The past has seen this successful event fairly evened out with both sides in this conflict having won in the past 6 years running. Sundays game was, simply put, spectacular!

From the perspective of an embedded photographer/videographer, half the day saw both sides mount an aggressive campaign for control of the field. Most hotly contested was the Tac Town and back side of the field where fighting was the most fierce with neither side gaining much ground. It was sometime following the lunch period  that the American rebel forces  embarked on a push that completely drove the Russians and the Cubans from the battlefield. I think most would agree that we wish the outcome of the popularized “Red Dawn” movie itself had the same kind of definitive results.

As the afternoon wore on, the Americans continued to assault positions held by scattered Russian groups. Time and time again the Russians attempted to rally and gain ground but to no avail.

Again from the perspective of embedded media this particular game proved to be a great opportunity to capture those most exciting and  interesting paintball moments on film and video forever.

Looking forward to our coverage of the next Flag Raiders event in June.

For this and other Flag Raiders Paintball information please visit www.flagraiders.com

For all of the photos taken at the game visit professional paintball photographer Gary Baum’s website

http://www.paintballphotography.com

For the Catshack Reports video of this event see below

Many many kids have been turned off of playing paintball by being thrown to the wolves so to speak. Kids need encouragement and more of a complete breakdown on safety with some coaching thrown in prior to that first big game/ tournament or walk on experience. In so doing they are more apt to continue playing the game, its a proven fact.

Flag Raiders Paintball in Kitchener ON is pleased to introduce another Young Guns style program they have dubbed “Paintball 101″. Grow the sport and consider creating your own version of a children’s program today!

Look for the IRONMEN to be shooting these markers throughout the 2010 PSP tournament season.

A very limited supply will be available for purchase from DYE Precision.

Features:

01 Ultralite Barrel
The industry standard for accuracy, the NT comes stock with the Ultralite™ 14 inch barrel.

02 Next Generation Spool Valve
The NT Bost Bolt is the culmination of over 4 years of design, research, and testing. A low mass bolt minimizing
recoil is controlled by the most advanced spool
valve design ever.

03 Boost Forward Technology
The patent pending Boost Forward Technology controls the speed of the bolt through its cycle, providing an initial gentle push on the ball to minimize ball breakage, and then increasing in speed to maximize efficiency and consistency.

04 Automatic Valve Shutoff
The patent pending auto shutoff instantly terminates the shot chamber volume as soon as enough air is released to fire the ball. This feature ensures no air is wasted.

05 Boost Bolts Linear Secondary Solenoid Spool
The linear, second stage solenoid spool minimizes air usage and air travel allowing the NT to function with a dwell of
only 6 milliseconds.

06 Low Operating Pressure
The NT’s standard operating pressure is a low 130psi, which results in minimal recoil and sound.

07 Eye Pipe system with Performance Detents
New durable and super-flexible detents offer supreme tenderness to the most brittle of paint. New flex-spring geometry ensures that balls will not double feed into the breech.

08 Ultimate Efficiency
Based off the industry standard 68ci /4500psi compressed air tank, the NT operating a 285 fps will generate 1500 to 1700 shots, depending on bolt configuration.

09 Player Performance and Shooting Comfort
By adjusting the bolt kit’s shot chamber volume and air flow, the NT’s efficiency, recoil, and sound signature can be modified to the users exact performance needs.

10 Logo
Dual injected inset DYE logo.
11 Utralite Airport
The UL airport has deep cuts that keeps it as light as possible, and gives it an aggressive look. It operates with a simple ¼ turn low profile side knob that allows forward port output for maximum comfort and streamline looks.

12 Ultralite Reach Trigger
Trigger roller bearing inserts give the trigger stability and a smooth swing return. The external adjustable design, allows you to limit the travel of the trigger and adjust the reach, rake and spring tension without removing the grip frame or Sticky Grip.

