Ep8: Joe Barrett of Sacramento DMG

In this episode we talk with Joe Barrett of  NXL pro team Sacramento DMG


In this episode Joe will be discussing his road to becoming a pro . Being on a new pro team and his time on super team KTM X-Bow.

Check out Joe and his team below:
https://www.facebook.com/joe.barrett.58
https://www.facebook.com/DMG-122848934556406/

Check out our sponsor below:
http://wwww.dyzanasports.com ( Use code Overshot for 10% off)

Transcript

Waldo:   0:00
welcome to oversight or painful podcast with Waldo and the Wolf bringing people. All right, guys, welcome to overshot a paintball podcast. I am your hostess episode. Travis Waldo was also hear. This episode does have a sponsor or sponsors DiSanto sports. They have awesome joggers, which I wear all the time. Ah, they have gloves. And also any soft goods T shirts. Anything with that you can get from them. Ana. Yeah, They make really good stuff. If you use code overshot, you can get 10% off on anything. They gotta examine sports dot com and, ah, Yemen. They got really good stuff. And if used a code, it really helps us out. Tells Tim that we came and he then he sends us an email says you a bunch of dudes bought self with the code, and it looks good for us, but I'm making right into away because I love the guests we have today. He's Joe Barret of Sacramento. DMG has a nice long history, and we're going to start it right? Also, Like I said, the classic question man, how did you start playing paintball? What was your first experience like?

Joe :   1:06
Oh, man. Uh, my first time actually playing paintball, not just shooting one of those plastic Ah, blade pump guns from warmer at a stop sign in Somebody's was, Ah, the classic cliche story. I got invited to a birthday party and, ah, it was this place called Tsunami down the street for me in Tonawanda in New York, which is right outside of Buffalo. Um, this field was a horrible, filthy, dirty half with half length indoor field with hyper ball, plastic corrugated bunkers and about three inches of slimy paint on the ground. Um, lover, all that you know aside, I was hooked. You know that the conditions don't really matter that first time you start shooting at, ah, bunch of your little 10 year old buddies and, ah, the loud classic bunkers start banging and you get that adrenaline pump. If you are that right kind of person, the bug bites you hired, and after that it was over. I decided to figure out how to play as much as possible.

Waldo:   2:11
Awesome. And how often were you playing after that? Were you playing every weekend after that?

Joe :   2:15
Ah, you know, it took a little bit after the very first time playing. I remember I played for about a year in the woods. Just cause paintball was expensive. Of course. You know, it's still kind of expensive sport. Um, so, uh, my my parents who were divorced at the time my dad had some property and ah, behind his his own backyard was like a big field. Probably about 100 yards were the field and then another 100 yards worth of, like, nice, dense woods, which made for two really cool type of paintball arenas. And for about a year, me and my little brother and a couple of our little buddies down the block would ah, all you know, we'd split like one of those green ammunition crates worth of paint that you get from Wal Mart. And, you know, my dad would have no problem getting me Ah ah, 3000 box for 40 bucks If it meant me and all my friends, we're gonna play all day as opposed to, you know, now getting a case of paint might last year a pointer to the way we play

Waldo:   3:18
So area. You

Joe :   3:19
know, paintball was expensive, but at that point, it's kind of cheap to play it. That way because he's making it. So me and my brother can play this fun little sport with our friends in the backyard. Probably, I'd say at least once a week, like, you know, your typical weekend warriors. Maybe not every weekend, because I was a little kid. So I was still into a plethora of other things. You know, skateboarding and soccer and football and stuff like that. But the bug was definitely sinking where it was becoming a hobby. And the more I played it, the more I wanted to play are. I couldn't wait till that next time that would happen. And you know, you're not die hard at that age. You're not missing other practices or our birthdays or holidays. But ah, I remember must have been around 11 or 12 years old, and I got invited to another birthday party and my buddy Chris down the street, who, you know, only played papal just this one time. But he played again at that place tsunami. That began it all, and I went back there and by now, by about a year of, you know, learning how to be sneaky and tactical and get my shot down the words, uh, I was surgical competitive, all my little friends who aren't, you know, nonstop papal players and in that speedball setting rather than being terrified. This time I was just destroying my little buddies all day long and right that week, I decided I was going to go home. It was summertime, and I was going to start mowing all my neighbor's lawns and doing whatever I could for extra money to buy paint, to play there and then in the Buffalo winters. Air pretty cold. So when winter hit, I started shoveling driveways for 20 bucks a driveway up and down my street and before I could even, you know, legally work, I think legal working papers age like 13 or 14. I was already, like figuring out ways to make at least 50 or 60 bucks a day several times a week so that I could play paintball, Um, at least once or twice a week. And then I started roughing at that same field to cover my entry fees. So I was basically living about indoor field tsunami. Ah, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, working and refereeing for like, bags of paint, basically not even for money and then playing Saturday and Sunday because my entry was covered and bring all the paint dried, then saving up for And then, of course, I'm also saving up for you know, my first I wasn't our auto cocker and things

Waldo:   5:50
like that, right? Conquered you go with what would you get? You get a shock tech back then what was like the rage back? Uh

Joe :   5:57
oh, no. I mean, my parents were not supportive of paintball like it took a while That convinced them to let me ride my bike to the field, because at first I was sneaking out into the woods like my dad was cool with that. But my mom was not. So Yeah, there was no support from either of them to get those shock tech type cockers or free flows like that. But I was able to go to this ah store down the street from my neighborhood called sports replay, which is kind of one of those. You probably have something like it. They sell any type of sports stuff where you know, let's say you're done with your hockey skates. You bring him in. You saw him 30 bucks. They up Markham for 50 bucks. Just sell used here. It's almost like going to a a garage sale that's just always open in a storefront. The writer back section They had some paintball stuff because they worked closely with the tsunami field. I think one of the owners was a co owner with the paintball field so I could drop in there and say hi into this guy. Uh, hat, vanilla wave. Ah, rest in peace. He actually died a few years ago. Um, but I could go in there and just talk to him about paintball stuff, and back then it's that nostalgia arranged where, you know, you might see a few electro guns like some angels. Ah, are maybe like an axe mag on the wall or something like that. But there is no, like affordable range markers yet there's no electric guns that I could just get so even the auto cockers on the wall are $1000 for a mechanical cocker. So you know, he knows that I'm the kid that's now roughing at its field, that he's a co owner at. So he hooked me up for my very first gun was a right feed hammer auto cocker with a JNJ ceramic barrel and a bunch of mixed match parts. He probably made it out of a box of mixed

Waldo:   7:50
parks. Like spares was the spare doctor. It

Joe :   7:53
was the spare cocker on, and it was 750 bucks. And then I got a Reavie for it and a 45 45 steely tank. And all sudden that I spent about $900 for my first tournament quality gun, which was just a, you know, beat up looking right feet auto cocker.

Waldo:   8:16
So golden. So what was your next step? I know eventually. So what? What was your first competitive team? And then I know he ended up playing the XBL. I know we're speaking to coddle about that a bit and then just kind of go down the rabbit hole.

Joe :   8:31
Yeah, so I guess trying not to take too much time because it's it's been ah, you know, 20 year career Now, Um, after that first auto Cocker, you know quickly I'm showing up to that speed ball field and getting invited to play with the local team, tsunami force and tsunami force kids. I would be on the kids teams. I'm just a 13 year old kid. Um and I'm I'm realizing I made a mistake. I just dropped $900 on a gun. That's barely gonna give me enough firepower because most of these guys are older dudes or rich kids with Daddy and Mommy's money. And they're shooting angels and the Early Jeezy Intimidator. And eventually, in 02 and 03 the impulse and the 03 matrix. So once again, you know, sold that auto cocker worked a bunch, uh, you know, did everything I could sold my brand new bicycle I got for my birthday, uh, sold that couch out of my parent's basement without them noticing it, and bought $1000 read non vision impulse. And now I was ready to play. I could have, you know, electric. It didn't have ramping back then. But I could shoot, you know, 10 15 miles a second with the new halo, be force fed on top it and started playing all the tournaments at at, um, tsunami and then grc paintball down in Wells Ville. And then n v p, which is the pretty well known rial like clean facility, I guess, um, in Rochester and right around that time of like finishing my first year of like little three man's and four man tournaments, the xbl happened. At first there was the N Y Excel, but then it it transitioned through by PD l and like working with C xbl League to become the Xbox. And I started playing for teams local to me at first. Tanah Lot of Nightmare sodas predators. But then I joined Ah, longtime legendary player, coach and industry guy Buddy Bowers Camp, the rhythm camp and at a time body had rhythm buffalo soldiers Rockland Hustle, which was my team and then, like two or three M exile teams in the league below us. So I started to really get my bearings down in 2005 and six and seven in that ex Boro big regional league. Where was Full Expo? Our games? 15 miles a second. Um, around that time I also started playing and PPL in division three, just kind of on throw together teams, HK army like for fun teams. And, you know, I didn't have a lot of money as a 14 year old kid and I wasn't able to fly to like the West Coast events. But if there was an event within 15 hours that me and friends could carpal too. We were driving to those and PPL events and those were just so much fun. And that's that was kind of the beginning of it all. Just Ah ah, big regional league and division 37 man.

