PaintballX3 Magazine PaintballX3 Magazine August Issue | Page 58

Enter the Dragon – Paintball Asian Style By Grant Harrison - PaintballNews.Asia Photos By AeonView Photos, Gary Baum, Kathy V. Chua & Mary Walker Paintball has only been played competitively in Asia since 2004 but that hasn’t stopped the region developing a thriving paintball community and world-class events. Paintball fields started to appear Asia around 1995 in countries like Thailand, Korea, Guam and the Philippines. The heavy presence of American expats and army bases in these countries gave these paintball fields a steady stream of customers. Singapore had its first paintball field in 1999 and the first paintball field in Malaysia opened in Pahang in 2000. The event was held on indoor clay courts with a hyperball fields. At the time, Malaysian team the Raskals didn’t even own markers and had to borrow equipment from other international teams so that they could compete. The next major paintball event was hosted in Malaysia. The Nation Cup was held at Sunway Extreme Park with 19 international teams competing. Pro players from Dynasty were VIP guests of the event. UK team Tsunami defeated XPP from the Philippines for the championship title with Malaysian teams Demonz and Manawee coming in 3rd and 4th respectively. The Australian Super 7’s Series was also launched in 2005, based loosely on the NPPL’s 7 Man format. Australia had established a thriving tournament paintball scene almost a decade before the rest of Asia. Many US pro-players including Thomas Taylor travelled downunder to compete as guests in the Super 7’s series, helping with the development of the local talent and encouraging many US Pro players to take similar playing trips over the years. Back in Malaysia, two tournament leagues MPOC and MY-NPL were launched in 2006, as was The first ‘speedball’ teams in Asia the Paintball Asia League Series started appearing in 2003 when (PALS), an international regional a team from Guam competed In 2005, the Asian Cup organised event supported by Millennium in the PMI Hawaii All-star 5 Man by Skirmish Paintball in Malaysia and held that year in Thailand, tournament. Later that year Japan attracted even more international Taiwan and the Philippines. These hosted another paintball compe- VIP’s including Dave Youngblood 3 event series have been the tition called the Shizuoka Open. (DYE), Laurent Hamet (Millendriving force behind the expannium/Sup’Airball/Facefull Mag), sion of paintball in Malaysia and Philippine team Global Gutz Keely Watson, Ironmen and Lega- throughout the region creating hosted the first regional event cy Pro players. Boonie Dogs from many affiliate leagues and events, called the Asian Cup in Manila, Guam were crowned Pro-Am forming marshalling bodies and 2004 with 18 teams from the Phil- Champions that year as Malaysia strong ties with International ippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thai- laid claim to becoming the hub of leagues. land, Korea and Guam attending. paintball in the region.