Sewell, NJ, February 7, 2012, Empire Paintball. Empire Evil Paintballs named official event paint of CPX’s Living Legends 5.

Empire is proud to announce that Empire Evil Paintballs will be the official event paint of Living Legends 5, this year’s most anticipated scenario event hosted by the world-famous CPX Sports May 18-20.

Kerry “Viper” Rosenberry, producer of the scenario game stated, “We’re excited to be shooting the best again this year at Living Legends 5. When producing an event of this magnitude, only the finest paint this industry has to offer will do and we have found that with Empire Evil Paintballs with RPS Technology.”

CPX Sports’ Living Legends is globally recognized as one of the sport’s most successful paintball events drawing enthusiasts from all over the world to the Chicagoland area to experience the very best facility and game-play paintball has to offer. This year marks the 5th installment of the event and is widely regarded as the must-attend event of 2012.

Paul Dagnino, VP of Sales and Marketing at CPX Sports said, “We’re thrilled to be offering Living Legends players Empire Evil paintballs again in 2012. We shoot only the best at CPX Sports, whether it’s for practices, tournaments, recreational play, or the industry’s best scenario event and for us that means Empire Paintballs with RPS Technology.”

For more information about Living Legends 5 visit http://www.livinglegendsofpaintball.com

For more information about CPX Sports visit them online at www.cpxsports.com

Connect with Empire Paintball on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on the down low.

Empire Paintball is a brand of KEE Action Sports LLC.

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Sean Scott

For the Young Guns Division, onlookers witnessed something of an upset as crews such as top contenders Clean Up Crew were beat out by Havoc this time around. On the upside it was good to see Brantford Stealth pull some wins and do far better over their last competition.

Young Gun Results

• Havoc 1st Place
• Brantford Stealth 2nd Place
• Goon Squad 3rd Place
• Clean Up Crew 4th Place

On to the particularly insane part of the day as the Rookie Division took the field, upwards of 12 three man crews appearing to battle it out … and battle it out they did! The layout of the field this time around saw an interesting adjustment to the snake with half of it swung out to line up with the fifty leaving the other half to slide into off the break. Personally I think the change made for an interesting twist to the dynamic of the game and how it all played out. Players making it to the fifty while difficult to get there were in better position upon arrival to make their lanes and eliminate the opposition.

Andre Gravelle, member of the Niagara Aces mentioned his key to success in a tournament such as this is to stay alive off the break and communicate with his team mates. Andre competing under the team name “Steel City” did manage to swing a fourth place finish.

Paintball Weazels comprised of Sarge Morin, Trent Bridger, Danny Barber and Drew Bridger were by far THE stunning upset over the day. The team, clean out of the woodsball side of the sport AND having only competed in a scenario tournament appeared to try their hand at their very first speedball tournament ever. According to team captain Sarge Morin the team were looking to compete, have some fun and NOT get totally trounced by the other strong speedball clubs in attendance. As it turned out it was the Weazel’s handing out the trouncing utterly dominating many of the other teams clear through to the finals. The top four teams then went head to head and as the dust settled it came down to the Paintball Weazels versus Hooligans Green boasting a strong roster of seasoned veterans for first and second place.

The final game was a jaw dropper leaving many asking “how did that just happen?” while others on the sidelines were hard pressed not to holler to loudly for fear of bringing a penalty to either team for sideline coaching. The round wrapped up with everyone except a Weazel and Hooligan left on the field at which time both promptly eliminated each other in a one for one. Administrator Travis Kropf quickly consulted the rules and declared a final face off in a one on one. The Weazels sent out their best and as the whistle blew Drew Bridger made a daring move racing straight up the center like a deer in an effort to overwhelm and catch the Hooligan player off guard and bunker him. The move proved unfortunate as Drew was confronted and caught paint and was eliminated and the Paintball Weazels forced to accept a second place finish. Speaking with Team Captain Sarge Morin on the rather unexpected wins “I think we did so well because of the team dynamic we have. We came there with the intent to play the best we could with integrity and have as much fun as possible doing it. I’m proud of the way everyone played and I wouldn’t change a thing. Thanks to all the other teams and all the organizers, refs and all the people that made the day run so smoothly”

Rookie Results

• Hooligans Green 1st Place
• Paintball Weazels 2nd Place
• Hooligans Black 3rd Place
• Steel City 4th Place

Overall the TKO Tournament is an interesting competition that does see prominent clubs travel from across the province. With Flag Raiders Indoor as one of the top indoor paintball venues in the region, the TKO Tournament is at least in my opinion another event to schedule in to any teams calendar … and the cash prizes are all good to!

