The Long Road to Rewrite History .....

In the latest incarnation of Ben & Bonnie Torricelli’s evil minds, we find ourselves transported back in time to a small island on only 8 square miles between the Mariana Islands and Japan – IWO JIMA.  Points are collected in various forms: completing missions, collecting props, winning speedball games, and of course, for holding locations during the beach landing.  During this game, in addition to some of the University of Tennessee’s paintball squad, we have members of Southern Polytechnic State University helping keep everything safe and the game flowing smoothly as referees.

As is customary for our team, a “planning session” at a local favorite eatery called Castaways in downtown Fayetteville helped to finalize our feelings for the game.  When returning to the lush forests of the Howell community, our hopes of cobbler were dashed by an old adversary – MOTHER NATURE.  She reared her ugly head and rained, but even with the deluge we knew we would be in the company of friends and our “extended paintball family”.

During this event, our fearless leader playing the part of commanding general defending the island of Iwo Jima, is our very own Mark “Green Hat” Kimmel.  As with the night before, rain was off and on, but it could not stop our spirit.  Mark wisely deploys our team across the beachhead to defend against the Marine’s beach landing named “Operation Detachment”.  The Marines had two hours to break through 3 lines of defense, along the way moving their base of operations from the landing craft, to “Red 1”, and finally to “Tobishi”.  Our ranks held off the invasion for the first hour of the game, until the Marines were able to get a foot hold.  Our tanks made sure they were slow moving throughout the rest of the beach landing time. 

Multiple times throughout the day our team worked well with ourselves and also with other teams in multiple roles.  Some of our new HDE Camo Jerseys got used during these raids into enemy territory and helped to conceal our position until we started firing.  One particular daunting mission was to rescue a downed pilot at “Hiwa”.  Even after making our way past the Marine’s base and securing the location, our team captain had to look for a lost mission card to receive points.  A lot of our team got to participate in the speedball missions and the weather helped to make everyone more on even footing. 

At dinner break, both generals concede to have no night game, so all teams mingle and get caught up on good times (and get a little dry).  The Howell Community Center provided all with some awesome southern food during the break – the Ribeye sandwich is to die for, although we all love the ribs too.       

Day two started out much the same as day one – with a rain storm.  Luckily most of the heavy stuff was past us after an hour delay in play (that extended our playing time).  We switched bases to give everyone a chance to see the whole field.  The missions were hot and heavy with us being in the lead by 400 points.  Our “BK Bigshot” (Etha with EMC Rail Mounting Kit and Havoc Launcher) took out the opposing tanks almost every time they showed up.  Mud and rain didn’t stop our equipment all weekend – even without covering.  This proves as a testament to the reliability and design of our Planet Eclipse gear.      

For the final battle each team needed to control four points on the map to get points – Okita, Surabachi, Futa, and Hill 199.  We quickly made our way to Okita, as it is the furthest point from our base.  Throughout the onslaught, we kept our composure and dug in like ticks.  As the game was called, we controlled two of the four points, with one being contested between both teams (with a quick final seconds move by the opposition).  After gathering after battle, we got to hear that we did pull out the victory for the Japanese.

Our next event will be in Chicago for Living Legends 6.  Stop by and say hi and feel free to try out some of our equipment or have us look at your kit if you are having any problems.  After that, we will be at Bearclaw Paintball for the UWL event on August 24^th-25^th.  Teams from across the region will be battling old school tournament style in the woods.  Any marker / hopper combo can be used as long as it can be capped at 10 balls per second.  You are also allowed one sniper (that must run pump/pistol) and one heavy gunner (that has no bps cap).  Do you have a few guys that want to play, but not enough to field a 10 man crew?  Look us up on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/blackkarmapaintball) and we can see if we can put you in touch with some more of our friends that may need a player or nine.   We would also like to thank the guys at PB Junkie (www.pbjunkie.com) for taking pictures through the weather all weekend and bringing back the best website for scenario paintball in the southeast.  Also check our page for updates on upcoming games and new products from Planet Eclipse.