Waldo:   11:36
So I think you play. Did you end up playing with, um, Avalanche for a seven man? A little bit, But

Joe :   11:42
I did. I did, I had Ah, yeah, I had one little stint with Avalanche. Um, I went out and tried out for the pro team, and they were like, Where do you live? And I was, like, 10 hours away and they're like, Yeah, I mean, we have all these personal predator kids right here. You know, you get a good try, but it's just it's too many variables like one of your car breaks down blah bedrock. So there, uh, I pretty much didn't think that was gonna happen. And then about two weeks before the NPP L d C challenge, I can't remember what year it was. It must have been like 2011. I think, Um, the guy David Archibold, who was like Frank Connell's secondhand man called me up and he's like, Hey, Joe, I'm doing ah, divisional squad to go along with the protein this event and we could use another guy or two. My buddy Harrison Fry is already on. That team used the try out, and that was the first time I had met Harrison, who is now a pro player. And I've played with him on ah, host of teams in a host of different countries. But he's like, you know, Harrison, uh, vouch for you, he said. He plays against you in the big regional leagues, so I'd like to bring you on the team. Can you get here? And I was like, It's this weekend And I called up this other kid who was pitting for a protein explicit time that I knew was driving there. I was like, Yo, can I drive with you? I'll give you gas money. He's like, Absolutely so I have been the car with him. Dr. To I was Richmond, Virginia, I guess for Paps paintball and jump on this Avalanche team with a bunch of guys I don't know and Harrison and we go for inform pre limbs. We make it in the last wildcard spot. We thought we weren't gonna make it in. And then we go undefeated Sunday and win the tournament and

Waldo:   13:35
you go

Joe :   13:36
and Archie's looking around. He's like, Man, we're pretty good for not even practicing together. Um, you guys want to play Vegas The next event this is going to cover the entire Vegas event. The winnings from this Or I could just pay out right here. And we were like, how? Yeah, you know, we're all 2021 area at the time, So we're like, we haven't been to Vegas. Let's do it, get a completely free event going to Vegas. And this was kind of one of those, you know, just very like dream esque situations like Ah, you know, very like, kind of like miracle movie situation. Right? Okay, we're going to this event at this point. We're just happy we're going to Vegas for free and paints covered our hotel. Everything's covered between our winnings and sponsors. We didn't drop a dollar, and if we re even win some games will be happy like it would be, ah, fluke to win twice in a row. Well, the same squad comes back. Plus my buddy Jad, one heart who played with me on Wells Bill fs you and he's a well known, really good player out of Western New York. So now they're squads even a little better. And we just go completely undefeated through Vegas like mop everybody up. It was ridiculous, I think. I mean, it's It's not like Expo. It's point for point. So we're not only really we not lose a point, but I don't think I got shot until our semi finals game trading out with someone. And then we win the finals game in, like, historic action against a uh, I think it was against a DMG team ironically, because my buddy Josh Hallberg told me, You remember playing against me that event way back then, Um, it was it was DMG Royals or royalty or something like that. But that was our only game. That was tough, where each game came down to like, ah, body or to versa, body or two. And the second point came down to a one on one and we want it and ah so we win this completely freed of that and we get like, it was a big payout. It was, like 10 grand or something back then, and we had a seven guy roster. So we each went home. That event would like 12 or 1300 bucks and pocket free and PPL event. I honestly, it's funny, because I think to this day, that was the most money I've ever made personally from a papal of adult

Waldo:   16:01
tournament. Yeah. Yeah. Now, that's too funny, cause, like, I play on the amateur ground zero team and Archie plays on the pro. So it's kind of funny how, like, you know, Archie and this everything comes full circle, man.

Joe :   16:16
Yeah, that's cool. You know, Archie No, I still I owe a lot to that guy. Um oh, man, I'm I'm sorry, guys. I think I might have toe bring the headphones off and get a little actually here because my phone just went down from 20% to 4%. So I don't wanna lose you guys in the middle of this second.

Waldo:   16:36
You got to do what you gotta do a little bit again. I'll, uh,

Joe :   16:41
take it back out for a while. My phone charges pretty quickly, but Yeah, it was just about to die there, but Yeah, Archie, you know, I I owe a lot to him because on top of I've only played two events with the guy, but we talked a lot of the phone, and, um, he became kind of like another mentor for me. Like I already had a lot of legendary mentors in the game that we're I personally consider them as, like, my own, you know, not just coaches, but like teachers And like, people that I get asked for whatever for how to, like, get further in the game. You know, I Buddy Bauer and Justin Bryce from Lockout Rob Cole, lockout player and field owner, uh, Mitch Car and Mike Lehman. I I just have all these guys. I looked up Teoh that lived right near me. But now I had another guy from another region, and, um, he was very influential because, you know, all the guys around me, I had already grown up with them since the early two thousands. But getting this to new guy into my circle in 2011 from another area, um, that just kind of like took a risk and like brought me back once and then twice toe win tournaments with and then kind of kept giving me more insight on like what My next moves are because he knew how badly I wanted to go pro. Um, it was cool and it it kind of. It was one of those first times that sparked the idea in my head about how important it is to start playing for different. I already been jumping around, kind of like one of those, you know, free agent type people in divisional paintball for a while. But I didn't want to just jump around event to event anymore. Now. I wanted to go camp to camp and kind of learn the different place styles of each region, and that was really the beginning of it. You know, I knew how the best players in New York played, but now I kind of was getting a feel through Archie and Frank Connell of how New England paintball was played. And then eventually I would start playing for teams in the Midwest out of Chicago and Detroit. Um, like, 810 and ah, eventually crush, which was my first NPP I'll pro team and then eventually I lived in Florida two separate times, and I learned how people play in the South. So, yeah, that's kind of a lot of you know, Archie kind of was a main factor into, um, beginning to breathe this very unique paintball style I have Where I from from traveling around so much I can see a lot of people. They only see the game one way, you know, they see it, Um, just the way they were caught by their pro coach or the pro player in their area. But I kind of have chameleon my game to to ah, absorb in every single type of team style that I've played with. And so when a lot of people will see a problem and they'll have their one perspective and solution on it, I'll look at it with 20 different perspectives and solutions and kind of take, uh, you know ah, a bit from each to kind of figure out like Okay, well, all the styles would have decided that this was the best move. So that's not just one guy's opinion anymore. That's now unanimously the best way to play out this type of feel. Their situation and it really it heightened by my game i q ah, lot quicker than all the other. You know, piers around me that they had all been growing up. Playing with me and around me for is just a long as I had, but, um, you know, they just stayed in their in their little bubble. They never really branched out or decide to do those road trips to other regions. And ah, yeah, quickly, I became, like, kind of the coach in mind in my area before moving for, um ah, host of teams you guys would probably no, like, you know, affects you. And, ah, several of the teams that came out of that circus keeps field had rush as well as, Ah, my collegiate team, University of Buffalo. So, yeah, we're going to be gang.

Waldo:   20:44
So so have you ever. Tonto. Sorry. Have you ever played here? Later. What? You don't know me. 00 yeah, Yeah.

spk_1:   20:55
I, uh Actually, man, it's weird. I just right place the right time. I guess I got to play the very first year W Well, before they even really decided that it was gonna be a league thing. It was down in central Florida at this field called tracks and trails it like waiting on the bush. You know, people in Florida know about CFT, but there's this other field called tracks and Trails that's like 300 acres. And they used to go there for the other living legends. Ah, standalone event, the dreaded legends because you could fit, like 2000 people in that big Paul Me forest. And there was like old Vietnam villages and broke down planes and stuff like that. So this one day, the first time I moved to Florida, I lived down the street from I lived with Kyle Berry and we lived near Mike Packs and and Robert Anderson from Aftershock. Hi O'Berry happened to be busy that weekend. I forget what he was doing. He was working, so they reached out to me because we were in the same household. So I think we're on speaker phone or something like that. Making breakfast and they were like, Oh, Joe, you want to play like by now? I've already, you know, been playing a little bit of the ones semipro. So this is you know, it's weird because, like I've been playing pro for a while, and it's not that I get starstruck, but I still always get humbled when, like the legends of the game approach me. You know, like I have enough respect for these guys. They used to be on posters on my wall that when Mike packs and asked me if I want to play Ah Woods ball tournament and there's two different divisions, we could play Bulls 10 men and five men. Unlike it doesn't matter what's going on that week, and I'm like, Yeah, absolutely packs. And I'd love to be your teammate for an event and Ryan, right? We win 10 man, and then we win five man undefeated, Uh, and we played it just like those guys did back in the day. Like, you know, Woods Ball Tournament isn't like an exile. When you when you play a Woods ball tournament, you're normally drinking beers throughout the day and just hanging out with those old, salty 30 40 year old vets. And there's so many of them there. There's, like, you know, name any big name that used to play pro paintball in the nineties, and they've all came back out for this tournament, and I'm playing with quite a few of those guys on this team called Think it was black Sunday and were, You know, we'll go out there and I'm like their scout cause I'm the youngest guy on the team, So they're like, Oh, just run as far as you can. Joe will catch up and we'll lay down, you know, shit little fire over your head. You just basically draw him out. We'll see where people are shooting from because it's deep, heavy palm. So if you don't get them shot first, you'll never see him. So I would basically just sprint somewhere, dive into a poem, Bush lay flat and listen toe Paxson and a bunch of older guys behind me start just chain gunning through bushes

Waldo:   23:54
with their first

spk_1:   23:56
and just, you know, screaming and Kherson. And that's standard stuff. People over shooting each other. People are mother fighting each other, and then you come out after that game laughin and kind of shit talking with that other team and then you have a beer together. And then about half hour goes by and you go out and do another one.