For the Catshack video production please visit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6SdOnSI76U

and for the Catshack photos from the event see below

Oceanside, CA , Johannesburg , South Africa – February 6, 2012

“As The RPL continues to grow worldwide into the premier regional paintball league, we are excited to have Valken join us in building the foundation of Global Tournament Paintball” says Shawn Walker, President of The RPL. “Valken has really stepped up and we are excited to have them as a Global Partner in the series.”

The SARPL is the starting point for tournament paintball in South Africa, as well as providing top class competition for higher division teams that want a fun but competitive atmosphere. Higher division teams and players routinely mentor and guide younger players in skill sets, sportsmanship and fun. The SARPL is now in its 4th season and is as strong as ever with six total 3 man events and 4 total 5 man events throughout South Africa in 2012. Whether you are a new or established team, players of all skill levels call the SARPL home.

“Valken is focused on getting new players exposed to the sport of paintball and we are proud to support The SARPL. We have already received great feedback from teams in other countries concerning the quality and price of our tournament paint. I look forward to introducing even more teams around the world to the Valken brand and serving the South African tournament community,” says Gino Postorivo, Valken President and CEO.

For more information on how to become a part of the Valken Network, and have access to over 50 brands of paintball and hundreds of airsoft products, please call 866-97VALKEN or visit www.valken.com

For more information on The SARPL please visit http://www.sarpl.co.za

A little dialog with the fans of the “Russian Legion”

Dear fans,

We are grateful for your support of the team and your belief in us for so many years. You are always with us no matter what: victory or fail. We believe that we may always rely on your trust. We always feel your love. When you are upset with our fails we are upset even more. Therefore we think that it would be much more honest if you get the news about the Club and its life not from the paintball forums’ rumors but from us. We will try to share with you all our news not from time to time but on the regular basis.

In connection with the fact that last week we finished to sign the contracts for 2012 we may now go on to talk about the future of the Club.

There were no big surprises for us regarding the roster for 2012. In the beginning of November 2011 we have determined the roster for 2012. This roster is almost the same as the one you may see on our website. The only thing, to be completely honest, we were making a big stake on our great player and a veteran of the Club, Mikhail Knyazev. His experience would be very useful for our young players to teach them how to play on the top level. But Misha, due to some reasonable circumstances, was not able to bring his best as before to the training process and he has also received a very good offer from another American paintball team. According to all these circumstances he behaved as usual, very honest and fair. We sincerely wish him luck in his new project. A little bit later we will publish a detailed information regarding other players that has left the Club for some reason or another. They’ve done a huge work for the Club and for the paintball in Russia. Some of them left the Club due to great offers from other teams, some did not receive an offer from us, some feel very tired after hard years of practices. But life does not stop and all of us continue to go further.

So, at the moment, we have a balanced roster with a domination of young players in it. Is it good or bad? We may analyze this situation differently. Actually, almost every player in this roster already has an experience playing on the top level, except Alexey Berdnikov and Pavel Karsliev. We definitely sure that Alex and Pavel will be able to proof their right to play for the main roster soon. Our main rule – only the strongest plays for the main roster. I hope there is no need to talk about our veterans Aleksey Berdnikov, Vasiliy Panteleev and Kirill Prikhidny. All what is left for our young players it is to roll up sleeves and start practicing hard at their maximum level, keeping in mind the idea that the future of the Club depends only on them. Now, being chosen for the main roster it is almost impossible to “sit” behind somebody’s backs. Our coaches basing on their huge experience will also try to do their best to raise the level of the team to the new, previously unreached levels. Our main goal is not to repeat the mistakes made in 2011 and to build up a good job climate in the team during practices.