13 2nd Generation Ultralite Frame
The newest revision of the now famous UL frame offers an improved trigger adjustment system, redesigned battery mounting location, new button cover, and new control button housing system.

14 LED Control
High intensity LED provides identification to program functions.

15 Metal Power Buttons
Our metal/rubber button pad features large buttons that can easily be used while wearing gloves. Stainless steel buttons are guaranteed not to fail.

16 Hyper3™
The Hyper3™ regulator sports a streamlined diameter with unmatched flow and consistency, while maintaining precise adjustments.

17 Cam Lock Feed Neck
Low profile locking feed port with adjustable cam lock neck allows you to use your choice of hopper and secure it firmly to the NT without the use of tools.

18 Tool-less Sticky Grip™ & Contact Pads
The full wrap around NT Sticky Grip allows you to easily access the battery and circuit board for programming with no tools. We’ve also added a front rubber contact pad and rear rubber contact grip, for maximum comfort and stability.

19 NT Programming
The all-new circuit board for the NT has faster processing, and more accurate ROF control.

If you want one of these I recommend you get your money right and be ready to spring for one when they are available, they will go quick.

The Eclipse Ego10. This 6th Generation Ego is the start of a new direction for Planet Eclipse and the focus of the engineering behind the marker. For the first time since the inception of the Ego model, the Ego10’s main design brief and focus has been placed on smoothness of shot and even finer resolved paint handling. Every previous Ego has been developed with the express intent of maximizing the cycle speed of the Ego design, speeding up rammer and bolt movement and minimizing pneumatic and electronic delays wherever possible. Whist this has produced arguably the fastest under-and-over poppet paintball marker on the planet, it can equally be argued that the Ego has not been one of the smoothest shooting.

Well that is all about to change. Paintball is changing. No longer is the perfect marker the one that will shoot and cycle the fastest. Today, more than ever, players want and need to be able to shoot the most fragile paint, with the smoothest shot. And this is the direction that the Ego10 will start taking us in.

Using some of the very latest Ultra High Speed Video recording facilities, as well as micron-accurate, 50,000hz sampling speed, laser displacement sensing equipment, the Ego10 has been developed to produce bolt speeds that are more gentle on the fore-stoke so that paint is handled in a much more gentle manner when being loaded, and that opens the poppet valve in a way that helps reduce sound signature, and then returns in a way to help minimize the recoil imparted into the body by the rearward motion of the bolt and rammer and reduce rear-stop rebound.

Yet even though the cycle has been significantly slowed down, due to the unique design of the direct-mounted solenoid, the Ego10 still has extraordinary pneumatic responses that mean no time from switching on the solenoid to the bolt starting to move is wasted. The result: Still 28+bps fire rates, but smoother, quieter, better-handling feel.

With a smoother cycle, come other benefits. Wear and tear are significantly reduced. Bumpers, valves, and all other dynamic components suffer less brutal forces on every cycle hence longevity is added to each of those components.

Mechanically the Ego10 incorporates some of the technology of last season’s SL94. The Zick2, which is an intrinsic part of the pneumatic drive system, is designed to both have a softer initial kick-off on the forward stroke, which helps load the ball more gently and helps minimize bolt-strike breakage of the paintball, but also cushion the system on the return stroke into its rear-stop position. Both these attributes are key to helping achieve the fundamental goals of the Ego10.

Sitting above the Zick2 kit there is now a body-cut contoured Cure3+ bolt. The main body of the bolt carries the same upper profiling and cupping as the standard Cure3 bolt, which massively reduces both bolt-strike impact on the ball being fired, but also ensures that the bolts leading upper edge has the least amount of impact possible on the second ball in the stack. Impact fractures from the bolt on the second ball are common place when using force-feed loaders, and the Cure3 ensures those fractures are kept to an absolute minimum. But what is new on the Cure3+ bolt is a new 2-piece design. The new second piece sits inside the main body, is held in place with the bolt pin, and is removable and interchangeable without the need of any tools. The standard Cure3+ found in the Ego10 comes with a ramped insert that gives the air path from the valve to the face of the bolt a nice smooth transition through its 90 degree turn. But the real beauty of the design means that the insert can be quickly and easily removed and replaced for any future upgrades that may be developed for this bolt design.