Waldo:   24:13
Yeah, 40 40 store, huh? you want? I think you were I Really Yeah, Yeah. What? You Master Blaster Blessed you were on

spk_1:   24:30
master blasters. Oh, my God. I almost that's so funny. Because, dude, I was going to say I thought it came down to us first. You guys and you guys are those sweet, like dark green camouflage jerseys.

Waldo:   24:44
Uh, another. There was another buddy

spk_1:   24:48
of mine that was under I forget his name, but really big guy with a beard. Um, man gonna bug me, but yeah. So So you remember what it was like. That was such a fun event in there.

Waldo:   25:03
You? Yeah, I wait, but Yeah. Yep.

spk_1:   25:21
Time Adamson was there. Yeah, I remember. Nobody really wanted play on our side. And it wasn't really because of me. It was because Do you remember that event? You could choose one of your 10 guys to be the heavy gunner, and they everybody else had to shoot Max and stuff like that. But one guy on your team could have a Oh, go on. Yeah, uncapped full auto gun. So we're like, of course, we're gonna give it to Paxson. So we

Waldo:   25:49
way just lucked

spk_1:   25:51
out. Die and t and Not only is it shooting like 25 2nd with a road around top it, but I mean this events long over. So between me and all you guys watching packs and had this regulator on the front of that gun that I don't know where you get these things but ailing in the bottom of it to screw it, you could just turn the whole regulator and it would crank

Waldo:   26:19
the speed up. So it was like a senior

spk_1:   26:22
regulator. So he would, you know, bring the gun up, shoot over the chrono at 2 90 in the deck, You're good. And then as soon as we talk about the boards, he would just turn it all the way and his anti. You must have been shooting 3 50 because somebody would start shooting at me and I dive backpacks and he's in the poem 50 feet out, and I'd hear her passion, but but But on, he would just shop the bushes down like he was just He was purposely using the less brutal pain, and he was just cutting away people's poem bushes. And then you'd hear the people start getting hit at 25 balls a 2nd 3 50

Waldo:   26:59
and people would be screaming the big trying to get out of the bushes so they don't get He was just wearing people out. Uh, is too funny. Goes Well, what happened next? You you

spk_1:   27:18
Ah, after, um So let's see here after avalanche, um, I graduated school right around then And, um, that was the first time. So yeah, this is a part of, ah, my history that, like, really lead me into pro paintball. So you know, after that, that couple, you know, that like winning two in a row and kind of feeling on top of the world and already like winning a bunch of my regional leagues and stuff like that. Um, I just really wanted to make my push for pro paypal, and it was like, OK, I have no obligation jet. I'm barely 21 years old. Um, I just got back from winning like a world championship in Bangkok, Thailand. To So, like, that was finally a time when, you know me and Harrison for I found this a while ago that if you can't play pro here, you have to be willing to travel even if it's on your own dime and go Clayton in other countries because if you can get in those open divisions in other countries now you'll play against the other traveling pro players like the guys like, you know before, like I'm one of those guys now. But it would have been like 10 Mon Tresor and a lot of those heat guys. And ah, like you know, Ronnie D's on Nico Hide. There's just all these guys. There's about 20 people Marcello, Margo, Greenspan that they all play like 2020 25 events a year. They don't just pay the five events in the US they're constantly playing in international leagues. So my first big break was Ah, it was at the end of when I was in college. It was like 2011. I went and played in Bangkok, Thailand, and there were a few those guys out there and a lot of them. They were there for this other weird experimental format that wasn't even paintball was called Taser Ball, where you're running around with giant soccer balls like playing a game of soccer. But you can get taste if you have the ball and people have these hand

Waldo:   29:15
Tasers, I swear to God, this is the you've seen it. Yeah, Travis, Exhilaration

spk_1:   29:21
ist YouTube. This is crazy. Um, but anyways, so, like, I start to get a little bit of report with pro players from, you know, like driving around and partying in another country and getting have, like, one on one conversations and started to learn a little respect from people, actually, you know, seeing me win an open division tournament and seeing that I have some talent because nobody's really watching you on the divisional fields and even in Division one semipro, you're not really getting scouted by, like, pro players and teams until you're on that Sunday court field, you know, so you better be winning every event or else how many times they really seeing you and coming out of western New York. It's not like I really live near any pro players or teams, because since the really Americans died like 09 there just wasn't anything near me. Um, you know, until recently, with New York extreme, which I got to play for, but that wasn't for years later. So back then it was like I'm graduate from school. I just want a bunch of tournaments and people kind of know me, Uh, I don't have a girlfriend, a really job house, and this is kind of my opportunity to, like, really make that push for pro. So I moved down to, uh, the worst part of Florida, which is where it's, um, Lakeland, right next to Auburndale, where the fantasy of flight and the old World Cup games to bay. And that's about all that's known for us is the fancy of quite. But if you actually, like go through that area of Auburndale, it's like the most horrifying trailer

Waldo:   31:01
park. Just

spk_1:   31:02
white trash. She read. Nucky, you know, a lot of people doing math and a lot of like weird junkies just running

Waldo:   31:09
the streets at night. Ah, it would be,

spk_1:   31:13
Yeah, Like I me and my buddy John Czarnecki rented Ah, house, not an apartment. We rented a house in each other on bedroom for 200 bucks a month. It's the hood. Uh, yes, I moved down there right at the end of school, and I am training all summer as many times I can, um, at Central Florida paintball until the Tampa Bay damage tryout comes up and at the time, Tampa Bay damages like at the peak they've ever been at, like coming out of 2011 and 12. There was a point that they won five events in a row between PSP and PPL. So this was a ridiculous team. This was one of those teams where you know you here as we're getting paycheck like Jason Edwards and some of these legends on the suave time. Dave Baines and, uh, J Rab and Rainy had been through it. Now he's played for a few events with so around that time, I'm not just trying out for a protein like I'm going all in. I'm I'm going out for, like, the number one team where if I make it this year, maybe I'll get a 50 grand a year salary in my head, you know? Yeah. And of course, I didn't know things would change drastically in the industry and all that in the following year. And as a rookie, I was never going to get a salary like that. But sometimes you gotta have that hope to really like, uh, put it all on black. You know, like cause if you don't risk it all, And you're not willing to, like, sink your ships and go 100% in, then you're never gonna make it like if you already have these Plan B's and eligibles in your head those the guys who they don't put in every single bit of effort. So So, yeah, I moved there and I didn't have a job lined up. I didn't have anything I had saved about five grand, and I budgeted so that the five grand would last me one full year if I wasn't able to find a job. So I was banking on in that in that year. Hopefully, I'll find a job and I could have the money stretch more. But if I don't, it'll last me. The year time. Make the tryout, which about nine months away and then you know, at the very beginning of the next season, like around the same time that I'm graduating like it would be. I don't know March, I guess. And I'm graduating like inmate, so it's like 10 months away. Um, and then hopefully I'm making that big 50 grand a year salary playing for damage, which once again it was a complete fallacy, and nobody told me that. But I was ready to go there improve that I was worth 50 k as a rookie player. Um, so, yeah, making five grand a year. Most people can't make that last like what that basically entails. Especially if you want to play paintball every Saturday and Sunday and you want to drill during the week with some of the damage guys like, you know, Brian Smith, who's back in damage now? Finally, e I owe a lot to him. He took me under his wing and ah, he would He would invite me every time he went out to drill on Wednesdays or Fridays. So I'm I'm shooting a ton of pain each week. I'm probably spending two or $300 a week out of my five grand for its gonna be 48 weeks here on that. So do the murder. Like it's it's close. Luckily, I found this dude, uh, I think his name was hot box, but his came from a wealthy family and his parents bottom and encapsulated machine. So he was selling cases of white box paint for 20 bucks each. And if you bought six cases he'd give it to you for 100. So that started saving my budget so I could get six cases a week for 100 rather than, you know, two or 300. But even still, I have rent. So I went found that crack house in the hood for 200 bucks a month. Um, now I have to worry about food. I kid you not. And plenty of my friends knew this when they came to visit me for that entire 10 months. I lived on a $7 a week grocery budget.

