The field took a while to set up but everything was going smoothly and it was going to be a good day.

UNTIL EVERYTHING WENT TO SHIT.

From out of nowhere, the field owner started screaming, “Get him off my field! Get him off my field!”

What the hell was he talking about? I was soon to find out. And now you will too.

The owner stormed over to me demanding that one of our refs that we hired, a guy who drove an hour to be here, get off his field. I asked why and he, in a very elevated voice, told me that our ref was being disrespectful. I talked to the ref and he told me he would sit out. But that was just the start.

Round 2 came when the field owner returned and told me to get our allegedly offending ref off the property. Here’s the funny thing about that. Our ref drove up with three other refs and was dependant on our ultimate ref for transportation. The owner, unfazed by this predicament, didn’t give a shit. “Get him a cab!” he belligerently suggested. (BTW, we were literally ten minutes away from starting the tournament when this shit was going down.)

In addition to the irrational behavior from the field owner, some lady I’ve never seen before got up in my face. First, she established that she was the owner of the property and then she started yapping, “Do the right thing. Do the right thing.”

Fair enough. The right thing would be to LEAVE US THE FUCK alone. We rented this field. This was not a charitable gesture where the management was letting us use the field free of charge out of the kindness of their apparently vacant hearts. We compromised by having the ref sit out – which was bullshit to begin with. But wait, there’s more.

Round 3 came with field owner returning yet again, threatening to eject the ref from the property or he would shut down the tournament and call the cops. CALL THE COPS. “You’ve got five minutes to get him off the field or I’m calling the cops. He’s trespassing.” That’s what this winner of a human being was telling us.

The random annoying lady resurfaced, saying, “Why can’t she drive him?” She was referring to our stats person. The person who keeps the scores. The person who runs the clock. The person who keeps track of who’s on next. Yeah, she’s totally the best candidate to make the two-hour trip to dispose of our exiled ref. Good call, annoying lady. Word of advice to you: Don’t try to run any tournaments any time soon.

So WTF? Owner is going to call the cops if we don’t get our ref out of here. Oh, life works in mysterious ways.

Before this shit went down, we were scrambling to get everything set up. The owner introduced me to some kid who was interested in the sport and wanted to know about the teams and what we do. No problem, I love talking to people about Almost Famous and how we can meet your needs. I just would prefer to do it at any time other than when we’re scrambling to get set up. I didn’t understand why the hell the owner thought now would be a good time to have this conversation. HOWEVER, you should always be cool with everyone because you never know when those strangers are going to save your ass.

And sure enough, the hero of this story comes in the form of that stranger, Andrew, who I begged to take exiled ref home. I sent him off with forty bucks and a handshake. Andrew, if you are reading this, please email us. You are our friend.

ASG, if you’re reading this, we’d like you to know a few things.

First, the behavior you demonstrated to us, your customer, was unacceptable. Fine, it’s your field. You’re entitled to demand respect, but frankly, we’ve seen toddlers act more diplomatically.

Second, we pride ourselves on hiring quality refs and you compromised our event. First you threatened to shut us down, and then you gave us a fill-in ref who was not in sync with the other guys (not his fault). We understand that it is your field, but our ref apologized to you for what was ultimately a misunderstanding. Threatening police action was insulting and if we didn’t have ten teams invested in this tournament, we would have walked.

We hope that a hallmark of the AFPL is a positive tournament experience and the negative energy that surfaced is absolutely unwelcome, as I imagine we are now at ASG.

After publishing this, I’m sure we’ll no longer be welcome at ASG. But we no longer welcome ASG either. And that’s okay. We’ll find somewhere else to run our tournaments. There are still plenty of people out there who believe in what we’re trying to do.

OK, let’s get to the rest of the day. Well, it was a great day of paintball. The weather was a tad hot with occasional heavy gusts of wind here and there. It was awesome to see the return of GAT Factory to PUMP! We haven’t see them on the field since 2010 during the days of OSOKO. They went undefeated during preliminary play – WOW. The debut of a new veteran team is always cool. Welcome to the big leagues, Team Exotic! You guys really had a great showing, impressing a lot of people. The games were all nail biters and there were lots of overtime matches.

The semifinal action came down to GAT Factory, Check It Factory, Blitz and LA Hitmen. I just got to say I am blessed to be in SoCal because the level of pump play is the BEST IN THE WORLD. Watching these games showed just that. In the end, after the dust settled, it was BLITZ coming in 1st, LA Hitmen 2nd, Check It Factory 3rd and GAT 4th.