Up at the front of the Ego10, below the lightened LPR cap, there is now an additional vent in the main body. This little vent hole is further testament of the desire to make the Ego10 the most reliable high-end marker out there. The little hole is nothing more than a vent, but its simplicity is its beauty, in that it makes it impossible for any kind of HP air from the valve chamber to bypass the internal LPR body seals and contaminate the LP air that feeds the Solenoid and Rammer. This added protection for the solenoid further enhances the durability and reliability of the whole marker.

Electronically the Ego10 has also had a complete overhaul. Of course the key features that have kept the Ego at the top of its game, such as Opto and Micro switch trigger actuation, are still there. But the heads-up display, GUI, microprocessor, solenoid drive circuit and expansion socket have all seen some major changes.

The four layer circuit board is home for a 16-bit, 16mips PIC microprocessor, running at 3V and with advanced power saving features. The increased number-crunching power of the processor allows for much more sophisticated control algorithms, leading to a smooth and seamless operation of the marker, and the 64K of internal program memory provides ample space for future firmware expansion.

The solenoid drive circuitry has been optimised with a focus upon the consistent and repeatable operation of the solenoid and multi-level prioritised interrupts within the control firmware ensure that timing fluctuations are virtually non-existent.

Standards have traditionally been a problem within paintball’s manufacturing community and so the Ego10 expansion connector supports UART, SPI and IIC interfaces, providing flexible upgrade capabilities. Planned expansion boards from Eclipse include USB and RF interfaces.

The liquid crystal display module (LCM) has been completely redesigned from scratch. This is not a commercial display, made to fit into a paintball marker but a custom unit

engineered specifically to withstand the rigours of the modern game. The chip-on-glass design is completely sealed against the ingress of paint, water and aggressive lubricants and is further protected by a plastic surround which also serves as a rigid mounting system. Transflective LCD technology means that the display doesn’t wash out in strong sunlight, contrast actually improves in brighter conditions whilst using significantly less power than OLED technology. When light levels are lower, a tru-colour RGB backlight can be configured to the user’s colour of choice via software.

The viewing area of the LCM has been increased by 92% over the previous model, improving the resolution while maintaining dot pitch and the Graphical User Interface (GUI) has been overhauled in order to take advantage of this larger viewing area. Readability has been improved with increased font sizes; Windows pop-up with useful status information; Range bars indicate the adjustability of parameters; Smart Menus reduce clutter by removing parameters when not required. Usability has been improved in a number of subtle, but important ways. It is now possible to scroll through the run screens with a single button press, allowing the user to quickly access all of the available information; The tournament lock can be quickly toggled with the press of an internal pushbutton; All of the user adjustable control parameters have been grouped into a single menu and can be easily viewed regardless of the state of the tournament lock. Along with the instant and peak ROFs the two Rate of Fire screens display historical data in the form of histograms allowing the user to monitor rate of fire consistency and thus analyse the way in which the trigger is being pulled. The Shot Counter screen features an adjustable and selectable Shots Remaining Gauge which allows the user to quickly estimate how much paint they have remaining.

All together, the changes made to the Ego10 have been entirely player-focused. It’s been designed to be easier to shoot, smoother to shoot, more reliable, more consistent, require less day-to-day maintenance, easier to adjust and just generally nicer to live with. What you won’t find different with the new Ego10 is our industry-leading levels of customer support, our commitment to support the players in the locations they use Eclipse products, and our commitment to educating and training technicians and service centres the world over.

An Eclipse Marker is more than just a collection of metal and wires. It is the Complete Package.