Waldo:   35:22
Hang you, You. How was that? Yeah, uh, yeah.

spk_1:   35:35
Especially for right now. It helped people. Um, yes, seven bucks a week. A lot of people spend 7 to 10 bucks on every meal. So how do you eat for $7 a week? You ask? Um, this was my entire, Like, this was my my diet for 10 for 10 months. Unless, you know, my family visited and treat me out a meal or something like that. So only tap water, because it's free never drank anything else. And I was like, What is the cheapest thing that I could get? Sustenance and last time when Florida eggs are really cheap. Like you get like five or six dozen eggs for, like, four or five books. It was super cheap. It was like a dollar a dozen if you went to like Costco, so I would eat nothing but eggs all day. And then, you know, you go to the dollar store, you can get like a big loaf of bread for a buck, like, you know, cheap white bread or some like that. So I I would I would eat eggs every different kind of way. You could make eggs scrambled over easy. I'm let's poached on toast and that was it with water. But it got me through. And, you know, in that time, I it was kind of a blessing because I was also way overweight, Like when I moved to Florida. I used to be like to 50. So what a bigger than I am now, like £70 heavier. And I already knew in my head this was the uphill battle cause you're not gonna get picked up by a pro team as a new divisional rookie. If you're a big guy, like mainly because even if you're really good like I had gun skills and I was smart. Pro teams are only looking for front. Guys like you need to be athletic, like they generally just want a snake front guy, but at least seem to be versatile and athletic enough to play to be able to play the whole field. Um, so I knew I had, like, nine or 10 months till the tryout. So while I was eating on this calorie deficit, I would just do like 1000 push ups and pull ups a day 1000 crunch today and go on five mile runs every morning and every evening around all of Auburndale, which is like a little small town. I just run the entire perimeter of it and ah yeah, that was basically my life, like I didn't have cable Internet. This is kind of pre smart bones, so I would go on the streets of library and I would, you know, rent out some books, stir like some DVDs, and that was, you know, during the week days I would run and do homework outs and then read different books or watch, like inspirational movies like Invincible was a big one for me was like, You know, if Marky Mark and get picked up as, ah non college player onto a pro football team, then why can't this divisional player from New York who is a little bit overweight, come down and make it fucking Tampa Bay damage? I swear that was my mind set. Is every time I thought like, man, I'm tired or shit. I've already done some played practice today, it back 11 o'clock at night, I'd be like, Yeah, but somebody who else is gonna be at this tryout might be doing more than you. So get back up and go for that five mile run at night. I don't care if it's raining or whatever. And 10 months I lived like that, like barely eating, just running, reading books and playing paintball for five days a week. And, ah, eventually the tryout happened, and it was an invite only try out. And the nine other guys that were invited were all pro players, like, you know, so And, you know, these dudes are coming off of, like, other pro squads. Like trying to get on the better squad.

Waldo:   39:19
All right, All right.

spk_1:   39:20
I don't think they would have just invited me. And I was just some semipro guy living in New York. But because I was down there all the time, like playing him with static and drilling with Brian Smith. I was like, Brian, you got to get me this invite like, and I know you're not gonna just get me on the team. It's on me to, like, show up at the tryout and play well, but right, get his tryout. I moved here for this. This entire reason I moved here isn't for a new way of life for a job. I moved here all to lead up to this one tryout weekend. And he's right. I get you that spot. So on the 10th guy, this tryout, there's a YouTube video. This tryout to you could search the think it's 2012. Tampa Bay damage. Try and you can

Waldo:   40:01
It's like I see it.

spk_1:   40:02
Yeah, Joey, Joey pollute picking people and yelling people and stuff and,

Waldo:   40:07
uh, you and I go

spk_1:   40:10
Oh, yeah. Um, yeah. So this this tryout finally comes around. I'm the first person there, like, two hours early, just like snap shooting at targets and, like, warming up, you know, making sure that my running guns on odd stuff and the tryout begins and it's like one on ones and two on twos and I kid you not. You can ask any of the Florida like static guys or divisional guys who are watching. I was smoking everybody, like just mowing people down in the one on ones and winning two on one sometimes. And then eventually you're playing one on ones and mix ins with the damage guys. And I'm beating most of them, too. Um, finally gets into game play, and you know, I've lost a good amount of weight by then, but but I'm still a bigger guy. I'm still probably 200 or 2 20 or something like that. And so, you know, I kind of sealed my own fate because you were allowed to choose where you want to play so that you could show your strengths and Shino and I just kept choosing to play the three spot in the two spot and I was winning points for us. I was doing clutch stuff, but I was playing kind of like a counterpunch game out of the backfield and after that first day, they you know they had been making, like, a cutter to here, and they're off. Guys they knew didn't already like guys who were too rusty or didn't have the gun skills or the mindset or whatever. But by the end of that day, they cut it down to the last three, and I got cut. And, man, I remember it. It was Ah, it was almost surreal. You know, Is that part of a movie where, um, you know, you come home and your house is on fire? Stomach that, and you're like, this can't be happening because in your head, you not that I felt entitled to where I deserve it, But it's just I I went all in, so I only saw it going one way, and that was all the work was gonna pay off all the sacrifice and I was going to be on this team. And, uh, when he called those last three names, it was like, LP, Everett, Gino Benedicto and ah, Dylan Hopkins, I think. Or now is this kid Alex Young from from Arsenal. Um who he doesn't even play anymore, right? It's a shame school. Two of those guys don't even play anymore. And then they just end up picking lp Everett, who used to play with all those guys on Strange. So when they pick Tim, it was like he was a ball there. But it's like, Man, he was your old teammate. Why didn't you bring your own team back? Why even get all these other guys hopes up to just grab your teammate of

Waldo:   42:39
Took a guy I met, you know? Anyway,

spk_1:   42:42
um, yeah, I asked him why I asked Joey and Jason Edwards. I was like, So I just want to know. So I know what to work on or why I didn't get picked. As I thought I was having a good try out. And they were like, Dude, honestly, we like the way you play paintball, you know, good feel like you. Your gun skills are great. Um, you can play the game, but ah, you know, you you played the defensive player the entire day and we were looking for the guy who, even if he got shot making mistakes or diet early, he was willing to go up there and bloody knuckles and trade out with people or crawl all the way down the snake and maybe catch one of the pack. But at least he showed he was willing to go. And they were like, you know, you were trying to keep your body alive too valuable, and and you were you would win games, but you were almost never willing to go first. So we think you need a few more years and semipro to learn how to, like, work on your own winnability and go win the game yourself like, go down the field, not just like support other players. And you got to get in better shape. Like you. You still have a long way to go and ah, yeah, I went home almost blacked out like I don't even remember how I got home. I didn't

Waldo:   43:52
have a car. I'm gonna pick me up. But

spk_1:   43:54
I remember I got home and I thought about that 10 months of, like, just misery. Where other than at the paintball field, I was like, you know, miserable and barely eating anything good the whole time and right destroyed my entire rental house and backyard. I started ripping pieces out of offense and, like, you know, tour apart the little fake above ground pool and just started. Just throw it like the house was already kind of like, You know, why trashy, where there was just stuff all over the back. And I just started grabbing one thing and breaking the next thing with it and for the entire rest. That evening I just destroyed everything and then went across the streets of the bodega and got like, a cheap 12 pack of King Cobra's Runk and just kind of sat there like self pitying myself. Like, What do I do now? I guess I'm going to move back to New York. You know, my roommate gets home and wonders what how happened? Everything is destroyed. I'm sitting there with a bunch of beer cans I m d like. It was like my bottom of the bottom, like, lowest of the low, because I'm like, I basically live in the ghetto. I have no friends here. I have no other reason to live down here and now I have no money to leave. So I'm stuck down here and I'm not playing pro paintball, So yeah, it was Ah, it was a pretty brutal like, like rest of the weekend. And then I remember my buddies were coming down because that would have been right at the beginning of the season around like it must have been in March or April. So my friends were coming down to play the national Collegiate finals, and I had already been a coach and a national champion player with that you b team. So even though I wasn't on the team anymore, because this is the year after I graduate, they said, Hey, it's in. It's in Orlando, Florida every year would you mind meeting up in coaching us? And I was like, Yeah, cool and I coach them and then getting second place that year, which was really cool. But, ah, they came back to drop me off after the last day of like, you know, getting second. We're all celebrating that they got the finals and stuff like that with a relatively new teams from fresher and stuff. And they're looking around at my just horrible like crack house in this neighborhood that's like falling apart were like, you know, you can hear car alarms going off down the street, a gunshot at least

Waldo:   46:18
once a week and stuff like that,

spk_1:   46:20
and they know that I'd make teams. I talked to him the whole weekend while I'm coaching them. And they're I do. Do you wanna go back home to New York? And I looked around And what do you mean? They're like, Well, we have an extra space in the van. You can't bring all your stuff. But if you want to grab your paintball stuff and like, your most valuables will give you a few hours to pack. And you could take the 24 hour road trip back to Buffalo with us. And I was like, I was like, Man, I mean, what other options do I really have at the time? Not gonna keep doing this, you know, $7 of eggs and bread of a week for nothing to look forward to? Any more like that was the hope that I was willing to put up with all this for so, uh, called my mom inside. Mom, I didn't make the team. As you know, um, my friends are offering me a ride back because I can't even afford a flight or anything like that. I don't have a car moved back. Would you mind if I moved back home for a little bit on, At least until I get back on my feet. And she was like, Absolutely, You know, it's been almost a year of this part. So your parents always miss you, so Yeah, it's no problem. You come home as long as you want. So I was like, Alright, guys, cool. And there are good. We do not want to leave you in this shit any longer than you have to be here. So