In closing, despite the rocky start, it was an awesome event and I would like to thank our sponsor Gene Stein of Autocockerparts.com , my crew starting with David Diaz’s Ref crew. Thank you for sticking it out and doing a fantastic job reffing the day. Thanks to AF’s brave cameramen, Casey Cimins and, first time on video, Josh Bussard. Thanks to Mr. Al Gavi for rocking the mic and last but never least, thanks to J-Dub for working the clock and the stats.

See you next time!

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Getting to do the AFPL 10-man event at CP was a blast. It was a really relaxed tournament for me, seeing as I was really only there to shoot Zombie Unicorn Attack. There was a lot of waiting around in the morning for me. I usually get up for tournaments around 7am so I can make it to the park at 7:15. This tourney was a little different. I got to sleep in, and doze a little in the truck on the way there.

Diary, one bit of advice… don’t try to stick six people and their paintball gear, and one person and his photography gear in one truck. It’s heavy, and there’s a significant roll hazard.

When we got to the park, we set up shop next to the AF tents and I settled in to wait for the 10-man portion of this 3-tiered tournament series. Early in the morning, there was a 3-man, the middle of the day featured a 5-man tournament, and the day was closed off with the premier 10-man show-off.

I spotted our friends from Blitz. They’re always cool guys both on and off the field. The little brats from GoGo were playing 5-man. They had this 9 year-old little kid with them that could fill pods with the best of them. We gave him a ZUA shirt when he helped us out with our pods.

When it was all said and done, ZUA walked home with a second place trophy, coming in behind GNAR/Offmen who placed first.

Dear Diary, I’d like to give a HUGE shout out to Casey from AF and Zach from Mass Media. They braved the sidelines with video cameras in hand (actually on tripods) all day. More importantly, they did it during the 10-man. Ten people on each side of the field, each firing 15-bps… that’s 300 paintballs going into the air each second. It takes some bravery to be on the sidelines during that.

Well, I’d better go. I love you, Diary.
xoxo,
Josh

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Dear Diary, this was our factory team GOGO13 2nd tourney tester. It was only a high school tournament but it was a good learning experience for the boys. A little background on the kids we took a group of 14-15yr olds and trained them with GNAR KILL a d3 team for the past 5 months. These kids have learned a lot but still need work.

The tournament actually started relatively on time and of course we were put in the toughest bracket. The first match was against SD Reign (AF Sponsored) kid’s team. That was a hard draw but we went with it. GOGO came out gunning taking the first point, losing the 2nd but pushed hard and took the 3rd winning the match. A lot dropped jaws on that match. GOGO made it to semi finals loosing to SD Pirates comprised of D4, D3 and D2 players coached by non other then Kendal Hanel. SD Pirates ended winning the tournament hats off to you guys a bunch of great player. As far as GOGO they took 3rd, but again like the AFPL the weekend before they really opened a lot of eye and squashed all the “they sux “ talk. Look out for our kids they’ll be coming in HOT for 2013 so go like their Facebook page.

XOXOX
John

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Dear Diary, been waiting to go to Mexico for a while now since I’ve been banned from entering the country by my in-laws. I was granted a pass to go but was escorted by my Aunt Patty and Cousin Paul. It all started at the E St. trolley depot waiting for Tone of the mighty Gnar Kill. Of course he was late I had watch 2 trolley pass by before he got there. It was sorta quick ride to the border and cool ride through TJ and we reach a baseball stadium. Through gates and down the stairs a magnificent sight two X-Ball fields set up in the outfield.

We cruised through the vendor booths and talked to some of the vendors then hit the pit areas. It was cool to see a SD MOB jersey and it wasn’t a poser it was Ramiro playing for his old team Onslaught. I called him ringer he laughed and destroyed everyone on the field. All the way in the far corner is where we found our boys SD Reign. They had some interesting stories of the night before which I guess will keep confidential at this time. Also from San Diego team “One Pump Chumps” they started out the day shooting pump and were killing everyone till they lost one. Then they switched over to semi. I guess they would be Switch hitters or Bi Shooters?

The play was fast and furious and a lot of people where getting into a bunker called Snake Uno  A funny thing happened to me on the field the referee tried to chrono my camera. I was shooting hot at 60fps and had to adjust down to 24fps. We were only there for 1st day but we heard SD Reign took 2nd place and the Chumps took 1st. It was cool shooting in another country even though I can see Mexico from my house but when you pass that border it is a different world. I hope to get another in-law pass to head down again soon.