Features

* Weight – 903g/1.98lb Including 14″ Shaft3 Barrel, Battery, Feed Tube, OOPS
* Length – 531mm Including 14″ Shaft3 Barrel
* Height – 208mm
* Width – 26mm

Photos courtesty of propaintball.com

Tiberius Arms will be partnering with F.E.A.R. Paintball for the 2010 season. We will be sporting the T8/T9 line of pistols this year and showing them off at all the events we attend. Tiberius Arms markers are the best line of Pistols on the market today. Accurate, reliable and rugged, these markers were built to last!

Look to see some awesome new vids of Tiberius gear as well as a possibility for a video on the T4 Rifle from Tiberius Arms! Also as soon as the weather breaks..we will have an in depth video of the First Strike round!

F.E.A.R. is a paintball team based out of Morgantown West Virginia. We specialize in doing video and written reviews of mainstream paintball gear, as well as multimedia videos of our many games that we attend. Proudly serving the paintball community since 2006.

http://fearpaintball.net

D-4 RaceTo-2 (5 Man)
………. Each Event $275………. Prepay the full series of 3 events for just $550 SAVE $275!!!

D-4 RaceTo-2 EVENT PRIZES
—– 1st Place – $500 Credit towards PSP 2010 Chicago Open or World Cup entry, a trophy, and 5 medals*
—– 2nd Place – $125 Cash and 5 medals
—– 3rd Place – $75 Cash and 5 medals
—– 4th Place – 5 medals

D-4 RaceTo-2 SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP PRIZE
—– $1,000 Cash For Airfare To PSP 2010 World Cup ($1,000 Value)
—– $250 Cash For Hotel ($250 Value)
—– 10 Cases of RPS Ultra Evil Paintballs at PSP 2010 World Cup ($500 Value)
—– 30 Minutes of field walking with Pro Team VICIOUS at PSP 2010 World Cup

D-4/4 RaceTo-4
—– D-4/3 RaceTo-4………………. Each Event $400………. Prepay the full series of 3 events for just $800 SAVE $400!!

D-4/3 RaceTo-4 EVENT PRIZES
—– 1st Place – $1000 Credit towards PSP 2010 Chicago Open or World Cup entry, a trophy, and 8 medals*
—– 2nd Place – $500 Credit towards PSP 2010 Chicago or World Cup entry and 8 medals
—– 3rd Place – $200 Cash and 8 medals
—– 4th Place – 8 medals

D-4/3 RaceTo-4 SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP PRIZE
—– Division 3 or 4 RaceTo-4 PSP 2010 World Cup Entry Fee ($2,500 Value)
—– $1,250 Cash For Airfare To PSP 2010 World Cup ($1,250 Value)
—– $250 Cash For Hotel ($250 Value)
—– 20 Cases of RPS Ultra Evil Paintballs at PSP 2010 World Cup ($1,000 Value)
—– 30 Minutes of field walking with Pro Team VICIOUS at PSP 2010 World Cup

D-5 RaceTo-2
—– D-5 RaceTo-2 (3 Man)………. Each Event $125………. Prepay the full series of 3 events for just $270 SAVE $175

D-5 RaceTo-2 EVENT PRIZES
—– 1st Place – 3 Trophies
—– 2nd Place – 3 Medals
—– 3rd Place – 3 Medals
—– 4th Place – 3 Medals

D-4 RaceTo-2 SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP PRIZE
—– Empire Gear Package
—– 3 – 2010 Empire Contact Pants ($375 Value)
—– 3 – 2010 Custom Printed Empire Contact Jerseys ($330 Value)
—– 3 – Event ZN Series Goggle Systems ($300 Value)

All entry fees are non-refundable

If your team wants to play the entire VICIOUS RaceTo Series this year, and wants to receive the discounts for registering for all 3 events at once, you should call Jake at 402-502-3434 or email JTopping@discountspecialtysports.com as soon as possible to arrange payment. You must contact Jake to arrange payment if you wish to play the entire series and receive the discount!!