Waldo:   47:34
they helped each other grounds. Yeah. Really,

spk_1:   47:36
Really good friends. I still over them all, and Ah, so, yeah, I helped them all there. They help me pack up, we get in the car, we drive straight shot like we had so many years in a row. Um, when I was in college, right back to Buffalo, I get home by the next day that time must been like Monday, eight oclock At night I went my own bed, passed out for like, a day or two and just kind of decompressed. And then I remember waking up and ah, you know, this is where, like, the Turning Point happened, Like my brother had been getting into, like, meditation and like listening to, like Wayne Dyer and Deepak Chopra. You know, those guys square like self improvement type people. You know, they're very much about, like, you are the master of your own life. And, you know, only a few weeks ago I was, like, kind of, Ah, you know, at the bottom of the bottom wondering where my life was gonna go here If I didn't make pro paintball. And I committed my whole life to pro paintball. Then I guess I'm just gonna get some crappy job I don't like and throw in the towel. You know, I think I was gonna keep playing for fun, but it was just gonna be a hobby at that point on on. And then my brother put me onto these audiobooks about, like, you know, not playing the victim and taking responsibility and doing everything you can to, like, visualize your path and, um and really prioritize every single part of your life towards getting that path. And I remember waking up with, like, this rejuvenated mindset where I was like, you know, uh, Mom, would you mind getting me a gym membership at this? Ah, this anytime. Fitness down the street like I've been going for runs like that, but I need to actually get in shape if I'm gonna do this. And that was kind of when she rised s. So you're you're still gonna keep trying for this pro papal go like, you know, you're almost 22 at this point and you didn't make it the first time we know practicing five days a week like what's gonna be the difference? But ah, that That was like, if I could think of all the turning moments of my life that was the most like important one, because in that day I went to the gym and began working out 2 to 3 hours a day every day. And I went cold turkey from all my vices. Like I stopped eating any fast food, any type of soda. I stopped drinking for that whole year. I got drink some beers now and again Here, here now. But back then I stopped thinking I used to, like, you know, smoke weed here and there, and I stopped smoking, and I just remembered thinking about it so black and white where it was like, Is this gonna help you play pro paintball? No. Then you can't do it anymore. So? So I stopped snowboarding or anything that would risk any kind of bodily injury. Um, you know, I stopped going out and hang out with friends. Even though I was around that college age 21 ish, I stopped going toe any parties, like Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday night? Because even if I showed up on time the next day, I didn't want to be hungover. I didn't want to be low energy, even like anything less than 100% on practice days. Um, I stopped spending money on anything stupid. Like, I used to be a lot more of a negative person where, you know, I I would spiral and drink if I was pissed off. And I was a more aggressive guy. And I was kind of your typical in New York. No fish. Yeah, kind of. I like I feel like, deep down I had a good heart. Like I was never Ah, you know, a violent person, whatever. But you could kind of tell like what my overall values were back then. And and paintball wasn't type priori like as much as I said it was and I loved it and a passion for it. Ah, you know your actions. Kind of always. They you can see if your actions reflect your words. And you think I tell this to people who asked me how to get to pro all the time. Now I like Do you really want to play pro paypal? And they're like, Yeah, yeah, I want to play it more than anything. I'm like, What's funny? Cause I still see you, you know, spend a lot of money on, like, new sneakers and, you know, just buying stupid, flashy shit or ah, you know, going out on Friday night when you have practice Saturday and they're like, Yeah, yeah, but I still show up And I'm like, Well, do you think somebody used the best in the world? Any other professional sport? Does that or did that to get rating? Michael Jordan did that when he was chasing the dream? No. And I'm like, All right, so So why are you the outlier or the exception like, shouldn't you have to do at least what they did, if not more so, you know, around that time, I ah, I before that I was one of those kids through college before that photo move where I was putting rims on my cars and, you know, just trying dumb stuff. And at this point, anything that wasn't gonna help me get the pro I no longer bought or I no longer did. And if the question could be answered, will this help me get the pro? Yes, I started doing it, so I started doing things like working out mawr yoga, eating really clean drinking pretty much nothing but like water and almond milk and Cam Boucha and stuff like that and, ah, you know, reading more books like the art of War and things. So I kind of evolved my my, um, strategic mindset. And it's crazy because it took one year of that one super disciplined year. By the end of that year, I was in almost the best shape. My life at the time, the best shape, my life. I was finally down to like 1 85 and, like, you know, I could actually see some muscle finally like I wasn't just a blob, and my face looked healthier because I had been drinking and smoking. I took care of myself like I started, Like having more respect himself conference where I would just, you know, let myself start looking crappy or let my hair get ridiculous and not give a shit. I wouldn't just wear the same, you know, para close eight days in a row. And ah, I just started treating myself not only on the field like I already had, but off the field I served, treating myself as if I was already a professional. And by the end of that year ah, this n PPL pro team called me and they asked me if I want to play. And then I served playing pro paintball and that was that

Waldo:   54:14
domain. What do you do? What? Your border, Of course. In Korea, you get eggs. So

spk_1:   54:27
are you ask? Like, what would I tell somebody else? That or what do I specifically dio?

Waldo:   54:33
What do you use to civic Leo Bearing?

spk_1:   54:38
So those air kind of two different things. Oh, I'll answer that the easier one first preparing bridge tournament. So when I prepare for a tournament, um I mean, my kind of lifestyle already like this. Like I I eat pretty clean. Um, recently, I've got into baking. So I like making baking chocolate chip cookies

Waldo:   54:56
and stuff. But but for the most part, like I don't eat

spk_1:   54:59
fast food. I don't eat junk food. I don't eat any like chips or snacks or crackers or any of those things that you get in like the middle area. The grocery store. I did a lot of fruit, a lot of vegetables and fish. I don't know any red meat. I don't really eat carbs unless it's the night before an event. And I need the extra energy. Um, I don't drink any soda. Any energy drinks, sports drinks? Um, I work out every day anyways, but when a tournaments coming, work out a little bit lighter, so I don't burn out my muscles and then I'll take a full day or two off before the tournament like I won't work out and then be, like, all right, a workout until Thursday, and then the tournament search Friday. I work out till, like, Tuesday or Wednesday, and then just relax all day long, drink a ton of water, uh, eat some more proteins to, like, help build the muscles. Maybe do, like, go for a walk like you know, not a strenuous hike, but like a nature. Walk on, do some yoga, like, limber up and stay loose. But that's about it, Um, in that week, like already, it's not going. I don't really I can't remember last time I've gotten drunk or anything like that, but I like a good craft beer, like a stout with my meals like that. But coming up to the week of a paintball tournament, I don't drink anything. Um, just don't do anything unhealthy, really, So that I'm 100% and I I've already been practicing. Obviously, you have the layout weekends coming up, but for that whole week, watch a lot of go sports. Specifically, I'll watch the matches of teams that I know are gonna play in problems. I already know. I'm playing those teams and I'll try to watch everybody. But I'm gonna really study those teams because I'm not just talking at how the team plays. I'm watching individual tendencies, and that's kind of what I ke up on. You know, like I can already tell what's gonna be the strong and the weak side of the field. Based on how a lying lines up in the box because I know which guys, like all right, on that side, you have two guys that are both willing to go there both aggressive. So if you're snake one dies. That snake side to guy is gonna continue the attack down the field. But the other side of you shoot that front guy. That back guy is a little bit slower or a little bit more hesitant. So if anything, he's gonna fill out to the corner toe, like, plugged the hole and, like, stop the bleeding. But we don't really necessarily have to worry about him flying down the field. So that's gonna be there. Their defense side, the other side is gonna be their offense. And granted a lot of pro teams like, you know, especially the top six teams. Teams like Houston, He and stuff like that. They don't really have flaws like that. Like they have, you know, their entire lying are versatile guys that can play every spot, so it's harder to pick on it. But yet, at the very least, the bottom 10 teams mostly all have a couple of things where there's players that have tendencies. You can kind of see, and I will choose to bully those guys. Or I'll put the extra gun on that sides front guy to know that. All right, that sides already gonna slow down if we just really keep on shooting that one fast guy off that side. Um, that's pretty much my before tournament routine coming in a pro paintball is. I guess I would just summarize everything I did. At one point I wrote an article about it. I wish I could find it on TV a nation. After that first or second year, I went pro where I wrote, like what you have to do aspiring pro players. And it's like the things that you know most. Pros won't tell you like they'll tell you that clean sheet shake things up like all work hard stuff like that. But it's It's not just about hard work, like going reaching the pinnacle in anything in life, not even just sports, but in anything. It takes hard work. It takes commitment, dedication, persistence, just non. Stop trying because you don't know that you might give up the year before you would have made it. So you know it's it's the biggest two things I'd say are like the patience and persistence, Um, just understanding that it's not gonna come when you think you're ready. There was plenty of times that I thought I was ready for being pro before I went pro because I was beating up on all the pro guys at my local field and what I'm once. But that's just one part of the game. Like, Oh, what do you do? You can beat so and so in a one on one. Let's see you play the chess game like they dio, um, and that was realized so the patience and persistence to realize that you will never go pro. When you think you're ready, you'll go ready. You'll go when the game feels you're ready for it. And that's kind of something that is hard to explain other than people are watching you, like after a certain point, once you're you know they're not watching him in your D three. Once you've been around the block and you've proven that were there consistently like, you know, that 80% of its just showing up thing if you're one of those guys, that all right, it's been like four or five years like let's say, I'm a pro player. If there's a semipro guy that I keep seeing over and over and over again on the on the Sunday Finals field by now, that guy's caught my eye. You know, I might even know that full name by now. I think we saw this kid in finals last event and he had that really clutch point. And Bowie just got a three pack that that's somebody's catching my eye like it takes a while till you really you're around consistently enough that that people see patterns. You could win one event where you're the All Star there and nobody might remember it because it's one time, you know what I mean. It's like those guys you show up in their All Star one point or one practice and then they ship about the other points of practices. So in the long term that the best thing I can tell people is they have to like state patient and stay with it because it could take 345 It took me like seven seasons of D one semi pro, so it finally happened like most people would have given up after, like that third or fourth good season of I constantly making Sunday. But I was like, Oh, I guess I'm just gonna keep going until they noticed me. Or until it's been like I've been the standout on enough teams that I have been through. And then it was finally like a parent. You know? I mean, um, beyond that, the other big thing to get to pro. And this is the real actor. I tell everybody you asked me because, you know, by now I I see people the way like, ah, pro coach would see him like, I think about when somebody's like, Yo, I think I'm ready to play pro Joe like, Would you look at me for your team? I'm always straight up with them and very like honest and blunt Ford and I'll go Listen. You've been playing semi pro for a year to now. I think you need a little more experience, but more than anything, I see you posting stupid stuff about, you know, deal hood rat stuff with your friends on Facebook and do you think any, you know, professional sports team in any sport that has sponsors behind them? is gonna pick up the guy. That's entire story is playing beer pong and stuff like that. No, it's not gonna happen. So the other part of going pro is you can work as hard as you can, but, um, on the field and you could be the best player on the field on the team they're looking at. But if you're kind of one of those guys who shows up late to practice every other time or you Onley ever come to the mandatory practices rather than every weekend, you're just not always showing up or you like to party and screw around and you don't really care of the public eye notices. You are on social media. You curse people out and swimwear and you know, you get dumb on mine. Internet arguments. People are watching that. Whether you think it or not, they see that stuff, and they might have been considering you. And as soon as you go Oh, I hate this stupid so and so companies gun now that companies not even looked at you anymore, cause if you were trying out for their team and you just blatantly put a post that everybody can see publicly that says, this gun is a pizza trash.

