 ways. Those guys in Huston, and the NSG in general, really were fabulous hosts in the first 3 or so years!
After Huston it all went down hill. Trying to get 15 guys to coordinate to practice was like a full time job. Playing the game also became less fun as money started to take over everything. You couldn’t really compete with out good sponsors. Paint limits were lifted and it was now about how much your team could afford to shoot! Tournaments were more and more about extracting money from players and less about fun playing the game.
Our last NSG tournament was a real shame. Nashville 1989. Our first problem was our sponsor. We liked the guys at Brass Eagle, and the fact they were based near Toronto where some of us had moved to over the years was a bonus. But the guns basically sucked huge and numerous times we lost games due to stupid malfunctions. Despite that we came close to winning in 1989 but then we got royally screwed by the NSG and The Navarone. The Navarone were a California based team and I think they were also the first team sponsored in a big way by JT.
Basically the co*k-su*kers wore TWO sets of clothes. Long sleeve camo shirt and jogging pants under regular army surplus BDU’s. When you shot the bum lickers… if a referee didn’t see the paint hit them right then and there... the scum would duck in a bush and shed the top layer of clothes with the paint on it and keep on playing. We were fighting them for a place in the finals when we shot one of the bastards running out with our flag. We know it broke. Several of us saw it. When he got to his flag station winning the game we went ballistic. But even with welts on his skin… no paint could be found on the culprit.
We knew we were screwed but without evidence… we took our lumps and shut up at first. Until later that is when we saw the buggers going back through the fields scrounging for all the freaking clothes they had shed! When we brought this to the attention of the referee and did all our complaining...they said “too bad”. Basically... because the next game in the finals had already started… they didn’t want to back everything up. We are also pretty sure that with Navarone and JT and NSG all in bed together… they weren’t going to rule against the “favoured” team for a bunch of Canucks. Sure enough… I believe the cheating scum won that year. Navarone are still around to this day I believe.
I regret not being able to remember names. Faces.. no problem.. I can see all my teammates over the years if I think about it long enough. But names… I’m not to good at.
In no particular order I’d like to say hello to my former buddies…apologies for misspelled names.
Lucio
Ray "Banf Bang" Pang
Gary Mulchaey “Father Mulcahey”
Jim Dobbs
Tim and Rob Dickens “The Dickens Brothers"
Chris and Mike Beattie “The Beattie Boys”
Geoff Lowes “Foghorn”
Rob Hefky
Rob Heffy’s Girlfriend
Doug Whelan
Ken Teasdale
Mike Alan (and his freaking WWII helmet)
Ed Rains “Big Eddy”
Dwayne "Little Buddy"
Murray the Pig Farmer “Airport Road!”
Bassem and his brother
Kevin something?
and especially my comrades
Gord D’ Earmo “El Gordo”
Jim Woolford “Wolfman”
Tip o’ the hat to:
• Flagswipe (London, ON), and then owner, Bill Strocki.
• RLD Games (Toronto, ON) and Rick.
•Mike Lucas, Mr. PMI
• Aldo, the original Brass Eagle
I apologize for those whom I have forgotten or misspelled… and if you find this page I’d like you to drop me a line.
If it is true that your life flashes before you when you die... I hope I get to play these years back a couple of times over!
Steves kinda woman!
Gary having way to much fun