We are also pleased to announce that the  host location and date for this years Canadian Woodsball Championships event has been chosen.

After lengthy talks with the brothers, Marshall and Jordan Pagacz and the gang at Outcast Society Paintball,  located #2 4418 50th Ave, downtown Red Deer Alberta, the CWC Committee has selected the private land location just East of Red Deer as the Host location of the 2010 Alberta Canadian Woodsball Championship event.

Outcast will also be hosting the Alberta Woodsball League 2010 Provincial Finals event in September of this year, with the event date to be released later this summer. More information regarding the Alberta events will be found both on the Alberta Woodsball League site,  www.awleague.org as well as on the Outcast Society Paintball website,  www.outcastsocietypaintball.com

The Canadian Woodsball Championships are slated to take place the weekend of October 2nd and 3rd, with more information regarding the event to be posted on the CWC website, www.cwchampionships.org.

The Canadian Woodsball Championships will be hosting qualifiers in several provinces with the best teams from each province meeting in competition this fall to determine the 2010 Canadian Woodsball Champions.

Name: Jason Wheeler

Age: 21

Team: London Nexus

For those who do not know give us a history lesson on London Nexus.

Well Nexus was picked up by Dye in 2007 where we played alongside Brandon Short and Mikko from the Ironmen to help us form the team into a winning formula the year was pretty consistant and the team placed a top 5 in the CPL.. after a good building year the team decided to only bring Brandon Short into the 2008 season and held a tryout in England the team was very big and the start of the year wasent great for Nexus, however after two events into the season the team went to Toulouse for the third leg and completely shocked everyone to be the first English team to win a CPL first place taking it from the Phillys.

Knowing that now the team can win events the forth event was the same and we came away with the second CPL win of the season and the only team to come away with two wins in that year. 2009 wasn’t as successful only managing to get a 2nd as the highest place for the team in the season but at the PSP World Cup we gained a 4th in Semi-pro losing out to Aftermath II 7-6 which was a dissapointed but we learned a lot and will focus on achieving our goals this year.

What differences are there in the game between the states and Europe?

Well, in the states it seems that the place style is very aggressive and fast which personally I like, more of the teams take it very seriously and put a lot more time into progressing as a team and a individual, that’s why there are so many kids moving into the pro ranks out there.. In Europe the up and coming players are very hard to come by and it seems that the only way to get new places is train them over a year or two before they are ready to compete at the level needed.

What leagues will Nexus play in during the 2010 season?

Millennium Series CPL (Pro)

We will attend PSP World Cup

Individually players will guest for domestic teams and some maybe overseas.

Time to give advice to new players. What should a new player do to progress to the highest level their ability allows?

Put the sport above everything in your life, sacrifice and you will be rewarded..  Listen to everyone that is giving you viable advice.. when the weathers bad and you cant be assed to get out and practice.. pull yourself up and go out there and work at it.

What is the weirdest or craziest episode that has happened since you have played on Nexus?

Hmm, Weirdest? practicing non stop from November to the first event in April then not qualifying for Sunday and then the same in the second event… then suddenly.. third event, we walk away with a win.

With the pro rankings swapping players like they are in a last minute shopping spree who do you think will come out on top at the end of the upcoming season? Other than Nexus of course.

I think SK Moscow will be a big contender this year in the Millennium the Russian teams over here and over in the states are upping the level across the board and that’s always going to help the sport.

What can players in general do to help the sport progress and get out of the slump it has been in the last few years?

Its hard because the reason the sport is slowing down a little is because of money.. that is everything at the moment in all industries of the world so as the economy begins to rise so will the sport.. things like getting paintball in the Olympics is a goal that I want to see happen in my career as I think that would be a amazing step for sport.. There are so many weird and wonderful sports in the current Olympics so why not give paintball its shot? Its definitely something I want to help push forward.