Waldo:   1:3:10
How how they use

spk_1:   1:3:13
you to market. You're basically you have to be a mobile commercial for them and you're just somebody who smack talk their products. So you have to treat yourself professionally on the field and off the field. And it means in every aspect of your life where it's it's kind of like, you know, the easiest way I can say to do that is like what I did where I I said, Is this gonna help me go pro or being a protein? Yeah, that I'm doing it. Is this helping me go pro or staying a protein? Know that I won't do it or I need to now cut that part of my life out like I need to accept that advice or I need to stop acting in that negative manner that looks bad on me or could look bad on my team. But I want to be on and within one year of that it made a world of difference because it's not like it happens overnight. There were probably so some, you know, some mistakes that I had undue, but a year is enough time to go by where people see the new you and they kind of forget about the couple little dummy mistakes you made or toes You stop done, you know? So it it's it sucks to say, but the biggest thing people have to be willing to commit to go prone PayPal is the time. Need the time to get the experience. And you need the time to show off that new ah more professional you that's, like, very honed with the edges. Nice and cleaned up. And you know things like that.

Waldo:   1:4:42
So I'm so I know you way over. I know you wait on federal Federal doing Harrison. Yeah,

spk_1:   1:4:54
man, that was a blessing of an experience to, uh I remember that was I'll see her. That would have been after two World Cups ago. Uh, I'm playing with the GMG at this point, and I got a call from this woman, Foz Linda, who is a She is a company figure for KTM, the motor across company there, Malaysia sector. So obviously you know, she's almost one of like one of those bar or Sarge type team owners, like she's not just in the paintball industry. She freakin runs KTM Motor Sports Malaysia branch and, ah, she has always enjoyed PayPal and played and has spawned here and there and kind of like brings in her favorite pro players to guest with her a little tournaments. Well, she hit me up and said, Hey, I I want to play Um, What's the event called W C C A. I think world come in length in beautiful little Langkawi in Malaysia, which is this island that I had played for, um ah, previous time two or three years back with Cobra Kai and we got second place in the Open division, only losing by one overtime point. Teoh the Thailand National Team Asia one who are stellar team Like you know, there are four feet tall and lightning fast. It's pretty tough to play a little fast Asian team like that, and they've been playing together Frank 10 years. So of all the teams over in Asia, Asia one is like the most realtor, and we ended up actually playing. I'm again in this event, and they're still really good. But anyway, so files hits me up, and she says, I want to play this. Ah, this event, and at the time she has a couple people, including Jason Burns, who is ah, pro player in Europe. He actually now plays for Russian Legion. He's the new guy, Um, and then a few of her friends. But she's like, But I need more people. I need to follow the roster and she's willing to. You know, I guess kind of cut some of her own local friends to bring in more all stars, and she would. She wants to slowly pay for the team. So I was like, I well, let me see what I could dio. So I immediately reach out two of my travel buddies that I traveled with before Ah, Harrison Fry, who have played within Mexico many times and a bunch of other countries. And I was like, Harrison, you want to play for the Dream Team in Asia? And he's like, Yeah, And then I asked my roommate, Ben Challenger, who have also traveled and played a lot of different leagues and states and, you know, countries with and Benny lives with me. He just moved in. So I was like, Ben, you want to play with me in Asia and he's like yet, And we had already had a plan to go to Australia to play Super Sevens. So it's like, Oh, man, this tournament's getting better and better. We're gonna link these. We're gonna go from Super Sevens in Australia to the Teoh Malaysia and then to a beach event in Pattaya, Thailand. So we're about to do like, 02 months of backpacking because the events are kind of spaced apart, like a week or two where we just like, you know, go to some exotic I on for, like, a week or so and then playing event and then go to the next one and repeat. So I get those two. And then Harrison says Jobe like he always does. He calls me every. Like J. I just got us, um, ringers, and I was like, I cool, you know, open. We get more like cool people that were already friends with You are down to travel, but who do you get? And he's like, I got our friend. Tropic, who plays for N. Y X,

Waldo:   1:8:32
is actually back,

spk_1:   1:8:32
and I'm wax now. But

Waldo:   1:8:33
he used on wax when the inherent

spk_1:   1:8:36
fry were on the team in 2014 or 15. He's like I got traffic was like sweet. I haven't played with traffic since New York Extreme and he's like on and I got me scared. Federov. I

Waldo:   1:8:48
was like what it was like, Yes, I cruel

spk_1:   1:8:54
And at the time federal office injured, he had like Tweet is near ankle at World Cup and he's like, Ah, you know, fathers wanted better off because she loves them. It's good for promotional and he might not play, but he'll be our coach. But Michaud want to bring him. And I was like, Sounds good to me, man. So we show up to the event and we have, like, this dream team, like where everyone of us is a pro player. But it's open division, so we can all play. And then we have Foz and her one Australian friend and we are just It's crazy like Federov. I've had a lot of really good coaches, but Federov sees the game very creatively. You can tell by the way he plays. He floats around a lot. He does. These dynamic fills from unexpected bunkers where you think he's going one way and then he shifts back to the entire other side of the field, so he would set up plays like that. So we are. It's like one of the most strenuous tournaments I've ever played, because here we have four Cree limbs and then Sunday in Asia they do. I think it's nine pre limbs they do in Australia, too. So nine pre them games. So not only are you playing a lot more paintball, but they want to keep their upper division teams there all day, so the divisional players and their friends and families can watch pro players. So here's your schedule. You wake up at like four AM You take your mo head and ride to the field like after like a little breakfast. You gear up failure paint. We have a little bit of cod crews. We have, like, you know, two extra guys that aren't really gonna get a lot of playtime and files doesn't really want to play yourself unless you're way up when she's kind of scared to play

Waldo:   1:10:41
way. We're getting

spk_1:   1:10:42
her in when we're like 40 and she'd be just ecstatic to play, you know, next to me and Mishka. Um, so you get to the field and you play your first game at, like somewhere between 6 30 and 7 30 Then you take this huge four hour break spilling 11 or 12 by other game, and then you take like a huge five or six hour break toe, like five or six in the evening. So this car will like undie ear hop on our mo peds. Go to the beach right around the island for a little bit. Get lunch, come back an hour or two before the game gear up, maybe watch a match to, like, you know, scout someone or something that play a game of