We didn’t waste away our time and during the New Year holidays and time after them we managed to gather from different internet forums and web-sites (sometimes friendly sometimes not) many questions, comments and feedback from people who are not indifferent regarding the Club’s future and the ways of its future growth. So to make it possible to continue our dialog with them, we think it would be better if we share with you our ideas regarding the existing variants of building up a pro paintball teams in Russia. Actually, at the moment, there are only two real variants with different modifications:

Option 1 – permanent search and long-term building-up of a young players for participation in top-level tournaments

Option 2 – hiring a ready built-up paintball players so as to reach the highest results

As you already know, we picked the first option and stick to it since 1996. Were there any mistakes during this period? Sure! We stumbled, failed, faced up to difficulties but kept and still keeping to head up towards the success step by step.

Every owner of a big paintball project decides on its own which option to choose and which goals to set. We, personally, are very interested in the new Russian pro-teams. First of all from the point of competition. It is a well-known fact that a healthy competition creates many talented young players. In the Russian paintball there are coaches that gather teams and who choose, no matter how hard it is, option 1 as we did. The brightest example for it is Maxim Osmanov and Sergey Samuilov. I believe that with a sufficient finance support they will be able to create, as already did, a competitive pro teams. They are proving this fact from year to year.

If we are good with the system of building up a paintball team, what is the main ingredient we need in our formula of success? First of all – it is a smoothly running, self-adaptive training process, which is created by our talented coaches. And the second thing is – ambitious players, who are able to sweat the guts out and who are able to set the most ambitious goals for themselves. The first is impossible without second and vise versa. Only this symbiosis, this formula allowed, allows and will allow us to reach the best results. Which, in turn, encouraged our fans and for which our players are proud for.

Having the above said in mind let’s try to describe an average Russian paintball player of a pro level, who plays in top divisions of world series:

- TALENT

- MANY YEARS OF HARD WORK

- ABSOLUTE DEVOTION TO PAINTBALL

If there is no sign of at least one of these traits, or a players started to lose one of them then we will have a player failed to release himself or a falling “star”.

To make the player be able to leave behind in final tournaments such teams as Dynasty, Tampa of Ironmen we need to find him, bring him to the team, organize a training process, solve all his day-to-day issues. The percentage of players chosen after series of tryouts who start playing for the main squad is very low, only 30%. In spite of our experience. Therefore the level or risks for our investments in the future profit is very high. Our every player yearly means for the club: thousands cases of paint, hundreds of coaches work, thousands of dollars spent on medical coverage. But it is not the end of the list. We helped our players with the universities entry exams, helped with their schools, helped with their examination periods. We never left and will never leave our colleagues in hard situations. If a player gets injured or falls ill, mainly not connected with the training process we never leave him to sink or swim. In every case we helped him to completely recover and paid the salary on the regular basis. Sometimes we even have to deal with government authorities and deal with the army service issues. We covered accommodation expenses for the players who did not have one and many other things. It is life and a common day to day work.

We have the biggest team budget in Russia now, but it is not bottomless. And here we have the main question, namely: Should we try to save the player who has received a good offer from another team at all costs, which means to cut the budget for the practices or we should continue to go on according to the way we chose. Please try to understand it is really a hard decision to make.

Sure, hiring ready-made players helps to solve some of the above mentioned problems and save money. But what is next? Each year attract players by huge salaries, and forget about the training process? How many years we will be able to operate in this case?

All genuine sportsmen realize that if you want to keep your skills and develop them you should practice hard just playing in events is not sufficient. According to our experience crisis years go after fruitful and vise versa. And we are not an exception, all the difficulties of the global financial crisis had a great impact on us as well. Our huge misunderstanding of last years was regarding the vision of the team only as a sport project. We tried to make all the necessary corrections and adjustments and enter the paintball business so as to attract new financial flows.