What is the training schedule like for Nexus? What drills do you run?

We train every other weekend Saturday and Sunday.. we do a drill day Saturday that normally consists of lane shooting, brake out drills and half field 3on3 which really makes us sharp when it comes to playing full games. Sunday we normally scrimmage against any teams that are around and put into practice what we learned on the field the day before.

Your are in a 3 vs 1 situation with you being the lone player, what would you do?

Try to get width, a nice back corner bunker is proberly the best spot to be in.. listen to your coach. Don’t feel like you have to be on the defensive, once you get a G you could easily surprise them by pushing down the tape.. never go infield as this increases the amount of angels on you and makes it harder to live.

Where has been your favorite place to play and why?

Orlando and California.. I love playing in the States anyway just because of the play style and of course the weather.. the fields always seem top notch as well.

What is the biggest challenge you have overcome to play with Nexus?

Being broken down and rebuilt by experianced and talented players.. I joined the team young at the age of 18 and with any young players they have to be worked on and getting to be what they needed me to be was definitely a challenge.

You are in a grocery store but only allowed to buy three items, what are they?

Batteries for my loader and gun, Water for the heat and.. some nice energy snacks to keep me going.

What do the players of Nexus do outside of paintball in relation to work?

Jason Wheeler – Works at Dye Europe

Clint Moore – Carpentry

Mark Dunville – Manager of a Hydraulics company

Neil Campbell – Works in a bar

Tommy Pemberton – Works at Dye Europe

Kyle Milton – Cuts grass

Jamie Abbott – Plumber

What can the media do to help paintball?

This goes back to the Olympic thing, if we can promote the sport over TV, people can get rid of that get that typical stereotypical idea that paintball is in the woods only… the sport will definitely move forward.

Paul Forcier

Rapidly Growing Northeastern Team Program to Shoot the Creed Marker for 2010!

Friday, March 5, 2010 – Identity, the quickly growing team program hailing from the Northeast, has reached an agreement to shoot the Vanguard Creed paintball marker for the 2010 competition season and beyond! Identity will use the Creed marker throughout 2010 at events hosted by the various leagues they attend throughout the United States!

Light, fast, accurate, high-tech and packed with features like a high-flow regulator, a Lithium-Polymer rechargeable battery, full-color OLED display and USB compatibility, the Creed marker offers everything a serious, competitive paintball player will ever need to be successful inside the net. “The entire Identity organization is honored to be both shooting the Creed and working with the company in 2010 and into the future,” said David Archibald, Director of the Identity organization. Archibald continued “the Creed will give us all the firepower we need to succeed on the field in every division we put a team, in every league or event we attend! We look forward to growing the awareness of this incredible marker and working with the company for years to come!”

Jason Bagshaw, owner of Vanguard, stated “I was honestly a little gobsmacked with his interview in PaintballX3 Magazine and it all made sense. David’s ideas and concepts for paintball sit exactly where they do here at Vanguard. I must say I was very excited in the talks we were having and the possibilities that we could achieve if we were to team up.  So here we are now and after some heart to heart we got a plan together.”

For more information on the Creed, visit the marker’s official website online at www.CreedMarker.com. To learn more about the Identity Paintball organization, as featured in PaintballX3 Magazine’s February 2010 digital issue, the teams and players who are a part of it and the events the team will play in 2010, visit them online at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Identity-Paintball/309057483844.

This is what they’re offering. Their only request is you have to wear their patch on your uniform/jersey. What you get is free admission to open play at the field anytime (scenario’s not included). You just have to pay for the paint. So if you show up with 20 guys wearing the patch every one wearing the patch plays for free (no field fees). Plus the usual 10% discount on markers, hoppers and PSI equipment.

So if any one is interested in getting on the list and having your chance to be picked please contact Barney as soon as possible at finrod13@yahoo.com