Waldo:   1:11:18
five or six. And

spk_1:   1:11:20
then you put your last game somewhere between 10 and 11. 45 the game's over. By midnight on then, you you quickly, ungh, ear lever Stoeckel laying around in this big sports stadium like it gets locked at night. So it's kind of cool, and you could put your guns and lockers. That's about the only thing I'm worried about. Like losing is my gun. You my marker set up and then you hop on your moped head. At this point, you're starving, so you go to some little like cantina and eat some belay food. And then you get back to your hotel on the other side of the island shower real quick. By this time, it's somewhere between 11. 30 and one, depending on when you played. Go to sleep, and then three or four hours later you wake up and you do it again. So the longest days I've ever played are all the times that I've been to Asia, just, you know, endless 20 hour days where oh my God, like luckily, you have big gaps. Actors live at the field, you can leave it, but you're just playing throughout the entire day long. They never just give you a close bracket cause they want you their respective so two days in a room like this and we're just kicking the crap out of everyone, like teams cannot handle you their most. These teams are like, um, I'd say most Asian teams and Middle Eastern teams like, aside from the top u I could name like Dad is from Iran, which is heavily sponsored Asia Juan from Thailand. Most other teams. It's kind of like playing against a D three team, even though you're in open like their D one open teams. I'd say our like our D three teams, you know, they're good, they know what they're doing. But they don't play the game the same way we play at a semi pro or pro level, and they don't have nearly the gun skills that Mishka or Harrison or I have. So you're either wiping them off the field and 30 seconds as a team, or they look out and they shoot two guys off break and you still just win the three on five because they can't handle you. So we're just We're maxing all of our games through pre limbs, except for our only competition. Russian Legion show up with a five year I roster and their coaching staff, so they're using this event to kind of like, you know, travel and do a bucket this thing. But more than anything, they're giving their Those young rookies that are so need a lot of playtime now. They weren't doing that much playtime that whole season that just ended. Eso eso their squad doesn't really have any other starters other than Malloy. They have Malloy go left, Ah Samo Trough and Carsley have who are superstars now? The past two seasons, but 2.5 seasons ago they were They were They were really good and fascinating, excessive, but they were still inconsistent, like getting their wings under them, you know? So now it's time to give those guys every point of playtime because they're giving him a five guy roster. And who was the last one? Um, cozy. Rob? Um, so you got the three young guys Go Live and Malloy for the two veterans with them and then their coaching staff. And, ah, that's still a really good team. But by all means, that's still five guys who are all excellently talented, and they actually play together a real team. So it's done first. The superstars team, like the basic line on my team, is like Ben Challenger in the snake front. Me behind them, Um, we're playing like a two guys snake side. And then we have Mishka and Harrison on the decide and Jason Burns playing up the center because for some reason, Asia, they're still playing with wall. So

Waldo:   1:15:04
we're paying kind

spk_1:   1:15:04
of like the whole like a three guy decide, and then we wouldn't get on a snake sighed the snake sides along straight ladder. So as long as

Waldo:   1:15:12
you're in the corner, you could hold it

spk_1:   1:15:13
Fine. So even every lost many. I would just kind of play the island over there and just live in the snake corner. And we're going point for point Russian region. And it gets up to the read of three. And then we we get 1/3 point, our fourth point. And I think we had to hold for one minute and they shot to off break and we didn't cross up correctly. And one guy, I think it was Malloy like we've towards the middle. Lucky would, like, Not right through the middle kind of that cutting like shadowing each bunker like edging hoppers. And they beat us with, like, six seconds left. And we just said the at sign up time will just blow the whatever. It doesn't matter at this point where eight and once we're moving out of pre limbs. So we have one loss to Russian Legion. We I forgot there were some other good teams that were, like, should be challenging for us like there was breakouts. Yeah, Breakout, spy. But we would play the next amount in Thailand and they're good. But we we just beat him like we had too much talent on the roster. They're a real team, but compared to the Russians, they're not quite as good. So we just Some of us were having really good points and we beat radio spot and then we also beat. There's this super Sevens team from Australia. That's pro. And I remember there were pro in Europe for a season. They were actually pretty good because they had a couple

Waldo:   1:16:35
of dynasty guys animals expect the

Joe :   1:16:41
expendables that was the team so expended. And they have Yoshiro and Maddie cling and Yosh uh, Lake Yarber. So they have a pretty good team, but we beat them, like for the one, like we just kind of handle them. Um, so at this point, we're like, Oh, my God, guy. As long as we could figure out Russian Legion with more scouting, we could win this tournament. So we go into Sunday. Ah, At this point, it's all the teams you'd expect. It's like expendables Russians, US breakout spot data as Asia one, and then like whatever to other teams to finish out like the top eight, and we just started beating the crap out of teams. Finally, it comes down to the end of the day and it's US verse. Russian Legion again. And man, it was such a I. I wish they recorded this game because it was such fireworks. The whole game, like mo mentum swings point to point. You know where they'd be up a body to on three, I'd shoot one of them. It's two on two. Things were looking good, but then Malloy does something clutch. Now it's two on one, and then they closed me out and it's back and forth like that until it's finally, I think, the reader to them. And I remember I'm in a two on one. There's a guy across from me in the Doritos. I'm in the snake now, and a guy ahead of me in in the state corner. It's Ah, young samo trough and shoot the guy to the Doritos, and it's like 37 seconds left. Just not a lot of time. And he's had died with me. So I jump over the snake, worked back in towards the W, shadow him out with a bunch of pens and start shooting my way towards the buzzer X. I have to hit the buzzer and I shoot my way. Always the buzzer and I shoot him in the hopper and he shoots me in the face, like on Highway two, sliding into the buzzer so I'm not even allowed to hit the buzzer. We tried out diamonds and were down one point and Russian Legion wins way, get second. Everybody's going wild. And you know, I'm not even mad at about this point because I lost her Russian Legion with basically a pickup team like, Yeah, we're all pro players. But none of us have ever played together before except for, you know, me and Harrison in certain events. But as a team we haven't practiced and it was just such an exciting moment to be like, man, guys, we we just got second toe, one of the best teams in the world, about their coach here and Malloy and everything like that. And then we all went and ah, you know, just we had already beginning clothes, getting closer, doing all these activities that, like vase, would bring us like, ah, hiking and like taking this my gondola out of the top peak of the mountain and going on boat rides and snorkeling and scuba diving Together. We had done so much that by the end of the first week being there we had become like a bunch of brothers and fathers was our sister. And by the end of this tournament, we're all super close. And I just remember, like, you know, finally being able to talkto better off and Mishka, who you know, we had known each other from playing against each other and pro for a few years because I haven't been around since damage and you know you have respect for each other is adversary areas. And I'm not like a smack talkers. There's no ill will and really, you know, these guys on a personal level, But now, like you know, we're leveling with each other like I know these guys as friends and we get to talk about each other's lives. And, you know, I didn't know Mexico was a dad, and I didn't know. Ah, some of the things that Federov had grown up doing and stuff like that. So, you know, we're just all going his players party and celebrating, and I'm getting that. I asked them for tips and advice on my own game, which, you know, they're probably not going to give me that advice beforehand since we play another proteins in the US But now I can actually ask him like, Yo, I know that, you know, we are opponents, but, like, what do you think I could work on? And they would tell me what to fix in my own game. And, you know, I still have a lot of respect for them, for that and federal of actually ended up coaching me again because he was coaching my euro team that I was guesting with Kiev United. That's a protein in an Excel, Um, when Federov wasn't playing because he plays in an Excel Europe. If games were conflicting, he would come over and coach us So me and better, I've already had a little bit of like coaching report because he knew that he could give me a job and trust that I would go do and be like at least one of his consistent, like, dependable guys like I'm not gonna lose the game for you. But now, like playing side by side with them and backpacking around Asia and stuff like that. Like, you know, I just got to know this guy a different way, and then we get oh, you know, shoot the shit with all these other teams that to them we're superstars, which is still kind of like a new humbling experience for me. You know, I haven't been around like for as long as Ali laying all these guys. So when you know, two or three teams of D three Asian players run up to me and say, Oh, hey, you know, can we get your autograph or that that move you did here was so cool, Or, you know, how do you play the game like this are or just just asking you for stories. It's just It's really cool that get people's like their actual undivided attention like that and, like, you know, captivate them. And and I always kind of used as a Z. I always take opportunities of of those moments to pay it forward. Um, you know, it's kind of been my my big thing since the first time I started traveling, and getting the chance to do this is you know I'm not really gonna be the one to just, like, brag about how felt cool was like, when a certain point. Instead, I'll tell them You know what it means to me to get to connect to the paintball community, you know, and just show them that, like, Hey, you know, we're pro players, but a lot of us are just people like we're pretty down to earth. And, you know, we'd rather hear from you, like, Do you have a favorite shot in this country Cause you live here and I don't that you want to bring me to, like, let's just go be people and, like, you know, backpack around and have a drink. You know, my my big thing is like trying to bridge the gap because so many people in our world and this off topic from this event, I guess, but a lot of people just see people as divided. You know, I'm this color your that color. I'm from this country. You're from that country. Oh, there from that country isn't that kind of third world. And scary. I bet those people are dangerous, But once you start traveling a lot, and by Now I've traveled a lot like on my pro years. I've I've played paintball in over a dozen different countries and way more cities and islands. And, um, I I just see that everybody is so much more similar than we are different. So, you know, I I try to not be that stereotypical. Um, you know, Rod Rod, nationalist American? Because it's not that people don't like Americans, but people don't like the typical stereotypical loud mouth American that is not mindful of other people in their environment doesn't care about other people's cultures. You know, like you're disrespecting when it cycle. You're not even in America anymore. Why you being disrespectful of them in their own land or, ah, very cocky or very belligerent like people. Most Americans that travel, they travel as

Waldo:   1:24:10
tourists and they like to party and get way too drunk and obnoxious and

Joe :   1:24:16
offend people. Well, I don't like the travel as a tourist. I like to travel as a traveler. You know, Maura's a backpacker where I don't go to places and get the nice resort hotel where I'm basically an Americanized bubble. I like to go to the hostels and really practice immersing myself into the the customs and the culture. And if there's something that's a big there that they do, I look for that event or if there's a certain way, you eat food and Aiken sit down with random locals and say, Hey, would you mind? You know, showing me how you guys do things I every single chance I get And it's just so fun to kind of find that like, interconnected oneness with another culture and realize how quickly you could just be like, Man, I I could live here like I could do this all the things that I'm, you know, cemented to back home in the U S. So married they don't matter. They're not riel, you know there, of course, there's some things that are morals and values so like that. But all the things that you're raised to think, this is how we do things. It's only because random chance that you were born there. It's not because it's right or wrong. And so it's just been very fun to me. Like to just become more experimental with my own personality and practice. Um, you know, different ways to toe live and to be social and to kind of become a chameleon into every and any situation that can arise.