Life never stops. And we too do not stop to exist as a paintball team.

It is a big pleasure for us to read you warm comments of support on forums. It is very important for us. Once again, many thanks to all of our fans!

The TECHT Lo-Pro Bolt Pin for the Bob Long G6R allows players to replace their stock bolt pin with one that has a much lower profile. Players had expressed to us at TECHT that they would like a replacement that would not obstruct the view down their line of sight to the degree that the stock pin does. The other request was that we make it black. Done. The TECHT Lo-Pro Pin is made of 100% Stainless Steel. It is available in both Ninja Black and Silver. Pair the Lo-Pro Bolt up with our Hush Bolt and our Zero Ping Ram for a Silent Ninja Killing Machine.

For more on these and other great TechT Products be sure to visit http://www.techtpaintball.com

“I am elated to have been given the opportunity to promote a game of this caliber and magnitude.” Said Kevin “Kevlar” Quinn, Editor-in- Chief of ‘Warzone Podcast.’

Link: http://hellions.net/media/podcast/2012_Season/2012_Season.html

He went on to say, “D-Day has been the greatest game I have ever played. Like the owners and organizers that are always looking to evolve the field and game, this is another milestone in the development of content for the show. The Hellions may typically play Germans, but the success of the game relies on promotions of both sides. We will focus on this together, and will continue to demonstrate our national reach with local appeal.”

Ed Covey, Director of Operations for D-Day Adventure Park added, “Oklahoma D-DAY and Battle Ready Paintball are excited to be working with Kevin Quinn and the Hellions Media Podcast.. Everyday there are fewer outlets that are available with good information about what is going on in the world of scenario paintball. Forums and blogs are quickly becoming a thing of the past. We are excited to see what comes from this project and I think you will be excited about what Oklahoma D-DAY is bringing with it. The time is now to grow the sport of paintball.

We are seeing more and more people taking the games to levels that are above and beyond and there is now something for everyone. We look forward to Kevin getting the messages out there loud and clear.”

“Move out”!

Ed Covey

Once again, Valken is leading the industry in supporting scenario paintball. We are now offering the first Pro-Level Scenario Sponsorship where Valken will help financially support the scenario teams to compete in a league and represent our company.

Valken has selected the MilSim Paintball League as the competitive venue to offer its pro-level sponsorship. The MilSim Paintball League provides team on team competition that is accessible and affordable to everyone who wants to participate while offering the most exciting competitive format to hit scenario paintball! Teams play in a unique mission style games with multiple objectives where each player on the team has their own role. One of the most exciting features of the format is that every game is a different mission, so teams never play the same game twice!

“The MilSim Paintball League has been working to develop the high level organization necessary to take scenario paintball to the next level of competition and professional sponsorships” says James Brea, the League’s Executive Commissioner.

Will Bourgault, Valken Brand Manager, adds, “Valken is committed to growing and supporting scenario paintball and the MilSim Paintball League offers the opportunity for us to recognize and financially assist scenario players.”

Sponsored Team Support

Valken will be offering a “Competition Team” sponsorship to teams that win at the Regional and National level in the league. Depending on your teams’ level of success, Valken will pay 100% of the league membership fees, 100% of the field entry fees for all events and provide enough paint to compete in the events. “We pay you to play!” Oh, and we’d also like you to win, after all, you’re representing one of the biggest names in paintball – Valken!

Valken Corps Benefits

As an added benefits, any teams that win the sponsorship that are also registered with the Valken Corps, will receive an additional $500 and $1000 vouchers to purchase Valken gear. This is in addition to covering the costs of your membership fees, field fees and paint, just for being a registered member of the Valken Corps.

Qualifying for Sponsorship

The Valken Pro-Level Sponsorships are open to all teams that play in the MilSim Paintball League in the United States. Whether you’re a newly formed team or have been around for years, if you win a championship, you win the Valken pro-level sponsorship.