XOXO

John

All I have to say is AFPL FUCK YEAH. I know it’s our event but damn it was fun. Well the day started early as usual 4am and the boys (Casey, Cory and Darwin) showed up promptly for the 45min ride up to Camp P. We got there in plenty of time and to everyone’s surprise the field was already set up. After the HI-Five’s were done a call from John the field manager looking for help setting up the other field.

3man division started a little late but hey it’s a tournament what do you expect. The action was fast and furious and the hum of 15 bps and PUNK RAWK music was everywhere. The competition was great I would like to mention that Batteries Not Included fought hard all day with PUMPs and ended the day in 4^th place great job guys. The top finishers were Team San Diego taking 3^rd, The Muffin Stuffers AKA ATR took 2^nd and 1^st place went to HOPES & DREAMS. If there was a 1^st place for jerseys they would have took that too.

5man division had some stiff competition was out there. Paco’s Pirates were back for another go at the title with players from SD Heat and SD Mob. Then there was BLITZ the pump maniacs from Los Angeles with semi’s in hand. The Amazing Larry’s another amazing team comprised of Gnar Kill and other killers for the area. SD Vandals were representing with there d4 squad and for the first time ever GOGO13 the 14-15yr olds from Southside they were the standouts of the day fighting tooth and nail for every point and ended up playing for 3^rd. The day ended with The Amazing Larry’s in 3^rd, Blitz taking 2^nd and Paco’s Pirates taking home the gold.

Last but thankfully before the sun went down was the 10man small format. Which was played on a regulation sized NPPL field with no boundaries and unlimited semi. The teams doing battle were Gnar/Offmen from San Diego, Zombie Unicorn Attack from Chino and Blitz from Los Angeles. All I can say is that there were so many paintballs in the air it sort of blocked the sun. It was amazing to see this from the stands. The play was very fast and aggressive at times with some slow parts which made it great for the spectator. As the last paintball was spent it was Zombie Unicorn Attack in 2^nd and GNAR/Offmen taking the HUGE trophy.

I would like to thank Al Gavi and Kendal Hanel for killing it on the mic all day. our cameramen Casey Cimins, Josh Bussard and Zach Kern for braving the sidelines, my ultra supportive wife and score keeper Mabelle, and Last but not least our refs Shawn Ruiz, TC Allen, Ryan Nieto, PeterReguindin, Cory Russell and Darwin Livingston. What a great crew.

XOXOX

John

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The 2012 NPPL season started off with a blast here at Huntington Beach, California, and this was probably one of my favorite NPPL events. John couldn’t make it up due to vehicular issues, so I was point-man for Almost Famous.

Nick Reid came over on Thursday night (technically Friday morning,) and we crashed here in Chino for the weekend. When I woke on Friday morning, I had to kick Nick and my brother out of bed and push them out the door to somehow make it to shoot my teams on time. I made it, and was able to shoot my teams without a hitch.

Friday weather was a bit overcast, and I had to leave before it got sunny. There were some light sprinkles of rain on Saturday morning, but the sun came out around noon and made for some great pictures. Sunday weather was perfect for photos.

I saw a bunch of my great friends at this event. Pete from Hundredth Monkey had his booth set up. I always loved Hundredth’s gear. Their padded headband has saved me from countless headaches. Oz Rios and team Paintball Addix made it to finals in D3, and took home a 2nd place trophy. I’m proud of the local guys. The guys from Evolution Sports in Redlands made it out for Sunday, and it was great fun listening to their personal commentary of the games.

In the end, XSV took the pro division Gold medal. That was an awesome sight to see, and I congratulated Thomas and Rich when I saw them after the event.

Dear Diary, thanks for coming with me to the NPPL Surf City Open in HB this year. It’s my favorite event of the season, and I’m happy you could make it out with me.

The AFPL tourney is next week, and I’d better go prepare for it. Have a nice day, Diary.

Love,
Josh
xoxoxo

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When we got there it was a totally different story. It was partly cloudy and sunny, F you Mr. Weatherman. It was great to see all the pump boys working it on the half sized fields creating havoc and scaring children. I take my hat off to Eugene and the Blitz crew for running a smooth event. We ended up only clocking in a half day but word on the street was it came down to LA Hitmen and Check It Factory again and ended with another 1^st place by LA Hitmen. Well looks like 2 events down and the LA Hitmen look unstoppable. Hope to see you vets at the next AFPL.

XOXOXO

John

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