Waldo:   1:25:52
I traveled Travel are

spk_1:   1:26:04
Can you Can you say that again? I think maybe slowly to your microphone. It broke up a little bit. I felt like I got every other word.

Waldo:   1:26:13
Oh, I see. Oh, yeah, it's still it's kind of raspy. Travis, say something real quick. Yea, he's gonna say that, uh, out of the country, and, uh, I think something bank

Joe :   1:26:37
Gotcha. Okay. I thought you said, but I'm missing every word. And, Travis, I can hear you perfectly clearly, but, uh, John year Mike is a little bit, um I don't know, it's almost staticky every other word. So it's like I got parts of words, but yeah, I'm happy that you've gotten to experience that to John, because I, you know, I can say of all the things I've done in this world traveling, just having having been allowed toe, have my sport be the vehicle that drives me to all these new places and experiences and cultures and different perspectives of life has been the most rewarding and the most educating thing I've ever done. Hands down like even over college. I can say that I've learned more in in one week in each country that I have in a year of, you know, education or social situations at my university E. Yeah, we're so I know I played against you in Ah, you w well, but who have you like? Ah, played with or traveled? You know? I mean, I know that people would travel out there, but I didn't know that you travel and play in other international leaks.

Waldo:   1:28:07
E So what? God. Gotcha. Yeah, I

Joe :   1:28:17
You got to Costa Rica. Did you dio So if you did, would Spall Did you do that one? You wll Mexico can't going. Yes, you were there with the black. Our master blasters too, right?

Waldo:   1:28:32
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why I

Joe :   1:28:35
knew you. Because I remember we played you in that one, too, And I was playing with the Scorpions. And if you remember my team owner, Tierra got in a fistfight out in the woods with one of the teams. Yeah. Yeah, that was a suite of that.

Waldo:   1:28:53
That was It was

Joe :   1:28:55
It was Yeah, I remember somebody. Ah, tripped. Running on a pathway, trying to get away and they fellow and like, took a piece of a stump that was like, filed off right at the bottom. Like I kind of like a flattened spot. And they took it like, right through the forearm. I think it was, Yeah, that was Ah, it was It was fun. But I I even said the next year there, right, you wanna go back and do that one. And I was like, Honestly, man, I don't think I would play. That would spiel again. Just because it's one thing to be playing as a bunch of little kids, you know, not a knock in that field. I think it's a fun field That's great for the recreational players locally in Mexico, and I think it's all they have. But tournament players are gonna be running and diving, and there is just too many, like hidden rocks and stumps underneath that thick foliage where you know, you if you weren't already crawling, if you hadn't hit the deck, you might frickin seriously break a rib or in pale yourself.

Waldo:   1:29:56
I agree. If you want to. Do you want Yeah, Yeah, all right. I want t o. Because the weekend entity Andy, we're going to bring me here right over two hours.

Joe :   1:30:11
Thats true. Yeah. I don't know how long you guys want to keep these. Maybe you'd rather they break up in, uh, two or three videos so they don't go unless cause Yeah. I mean, I don't even think we touched on Tampa Bay damage. And, you know, this is just about paintball. So I didn't know what else we're going to talk about. Or, you know, New York, the New York scene of paintball Or, um,

Waldo:   1:30:33
a lot of it. Yeah, well, I'm going down. And the leader, maybe hopefully or more this season. Yeah, absolutely. Um, that wouldn't that wouldn't know what you were wearing out thing didn't The end of the year

spk_1:   1:30:49
Sounds good to May.

Waldo:   1:30:50
Are you a member? But find out by now. I know you.

spk_1:   1:30:56
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you very much. Um, so I want to get a big shout out to all of my team sponsors, which include Planet Eclipse for the best mark runner. I love my team CS to hit them up for signature guns. They make awesome custom markers. Uh, HK army, which I am so pumped that finally have as a sponsor, a long time, personally sponsored HK player ever since. Even I was a little kid on that company wasn't even that big. They were just making black long sleeves and headbands back then. But, um, it's been, I think, five or six years since I've been on a HK team and we finally switched over to them with DMG is here and I am ecstatic. You know, I love their gear, these joggers or the company ist paintball pants have ever worn Our jerseys look amazing. They're soft goods are great magnet packs. Great. We love you guys HK and you know, great media. Just that's really a for the players company. And I can't say enough about HK and actually a bunch my good friends on that team marquee and, you know, be for just the whole HK crew of they were actually in Asia the first time I went there to Malaysia when I was on Cobra Kai And so I did a bunch of island hopping with those guys. So even off the field there, they're great people. They're good for the sport. They're good people. And there there are people and a company that we should support. Um, and you know, even during the times of quarantine, I know they have a bunch of sales and stuff going on right now on their discount, like big, 50% off things and buy a gun, get a tank and stuff like that. So if you can support HK and support all these companies because, you know just like we need them during the season for our gear and our guns right now they need us, and it's it's up to us to make sure that they don't go bankrupt and fall apart before we get back to normal life. Um, beyond them, I want to thank. Would I not name yet? I walk around in my skull. Sorry, like a capital edge paintball park. Of course, that's a big one. Capital Edge is our training facility and combat arena, where not only we get such a good facility to full turfed out Expo fields and a bunch of rec ball fields for fun. But ah, you know, Dave James is my team owner and field owner. And because of him, we get, uh, Edmondson impact, as are aspiring partner throughout the year as well, it helps a lot of its upped our learning curve. Plus, you know, we have a facility that's good enough and tempting enough that we can invite in a host of other proteins, like, you know, uprising thunder. Um, we used to get elevation when they around Dynasty. So, yeah, I can't say enough to ah, you know, big thanks to day veins. Who is a great team owner for us and does a lot for me and my friends personally. And Capital Edge paintball parking all the crew and his family that run and keep such a nice field alive and flourishing. Um, beyond that, I said, soft goods marker Ah, who still sponsors us because we dropped a few at the end of the season. Uh, big personal, thanks to my own sponsor transfused who you can look up on instagram at, at transfused official or at Trans labs transfused makes Ah, in my opinion, the best drink mix you could ever make. It's kind of like a Pedialyte in the fact that it keeps you hydrated, which is great for paintball on any type of sport. Um, and it's not just a Pedialyte hydrate er trends fuse also helps your immune system with just a shit ton of, ah, nutrients and supplemental value inside of it. So it's been especially helpful right now. I drink one every day, even if I'm not doing something active just to give me that immune boost, Um, so I don't get sick about bunch of these freakin sick people run around out there, get a bunch of, you know, Kobe anxieties trying to infect me. So I've got, you know, drink my daily transfer use and shout out to Stephen a transfused in that whole company. I love you guys, um, shout out to free flow And Buddy Bauer Ah, the man, the myth, the legend, even you guys know I'm anybody in Western New York or the Northeast knows Buddy Bauer, uh, everything he's done for me in the past. Still even keeping up on me here and there and given me almost fatherly wisdom and advice. But ah, big shout out to brief blow technologies for those that you aren't into 10 manner classic paint. Are you wll buddy brought back the Ogi ist of Ogi Auto Cocker companies free flow, and he makes the high highest quality mechanical paintball marker on earth right now or has ever been. Those guys sent me my custom bleach, an ode free flow Millennium Cocker, and it shoots buttery and dreamy and fall on ball. And honestly, if I'm not playing a mandatory practice against a pro, rest on my protein, even on random, like on the X ball field. I use that in our other weekends just because it shoots so accurate. I just work on my one ball and snap shooting with and stuff like that. So shout out to pre flow for, ah, sending me my amazing marker and all you guys do, ah, to support me. I love you guys and big thanks to my whole team, my entire camp, the DMG Camp Pro all the way down through D five and three. Man, Um, all of my local friends, family supporters, everybody who's ever supported me and helps me do what I can do. My close friends Josh Paul Berg, my roommate, Marvin, my, uh, partners in any business ventures I've ever tried and failed that or or, you know, people have offered me, Ah, random odd jobs and construction, things like that. My boy Tim on uprising. My roommate, uh, Brandon Nickerson, uh, shout out to all you guys who, you know, have my back in the hardest in the worst times and shout out to all you viewers out there as well as this podcast. I want to thank you guys for doing something like this. I think it's something that the paintball community needs right now. Just, you know, hearing stories and kind of having something to burn time in these long, boring days. So, uh, thank you, guys for putting this out there and ah, entertaining people and inspiring people to use it. It makes me kind of want to do a podcast of my own type as well. So yeah. Thank you, guys. Thank you, everyone.

Waldo:   1:38:07
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you May remember really your bearings courses? Yeah, I love it. Yemen. So So wear bomb damage. DMG and we want. And we want to thank our friend Dennis. Four won't forget. Forget todo and over always greater brew. Thanks, guys. Thanks, guys.