To find out more about how to get in on the action, visit www.milsimleague.com

If you’re not already a part of the Valken Corps, you can also sign up for a free at the MilSim Paintball League website to start enjoying the exclusive benefits offered to Valken Corps members. And if you want to play but don’t have a team, fill out the Recruiting Form on the league website to get placed with a local team looking for players

What: PSP Official Referee Certification, 1 day Clinic

When: Saturday, March 17th, 2012

Where: The Paintball Plex (home of Trademygun.com) – www.paintballplex.com

Registration will take place before class begins, between 9-9:30 AM; interested attendees are encouraged to contact one of the e-mails below so we can determine class size.

Cost: $60.00

Class Limit: 60 people

Suggested minimum age: 16

Clinic includes:

- Classroom training

- Topics to include, but not limited to: rules, positioning, safety, presentation, & attitude.

- Written test on PSP rules & in-game situations

- On field training!

- Performance evaluation in key areas

- PSP rulebook, covering all formats!

- Certificate of clinic completion*

- 1 Case of Formula 13 Paintballs, Entry and Air to the Paintball Plex

Agenda: (Bring your gear and be prepared to ref games!)

Saturday

-       Check-in begins at 9:00 AM, classroom training to begin at 9:30 AM, clinic ends at 5:00 PM (approximately)

-       Attendees will have the opportunity to ref live games

This is a great opportunity for players and people interested in the PSP to learn the format and rules of the game!

Attendees planning to attend the Laotto, Indiana PSP Referee Certification Clinic are encouraged to contact Mike Schlemmer at e-mail: mike@trademygun.com or phone: (260) 357-1560 x3

Any questions can be directed to Tim Schroepfer or Mike Schlemmer (All registration fees must be paid in cash on the day of the clinic.)

*Attendance/participation in a PSP certification clinic does not guarantee that you will be called upon to judge a national event for the PSP.

Stay Connected!
Join the 70,000 plus paintball fans who are the first to get breaking PSP news by “liking” us on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pspevents today!

Need your PSP fix during the off-season?  Watch game footage from our webcasts at http://www.youtube.com/pspevents.

Portsmouth, NH Jan 31 2012

Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa

Breaking news and interviews with The MilSim Paintball League!

The Catshack Reports was contacted by James Brea the Executive Commissioner of the MilSim Paintball League to share some exciting news with us.. James also forwarded us contact information with one of their South African MilSim teams, APC Black Ops to get personal views and opinions with regards to the MilSim Paintball League.. How it plays and the future in where the League stands.. Will APC Black Ops be coming to America? The MilSim Paintball League says it’s a go!  The interview with the team is below. James quotes this, “We are not just a league… we are your business partners! The league was created because we too share your passion for scenario paintball!”

The Exciting Breaking News: Valken to Offer its First Pro-Level Scenario Team Sponsorship

Once again, Valken is leading the industry in supporting scenario paintball. We are now offering the first Pro-Level Scenario Sponsorship where Valken will help financially support the scenario teams to compete in a league and represent our company.Valken has selected the MilSim Paintball League as the competitive venue to offer its pro-level sponsorship. The MilSim Paintball League provides team on team competition that is accessible and affordable to everyone who wants to participate while offering the most exciting competitive format to hit scenario paintball! Teams play in a unique mission style games with multiple objectives where each player on the team has their own role. One of the most exciting features of the format is that every game is a different mission, so teams never play the same game twice!“The MilSim Paintball League has been working to develop the high level organization necessary to take scenario paintball to the next level of competition and professional sponsorships” says James Brea, the League’s Executive Commissioner.

Will Bourgault, Valken Brand Manager, adds, “Valken is committed to growing and supporting scenario paintball and the MilSim Paintball League offers the opportunity for us to recognize and financially assist scenario players”

Sponsored Team Support

Valken will be offering a “Competition Team” sponsorship to teams that win at the Regional and National level in the league. Depending on your teams’ level of success, Valken will pay 100% of the league membership fees, 100% of the field entry fees for all events and provide enough paint to compete in the events. “We pay you to play!” Oh, and we’d also like you to win, after all, you’re representing one of the biggest names in paintball – Valken!

Valken Corps Benefits

As an added benefits, any teams that win the sponsorship that are also registered with the Valken Corps, will receive an additional $500 and $1000 vouchers to purchase Valken gear. This is in addition to covering the costs of your membership fees, field fees and paint, just for being a registered member of the Valken Corps.

Qualifying for Sponsorship

The Valken Pro-Level Sponsorships are open to all teams that play in the MilSim Paintball League in the United States. Whether you’re a newly formed team or have been around for years, if you win a championship, you win the Valken pro-level sponsorship.

To find out more about how to get in on the action, visit www.milsimleague.com

If you’re not already a part of the Valken Corps, you can also sign up for a free at the MilSim Paintball League website to start enjoying the exclusive benefits offered to Valken Corps members. And if you want to play but don’t have a team, fill out the Recruiting Form on the league website to get placed with a local team looking for players.

The Catshack Reports took to the phones, capturing the 2010, 2011 South African National Winner, APC Black Ops! Knowing this was taking off around the World we wanted an inside opinion on how teams define the League and the excitement it brought to them.

coming-to-america

I had the opportunity to speak with Stephanus Lindeque along with his team Captain Shawn Duncan. When asked how they viewed the style of play along with keeping individual stats. They had this to say, “It is like no other style of Paintball, it creates an agenda as well as an ultimate goal. It is played as such, Teams compete against other teams at their “home” field in four regular season missions. Each year, one field in each region is selected to host the event, the great thing about this, it gives the opportunity for travel as well as helping out other fields.. We give 100% support to MilSim, believing it has a tremendous future and we look forward to “Coming to America” and playing with some talented teams! Our goal as a team is to spread the word, hit our local fields invite them into the League to share the same enthusiasm as we do. We are a 5 man team with a dedicated reserve as per MilSims 2012 rules. We have been playing together as a dedicated team for the past 3 years but have undergone a couple of name changes, we were DC first, Then Shadow Company now we are APC BLACK OPS.. Over all we are very please with MilSim Paintball League and yes we will continue to promote and advertise to help the growth in anyway that we can.”

The Catshack Reports: Is your team primarily a MilSim style team and what is the name of your local field that participates in MilSim?

APS Black Ops: For MilSim games we play at Jubulani Paintball Experience owner Gideon Zeelie is loving the League and the field speaks volumes! Every MilSim game has been constructed on his field as per the scenario. We do how ever frequent a lot of other fields as well. We do believe in playing unfamiliar fields to sharpen our skills to be able to adapt to any and every situation.

The Catshack Reports: It was a pleasure speaking with Stephanus and Shawn,, I see them as positive role models for the MilSim Paintball League as well as paintball as a whole. They are very excited for the upcoming season with high anticipation of traveling to America to compete with some of the greatest in the League! I requested a team roster with names and positions as well as a website, be sure to check it out! I also find it  fantastic news to see Valken jump on board as a MilSim Paintball League Sponsor and even more exciting, to offer a Pro-Level sponsorship! Great job MilSim Paintball and I see a bright and lengthy future ahead!

“We are thrilled to be continuing our partnership with the USPA^TM in such a new light. And we’re not just there for the events, we’re there for the players who deserve the absolute best in tournament grade paintballs. This is an amazing series of events for Xball^TM; we look forward to taking part.”
- Brian Barno, Business Development at Procaps Direct

“These are exciting times and it is an amazing feeling to be working with the original owners of Procaps^TM. The family is back together again and the paint is stronger than ever. This is going to be an amazing year for paintball.”
- Jared Hogle, USPA^TM Director

USPA^TM is an Xball^TM league that has the passion to organize and structure paintball as other sports. Their passion is to see the league develop across the country and only allow the clubs to advance who have earned there way to the top. Their passion is “original” Xball^TM from its’ structure to the fast paced action that draws all spectators into the excitement. The league has the clubs (or teams) utilize city names to which they come, doing so allows them to build up a local fan base and helps bring in new players into the sport.